Phil Cleary for Brunswick

Phil has spent his whole life in Coburg and Brunswick, was a premiership winning player and coach with Coburg and is a former federal member for the area. He has had three books published.

Jun1

A Real Footy Legend Would Say Sorry

As published in the Geelong Advertiser

NO matter what the public thinks about Gary Ablett Snr’s right to be inducted as a legend, the AFL is faced with a dilemma. The sad facts are Ablett’s behaviour on the night of 19-year-old Alisha Horan’s untimely death in February 2000 from her overdose was less than honourable, if not negligent.

Would Ablett’s induction therefore make a mockery of the AFL’s commitment to the rights of women as per its respect and responsibility program. What does the AFL say to Alisha’s parents, who to the best of my knowledge have never received an apology for what happened that night. Gary Ablett is entitled to forgiveness and to get on with his life. However, it’s hard to move on without a genuine sorry.

As someone who lost a 25-year-old sister, killed by an ex-boyfriend in 1987, and saw the pain endured by my parents, I find it difficult to turn a blind eye to Alisha Horan’s death and its implications for Ablett.  On balance, I think the AFL should not induct Ablett as a Legend.

The pain that would cause to Horan’s parents, and the questions it would raise in the wider community about the  AFL’s commitment to women, is simply too much of a hurdle. In the end, we must all be judged by our actions and this applies as much to Ablett as it does to the AFL.

With respect to criteria for elevating a Hall of Fame inductee to a Legend, the AFL cannot escape it’s responsibilities by simply claiming that Ablett will be judged only by his football. That is not what the AFL community will judge it by.

May30

Bazza the Tory Comes home

Aren’t week ever so lucky to have homegrown Tories like Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage? Yes, he’s clever and there’s something uplifting about a bloke who can stick it up a commercial TV station with impunity. You won’t find many people giving it to Channel Nine in the way he did on the ABC’s Q+A the other night. I don’t usually watch Q+A, with its procession of partisan politicians and middle of the road commentaries. But I did catch it this week. Funny how Humphries ‘isn’t interested in politics’ but has no trouble pouring scorn on those who don’t share his elitist, right-wing view of the world. Of course he can’t be accused of misogyny because everything is a joke. He’s a dadaist after all. That’s what makes him radical, say the apologists. And to think the ordinary punters he loathes paid for his private school education!

May9

Leave Our Laneways Alone Why am I not surprised that Moreland Council wants to replace our bluestone lanes with concrete? Because Moreland is a Labor fiefdom with little commitment to the community. Our sporting facilities are poor and these and our open space have been compromised by increased density but the pro-Labor Council does nothing.   The anti-concrete petition can be found here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/508/592/254/

Leave Our Laneways Alone

Why am I not surprised that Moreland Council wants to replace our bluestone lanes with concrete? Because Moreland is a Labor fiefdom with little commitment to the community. Our sporting facilities are poor and these and our open space have been compromised by increased density but the pro-Labor Council does nothing.  

The anti-concrete petition can be found here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/508/592/254/

Ho Ho Hockey

Is Joe Hockey serious? How could he think ordinary workers would be inspired by his macho rants about the budget not being tough enough? How instructive that when he talked about cutting the public service it didn’t include cuts to his staff or his benefits. The Gillard government has been no great friend of the worker but who would want to vote for Tony Abbott and his mob of  parasites? They simply don’t have one bright idea to bless themselves with.

On Tuesday afternoon Greg Hunt was on ABC radio piously demanding the resignation of Peter Slipper as if that’s what his party would do if it were in government. Censure motions and ‘sackings’ are always decided along party lines and never on a matter of principle. For Hunt to imply otherwise is sheer hypocrisy. I did ring in but was left on the phone for some twenty minutes, by which time I realised West Coburg Under 14s were a more receptive audience! 

How interesting that Greg Hunt would claim there was nothing vexatious about the allegations against Slipper, even though there has been no investigation. Why didn’t he ring the ABC - as I did - when it was salivating over Peter Roebuck, who had suicided in the wake of sexual assault allegations? 

Stand alone time

One of the annoying myths floated during the VFA’s metamorphosis into the AFL’s love child, the VFL, was that our oldest football competition struggled because it had been a sanctuary for has-beens.  Yes, Ron Barassi and Bob Skilton had come out of retirement in the early ‘70s to play with Port - they were younger than Dustin Fletcher – but this wasn’t what powered Port to premierships in 1974/76/77 or 1980/81/82. When we went back to back at Coburg in 1988/89 the oldest player was 30-year-old Brad Nimmo, and among our star players was Tim Rieniets (23 years) and Adrian Bassett (22 years). A cluster of players, Greg Reynoldson, Reece Langan, Billy Kaakour, Vin Taranto, Ken Ingram, Brendan Littler and Jeff Angwin among them, were in the 20 to 23 age bracket when we won in 1988.  They were only boys but we were a great team forged from the community.

 It’s ironic that question of age and experience has resurfaced as an explanation for why Port Melbourne won the 2011 premiership as a stand-alone club and remains undefeated in 2012 after seven rounds. In general terms, on Saturday Williamstown had nine players under 21 whereas Port had only three. The Seagulls had 11 players in the 21 to 25 years of age category as compared with Port’s twelve. Port had five players between 26 and 28, whereas Williamstown had only three. Willi might have been young but Port, like Coburg in 88/89 certainly wasn’t old.

History confirms that Port is perfectly placed by way of age and experience to win big games and grand finals.  But this is only part of the story. At quarter-time on Saturday Williamstown coach Peter German was livid about the lack of attack on the ball of his players. And whilst some might see such an approach as is in keeping with German’s penchant for strong words, it was a view also expressed by a member of the Doggies coaching staff. If the coaches were right about the Seagulls’ approach to the ball then we can’t say it’s just a matter of bigger bodies winning out. If a player is first to the ball and wants it enough, no matter what his size or age, he will win his share of the football.

 It’s no secret that some coaches of aligned sides find it difficult to reconcile the requirements of the AFL side with what’s needed to win a VFL match. Imagine having to restrict the rotations of AFL-listed players or rest an AFL player because he might be needed for an AFL game.  Imagine having to play an AFL-listed player who doesn’t deserve or isn’t ready for VFL football, as one coach was heard to lament in a moment of frustration recently. The vagaries of selection at VFL level and the compromising needs of serving an AFL partner are two factors playing a role in Port’s success. But, as any smart coach knows, it isn’t the whole story.

 Port Melbourne, like the plucky Frankston, is a club in every sense of the word. Its players train together and share trials and tribulations of the journey towards a VFL premiership in which selection is based on merit, and heartbreak is a reality. This – the heartbreak aside - is what I genuinely loved about football. Where else in life is a person’s trajectory determined solely by merit? It’s hardly the case in politics where factional deals and obsequious back scratching determines a person’s fate. In so many other facets of life, obedience to orthodoxy and social connectedness play similar roles. The purity of the contest is what sets football apart from the rest of life. It’s for this reason that supporters are addicted to it and millions tune in to the telecasts.

Unfortunately the purity that sets football apart from life is compromised in the VFL by the alignment culture. At the end of 2014 the latest round of alignments will conclude. Of those clubs facing an uncertain future, there’s little doubt the Seagulls would have the greatest capacity to survive as a stand-alone club. What a difference that would make to a Williamstown vs Port match! Coburg, which has secured a jumper sponsorship from the CFMEU, one of Australia’s most powerful unions and has the ETU emblem on its shorts, could, with such support possibly survive, as could Sandringham. A mixture of stand-alone and aligned AFL sides competing in a VFL with a cluster of stand-alone AFL clubs is exactly what we need. If we want to put an end to the silly arguments about bigger bodies and experience rather than the purity of the contest winning grand finals it’s our only hope. 

Apr25

Lest we forget the real history I never had the opportunity to talk about how war impacted on the life of Coburg champion Lance Collins. Although he was a dashing six footer in the late 1930s, that’s not how I remember him when we shook hands in the Coburg rooms before a game in the late ‘70s. By then he looked small and frail. When the Collingwood versus Essendon Anzac Day Match comes around I often think about Collins. When Anzac Day falls on a weekend the VFA/VFL plays a small role in the commemorations. But invariable the media has little interest in such VFL matches. What a shame our two oldest clubs, Port and Williamstown can’t fly the flag in an Anzac tribute match. What a shame we don’t have a VFA/VFL Anzac Day tribute match, even one a few days before or after Anza Day, where each club has the opportunity to celebrate the football and wartime service of former players in a setting stripped of media hyperbole and the glorification of senseless wars.  For whilst it’s encouraging that so many young people now know something about Gallipoli, it is surely time we asked them to consider whether the horrific carnage might have been avoidable and what they make of the actions of those military leaders – most but not all - who blithely sent thousands upon thousands of young men, many of them from community football clubs to their death. Just as Anzac Day should be an opportunity for the old VFA clubs to reflect on their history, so, I believe should the whole football world consider whether the AFL Anzac Day Match isn’t camouflaging the reality of war. Like so many footballers of the time Lance Collins’ career was clearly compromised by wartime service. One can only imagine what might have been his football record had he not spent from June 1943 to May1945 on active service with the AIF. In 1936 at only 20 years of age Collins kicked 116 goals and topped the ton again in 1939. In 98 games with Coburg between 1935 and 1941 he amassed 432 goals from centre half forward and full forward. On seven occasions he kicked 10 or more goals, including 16 goals in a match against Sandringham. In 1941, a year in which he kicked 73 goals from centre half forward Collins captain-coached Coburg to a grand final in front of nearly 40,000 people at the MCG. Coburg, with Bob Pratt having already kicked 179 goals, went into the game a clear favourite against the old enemy Port Melbourne. However the day belonged to Port and their wily captain-coach Tommy Lahiff, who led his team to a 19-point win. Nearly fifty years later Lahiff, a 220-game Port Melbourne and 100-game VFL hero and iconic AFL radio man, remembered Collins as someone who ‘played like Gary Ablett’ and was ‘one of the best players at VFA or VFL level’ he’d ever seen. Lance Collins’ performances with Carlton between 1942 and 45 are testament to just how good he was.  In 33 games he kicked 98 goals, including 8 goals from the half-forward flank against North Melbourne in the 1945 semi final. Teammate Albert Sanger told of how Collins ‘kicked two crucial goals in the preliminary final to get us through to the grand final’. How fitting that Collins would play in one of the greatest and most controversial of Carlton premiership wins, the 1945 ‘Blood Bath’ against South Melbourne. Like James Podsiadly with Geelong in 2011, at 28 years of age Lance Collins was in the twilight of his career when he played in that Carlton premiership. Described by life-long friend and 1941 Coburg teammate Ian Irvine as a ‘man of magnetic charm who fell upon leaner times in later life’ Collins will always hold a special place in my heart. And like so many men who did military service, the man I met in the Coburg rooms all those years ago didn’t strike me as someone - and the stories about his love of wine, women and song seem to support this - who would have glorified war. Maybe one day the VFL will reclaim its history and find a place on Anzac Day to remember the likes of Lance Collins and the real cost of war.  PS: My mum’s dad spent four years as a POW in Austria during the Second World War. He never recovered.

Lest we forget the real history

I never had the opportunity to talk about how war impacted on the life of Coburg champion Lance Collins. Although he was a dashing six footer in the late 1930s, that’s not how I remember him when we shook hands in the Coburg rooms before a game in the late ‘70s. By then he looked small and frail. When the Collingwood versus Essendon Anzac Day Match comes around I often think about Collins.

When Anzac Day falls on a weekend the VFA/VFL plays a small role in the commemorations. But invariable the media has little interest in such VFL matches. What a shame our two oldest clubs, Port and Williamstown can’t fly the flag in an Anzac tribute match. What a shame we don’t have a VFA/VFL Anzac Day tribute match, even one a few days before or after Anza Day, where each club has the opportunity to celebrate the football and wartime service of former players in a setting stripped of media hyperbole and the glorification of senseless wars. 

For whilst it’s encouraging that so many young people now know something about Gallipoli, it is surely time we asked them to consider whether the horrific carnage might have been avoidable and what they make of the actions of those military leaders – most but not all - who blithely sent thousands upon thousands of young men, many of them from community football clubs to their death. Just as Anzac Day should be an opportunity for the old VFA clubs to reflect on their history, so, I believe should the whole football world consider whether the AFL Anzac Day Match isn’t camouflaging the reality of war.

Like so many footballers of the time Lance Collins’ career was clearly compromised by wartime service. One can only imagine what might have been his football record had he not spent from June 1943 to May1945 on active service with the AIF. In 1936 at only 20 years of age Collins kicked 116 goals and topped the ton again in 1939. In 98 games with Coburg between 1935 and 1941 he amassed 432 goals from centre half forward and full forward. On seven occasions he kicked 10 or more goals, including 16 goals in a match against Sandringham.

In 1941, a year in which he kicked 73 goals from centre half forward Collins captain-coached Coburg to a grand final in front of nearly 40,000 people at the MCG. Coburg, with Bob Pratt having already kicked 179 goals, went into the game a clear favourite against the old enemy Port Melbourne. However the day belonged to Port and their wily captain-coach Tommy Lahiff, who led his team to a 19-point win. Nearly fifty years later Lahiff, a 220-game Port Melbourne and 100-game VFL hero and iconic AFL radio man, remembered Collins as someone who ‘played like Gary Ablett’ and was ‘one of the best players at VFA or VFL level’ he’d ever seen.

Lance Collins’ performances with Carlton between 1942 and 45 are testament to just how good he was.  In 33 games he kicked 98 goals, including 8 goals from the half-forward flank against North Melbourne in the 1945 semi final. Teammate Albert Sanger told of how Collins ‘kicked two crucial goals in the preliminary final to get us through to the grand final’. How fitting that Collins would play in one of the greatest and most controversial of Carlton premiership wins, the 1945 ‘Blood Bath’ against South Melbourne. Like James Podsiadly with Geelong in 2011, at 28 years of age Lance Collins was in the twilight of his career when he played in that Carlton premiership. Described by life-long friend and 1941 Coburg teammate Ian Irvine as a ‘man of magnetic charm who fell upon leaner times in later life’ Collins will always hold a special place in my heart.

And like so many men who did military service, the man I met in the Coburg rooms all those years ago didn’t strike me as someone - and the stories about his love of wine, women and song seem to support this - who would have glorified war. Maybe one day the VFL will reclaim its history and find a place on Anzac Day to remember the likes of Lance Collins and the real cost of war. 

PS: My mum’s dad spent four years as a POW in Austria during the Second World War. He never recovered.

Apr23

No Slipper under my bed

Tony Abbott and his former boss John Howard aren’t known for defending women  against violent or bullying men. In fact the men’s movement always had Howard’s ear.   So how ironic that it’s allegations of sexual harassment and bullying against Labor’s speaker, the turncoat Peter Slipper that should have Abbott salivating. Imagine if the alleged victim were a woman!

It was a different story when allegations were made against Slipper in 2003 and he was a Liberal. Rather than seek out the alleged victim, Abbott and his mates turned a blind eye. It’s pathetic that the right-wing Slipper should have been entertained by the ALP. It’s pathetic - the allegations aside - that party politics should give carriage to someone as silly as Peter Slipper. And it’s very sad that all we have as an alternative to a Gillard government is Tony Abbott.  How sad that a government might collapse at the polls on the back of the failings of Peter Slipper. No, it’s not an argument in favour of the ALP, for the party has itself to blame for so many of its ills and is no friend of mine.

But how can anyone rejoice at the thought of a man who stands for nothing and is disliked by the majority of Australians being on the cusp of political power. We can only hope his and the aspirations of those misogynist thugs in the media are thwarted and that just maybe it’s the dawn of independents!  

Apr17

Eddie Bucks Malthouse

I didn’t think it would take long for Mick Malthouse to  attempt to reclaim the status he lost as a consequence of the Collingwood transition plan.  When you ‘sack’ a successful coach at the peak of his game you can expect problems, especially in the ego charged world of AFL football.

When Eddie McGuire asserted that Mick Malthouse ‘was spent’ at the end of last year it was inevitable there would be trouble. No coach, especially one approaching 60 will warm to a younger bloke with no football or coaching history making such comments. Football is one of the last bastions of unbridled machismo. Mick might have read a few biographies but he was very much a hard-nosed  ’back pocket’ man.

It’s less about what the former coach is saying than that he is actually saying anything, that is creating the problem. To say players will take time to adapt to a new game plan is unremarkable. To say a player did not play well or was unable to win the grand final is unremarkable. To defend a particular game plan - our under-18 premiership at West Coburg last year was built on a skinny side approach - is unremarkable. Why wouldn’t Malthouse want to challenge the myth that it was the game plan that led to their defeat?  That aside, Malthouse now works in the media and as such he has a responsibility to speak as an independent observer and analyst. 

Some of this begs a couple of bigger questions. If Malthouse was simmering with resentment last year how did it play out on grand final day and was the coaching box at its best? And why couldn’t  Mick Malthouse find something kind to say about the new coach and the struggles ahead? I wonder.

Just for the record I am a Carlton supporter and I did give Mick a bit of lip a few years back: 

http://www.philcleary.com.au/afl_2005_malthouse_war.htm


Apr12

Majak and that girl

I’m not exactly sure what prompted the blue between Majak Daw (North/Werribee) and his former team-mate Daniel Pratt (Box Hill) in Saturday’s VFL match. What I do know is that in describing the context as one in which ‘the pair’s personal differences became public earlier this year when it was revealed Daw had forged a relationship with Pratt’s former girlfriend, Emily McKay’ the media risks giving life to a dangerous premise. Ms McKay is not a chattel to be fought over. Sadly, violence against women feeds on this premise. Given Daniel Pratt says he’s moved on, maybe it’s time Kangaroos coach Brad Scott explained that Ms McKay and Majak Daw have every right to be in a relationship, that Majak has broken no secret code at the club and that it’s time everyone moved on.

Glorifying the fist at what cost? Does Hayden Ballantyne really deserve the animosity directed his way over the past week? In Good Friday’s Age Robert Walls derisively speculated that he might be driven by so-called ‘small man’s syndrome’. In Walls’ eyes there was only one cowardly act, Ballantyne’s fist into Paul Chapman’s stomach. Did he think Scarlett’s punch to the Dockers’ unguarded chin was an act of courage? Watching that punch took me back to when the VFA was a haven for the king-hit. Speaking your mind could be dangerous, as I discovered when ‘Sam’ Holt bounced one off my jaw at Port in 1976 not far from where the photo above was taken some years later. ‘Need to be careful,’ George Allen quipped as I considered the options. Sam Holt wasn’t in Allen’s class when it came to meting out rough justice. In a violent grand final a few months later Allen sent Dandenong’s brilliant goalkicker Pat Flaherty to the ground behind play with the words ‘dog eat dog’ in retaliation for a king-hit on Port champion Fred Cook at the other end. Small in stature but a mesmerising goalkicker, Flaherty never hurt a flea. The king-hit on Cook was one of the most brutal ever seen on a football ground. Delivered by fullback Allan Harper after Cook had dribbled through a goal, it left him with concussion and a gaping wound inside his mouth. He never left the field and played one of the most heroic games ever seen on a football field. At Dandenong the next year Harper played me from a metre behind for the entire game. You can imagine how I felt. In the 1978 VFA grand final Preston’s Grant Wilmot created mayhem with his fists. It didn’t matter that Wilmot was a ‘little man’. He could box and unfortunately the blokes on the end of his fists weren’t always looking when he lost the plot. A year later Caulfield captain coach Stuart Trott was taken from the Coburg ground in an ambulance – David Rhys-Jones wrote about it in Inside Football last year – with severe head fractures. It was said that Trott had been ‘mouthing off’ before being decked. We’ve come a long way since the days when king-hits, often, but not always, delivered by blokes who blanched at the prospect of chasing a dangerous football were a scourge in the VFA and the VFL. Paradoxically, the outlawing of some of the rough stuff, including the shirtfront has compromised the role of strong, medium sized players with fast closing speed. In the old game a gangly big man, as Walls was, had to make sure a bloke with ‘small man’s syndrome’, especially one whose courage he might have questioned, didn’t mow him down. The ‘dominator’, Wayne Johnston, collecting Robert Dipierdomenico in the 1987 VFL/AFL grand final is a legendary moment in Carlton’s finals history. Walls was the coach and unlike ‘the big dipper’, Johnston was not a big man! And who can forget Laurie Fowler on John Nicholls in 1973? With football’s administrators having barred the shirtfront and turned their gaze to the sling tackle – as they should for it is clearly dangerous and in no way courageous – there is little room in the game for a small player to draw on a robust use of the body in order to compete with the more physically gifted. Ballantyne’s tactics might annoy the pious but as history shows, they are relatively benign when compared with the damage wreaked by a clenched fist on player’s unguarded face. Having had my nose broken by a king-hit leaves me bristling at the thought that anyone would glorify a punch to an unguarded face. It’s not something I’d be encouraging my sons to do.  

Glorifying the fist at what cost?

Does Hayden Ballantyne really deserve the animosity directed his way over the past week? In Good Friday’s Age Robert Walls derisively speculated that he might be driven by so-called ‘small man’s syndrome’. In Walls’ eyes there was only one cowardly act, Ballantyne’s fist into Paul Chapman’s stomach. Did he think Scarlett’s punch to the Dockers’ unguarded chin was an act of courage?

Watching that punch took me back to when the VFA was a haven for the king-hit. Speaking your mind could be dangerous, as I discovered when ‘Sam’ Holt bounced one off my jaw at Port in 1976 not far from where the photo above was taken some years later. ‘Need to be careful,’ George Allen quipped as I considered the options. Sam Holt wasn’t in Allen’s class when it came to meting out rough justice. In a violent grand final a few months later Allen sent Dandenong’s brilliant goalkicker Pat Flaherty to the ground behind play with the words ‘dog eat dog’ in retaliation for a king-hit on Port champion Fred Cook at the other end. Small in stature but a mesmerising goalkicker, Flaherty never hurt a flea.

The king-hit on Cook was one of the most brutal ever seen on a football ground. Delivered by fullback Allan Harper after Cook had dribbled through a goal, it left him with concussion and a gaping wound inside his mouth. He never left the field and played one of the most heroic games ever seen on a football field. At Dandenong the next year Harper played me from a metre behind for the entire game. You can imagine how I felt. In the 1978 VFA grand final Preston’s Grant Wilmot created mayhem with his fists. It didn’t matter that Wilmot was a ‘little man’. He could box and unfortunately the blokes on the end of his fists weren’t always looking when he lost the plot. A year later Caulfield captain coach Stuart Trott was taken from the Coburg ground in an ambulance – David Rhys-Jones wrote about it in Inside Football last year – with severe head fractures. It was said that Trott had been ‘mouthing off’ before being decked.

We’ve come a long way since the days when king-hits, often, but not always, delivered by blokes who blanched at the prospect of chasing a dangerous football were a scourge in the VFA and the VFL. Paradoxically, the outlawing of some of the rough stuff, including the shirtfront has compromised the role of strong, medium sized players with fast closing speed. In the old game a gangly big man, as Walls was, had to make sure a bloke with ‘small man’s syndrome’, especially one whose courage he might have questioned, didn’t mow him down. The ‘dominator’, Wayne Johnston, collecting Robert Dipierdomenico in the 1987 VFL/AFL grand final is a legendary moment in Carlton’s finals history. Walls was the coach and unlike ‘the big dipper’, Johnston was not a big man! And who can forget Laurie Fowler on John Nicholls in 1973?

With football’s administrators having barred the shirtfront and turned their gaze to the sling tackle – as they should for it is clearly dangerous and in no way courageous – there is little room in the game for a small player to draw on a robust use of the body in order to compete with the more physically gifted. Ballantyne’s tactics might annoy the pious but as history shows, they are relatively benign when compared with the damage wreaked by a clenched fist on player’s unguarded face. Having had my nose broken by a king-hit leaves me bristling at the thought that anyone would glorify a punch to an unguarded face. It’s not something I’d be encouraging my sons to do.

 

Apr11

Surfing the VFL waves at Torquay A big crowd turned out for a thriller between Williamstown and Geelong in Torquay. ‘That was great what Scarlett did to Ballantyrne,’ a young woman quipped to a cluster of blokes near the boundary line. Would they have been saying the same if Ballantyne’s jaw had been broken? Would Cameron Mooney have been saying on radio ‘I’d have followed up with a right’ if it had been Barry Hall across from him? Mooney’s a good bloke and it’s only a joke but as I suggested during the ABC TV match last Saturday, there is a serious side to the question. Hitting someone when his hands are down isn’t something we should be glorifying. My Inside Football article this week deals with the question. 

Surfing the VFL waves at Torquay

A big crowd turned out for a thriller between Williamstown and Geelong in Torquay. ‘That was great what Scarlett did to Ballantyrne,’ a young woman quipped to a cluster of blokes near the boundary line. Would they have been saying the same if Ballantyne’s jaw had been broken? Would Cameron Mooney have been saying on radio ‘I’d have followed up with a right’ if it had been Barry Hall across from him? Mooney’s a good bloke and it’s only a joke but as I suggested during the ABC TV match last Saturday, there is a serious side to the question. Hitting someone when his hands are down isn’t something we should be glorifying. My Inside Football article this week deals with the question. 

Apr2

Hoggy Good, Aker bad

Is the Moonee Valley Football Club serious when it dumps Jason Akermanis for comments made about Jim Stynes then announces that ‘Kouta’ will host a sportsman’s (sic) night with Rodney Hogg, who famously tweeted on Australia Day ‘Just put out my Aussie flag for Australia Day but I wasn’t sure if it would offend Muslims… so I wrote, “Allah is a s—-” on it to make sure’?

Yes, Hoggy apologised. But so did Aker.  ’It was a bad attempt at humour…my sincere apologies to the Muslim community. A stupid tweet by me in very bad taste,’ he later tweeted. Isn’t humour usually based, loosely or otherwise, on reality? Must ask the Muslim boys at West Coburg what they think! In 1914-18 those descendants of Ireland who opposed the war in Europe - my grandfather and his siblings were among them -were demonised as unAustralian and as traitors who wouldn’t salute Hoggy’s flag. It’s because I know my history that I have some understanding of what it’s like to be Muslim in patriotic Australia, post John Howard. Jim Stynes too knew his Irish history. So he’ll understand why I’m disappointed he was farewelled under the Union Jack at St Paul’s rather than a shamrock at St Pat’s. Will that get me into trouble? If I do get to heaven we can discuss it in the appropriate company. 

Mar31

Peta Searle, a girl coach.  ABC viewers didn’t see a grab of Peta Searle, Port’s backline coach talking to the boys at 3/4 time in the big game on Saturday. Peta, the first female coach in VFA/VFL/AFL history was as cool as any bloke as she identified where the Port backline could improve.  Despite missing 9 players from the grand final side Port showed that it has the spirit and the talent to yet again challenge for the flag. And Peta? She’s a teacher, understands the game and will only get better at her craft under the guidance of Gary Ayres.  

Peta Searle, a girl coach. 

ABC viewers didn’t see a grab of Peta Searle, Port’s backline coach talking to the boys at 3/4 time in the big game on Saturday. Peta, the first female coach in VFA/VFL/AFL history was as cool as any bloke as she identified where the Port backline could improve.  Despite missing 9 players from the grand final side Port showed that it has the spirit and the talent to yet again challenge for the flag. And Peta? She’s a teacher, understands the game and will only get better at her craft under the guidance of Gary Ayres.  

Mar29

On Saturday Port unfurls its flag. It will be a day to savour. It seems like only yesterday that we - Coburg - played off for the 1980 VFA grand final. I will never forget the roar of the crowd when Port hit the front about 19 minutes into the last quarter at the Junction Oval. We had led all day, only to lose by 11 points. Port went on to win three in a row and then had to wait 29 years for Gary Ayres to lead them home last year. ABC TV on Saturday!

On Saturday Port unfurls its flag. It will be a day to savour. It seems like only yesterday that we - Coburg - played off for the 1980 VFA grand final. I will never forget the roar of the crowd when Port hit the front about 19 minutes into the last quarter at the Junction Oval. We had led all day, only to lose by 11 points. Port went on to win three in a row and then had to wait 29 years for Gary Ayres to lead them home last year. ABC TV on Saturday!

Brandon Ellis flies the West Coburg Flag I did ask Damien Hardwick whether he’d like to talk footy last Saturday at Coburg but alas the Tigers coach wasn’t feeling like a chat on ABC TV. It would have been nice to publicly congratulate Brandon Ellis at the ground where he played so well in the EDFL under 16 grand final in 2009, which we lost by six points. Brandon didn’t play in last year’s premiership side, my second in four years with West Coburg but we wish him well tonight with the Tigers. This photo - he’s in the middle - was taken at training in the week before the 2009 grand final.  Two of the boys from last year, Omar Abdullah and Adam Saad are playing with the Cannons and might well follow Brandon into the AFL. Several others, including Jack Dinale, Marco Serruto, Darcy Troy, Tom Drake, Setanta MacAodha and Ben Drummond will play senior football with West Coburg in the coming weeks. If only football’s wealth was distributed in such a way as to make it easier for community clubs to function. With all the talk about the ‘charity’ work of Jim Stynes we shouldn’t overlook just how much work is done by volunteers at such clubs. Actually I’m one of them! And yes there’s Tino and Maurice and Bill and Bernie and Kevin and David…….. 

Brandon Ellis flies the West Coburg Flag

I did ask Damien Hardwick whether he’d like to talk footy last Saturday at Coburg but alas the Tigers coach wasn’t feeling like a chat on ABC TV. It would have been nice to publicly congratulate Brandon Ellis at the ground where he played so well in the EDFL under 16 grand final in 2009, which we lost by six points. Brandon didn’t play in last year’s premiership side, my second in four years with West Coburg but we wish him well tonight with the Tigers. This photo - he’s in the middle - was taken at training in the week before the 2009 grand final.  Two of the boys from last year, Omar Abdullah and Adam Saad are playing with the Cannons and might well follow Brandon into the AFL. Several others, including Jack Dinale, Marco Serruto, Darcy Troy, Tom Drake, Setanta MacAodha and Ben Drummond will play senior football with West Coburg in the coming weeks. If only football’s wealth was distributed in such a way as to make it easier for community clubs to function. With all the talk about the ‘charity’ work of Jim Stynes we shouldn’t overlook just how much work is done by volunteers at such clubs. Actually I’m one of them! And yes there’s Tino and Maurice and Bill and Bernie and Kevin and David……..