Essendon

For all the early season dominance of the Magpies and Cats, and the ineptitude of the Suns, Lions and Power, there’s an even bigger AFL story this year. It’s the resurgence of James Hird’s Bombers, who currently sit fifth on the AFL ladder

You'd play beautifully too if this beautiful man told you to. Pic: Heath Missen.

Hird, of course, is the former Brownlow medallist and premiership skipper who replaced the inept Matthew Knights as Bombers coach for season 2011. Hird has undoubted football nous, but that’s only half the reason his team is playing so well.

There is a force at work this season which is more influential than Hird’s brilliant football brain. It’s a force which propelled Hird to greatness in his playing career and which continues to serves him well today…

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  • Kate says:

    09:06pm | 08/05/11

    He’s not coaching the house down right now, but Brad Scott is a bit of a DILF. Certainly an improvement over Dean Laidley. Read more »

  • Vanessa K says:

    01:04am | 08/05/11

    Love it Ant! There is something slightly out of this world about our answer to God (obviously, i am a bombers fan)...  seeing him play was as good as watching the effect he has on the team this season. I was a fan of Knights, defended him until the end,… Read more »

 

Appointing Kevin Sheedy as coach of the AFL’s new Western Sydney team is a terrible idea.

Can we wrap this up, I gotta bingo game to get to

For one simple reason: The game has left the once-great coach behind.

It’s the equivalent of making Bill Collins the face of iTunes.

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  • Napier_St says:

    06:59pm | 11/11/09

    Being a life-long Essendon man, it will be wierd seeing Sheeds coaching another team, especially as I was born 2 years after he started coaching the Bombers, for my first 24 years all I knew was Kevin Sheedy being the coach. It was sad but inevitable the day his tenure… Read more »

  • Mick says:

    01:28pm | 11/11/09

    Finn, think you have been a tad harsh on old sheeds. Sure his last few years were not the best, but if you look back at the lists Essendon had - they were never finals chances. I think Sheeds is a great fit for a new club, the experience he… Read more »

 

Biblical scholars generally agree that on the seventh day God created the Essendon Football Club. And so it came to pass that in 2000AD, as humanity braced for the second coming, the mighty Bombers did descend from heaven and banish the Melbourne Demons with righteous fire.

Arnie's character Dutch or, if you prefer, Alan.

And lo how the people rejoiced; yet away from the dancing and merrymaking the prophet Leigh Matthews was watching the skies, waiting for a sign…

Matthews was the coach of the Brisbane Lions, a relatively new team which derived its strength from the gayness of anyone who barracked for it. Yet while this power source was abundant, Matthews was a cautious man and carefully studied the form of the Lions’ nemesis.

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  • Chris says:

    01:09am | 23/09/09

    “Stick around” is pure Arnie wit. Don’t forget that other classic Arnie line in the movie, where he blows down a door and kills the guerilla fighters inside, and then drop the line “Knock knock”. But “Running Man” was the best movie for Arnie one-liners. Read more »

  • Socrates' Lament says:

    01:01pm | 09/09/09

    You who criticise this article based on its references to Australia’s indigenous game have missed its wittier, better-crafted passages. The impetus of this article came from a factual event, where, during a live radio interview in mid-2001, Leigh Matthews offered the “If it bleeds, we can kill it” line in… Read more »

 

It has been an extraordinary few hours in sport.

Woods at the US PGA: A star is snuffed

Overnight Usain Bolt ran a world-record 9.58sec in the 100m sprint, and Tiger Woods just lost the US PGA Championship to Y.E. Yang - the first time he has ever lost a major tournament having held the lead at the start of the final day.

So here’s a question for you: Which do you think is the more amazing feat? I say Tiger’s defeat, and here’s why.

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  • Eren says:

    12:42pm | 10/02/12

    Wham bam thank you, ma’am, my questions are asnweerd! Read more »

  • chris says:

    10:11am | 18/08/09

    There is no comparison of freakish talent. Bolt has change the way science view human physical capability. Tiger has just pointed out the obvious, the talent pool for golf is very shallow. A person only needs basic social infrastruture to become 100m champion, for Golf a kid needs parents with… Read more »

 

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