Sydney Swans

The AFL season kicked off in Sydney this weekend, with the Swans/Giants showdown at the old Olympic Stadium. Not that you’d have known in Sydney’s inner south, where I live.

At my two local pubs, both of which are firmly in NRL Dragons territory, every single TV monitor was tuned to the live NRL match between the Dragons and Sea Eagles. I would sooner have ordered a Pimms and Lemonade than ask the bar staff to change the channel.

The AFL won’t despair over this. Their main target market isn’t the over-30s who’ll likely never pay any attention to the scrappy, unmanly sport from the southern states.

Continue reading "Clever AFL targets young hearts and young minds" »

THE Magpies are raging flag favourites, thanks to the Hawks fuelling their hunger on the eve of the AFL finals.

The Pies’ stinging loss to the Hawks in round 22 hurt like hell. Collingwood’s flat spot, on the eve of the finals, could prove to be the catalyst in their quest for the premiership.

The Hawthorn loss was the fuel the Magpies needed to brush off their famed losing mentality.

Continue reading "Hawk Heimlich solution to the Collingwood choke" »

UPDATE 4.20pm Wednesday: Carlton has just announced they have dumped Fevola. You can read about at the Herald Sun here. The following was posted by Anthony Sharwood yesterday afternoon:

It’s starting to look likely that Brendan Fevola will be sacked from Carlton after his Brownlow Medal night antics.

At least, that’s what the tssk tssk-ocracy is baying for. If Fev is booted, the Sydney Swans must swoop. As Homer Simpson would say: this must happen, this should happen and this must happen.

Twice, the Swans have poached troubled key forwards from Melbourne and twice it has been a huge success for player, club and city.

Continue reading "If no one else wants Fevola, Sydney should grab him" »

As a long-time member of the Sydney Swans Football Club I have been seated in the outer at the SCG or whatever Stadium Australia is called this year for pretty much every game Barry Hall has played in the Harbour City.  He was a popular replacement for the retiring Tony Lockett and his move north seemed quite appropriate, considering that he had followed a very similar path as Plugger - a talented forward who had his troubles with discipline.  They even played at the same club prior to moving to Sydney. 

Hall quickly became popular with the fans.  Those of us who went to supporters days always found him kind, generous with his time and happy to chat to us. 

I take my son to the kids clinic every season and Hall was always out on the field with the other players coaching the kids.  When it came to autograph time, he was the one they all flocked to.  He patiently signed every one and never appeared to be anything other than genuine in his desire to be there.

Continue reading "A fan’s take on a fallen hero" »

It might sound a bit odd given that he was reported 15 times - and spent more than a full year of his playing life out of the game - but Barry Hall has probably done more than any other individual over the past 10 years to help expand the national code.

If you take your kids along to Auskick in Sydney, or talk to any Swans fans, the one constant which drives their love of the game, the person they associate most readily and passionately with the club, is not Brett Kirk or Leo Barry or Adam Goodes or Paul Roos, but the phenomenal, flawed, big, bad, bustling Barry Hall.
Now that he has quit Aussie Rules, the greatest hits packages will tonight run for several minutes as his contribution to the game is seen first and, sadly, foremost, through his many high-impact brain snaps, such as this textbook left-hook on West Coast’s Brent Staker which cost him seven weeks.

Continue reading "Barry Hall was a marketing knock-out for Aussie Rules" »