Michael Voss was in a deep hole. It was 2011 and the Brisbane Lions, the team he had captained to three premierships, had lost the first seven games of the season. He was coaching the club, and pressure was mounting ahead of a game against fellow strugglers, North Melbourne, then coached by former teammate Brad […]
Michael Voss and the new tattoo blues Read More »
Chris Fagan lets a long pause hang in the air. It stretches for 15 seconds, 20, 25, over 30. The Brisbane Lions coach knows what he wants to say about the AFL’s investigation into allegations of systematic racism during his time as general manager of football at Hawthorn, alongside four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson. But
Chris Fagan: the last step is the longest Read More »
There’s a moment in David Williamson’s play The Club where Geoff Hayward, Collingwood’s prize new recruit, is confronted by his coach, Laurie (played in the 1980 film by Jack Thompson) after a game which he’s mostly spent watching a seagull while stoned out of his gourd. “Marry-a-wanna?” asks Laurie, incredulous. Hayward is unrepentant. He identifies the absurdity
Tom Boyd lived the dream. Now let him live his life Read More »
Let’s say a player at an AFL club has a mental health issue. He, or now she, may be struggling with depression, or clinical levels of anxiety, or even one of the more complex conditions recognised in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). They go to see the club psychologist, and talk
Going public, or private, on mental health in the AFL Read More »
On a sports oval in Barunga, an Aboriginal community south east of Katherine with a permanent population of a few hundred people, a fierce footy match is unfolding. It’s the grand final of the Barunga Festival football carnival, and the game is being cheered on by hundreds of spectators. A small colony of flying foxes
In the Top End, footy’s not a religion. It’s more than that Read More »
Jimmy Stynes was an amazing footballer. More impressive than the fact that he won a Brownlow medal in 1991 – Australian Rules’ highest individual honour – was the fact that, in a senior career with the Melbourne Football Club lasting 11 years, from 1987 to 1998, he played 244 of his total 264 games in succession.