Grand Final Day
And so this is Grand Final Day. It is not the last Saturday of September, but the first Wednesday of September. The day begins at 7:30 at Vic Park and the bus departs and heads to the Holden Centre of the other Collingwood Football Club. Nathan comes in and gives some words. He is all […]
Listening to the Stadium
I walk towards the stadium. Its grey walls loom over the trees. Chatter amongst us grows louder and denser. We are funnelled along pathways; broad footpaths; all moving in the one direction. Now and then the crowd is split by a singular and still figure standing at a small desk selling Records – or in […]
Home Ground
The Collingwood Knights play in the Reclink Football League on Wednesdays during winter, their homeground being Victoria Park. The club is run by a policeman, Chris McGeachan, aka Geeks, Shane Williams of Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS), Mannon Johnston of Headspace and Pete Burns, a sports-oriented social worker. The Club is inclusive and welcomes […]
Elzy Wellings: Athlete and Activist
It is no easy life being an elite 10,000m runner. One is under-paid and under-appreciated at least by the standards of global sports. A track runner can be anonymous for as good as four years, yet, on the Olympic stage, the athlete can become a star, on the minor proviso that she or he, wins […]
Missing Goodes
A lot happened in the lead up to the Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round. Carlton Football Club apologised for its discrimination against Sir Doug Nicholls. Richmond Football Club promoted the role of its Laguntas Program and Korin Gamadji Institute. The AFL showed a series of short videos on the life of Sir Doug Nicholls. Each […]
Talking Indonesian Football
I spoke with Dr.Ken Setiawan, McKenzie Fellow at The University of Melbourne, regarding football in Indonesia for the podcast, Talking Indonesia. The interview can be found here Football and Fan Culture. Below is an excerpt from the conversation. What got you into studying football in Indonesia? From the time I started visiting Indonesia regularly in […]
Outer Sanctum Podcast
The AFL is in a rush to be ‘inclusive’ and to be more representative of society. For so long Australian rules has been exemplary of the archetypal Aussie macho male. Tough, arrogant, abusive, crass. As Mike Sheahan said in his interview with the sport’s best investigative journalist, Caroline Wilson, “footy is a man’s game, everyone […]
Soccer and the City
(An article of mine has been published in Sport and Society journal) Football fandom and sports culture are largely neglected in studies of Indonesia. This is despite the highly complex nature of football fandom in Indonesian cities. This essay draws on experiences in two cities in central Java: Yogyakarta and Solo. Contemporary football culture in […]
Footballing Transitions
An Interview with Kenny Dougall, left-back of Sparta Rotterdam It wasn’t the game I expected it to be. I left home with the expectation of witnessing a 90minute-long celebration of Sparta’s successful season in the Jupiler League, which had seen them become Champions and earn automatic promotion to the Eredivisie. I saw their last game […]
What Fans Do
Being a football fan is serious business. Ultra fan groups are highly competitive within their own group and with other supporters of other clubs. Some fans will kill for their club; ultra fans recognise that taking on a loyalty to a club and fan group puts them at risk, meaning that they need to hide […]