Sticky
Americanisation

By:
On:
In: corruption, crime, democracy, economics, featured, Government, health, history, identity, latest post, media, mind, movies, oral fetish, politics, power, social media, sport

You know, I see quite a few of these YouTube videos where Americans compare stuff to what happens in Australia. It is not these that peak my interest, but rather that the global Americanisation is so ubiquitous. Everything about modern life is largely the same in the western world. Have a think about the computer age and where that originated. The internet and social media are American inventions. Smart phones are a big part of this and they too are a US innovation. Beyond this, to more prosaic trends and think about working out, bigger muscles and tattoos. These too, are American cultural shifts, which occurred over the last couple of decades.Continue Reading

Sticky
Has Dean Cox Inherited A Damaged Team?

By:
On:
In: latest post, sport

Those blowhards in the AFL media, them overpaid talking heads with exaggerated reputations, will be coming for the Sydney Swans, now that they have plummeted down the ladder. Back to back 10 to 15 goal thrashings will do that. It will be ‘so-called’ incisive judgements about the lack of talent on the Sydney list and how they will have to go into rebuild mode. These ‘geniuses’ all jump on the judgemental ‘must rebuild’ media led bandwagons, which saw clubs like Melbourne and North Melbourne stuck down the bottom of the ladder for decades. Here is a Sydney Swans playing list evaluation in 2025.Continue Reading

Sticky
Football - AFL Multicultural Round Commemorative Ball, Lin Jong, 8 Aug 2015

By:
On:
In: featured, sport

Gerard Healy calls for the tag and it has become a running joke. Tag every player, maybe? Could it be because nobody plays on anyone anymore in AFL? The demand for tagging is really a deeper cry for greater accountability? A bit more mano on mano? Funnily enough, ball use efficiency decreases when the tag is applied. AFL mutterings in the manosphere. No kidding, it’s not rocket science but the coaching stratagems are so far up you know where with zoning pinched from basketball that the penny aint dropped. Footy has become the unaccountable game. When I played the game we all played on someone.Continue Reading

Sticky
white swan

By:
On:
In: featured, sport

Or has he made a mess of his first few months of the season, as head coach of the Swans in 2025? Tom McCartin? A failed experiment still costing the team stability and continuity. The Sydney Swans AFL  side is sliding down to the lower reaches of a long ladder. 14th place. Has Dean Cox inherited a damaged team? Did John Longmire exit a traumatised football team? Injuries to important senior players have made things worse to be sure. However if a solid system was in place, then, the thinking goes that new soldiers come in and play the roles required. This is not happening in terms of four quarter performances producing winning results.Continue Reading

Sticky
Football Record - AFL Women's (AFLW) Competition, Feb-Apr 2020

By:
On:
In: featured, latest post, sport

The truth about AFL football these days is that nobody plays on each other. If you look around the ground during a game, you will see 36 players standing off from one another. Sure, the full forward and full back may be nearer to each other than most, but nobody is wearing the other, like in the old days. The modern footy game is a high possession, low contest affair that sees the ball move quickly up and down the ground. This higher scoring style of play is by design. Rule changes by those in charge of the AFL have reduced the defensive nature of the game.Continue Reading

football stadium

By:
On:
In: latest post, sport

Losing the 2023 Grand Final by just 4 points in many way means that Brisbane were right in this contest. Collingwood were, however, never going to lose this match on the evidence of a couple of screenings of this great game. The game was won and lost on the back of defence, as most finals are. Brisbane’s back 6 just did not measure up to the extreme demands of the contest. Whereas the Magpies defence was enormous for 4 quarters and was the difference in the end. Why Brisbane lost the AFL Grand Final – it was their mediocre defence.Continue Reading

Football - Sherrin, circa 2001

By:
On:
In: featured, latest post, sport

They say that opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one. The question is whether there are some expert arseholes out there in media land. The AFL media landscape is largely populated by loud mouthed ex-footballers. These chaps have currency in the minds of the listening audience. Fans of the game want product associated with the game seven days a week it seems. These paid producers of content in the form of spurious leaked information and speculative opinion keep the home fires burning. They soon learn that the more controversial the material the more mileage they get out of it. Kane Cornes, David King and co. Therefore, much of what we hear in the footy meta sphere is pumped full of hot air. Coaches and the media: AFL sacrificial slaughter feeds the fans.Continue Reading

text

By:
On:
In: featured, identity, latest post, politics, sport

Australia and the world are in the midst of a tussle on the political and cultural stages. Conservatives vs progressives: A battle for hearts and minds. Those in the previously unassailable dominant cohort, white folk in the main, are being told that they have something to lose by their political leaders. Meanwhile, those growing minority groups and the lefty liberals want more progress on human rights and economic equality for all. The hardline right are playing culture wars by bandying about terms like ‘woke’ and ‘political correctness’ to attract more support from those on their side who have been economically left behind.Continue Reading

Sydney Swans’ Serial Neglect Of Ruck Stocks

By:
On:
In: latest post, sport

AFL premiership sides boast first string rucks more often than not. The Sydney Swans serial neglect of ruck stocks has cost them flags, in my view. Once again, the club finds itself thin on the ground when it comes to quality big men. Watching the games this year and the season last year the Swans lack of top quality ruckmen has been apparent. This has been going on for too many years and reflects a blind spot  when it comes to recruiting and developing big men. Peter Ladhams is developing and will get better but the Swans need more depth.Continue Reading

Chris Scott - Coaches and The Media: AFL Sacrificial Slaughter Feeds The Fans

By:
On:
In: latest post, sport

Sport in Australia is akin to a naked fat man in a fishbowl bending over. There is way too much scrutiny of a silly game through the lenses of multiple media channels. Talk of AFL coaches and players facing unreasonable levels of stress and pressure in their jobs is all too real. In this country, we have excessive amounts of media focused on the major football codes at the elite level. It seems, we are a nation that largely ignores the important stuff involving our state leaders and politicians but sweats on sporting minutiae.Continue Reading