... for speaking the bleeding obvious is the last straw for this new fan.

The A-League is a fucking ridiculous competition, and I'm over it. Hell, it might keep me if it was actually brilliant football, but it's not. If it's not completely corrupt it might as well be and inevitably will be with a bunch of billionares running around with very high stakes, no transparency and institutional protection from anyone - even the coaches - criticising decisions. Click to continue reading...

Why did the chicken cross the football field?

(The answer is in comments.) Click to continue reading...

The thing to do here in introduction is to apologise for not writing for so long. Yup.

The bad news is that as this A-Leage thing kicks off again I have realised that work commitments will prevent me from seeing many games at all. I'll be able to see the Saturday night ones and the late Sunday night ones. Click to continue reading...

The lead headline on the ABC News site at this time is Australian troops begin Iraq pullout: report. It was posted at 6.03pm, short minutes before Harry Kewell all but finished Iraq's chances to get to the 2010 World Cup. Irony? I don't know. It really doesn't matter.

Funny old game that. I really thought it would be wet and weathery, but it wasn't really. Click to continue reading...

How the hell did I become a permanent goalkeeper? Don't get me wrong. I like it. It suits my personality in a perverse way. Perhaps it's the need to be in a team alongside an apparently contradictory need to be alone. But I'm 40 years old and have been playing (including a period of informal Sunday kick-abouts) for about 2 years. Click to continue reading...

Well I reckon the Mariners are going to deliver a 3:2 victory. I hope a lot of Australia watches and that it is a brilliant spectacle of sportsmanship.

What do you reckon?

I'll update everything and do a final wrap of the Bloggers Cup after the game. Last I worked it out Mike was still holding a lead, miraculously after going intercontinental for a few weeks, but Eamonn was pushing hard. Click to continue reading...

May the best team win, and the game be grand.

Newcastle 1
Queensland Roar 3 Click to continue reading...

One of the things I learned as a novice fan following the 2006 World Cup is that the World Cup as I knew it was not the World Cup Competition as such, but merely the finals. This really got me, the very idea of an international competition with over 200 teams. This tickled the political and social chords of interest at least as much as the sporting spectacle. Click to continue reading...

The praises of Tahj Minniecon may appear to be a unanimous chorus, but they're not. Jacob has hated him from the first, and he has a perspective that deserves airing.

"He's a hog. I hate hogs."

And further, upon argument, "Sure he can dribble past defenders but when he's drawn three of them he's done his job. Click to continue reading...

Yeah yeah, great game last night. Really tremendous. For good raps of the game itself, see The Football Tragic, Football in the Capital and The Round Ball Analyst. Here's some bits and pieces.

First getting to the game. For the first time I drove, and somehow got a park right next to the Paddo Pub, a mere block from the stadium. Click to continue reading...

Well we won. Of course I'm talking about the Red Eye Pirates futsal team. We won 5:2 last night, which after a terrible run of losses, was the third win in a row. I don't think my keeping is improving much, but our strikers certainly are, and we have a good structure now, completely mobile, with the single defender often running up if they have space with the ball but someone always doubling back, and one always seeking out the space up front no matter what. Click to continue reading...

Tip away. May all the games be brilliant, starting tomorrow night. Go the Socceroos! Click to continue reading...

Go on. I'll get over my disillusionment soon. Click to continue reading...

There is something quite spooky about how perfect the set up for this weekend is.

The teams in the top four and the finals are pleasing and strangely symmetrical already. There were really six teams in the competition last year and Melbourne and Adelaide had their turn, about to enjoy the fruits in their run at the ACL. Click to continue reading...

Well today's the big day, made bigger by the other results of this weekend. Queensland vs Sydney. It means nothing. It means everything. It means nothing. It means everything!!

Regardless of course we have the finalists already. Queensland vs NSW. One vs three is just about the right odds too. Click to continue reading...