A writers festival on the New South Wales central coast is probably the closest you can come to watching the AFL grand final in a vacuum, writes blogger Geoff Lemon.
Afl grand final
Looks to be service as normal, despite Qantas, TWU predictions
There is this morning no sign that anyone flying later today or over this holiday weekend is going to experience anything remotely as serious as the dire predictions that have been made.
Media briefs: The Model screw-up … The Oz ‘campaigning’…
The good thing for Sarah Murdoch is that only 196,000 people saw her live stuff-up on Foxtel last night. Plus, Channel Seven will book millions of dollars in advertising for its unexpected AFL grand final replay on Saturday but no high definition and other media news of the day.
Dear AFL, don’t ditch the draw
Footy fans are still coming to grips with the first drawn AFL grand final since the 1977 decider, with many calling for extra time instead of the contentious replay rule. But, as Caroline Wilson writes, there is much to gain out of another grand final.
Grand final viewers: doing the after maths
The television audience figures for the drawn AFL grand final on Saturday tell us two things.
Crikey Says: Julia’s replay (warning: laboured footy puns at forty paces)
A prime minister pleaded: “Please, please, we cannot have a draw,” she prophetically pined before the AFL Grand Final Saturday morning. They didn’t get it. A nation waits — again.
On the Grand Final hung result: whinging
I shouldn’t be buying into this. But I do recall watching the 1977 Grand Final with a roomful of fans in a house on the coast of the Victorian western district. When the siren went, the silence fell, recalls W H Chong.
Daily Proposition: Drink to the granny … especially if the Pies win
At lunchtime on the Wednesday of Grand Final week, in the 200m walk from the office to the pizza shop, I saw three people wearing Collingwood jerseys. That’s a good enough reason for Crikey intern Nick Johns-Wickberg to start drinking.
AFL Grand Final open thread
AFL Grand Final Day is my Christmas, Easter, King Island Show Day (Tas) and International Talk Like a Pirate Day all rolled into one, writes Leigh Josey. Join in him in arguing whether the Pies or Saints will get up and who’ll win the Norm Smith.
Reflections on a cracking Grand Final
St Kilda had its chances; the Cats got out of jail. When it counted, Geelong’s champions came to the fore. And the umpires were too prominent. Charles Happell reflects in the wake of AFL Grand Final ‘09.
graph pr0n Geelong vs. St Kilda supporters: who does more yoga?
St Kilda supporters are more likely to participate in dancing and yoga than Geelong supporters while Cats supporters are more likely to be petrol heads. Possum Comitatus does some timely number crunching.
Australia’s biggest sporting losers
In the lead-up to the NRL and AFL finals, no-one’s focusing much on the potential of losing. Except for the The Punch team. They wrap Australia’s biggest sporting letdowns from Collingwood to Mark Philippoussis.
A long time between drinks for Saints supporters
St Kilda FC has won just one glittering prize from five starts: 1913, 1965, 1966, 1971, 1997. I was at the last four, says Kevin Rennie. He’s still looking for a ticket to Saturday’s Grand Final against Geelong.
How can the Twenty20 freak show save Test cricket?
Be afraid, be very afraid. That sound of rumbling in the distance is not an approaching thunderstorm, nor the Led Zeppelin reunion concert, but hordes of Visigoths heading our way to plunder and pillage our peaceful cricketing way of life., writes Charles Happell.
Revealed: how media companies hide from electoral scrutiny
The starter’s gun has been fired and once again, we’ve got a political election in Australia coinciding with the corporate AGM season when more than 2000 public company directors will face a poll of their own. Stephen Mayne writes.
So think global, act local isn’t enough?
GetUp! have got smug and risk scaring off ordinary members of the public and only appealing to a select and self righteous band of zealots – the very worst kind of elite, writes Christian Kerr.
Media briefs and TV ratings
Disappointing GF audiences for both AFL and NRL … Surprise, surprise, Seven wins another week … Last night’s TV ratings.
