Comment - Two interesting points from this article:-
.The crowd in 1886 at Wallsend (near Newcastle) was about 4,000, very large, even good by Melbourne standards. Population in Newcastle district then about 60,000?
I understand many Victorians settled in t
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Comment - Andrew,
Your Footscray " dream held onto with the finest thread of hope that the Dogs will break their premiership drought" has come to pass!!!
Congratulations!
Hopefully, you will be similarly prescient in your dream that further links can
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Comment - It is not disputed, by Flanagan or other historians, that from 1858 to around the 1880's, HIGH jumping to mark above the head was not a regular feature of Melbourne Rules. Some newspaper reports did state, occasionally, during this era that some pl
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Comment - Compared to the population of Melbourne in 1970(about 2,000,000), Melbourne now has 4, 3000,000. Then, the 6 VFL games averaged about 130,000 pw, and had about 25,000 pw going to VFA games. Now, 5 Melbourne game average about 190,ooo pw. Thus, as
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Comment - I have just discovered my figures above for registered female players in football were well out of date!
The 2014 figures are 194, 000 registered female players, numbers more than doubling in 3 years! Intriguingly, Queensland (where rugby l
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Comment - A very interesting read, Brian, of an extraordinary game and extraordinarily difficult and frightening times ! Any idea of what "keb, keb" shouted by the Privates meant. I think the AFL might like this account to go into next year's Record for
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Comment - I have just read tonight your wonderful tribute to your father. Thank you for sharing these tender memories.
It resonates with me very much -my father was Italian and had a passing interest in St Kilda's fortunes as he knew I was besotted with the
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Comment - The loss of drop kicks, stab kicks and torpedoes to our game is, in my view, to the game's great detriment as a spectacle. The rare big torp we see occasionally today always brings out a big roar from the crowd. (Collingwood supporters have told me
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Comment - I believe the Fitzroy song is the most stirring and inspirational of all the VFL/AFL songs.
The Brisbane Lions version is poorer for not having the rousing drum-beat of the Fitzroy version. I vividly recall going to games at the Junction Oval in
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Comment - You omitted Laurie Nash who played a few Test Matches for Australia in the 1930's. He started playing with Fitzroy District CC First XI at 16, and later moved to Tasmania, where he played cricket for Tasmania against Victoria at 19
He played f
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Comment - The strongest growth area in participation in Aust. Football, amongst all demographics, in the southern states is girls' secondary school football. (Suprisingly, female growth is also very strong, off a small base, in the northern states) Current
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Comment - It is a dereliction of its duty to the game's history for the AFL not to officially count and recognise all VFA records from 1877 onwards to at least 1896 inclusive. Also, there is a strong argument that the Challenge Cup period from the 1860s to 1
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Comment - A rule change that would give a much better chance for short players to become elite AFL players is to require that each team must do a minimum number of torpedoes and dropkicks per game(eg 10 in total ?). We know that football crowds get excited by
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Comment - Persons of Asian descent are becoming an increasing percentage of Australia's population, with higher levels of immigration from Asia.
At junior and elite levels, Asians are underrepresented as players(probably less than 2%), although as AFL spectat
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Comment - In recent years, the western suburbs of Melbourne(particularly Wyndham, Melton and surrounds) have experienced the highest population growth rates in Australia(Usually, South East Queensland claimed this title) . This is likely to continue due to ch
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Comment - It should also be remembered that in 19th century Australia, it would not be considered respectable, or "politically correct" to acknowledge an Aboriginal influence in the genesis of the game. The establishment was VERY STRONGLY anglophile and would
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