Australian Football

A conversation with one of Australia's most prominent historians, Geoffrey Blainey, was the main course at the latest Footy Almanac lunch. Andrew Gigacz was there. 

Andrew Gigacz ponders the life for Bulldogs without their spiritual leader Bob Murphy, and he sees a golden opportunity within the crisis.

Jeff Reynolds boldly asks why the Norwood Football Club, one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australia, shouldn't be in the AFL. Perhaps the time is nigh.

Mic Rees takes us back to 1980, the year Kelvin Templeton shone in an otherwise dismal year for the Dogs, and took home the Brownlow Medal.

Andrew Robinson and Andrew Gigacz tell the story of Wal and Joy Williams, and the fine work they've done for the Sandringham Football Club and the VFA. 

Andrew Gigacz looks back on the 2015 AFL season, one which saw Hawthorn establish itself as one of the modern era's truly great sides. 

A week after breaking their Kardinia Park hoodoo in 1972, the Bulldogs tried to break another at Victoria Park. Mic Rees tells the tale.

Trevor Gyss looks back at the 1915 SAFL season, the last before the comp was discontinued for the duration, and the South Australian footballers who went onto enlist.

Mic Rees takes us back to 1972 and down Geelong Road to see if Footscray could break a 27-year Kardinia Park hoodoo.

Mic Rees catches up with Ray Walker, a Bulldogs stalwart through the first half of the 1960s. Like some other famous Dogs before him, Walker was a Braybrook boy.

For 113 years the SANFL/SAFA was the highest level of football in South Australia. Randal Williams looks back at the last three decades of that reign and sees a halcyon era by any measure.

Andrew Gigacz reviews the 2014 season, one which saw the Hawks go back-to-back.

Almost 30 years ago, Mick Malthouse came very close to taking a team to a Grand Final in just his second season as a VFL coach. Footscray fan Mic Rees recalls the day the Dogs fell just short.

Personal experience with the AFL's new pricing structure moved Andrew Gigacz to have his say on the cost of a ticket to the footy.

Induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame is a great honour, but as Adam Cardosi argues, the heroes of the first sixty years of the game have been virtually ignored.

Trevor Ruddell recounts the remarkable, largely forgotten story of pioneer indigenous footballer Albert "Pompey" Austin.

In an extract from his book, Fandemic, Phil Dimitriadis examines the role of women in football - past, present and future.

In an extract from his new book, John Devaney winds back the clock 50 years to look at the 1963 football season.

A chance email has helped Andrew Gigacz uncover the twists and turns of the career of Mike Redenbach, who played three games for Essendon in 1978.

In other circumstances, Harry Beitzel might have been a missionary. Instead, he was destined to spread the gospel of Aussie Rules football. Robert Allen charts his life so far.

During the height of the ‘White Australia’ policy, one man overcame adversity on the battle field and prejudice on the football field to become a hero of both. Robert Allen tells the story.

Robert Allen unlocks the mystery of the Katamatite vs Wattville match, when "Katty" recorded what is believed to be the biggest win in Australian football history.

Mic Rees looks back at the day Footscray put aside the upheavals of a season of woe to kick a then-record VFL score. The star of the show was Kelvin Templeton.

AFL Media claims to be an "independent credible news organisation which reports on AFL football". Can we believe that claim? Charles Happell looks at footy's new behemoth.