Much as everyone connected with association football in Australia wants the new A-League to succeed the signs at present are not as rosy as the announcement of a large $120 million sponsorship by Foxtel last week suggest. The champion club from the inaugural season,...
Journalism 2006
Just a suggestion
I am not sure SESA should be encouraging others to risk their money, but if you have the entrepreneurial spirit and you want to have a flutter in May, my suggestion is you buy up a number of Socceroo shirts and an equal number of blue Greek soccer tops. Cut them down...
Joey ties the knot
Geelong’s star football (soccer) goalkeeper, Joey Didulica, tied the knot with his bride Kate Dzidzic at St Monica’s Catholic Church in Moonee Ponds on Friday. It was a sparkling ceremony attended by a large circle of the bride’s and groom’s family and friends and...
Australia and the World Cup
Getting to the World Cup was hard enough, but now Australia faces the current and five times world champion, Brazil, European powerhouse Croatia and Asian champion Japan in one of the toughest groups at Germany 2006. Yet coach Guus Hiddink and his squad will not...
No butts
The Materazzi-Zidane incident may turn out to be a storm in a tea cup, but for the moment it is occupying hectares of space in the media around the world. The electronic version of the Guardian, for example, has a full page article analysing insults around the globe...
Now I have seen it all
I thought I was a fairly seasoned traveller, but a day spent recovering after the Australia versus Brazil match in Munich in the 2006 World Cup in Germany opened my eyes to a number of things which I would never have expected in a lifetime of exploring the nooks and...
Private capital. A step forward or a step back?
Published as Troubled skies, Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 23 December 2006, p. 25. In the last few months there has been a surge of financial manipulation which aims to turn a number of Australian companies into private entities, most recently Qantas. Instead of being...
A turning point or a dead end for Labor?
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 9 December 2006, p. 39. The Australian Labor Party has cast the dice with the appointment of the ‘dream team’ of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard to lead it into the next Federal election. Will this be an echo of the 1983 election when Bob...
A weekend in Adelaide
Sav Blanc, SA nudists (Advertiser headline), Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 9 December 2006, p. 56. Some of the best holidays are just on our doorstep here in Australia. We’ve been fairly busy recently so decided we should have a break and the chosen venue was Adelaide...
Olympic Memories
An edited version appeared as 'The day a nation pooled its anger', Geelong Advertiser, Monday 27 November 2006, p. 15. Yet more journalism archives Easy Victory keeps slender finals hopes alive Geelong Advertiser, Saturday, 12 January 2008, p. 95. By Roy Hay Melbourne...
Global waffle
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 11 November 2006, p. 35. Do you ever wonder about the contradictory notions which surround the current debates and practices on global warming, drought and the death of our rivers? We need a one-handed environmentalist, just like we need a...
A government for the new world
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 21 October 2006, p. 39. Do you ever get the feeling that we are at a pivotal point in the history of the world? Just to list the issues which face us is confronting enough: drought, global warming, nuclear energy, terrorism, war in Iraq...
Outsourcing can hurt within
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 23 September 2006, p, 33. Public bodies and private corporations throughout Australia have been engaged in a massive restructuring of their operations. It has been going on for some time and in the case of the operations in publicly funded...
Capital venues must be shared
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 9 September 2006, p. 35. Well, well, who would have thought it? No footy finals in Melbourne after this week-end for two weeks, but the Storm and the Victory packing in the fans at Olympic Park and Docklands. Is nothing sacred any more?...
Historic hope*
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 26 August 2006, p. 35. We have a curious situation in Australia in 2006. Australian history is a tiny part of the school curriculum for the vast majority of students. When Australian history was made compulsory in Victoria some years ago,...
Space 3 launched
The third annual volume of Geelong’s own literary magazine Space was launched in the Limelight Lounge by novelist and creative writing lecturer Marion M Campbell on Saturday. Edited once again by Anthony Lynch and David McCooey, the book contains some brilliant new...
Financial foul play
Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday, 9 August 2006, p. 39. It’s been a bad few weeks for the image of top-class sport in Australia and around the world. We have had Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter, and Floyd Landis, the winner of the Tour de France cycle race, exposed...
Sexing birds as holiday hosts
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 22 July 2006, p. 39. Sex and galahs. Have I got your attention with that opening? Well, among the mysteries into which I have been initiated this week was how to tell the difference between a male and female galah. Thanks to a visit from...