No Oppo Supporters Non Bulldog Footy Talk - Bulldogs only - Part 5

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W W Biscuit said:
What a bunch of neoliberals we have as custodians of our game. What next I wonder?
Click to expand...
The way the competition is run is, quite frankly, a joke.

But I don't think footy fans realise the power that they collectively have to stop the self serving decisions of the AFL.

When the top soccer clubs in Europe got together and decided they wanted to form a 'super league' the fans of those clubs, and the excluded clubs, got together and in days stopped that decision dead in it's tracks.

We can complain on the internet about the AFL all we like but unless there is collective action from footy fans then nothing will change.
 
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Thunderoad said:
The way the competition is run is, quite frankly, a joke.

But I don't think footy fans realise the power that they collectively have to stop the self serving decisions of the AFL.

When the top soccer clubs in Europe got together and decided they wanted to form a 'super league' the fans of those clubs, and the excluded clubs, got together and in days stopped that decision dead in it's tracks.

We can complain on the internet about the AFL all we like but unless there is collective action from footy fans then nothing will change.
Click to expand...

I noticed on social media this week that there is a small group of people leading an initiative to boycott this round of football. Don't attend games and tune out of all AFL-related media. They encourage people to get in touch with grass roots football this week instead. Go and see your local team play. The aim being to protest the way the AFL is being run and to bring about certain changes (they do have a short manifesto).

I found it interesting. There is a small groundswell of supporters who are fed up and trying to promote some changes, like the soccer example you cited. Will I not watch the Bulldogs game on Sunday? Admittedly, I will find it hard not to. But I stopped tuning into the football media years ago. It's trash.
 

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A good article by Paul Amy

Remembering the rise of Sam Landsberger, a beloved friend and star reporter gone too soon
Sam Landsberger went from an early run-in with a big-name coach to a stack of awards. Colleagues warmed not only to his journalism but his fine character, and his passing has devastated many, writes PAUL AMY.

Can I spread my wings?

It was one of the first questions Sam Landsberger would ask during the Sunday shifts that were his first foray into journalism, at the former Leader Community Newspapers office in Cheltenham.

It came from when the sports editor was given the layouts for the pages.

If there was decent space, and if Sam’s notebook was full, as it invariably was, he could spread his wings and write a long piece.

The aspiring young reporter liked to take a peek at the pages. He never saw a half-page he didn’t want to fill.

Sam – who died last Tuesday at the age of 36, producing an outpouring of emotion that reflected the esteem in which he was held as an AFL journalist and young man – started writing about amateur football.

He would go to games on Saturdays and bound into the office the next day, brimming with ideas and energy and getting to work on his match reports.

This was in 2008. He had called the sports desk during the football season, saying he wanted to be a journalist and was in fact studying journalism at Monash University.

He liked sport and particularly football – he was a Western Bulldogs supporter, he said – and he’d been reading the local paper and wondered if he could come in for a talk.

Sam made his way up the stairs of the office on a Wednesday morning. Four days later, having quickly arranged insurance for a work placement from his university, he returned for his first Sunday shift.

He wanted no pay. But, politely, he asked if he could receive feedback on his articles and perhaps pick up a byline in the paper his family had delivered in the letterbox, the Bayside Leader.

When his stories were finished, he would print them and wait for the editor’s red pen to do a line-by-line comb of his copy.

As the weeks went by, the pen dropped less and less ink. Sam absorbed things quickly and before long he had earned his first byline.

His second was a week later, also in the Bayside Leader, concerning Sandringham Dragons footballers Jack Hutchins and Tom Nicholls. They had “received the ultimate reward for their fine form in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships – positions in the AIS-AFL Academy’’.

And his third byline was for a story on the Luke Beveridge-coached St Bede’s Mentone Tigers, as they prepared for their bid for an A grade premiership to go with their B and C grade flags. He interviewed Beveridge for the piece.

Phoning the coach again the following week, he was in for a surprise when Beveridge challenged him about something he had written.

Perhaps it was the line that the Tigers’ “indifferent late-season form has left some question marks over their ability to maintain a high standard of football in the finals’’ or a reference to “mental scarring’’ that had caused offence. Perhaps it was the inclusion of something Beveridge thought was off the record.

But his words stung Sam, who was sensitive and looked disconsolate when he put down the phone. It was another lesson: in journalism, there are brickbats as well as bouquets.

He quickly patched it up with Beveridge – and a few weeks later, they were talking about the Tigers’ historic premiership.

The following season Sam covered the Casey Cardinia league, so enthusiastically and knowledgeably that after the home-and-away season he could confidently name his team of the year. He was wrong only on two positions.

He went beyond match reports, adding a news element to his coverage – he had one president denying that a dust-up at a boozy social event had created a split in the playing ranks and would derail the club’s season. Any questions he regarded as tough would be followed up with an easy “ha’’ that he hoped would take the sting out of the enquiry. Still, there was tenacity to go with his talent.

Sam also did some player profiles ahead of that year’s draft, zeroing in on a kid from East Kew named Andrew Gaff.

Quite a few of the people he dealt with came to be either trusted contacts – including former Coburg general manager Craig Lees and ex-VFL and VFWL coach Patrick Hill – or longstanding admirers, including former Demon and Dandenong Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats.

His colleagues quickly judged that he had a fine career ahead of him. He could write news and features, accurately and entertainingly. Snappy similes were a speciality. One player “kept popping up like a toaster’’.

Other journalists warmed not only to his work, but his gentle, modest and respectful manner. There was an innate warmth to him.
They could criticise him only for his driving. One day a bunch of reporters were sent out to cover a plane crash in Cheltenham and Sam had four of them slip into his car for the short drive back to the office.

Coming out of a quiet residential street, he gunned his little machine across two lanes of busy Centre Dandenong Rd, forcing other drivers to dive for their brakes. Sent out to cover a serious accident, the reporters were thankful they weren’t in one themselves. “Wow, that was close,’’ Sam said sheepishly.

By 2011, he had a foot in the door at the Herald Sun, writing about the VFL. Port Melbourne won the flag that year, going through undefeated.

“It was the perfect end to the perfect season,’’ Sam kicked off his match report.

“Port Melbourne, challenged by Williamstown as it cut the margin to 15 points at the start of the last quarter, lifted to a gear that not even a side containing 15 AFL-listed players could match.’’

By 2013 Sam was on the Herald Sun staff, winning the Australian Football Media Association’s Clinton Grybas Rising Star Award. Thrill of thrills for him, it was presented by the great Mike Sheahan, whose every word he read.

He also looked up the bylines of other journalists who would become his long-time colleagues: Scott Gullan, Jay Clark, Mark Robinson, Jonny Ralph and Glenn McFarlane. Mark Stevens, a fellow Bulldog, was another favourite.

That year of the Rising Star award, Sam was also a finalist in the Walkley Awards in the “innovation in journalism’’ category for his AFL draft preview series “Pick Me’’, putting a spotlight on the next Gaff.

His former Leader colleagues revelled in his rise and his successes (their congratulations were accepted with a modest “thank you’’).

They have been shattered by his death, grieving the loss of a vital and beautiful young man who had done a lot of fine work, but had much more to do.

They like to think he’s gone off chasing another big story – and is still spreading his wings.
 
W W Biscuit said:
I noticed on social media this week that there is a small group of people leading an initiative to boycott this round of football. Don't attend games and tune out of all AFL-related media. They encourage people to get in touch with grass roots football this week instead. Go and see your local team play. The aim being to protest the way the AFL is being run and to bring about certain changes (they do have a short manifesto).

I found it interesting. There is a small groundswell of supporters who are fed up and trying to promote some changes, like the soccer example you cited. Will I not watch the Bulldogs game on Sunday? Admittedly, I will find it hard not to. But I stopped tuning into the football media years ago. It's trash.
Click to expand...

I'm pleased to hear that and will look it up. Like you, I will struggle to not tune into the Bulldogs game given what is at stake this weekend but voting with your feet does work.

I have a mate who is just obsessed with footy. He barracks for Geelong but has really extensive knowledge of most teams, particularly the Victotian based clubs. He can talk with knowledge about young fringe players at the Bulldogs like Busslinger, Clarke, Rypstra etc and how we are going in the VFL.

He's got more knowledge about the game than 90% of AFL journos yet the likes of Channel 7 and Triple M want me to revere someone like James Brayshaw as some sort of authority on the game when he's been phoning it in for years.
 
Hawks v North now at 12.30pm and the Tigers v Suns is now at 3.20pm

Due to industrial action in Tassie
 
Libbaaaa said:
Curnow not playing for Carlton.
Click to expand...
I gave the Blues a small chance of winning by 20 points more than Hawthorn this week which would see the Blues overtake the Hawks. I can't see that happening now.
 
Anyone know how much more points the Blues need to win by, than the Hawks, to overtake them on percentage?

Says the Hawks defeat North by 30 points. How much would the Blues need to beat the Saints by to jump ahead of them?

Assuming we manage to beat GWS, percentage could determine whether we face off vs the Hawks or the Blues.
 
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_Cerberus_ said:
Anyone know how much more points the Blues need to win by, than the Hawks, to overtake them on percentage?

Says the Hawks defeat North by 30 points. How much would the Blues need to beat the Saints by to jump ahead of them?
Click to expand...

They're about 4 goals behind at the moment. If they had 2098 points for instead of 2077 they'd be ahead of them now.

So probably 4 goals extra is a decent guide but we'll know more by tomorrow afternoon
 
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Hawks likely to win by 80 plus. Highest scoring team over last six weeks I think.
 
MYOB said:
A good article by Paul Amy

Remembering the rise of Sam Landsberger, a beloved friend and star reporter gone too soon
Sam Landsberger went from an early run-in with a big-name coach to a stack of awards. Colleagues warmed not only to his journalism but his fine character, and his passing has devastated many, writes PAUL AMY.

Can I spread my wings?

It was one of the first questions Sam Landsberger would ask during the Sunday shifts that were his first foray into journalism, at the former Leader Community Newspapers office in Cheltenham.

It came from when the sports editor was given the layouts for the pages.

If there was decent space, and if Sam’s notebook was full, as it invariably was, he could spread his wings and write a long piece.

The aspiring young reporter liked to take a peek at the pages. He never saw a half-page he didn’t want to fill.

Sam – who died last Tuesday at the age of 36, producing an outpouring of emotion that reflected the esteem in which he was held as an AFL journalist and young man – started writing about amateur football.

He would go to games on Saturdays and bound into the office the next day, brimming with ideas and energy and getting to work on his match reports.

This was in 2008. He had called the sports desk during the football season, saying he wanted to be a journalist and was in fact studying journalism at Monash University.

He liked sport and particularly football – he was a Western Bulldogs supporter, he said – and he’d been reading the local paper and wondered if he could come in for a talk.

Sam made his way up the stairs of the office on a Wednesday morning. Four days later, having quickly arranged insurance for a work placement from his university, he returned for his first Sunday shift.

He wanted no pay. But, politely, he asked if he could receive feedback on his articles and perhaps pick up a byline in the paper his family had delivered in the letterbox, the Bayside Leader.

When his stories were finished, he would print them and wait for the editor’s red pen to do a line-by-line comb of his copy.

As the weeks went by, the pen dropped less and less ink. Sam absorbed things quickly and before long he had earned his first byline.

His second was a week later, also in the Bayside Leader, concerning Sandringham Dragons footballers Jack Hutchins and Tom Nicholls. They had “received the ultimate reward for their fine form in the NAB AFL Under 16 championships – positions in the AIS-AFL Academy’’.

And his third byline was for a story on the Luke Beveridge-coached St Bede’s Mentone Tigers, as they prepared for their bid for an A grade premiership to go with their B and C grade flags. He interviewed Beveridge for the piece.

Phoning the coach again the following week, he was in for a surprise when Beveridge challenged him about something he had written.

Perhaps it was the line that the Tigers’ “indifferent late-season form has left some question marks over their ability to maintain a high standard of football in the finals’’ or a reference to “mental scarring’’ that had caused offence. Perhaps it was the inclusion of something Beveridge thought was off the record.

But his words stung Sam, who was sensitive and looked disconsolate when he put down the phone. It was another lesson: in journalism, there are brickbats as well as bouquets.

He quickly patched it up with Beveridge – and a few weeks later, they were talking about the Tigers’ historic premiership.

The following season Sam covered the Casey Cardinia league, so enthusiastically and knowledgeably that after the home-and-away season he could confidently name his team of the year. He was wrong only on two positions.

He went beyond match reports, adding a news element to his coverage – he had one president denying that a dust-up at a boozy social event had created a split in the playing ranks and would derail the club’s season. Any questions he regarded as tough would be followed up with an easy “ha’’ that he hoped would take the sting out of the enquiry. Still, there was tenacity to go with his talent.

Sam also did some player profiles ahead of that year’s draft, zeroing in on a kid from East Kew named Andrew Gaff.

Quite a few of the people he dealt with came to be either trusted contacts – including former Coburg general manager Craig Lees and ex-VFL and VFWL coach Patrick Hill – or longstanding admirers, including former Demon and Dandenong Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats.

His colleagues quickly judged that he had a fine career ahead of him. He could write news and features, accurately and entertainingly. Snappy similes were a speciality. One player “kept popping up like a toaster’’.

Other journalists warmed not only to his work, but his gentle, modest and respectful manner. There was an innate warmth to him.
They could criticise him only for his driving. One day a bunch of reporters were sent out to cover a plane crash in Cheltenham and Sam had four of them slip into his car for the short drive back to the office.

Coming out of a quiet residential street, he gunned his little machine across two lanes of busy Centre Dandenong Rd, forcing other drivers to dive for their brakes. Sent out to cover a serious accident, the reporters were thankful they weren’t in one themselves. “Wow, that was close,’’ Sam said sheepishly.

By 2011, he had a foot in the door at the Herald Sun, writing about the VFL. Port Melbourne won the flag that year, going through undefeated.

“It was the perfect end to the perfect season,’’ Sam kicked off his match report.

“Port Melbourne, challenged by Williamstown as it cut the margin to 15 points at the start of the last quarter, lifted to a gear that not even a side containing 15 AFL-listed players could match.’’

By 2013 Sam was on the Herald Sun staff, winning the Australian Football Media Association’s Clinton Grybas Rising Star Award. Thrill of thrills for him, it was presented by the great Mike Sheahan, whose every word he read.

He also looked up the bylines of other journalists who would become his long-time colleagues: Scott Gullan, Jay Clark, Mark Robinson, Jonny Ralph and Glenn McFarlane. Mark Stevens, a fellow Bulldog, was another favourite.

That year of the Rising Star award, Sam was also a finalist in the Walkley Awards in the “innovation in journalism’’ category for his AFL draft preview series “Pick Me’’, putting a spotlight on the next Gaff.

His former Leader colleagues revelled in his rise and his successes (their congratulations were accepted with a modest “thank you’’).

They have been shattered by his death, grieving the loss of a vital and beautiful young man who had done a lot of fine work, but had much more to do.

They like to think he’s gone off chasing another big story – and is still spreading his wings.
Click to expand...

The 'Spread my/his wings' link right at the end got me...😭
 

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_Cerberus_ said:
Anyone know how much more points the Blues need to win by, than the Hawks, to overtake them on percentage?

Says the Hawks defeat North by 30 points. How much would the Blues need to beat the Saints by to jump ahead of them?

Assuming we manage to beat GWS, percentage could determine whether we face off vs the Hawks or the Blues.
Click to expand...
LOL, check out the post immediately prior to yours ;)
 
Dogs_R_Us said:
Razor Ray’s last game.
Click to expand...
Mary Mary Singing GIF by We TV
 
Melb wearing armbands for Sam?
 
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X_box_X said:
LOL, check out the post immediately prior to yours ;)
Click to expand...
Haha! I actually didn't see it. The last post I saw was the industrial action one, then I immediately went to the bottom and made a post about the margin without reading the rest of the thread. If I read just the one more post, I would have had my answer haha.
 
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No Oppo Supporters Non Bulldog Footy Talk - Bulldogs only - Part 5

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