Pages

Saturday, 8 March 2008

The Weekender: Any Canberran can write.

Got something to say on football?



Not much football in the Canberra Times. Certainly never any discussing the games, the personalities, tactics, strategies or issues surrounding our game, our town.

And Tim Gavel on ABC Grandstand rarely has time to discuss football, let alone soccer. So I thought it was time to introduce 600 weeekend words on Canberra or Australia football. A longer blog. Pictures welcome. (The normal rules of decency apply. And if you don't know them don't write in!)

And I will throw the spot, The Weekender, open to any Canberran who wants to write about football, an occasional piece.

Junior football, local football, your club, Australian, Australian football, Socceroos, Matildas. Here's your chance to get it off your chest. And it doesn't have to be of ANU standard. Is mine:)

That way when you open the Canberra Times or listen to ABC Grandstand and once again amaze yourself at how with 17,000 registrations in town they can virtually ignore the game, you'll have somewhere to go to read about your game, our game.

Readership of this blog continues to grow, so why not take advantage of our growing football readership and get your thoughts on football out to a wider audience.

I'm happy to start coz I thought of it just now, and if you, or you know someone who would like to write or has something to say get them to post it in by Friday 5pm. I'm happy to edit it.

Good luck.

5 comments:

Paul said...

great initiative! might think about a guest entry on this if I come up with something decent (if only south melbourne opted to play the ais up there, could do a litte travelogue piece).

have you seen my mate's online soccer magazine? i like your stuff, even if i don't necessarily agree with your slant, so if you can come up with something half-decent my mate would love to have a look.

possibly a piece on how poorly Canberran football gets treated by the media there, or on their exclusion from the nsw leagues? i;m sure you could up with something for it :)

http://www.vulgar.com.au/libero/das.html

Eamonn said...

Good on your Paul, keep us in mind when you just want to say something. Look forward to it.

and what do you not likeabout my slant:) not concerned just curious.

and I have seen the vulgar site, looks good if a little all over the place at the moment.

Paul said...

i guess it's that despite your annoyance at Canberra's exclusion from the greater scheme of things, chances are that eventually there'll be a way in again, either to the nsw leagues or to the a-league. in other words, you're on the way up.

from my side of the fence, i feel excluded from the way things are going now, both practically and ideologically. people say it's for the best, and that may well be so, but seeing some of the early results of what some have called 'draining the pond', it's left a bitter taste in the mouth which is not easy to get rid of.

it's all a matter of perspective, ya know?

Eamonn said...

Paul I can understand the pain and that of many other devotees of the old NSL clubs.

I'm not sure where you can sneak in, seems like the FFA won't even risk an FA Cup style comp.

Given all the problems we had with the NSL, I'm loving what we've got now, and Canberra are on the way up, eventually you are right.

For you guys, is the VPL is as good as it gets?

Guess I'd be bitter if I'd put so much into my football my team only to see it miss the boat.

Hadn't really thought of it from a fan's perspective, only from the good of the total game.

Paul said...

it's something that plays on the mind constantly eamonn, but there's not much we can do. our own worst enemy here is our own federation who are this close to being criminally negligent in how they run the local scene.

in my opinion, the a-league is merely another step in that ideological direction that the game is more important than the clubs (same as in afl).

is there a happy middle? despite all the thought i've given it, i still don't know. how far can 'the good of the game' go without getting the urge to dismantle its roots and forge a new identity based on the spectacle and not on victory? how far can winning at all costs go before the game suffers undoable damage by the constant need to be no.1, and living beyond your means to do it?


it's given me a few ideas for a couple of articles, we'll see what comes out of it, i have a lot of unfinished ideas and not enough time :)