DISQUS

Tofu Notes: A fine piece of footy journalism

  • Wah · 7 months ago
    You don't often get the sort of romanticism or wit with football writing as you do with cricket. Cricket match reports are joy to behold when written by the likes of Mike Coward, Peter Roebuck or Jonathan Agnew.
    There's a few blokes who spin a good football yarn like John Harmes, Martin Flanagain, Tim Lane and Gerard Whateley, but that mostly in essay mould rather than general news.
    A lot of football writing is mostly opinion and generally negative - though it was nice to see Mike Sheehan have a nice positive story about Geelong's Travis Varcoe in the Herald Sun today.
  • Toaf · 7 months ago
    Yeah, there's definitely a folkloric element to cricket writing, all that history. That comes through in some footy writing, too, but not much of it is in the mainstream. I'm a bit of a fan of Mike Sheahan, actually, except when he's being silly. And there were some beaut storied by other writers in the Inside Footy, including a ripper about how the "bottom six" players, i.e. the unheralded, quite performers, at St Kilda hold a key to the club's success. Enjoyable stuff.
  • bbp · 7 months ago
    Wouldn’t see this eloquence in the bum sniffing.
    I do get tired of hearing expert commentary that contradicts itself on a weekly basis. if a team manages to scrape a couple of wins, or win one they weren't expected to, the clichés get trotted out: "giant killers", "premiership contenders". At least Peter Fitzsimons admits that he is prone to hypocrisy caused by the fervour of sporting fanaticism. He also gets excited when sportspeople use plain, honest language instead of their array of pre-formulated responses. I appreciate that. I agree with Wah about the cricket commentators, too.
  • Toaf · 7 months ago
    Yeah, the pre-formulate cliched shite is the worst. At least Inside Footy stays away from that.

    (Hey, I'm glad you read this one. I was half expecting a response along the lines of, "Cleary sees Cousins, gets wood.")
  • Wah · 7 months ago
    I haven't read Fitzsimon's rugby stuff, but I have a book he wrote about the WWII fighting in Tobruk which is beautifully written.
    I get excitied by players who use honest language, which is why I always liked Jason Akermanis.
  • Toaf · 7 months ago
    Bugger. I like Aker for the same reason. That makes two Aker fans out there.
  • bbp · 7 months ago
    groupthink.