RESULTS - Round 9

And so, again, we have a new leader. Bravo to PT on snatching first. He's won the lot before you know. Under the radar is his specialty. And it's highly likely that he too is out of the country right now.

Tony of fourth placed J@TS has proven to be quite right with his statistical analysis of some weeks ago, when he called for more attention to margin.  Our top 4 all share points; it's only the margin between them. Margin has proven Patrick's Achilles heel over in the UK this week. Must be hard to judge the subtleties from so far away. Congrats also to 8 year old Tiger Lucas who has jumped into the Top 10 with his round winning score of 8, Margin 1!! The only 8 of the round - bravo Lucas.  He also had an extraordinary game for the Newtown Swans Under 8s last Saturday. Played the raking halfback with scary aplomb.

I would like to extend special mention to Lyndon too, who has held down that last spot with unshakable conviction since round 3 or thereabouts, when he had his week of missed tips. He too may have been technically robbed, but he continues to put in week after week without any sign of progress. After Round 9, however, he is finally within striking distance. Could Round 10 be the one which takes him over the top of Jack? I for one would be sad to see him surrender the wooden spoon. The Backpocket final siren arvo tea party would dearly miss his scones. They are the stuff of legend. Then again, Jack may have something to offer in that department. 

For any of you who wish to claim technical robbery but have not had the courage of Ian to come forward, let me know what you think you should have scored in your disaster round and we'll keep a manual running tab.

RESULTS - Round 8

It's not my slippage to 7 that has delayed the results from Round 8. No. 7 is a fine number this week, with Lenny Hayes celebrating 250 games. Will the Swans get up for quiet warrior Mattner's 200th the same way the Saints will fight for spiritual leader Lenny's 250th?

But, back to tipping ... and slipping. 4 tipsters recorded a score of 1 this week and suffered dramatic slides. Were these genuine errors on your parts, or do you feel as if you were robbed by some technical voodoo? One esteemed tipster questioned the score of 1 itself - how did one tip get through? If you forget to tip, or do not submit your tips for the round, you will be given all away teams (with a maximum of 5 points). Last week, only one away team, the Crows, were victorious and hence the score of 1.

On the other side of the ledger, there were some spectacular rises. Sally and Syd made it onto Page 1 with scores of 8. And Mark rocketed to 2 with the round topping score of 8 margin 0! And now he too has gone to the UK on Wednesday ... which means 1 and 2 are tipping from Britain. (Do you think Patrick has noticed that he took my number one rank the very week he took off to his two storey Birmingham bachelor pad and left me to two months of single motherhood?) Significant moves also from Melissa, Nigel, Lucas and John. And it may just be a Backpocket first: in his seventh year, I do believe it is the very first time that Richd'mond has entered the Top10. Can he go once better than his beloved Tiges and make it into the Top 8?

RESULTS - Round 7

So they say Round 7 is pretty much an indication of where the teams will sit in (or out) of the top 8 at the end of Round 23. Lucky Round 7!

Which bodes well for Patrick. No sooner has he flown the crest of the earth's surface and landed himself in Birmingham, than he reclaims the top spot. Patrick gives new meaning to 'under the radar'.

As ousted top, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I paid for safety, a position that has never come naturally to me in tipping. Luckily I have someone to blame. My yoga teacher since I was 19, my Guru, my lighthouse, ex champion - Peter - sent me an interesting email during the week: 'Strategically I think its interesting ... leading ... you can afford to take the safe picks and let the others make the mistakes I think ...' I sat down to the tipping page thinking Crows, Bombers (at least!) but turned to the safe options, Cats and Cokesters, Peter's wisdom ringing in my ears. My reward was to spend all of Monday inconsolable that leadership seems to incite timidity, seems to curb creativity.

A huge salute to Richard who, when most of us floundered in the 5 or below category, struck out with a mighty 7, top place in the round and a 10 place hike from 25 to 15. And all on the back of the Tigers' mighty roar against the Swans. 

In other news, Lucas (another Tiger amongst us) jumped 5 to sit in the hallowed 19th spot. He confessed on the way to Under 8s on Saturday morning that he had, however, tipped the Swans. As Patrick rose 3 to the top, Paul fell 3 and out of the top 10.

And now we turn to Indigenous Round, the 30 years in Sydney celebration match for the Swans and ... another week without Goodes. 

BULLETIN - Round 6

thanks to SALLY for the pic

On the way to the footy last Saturday night, I stopped in to change my mobile phone plan. This involved a fair bit of lightning typing from an Under 25, who drew breath only to ask me: 'Do you want me to do a number sequence search on anything in particular?' After looking blankly at her, she explained that she could put any two or three numbers into the computer and it would bring up a handful of available numbers which contained that preferred sequence. And if you didn’t like any of them, it would give you another 5 possibilities. And on and on until you found one you could relate to. '19,' I replied. She typed *19*.

19 is my favourite number. It is the day I was born. I like its almost but not quite nature. I like its graphic asymmetry, its oddness. I like the number of ways you can write both the 1 and the 9. But the full stop to my love of the number 19 is that my all time favourite player – Michael O’Loughlin – wore it on his back.

With my new 919 number in hand,  I dropped the Cygnet and his Dad at gate C of the SCG. The Cygnet was playing at half time with the Under 8 Auskickers. Last time his team had played on the ground they had been forced into the Brisbane Lions colours. Despite admitting that the Lions’ kit was ‘actually pretty comfy,’ the Cygnet was bemused why they, the Newtown Swans, should have to wear the northern colours while the East Sydney Bulldogs got to wear the red and white. But this time, a year on, he leapt from the car, turned back and said – ‘I’ve just worked it out. Maybe they got to wear the red and white because we get to wear it all the time. Fair enough.’ And he slammed the door and waved.

Jumpers are a serious business; there seems to be an inestimable amount of lore that goes on around the assignment and presentation, the retirement and reanimation of the numbers on those synthetic vests. Sydney’s recent past is no exception: the hutzpah of Ben Matthews taking the number 4 once Lockett went into retirement and not offering it back when Lockett came out of retirement; the presentation of the hallowed #14 to Craig ‘he better be good’ Bird; Tadhg Kennelly’s ‘dying’ wish to have Tommy Walsh take over his #17, thereby anointing it an ‘Irish jumper'. And in the big recycling year of 2010 when Barry, Crouch and O’Loughlin’s jumpers were all reallocated after not even a year in the closet, the #19 was conveniently handed to Bradshaw as a ‘goal square jumper’. When the Bradshaw experiment didn’t work out, the #19 resumed its rightful mantle as an ‘Indigenous jumper’, worn now, with great appeal, by Tony Armstrong.

All whimsy aside, jumpers can be a genuinely serious business. Shortly after Liam Jurrah’s arrest in Alice Springs last March, the core of the long running clan dispute was exposed in the mainstream press. As Martin Flanagan explained it: ‘An older player of the Yuendumu Magpies, a stalwart of the side, retired and his guernsey was passed on to a newcomer. Great significance is attached to players' guernseys. When the newcomer to the Yuendumu team fell ill with cancer and died, the belief grew that the player who had formerly worn his guernsey was responsible for his death.’ The jumper was thought to be cursed.

*

Having parked in a nook in Paddo, I walked back towards the ground. It is rare that I walk to the SCG alone. The hotdogs were cooking in the window of the pub on the corner, the broadcast wrapping up the pre-game on the box inside. People had begun to spill into the first chilly night, wrapped in their scarves. An overly coiffed man stepped out in front of me intent on his phone. He wore tailored pants, polished brogues and a striped shirt, somewhat incongruously vested by a Swans guernsey. I trailed him down Moore Park Road. And just before we turned towards the SCG,  I noticed that he was wearing the #14. What? It didn’t feel like a good sign for the contested ball.

It is rare that I am seated in the O’Reilly in time for the warm up. It charms me that no matter what the particular garment – training tee, game day guernsey, player polo, warm up shirt – each player is consistently branded with their very own number. When play kicked off, Smith went to Porplyzia – 40 on 40. It’s an old game we play but it’s rare to get 40 on 40. McVeigh picked up Reilly, 3 on 3; O’Keefe went to Thompson, 5 on 5. We knew we were in for an even contest. 



The game had just about everything – a strong midfield contest, classy displays at both ends of goal. It had crash and bash and runs in space, and a very dynamic score line. It’s rare that Adam Goodes is injured. But it didn’t go unnoticed that when our #37 limped off to the bench, their #37 Ian Callinan kicked the ‘turning point’ goal. As we began to catastrophise Goodes’ substitution into the end of his career, one of the O’Reilly boys suggested that when it does come to an end, they hang up the #37 for 304 and a half games.

It took 14 seasons of football, from the competition’s genesis in 1897 until the finals of 1911, for numbers on the backs of players to be introduced, in part to make players more identifiable to spectators and umpires. But numbered guernseys also coincided with the publication of the first Football Record. How serendipitous then that I was so ensconced in jumper lore the week the Record turned 100.


*

The Cygnet is no stranger to guernsey tales. He went to a superhero party when he still wore size 2 Chesty Bonds. I sewed a white 21 on his back. Yes, it was early 2006! When his cousins gave him his first guernsey – size 4 - he had me masking tape a #9 on its back. It made sense to me that he picked Malceski. The Cygnet was a watchful child, the kind of child that observes before he strikes. But there was something else I admired about his method. Despite the tape surviving many a warm cycle, it allowed the ebbing tides of favour to be accommodated by that little guernsey. When his playing days started he was handed the #16. You can imagine the retrospective relief that he was switched this year to Mattner’s #29 a couple of weeks before the #16 went down with a badly broken leg.

At half time last Saturday the Newtown Swans Under 8s wore plain red. The Cygnet kicked 2 goals 3 and had a tonne of ball in the centre. He returned to our seats, happy and tired and read Winnie-the-Pooh til the final siren.

TIGER DIARY 10.4.12

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photo: hamish blair 

This is your tiger speaking.
Today I would like to talk on the Might of Richmond.
The discussion is about one word that says it all.
Might.
Will this apple be sweet and crisp?
It might be.
Will my favourite band's 11th album be any good?
It might be.
Is it the clutch?
It might be.
Is it infectious? Is it curable? Is it operable?
It might be.
Mighty Richmond.
Are the Swans worried this weekend?
They might be.

RESULTS - Round 6

It's getting harder to leap tall buildings in a single round. Movement was restrained in the Backpocket this week with rises and falls restricted to 2 or 3 spots - all except for Miro who had a relative plummet of 7! Patrick dropped off the top rung and left the country. Two months in Old Blighty will make or break him. He must take confidence in the experience of two of our past champions - Mark and Peter - who claimed their victories in years during which they spent large chunks of the season away.

And who took Patrick's place?

I could act all coy about the top spot. I could dish out the 'Look I've had a good start. I'm happy with a good start but you know, we're in Round 6. It's a long season. My focus is on preparing for this week.' Instead I'll tell you that signing in on Monday morning over brekky, I turned to the Cygnet and Patrick, and I raised one fist in the air.

Five From Five

This week, the sole response from the 25 to 29 group came from the lovely and diligent Ms Sally. Introducing ...

Sal.

Childhood:
Growing up in Sydney's eastern suburbs I was lead to believe that Rugby (by which I mean union, for those who were taught that there was any other kind) was the 'true' football. My father (who was once described by the Sydney Morning Herald sports reporter as Sydney University's 'colourful bearded winger') and brother and every boy I knew at high school played it, at my country university too. Australian Rules was something laughable. Silly haircuts, too-tight shorts.

Leaving home:
Perth, late 90's: no-one laughs at AFL. I was required to decide between two teams. Being Australian I went for the underdog Dockers.
Early '00's Adelaide: I realise not just WA that takes AFL seriously. I make friends who will explain the rules and I start to love spectating (as long as I avoid North Melbourne games cos Wayne Carey makes my skin crawl). I also discover that my grandfather dragged my mother all around the Riverina as a child following the Deniliquin AFL side. He was a staunch Swans supporter having previously played with South Melbourne in his early days. So I became a Swans supporter. It's in the blood.

Adulthood:
South of the Border: In Melbourne being able to talk footy means you can talk to anyone. Even those who hate it will discuss how much they hate it, in informed and often passionate terms. Besides, about half of all media down there is about football, or related to football. If I hadn't loved AFL those seven years within spitting distance of "The 'G" would have been an eternity. 

Parenthood:
Mid 00's I find myself the sole parent to a child who was born for balls and wheels. I am forced out of my armchair view of football and learn to drop punt with enthusiasm and handball with accuracy. I am tested on who footballers are and who they play for and get eyes rolled at me (frequently) when I am wrong. I bring my Tiger Cub to live in Swan territory and find that AFL is no longer such a laughing matter.

Tipping:
For me footy is about the heart, not the head. I tip with my gut. The last couple of years my gut has not come up with the goods (maybe there is a little too much of it these days...)
My rule is that once I tip, i don't change it, not matter how much I want to. I would rather get the tip wrong, than get it wrong and know that i had it right the first time. And I frequently tip against my own team, knowing that when I'm depressed that they have lost, at least I get my tip right. If they win, who cares about tipping?
I would love to win, sure, but I've been at the top of the ladder and it is stressfully precarious up there. There is something comforting about the bottom, you can tip big and know there is really only one way you can go. And it means that when Tiger Lucas bemoans how badly HE is doing, he can't do it too loudly or for too long!

From the Album

Tony of J@TS sent me these superb pictures from the Jardin de Luxembourg last night. Illustrative or contrary?

Five from Five

It seems Nigel has found the winning formula. This morning I am delighted to introduce you to two of the long term O'Reilly boys, James and Ian/Max. 

JAMES

Footy
First encounter Melbourne 1973. Sadly (not sad at the time) the year South Melbourne won the wooden spoon. Wanting to back a winner I supported Carlton. They lost the Grand Final to Richmond that year, which I attended. Along with about 110,000 others (the days of standing room). It was the grand days of Alex Jesaulenko, John Nickols, Geoff Southby, Sergio Silvagni, Robert Walls, Bruce Doull... My support then shifted to Geelong as I shifted to school there but there was little to cheer and few players to remember.  I played in various positions for Geelong Grammar School 1st XVIII alongside David Cordner, who actually went on to play a few unremarkable games for the Swans in 1988. (Just after their glory years of 86 & 87)  I played for Robb College in Armidale and for New England in the NSW Country Championships of 1982 before going on to play for Lismore in the Gold Coast League in 1983. Can safely say was never in danger of being recruited, but loved the game. My nickname, which I'm not proud of, was Knuckles. Ironic of course. Traveling to Europe in 1984 spelled the end of my playing days, retiring aged 21.

Life
The journey in geographical terms: Banz, Papua New Guinea, Melbourne, Geelong, Armidale (NSW), Byron Bay, London, Interlaken (Switzerland), Saalbach (Austria),  Hydra (Greece), Sydney, Bruny Island (Tasmania), Sydney. Now married to the remarkable Lisa Matthews. Two children, named after the places they were conceived: Byron 8, Chloe 6  (Chloe - Clovelly, sort of. There were too many Brontes. There is a fair chance Byron was  conceived in Woy Woy, but couldn't persuade Lisa)

Work
Film and Garden maker.

Hobbies/Interests
Other than cinema and gardening - bushwalking, wilderness photography, cooking, periods in Australian & PNG history.

5 and a Half Favourite players
Michael O'Loughlin, Paul Kelly, Wayne Schwass, Paul Roos, Adam Goodes ... and the half for Byron Middleton, currently Under 9s for the Eastern Suburbs Bullodgs.



IAN/MAX

Footy
A late in life convert, despite having lived on Punt Rd more or less opposite the G in the late 1980s, and all-too-frequently being assailed by Tigers players recruiting members on Swan St. Managed only one visit to VFL Park for a Pies-Hawks clash in 1989. Recruited to the Swans by Dylan Gower and Patrick Nolan in 1999. First game was v Port, round 1 that year: also A. Goodes' debut. Missed one season (2009), partly in disgust at Barry Hall's strike on Brent Staker in 2008,  and partly because of what the Tip Mistress referred to as the 'mouldiness' of the Swans' game plan at the time: stoppage footy at a time when Geelong were rewriting the rules with play on footy. For the record, Hall's captaincy of the 2005 GF team still rankles with me. He shouldn't have been playing.

Life
Married with two daughters (Mia, 8, and Zoe, 4) and a hellish mortgage. Just celebrated tenth wedding anniversary, marked by the emergency removal of my wife, Vanessa's, gallbladder. A night to remember. Converted to Greek Orthodoxy for marriage ('My Big Fat Greek Wedding' is, I assure you all, social realism, not a comedy). I plan on retiring to the Peloponnese with a boat and Foxtel Footy (somehow). And the family. All of them.

Work
Ensconced deep within the ivory towers of a sandstone university, and about to embark upon 12 months of leave. For the past two years a management flunky, I look forward to returning to the less stressful life of a researcher and writer.

Hobbies
I love to sail, particularly on high performance off-shore yachts, but am finding it harder and harder to commit to the long hours required to be of any use on board. The family and a large garden keep me busy on weekends. Am learning guitar with the eight year old, and spend a great deal of time reading.

Players
All time: Wayne Carey. Astounding watching him own the half acre around half forward. He seemed to tower over everyone, projecting an uncanny forcefield. I adore the story a footy-loving friend told me: that Carey loved and lived football so much that he would sing, sotto voce, every opponent's team song when it was played before games. From here it's all Swans . . .
Recent past: I always had a soft spot for Jared Crouch, not least because of the career-long martyrdom involved in his commitment to tagging (viz Akermanis) and grinding stoppage football. His delight in ever getting a kick--usually a wobbly mongrel punt from a scrap on the half back flank collected by the opposing centre half back and precipitating a rebound into 50--was palpable. Tagdh Keneally was amazing, too.
Present. Lewis Jetta is turning into something very special, as are Hannebery and Luke Parker
Debut 2011. Alex Johnson
Future: Jed Lamb

Five from Five

Well, it's 10 points this week for Nigel/Lanternz who was the only Tipster from 18 to 22 to send his profile our way. And what a beauty it is. Meet ...

NIGEL/Lanternz

1. Footy. Living 5 minutes from Glenferrie Oval I became a Hawks supporter in the days of Parkin, Hudson, Lethal Leigh etc. Moved to Adelaide pre AFL and lost interest due to SANFL. Joined Swans early 90's committed to the mission to convert the heathens of Sydney to the one true religion.

2. Life. Serial monogamist, married late in life to a Russian ballerina, now with two boys 11 and 7. Living in rural splendour in the Adelaide Hills.

3. Work. Theatre lighting designer mostly specialising in opera. Working nationally and internationally. The Backpocket's only Tony Award winner.

4. Hobbies. Work and making a very nice Pinot Noir mostly from D5v12 clone grown at my place and made by me in very traditional manner - crushed, de-stemmed, 10% whole bunch,minimal stalk contact, cold soaked, seeded, hot ferment, plunged,pumped and pressed when dry into French Oak, matured on gross lees, low sulphured, racked and home bottled with Diam corks, no fining. Horse might like to use this process with the rookies next year.

5. 5 Favourite players. All time - Paul Kelly. Recent past - Leapin' Leo. Current - Hannebery. Debut 2011 - Alex Johnson. Future - Anton Levings (Carey Gully Swans, aged 7, debut expected 2024).

RESULTS - Round 5

Round 5 - ah, an excellent round. For some. Especially the red and white of us. No matter what your tipping score this week, you have to love that Bloods display of milestone R E S P E C T.

On the tipping ladder this week ... Patrick has resumed the throne. He's been on the tele and the radio all week. Do you think it has something to do with leading the Backpocket? Naturally he's become impossible to live with.

2009 champion, Sharolyn, moved into the Top 5 this week while the J@TS dropped out. Byron Middleton continued his meteoric rise, climbing a further 10 places this week, into the Top 10. Dad, James, is keeping an eye on him from 10th.

Gary may have dropped 2 places overall this week, but he was the only Tipster to have equaled his Round placing - coming 15th in both Rounds 4 and 5. Now there's a mini challenge for those who already feel out of contention.

And while we're on contention, Mark sent me a little email during the week; some very interesting food for thought and/or debate.

'You can't win a tipping comp in the first five weeks. But you can lose it. Is it going out too hard to say that with the 2 point break between the 37s and 35s, that the winner is already in the 37 and over category?'