Browsing All Posts By Athas Zafiris
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Football
How Melbourne Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Soccer (well almost)
“Perhaps only in Melbourne does a brooding, hidebound and monolithic structure of feeling dominate, where other codes are sometimes humoured and usually dismissed as inferior.” – Dr Ian Syson, academic ...
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Australian Rules
Blacks and “Blacked-Up Whites” v Whites: The story of the strangest game of footy ever played
On Monday, June 11, 1900, Melbourne’s The Argus newspaper reported that a charity match was “played between 20 representatives of the Healesville Aboriginal Station and a team selected ...
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Football
Notes on an “Ultra” spectacular A-League Grand Final
The Game The game was no classic. Finals rarely are. Like waiting in the dark room in pre-digital days for a print to develop, we waited for a ...
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Football
10 Anti-Racist Songs for the A-League’s #EraseRacism Round
This weekend, Round 22 of the Hyundai A-League will be played. It has also been named the ‘Erase Racism Round’. According to the media release from All Together ...
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Football 20
How a Coyote explains the defective logic of a Football Bitter
Diving into the world of social media has its positives and its negatives. For every pithy comment of genuine wisdom or link to an illuminating piece, where you ...
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Australian Rules
EXCLUSIVE: Essendon FC’s search for a ‘Capo’ interview tapes
Last week, Essendon Football Club announced the launch of a new product, a first for the AFL, the ‘Active Area’. According to Essendon FC: This exclusive membership area ...
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Football 2
How Melbourne’s newspapers ignored the Asian Cup and let down the Muslim community
A few days ago, on Australia Day, I read this letter in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper. I, too, was lucky enough to have experienced “all the fun and ...
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Pop Culture 2
Never mind the Bublé: 12 Songs for the 12 Days of Christmas
Christmas and popular music, oil and water. Almost every popular music artist, in every genre, under the sun (or in this case the Star of Bethlehem) has a ...
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Football
Socceroos Haiku: Ange Postecoglou Lost in Translation
In a plush hotel room in Osaka, in a steam filled bathroom, a hand reached out and turned off the super jet powered shower. For 30 minutes Ange ...
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Football 1
Fan division after derby demolition: The early evolution of Melbourne City FC
Last weekend’s Melbourne Derby, the first between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City, had AFL media types creaming their pants over the atmosphere, Victory fans gushing like Yosemite geysers ...
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Football 8
Does an insect have a heart? The early evolution of Melbourne City FC
I am still trying to process what I experienced at Melbourne City’s first home game at AAMI Park last Sunday afternoon. Days later, as I’m typing this, the ...
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Football
Ange Postecoglou and the Magic Lamp: How the Socceroos won the Asian Cup
On his final night in Doha, Ange Postecoglou suddenly remembered he had some shopping to do. His mind was still consumed by negative thoughts stemming from two uninspiring ...
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Football 1
Football Songs: The Shoot Farken Top 20
Here at Shoot Farken, we travel to the beat of a different football drum. We are marking the start of the A-League season with a countdown of football ...
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Football
Meet David Squires: Football Cartoon Genius (Accidental Sydney FC Fan)
England’s best performance of the 2014 World Cup wasn’t produced on the pitches in Brazil, where The Three Lions were below average to put it politely. And it ...
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Australian Rules 2
EXCLUSIVE: The crazy match day experience ideas of AFL clubs
Port Adelaide’s approximation of a passionate ‘soccer’ crowd in their pre-game build up (sing iconic song loudly, hold scarf proudly above head) has the AFL in a lather. ...
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Football
Notes from the Ange Underground: The Socceroos v ‘Shoddy’ Arabia
Ange Postecoglou took some notes after this morning’s match against Saudi Arabia at Craven Cottage, London. Thanks to a mole in the Australian camp, Shoot Farken can exclusively ...
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Football
Ça plane pour moi: Ange Postecoglou and the wisdom of Plastic Bertrand
Belgium. Hate the place. Full of smartarses, especially their journos. “You lost your five last games and you play against the fifth best team in the world. Are ...
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Australian Rules 2
Priced out, scheduled out: How the AFL lost 500,000 bums on seats in Melbourne
You’re the biggest act in town, so you’re entitled to a bit of hubris. Your policy of ground rationalisation at the end of the 20th century transformed a ...
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Pop Culture
The Overnighters and 2 Days, 1 Night: How I couldn’t escape the common people at MIFF
Arriving back in Melbourne from the significant distraction and vacation of a World Cup trip to Brazil is akin to standing under a shower with only one tap ...
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Football
World Cup Farken: The USA doesn’t need to win the World Cup, they have already won
The match was over. Team USA had lost to Germany 1-0 but had also won qualification for the knockout phase of the 2014 FIFA World Cup courtesy of ...
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