The Australian Rules season is just around the corner. This means I will be taking my usual pro-Sydney Swans stance from afar of AFL proceedings and watching Norwood’s progress from a view on Cooper’s Hill at the Parade. And also from wherever suitable on numerous suburban away grounds. It’s a sport which can keep everybody interested, whether they are a tactical strategist or just a semi-interested onlooker, through the medium of tipping competitions. Since my arrival in Adelaide in 2005, I have dabbled in doing my best at the tipping competitions in the Norwood hostelries of the Robin Hood and then the Colonist. One year I finished a dizzying second out of thirty-odd tipsters in the Colonist competition to claim a $200 prize and kid myself I genuinely knew something about the ins and outs of the game. I’ll never be an Aussie Rules equivalent to Jose Mourinho but it is good to keep up with teams’ fortunes and try to work out what will happen next. It is a sport which lends itself to the tipping concept, because there are so few draws. As an outsider looking in, the AFL model does have its flaws. No team plays each other twice, which is downright unfair. And there is no threat of the dreaded ‘r’ word — relegation — which adds spice to otherwise meaningless end-of-season games. Yes, I know there is a scramble for finals places but there are still too many ‘dead’ games. And who cares which team finishes last — it just doesn’t matter despite draft picks. Anyway, there is a glorious unpredictability in the games long since missing say, for instance, in the English Premier League on the football front. Plenty of weeks seem to offer potential nine out of nine correct tips only for a complete boilover to arrive out of nowhere. When a visit to the pub to put on the next week’s tips reveals many other punters have correctly forecast such an outcome, it can leave the rest of us baffled. With the Robin Hood and Colonist tipping competitions long gone, I’ve transferred my efforts to the Alma set-up on Magill Road. It’s very well organised. Only $25 to enter and you get a free schooner every week when you put on your tips. Then if you ‘beat the boss’ it’s another free bevvy. A 9/9 outcome means a $20 Alma pizza voucher. This is not a plug. I reckon it’s tremendous value. Alas, so far I have never got close to disturbing the leaders on the ladder but there is the added spice of trying to outdo Gabs Patching and Phil Spence. Phil does not like to see an Englishman beating him at his preferred sport — and rightly so. Last year I had a healthy lead but was overtaken by Phil in the final round of games. A tight finish. And there are also high-profile celebrity tipsters to try and outflank such as the pub’s joint owner and former Crows’ legend Mark Ricciuto. On Friday evenings Mark is sometimes on hand as co-host for the pub’s bingo and free sausage sizzle session. Helping him out on occasions are current playing pair Tex Waker and Rory Sloane, who also have interests in the Alma. Last season they also had Patrick Dangerfield in their ranks but he has flown the Crows’ coop to join Geelong. Many Crows fans, such as Gabs, are mightily upset by this turn of events. But time heals and anyway, things might not work out quite as ‘Danger’ hopes. I recall the most devastating sporting exit of my existence when Alan Shearer left Blackburn Rovers for Newcastle United in the close season of 1996 — just one full year after we had been crowned Premier League champions. It seems like ancient history now, but the desperation among Rovers followers was acute. As in Dangerfield’s case, Shearer was moving to his hometown club so there could be some kind of logical explanation. But what happened after would not have been in Shearer’s thoughts. Even though he scored a heap of goals over plentiful seasons in Geordieland, Shearer ended his career with just one honour — the 94-95 title with Rovers. What if ‘Danger’ never wins an AFL flag with Geelong? And worse, what if the Crows get there first sometime in the coming years? I’m just an interested observer in all this but it will be one of the unfolding factors to ponder as I start filling out my AFL tips over the coming months.
thedaverosecolumn 