Far-West Footy

After our loss to Essendon, I felt the urge to speak my heart out on the completion of Port's self-destructing end of season. The link is below. --- https://www.spreaker.com/user/portfanradio/far-west-footy-1-01-season-is-over

Port's season was disappointing and embarrassing, but the club seems to be holding no one accountable for this. Supporters have lost confidence. Is there anything the club might do to restore it? --- I won't take anything from these last couple of weeks. We are in "just end the season" mode. Our morale is in shambles. We are hurt, and it will be a long offseason trying to heal all of our wounds. When you go from 11-4 to 12-9, that's what happens. At the club now, people should be mad, sad, hurt, yelling at each other, all because they care. We failed. We want better. There is no reason to be satisfied. Perhaps, this same exact people could come and do better next year. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be mad now; truth be told. If people IN THE CLUB believe we could have done better, they should be mad, too. They should be holding themselves accountable.  That's what bothers me, really. So far, no one has come forward and apologized....

This is the Match Preview I wrote for the BigFooty Port Adelaide Community. There are times in which the best we can do is to laugh of ourselves... --- PROLOGUE: PARADIGMATIC WILLPOWER I hadn’t no mood whatsoever of any kind to write this preview. Still, I had put my name on the list of previews for this game. Since I am a man of my words, I used my advanced method of self-control-and-imposing-composure to get the job done. I will share my technique with you all. This week, the story went as follows: [GremioPower] There is nothing that is going to make me write the game preview. [Mrs. Power] You have committed yourself to it; now you must do it. [GP] But the commitment was done ages ago. I was full of hope then. I thought I would be reviewing a great season, talking about Finals, making fun of the Bombers; not this crap! [MP] It doesn’t matter. It is your turn to write the game preview. It is responsibility! [USER=152580]AusHorrorStory[/USER] has even ...

" It ain't over until it is over ," they say. Well, sometimes, it is over before it is over. If the four losses in the previous five games weren't evidence enough, the embarrassing defeat against Collingwood closed the case. No finals! Our 2018 has been a failure. Period. --- "Defense wins championships," Port rightly believes; and our club worked hard to become, if not the best, one of the strongest defenses of the league. However, there is a "tiny" detail that might have be forgotten along the way — the whole saying is not limited to Defense. It actually goes like this: "Offense wins games; Defense wins championships." Without offense, a team can't win games; and without winning games, it becomes impossible to win championships! After losing 5 of our last 6 games, with our offense being absent in 4 of those, this has become rather clear. There is no imposing defense able enough to carry a Bottom-6 offense. These last games ...

I concur with Keith Thomas that "the status quo is not acceptable. "There is a hell lot of heart and talent in our club, but we miss the brains and the souls of champions. There is no hard work that will give us that. Unfortunately, I have no answers to solve this; just questions... and a suspect! --- In the preview of our next game, Us against the rest said, at BigFooty : “ This is classic backs to the wall stuff, it's now or never .” However, that will be the fourth consecutive week like that. We have lost the past two! Do we want to win a Premiership going full ‘Rocky Balboa?’ We can play Finals, sure; but for what? We are pretenders. We aren't ready. We won't be ready. It is time to accept that. We are not championship material; and we are probably clueless on why we are not championship material. This has to change! It is OK to doubt about things from time to time. It is healthy, even. During preseason, the club invited members for a convention in ...

You can listen to "Ep.1.01 - Home Alone" on Spreaker , or at the CrowCast website: http://www.aflcrowcast.com/podcasts/other-podcasts/ .

We lost, and it hurts. However, the defeat has inspired me to write. Today, in a long text, I tell why Showdown 45 had all the ingredients of a game for the ages - pure football! I also argue why Port is going to be the AFL Premiers this season. From the pain, it came deep self-belief! Wishful thinking? Most probably, but it would be a very inoffensive one. Still, what if it is not? Our hero’s journey might have just turned the corner… --- From now on, whenever someone asks me “what on hell is Australian football,” I will invite them to watch the Showdown XLV. I know we lost, but the derby had everything: great plays, dumb plays, fights, comebacks, controversies, and a tight finish. The game reminded me of a great short story by a fantastic Argentine writer, Roberto Fontanarrosa, called Viejo con Árbol ( Old man with Tree ) .[1] In the story, an amateur soccer team realizes they have a stranger as a supporter (more or less like Port and me), an old man that always seats und...

Rick Nieuwenhoven, from PortFanRadio, had the audacity to invite me to have a podcast of my own. I had never said "yes," until finding a perfect co-host. It was Thiago Vacite (Colorado and Crow) who came up if the concept for the show, actually. I just told him that it was possible... --- With Rick's consent, I have hosted the "BigFooty Port Adelaide Podcast" for a whole hour before this week's Showdown. Thiago, unfortunately, couldn't make it. So, our "Rivals Without Borders" will have to wait a bit more to debut. For those interested in listening to the show, here is the link: https://www.spreaker.com/user/portfanradio/rivals-without-borders-gremiopowers-show Next week, the first "Rivals Without Borders." Stay tuned!

From now on, Showdowns will never be the same! Two fellow Gaucho-Brazilians from Porto Alegre, archrivals in both soccer and footy, they will meet every midnight  (Adelaide time) , from Friday to Saturday, in a new podcast on Spreaker. Thiago currently lives in the USA, while Paulo resides where Brazil meets Argentina, and they will talk on Australian football. No problem! After all, for those who share the passion (and the humour) of a great South American soccer rivalry, distances simply do not matter. They are "Rivals Without Borders." --- I am going to be on radio! I am co-hosting a footy podcast, "Rivals Without Borders," with my sport nemesis, Thiago Vacite. While I support Grêmio and Port, Thiago barracks for Internacional and West Lakes. Double rivalry! The idea of the show is allowing us sharing our views about anything related to the Showdown — but we may also talk about our experiences with footy, the Grê-Nal derby, and any other su...