www.realfooty.com.au

www.realfooty.com.au

  • Brought to you by:
  • The Age
  • WAtoday
  • The Sydney Morning Herald
  • Brisbane Times

About Tim Lane

About Tim Lane

Tim Lane is one of the most admired and respected sports commentators in Australia. A former veteran with the ABC, Lane is now a key component of Channel 10's AFL coverage and his much-awaited columns appear every Saturday in The Age. Lane grew up in Tasmania and is a strong supporter of having an AFL presence in the Apple Isle.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

History shows there's nothing new in obsession with youth

The species known as "grey-speckled AFL coach" has been placed on the endangered list.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Swans' main man should say what he really thinks

For the good of the game, Paul Roos should share his views on a second Sydney team.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sternest test for players still to come

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson delivered the latest results from the league's illicit drug-testing program last week and, for now, the heat has subsided from this issue.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Morris, Hands' Hall of Fame entry is poignant

As a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame selection committee, I'm inclined to the Oscar Wilde view - the one thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

As Blues may discover, it's good to go back

So the old, dark Navy Blues want to go back to the future.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Merger should not be a dirty word

The possibility of renewed life in Melbourne under a newly formed identity strikes me as a better outcome for supporters of a club than to have it relocated.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Time for those at the top to show leadership

Jeff Kennett's playing to the public gallery on the matter of umpiring revives memories of the day when he shovelled sand on a group of television cameramen.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Buckley's hope of an easy decision

In this case, Collingwood is simply a victim of circumstance, but that won't make its predicament any less uncomfortable.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Shinboner spirit being tested like never before

THE story of the Kangaroos and the rubber chicken is one of many parts. In sheer football terms, the outcome is clear — major distraction and serious trouble for the team. The Roos' coach, Dean Laidley, said during the week he expected his club would be unsettled by the event for some time. This is one setback that cannot easily be turned around by a coach to his team's ultimate advantage. The Kangas' form today will be fascinating to observe.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Fremantle's culture of failure

The formation of new clubs over the past 20 years has provided an opportunity to study the development of football club culture, if it exists, from birth.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Quantity not quality the key to TV billions

The AFL and those for whom it puts on the show will be happy when the 18th club is also in place and normal scheduling resumes.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Pre-season can have a role in preserving game's identity

Tim Lane Perhaos the annual debate about the worth of the AFL pre-season competition can now be distilled to one eternal, but simple question: is it good for football?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Players must take responsibility

I'm totally confused and I expect that, if you've been following the Nick Maxwell case, you are too.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Cousins' shamefully harsh sentence

The game's treatment of the former Eagle is lacking in compassion.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Future looks grim for this pair of miscreants

No pair of miscreants could be more dissimilar, yet the headlines each has created are linked by a common thread.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Beware, a monster is at large

The two-headed monster that was the AFL's drugs policy is growing. It suddenly has a third head and another mutated appendage. As well as a performance-enhancing drugs policy and an illicit drugs policy, there's now a Ben Cousins policy.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Geelong's fall all the more mighty for its rise

It was an extraordinary grand final at the end of what, it has to be said, was an otherwise ordinary finals series.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Geelong left to solve 'G mystery

How does a team win so many games, then lose the one that counts? How does it eclipse so many modern-day scoring records, only for its attacking structure to melt down on the biggest occasion?

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Tribunal's double standards

AFL Tribunal 'comedy festival' no joke

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Counting the cost of AFL expansion

The triumph of the traditional is complete. For the first time in eight years, the grand final is to be all-Victorian.