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Redleg
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ORANGE AND CHARCOAL - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club

Preface

The Second Global Financial Crisis which began in 2013 wiped out six European countries, Venezuela, the Ivory Coast, a handful of Arab oil sheikdoms and most of Russia's oligarchs. It brought an end to the Internet, lifestyle television programming and Zumba.

Among its victims in Australia was the national icon Vegemite which went out of production after 91 years, the Big Bash League and nine AFL clubs including two recently formed franchises which were placed into liquidation when the much vaunted television rights deal collapsed. Several members of the AFL hierarchy resigned and went into hiding amid rumoured sightings in various parts of the world of the former league CEO who had been on the run since the infamous "Pendlebury" incident.

The surviving AFL clubs - those fortunate enough to be debt free when GFC2 hit - completed the season and thrived in the boom years that were to follow but the Greater Western Sydney Giants sank into oblivion.

At the Rooty Hill RSL where a wake was held for the now defunct Giants, ten of the club's staunchest supporters attended to mourn the passing of the competition's least successful team which survived to make only 39 appearances for no wins in a brief history wracked with scandal and controversy.

Only one former player was in attendance but this was merely a coincidence on account of the fact that he now found employment as a food waiter at the RSL club. The function's organisers had catered for 200 guests so they were grateful for the attendance of the Giants' former interstate recruiting scout who single-handedly managed to polish off the lavish spread of finger foods, prawns, cold meats and several banana fritters for dessert before attacking the other more substantial foodstuff on offer in the club's lounge area.

At one stage during proceedings, Snowy O'Toole, a diehard fan stood up. It was said that Snowy, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, was an addict who got high from sniffing avgas but he was much loved by the Giant faithful and he hardly missed a single game, home or away. Now he rose to exclaim at the top of his voice,

"Let's sing the club song once more for old time's sake!"

The remaining faithful looked at him, heads swaying in a downcast manner. None of them knew the words or the tune, not even Snowy, so they drank a toast to the bloke whose name nobody could recall but who coached the team through seven rounds of the first season before the sackings took place. Then they sat around tearfully exchanging stories of the past including that glorious day in 2012 when their boys outscored Port Adelaide in the third quarter of their round 19 fixture at Skoda Stadium.

They were the real supporters of the GWS Giants and the fact that at least four of these loyal and true men and women reside today at the pleasure of the NSW prisons and corrective services department has not deterred me from dedicating this volume to them.

Now proceed to Chapter 1 on post # 1512 above.

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    It's funny the dislike of this new team and I don't even put it down to T$. I like the GC Suns and have even adopted them as my second team. I think it is just the professionalism and the people who are in charge of GC that makes the difference. They show a sensitivity to the difficulties of setting up a new club and the taking of existing team's players that GWS don't.

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    Has anyone seen Moneyball? Don't put off seeing this film if you haven't yet (I'm usually not a Brad Pitt fan) ... it's brilliant.

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    It's funny the dislike of this new team and I don't even put it down to T$. I like the GC Suns and have even adopted them as my second team. I think it is just the professionalism and the people who are in charge of GC that makes the difference. They show a sensitivity to the difficulties of setting up a new club and the taking of existing team's players that GWS don't.
    GWS feels that it needs show biz hype and pizzazz to entertain and bring in the Sydney theatregoers but they've got it all wrong.

    The western suburbs are very different to the caffe latte set that inhabit the so called "better parts" of town.

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    Thanks to George on the Outer and Deeman for the foreword:-

    ORANGE AND CHARCOAL - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club

    Foreword

                                     

    “The truth is out there”.  

    Who said that?  

    Was it Fox Mulder or his accomplice Dana Something?

    You too are about to discover the truth in this enthralling inside story of the Greater Western Sydney football team, its history, its foundation and the tragedies that subsequently led to its demise.

    Whispering Jack takes the reader through the few highlights and many of the  lowlights.  He traces the defection of three of the club's players before its debut game in Launceston, the unsolved mystery disappearance of the aircraft returning from the match and carrying half the team just two days later and the dramatic final days of the club in the wake of the collapse of the world economy.  

    Were Martians responsible for the loss of that ill-fated aircraft?  

    The coach had certainly made reference to seeing them in the past and Fred Valentich had disappeared under similar circumstances over Bass Strait years before….. 

    But this wasn’t the only disappearance.  What happened to the TV footage of those early games? 

    Is there truth in the rumour that the missing flight was a desperate ploy by a number of players who chose to defect to North Korea rather than to face hostile home town fans after a record NAB Cup defeat?

    And what of the lost millions of AFL money, prawns in batter, banana fritters and doughnuts that simultaneously went missing in Blacktown?

    Contained within these pages is the truth.  It is for you, the reader, to fill in the gaps but, before doing so, consider some previous advice given to my good friend Kim-Jong-Il and his glorious successor son, and former GWS number one ticketholder Kim-Jong-Un.

    “Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say”.

    Never before in the annals of Australian literature has there been an historical narrative dealing with sport so stirringly and emotionally recounted than Orange & Charcoal - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club. In it, you will surely discover the truth about the enigma that was the Greater Western Sydney Football Franchise Club.

    Sir Les Pattinson FMD as told to Mohammed Saeed-al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister.

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    He might have done that.

    I have it on good authority that he recently arrived in a banana republic.

    Heaven without the stick!

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    Soccer never ceases to amaze me.

    Victory have sacked their second coach in less than 12 months.

    Sacking Ernie amazed me after he won the Flag twice.

    The management at the Victory is something else.

    Who would want the job even when you win flags they give you the boot.

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    Soccer never ceases to amaze me.

    Victory have sacked their second coach in less than 12 months.

    Sacking Ernie amazed me after he won the Flag twice.

    The management at the Victory is something else.

    Who would want the job even when you win flags they give you the boot.

    And to replace him, albeit for the time being, with Kevin Muscat? Is he the most hated sportsperson? If not...........he sure is mine!

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    Soccer never ceases to amaze me.

    Victory have sacked their second coach in less than 12 months.

    Sacking Ernie amazed me after he won the Flag twice.

    The management at the Victory is something else.

    Who would want the job even when you win flags they give you the boot.

    How did they sack him? By phone or email?

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    How did they sack him? By phone or email?

    Knowing the A-League, could well have been sky-writer.

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    (I'm usually not a Brad Pitt fan)

    2011 Moneyball

    2011 The Tree of Life

    2009 Inglourious Basterds

    2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    2008 Burn After Reading

    2007 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

    2001 Ocean's Eleven

    2001 Spy Game

    2000 Snatch.

    1999 Fight Club

    1997 The Devil's Own

    1996 Sleepers

    1995 Twelve Monkeys

    1995 Se7en

    1994 Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

    surely you jest

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    Watching the cricket before (as you do on a balmy day by the sea shore) and wasn't it another selfless team act on the part of Michael Clarke to take himself off whilst on a roll in favour of the new ball bowlers? I reckon taking Tendulkar's wicket secured him the MOM for the test.

    I reckon it was stitched up well before that WJ?

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    2011 Moneyball

    2011 The Tree of Life

    2009 Inglourious Basterds

    2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    2008 Burn After Reading

    2007 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

    2001 Ocean's Eleven

    2001 Spy Game

    2000 Snatch.

    1999 Fight Club

    1997 The Devil's Own

    1996 Sleepers

    1995 Twelve Monkeys

    1995 Se7en

    1994 Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

    surely you jest

    Add Kalifornia to that list. Pitt is one of those actors who was at a disadvantage for having good looks - people tended to focus on that aspect and overlook his undoubted talent as an actor who, like Depp, is willing to put himself out on a limb by taking difficult roles in non-mainstream films.

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    What about "Meet Joe Black"

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