![]() |
Anti-Football League | |
| Home « Special Projects « Anti-Football League | ||
Thanks to everyone who attended the unofficial Anti-Football League lunch on grand final day at the North Fitzroy Star Hotel. Just over twenty people was an impressive turn out for an event with so little advertising.
See also: Chris Short's Anti-Football Lunch & Games page.
Please watch the official Anti-Football League web site for news about what might happen in September 2010.
I only took 3 photos at the 2009 lunch, and one of them is blurred due to a wrong flash setting. The first two photos are of Chris and his friends involved in intense board games. The last picture shows James, Tim, Les and John relaxing and not discussing football. Chris has some additional photos of the games activity on his antifootball Flikr page.
Lunch at the North Fitzroy Star Hotel on Grand Final day 2008. Jack Dunstan announces the winner of the Wilkie Award is cartoonist Miachel Leunig. Michael was overseas on the day and his gracious acceptance speech was read out by Jack. Donna wins the first door prize of some vintage bottles of wine. Greg wins second prize, a newer bottle of wine and some square anti-football furry dangling dice. The strange poses with the dice are the results of an attempt to simulate famous propaganda style photos, the last one being frighteningly good. The final picture is Keith asking us to thank Jack for organising the event.
Lunch at a winery in the Yarra Valley. This is the first Anti-Football League meeting in 11 years and marks the return of the league under the direction of the new secretary Jack Dunstan, grandson of founder Keith Dunstan.
![]() |
Who wants a football-free grand final day? |
| The official Victorian Anti-Football League (AFL) which was founded and run by Keith Dunstan expired quietly in the late 1990s. In 1997 I rang the St. John's Homes Children's Foundation in Canterbury and spoke to the chap who held the merchandise for the AFL. He explained that Keith Dunstan had retired and he presumed that the AFL had ceased to exist. I wrote to Keith via The Age newspaper and asked him to find some suitable personality to keep the AFL alive, but I never received a reply. In the mid 90s the AFL organised some wonderful football-free social events for grand final day at Stoniers winery in Shoreham. Keith and Peter Russell-Clarke spoke to the assembled league during a delicious lunch while lovely lady models showed us hats, hair braids, bras and accessories made out of footballs. I sadly miss those grand final football-free events organised by the AFL, and in their absence I would love to find other people interested in participating in a casual grand final day social event where all sports radio reception is banned.and football shall not be discussed within 15 metres. If you're interested in participating in a casual football-free social event on grand final day, please get in touch with Greg Keogh (see Contact Information). We can't hope to organise big events like the AFL did, but perhaps we can still gather enough like-minded people together to meet at a restaurant or winery for a jolly lunch while the tribal warfare rages over the grand final on "that day in September". To prove I really was a member of the AFL, here is my 1995 membership certificate (click to pop-up an enlargement): |
|