Now is the winter of our full intent

Tim Boyle June. Saturday morning. It's a time of natural lament for an aging footballer. Things are going to get worse before they improve. The football season is beginning to look long, and sound tired.

Brent Reilly's out-of-body experience

Tim Boyle After hearing this week that Adelaide Footballer Brent Reilly was planning to retire, I typed his name into Google. It led to a profile on Wikipedia.

Should we be accountable for having fun?

Tim Boyle The implications of the professional game work their way to the park level.

Free agency proves loyalty is overrated in football

Tim Boyle It's familiarity, more than loyalty, that makes a player want to stay at a football club. If he says he wants to be "a one-club player", he can either not be bothered with the change of scenery, or...

For some grand final hopefuls, it won't be all about the team

Tim Boyle Any player who says during grand final week, "It's all about the team", is either a certainty to be playing in the game, or employing the appropriate rhetoric because he understands it's undignified...

Bearing up when theatrics is not theatre

Tim Boyle John Gibbard, who created the mascots for the Essendon and North Melbourne football clubs, first learned to dance at the May Downs Studio in the city when he was a boy.

Brad Sewell ready for milestone match

Tim Boyle Ahead of his 200th game on Friday, Brad Sewell acknowledges that this week he is entering a flashpoint in his career.

Pre-packed confession and redemption - and we all feel cleansed after it

Tim Boyle In what feels a lifetime ago, on an average training day at Glenferrie Oval, the football operations man called the Hawthorn players into a private meeting, looking terribly worked up about something.

AFL

Ballad of the fellow traveller

Tim Boyle It is now common in sport for abstract nouns such as ''depression'' and ''anxiety'' to be used to summarise the feelings of retirement, or the cause of retirement itself, as happened with Mitch...

AFL

Lance Franklin, a Buddy remembered

Tim Boyle I recall something about Lance Franklin that I consider an informative event, not about myself but about celebrity, and the enigmatic Sydney hero, Buddy.

AFL

Fishing for a simple taste of Melbourne

Tim Boyle If I could ever write a biography of Melbourne it would begin in April.

AFL

Off-season talk cheap as time arrives to put foot on the gas

Tim Boyle Football has materialised through the Melbourne heat like a quiver on a desert horizon.

AFL

Capper has his highs and lows

Tim Boyle The flamboyant showman's stage act offers entertainment for the boys, at a price.

AFL

Timothy Boyle: Hawks draw inspiration from the life of Nelson Mandela

Tim Boyle Hawthorn players visit South Africa and draw inspiration from the life and suffering of Nelson Mandela.

AFL

Pull the strings

Tim Boyle The AFL draft may be the start of an uplifting journey but, while the wind is fickle, the earth is patient.

AFL

The Sting in football's tale

Tim Boyle Be you celebrity footballer or over-hyped musician, it pays to remember it's a big world out there.

AFL

Immersed in glory of a magic minute

Tim Boyle For 60 seconds after the siren sounds, all worldly woes are eclipsed by the wonder of this win.

AFL

Brown and gold crazy love in the MCG outer

Tim Boyle The predominantly Hawthorn crowd was in free fall, salivating within the grasp of victory.

AFL

Geelong tunes up for the Hawks

Tim Boyle Just what is it about those Cats? They look different and they even play different.

AFL

Sterility passes to debauchery

Tim Boyle Ashen-faced Mad Monday critics can never address the issue of young men living in a bubble.