My all round curse on the West Coast Eagles

[st.byron]

but I see that you live in Kensington, one of my old stamping grounds

Gee st.byron if it was your old stamping ground 40 years ago....was a rather smelly stamping ground in those day's wasn't it?
When the warm west winds used to blow through that market and abbotior areas it was such a putrid stench. I wonder if the young upwardly mobile who now live in "upmarket Kensington", realise their villas and apartments are built on the smelliest part of Melbourne of days gone by.

I hope the land fill doesn't subside over the years or they will be in deep sh!t. Then again if interest rates continue to rise they possibly will end up there anyway eh

Ah Loris, I didn't actually grow up in Kensington. Grew up in Glen Waverley and when I moved out of home and went to uni, I lived around the inner city for years. Richmond, East Melbourne, Kensington, Collingwood, Fitzroy. Bought my first house in West Footscray, just before they re-named the part I lived in as Kingsville and the property prices went mental.
My brother still lives there. I remember following Waverley in the VFA and catching the train to Yarraville when I was about 10.
For a Glen Waverley boy, the Western side of town really seemed like another planet. Factories, a stink and run down. More heavily industrialised then. No West Gate Bridge either. It was the train or Footscray Rd. I remember looking down my nose at it at age 10. What a little snob!!!
My dear old dad, bless him, from his middle class Glen Waverley heaven, would be mighty surprised to know that both his boys became West Footscray boys and that the little weatherboard cotage I could have bought for $40,000 in 1985 is now fetching about $600,000.

Those villas built on the market site are luvverley and all the smell has gone, I'm sure. The whole area is still prety down at heel though. Last time I went past the Western Oval in 2006, it was still as run down as ever. Didn't Howard promise funding to do it up? I remember going to a WRFL game there in 2005 and it was bloody awful. The ghosts of Charlie Sutton and Ted Whitten would not be happy.

[hilairehinshelwood]

Living in Kensington it is only 20 minutes from the front door to the seat at the Telstra Dome which incidently is the saints home ground now. Beat that that from Moorabin, Frankston let alone Perth.
Living in WA surely you would expect the local media to be biased in favour of the local team, i'm sure it is the same the world over. In Barcelona all things Barca dominate the papers everyday, and fair enough.
You would surely prefer all that AFL coverage in an AFL town, than live in Sydney where AFL's existance is hardly acknowleedged at all?

[joffaboy]

My missus is a born and bred Kingsville girl st.byron.

Couldn't afford to live there now

[Iceman234]

St. B, you'll be pleased to know there are huge works going on at the Whitten Oval at the moment. Looks like a fair size upgrade to facilities.

[st.byron]

My missus is a born and bred Kingsville girl st.byron.

Couldn't afford to live there now

Has she taken her moccies off? There were still quite a few hard core old Footscray people there when I lived there for four years. Rough as guts some of ém, but when we were renovating and without power for three months in the middle of winter, guess who it was bringing cups of tea, cake and home-made pasties up to us every day.

As for the pricing, jaysus, I wish I hadn't sold it. Bought it in the mid-late nineties for $100,000, spent about $70k and sold it for years later for $400+.
Should have kept it. The house across he road about the same as ours was recently on the market for $550k.
I'm buggered if I know how young people can afford a home anywhere within cooee of town.

[st.byron]

St. B, you'll be pleased to know there are huge works going on at the Whitten Oval at the moment. Looks like a fair size upgrade to facilities.

Excellent. Very pleased to hear it. It looked like a garbage dump when I was last there.
Am coming over for the Saints first two games of the year, so will take the opportunity to have a squizz.
Cheers Iceman.

[st.byron]

Living in WA surely you would expect the local media to be biased in favour of the local team, i'm sure it is the same the world over. In Barcelona all things Barca dominate the papers everyday, and fair enough.
You would surely prefer all that AFL coverage in an AFL town, than live in Sydney where AFL's existance is hardly acknowleedged at all?

Shakes head in sadness.....
Hard to grasp though it may be for those of you who don''t live here, WA is without doubt the most one-eyed chip on their shoulder place I've ever been to. The supreme god of WA idolatry is the WCE. I guess you just have to live here for a while to get it.

[Iceman234]

St. B, you'll be pleased to know there are huge works going on at the Whitten Oval at the moment. Looks like a fair size upgrade to facilities.

Excellent. Very pleased to hear it. It looked like a garbage dump when I was last there.
Am coming over for the Saints first two games of the year, so will take the opportunity to have a squizz.
Cheers Iceman.

Probably looks like a bigger dump right now, but at least you'll see something happening.

[joffaboy]

My missus is a born and bred Kingsville girl st.byron.

Couldn't afford to live there now

Has she taken her moccies off? There were still quite a few hard core old Footscray people there when I lived there for four years. Rough as guts some of ém, but when we were renovating and without power for three months in the middle of winter, guess who it was bringing cups of tea, cake and home-made pasties up to us every day.

As for the pricing, jaysus, I wish I hadn't sold it. Bought it in the mid-late nineties for $100,000, spent about $70k and sold it for years later for $400+.
Should have kept it. The house across he road about the same as ours was recently on the market for $550k.
I'm buggered if I know how young people can afford a home anywhere within cooee of town.

lol - we had a double fronted Victorian in Newport in the mid 90's, sold up for $170k and renovated a place in West Footscray but had a psycho neighbour who used to hang over the fence, pissed at 10 in the morning and abuse my 5 and three year old girls, abuse my wife, and threaten me. We had to move before I killed the bitch.

Sold up and moved into an architectally designed 27 square double brick place on 1000 sq metres in Altona Meadows for 200k in 1999.

Wont appreciate like West Footscray but no psycho's and I am not doing time for murder

[Iceman234]

Surely you jest jb.

I walk through the streets of Footscray on an almost daily basis.

Psycho's?

Harsh.

[joffaboy]

Surely you jest jb.

I walk through the streets of Footscray on an almost daily basis.

Psycho's?

Harsh.

lol - Footscray people are the salt of the earth. Some are a bit wonky, but most aren't psycho like this moron bitch.

I like Footscray, love the Vietnamese and the life they have brought into the place, and think the suburb has a undeserved bad reputation.

But as you allude to, quite a few rough types Iceman

[Iceman234]

I love it too jb, has got the best character as long as you don't walk the Mall between 8 am and 8 pm ish.

The character and culture of the area is incredible though.

Ha Long, Nhu Lanh, two of my favorite places.

[st.byron]

lol - we had a double fronted Victorian in Newport in the mid 90's, sold up for $170k and renovated a place in West Footscray but had a psycho neighbour who used to hang over the fence, pissed at 10 in the morning and abuse my 5 and three year old girls, abuse my wife, and threaten me. We had to move before I killed the bitch.

Sold up and moved into an architectally designed 27 square double brick place on 1000 sq metres in Altona Meadows for 200k in 1999.

Wont appreciate like West Footscray but no psycho's and I am not doing time for murder

Even so, you'd still be doing nicely enough in Altona. I had a look on realestate.com last week and there was a house in Empress Ave.Kingsville for $800,000. Bloody hell!!!
I'll put money down though that Gus and Lyn are still in Chirnside St near where I used to live, and their simple daughter Jackie.
They all wear their moccies down to the newly trendy Seddon shops for a loaf of Sunicrust, a packet of Holiday 50's and the Herald Sun. Bless ém.
Probably best not to do time for murder, so wise choice. You wouldn't be able to go to the Dome on Friday nights.

[Iceman234]

St. B, try getting a park anywhere near that new yuppie area they call Pier Street, Altona, these days....

jb will be going ok down there

[st.byron]

St. B, try getting a park anywhere near that new yuppie area they call Pier Street, Altona, these days....

jb will be going ok down there

Millionaires row isn't it along the waterfront there.?

[loris]

Glen Waverley boy eh st byron? Not far from my years as a child/teen. Glen Waverley was mainly market gardens in my youth. Most sundays we would ride our bikes from Ashwood (then known as Jordanville) and raid the market gardens at Glen Waverley.

However, I have an iffinity with the Western Suburbs as well. My late husband was a Yarraville boy. As a child only knowing the Eastern & Southern suburbs I thought the Western suburbs were the pits. My only exposure was - going by train to the footy at the Western Oval or the long drive on the back of dad's truck to the footy at Kardina Park. It was only a single lane highway in them there days and the Saints usually lost so the drive home was bl@@dy terrible

Then in my adult years I got to know Yarraville, Footscray and St Albans. It was a real revelation......... real salt of the earth people............ and I just adored the streetscapes............... wide streets, timber houses, painted like young teenage girls or prostitutes using a heavy hand putting their make up on to make themselves presentable or so they thought.

Every time I'm in Melbourne one place I always go for a wander around is Footscray. The smell, buzz of the place is so evocative of what suburban life was like of so many years ago even if the racial mix has changed considerably.
A friend of mine has his studio (he is a artist/painter) in Footscray. The neighbour on one side is a woman in her 90's who has lived there since she was born 1916/7 and brings him in a 'cup of tea and a scone' each morning he is there. On the other side is a Vietnamese family
who often 'frog march' him down to their restaurant for lunch at their noodle bar. The rear of his studio is a house owned by Italians who have lived their since the 1950's. They always give John bottles of pureed tomatoes when they do their big tomato cook ups. Also bottles of their grappas. Yes I know people have people of different ethnic backgrounds living around them these days in suburbs............ but sadly most don't or rarely speak to their neighbours today as they lock themselves away in their little or not so little brick veneers. Nah all too busy to get to know or understand the neighbours. But Footsiscray seems to be one such place where people know and still interact with each other..........aaaaah I love it!

[bigcarl]

A vile, foul and most evil pox upon the West Coast Eagles and all those who support them.
May their club rooms and training facilities burn to the ground and their insurance payments have been overlooked.
May their coach be rendered suddenly speechless an hour before the start of Round 1 and remain so until the end of the season.
May their key players suffer bizarre season-ending injuries whilst gardening, shopping and smiling for pictures with fans.
May they lose numerous games at Subiaco, by one point, after the siren, due to dubious umpiring decisions.
May Daniel Kerr be caught red-handed for a serious offence and be suspended for 16 weeks. May he appeal and have his sentence increased.
May their social club facilities be the source of a mysterious and repugnant virus that requires it to be closed down.
May their investments go belly up and their source of funds from grass roots WA football dry up due to their atrocious reputation.
May their smug, self-assured, scarf-wearing, car flag waving, WCE rug carrying members be refused entry to Subiaco en masse due to a major technical fault at the gate.
May Phatpryck Smith and Caro dance on their loathsome, rancorous grave.
May they finish stone motherless last with zero wins and 13 fit players to choose from.
May they be torn apart by internal strife, bankrupt and exposed as drug dealers.
May a malevolent, corrupt, heinous, depraved stink be upon and around them, their supporters and their facilities for the entire year.

what a sledge.

i presume you are joking. i thought it was very funny

[st.byron]

Jesus Loris, you bring up some memories of being a young fella.
When I moved to Glen Waverley I was six and we lived right near Gallaghers Rd. The other side from us was just orchards and market gardens all the way to the Dandenongs. Don't know if you know Gallaghers Rd. ( the one with the Police Academy at the top), but it was just a one lane track overhung all along with gum trees when I was a tacker.
Jordanville was the seat of terror when I was a teenager. Going to the footy meant catching the train to Richmond or Flinders St at least and that meant going through Jordanville and Holmesglen. The Jordanville sharps and the Holmesglen skinheads were widely feared and with good reason. They had a habit of cruising up and down the train line picking on people as they saw fit.

My brother still lives in West Footscray and he loves it there. He's got just the kind of neighbours you talk about. Once he went away for a week and when he came back, his old Italian neighbour had cut the grass, done the weeding and cleaned out the laundry of all the crap Steve had been hoarding there. He said he did it because it looked untidy.
Footiscray, compradi di Franco Cozzo.

[evertonfc]

I'm hanging out to buy in Footscray at the exact moments the planets align: the new station gets completed, interest rates drop and the market rises slam into a brick wall.

I love the inner west. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Fair dinkum, I couldn't do anything east of Marine Pde. Too far from Yim Yam.

[st.byron]

I'm hanging out to buy in Footscray at the exact moments the planets align: the new station gets completed, interest rates drop and the market rises slam into a brick wall.

I love the inner west. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Fair dinkum, I couldn't do anything east of Marine Pde. Too far from Yim Yam.

It's so close to town Everton. Used to ride my bike to work in town from Kingsville and it was quicker than train or car. Only drawback is the air quality is not the best, especially around Francis St. and Somerville Rd.
^kms as the crow flies from Seddon station to the GPO.

[st.byron]

[
what a sledge.

i presume you are joking. i thought it was very funny

cheers Carl. It was a joke, sort of. Whilst I don't wish major personal injury or hardship on anyone, I wouldn't mind at all if a lot of sh*t came the WCE way. I would love to see them come apart at the seams and have the smug cockiness wiped of their faces. Starting with Worsfold.