What is The Footy Almanac?
The Footy Almanac is a reader-written publishing community built around Australian-rules football: “a writing and reading community, which offers anyone who wants to have a crack at writing … a place to publish”. It is coordinated by the writer John Harms with a small, part-time editorial team, and publishes books alongside the site.[1] [2]
What does it cover?
Australian football first — match reports, memoir, history and opinion — but also cricket, golf, rugby league, soccer, basketball, racing, music and poetry. The site publishes around thirty pieces a week across those subjects and holds an archive of nearly 30,000 stories, and it still publishes books and offers paid memberships.[2]
What is its reach and standing?
There is no audited figure; the site’s own measures are its cadence (about thirty pieces a week) and its archive (nearly 30,000 stories). Its standing is literary rather than journalistic — it is where the sport’s writers, from newspaper columnists to first-time contributors, publish long-form work that the daily press does not run — and it is funded by members and readers, with no betting or league ownership.[1] [2]
Since when?
The online archive begins on 19 March 2009 and has run without interruption since. The site itself does not state a founding date or a legal publisher — the contact for membership is Harms himself.[1] [3]
Why does it matter in Australian football?
Because it documents the game from the stands and the suburbs as well as from the press box, continuously, for more than sixteen years. A reference to a player in the Almanac is not a news citation; it is evidence of standing in the sport’s own literary culture, which for Australian football is unusually rich.[2] [3]
References
- The Footy Almanac — About us. Accessed September 2026.
- The Footy Almanac — Our editors. Accessed September 2026.
- The Footy Almanac — March 2009 archive (first posts). Accessed September 2026.