Best of the Best

The Brownlow Medal is Australian Football's most coveted award. Since its creation in 1924, struck to commemorate the life's work of the administrator Charles Brownlow, it has been won by the greats of the game.

On the Monday night of AFL Grand Final week, some 27 weeks away, this year’s best player, as voted by the AFL match day umpires will be announced. For those who follow the award show, it can be hard to remember the many stand out performances of the season, let alone who played well back in round 5.

The solution? Our team of footy lovers have created an iPhone app that records which players get your vote for best on ground, for every game and round of the 2011 season. You can track your votes against the experts and at the end of the season; see how close you were to the decision of the umpires.

Thank you to our dedicated digital team for their great idea and quick work to get it ready for the beginning of the season. An update for the app is being worked on, and we welcome your feedback

The app is free of charge and available to download from the itunes store now.

Highlights of a Season

The 2010 AFL Annual Report arrived back from the printer late last week and has been distributed to AFL clubs and stake-holders.

The AFL Annual Report is a key publication produced by the Slattery Media Group on behalf of the Australian Football League each year.

Writing in the AFL's Annual Report, Mike Fitzpatrick, Chairman of the AFL said "attendances, club membership, television and radio audiences, and digital media traffic maintained the AFL’s standing as the most popular sports competition in Australia and, in terms of average crowds per game, the third most-attended domestic league in the world,"

The annual report also showed the game was in exceedingly good health in 2010, with:

• a record number of people attending games from the pre-season through to the finals – 7,470,606.
• an average crowd per game of 36,908 making the AFL the third most-attended professional sports competition in the world, behind America's National Football League and Germany's Bundesliga.
• the audience numbers for the Toyota AFL Grand Final and Grand Final Replay, 3,639,971 and 3,522,652 respectively, which made them the year's most-watched and second most-watched sporting events in Australia.

Looking ahead, Fitzpatrick said the AFL's 2011 agenda included finalising the new broadcast rights and collective bargaining agreements, and developing a new financial strategy for 2012 and beyond, in which changes to the AFL's current equalisation and revenue-sharing policies may be introduced.

The AFL Annual Report can be viewed online at afl.com.au

Philippe Mouchel officially launches More than French

Our favourite French chef, Philippe Mouchel, last night officially launched his new cookbook, More than French: Recipes & Stories, at P M 24 as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

More than 80 guests – including Mouchel’s colleague and good friend, George Calombaris, and popular Channel 10 host Yumi Stynes – joined Philippe for a three-course dinner at his latest restaurant venture.

The evening opened with an address by Calombaris, before guests were treated to a Q&A with Mouchel and distinguished food writer, Rita Erlich, who co-wrote More than French. Mouchel and Erlich discussed the process of writing the book and the back-and-fourth involved in perfecting each recipe. Mouchel went on to speak about his lifetime in food, and the different influences on his cooking, including his time in Japan, and what he learnt from his mentor Paul Bocuse.

The night’s menu combined recipes from the book with those from P M 24, all cooked with the typical Mouchel flair. Diners were treated to salmon rillettes, pumpkin velouté with lardons and croutons, duck rotisserie with braised turnips, sweet potato mousseline and a spiced jus, before finishing with a classic gateau Basque, vanilla ice cream and macarons.

Philippe and Rita signed copies of More than French for all guests.

To find out more about the book, or to purchase a copy, click here