Geelong was a total mess at the end of the 2006 season. The club’s board was so frustrated with the team’s output on the field that they conducted a thorough review of the entire football department. By the end of the review, the board came to the conclusion that significant change was needed.

And that’s what happened. New fitness staff were hired, the well-respected Neil Balme was appointed general manager of football operations and Tom Harley was named as the next captain of the club.

How quickly things turned around.

Between 2007 and 2009, Harley led a team that was close to invincible. Like the Brisbane Lions three years before them, they intimidated opposition teams with pure skill. Everything that a player did on and off the field was for the team’s benefit.

Going into the 2010 season, the Geelong Football Club is widely regarded as one of the most professional sporting organisations in the country. They’ll be looking to build on that reputation this season as they aim for their third flag in four years.

2008/2009 review: It was clear very early on last year that every Geelong player was still hurting from the 2008 grand final loss to Hawthorn.

Hawthorn was by far the better team during the 2008 finals series and they proved that no matter how well you perform throughout the home-and-away season, you need to perform when September rolls around.

After only one loss for the entire home-and-away season, Geelong choked in the grand final against the Hawks. It was later revealed that many of the Cats’ players carried injuries through September because they were not rested during the regular season when they should’ve been. So after the Cats failed to capitalise on their opportunities during the second quarter, it was evident that, due to a lack of fitness, certain players couldn’t run out the game. The Hawks just blew them away.

But here’s the difference between 2008 and 2009. After learning from their mistakes, The Geelong coaches and fitness staff went into 2009 with a different plan from a fitness perspective. Midway through last season, the club chose to rest certain players who were under slight injury clouds rather than playing them. While it cost the team a few losses, the strategy paid dividends on grand final day against St.Kilda. Going into the game they had all of their best players available to choose from and when the pressure was on during the last quarter, those players were able to run out the game.

The Cats’ second premiership in three years confirmed their status as one of the most dominant sides in the history of the game. Their grit and determination, not only in the grand final but throughout the entire season, was stirring as they held off all who tried to slay them. It was a magnificent team orientated effort from a champion team.

But there was one player who won just about every individual award possible last season - Gary Ablett. As well as playing in his second premiership, he won his third consecutive AFL MVP award, gained All-Australian selection for the third time, won his club’s best and fairest and finally won the Brownlow medal that had been eluding him for the past three years.

His outstanding season further established him as the best player in the game at the moment. He averaged a whopping 34 possessions a game and booted 27 handy goals for the year. At 25, Ablett still has plenty to offer and as scary as it may sound, he still has room for improvement.

Player to watch in 2010: At just 21 years of age, Joel Selwood is already a superstar of the competition. He has achieved so much in his three years at AFL level that it’s almost worth him retiring right now.

During Selwood’s short career, he’s been part of two premiership victories, won the 2007 NAB AFL Rising Star Award and was selected as an All-Australian. No wonder the new Gold Coast side are keen on signing him as the club’s high-profile recruit. 

But Selwood’s inclusion into the leadership group further proves that Geelong hold him in such high regard. At half time during last year’s grand final, Channel 10 showed footage of Selwood addressing the playing group in an attempt to rev up his teammates for the second half. For a man of his age to take on a responsibility like that is phenomenal. He is a natural born leader and there is no doubt that he will one day captain an AFL side.

In three years, Selwood has already polled 37 Brownlow votes, which is why I am picking him to win this year’s medal. Umpires notice him because his natural game is to put his head over the ball and win contested possession at the stoppages. Selwood will naturally receive votes if his possession tally is high and if he plays a full season, he has the potential to take enough votes off Ablett.

The word coming out of Geelong during the pre-season is that he has bulked up significantly. So, with a stronger body and even more experience, expect Selwood to improve again this season.

What to expect in season 2010: As much as I have talked up the Cats so far, I have this hunch that this is the year that the Cats’ gradual fall from grace begins.

There is no doubting that their squad is as strong as ever. It’s possible that Ablett, Joel Corey, Paul Chapman, Steve Johnson and Jimmy Bartel haven’t reached their full potential yet. Tom Hawkins’ continual development is exciting for Cats fans and he is bursting at the seams to make a serious impact in 2010. Harry Taylor continues to grow as a key defender. There are still plenty of positives.

However, they’ve had their time. Teams such as the Western Bulldogs and St.Kilda are ready to hop into the right-hand lane and overtake the Cats.

They’ve lost Harley through retirement and key players such as Matthew Scarlett, Brad Ottens, Darren Milburn and Cameron Mooney are all over 30 now. They have promising young players on the horizon but they will take time to develop because they haven’t been able to break into the senior side just yet.

For Geelong to improve they must keep looking long-term. They’ve recruited well in the last two years with the inclusions of Steven Motlop, Mitch Duncan and James Podsiadly proving that they are looking to the future.

They’ll finish top four, but I just can’t visualise them up atop the podium in the last week of September.

Final ladder position: 3rd

However, this season’s boot trend has caught me off guard. Should I or shouldn’t I invest in a pair of boots that are so incredibly high, and I don’t just mean the heel, that most of my leg is engulfed by boot?

This season’s boots are going where no boot has dared to go before – halfway up the thigh and dangerously close to the crutch. I can certainly see their appeal; they look sleek and sexy. But, am I the only one getting flashbacks of Julia Roberts leaning against Richard Gere’s sports car in Pretty Woman?

To put it bluntly, my dilemma is this: Are these thigh-high masterpieces fashionable or are they going to make me look like a working girl and not the legal kind?

Tired of procrastinating I decided to undertake some investigation. I hit the stores and tried on as many pairs of thigh-highs as I could get my hands on. Flats, high heels, suede, leather – I tried them all.

I came to the conclusion that unfortunately, with thigh-high boots, it’s a case of you get what you pay for. Cheap boots (under $100), are made out of cheap-looking synthetic leather and look tacky. If the boots were cheap, it’s disappointingly easy to tell. If the boots were expensive ($250 onwards) though, they looked more stylish and classy. And leather shoes, of course, last longer, are better for your feet and are more comfortable.

However, there is one major warning when it comes to considering the thigh-high trend.

No matter how much they cost, avoid shiny boots – even if they are leather. They can drastically fall from stylish to stripper in the style stakes in no time. And, unless you’re buying them for a red light, nighttime business purpose, it’s best to back away slowly.

If this high-priced winter wardrobe staple is going to put a break in your university student budget like it would mine, I strongly suggest you do what I did. Take your knee-high boots from last year and pair with some thigh-high socks in the same colour. It looks amazing and their $20 price tag makes them much ‘easier on the old hip pocket’ as my grandfather would say.

Plus, there’s less risk of looking like a ‘pretty woman’.

Fashionista Monique Ancora is a student at La Trobe University. This is her first piece for Upstart.

upstart is branching out. Welcome to the first episode of upcast, our new podcast about all things upstart.

In this episode, upstart editors Kelly Theobald and Matt de Neef talk sport with Ben Waterworth, get the lowdown on Chatroulette with Laura Carroll and hear all about Green Zone from upstart's resident film guru Michael Calle.

The accompanying tunes were Every Little Piece by Farmertan and Overthrown by Josh Woodward.

Many thanks to Marg Purdam and Lawrie Zion for their guidance and technical expertise.

Misgivings about its composition aside, ‘night owl’ is still a term that I identify with quite strongly. When left to my own devices I’ll often find myself staying awake until after 3am and waking sometime after 10am.

If my mother is to be believed, such sleep patterns can be explained by a phenomenon known as ‘delayed sleep phase syndrome’ (DSPS). According to an article on sleepdisorderchannel.com people with DSPS have an ‘internal biological clock’ that doesn’t match up with the ‘external environment’. Furthermore, ‘patients with DSPS typically are unable to fall asleep before 2am and have extreme difficulty waking early (e.g. by 7am).’

This would certainly explain why I struggle to get out of bed for the 4am breakfast shift. It also gives me a valid excuse for refusing to do such shifts – ‘sorry boss, I can’t. I’ve got DSPS!’

My mother recently cured herself of a lifelong (but only recently diagnosed) DSPS affliction through the use of tinted goggles.

Exposure to blue light is widely believed to inhibit the production of melatonin – a chemical produced by the pineal gland which causes us to become drowsy. By wearing blue goggles in the morning my mother was able to decrease the amount of melatonin being produced in her brain, thereby preventing her from feeling excessively tired. By wearing amber-coloured, blue-light-blocking goggles in the evening she was able to increase her melatonin supply, making her feel tired before she normally would.

I mean, it makes perfect sense. During the day we are exposed to a significant amount of blue light courtesy of Rayleigh scattering. This slows melatonin production and thereby prevents us from falling asleep during the day. Conversely, once the sun has set, melatonin production is able to commence which then begins to make us tired. The use of tinted-goggles merely brings greater control to the system and allows the user to sleep and wake closer to the desired time.

While DSPS can be a great inconvenience to those whose suffer from it, it also has potential benefits. For example, when our hotel’s front office was short-staffed for Sunday night’s 11pm to 7am shift they asked me to switch teams and help out. I agreed straight away, grateful for the experience and also confident that my sleep habits would make staying awake for an overnight shift fairly simple. In theory anyway.

In order to properly adjust myself to the overnight shift I began preparing on Friday night. I got home at 9:30pm and by the time 11pm rolled around I was already struggling. By 3am I had gotten my second wind and I somehow managed to last until 7am.

I woke the next day at 2pm and, after working that evening, I upped the ante, pushing through until 8:30am before finally succumbing to sleep.

To my great surprise I was able to put the late nights to use, getting stuff done while there was no one around. But by the same token, it also gets kind of lonely at the time of night – while normal people tend to be asleep at 4am I was awake, cleaning the house in a haze of semi-consciousness.

To my great frustration the aforementioned haze seemed to linger across the weekend, despite getting eight hours sleep each day. Even now, almost three days after finishing the overnight shift, I can still feel it tugging at my eyelids like some invisible weight. It’s kind of like jet lag without the excitement of overseas travel.

The fact that it was only a single shift probably compounded the problem as I needed to get back into a ‘normal’ routine straight away. Altering one’s sleeping habits so drastically for one night is like, to return to the jet lag analogy, what it might feel like to fly to London for the weekend. Not really worth the effort.

 Beyond all that, there is one important issue that continues to confuse me – when you wake up at 7pm after going to bed at 10am, what meal are you supposed to eat? Do you eat dinner, given that it’s 7pm? Or do you eat breakfast given that you’ve just woken up?

But the inconvenience of not knowing what meal to eat and a particular time is of little concern when compared to claims made by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2007. According to Vincent Cogliano from WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) there is ‘enough of a pattern in people who do shift work to recognise that there’s an increase in cancer’. While the evidence is not entirely conclusive, it was enough to prompt the IARC to add ‘overnight shift work’ to a list of probable carcinogens.

Add to that an increased risk of developing depression and I think I might have grounds to refuse any future night shifts…

Matt de Neef is upstart co-editor, and blogs at A Cursory Glance.

Golden Plains, only in its fourth year, is the little sister of Meredith, the BYO music festival in country Victoria. Although it’s little in size, with less tickets being released than for Meredith, it makes up for it with the class acts to perform.

Lou Barlow played a secret set. Photo: Shaina Kaye

Once our beer was in the esky and the tent was erected – and we were sure it was somewhat waterproof after noticing the ominous clouds in the distance – we ventured down to the Supernatural Amphitheatre, the single Golden Plains stage.

The official opening ceremony kicked events off followed by Royal Headache and The Crayon Fields, both of which were pleasurable introductions to a weekend of stellar music. Clairy Baby Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes were a tasty morsel of soul but it was Monotonix who really got the party started.

Their hard rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t particularly tight. In fact, it was downright awful at some points. But, the band was engulfed by the crowd for most of their set and some members of the band spent the entire time crowd surfing while continuing to play. So, can you blame them for the low degree of musicality? They were entertaining to say the least, a highlight being when the drummer passed his bass drum and stool to the eagerly stretching arms of the manic crowd and played over a sea of heads while struggling to say on his stool.

Eagerly anticipated duo the Big Pink followed and brought with them their lauded indie rock. Suddenly, the audience was full of swooning girls – that’s what happens when you get an attractive guy to play a guitar. After returning to the tent to collect some much needed beers, it was time to nod to the nineties with Pavement and Dinosaur Jr.

The Big Pink. Photo: Shaina Kaye

Having recently acquired the newly released Best of Pavement CD, I thoroughly enjoyed their set. However, unfortunately, my attention waned during Dinosaur Jr as I suffered from a lack of prior knowledge about the band and their music. Talking to others, I deduced that this was a common problem. However, the nineties rockers were enjoyed in equal measures by long-time fans and more open-minded newbies alike.

It was past midnight and it was only copious amounts of caffeine keeping me awake. However, DJs Andee Frost and Ransom were worth the late night and the perseverance through the rain. The former charmed us with a variety of genres of music until 2am when Ransom took to the deck. Hip Hop dominated his set and by 3.30, when he left the stage, my cohort and I were sweaty in our heavy raincoats from our hours of dancing. But, we were hugely satisfied.

We danced a little more to some kind of trancy electro emitted by Scattermusic Sound System but eventually succumbed to the rain, which had been dampening our spirits on and off all day.

Sunday dawned surprisingly bright and sunny, and news of Melbourne’s storms hadn’t quite reached the preoccupied Golden Plains crowd. So, we breakfasted, grabbed our eskies and our chairs and headed for the amphitheatre once more.

The Supernatural Amphitheater. Photo: Felicity Miller

We arrived in time for Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard, who were popular, and stayed for Wooden Shjips and Space Invadas. Wooden Shjips were a highlight of the festival and their brand of indie pop was bright enough to match the sunny day.

Nashville Pussy was next, bringing so much attitude to the stage that the crowd really got into them. Their female bass player and guitarist, both long haired and tattoed, rocked out while the grizzly haired lead singer demanded that we worship rock ‘n’ roll.  And, worship we did.

Dirty Projectors, who followed, took a completely different tack with their folksy indie pop and despite the huge contrast, the crowd loved them nevertheless. It was hard to stand still when all I wanted to do was dance, despite the steady rain that was falling.

Between sets, a responsible sounding voice echoed around the amphitheatre. He told us to expect severe storms, hail, wind and rain and that we should shelter in our cars when the time came. Despite a collective sense of foreboding, the storms weren’t as bad as predicted and rain did little to dampen the spirits of excited punters.

We stood in the dark and the rain while we watched Tame Impala, Calexico, The Cruel Sea and Midnight Juggernauts and despite almost freezing to death, complaints were few and far between.

A very wet tent. Photo: Felicity Miller

Tame Impala were, as usual, at their psychedelic best while they strummed the crowd into a frenzy of glazed-eyed swaying and flailing limbs. Calexico was apparently fantastic but unfortunately, I elected to traipse up to the tent and retrieve and esky full of drinks, which in itself was eventful as I negotiated the ankle deep mud on the steep inclines. Thank gosh for gumboots.

However, I returned in time for the Cruel Sea who I immensely enjoyed and by the time the Midnight Juggernauts ventured onto the stage I had negotiated my way through the crowd to the front barrier. As the crowd behind me ebbed and flowed in time to the waves of music, I was squashed against the fence. But, as I looked backwards upon the see of dripping, hooded faces, I thought to myself how wonderful live music is.

After the Juggers, when I got my second wind, I boogied to Opulent Sound and Gaslamp Killer before retreating to the campsite for even more beer. Unfortunately, my exhaustion got the better of me and I didn’t make it back down to the stage.

As I drifted to sleep on my thin and vaguely damp mattress, I could still hear the thumping of the bass and imagined those that were still out there, powering through the rain and in the mud.

When the morning dawned grey and drizzly, I looked forward to getting home to a warm shower, clean clothes and a soft bed. However, packing up to leave a place of great memories, new friends and an all day sausage sizzle, thanks to the Meredith community tucker tent, is always hard.

Kelly Theobald is an editor of Upstart and a Golden Plains veteran. This piece was originally published on her blog, Music Meets Girl.

The Passover story, which commemorates the departure of the Jews from their enslavement in Egypt, reminds us of the value of self-determination and freedom from oppression.

But when Passover begins in less than two weeks I will not be celebrating, because the disjuncture between what this festival is about and the reality of what is happening in modern Israel cannot be reconciled.

More than anything else, I cannot bring myself to be part of an even symbolic rendition of the line that punctuates every Seder - 'Next Year in Jerusalem'.

I cannot utter these words while long-term Arab residents such as Nasser Jaber are thrown out of their homes in East Jerusalem. The house was invaded by settlers last year while Jaber spent four nights away while his house was being renovated.

I cannot utter these words when the Israeli government signals further turmoil to Arab residents by announcing plans to build another 1600 new homes in East Jerusalem - a provocation that just happened to coincide with the visit of the US Vice-President, who was attempting to reinvigorate the peace process.

I cannot say 'Next Year in Jerusalem' when Israel refuses to discuss the serious suspicions that Mossad stole the identity of Diaspora Jews during the recent assassination of a Hamas militant in Dubai. (And I'm not laughing at the fact that an Israeli supermarket chain has seen fit to satirise the whole episode by spoofing the surveillance footage in a recent advertising campaign that culminates with the line 'We offer killer prices'.)

I don't expect that my personal boycott of Passover will achieve anything at all. But I believe that those Jews - and I don't think I'm alone here - who feel alienated by the behaviour of the Israeli government and the excesses of the settler movement should feel free to make a gesture of silence this Passover instead of following the rituals of the festival.

I look forward to saying 'Next Year in Jerusalem' at a time when Israel's government acknowledges the values that Passover is meant to represent.

This piece was originally published on the ABC site, The Drum Unleashed.

Lawrie Zion is editor-in-chief of upstart and coordinator of Journalism at La Trobe University.

Since the Dockers’ inception into the AFL in 1995, their best result was a preliminary final appearance in 2006, where they were comprehensively beaten by a classier Sydney outfit.

There is no denying that they are one of the most frustrating teams in the competition. They are a tipping nightmare! For many years now respected football commentators have predicted the Dockers to be genuine top eight material. But they somehow find a way to let their fans down through random insipid performances, particularly away from home.

Why are they so frustrating? It’s a question I don’t think the Dockers themselves can even answer yet. But with a developing list and an optimistic coach, Fremantle will be looking to build a formidable team that will be able to compete with the best in years to come.

2009 review: Fremantle had high expectations going into last season but in reality, their final position was to be expected. They won just six games to finish 14^th at the end of the home-and-away season.

In round four, against eventual runners-up St. Kilda, the Dockers failed to fire a shot, going down by 83 points. Even though they were against a quality opposition, the Dockers were extremely disappointing, managing only four goals in 120 minutes of football. But it was in their round 15 match against Adelaide that the Dockers hit rock bottom. They were simply pathetic, kicking only one goal for the entire match. Their final score of 1.7.13 was the lowest score recorded since the introduction of the national competition back in 1987.

But although there were some horrible lowlights, Fremantle can certainly take a few positives away from 2009. Out of the six wins for the year, two of them came against arch-nemesis West Coast. The Dockers love beating the Eagles and to do it twice in one season was a massive confidence booster to players and fans alike.

It was encouraging to see Paul Hasleby make a successful return to AFL football after a knee reconstruction threatened to ruin his career. The 2000 rising star winner finished fifth in the best and fairest and was fairly consistent across the whole year. Hasleby’s best game was in Fremantle’s first victory over the Eagles in round six where he collected 35 possessions and was awarded the Ross Glendenning Medal for best afield.

But the best story to come out of Fremantle’s 2009 season was the emergence of mature-age recruit Greg Broughton. Drafted as a rookie at the age of 22 he was promoted to the senior list during the 2009 season and, after impressive performances in defence, retained his position in the side. Broughton was handed some tough assignments throughout the year but thrived on every challenge. His finest effort came against Geelong in round 12 when he went head-to-head with Steve Johnson and collected 29 possessions.

Player to watch in 2010: Aaron Sandilands is one of the most fascinating players in the AFL and holds the key to Fremantle’s success in years to come. He finally arrived as an AFL player in 2009 and was rewarded with his second successive All-Australian selection and his first best and fairest award. He was outstanding in the ruck, winning 659 hit-outs for the year - the second most in the competition.

Standing at 211cm and weighing in at 123kg, Sandilands is the biggest man to ever grace an AFL field. But for such a big man, his aerobic capacity and general fitness is phenomenal, making him one of the most difficult players in the competition to match up on.

However, it is now time for Sandilands to take that next step. Yes, he wins a hit-out nine times out of ten, but so often he taps the ball into the lap of an opposition player. Whether that’s due to his teammates not being in the correct position or Sandilands hitting the ball to the wrong space is beside the point. The big bloke needs to effectively communicate with his midfielders if he is going to win games of football.

Sandilands also needs to become more dangerous when he is pushed into the forward line. He started to impose himself last season but only managed to kick 13 goals from his 20 games. He needs to double that goal tally to support the Dockers’ leading goal kicker, marquee player and captain in Matthew Pavlich.

At 27, Sandilands is at the peak of his powers and is ready to take the competition by the scruff of the neck.

What to expect in 2010: Dockers fans will be forced to endure another frustrating year. The club will lose more games than it wins, but it must be emphasised that they will have to go backwards to go forwards.

A few years ago, Fremantle’s list was full of mediocre middle-aged players who had been traded from other clubs. The majority of those players have now either been delisted or traded and the recruiters have focused on drafting younger players. In the last three years, Fremantle have used their top draft picks to recruit Rhys Palmer, Stephen Hill and Anthony Morabito. These players all have genuine potential to become stars of the game and expect all three of them to take their games to the next level, barring injury of course.

A massive positive for Fremantle going into this season is their favourable draw. They meet only three of the 2009 finalists twice (Adelaide, St.Kilda and Carlton) and have 12 home games, including one each against Melbourne and Richmond. However, their poor record away from home will continue to be a concern and with a young side on the park, they will struggle to rectify the problem.

Fremantle are heading in the right direction, but they are at the beginning of their rebuilding stage. They are developing a fantastic list, led by an authentic star in Pavlich. Along with Sandilands, he needs to lead this team forward if they want to be a force to reckon with.

Message to all Dockers fans - please be patient. It will be another three or four years before they can even be considered as a finals contender.

Final ladder position: 14th

While Design Droplets is currently a blog, they're in the process of developing it into a fully fledged web magazine in the style of  SmartCompany.

They're currently searching for a writer who has a a strong interest in design.

You must:

- be passionate about design  (if it is more specifically in product or industrial design that would be fantastic)
- be able to meet deadlines
- have excellent communication skills (including written, oral and listening)
- display initiative
- be someone who can pay attention to detail
- have the ability to check their own work
- be comfortable with working via email, Skype and other online collaboration tools.

The role will include research and development of high quality articles (often in collaboration with designers and/or other writers) that deliver knowledge and news to the Asia Pacific industrial design community. The role may also include coverage of local design events.

Knowledge of the WordPress CMS platform or SEO, relevant experience in writing for other design publications (online or offline) or experience writing and editing online content would be a plus, but are not essential.

To Apply:

Please send your cover letter, resume, three samples of your writing (preferably on design topics) to Raph at apply@designdroplets.com

Good luck!

The film can be separated into two parts: the story and the aesthetic image that exposes it. Based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man is set in 1962 when the lover of middle-aged English professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) has just died.

On this day, George, consumed by grief, decides that this is the day he will kill himself. Throughout the rest of the day we see George compulsively lay out his affairs, and exchanges what he intends to be his final moments with his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore) as well with one of his intrigued students (Nicholas Hoult).

The result is a sensitive and moving story. There are even moments of humour within the film where we see George’s mundane habits and routines paradoxically showing a conservative person who is about to do something uncharacteristically radical.

The acting features some superb American dialects from the British natives Matthew Goode (who plays George’s deceased lover Jim) and Nicholas Hoult, as well as a posh and convincing English accent from the American Julianne Moore.

Hoult and Goode’s roles seem to provide the necessary boyish charm running alongside Firth to truly emphasise the mid-life crisis aspect of George. Hoult’s Kenny is young, fresh and vibrant to Firth’s stalled and mourning George.

Goode, on the other hand, plays the part of the quintessential American boy credibly, and manages to make an impression without a lot of screen time.

Moore is a breath of fresh air, despite playing the boozy best friend character who shows an inability to live in the present, with her presence steering some fun into what may seem to be a bleak and gloomy story.

Winner of the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival as well as nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Academy Awards and a win at the BAFTA’s, Colin Firth shows a matured, multi-layered and brilliant turn as George.

Finally landing a character that has given his career the most attention since Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Firth demonstrates a seasoned performance, only capable from the greatest actors. It truly is one of the best performances of the season.

It is no surprise to see Tom Ford, the noted fashion designer and former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, moving towards directing feature films. Notoriously known for running the infamous Sophie Dahl YSL Opium fragrance advertisement (with Dahl lying on her back, naked and suggestive with her legs apart) and the YSL M7 advertisements (where French model, Samuel de Cubber, became the first naked model in mainstream American advertising), Ford has shown an interest in the projection of image.

Alongside Eduard Grau, his cinematographer, Ford has created a film that could also be produced as a series of photographic stills. Flashbacks to scenes when Jim was alive show glossy, black and white images that could be advertisements ripped straight from a high fashion magazine.

This is also seen with the casting of a James Dean type renegade character, played by a model, usurping the actors’ sphere. These images, combined with the repeated cuts to Firth’s naked body floating in the ocean, suggest a film that focuses on the male form.

Ford demonstrates what now seems to be the popular re-imagining and transgression of Laura Mulvey’s seminal triple male gaze theories in the mid 1970s, whereupon the male body is the projection of desire and "to-be-looked-at-ness".

To add to the aesthetic focus, Dan Bishop and Amy Welles were recruited to the design team. Both had worked on the American cable television series Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner, which is set in the offices of an advertising agency in New York City.

Abel Korzeniowski makes a strong impression with a score that reminded me of a Philip Glass work, and highlighted the successful execution of the crucial and often overlooked element of film scoring. HFPA rewarded Korzeniowski with a well deserving Golden Globe nomination.

If beautiful images are your thing, then A Single Man is not to be missed. In fact, seeing the film once is not enough.

James Madden is a graduating Bachelor of Arts student, who majored in cinema and media studies at La Trobe University. This review was originally published on Portable TV.

• The season begins on April 10 and the student(s) will need to be available every Saturday until September 11, excluding the Queen's Birthday weekend.
• There are three matches each week that need recording - seniors, reserves and under 19s.
• The student(s) involved would need to be at the relevant ground between 9:30am and 4:45pm.
• The ground will change each week but if transport is required, it can be arranged.
• The student(s) would need to be able to produce an original copy of the game on DVD and a number of copies of the DVD within a specified timeframe.
• The student(s) will be paid for their efforts at a rate that can be negotiated with the club.

For students who are looking to break into the industry this would be a fantastic opportunity to get some hands-on experience while getting paid for it.

If you have any questions please contact Tony Newlands, football manager at the Lower Plenty Football Club. His email address is Tony@newcare.com.au