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Welcome to Balcony Banter

From the Members Friday JUL 01

The Melbourne Cricket Club is one of the world’s great sporting organisations. Every member has MCC/MCG stories to tell.

Balcony Banter gives members a place to publish those stories.

Anyone can get involved.

Here are some story ideas:

  • the story of your day in the MCC
  • memories of great footy matches, brilliant days of Test cricket, other sporting events
  • stories about you and your footy club, favourite players
  • stories of other MCG moments
  • stories of catching up with family and friends
  • the story of how you became a member (family connection etc)
  • a profile of a fellow MCC member
  • stories of one of the MCC’s sporting clubs

You are welcome to write about a particular game during the season. Your piece might be part match report and part account of your day in the MCC. For example you might write a yarn about watching Melbourne trounce Collingwood with your crew standing in front of the Blazer Bar.

The possibilities are many and varied.

You can take any approach you like – from the serious and earnest to the playful and irreverent.

Pieces should be 600-1000 words long.

What to do

  1. Register your interest in writing a piece at some stage by contacting John Harms* who will include you in the team of writers.

  2. Send your story idea to John Harms.

  3. If you wish to write the story of an MCG match let him know why you have chosen that specific match (e.g. you may be coming from interstate, or you may be catching up with old friends, or you may be watching your nephew make his debut for Collingwood).

  4. John Harms will contact you to give you the go-ahead.

  5. Write your story.

  6. Take a few photographs (as large as possible) of you somewhere in the MCC Members Reserve.

  7. Include a brief bio (a couple of sentences) and an appropriate headshot.

  8. Send the piece, the photos (including any photos you think will enhance the piece) and the bio to John Harms.

  9. John will edit and post the piece for you on the MCC website.



*John Harms is well known to those who love sport in Australia. He has written a number of books of sporting memoir (available in the three-title omnibus Play On), has been a columnist in The Australian, The Age and The Canberra Times and appears on ABC TV's Offsiders. He is contributing editor of the popular sports writing site The Footy Almanac.