By Daniel Brettig
July 2nd 2008 @ 4:41am
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Port Adelaide: Academy of what?
In England, West Ham United is known as the Academy Of Football, a place where a legion of players get their education then leave for more lucrative surrounds.
Swans looking to put the clamps on the Magpies
At Alberton, Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams thinks of the Power as a club of learning, where skills are honed [...]
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![The depth and breadth of our sporting landscape never ceases to amaze me. On Saturday alone you could have watched Ashes cricket, NRL, AFL, A-League, Tri-Nations, V8 Supercars and the like on the box. With codes undertaking one of the most aggressive expansion phases in Australian sporting history, can this be sustained?
It is a fascinating [...] Adrian Musolino: Is Australia’s sporting landscape too overcrowded?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-australias-overcrowded-th.jpg)
![Has FIFA President Sepp Blatter confirmed what we all should have expected? In a press conference in Madrid, Blatter has given his strongest hint yet that the World Cup is destined for a return to Europe in 2018, which would leave Australia with only 2022 as a possibility.
“From what I’ve discussed with the president of [...] Adrian Musolino: Europe set for 2018 World Cup, Australia eyes 2022](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/players-no-benefit-doubt-sepp-blatter-th.jpg)
![Those in positions of power at AFL House are criticised heavily when they do something wrong, so it is only fair we acknowledge them when they do something right. Finally, the league is going to come down on a group of players no one likes – the stagers.
This season will see players fined for faking, [...] Luke D'Anello: AFL to finally rid the game of stagers](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-mandatory-helmet-th.jpg)
![By “ambies” I do not mean the ambulance men who save our lives and properties. Michael Clarke is one. Richard Hadlee was another. So were Jack Gregory, Vinoo Mankad, Greg Matthews and Kepler Wessels. And about 140 others.
I mean the ambidextrous Test cricketers who batted right-handed and bowled left-arm, or the other way about. [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Weird or wonderful? The cricketing ambies](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/weird-or-wonderful-clarke-th.jpg)
![There are losses, and then there is what happened to the Minnesota Vikings in last weekend’s NFC Championship Game. Vikings fans thought 1998 was horrible, but this puts that to shame.
In 1998, Vikings’ kicker Morten Anderson missed a field goal which would have clinched the game — at least then they got to kick.
This time [...] David Wiseman: Are some teams just destined for heartbreak each season?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/why-sept-soward-young-th.jpg)
![Rain interrupting cricket is annoying, but has its advantages. During the one-dayer between Australia and the West Indies at the SCG on Friday, I had interesting chats with the ABC radio team.
“I have an idea for a book for you, Kersi,” said Jim Maxwell, tongue-in-cheek. “Why don’t you write a book on tattooed Test cricketers.”
“It [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Celebrating the ‘Bearded Ones’ in Test cricket](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/south-africa-cricket-hashim-amla-th.jpg)
![Groundsmen around the world, please note: bowlers do exist. But the way you are preparing the pitches, they may become extinct. Ditto for Test cricket.
I realise you must be under instructions to prepare a pitch like a billiard table so that it lasts for five days and more spectators turn up to swell the organisers’ [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: There’s too many tall scores and small thinking](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tall-scores-small-thinking-tendulkar-th.jpg)
![The race-fixing scandal involving the Renault F1 team is getting ugly with the team commencing legal proceedings against Nelson Piquet for defamation and blackmail following his bombshell accusations. The saga is only going to get uglier.
For the uninitiated, Renault have been accused of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix by allegedly ordering Nelson Piquet [...] Adrian Musolino: The ramifications of race-fixing saga will run deep](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-formula-1-rotten.jpg)
![I’ve just got back from meeting up with Carl Valeri at his new Serie B club Sassuolo. After a difficult few months late last year, when the president of Grosseto froze him out of the side for refusing to sign a contract extension, things have finally turned around for Valeri.
The Canberra-born midfielder is due to [...] Davidde Corran: An FFA scouting network could be the A-League’s cure](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/socceroos-valeri-th.jpg)
![I don’t get the Melbourne Cup. Or what’s become at least. I appreciate it as a sporting contest – something that has been long debated – with a storied history intrinsically linked to Australian culture. But what is it really about?
I’m not condemning the event. Anything that has survived since 1861 must be [...] Adrian Musolino: The contradiction that is the Melbourne Cup](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/contradiction-melbourne-cup-shocking-brown-th.jpg)
![The biggest challenge facing the NRL isn’t ensuring Brad Fittler knows which is his hotel room but rather ensuring that the One RL dream becomes a reality.
While, Fittler was busy buying some extra strong nails and a jumbo hammer for a coffin with the headstone marked “my coaching career” it also emerged than [...] Steve Kaless: One rugby league vision is failing](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/david-gallop-th.jpg)
![Tonight, UEFA Champions League football returns to the Emirates, 113 days since its last appearance at Arsenal’s home ground. On that occasion, Gunners fans held up giant placards that spelled “believe,” before seeing their team humbled by Manchester United.
This time round it will be the away fans clinging to hope with Arsenal expected to [...] Davidde Corran: As history repeats, there’s no way back for Scotland](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/a-league-celtic-scott-mcdonald-th.jpg)



