By Melissa Woods
September 7th 2008 @ 8:43am
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Knights loss a wake-up call, says Slater
Brilliant Storm fullback Billy Slater says the Storm’s loss to Newcastle may be a “blessing” heading into the NRL finals.
Melbourne were last round besieged by a Knights outfit desperate to farewell their departing skipper Danny Buderus with a win in front of their home crowd.
But Slater said the one-point loss was a wake-up call for [...]
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![Troy Taylor was one of the feel-good stories of the draft. Nabbed by Richmond at pick 51, the 188cm teen from the Northern Territory had made it to the AFL despite his troubled past. At the beginning of last year, it would have looked like an impossible dream.
As The Age reported prior to the draft: [...] Michael DiFabrizio: Troy Taylor a work in progress, on and off field](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/troy-taylor-th.jpg)
![For all the success of the NRL’s inaugural All Stars match – a bumper crowd and thrilling match – there’s a flaw in the concept that will blight our nation should it continue into the future. By pitting the best Indigenous players against the best of the rest, the NRL will continue to segregate race [...] Adrian Musolino: Sport should unite race and colour, not segregate](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/nrl-all-stars-wendell-sailor-th.jpg)
![As the fallout from Tim Cahill’s stoush with News Limited continues, what is becoming clear is the relationship between sports stars and the media, especially in the current climate of trash tabloid stories, is being damaged. As a result sports stars are being more guarded with their media dealings and the fans are losing out. [...] Adrian Musolino: We can’t have sports stars bypassing the media](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/ffa-cahill-th.jpg)
![Don’t bother shutting the gate, Gold Coast United have already bolted. What’s interesting about Gold Coast’s form so far is that two of their three wins have come away from home. Of course, they’ve only played at home once so far. But elsewhere home teams are struggling to chalk up wins.
Of the fifteen games [...] Mike Tuckerman: Home form no advantage in A-League](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/home-form-tahj-minniecon-th.jpg)
![After watching the Waratahs last week, I was forced to check my tea for random hallucinogens that might have drifted in on the wind or something. What the…?
The Tahs were all of a sudden carrying on like genuine title contenders, and although it was a welcome form reversal, the big question remained: can they deliver [...] Andrew Logan: What is the real Waratahs playing style?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/tipping-finalists-super-14-tatafu-polota-nau-th.jpg)
![What to make of another tumultuous round of A-League action? There’ll be plenty of column inches devoted to dwindling attendance figures, while the thorny of issue of refereeing has once again hit the headlines.
It seems we can’t go long in the A-League without refereeing standards coming into question.
Last season’s Grand Final was marred by an [...] Mike Tuckerman: A-League referees are only human](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/a-league-referees-only-human-th.jpg)
![I was up in the early hours of Monday morning eagerly anticipating a big football match, but it wasn’t Arsenal-Manchester United but instead the African Cup of Nations final in Angola where Australia’s World Cup group opponents Ghana fell short 1-0 against Egypt.
Despite the Black Stars’ final loss, they were arguably the footballing story of [...] Ben Somerford: Five lessons about WC opponent Ghana from ACN](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/ghana-th.jpg)
![I never get any pleasure out of seeing a coach lose his job. I wasn’t pleased when John Kosmina was sacked from an A-League club for the second time, even though I thought at the time, and still do, that Kosmina’s departure was a good thing for the game.
So bearing that in mind, I [...] Davidde Corran: Farina case exposes football’s roar mentality](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Farina-case-exposes-football-roar-mentality.jpg)
![FINA, the international organisation governing swimming, and sixteen leading swimsuit manfacturers have developed new rules on what swimmers can wear in international swimming tournament.
The rules, in my opinion, are fine for all events outside of the World Championships, the Commonwealth games and the Olympic Games.
In the future, swimsuits will not extend past the shoulders, below [...] Spiro Zavos: The answer to the Olympic swim suit controversy](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/fina-olympic-swimmers.jpg)
![Losing may not have been an option according to the marketers, but for much of the first half last night, Omani attacking midfielder Fawzi Basheer threatened to shift Australia’s planning post-South Africa from Qatar to Brazil.
Had Hassan Rabea taken the chance that Basheer delightfully teed up for him midway through the half, and had [...] Tony Tannous: Qatar dream alive, but much to do ahead of South Africa](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/qatar-dream-alive-kewell-th.jpg)
![There’s been a bit of significant Australian football news slipping under the radar recently. Last week Football Federation Australia announced they had signed an agreement with Indonesia that is intended to result in “a raft of exchange programs and more internationals between the two countries.”
As Matthew Hall wrote in his SBS blog, “Had you blinked [...] Davidde Corran: A raw deal is still the best deal for the Matildas](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/salisbury-matildas-th.jpg)
![I’ve been amazed by the football noise that’s been coming out of New Zealand over recent weeks. While I suppose it all started with that fateful match against Bahrain in November, since almost 20,000 fans stumped up in Christchurch to see the Phoenix defeat Adelaide United 1-0 almost four weeks ago, I’ve started to believe.
Not [...] Davidde Corran: The Phoenix can help the game rise up](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wellington-phoenix-tim-brown-th.jpg)



