By Steve Jancetic
July 20th 2009 @ 7:42am
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Warriors storm home to down Roosters
Sydney Roosters skipper Craig Fitzgibbon admits the players have to take some of the blame for coach Brad Fittler’s demise after the tri-colours lost 34-20 to the Warriors in familiar fashion at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Just a day after the club’s decision to replace Fittler with Newcastle mentor Brian Smith in 2010 was leaked to [...]
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![He lay prone on the ground. All 189cms of him was still, except for what looked like spasms as his legs lashed out in pain and alone, except for the suspicious looks from the 40,000 people who surrounded him.
“We’ve seen this before” they all thought. “He better get up before he gets substituted off like [...] Davidde Corran: The hypocrisy of referee criticism](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/respect-for-officials-missing-chelsea-drogba-th.jpg)
![On Saturday’s decisive stage of the Tour Down Under on Willunga Hill, Cadel Evans attacked. In his rainbow jersey, representing his world champion status, Evans went some way to repairing the unjust persona that the Australian public has formed of the Tour de France runner-up.
Although it wasn’t enough to snare the lead, Evans’ attack was [...] Adrian Musolino: When will Aussies open their arms to Evans?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/cadel-evans-th.jpg)
![Two of the greatest tennis players of all time have one major blimp on their resumes: Sampras never won the French Open, and neither has Roger Federer. The Fed-express may well change that come Sunday night, but isn’t it remarkable that a court surface can alter things so much.
Federer can handle the top spin of [...] Benjamin Conkey: It’s the surface variables that makes tennis so special](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/federer-storms-french-open-th.jpg)
![There are are two ways to punctuate the question: how good were the expert picks for the Melbourne Cup!? The exclamation punctuation suggests that the experts were spot on. But the question mark punctuation, which goes with this Roar, suggests that they were mug punters (like you and me) rather than gurus of the turf.
I [...] Spiro Zavos: How Shocking that the experts got it so wrong](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/how-shocking-melbourne-cup-th.jpg)
![Agendas. Surely they’re the one thing a journalist shouldn’t have. Yet, so many do. It was a topic of conversation between a bunch of Australian and foreign journalists in Cairo recently.
Sitting around a table at an Egyptian restaurant the day after the Young Socceroos had made their exit from the U20 World Cup, the point [...] Davidde Corran: What cost are we willing to pay for a World Cup?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/What-cost-are-we-willing-to-pay-for-a-World-Cup.jpg)
![When I was in high school, I dreamed of travelling the globe. I mostly blame Les Murray for this, because his ‘World Soccer’ show became compulsory viewing of a Saturday afternoon.
Every weekend after watching the show, I’d dream of the days when I too could stand on the terraces of world football’s most famous stadia, [...] Mike Tuckerman: World Cup bid makes us truly global citizens](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ACT-government-shoots-viduka-th.jpg)
![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)
![Many long time fans of the European game will remember Ruud Hesp as the Barcelona custodian during the Louis van Gaal era in the late 1990s, when the Dutchmen teamed-up to win back-to-back La Liga titles and a Copa del Rey.
Hesp also featured in the Dutch national squad in a couple of major championships, at [...] Tony Tannous: Ruud reality: Verbeek needs to scatter his square lines](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ruud-reality-pim-verbook-th.jpg)
![When Adelaide United admitted that coach Aurelio Vidmar wouldn’t be allowed to lead his team into their second Asian Champions League campaign this month all you could do was laugh or cry (depending on whether you’re a Reds fan or not I suppose).
For those who missed it, the Asian Football Confederation has ruled that Aurelio [...] Davidde Corran: A-League teams burnt by AFC rules that don’t fit Asia](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/adelaide-osaka-th.jpg)
![Love him or hate him, you certainly couldn’t ignore him. Wendell Sailor, flamboyant and polarising, announced his retirement today and a move into a new role as an ambassador for the St George Illawarra Dragons.
Over a distinguished career (that wasn’t without its moments), Sailor electrified both league and union fans with his powerful surges on [...] The Roar: Big Dell hangs up his famous white boots](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/oh-unlucky-men-wendell-sailor-th.jpg)
![The AFL’s umpiring department claim they made just 6 mistakes from 10,000 scoring shots last year, yet in the sport’s showcase event, the Grand Final, there was a glaring error for Tom Hawkins’ 2nd quarter ‘goal’. It begs the question does the AFL need video replays?
You often hear people say, “this or that could one [...] Ben Somerford: Grand Final gaffe shows AFL needs to improve umpire accuracy](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/grand-final-afl-umpire-accuracy-th.jpg)



