By John Coomber
July 31st 2009 @ 1:20am
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Selectors not Hughes to blame for Ashes mess
You can’t blame Phillip Hughes for the pickle Australia now find themselves in. The real mistake was made at the selection table before the team left home.
Bravo for putting their faith in the little bloke from Macksville in the first place, but to choose just six specialist batsmen for a five-Test Ashes tour is the [...]
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![On the 23rd of March 1895, on a grassy clearing in Northern London, a group of women gathered to make history. Few would notice, and even fewer cared. But history it was. A whistle was blown and 22 women played out the first recorded game of women’s football.
For the record, North London won 7-1 [...] Davidde Corran: Women’s football is finally back in business](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/womens-football-bompastor-sauerbrunn-th.jpg)
![Ryan Briscoe and Will Power. Hardly household names are they? Yet the Aussie pair, teammates at the legendary Penske team in the IndyCar series represent the best chance for Aussie sporting success on the international scene. The third? A familiar name who proved a big point on Sunday.
Power and Briscoe may not command back page [...] Adrian Musolino: The three most underrated Aussie sportsmen](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/three-most-underrated-th.jpg)
![I’ve been in New York for over a week now and I haven’t heard the Big Apples’ Major League Soccer team, the New York Red Bulls, mentioned once, despite being one of the few local franchises currently in season.
Yet, like in Australia, there are signs the world game is thriving.
Last week, pubs [...] Adrian Musolino: Despite the indifference, football is thriving in America](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/despite-indifference-soccer-beckham-th.jpg)
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At the 1954 World Cup, an average of 5.38 goals were scored per match. Fifty-two years later at Germany 2006, that had dropped to 2.31.
The financial imbalance [...] Davidde Corran: Football isn’t a red card game](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rename-epl-gpl-patrice-evra-th.jpg)
![Everyone seems to have an opinion on Peter Roebuck. Via his columns in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, he has become the highest profile cricket writer in the Antipodes. He was recently elevated into the next stratosphere, though, after the Test match in Sydney, becoming a bona fide identity in his own right.
Now, [...] David Wiseman: ‘Maybe I should have toned it down’, says Peter Roebuck](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/peter-roebuck.jpg)
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Australia, the likely winners today, will become the first nation in the ten year history of Champions Trophy to win it twice in succession.
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![It was only when I started scribbling some notes for this week’s column that I realised the errors of my timing. For some time, I have suggested on The Roar that a massive opportunity sits as yet untested for both Football Federation Australia and Cricket Australia.
And I thought this week was time to expand on [...] Brett McKay: Show A-League and Twenty20 on Friday nights](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/is-a-league-boring-rudan-ognenovski-costa-th.jpg)
![Kevin Sheedy is always keen on making headlines and last week was no different, suggesting that his Greater Western Sydney club will look to California to find playing talent.
If it weren’t for the fact he made good on his original promise to scour the globe by signing a South African just a few days earlier, [...] Michael DiFabrizio: American colleges could be AFL’s next frontier](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/sheedy-signing-sydney-th.jpg)
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Yesterday the world’s greatest riders hit speeds in excess of 320km/h as they [...] Adrian Musolino: Motorbike racing is the only remaining gladiatorial sport](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/motorbike-racing-valentino-rossi-th.jpg)
![Despite having qualified for the World Cup yesterday, England lost twice overnight. First to Portugal at Milan’s Arena Civica, then to Germany at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. You’re most likely wondering what I’m talking about, but two significant international tournaments, which haven’t made much of an impression in the Australian media, have been taking [...] Davidde Corran: Football thrives with women and the homeless](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/football-thrives-Rachel-Corsie-th.jpg)
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The piece, [...] Adrian Musolino: AFL can improve, but needs to go back to basics](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/the-winners-losers-afl-trade-darren-jolly-th.jpg)



