By Robert Grant
October 29th 2009 @ 1:59am
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Webber confident ahead of last race
Last-start Formula One winner Mark Webber is confident he will again be strong at this weekend’s season-ending race at the new Abu Dhabi circuit.
Webber clinched his second race win in Brazil earlier this month, coming on top of his breakthrough debut victory in the German Grand Prix.
While the Persian Gulf state’s Yas Marina track is [...]
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![The annual debate on the NAB Cup has surfaced again, but this time it was AFL footy operations manager Adrian Anderson who instigated the discussion by admitting the introduction of more clubs has threatened the competition’s future.
Gold Coast will officially join the AFL in 2011, while the Greater West Sydney club will be added the [...] Ben Somerford: Calls to scrap pre-season competition off the mark](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/bombers-magpies-anzac-chris-bryan-th.jpg)
![Billy Murdoch has never received so much publicity. Everyone is now fully aware of the fact that Ricky Ponting joins Murdoch as the only Australian captains to twice lose the Ashes in England. As a batsman Ponting is peerless, but how is history going to assess him as a leader?
Instead of damning him, the usual [...] David Wiseman: Ponting will be remembered as a very poor captain](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ponting-only-current-player-th.jpg)
![In wake of Geelong’s Matthew Stokes’ alleged possession and trafficking of cocaine, the AFL has again been forced to defend its illicit drugs policy, which was introduced in 2005 with the assistance of the AFL Players’ Association.
Stokes is facing criminal charges and there is no proof, at this stage, that he has actually taken any [...] Luke D'Anello: Forget the criticism, AFL’s drug testing not a soft hand](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-there-place-bump-ben-cousins-th.jpg)
![Chris Payne channelled Thierry Henry on Saturday night at the Sydney Football Stadium to help ‘hand’ Sydney FC a berth in the A-League grand final, reigniting the debate over the ethics of an intentional handball.
Payne, an early substitute for the injured John Aloisi, reinstated Sydney FC’s lead in the 30th minute with what was a [...] Adrian Musolino: Can Payne be excused or is he the A-League’s Henry?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sydney-fc-brosque-payne-th.jpg)
![Once again, the Champions League is dominated by English teams. This is all very surprising because by and large English sporting teams stink. They hardly ever have consistent sporting success.
Maybe it’s due to the scarcity of English players in the actual sides. Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United only had eight English players between [...] David Wiseman: Rename the EPL the Global Premier League](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rename-epl-gpl-patrice-evra-th.jpg)
![The brutal execution of John Howard’s hope to be the Chief Commissioner for a new independent Rugby League Commission by the Labor Left hard man, the Federal MP Anthony Albanese, was totally predictable.
Rugby league, traditionally, has been the Labor Party in NSW and Queensland at play. There is no way the party is going to [...] Spiro Zavos: Why John Howard is out of his league](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/why-john-howard-league-th.jpg)
![1993 was a good time to be an Australian in Britain, especially if you were the sort of Aussie who likes sport. Which, really, is the only sort of Aussie who ends up in Britain.
The Wallabies had just backed up the Rugby World Cup win with a successful tour of Ireland and Wales, marred only [...] Matthew Horan: How I missed cricket’s Ball of the Century](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/how-i-missed-cricket-shane-warne-th.jpg)
![Last year, some friends and I settled in at the Oaks in Neutral Bay preparing to watch a Tri-Nations match over a few lagers. There we sat, the repartee flowing back and forth, and the schooners of sponsors product lubricating the collective tonsils to monumental feats of rugby recall.
Every second story began with “Remember [...] Andrew Logan: Ireland Vs Australia, the greatest moment](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/top-five-sportsmen-david-campese-th.jpg)
![If we assume the 2018 World Cup is destined for Europe, as FIFA have all but confirmed, then 2022 is shaping up as a battle between Australia and the USA – a David and Goliath battle, according to Goliath.
US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, representing Goliath, laid out a list of reasons why [...] Adrian Musolino: Australia faces a colossus in its bid for 2022 World Cup](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/despite-indifference-soccer-beckham-th.jpg)
![A week or so ago India won their Test against England with the biggest second innings run chase ever on the sub-continent. Now, on Sunday, South Africa have scored 414 to win the first Test against Australia at Perth, the highest winning second innings run chase ever recorded in Australia.
Where have all the bowlers gone?
In [...] Spiro Zavos: World cricket: where have all the bowlers gone?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/pakistan-cricket-th.jpg)
![It’s Oscar time and The Roar’s Oscar for the pass of the rugby season is Quade Cooper’s no-look/pop-up pass to Will Chambers to put him under the Chiefs posts without a defender laying a hand on him.
The pass was pure magic. It was done so cleverly that one second Cooper had the ball in his [...] Spiro Zavos: Quade Cooper is the Paganini of the Pass](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/reds-quade-cooper-th.jpg)
![It’s a time when NRL fans should only be filled with an overwhelming sense of anticipation for the first round of the season proper but once again off-field dramas are taking centre stage.
Instead of column inches being filled by the build up of what should be a cracker of a match between the Dragons [...] Gabriel Knowles: Punish indiscretions with comp points](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/punish-indiscretions-brett-stewart-th.jpg)



