By Sam Lienert
October 31st 2009 @ 1:37am
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Blockbusters beat fairness in 2010 AFL draw
The AFL admits its emphasis on attracting viewers will come at the expense of fixturing fairness in 2010. Announcing next season’s schedule, AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said the league had deliberately concentrated on creating extra blockbuster games more so than an even fixture.
“By being incredibly strict (in the past) around the rules around [...]
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![Whether you love or loathe the English Premier League, you have to acknowledge its rise to global prominence from the dark days of hooliganism as truly phenomenal for what is a domestic league. But the popularity of the EPL has overshadowed the development of the A-League, with many football fans sticking with the overseas product. [...] Adrian Musolino: The dominance of the EPL is hindering A-League growth](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/england-france-th.jpg)
![The 2010 Australia-Pakistan Test at the SCG will be rated as one of the most incredible matches in the long history of cricket. All those doomsayers predicting the end of Test cricket have been exposed. Test cricket, put simply, can often be – and in this case was – the greatest game of all.
Australia was [...] Spiro Zavos: Test cricket’s demise has been greatly exaggerated](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ponting-only-current-player-th.jpg)
![If 2009 was meant to herald the return to dominance of the little man in rugby league, then to borrow a phrase from our tourism board, “Where the bloody hell are they?”
The game was meant to be faster, meaning we were going to see more players like Matt Bowen carving up tiring forwards.
However, what coaches [...] Steve Kaless: A good big man will always beat a good small man](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/good-big-man-josh-perry-th.jpg)
![The Western Bulldogs have been making all the right noises in pre-season, with solid wins over Brisbane and Hawthorn taking them to the NAB Cup semi-finals, in an ominous sign for the season proper. So after consecutive preliminary losses, are the Dogs ready to take the next step?
Indeed, this is the question everybody down at [...] Ben Somerford: Will 2010 finally be the Year of the Bulldog?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/western-bulldogs-th.jpg)
![I don’t want to be the one who tells you that Santa Claus may not be who you think he is, but all this talk of code wars is about as close to reality as a bloke who breaks into your house and leaves you iPods instead of taking them. There I’ve said it.
I’ve read [...] Steve Kaless: Don’t believe the hype, the code war is a myth](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/dont-believe-hype-th.jpg)
![The chief executive of the ARU, John O’Neill, went out of his way to praise the efforts of Phil Coles, Kevan Gosper and John Coates in getting the IOC’s executive board to select Sevens Rugby as a new Olympic Sport, along with golf.
The implication in the praise is that Sevens Rugby will offer an opportunity [...] Spiro Zavos: Gold, gold for Australia with the new Olympic Sports](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/gold-australia-olympics-beijing-th.jpg)
![The other day I was handed an advance copy of a book to go on sale today. In it was one of those wonderful little Kevin-Baconesque degrees of rugby separation that make reading worthwhile.
On July 25, 1981, a group of anti-apartheid protestors were baton charged and mercilessly beaten in Wellington’s Molesworth St as they protested [...] Andrew Logan: Firepower: the most spectacular fraud in Australian history](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/western-force-firepower-fraud-th.jpg)
![Pick one of the egg-shaped ball sports. A player has a kick for goal after the siren. If he makes it, they win, if he misses they lose. He misses and all and sundry do their best to say that the loss had nothing to do with this one kick.
There were plenty of opportunities [...] David Wiseman: Crunch plays separate the great from the good](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/crunchplays-tiger-woods-th.jpg)
![It was a good weekend for the underdogs in the Four Nations, and it’s almost beyond comprehension that England finished top of the table after their first forty minutes against France.
Without question the side that most impressed over the weekend was New Zealand.
Hit hard by injuries, the Kiwis showed their World [...] Steve Kaless: Four Nations review: Kiwis look the goods](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/four-nations-kiwis-warriors-th.jpg)
![Port Power is a club in crisis. Its bailout plea to the AFL may have fallen on deaf ears for the moment as the SANFL is told in no uncertain terms to sort out its own mess, but this crisis was always on the cards.
At stake is the question: can Adelaide support two clubs in [...] Adrian Musolino: Can Adelaide justify two clubs in the AFL?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/adelaide-two-clubs-mcnamara-sylvia-th.jpg)
![The old saying goes that when NSW is strong, Australia is strong. There is some truth in it even today, with both NSW and Australia struggling.
However, in the current Ashes squad, NSW has the best representation: seven out of 16 (44 per cent) are from NSW. That includes both the openers, Simon Katich and [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: A Blues side from the past decade would blitz them all](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/blues-side-blitz-michael-clarke-th.jpg)
![Thanks to Roar reader Freud of Football’s suggestion a few days ago, I have researched Test cricketers who have represented their country in rugby. This post does not claim to be exhaustive, but it is interesting.
Part I looks at versatile Test and one-day international (ODI) cricketers who have represented their country in rugby at [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Test cricketers to have played international rugby](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Test-cricketers-have-played-international-rugby-jeff-wilson-th.jpg)



