By Tom Wald
November 17th 2009 @ 2:17am
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Watson to bloom as a great all-rounder, says Ponting
Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes Shane Watson has the opportunity to become the world’s premier allrounder in the coming years and have a “massive impact” on world cricket.
With England’s Andrew Flintoff exiting the international scene and South African Jacques Kallis’s career coming towards its end, Ponting believes Watson has the chance this Australian summer to [...]
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![While Matthew Lloyd’s reckless hit on Brad Sewell has inevitably received plenty of attention this week in the midst of the debate about ‘the bump’, the Essendon forward’s act should also initiate discussion about the need for a send-off rule in AFL footy.
With his side trailing by 22 points at the main break, the Bombers [...] Ben Somerford: Lloyd’s hit raises the question of the send-off rule](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/lloyds-hit-raises-th.jpg)
![If there’s one thing which characterizes Australian rugby at the moment, it’s frustration. Just about everyone you speak to is frustrated and angry, frustrated and worried, or just frustrated and sad.
After fourteen years of professionalism, rugby lovers outside the professional sphere are feeling their game slip away from them.
Where once they felt a part of [...] Andrew Logan: It’s time for the launch of Rugby Australia](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/next-five-things-john-oneill-th.jpg)
![It’s not often that the Carling Cup semi-finals take on major significance in England, but then it’s not often that the world’s richest club takes on the world’s most indebted with a place in a knock-out final at stake.
That the two teams hail from one of world football’s traditional hotbeds makes tonight’s Carling Cup showdown [...] Mike Tuckerman: English football is awash with stars – and debt](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/balance-power-epl-jay-spearing-th.jpg)
![As Australia moves inexorably towards a series defeat – or at best a draw – in India, it is vital that all cricket-lovers in the nation commit themselves fully to finding the right people to blame.
Candidates such as Glenn McGrath (retired), Shane Warne (retired) and the former Mrs. Brett Lee (honey trap) spring to [...] Andrew Jones: The Top 5 Dud Theories of Selection](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/watson.jpg)
![This Saturday, two of our region’s greatest football rivals will come face to face. Not at Hindmarsh Stadium – where Adelaide United host Queensland Roar in the A-League preliminary final – but rather in cooler climes further north.
The Shizuoka derby is set to grind into gear, and as usual it’ll be handbags at six [...] Mike Tuckerman: Which is the best derby in world football?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/kenta-hasegawa-th.jpg)
![Let’s be honest: the England side that recently won the Ashes is a very modest one. Dispute this? Well ask yourself this question: who from the 2009 English side would make the 2005 English side? Matt Prior for Geraint Jones,
Graeme Swann for Ashley Giles, while Strauss the 2009 batsman would dead heat the 2005 version [...] Greg Russell: Australian cricket just needs a new captain](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/australian-cricket-ponting-th.jpg)
![Groundsmen around the world, please note: bowlers do exist. But the way you are preparing the pitches, they may become extinct. Ditto for Test cricket.
I realise you must be under instructions to prepare a pitch like a billiard table so that it lasts for five days and more spectators turn up to swell the organisers’ [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: There’s too many tall scores and small thinking](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/tall-scores-small-thinking-tendulkar-th.jpg)
![By “ambies” I do not mean the ambulance men who save our lives and properties. Michael Clarke is one. Richard Hadlee was another. So were Jack Gregory, Vinoo Mankad, Greg Matthews and Kepler Wessels. And about 140 others.
I mean the ambidextrous Test cricketers who batted right-handed and bowled left-arm, or the other way about. [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Weird or wonderful? The cricketing ambies](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/weird-or-wonderful-clarke-th.jpg)
![After two weeks of the ANZ Championship, two Australian teams – Melbourne Vixens and the Adelaide Thunderbirds, as well as the New Zealand’s Waikato Magic – remain undefeated and the competition so far has not been disappointing.
The first two rounds have given new and long time spectators a glimpse of the the skills and [...] Natalie Medhurst: Umpires are putting the biff into netball](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/catherine-cox-forget-hype-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)
![After almost 20,000 fans packed out Christchurch’s AMI Stadium for last weekend’s Wellington-Adelaide clash, many pundits have been asking whether the South Island’s largest city should be a site for future A-League expansion.
Last Saturday’s brilliant crowd turn-out definitely suggests there is an appetite for football in Christchurch, and with a population of just under 400,000 [...] Ben Somerford: Can NZ accommodate a second A-League team?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wellington-phoenix-tim-brown-th.jpg)
![For the second consecutive weekend, a major motorsport event was halted due to freak storms. Both the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Qatar MotoGP couldn’t continue in the circumstances.
But as they were twilight and night races respectively, to better cater for television, there was no more room for manoeuvrability.
Motorsport has [...] Adrian Musolino: Catering for television can cost a sport dearly](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/catering-for-tv-cortese-th.jpg)



