By Ed Jackson
November 20th 2009 @ 1:18am
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V8s to turn on the lights in Abu Dhabi
V8 Supercars will race under lights for the first time next year, but Perth is in danger of losing its event for 2010 unless crisis talks on Friday solve a government funding row.
Next year’s V8 season opener in Abu Dhabi will be a day-night race – the state-of-the-art track constructed there for this year’s Formula [...]
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![It’s been a bit of a gloomy start to the new A-League campaign. Crowds have stagnated. Certain pitches are a disgrace. And now the mainstream media has a new show reel of ‘crowd violence’ to dredge up every time football threatens the status quo.
The so-called ‘clashes’ between Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory supporters last [...] Mike Tuckerman: A-League boneheads need a new hobby](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/a-league-boneheads-th.jpg)
![There have been several controversial suggestions recently on how to make rugby a more spectator friendly game. Most of them have centered around the ELVs.
This assumes that there is some sort of problem with the mechanics of rugby and, as such, the issue has been approached in much the same way that a mechanic [...] Andrew Logan: Forget Stellenbosch Laws. Introduce Narrabri Principles](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/waratahs-try-tries-mortlock-th.jpg)
![It may seem like a ridiculous question at first glance, especially to the blue-collar worker who battles for every dollar, but it is worth exploring. The average AFL wage is $230,000 per season. While appearing exorbitant – it is not a pittance either – the figure is hardly enormous when you compare it with other [...] Luke D'Anello: At an average of $230,000, are AFL players underpaid?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/grant-birchall-hawthorn-th.jpg)
![A couple of years ago I went to Yankee Stadium with my sons to see a World Series game. We were seated near the home plate and during the pre-game warm-ups you could hear the players chatting as they belted balls high into the inky-velvet darkness of the night sky.
The facilities at the ancient ground [...] Spiro Zavos: Yankee Stadium sport’s most iconic ground? No way](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/scg-th.jpg)
![Gold Coast Football Club has booked its place in the AFL for 2011, provisionally at least. It’s boom time for the Coast: A-League, AFL, NRL, NBL (or whatever it’ll be called) franchises and one of Australia’s most popular motorsport festivals. Everyone’s on board, but is it a road to nowhere?
A decade ago, none of [...] Adrian Musolino: Gold Coast expansion may be too much, too soon](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gold-coast-expansion-mensink-bleiberg-buckley-th.jpg)
![There have been disparaging comments from the usual suspects in the British rugby media suggesting that the Bledisloe Cup Test in Tokyo is a commercially-oriented nonsense. Nonsense to that, I say.
Whenever Australia plays New Zealand at rugby, it is a good thing for the game, for supporters of the teams, for the lucky people who [...] Spiro Zavos: The fourth Bledisloe Cup Test is a good thing for rugby](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/the-fourth-bledisloe-cup-th.jpg)
![Last year’s Hong Kong Sevens revealed the prodigious rugby talents of James O’Connor. This year’s Under-20 Junior World Championship revealed the equally prodigious rugby talents of Aaron Cruden, the captain of the winning New Zealand side.
It would not be a surprise if the All Black selectors gave him a run in the New Zealand squad [...] Spiro Zavos: Aaron Cruden, New Zealand’s latest rugby star](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/aaron-cruden-th.jpg)
![At 9pm AEST tonight, Asia’s premier club competition will return, and like all good football, the Asian Champions League is a warts and all microcosm of Asian football.
On the downside, there’s the misguided political interference that means the majority of fans from the two teams who make it all the way to the end of [...] Davidde Corran: Ring the bells, the ACL is back!](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/adelaide-osaka-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)
![During Friday night’s West Coast-Essendon preseason hit-out, some time in between feats of Nic Naitanui brilliance, a curious umpiring decision managed to raise a few eyebrows.
Right before half time, a goal umpire awarded a crucial six points to Eagle Andrew Embley. The decision put the Eagles in front seconds away from the siren. However watching [...] Michael DiFabrizio: Video replays shouldn’t do the work of umpires](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/grand-final-afl-umpire-accuracy-th.jpg)
![The AFL dominates the Australian sporting landscape because it delivers entertainment like that. Geelong and St Kilda ensured the greatest day on our sporting calendar lived up to the occasion with the Cats confirming their greatness in a thrilling Grand Final.
With the grey weather relenting in the dying moments of the final quarter with scores [...] Adrian Musolino: Geelong confirm their greatness in an epic struggle](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/geelong-confirm-th.jpg)
![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)



