By Liam FitzGibbon
November 29th 2009 @ 1:14am
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Mariners are the real deal, says McKinna
They’re a team that seem to thrive on being written off but coach Central Coast Mariners Lawrie McKinna insists his side can also handle the pressures of being labelled A-League title contenders.
After being tipped by many pundits as wooden-spoon contenders prior to the season, the Mariners are now considered genuine premiership threats after an impressive [...]
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![Question marks over stadiums, aside from the politics of the bidding process, were for many the biggest impediment to Australia potentially hosting the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Well it certainly is for Adelaide with the city given the blunt declaration from the FFA: build a new stadium or forget being part of the World [...] Adrian Musolino: Our World Cup bid lacking a united vision](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/our-world-cup-bid-frank-lowry-th.jpg)
![Flicking through the latest football news filtering through the wires last night, I came across the following headlines to the same Australian Associated Press story: A-League is ‘boring’, Rudan and ‘Boring’ A-league lacks character, Rudan.
Opening it, I was expecting to read Mark Rudan’s take on how the A-League was failing to live up to on-field [...] Tony Tannous: Is the A-League boring? No, just the headlines](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/is-a-league-boring-rudan-ognenovski-costa-th.jpg)
![What to make of another tumultuous round of A-League action? There’ll be plenty of column inches devoted to dwindling attendance figures, while the thorny of issue of refereeing has once again hit the headlines.
It seems we can’t go long in the A-League without refereeing standards coming into question.
Last season’s Grand Final was marred by an [...] Mike Tuckerman: A-League referees are only human](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/a-league-referees-only-human-th.jpg)
![Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick had every right to criticise Football Federation Australia and the Asian Football Confederation over the AFC Champions League fixture list.
For a tournament that is supposed to represent the cream of Asian football, neither organisation has acted in the best interests of the game when it comes to the scheduling of [...] Mike Tuckerman: Stubborn AFC are hindering the Champions League](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/victory-acl-ernie-merrick-th.jpg)
![Despite the giant strides made in the game from the Socceroos World Cup showing and the development of the A-League, football continues to fight for attention in the mainstream press, on free to air television and in print. It seems an ingrained ignorance still exists, judging by the pitiful coverage in certain sections of the [...] Adrian Musolino: Why does the mainstream media ignore football?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/newcastle-jets-grand-final-th.jpg)
![I’ve always thought that Channel Nine sports presenter Ken Sutcliffe would be a good bloke to share a beer with. Thirty years of covering everything from the America’s Cup to Wimbledon means he’s probably got plenty of tales to tell.
Admittedly my rationale isn’t based on the most scientific of premises.
One year for [...] Mike Tuckerman: A-League excites despite media indifference](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/a-league-excites-carlos-hernandez-th.jpg)
![The cranky Brian Moore, former England hooker, now a lawyer and an excellent rabble-rousing sports columnist for The Daily Telegraph UK, has put the boot into the assistant referee Bryce Lawrence over the Schalk Burger affair. The boot has missed its proper target.
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![Of all the conjecture surrounding Robbie Fowler’s shock omission from the North Queensland Fury line-up, not much of it has focused on the reasoning behind coach Ian Ferguson’s decision to change his formation and play a lone striker up front.
“We went down the line of changing my formation to 4-1-4-1 and I just needed a [...] Mike Tuckerman: Is physical football ruining the A-League?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/fowler-smarts-th.jpg)
![I was awoken rudely by the telephone at 6am Johannesburg time on Tuesday morning. Partially conscious and about to curse the hotel staff for an incorrect wake up time, it took a few moments to come to terms with the reality of the news that was being delivered.
I simply did not want to believe that [...] Geoff Lawson: Terror against sport in an unravelling nation](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/terror-against-sport-th.jpg)
![Quick question, which professional footballer faced court last week with the threat of a custodial sentence? An NRL player? BZZZT! Wycliff Palu of the Waratahs.
The player escaped a jail sentence for being caught driving without licence for the second time but will pay a $1000 fine.
What struck me was the media’s treatment of [...] Steve Kaless: Why NRL players must want to play union](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/why-nrl-want-union-wycliff-palu-naqelevuki-th.jpg)
![The actor Peter Ustinov, a wit and a tennis tragic, watched Monica Seles grunting her way to a victory at Wimbledon and with a sniffy hauteur said to a friend: ‘I’d hate to be be in the hotel room next door on her wedding night.’
Forget about wedding nights when grunting and groaning are presumably legitimate [...] Spiro Zavos: Take the grunt out of tennis](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/maria-sharapova-grunts-th.jpg)
![This Saturday night, top flight rugby league is being played in Western Australia again, which gives the people of Perth the chance to show the NRL whether or not their state is ready for a team again.
Only a handful of NRL games have been played in Perth since the Reds were disbanded following the [...] Gabriel Knowles: Should the NRL give the Wild West another chance?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/david-gallop-th.jpg)



