By Ian McCullough
December 10th 2009 @ 1:59am
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Bellamy re-signs as NSW Origin coach
NSW Rugby League chief executive Geoff Carr says no one is more qualified than Craig Bellamy to lead the Blues in next season’s State of Origin series.
NSW announced on Wednesday that Melbourne’s Bellamy will continue as coach despite leading the Blues to two successive series defeats.
“He is the best coach in the game and we [...]
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![It was revealed earlier this week Socceroo Luke Wilkshire had become one of Australian football’s top earners after signing a multi-million dollar deal with his Russian outfit Dinamo Moscow. He’s come a long way in a short space of time.
At 28 years of age, Wilkshire’s latest deal was the most important of his career. The [...] Ben Somerford: Wilkshire signing shows the power of association](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/socceroos-kuwait-wilkshire-th.jpg)
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The finals defeats to St Kilda and Geelong and the Round 22 loss to [...] Ben Somerford: Can Collingwood go one step further in 2010?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/st-kilda-geelong-audience-th.jpg)
![We often assume media interest is a barometer of a sports’ popularity. If it’s not at the forefront of priorities for newspaper editors and newsroom producers, then it must not be important and entertaining enough to warrant sufficient media and public interest.
But that logic, in my mind, is flawed.
Rather, it’s the media that is dictating [...] Adrian Musolino: The media dictates the popularity of sports in Australia](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lleyton-hewitt-th.jpg)
![Melbourne’s dominance of the Australian sporting landscape was almost complete in 2009. Victorian clubs claimed the AFL, NRL, A-League, Sheffield Shield, Netball ANZ championship, and NBL premierships.
It is an impressive feat, and one that seems to have been overlooked by pundits and fans alike. But how do we account for it?
Melbourne is undoubtedly [...] Adrian Musolino: Why do Melbourne teams dominate Aussie sports?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/why-do-melbourne-teams-storm-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)
![Melbourne Victory’s relationship with its supporters has been characterised by some splendid inconsistency almost since day one of the A-League.
The club has given its supporters a record two premiership and championship doubles. In return Victory has received the cash flow that comes with the highest attendances and memberships in the country.
The difficult side of the [...] Davidde Corran: Victory needs to start giving their fans credit](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/victory-fans-credit-melbourne-th.jpg)
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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)
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Indeed, these [...] Ben Somerford: Now we know our World Cup opponents, let’s prepare](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/harry-kewell-th.jpg)
![Word games involving cricketers have long been a juvenile pleasure for myself and a handful of mates. Whole elevens have been selected and pitted in battle.
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![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)
![There has been an erudite and fascinating discussion taking place on The Roar about my use of the words ‘first five-eighths’ to describe the position on the rugby field of the player standing directly outside the halfback.
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