Was at the game and i would say Menzal is gone until 2013, and i think the best buddy will get is to return in the first couple of rounds next year. ACL means hawks will go almost all season without Buddy and Roughy

The only reason they have a long break is to do with the fact that racing cars dont like cold whether, that is why the formula one turns up at the start of the year, and the moto gp come in october. I think its forgivable. Plus the break leads to the phillip island and bathurst enduros.

All this talk of expansion is a little off the goals of the AFL. They are in fact more interested reducing the amount of teams in Melbourne by relocating those teams that they need to prop up. They tried to encourage North Melbourne to head off to the Gold Coast about 5 years ago, before they went off and elected Jimmy Brayshaw who said No. Now they are looking at playing games in Hobart or Ballarat.

Trust me, At least 2 of the melbourne teams are fighting off relocation at the moment (North Melbourne and one of ether Melbourne Demons, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda) And i would say the AFL is quite desperate for Gellong to cease playing home games in Melbourne

This decision, despite going against everything a World sport governing body strives to do, would never surprise me. The ICC is run by some of the most corrupt sports organisation in the world, Yes even more so than FIFA. The BCCI has much of the Board by the short and curly s, and has been moulded into its make profit at all costs thinking, to its own detrament. Their control of the ICC is best displayed by them shutting out John Howard from the presedency.

Put Simply Blame India

Qatar would have to be one of the most scrutnized bids that we will ever see, If it does not look like they will be able to provide what they promiced, a fair bit in advance, they will surly lose it. You will also find that FIFA will be quite critical of the Qatar government.

A-league fans around Australia should know that this is quite a general problem for people that attend sports events in general in and around melbourne. The a-league, after alot of insidents at Victory matches, litrally forsed the club to begin this Home end area for Active support groups. However upon arriving at the Etihad Stadium as an employee of the stadium, i have noticed an un nerving number of police. The amount that should of been present at the Big Day Out, not some Soccor match with 11,000 people. Its the same thing that Cricket Fans have had to endure over the last Decade. I attended the 20/20 match at The G and security where everywhere. The appeared to check almost every single bag, plus they had some stupid wristband thing going on.
Security guards and police, at least here in melbourne appear hell bent on styfling the atmoshere of just about any event you can think of.
Here are a few more occurances of heavy handed security at events in melbourne-
Aussie Open 2011 #1- At dockovic match at hisence arena, Security staff took it upon them selves to stop any body with Serbian of croation flags draped across there backs from entering the stadium
Aussie Open 2011 #2- The hinekin bar grand slam oval had some of the most strignt security accecess you would ever see. They asked many people to remove sunglasses.
Melbourne Victory games- High Police presence no matter how small the crowd
AFL- Has some high police presence on many occasions, and they attempted to stop many of us hawthorn supporters from jumping on the ground when buddy scored a ton

Here is a team they should work towards, and should play in the ashes, when they are in England
Shane Watson (c Fact is he is the 2nd most experenced in this bunch)
Shaun Marsh
Usman Kwahja
Micheal Clarke
Aaron Finch
Steve Smith
Travis Paine (WK)
Peter Siddle
Mitchel Starc
Micheal Beer
Peter George

Remaining Squad
Mitchell Johnson, Phil Hughs and Peter Nevill

I doubt people who watch any form of motorsport will ever doubt the fact that it is a sport. Beyond the fact that the winning team is often those who deal with the conditions the best, the skills go far deeper than skill behind the wheel. The Pit crews have a training regime not to different to the AFL or NRL teams, and they are asked to pritty much comply with it as long as they are in the sport.

People dont accuse jockeys of not being athletes, despite the fact the horse does all the work,

Mate, although the New Zealand teams have had an edge over the australians in many sports, such as Netball, rugby and now Rugby League, they still do not, in any way have the edge over us in Football. Wellington Pheonex are a very good club, who have spent alot of money developing a huge talented group of both Australians and New Zealanders. Associating them with New Zealand is a huge misnomer, as they will actually represent Australia in the AFC Champions League if they do win it. If they where considered an OFC club they would compete in the O-League, as NZ’s best team, and will of played in like 3 Club world cups in a row. Now lets look at the world cup, Australia actual won a game, and probably should of won 2. NZ drew 3 games, and one was against a team that appeared to not even try, Italy. Australia, in reality did no worse than 2006, we left with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. That is 4 points opposed to 3. Plus the two teams that did qualify for the final 16 did far better than the 2 from there group. Plus a 2-1 defeat is a fair indicatior of who is better

What can i say, Hauretz and Doherty are both lucky to of appeared just after Warne and McGill. These two are clearly just journeymen who might deserve a 15 Minutes of fame, and disposed of like a chinese takeaway container. Like several other posters have said, Smith and O’Keefe should be allowed in the team, under there batting form, possible replacing North, and you may be able to get a decent spinner out of those two.

They do need to think of a better way to vote for events, rather than rely on 24 people, whose role appears to be highly publicised. The only reason there is corruption is to do with having all the power among 24 people who have vested interests. It would be easy enough for the ExCo to be able to obtain the services of say 100 or so Football identities (Board members of National Associations or Prominent Players) to vote on top of that 24 ExCo members.

Another good idea is having the confederations pick a single bid, to put foreward FIFA. It would prevent situations like we had this year, where support from the many members of a particular confederation is going to be clearly divided amongst the members associated with that specific one

Since people do not think that the country was ready from the start of the bidding process, i would not be surprised that FIFA may be required to take it off them. The media have a habit of being very savage with less developed nations holding major sport events. Dehli copped it big time before the Comm Games, Sydney copped it to some extent, and South Africa had a similar concern. However the main difference is, western countries involved in the organisations were supportive of the countries, however Qatar is likley to be attacked even from within its neighbours, who in large part are even richer than they are.

I will just say that i am completly dumbfounded as to why Qatar would win the world cup over 4 top 50 nations. I was in fact certain that the USA would of done it. Qatar should prepare it’s self for maybe one of the biggest criticism campaigns to ever be brought upon an event in world history (worse than what India copped). I guess we will find out some of the hidden agendas of delagetes over the coming months.

Pretty good list, all superb cricketers. Zaheer Kahn would be the only player i would have doubts about. However that said the best replacement that comes to mind may of only played 2-3 tests all yea, Peter Siddle. I think Rick Pointing would be the best candiate for 12th man, since he was close to being named at no. 3.

Hay just saying that in terms of a football tournament, issues about cultural difference, should not actually be considered a issue. Making them an issue is an attempt by Westernised countries, being all other nations bidding, to start a hate campaign. This shit happens constantly, whenever the country appears to lag behind in anything, be it the building, Unions striking or in this case Governments who have religion dictate policy.

Just saying, Culture should not be a decisive factor, like the FFA, US Soccer, JFA and South Korea football, will have you believe.

If anywhere political factors should come up, its the other 3. South Korea are likely to have a war, engulf the entire peninsula, any day now, The USA economy is down the gurgler, and they still have the nerve to busy them selves in other peoples business (south Korea). Japan have there own problems in regards to economy and imminent war with a neighbor. (The two Koreas and the two chinas)

I will admit that here in australia, we do have a habit of looking down on the countries that appear to be “inferior” to us. Dheli is an example, where the media put a whole heap of focus on some minor points, such as incomplete buildings, and very little has been made of the good points. Vancouver also appeared to have undue focus put on the speed of the Luge track.

I guess now Qatar is copping a similar hate campaign form the western media with claims that Alcohol sales are going to be a problem(and also Alcohol sponsorship will be impossible to obtain), and woman may be forced to adopt the local dress code.

Much like other times Asia and Africa host major events, there is a huge beat up on things that are minor, or non issues. In reality the negative press should really be focused on the heat, as not even western nations are able to find solutions to cater for the big stadiums that are required

I believe that the A-League is not the only national competition with some crazy scheduling. The AFL has done this kind of thing for about 5-6 years. One year Carlton and hawthorn played once, in the final game of the season, Next year some teams will meet each other once, in the 2nd last game of the season, others will have 2 games against each other in 10 weeks.

I don’t know too much about NRL, but i am certain that they have Similar shit happen.

I was thinking about bloody time. In Victoria, major regional centres have always had a hard time, and i have always thought that they should have some kind of small sports stadium, that can hold a bunch of sports. If anything like the hawks in tassie, they should get some great support from an area that has largely been ignored.

In regards to further use, North Melbourne FC is gonna have to seriously look at furthering its operations, or even relocating before FFA or NRL choose to get their grubby mits on it

No offence Oly09 the idea of a group stage will most definitely will prevent the small state league teams from being competitive. None of those teams would be appriciative of being thumped week in week out by A-League teams. That is the sole reasoning behind having a knock out trophy

It is funny that international sports teams seem to only be sponsored by a couple of different companies. It always appears to be between Finance/Banks, Alcohol, Airlines and Telecommunication companies.

Governments would be stupid to ban alcohol or gaming sponsorship. It will further dwindle the pool of potential sponsors, particularly for international teams. Simply put, tobacco sponsor bans almost killed motor sport, and no one is willing to make the same poor judgement

Is it just me or do some of the pictures (in particular a picture on the back page of the Herald Sun in Melbourne) have the this orange yolk appear more like a yellow, and the supposed charcoal torso appear like jet Black.

I would think that this is a poor hue choice, since it wil not be possible for it to be always seen the same wherever it appears

Well it don’t matter what a tournament held at a sand belt course is really called. You would find that no matter which of those “big three” is held in Melbourne, that would be the one that was to take the role of the biggest in Australia. As it turns out the Australian Masters is that tournament, it is unfortunately the least likely to be shifted to another city to make room for the Open

” Hay dog, Wanna sausage

The youth that play AFL in these other countries are ones who have been denied the opportunity to play rugby, soccer, league, and many other sports. I did say that the poor villages in south africa have begun playing Aussie Rules, and are largely denied the opportunity to play professional sports for the sole fact that they have not attended the correct high school. All the other countries that i have mentioned have the same problems, with there professional rugby ranks littered with the Alumni of elite private schools. Aussie rules attracts many kids, by offering the kids who are highly unlikely to get into rugby with the opportunity to get a contract here

Hay people, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but this article does not, in any way mention the AFL planning to start a team in NZ. All the AFL plan to do with New Zealand, South Africa and PNG, and other counties, is attract some of their highly athletic youth into the game. It means that the Talent Pool of athletes in the elite competition is far wider.

I personally believe that their is no problem in the AFL getting youngsters from other countries. It gives youth who generally do not have the opportunity given to them to play a sport professionally or at a truly elite level. Many youngsters in NZ do not have the build to play rugby in the ANZ championship there, in South Africa, they target the poorer villages, who despite great skill in athletics are likely to never come close because of there backgrounds (from what I know of SA sporting culture, many of the elite athletes come from big elite Private Schools) PNG has both problems.