Argentina
Current FIFA ranking: 8
Nickname: Albicelestes (White and Sky blues).
Main kit: White and sky blue stripes, black shorts, white socks.

Key players: Martin Demichelis (Bayern); Pablo Aimar (Benfica); Maxi Rodrigues (Atletico Madrid); Lional Messi (Barcelona); Gabriel Heinze (Marseille); Esteban Cambiasso (Inter); Javier Mascherano (Liverpool); Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)

Route to 2010: Argentina was placed fourth in the CONMEBOL confederation, representing the final spot that automatically qualified for 2010.

The Albicelestes experienced a few nervous moments, losing 3-1 to Brazil at home and getting hammered by Bolivia 6-1 away.

In the end, a 1-0 away win over Uruguay, in the final round of matches, ensured a comfortable 4 point margin over the 5th placed Uruguay.

Recent results:

• 14 October 2009: Uruguay, 1-0 win, Montevideo, Uruguay.
• 14 November 2009: Spain, 2-1 loss, Madrid, Spain.

Honours:

• World champions twice: 1978 and 1986 (second in 1930 and 1990).
• Confederation Cup winners: 1992 (second in 1995 and 2005).
• Copa America winner on fourteen occasions.
• Olympic gold medallist in 2004 and 2008.

World Cup record: Argentina has played in 14 of 18 World Cups; winning twice, in 1978 and 1986, and finishing second in 1930 and 1990.

Both championship wins were shrouded in controversy, with political games played at the national level in 1978, and the so-called “hand of God” incident with Maradona in 1986 – at a time when he was clearly the best player in the world.

In the opening game of the 1990 World Cup – as reigning champion – they fell to a nine man Cameroon side 1-0, and could consider themselves fortunate that they did not lose by more.

Since that second placing in 1990, the Albicelestes have failed to make the last four, despite being close to outright favourites to win the cup the last few occasions.

In 1998 Argentina breezed through the group stage, got past England on penalties in the next stage, but fell to a good Dutch team in the quarter finals; 2-1.

They failed to get out of the group stages in 2002; in a similar vain to France.

In 2006 – once again billed as a top 3 team in terms of favouritsm – showed good form right up to the quarter finals; where, upon leading 1-0 against the host nation, basically put the cue away and allowed the hosts to tie the game up where they then lost on penalties.

Nevertheless, they left a good impression on 2006, best remembered for the 6-0 shellacking of Serbia which featured one of the very best team goals in world cup history, and a pulsating second round game against Mexico, which was just about the game of the tournament.

Comments: All the goodwill built up during the last World Cup has virtually dissipated under the guidance of national icon, Diego Maradona, both at home and abroad, with a string of insipid results.

The widespread feeling is that while Maradona is a wonderful figurehead for the national team, he is not really national team manager material, and that very little thought is given to the concept of a “game plan” whenever the Albicelestes take the field.

This might have the unexpected result of giving us some performances that are reminiscent of the carefree days of Brazil circa 1982, when structure and team discipline were considered dirty words.

Be that as it may, do not be surprised to see an Argentine team repeat its performance of 2002, despite a very talented squad in terms of the individual players.

Nigeria
Current FIFA ranking: 22
Nickname: Super Eagles.
Main kit: All green.

Key players: Vincent Enyeama (Hapoel Tel Aviv); Taye Taiwo (Marseille); Danny Shittu (Bolton); Joseph Yobo (Everton); Mikel John Obi (Chelsea); Peter Odemwingie (Lokomotiv Moscow); Obafemi Martins (Wolfsburg); Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Everton); Ikechukwu Uche (Real Zaragoza).

Route to 2010: Nigeria finished in top spot in Group B of the African qualifiers.

They were lucky to hold onto top spot in the final round of games when the lowly Mozambique won at home 1-0 against the second placed Tunisia, which was their only loss for the qualifiers.

Nigeria finished its six games with three wins and three draws, including two away nil-all draws.

Recent results:

• 7 June 2009: Kenya, 3-0 win, in Nigeria.
• 20 June 2009: Tunisia, 0-0 draw, in Tunisia.
• 6 September 2009: Tunisia, 2-2 draw, in Nigeria.
• 11 October 2009: Mozambique, 1-0 win, in Nigeria.
• 14 November 2009: Kenya, 3-2 loss, in Kenya.

Honours:

• African Cup of Nations, winners twice, in 1980 and 1994.
• Olympic gold medallist in 1996.

World Cup record: The Super Eagles made the World cup on three consecutive occasions, from 1994 to 2002, making the second round the first two times.

Their World Cup record is four wins, one draw and six losses, fourteen goals for and sixteen goals against.

In its first World Cup, in 1994, Nigeria topped the group, defeating two European nations – Bulgaria 3-0 and Greece 2-0.

In the second round, Nigeria led a 10-man Italy 1-0, but allowed Roberto Baggio to tie it up, and then succumbed in extra time to a 2-1 defeat.

Nigeria topped their group again in 1998, and again defeated two European nations, Spain 3-2 and Bulgaria 1-0, when they were then trashed 4-1 by Denmark in the second round.

In 2002, Nigeria was in the group of death, and finished bottom of its group after losses to Argentina and Sweden, and a nil-all draw with England.

Comments: Both Nigeria’s World Cup record and their recent qualifiers suggest a capacity to take on the very best in the world, but a missing mental cutting edge, which can see their game plan fall apart when least expected.

One thing is for sure, their World Cup record against physical European opponents is quite good, and they have had a strong win against Greece at World Cup level.

The squad shows plenty of talent, so on African territory I would fancy their chances of getting one of the top two spots.

Korea Republic
Current FIFA ranking: 52
Nickname: Taegeuk Jeonsa (Taeguk Warriros); Red Devils.
Main kit: Red shirt, white shorts.

Key players: Lee Woon-Jae (Suwon); Kim Dong-Jin (Zenit); Cha Du-Ri (Freiburg); Cho Won-Hee (Wigan); Park Ji-Sung (Manchester United); Seol Ki-Hyeon (Fulham); Park Chu-Young (Monaco).

Route to 2010: South Korea finished top of Group B in the AFC qualifiers.

Their best result was a 4-1 home win against the United Arab Emirates. They also managed two 2-0 away wins, against the UAE and the strong Saudi side.

Recent results:

• 12 August 2009: Paraguay, 1-0 win, in Seoul, Korea.
• 5 September 2009: Australia, 3-1 win, in Seoul, Korea.
• 14 October 2009: Senegal, 2-0 win, in Seoul, Korea.
• 14 November 2009: Denmark, 0-0 draw, in Denmark.
• 18 November 2009: Serbia, 1-0 loss, in London.

Honours:

• Asian Cup winners twice, in 1956 and 1960.

World Cup record: The Red Devils’ World Cup record looks a bit like the early years of Mexico’s record, making the World Cup on a regular basis, but going out after the first round on each occasion.

This record changed somewhat when South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup, defeating giants in Italy and Spain on the way to a respectable 4th placing.

In 2002, while the Red Devils failed to go past the group stage, they achieved a first, winning their first World Cup game outside of Asia, defeating Togo 2-1.

Comments: Apart from the World Cup on home territory, it has to be said that South Korea’s record against European and South American opposition isn’t great, but they were far from embarrassed last World Cup.

There are four factors that make me consider South Korea some chance of going to the next round:

1. More South Koreans than ever before are plying their trade overseas, some in very good clubs;
2. South Korea has chalked up some decent results in their last few friendlies;
3. They have met Greece twice for one win and one loss; and
4. The random factor of the unfamiliarity of a World Cup in Africa.

Greece
Current FIFA ranking: 12
Nickname: Galanoleyki
Main kit: Blue with white trim

Key players: Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos); Sotirios Kyrgiakos (Liverpool); Kostas Kasouranis (Panathinaikos); Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos); Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg); Theofanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen); Giourkas Seitaridis (Panathinaikos).

Route to 2010: Greece finished second in UEFA Group 2, below Switzerland.

They lost both times to the Swiss, but were able to win both home and away games against the third placed Latvia (5-2 and 0-2). Yes, it wasn’t the most difficult group going around.

Greece met the Ukraine in the second round play-off, and it’s not too difficult to predict the aggregate scoreline: a 1-0 result falling the way of the Greeks.

Recent results:

• 14 November 2009: Ukraine, 0-0 draw, Athens, Greece.
• 18 November 2009: Ukraine, 1-0 win, Donetsk, Ukraine.

Record against group opponents:

• Argentina: Played once, lost.
• Nigeria: Played twice, one win, one loss.
• Korea Republic: played twice, one draw, one loss.

Honours:

• European champions in 2004.

World Cup record: For a country with a vibrant league, and a decent history of club success at European level, Greece’s World Cup history is a sorry one.

They qualified only on one other occasion – in 1994 – losing all three games, scoring zero goals and conceding 10.

As it happens, both Argentina and Nigeria were in that same group back in 1994. Argentina won 4-0 and Nigeria won 2-0.

Comments: Greece’s performance in Euro 2004 is far more relevant than their performance in the World Cup ten years earlier.

You might recall Greece was able to become European champions with some sturdy defence and the capacity to nick a goal from set pieces. Their last five games of the tournament ended up in 1-0 victories.

It might be tempting to presume that Greece made it to the World Cup on a similar basis, but putting aside their play off with Ukraine, I’m not so sure.

Remembering it was a relatively weak group (Latvia, Israel, Luxembourg and Moldova finished below them), they still managed to concede six goals at home in their five home games. Even Luxembourg managed to score one!

I have a nagging feeling that Greece will finish last in there group again.

Roaring Hot

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South Africa

Current FIFA ranking: 86

Nick name: Bafana Bafana (The boys, the boys)

Main kit: Gold with green trim

Key players: Aaron Mokoena (captain) (Portsmouth); Benni McCarthy (Blackburn Rovers); Stephen Pienaar (Everton)

Route to 2010: qualified as host

Recent results:
17 November 2009: Jamaica, 0-0 draw, in Bloemfontein, South Africa
14 November 2009: Japan, 0-0 draw, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
13 October 2009: Iceland, 1-0 loss, in Reykjavik, Iceland
10 October 2009: Norway, 1-0 loss, in Oslo, Norway
19 September 2009: Madagascar, 1-0 win, in Kimberley South Africa

Recent results against group opponents:
8 July 2005: Mexico, 2-1 win, in Carson, USA

Honours:
1996: African Cup of Nations, 1st place

World Cup history:
First round appearances in 1998 and 2002 for one win, three draws and two losses, 8 goals for, 12 goals against.

South Africa met France in the 1998 World Cup in the group stages, and went down to the host and eventual winner: 3-0.

Their only World Cup win was a 1-0 win against Slovenia in 2002.

Comments: The recent record and FIFA ranking do not lie – South Africa is ranked behind both North Korea and New Zealand. South Africa has failed to score a goal in its last four friendlies (all against weak football powers), and their last win was almost three months ago against the lowly ranked Madagascar.

South Africa has a few players in the Premier League, and another few in the Eredivisie, but most of the squad plays in the local Premier Soccer League.

Its opponents are all ranked within the top 20 (a surprising statistic), meaning that Bafana Bafana will have its work cut out for it.

Their one saving grace is that no host nation has ever failed to get out of the group stage – and that statistic includes some fairly ordinary past hosts (but there’s always a first time).

The other factor Bafana Bafana supporters will be counting on, apart from home ground support, is that despite their high rankings, their rivals are not necessarily consistent performers in such tournaments (although Mexico has turned that around the last 15 years).

Mexico

Current FIFA ranking: 15

Nick name: El Tri

Main kit: Light green, white shorts, red socks.

Key players: Carlos Vela (Arsenal); Carlos Salcido (PSV); Hector Moreno (AZ); Andres Guardado (Deportivo); Rafael Marquez (Barcelona); Guillermo Franco (West Ham)

Route to 2010: Came second to the USA in the CONCACAF final round of group matches. Managed home wins against all its other five opponents, including a 2-1 win against the USA. Most tellingly, it had a 3-0 away win against Costa Rica which helped set up its qualification.

Recent results:
5 September 2009: Costa Rica, 3-0 win, San Jose, Costa Rica
9 September 2009: Honduras, 1-0 win, Mexico City
30 September 2009: Columbia, 2-1 loss, Dallas, USA
10 October 2009: El Salvador, 4-1 win, Mexico City
14 October 2009: Trinidad and Tobago, 2-2 draw, Port of Spain, T&T

Recent results against group opponents:
15 October 2003: Uruguay, 2-0 loss, Chicago, USA
7 July 2004: Uruguay, 2-2 draw, Chicago, USA
8 July 2005: South Africa, 2-1 loss, in Carson, USA
14 July 2007: Uruguay, 3-1 win, Caracas, Venezuela

Honours:
CONCACAF champions in 1965, 1971 and 1977
CONCACAF Gold Cup: 1993, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2009
Confederations Cup: 1st place in 1999 and 3rd place in 1995

World Cup history:
South Africa will represent Mexico’s 14th appearance at the World Cup, which looks like a decent record on the face of it, except its record in the early years is nothing short of woeful.

In six appearances from 1930 to 1966, El Tri won only the one game and never went past the first round.

Mexico managed to reach the quarter finals when they first hosted the event in 1970, and again when they next hosted it in 1986.

Since then, Mexico’s record has been reasonable, making it out of the group stage on four consecutive occasions from 1994 to 2006.

They were involved in one of the more memorable world cup games in 2006 against Argentina with Maxi Rodriguez scoring a stunning winner in extra time.

An interesting historical side note: Tunisia became the first African country to win a World Cup game when they defeated Mexico in 1978.

France defeated Mexico 4-1 in 1930 and 3-2 in 1950.

In 1966, all of France, Uruguay and Mexico found themselves in the same group as that of the host nation, England. Mexico managed draws against both France and Uruguay, and finished in 3rd place, above France.

Comments: As I mentioned above, after many barren decades in the World Cup (qualifying for many years as the only half decent North American country), Mexico have had a remarkably consistent run in the last four World Cups, getting past the group stage on each occasion.

On two occasions, in 1998 and 2002, they had Italy’s measure.

It has to be remembered that in that time Mexico has engaged a bit more with the South Americans, and a few Mexicans have made their way to the top European clubs.

They would feel that they know all about Uruguay and their recent good record against La Celeste would give them confidence of gaining three points there, putting Mexico in the box seat to proceed to the next round for the fifth consecutive time.

Uruguay

Current FIFA ranking: 19

Nick names: Charruas; La Celeste Olimpica (The Olympic Sky Blue); La Celeste (The Sky Blue)

Main kit: Sky blue, black shorts and socks

Key players: Diego Lugano (Fenerbahce); Diego Godin (Villareal); Maxi Pereira (Benfica); Martin Caceres (Juventus); Walter Gargano (Napoli); Sebastian Eguren (Villareal); Diego Perez (Monaco); Luis Suarez (Ajax); Diego Forlan (Atletico Madrid); Sebastian Abreu (Thessalonik)

Route to 2010: For the third consecutive World Cup qualifier, Uruguay finished 5th in the CONMEBOL qualifiers resulting in a play off with Cost Rica, which they won on aggregate 2-1.

Uruguay didn’t fair too well against the top four teams, it’s best result being a home 2-0 win against Paraguay. La celeste scored some big home wins against the bottom two teams, 5-0 against Bolivia and 6-0 agaisnt Peru.

The most telling result was a 2-1 away win against the team that finished directly below them, Ecuador – the only game Ecuador lost on home territory.

Recent results:
14 November 2009, Costa Rica, 1-0 win, San Jose, Costa Rica
18 November 2009, Costa Rica, 1-1 draw, Montevideo, Uruguay

Recent results against group opponents:
15 October 2003: Mexico, 2-0 win, Chicago, USA
7 July 2004: Mexico, 2-2 draw, Chicago, USA
14 July 2007: Mexico, 3-1 loss, Caracas, Venezuela

Overall record against group opponents:
Uruguay has met South Africa twice, with one win and a draw.
Uruguay has met Mexico 17 times for 3 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses.
Uruguay has met France 5 times for 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.

Honours:
14 time winners of the Copa America
World champions on two occasions: 1930 and 1950
Olympic gold medal winners in 1924 and 1928

World Cup record:
Uruguay has the distinction, along with Italy, of being the only nations to win the World cup on their first two attempts (1930 and 1950).

On the other 8 occasions La Celeste has made the World Cup, they had a 4th placing twice (most recent in 1970), three quarter finals or second rounds, and went home early the other three occasions.

Uruguay defeated France 2-1 in the 1966 World Cup, where they also drew with Mexico in the same group.

In 2002, Uruguay drew with France in the group stage, 0-0.

The last time Uruguay managed a win in a World Cup game was a 1-0 win against South Korea in 1990.

Comments: Uruguay’s performance in the World Cup since 1970 (when they have made it) can only be described as abysmal.

One key to guessing at Uruguay’s likely chances of proceeding into the next round is to look at their record in the last three qualifiers, having finished 5th on each occasion, a sure sign that they might lack that little something to get past both Mexico and France next year.

A failure to get the three points against the host nation would consign them to yet another early exit.

France

Current FIFA ranking: 7.

Nick name: Les Bleus (The Blues); L’Equipe tricolore (The Tri-colour Team)

Main kit: Royal blue with white shorts and red socks.

Key players: Steve Mandanda (Marseille), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), William Gallas (Arsenal), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Sebastien Squillaci (Sevilla), Eric Abidal (Barcelona), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid), Sidney Govou (Lyon), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)

Route to 2010: France finished second to Serbia in UEFA Group 7, managing to defeat Serbia at home, but dropping a game away to lowly Lithuania.

We all know what happened in the play off against Ireland.

Recent results:
5 September 2009, Romania, 1-1 draw, in Paris, France
9 September 2009, Serbia, 1-1 draw, in Belgrade, Serbia
10 October 2009, Faroe Islands, 5-0 win, in Guingamp, France
14 October 2009, Austria, 3-1 win, in Saint-Denis, France
14 November 2009, Ireland, 1-0 win, in Dublin, Ireland
18 November 2009, Ireland, 1-1 draw, in Saint-Denis, France

Honours:
World champions in 1994 and runners-up in 2006
Confederation Cup winners in 2001 and 2003
European Champions in 1984 and 2000

World Cup record:
France has appeared in 12 previous World Cups, with some great results punctuated by abysmal efforts (the most recent in 2002 where, as reigning champion, it failed to score one goal).

Les Bleus won the World Cup as hosts in 1998, were runners up in 2006 and finished 3rd in 1958 and 1986.

There have also been six round 1 exits.

France famously missed out on an appearance in the final in 1982 when they lost the first ever World Cup penalty shoot out in a semi-final against West Germany. France was leading 3-1 in extra time, when the appearance of inspirational skipper, Rummenigge off the bench sparked a famous revival.

This game is also remembered for the shirt front by German goalkeeper, Schumacher, on Battiston that incredibly resulted in no foul of any description being paid, notwithstanding that Battiston was stretchered off unconscious.

Comments: Many look at France’s poor effort in their last game against Ireland, and assume they are a team incapable of threatening next year.

Don’t believe a word of it!

Look through the French squad, and the names are as big as any you will find in any other squad.

Look at the attacking third, and the names, in their totality, suggest plenty of strength.

However, as the reigning champion in the unfamiliar territory of Asia in 2002, they failed miserably.

The unfamiliar territory of Africa will have a similar effect on some big European teams, make no mistake – does France have the mental toughness to make sure they are not one of them?

There are two main reasons why progressive changes, while occasionally considered, are rarely put into effect by FIFA (putting aside the general ineptitude to be found amongst some on the Executive):

1. Too many varied and vested interests make unanimous decision making nigh on impossible
2. There is a genuine and valid effort made by FIFA to ensure that the game can be played in an identical manner throughout the world at all levels, from the impoverished village in central Africa all the way to the most prosperous cities on Earth.

This pattern is ingrained to such an extent that despite the modern age we find ourselves in, we witness some quaint and quirky artifacts of world football:

1. One central referee deciding almost everything related to the game, from enforcing rules, to determining the length of the game, to meting out punishment on the spot for more serious infringements, all with the use of one little whistle
2. Two linesmen assisting with little flags
3. A fourth official who doesn’t even have the power to allow someone onto the field as soon as they are ready to run on (compare this anomaly with the 200 interchanges that occur in every AFL game).

Now let me say, the aim of keeping everything the same all around the world has its benefits, and is a noble objective.

But in the modern age, it all starts to look a little dated on the biggest stage of them all. And in some respects, it becomes a case of the lowest common denominator – no matter what level of the game we are watching, we will use the simplest, easiest and cheapest methods of all.

I’d like to think that modernity must eventually catch up with FIFA, and that it will make serious efforts to at least bring the highest levels of the game into the 21st century.

The story has been slowly and quietly bubbling away because getting Jackson’s signature has been dependent on the local Canberra business community, small as it is, raising a $220,000 purse.

In the end, aided by a gift from the ACT government of $50,000, some sixteen businesses in total made up the remainder to finally reach the target.

This is big news because we are basically talking about the best female basketballer in the world who would be able to earn much more than that on the European circuit. She earned that much back in 2004 for a five game guest appearance for Moscow club Spartak, which also happens to be her current club.

Jackson decided to opt out of her two year contract with Spartak soon after the untimely death of club owner, Shabtai von Kalmanovich.

Immediately upon arriving at that decision, she became hot property, so the Canberra community has done well to bring her back home against some stiff competition.

When straight talking Capitals coach, Steffie Graf, was asked about the displacing effect the return of Jackson might have on other team members, she replied: “Tough!” She quite rightly pointed out that for most of the team members, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to train and play with the very best in the world.

I lived and worked for a short period near the Capitals’ home base in Tuggeranong about eight years ago, and despite the very best of intentions, never got to see Jackson play live.

Canberra people shouldn’t let this opportunity pass because, after this season, they may never see Jackson playing out of Tuggeranong again.
______

On a slightly different note, but still related to women’s sport with a Canberra twist, I’ve just read that Belconnen’s Alice Broughton has been invited to play Aussie Rules with the Canadian team, Calgary Kookaburras, and to be an assistant coach with the Canadian national team.

Calgary plays in a five team 9-a-side women’s competition, which they are hoping to eventually expand to the standard 18-a-side format in due course.

The Canadian’s are assisting with air fares and expenses while finding her work in Calgary for the duration of her stint, and we wish her all the best with her rather unique endeavour.

It was also around this time that the legendary Cowboy Neil, a St Kilda and Ainslie FC icon, hung up his boots.

The ACTAFL can manage only five local teams these days, its stocks bolstered by the participation of the Swans Reserves, which at least does say something for the quality of the league under tough circumstances.

Ainslie FC has not had much success in the past decade, but in the latter half of the last century was an absolute powerhouse in local Aussie Rules, and to this day, still has a reasonable amount of resources at its disposal.

Like one or two other Aussie Rules clubs in Canberra, they manage a player salary bill of upwards of $500,000 per annum, which is a fair bit in a semi-professional competition in a non-AFL area.

In the late 80s and early 90s, it won six premierships in a row, adding to an already formidable list of awards.

The club has an interesting trophy on permanent display in its foyer in its original clubhouse at Ainslie (a once working class inner-city suburb that is now mostly gentrified).

A premiership Cup? Player of the century award? Some major representative honour?

No. It’s an old perpetual U13 Best and Fairest award that bears the following three names:

1. Shaun Smith (awarded the AFL mark of the century in 1995);
2. Nathan Buckley (Collinwood great and ex-captain, now assistant coach, being primed to take over from Mick Malthouse); and
3. James Hird (Essendon great, ex-captain and dual premiership winner).

It’s unlikely that any suburban club of any description in Australia boasts three names such as these on the one best and fairest trophy.

Of these three names, only James Hird was drafted directly from Ainslie FC. He was taken at a very low no. 79 in the 1990 draft.

His father played some four games with Essendon, while his grandfather was a premiership player who played over 100 games with the Dons and would later become a club president, having a grandstand named after him at Windy Hill.

So 19 years later, Jason Tutt becomes the newest player to be drafted directly from the Ainslie FC, and the first Canberra player to be drafted from the ACTAFL since current Swans co-captain, Craig Bolton, was drafted eleven years ago by Brisbane.

Only one other NSW/ACT Rams player was drafted this year, but he actually comes from Echuca, on the Victorian side of the Murray River.

Jason Tutt was taken by the Western Bulldogs at number 31, a very high selection which raised quite a few eye brows around AFL circles, as well as in the Tutt household.

Jason was hoping that he would be picked up by the Bulldogs, but was shocked to go so early, and in fact at that point, was only half watching the telecast, but when he heard the name Ainslie, he knew it had to be him.

As one can imagine, the Tutt household has been complete mayhem since Thursday night.

Jason still had to attend school this Monday to finish up, but instead will be required at West Footscray on Sunday for his first training run, meeting up with his new team mates for the first time.

He has already received the friendly advice to pick a locker well away from that of Barry Hall.

By all accounts the Bulldogs rate his pinpoint kicking, as they do that of their first round selection, Christian Howard.

He is known for his quick legs, run and carry off the half back flank, and capacity to spot up targets with his long kicking on the run, very much in the mould of the Bulldogs’ Lindsay Gilbee, who is known for his accurate 65-metre kicks.

He did very well in all the athletic tests at the recent draft camp, scoring a more than reasonable 14.4 in the beep test.

Jason has an interesting sporting background in that he has also represented Australia at softball, which suggests he has the mental capacity to play sport at the elite level.

The Bulldogs had another surprise selection up their sleeve, taking Shane Thorne of the Northern Territory at no. 76. It’s quite rare for a 23 year old from a minor state/territory to be drafted.

He is known locally as “Mr Magic”, so it’s possible he was on the Bulldog’s radar for a while.

Perhaps the Bullies have hopes of Thorne emulating the original NT Michael “Magic” McLean?

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His thesis was that anyone who can walk on two legs can put their hand up to be a professional AFL player, the indigenous game being so utterly devoid of skill, while professional soccer players need to be blessed with almost superhuman, extra-terrestrial powers to make a go of it.

Until recently, I had had my doubts about what Fos was saying, but having watched Thierry Henry handball France into the 2010 World Cup, I am starting to understand where he is coming from.

Watch Thierry Henry carefully on this clip.

Note the expert manner with which he controls the ball with his left hand then guides it back down onto the boot, retaining perfect balance, wheeling round with the archetypal 70 degree angle, reminiscent of Captain Blood’s legendary pose.

Of course, the one give away that Thierry is not playing Australian football is that he does a quick two shoe shuffle to get the ball back onto his favoured right, rather than hit it immediately with his left.

If would appear that the God like skill demanded of the world game does not extend to any great proficiency with the non-preferred foot.

Nevertheless, one can’t argue with the end result – except for the Irish that is.

Ironically, they too tend to prefer a form of football that involves the use of hands, and as it happens, a round ball.

Henry could do no worse a form of penance than offer to replace Tadgh Kennelly at Kerry County, the reigning All-Ireland champ’s.

As for what it means for the world game, well, to be honest, it means absolutely nothing.

We all understand that the World Cup needs the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and France (winners of the last 10 World Cups).

FIFA knows that all this will blow over in a few days, and they are left with their preferred attendee: France.

In the modern age, any nod towards retaining a semblance of romanticism in the game must be fleeting at best.

History tells us that the world’s population has always been able to gloss over the one great flaw in the world game: that one moment of insanity; one freak accident; one imbecilic referee’s decision; one inexplicable oversight; one moment of utter discrimination, is sufficient to produce that single game determining goal, often with very little association with what has occurred in the other 90 minutes.

That’s why talk of video refs and the like are all quite misguided. It’s as if there is some inherent logic as to who should win or lose a game, who is meant to proceed or drop out of tournaments.

Let us all be reminded that the two of the last four World Cups have been determined by means of a penalty shoot-out.

What happens during the actual 90 minutes is of secondary importance.

It’s an okay year for the Scraggers, relatively speaking, and history shows that we scraped into the top 5 after managing a draw in our final game against the top team, Carlton.

But we only won ten games for the year, meaning I had to endure eleven agonising defeats along the way – as I said, relatively successful for the Scraggers!

That season included four trips out to Waverley, and to get there from Footscray by public transport, it was definitely a case of taking a cut lunch, plus a cut dinner for the journey back.

I have a very clear memory of taking on Fitzroy out at Waverley during the season.

They were as unfashionable then as they were for most of the previous century, and took the wooden spoon that season.

Thus it was no surprise that only 7,000 hardy souls turned out to see this fixture on a bitterly cold, windswept day – and the quality of the footy was very reflective of the climatic conditions.

Perversely, it was such a forgettable game that it has left a lasting impression on me. Footscray won the game 4:11:35 to 3:16:34, and as you can see, it was quite a low scoring game.

But here’s the rub: Footscray scored a goal against the wind in the opening 20 seconds of play, and scored the winning goal after the final siren sounded, meaning we effectively only scored two goals in 2 hours of play!

As the clock ticked on towards the 30 minute mark of the last quarter, it really did look like we weren’t going to get that goal, so we started making the long walk around the non-members side to the exit, keeping an eye on whether we were within coo-ee of our own goals.

I can’t remember how exactly, but the next thing we knew, Alan Stoneham had taken a mark on the boundary, directly in front of us, where we were standing above the staircase that would take us down into the bowels of Waverley.

The siren went and we just looked at each other, we didn’t have to say a word: after all that, we’re not going to win this are we?

These were the days before the banana became de rigueur, so Stoneham went straight back, and with no angle to speak of, executed the perfect drop punt that split the sticks.

I can remember our reaction, we didn’t cheer, or jump up, or anything like that – we just laughed out loud, and laughed and laughed and laughed – running out of the stadium to jump on the first bus out of Waverley.

On the bus, we ran into those Footscray supporters who hadn’t hung around.

So disgusted were they, that when we told them we had actually won, absolutely none of them were happy: “didn’t deserve to win”; “they were bloody hopeless, every one of ‘em!”

The train trip from Waverley back to the city was always a long and boring one, but occasionally the footy fans on board from either side would provide some light relief.

On this occasion, there was a bloke from Sydney sitting directly opposite us and he had just been to the game.

He started to talk about rugby league, and how it was a much better game, as we looked at him blankly.

A couple of rows back, a drunk German bloke started to shout out strange words, like: “zie fuhrer!!”

We had no idea what he was talking about, but strangely enough, he was making more sense than this bloke from Sydney.

With all this going on around me, my only thought was: f@rk, I hate coming out to Waverley to watch the footy.

Michael Cockerill has written a few articles recently in the SMH offering his full support to Lowy and the FFA in its bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

The most recent article focuses on the receipt of government funding, and the assertion that the AFL has somehow gained from the direct receipt of Government funds.

Cockerill says: “AFL has received about $453m from the three tiers of government.”

That is false. A quick search of the AFL’s annual reports going back to 2003 shows no such receipt of Government funds.

At best, Cockerill has used language extremely loosely (and don’t forget that he is a professional journalist), at worst, he has been misleading.

But now I come to the main point: no-one North of the Murray should ever pretend that they understand the history of Australian Football, ground usage and the Government’s role unless they really, really, honestly do understand it.

And that would mean having been part of the generations upon generations that have lived it and breathed it as part of their day-to-day lives.

The relationship between Australian football and cricket is a long one – a very long one – going right back to the inception of the game 151 years ago.

By a quirk of history, the game began to use cricket grounds, at first not consistently, but slowly and surely, the game was played on a cricket oval, and the shape of the ground would soon become an oval.

This quirk of history meant that almost from the very start, cricket was the senior partner in ground sharing – so virtually all the ovals that were ever used by senior football clubs were cricket grounds owned and controlled by cricket clubs.

However, by the mid 1860s, we had the anomalous situation where cricket owned and controlled the grounds – but Australian Football brought in the money to maintain them – a pattern repeated right across Southern Australia.

But I’ll limit my discussion to Victoria.

Every club in the VFA, then the VFL, played on a cricket ground – and virtually every VFA/VFL club existed alongside an eponymous cricket club, such that Footscray Football Club played at the Footscray Cricket Ground, shared with the Footscray Cricket Club, Melbourne played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Essendon played at the Essendon Cricket Ground.

And so it went on.

The cricket clubs owned and controlled the facilities, but Australian football paid for them, paid for the upkeep, paid for the improvements, and pretty much subsidised cricket for 145 years (give or take).

How?

Quite simply Australian Football has always had the large crowds and gate receipts at club level, and cricket never has – not even close.

Ever wondered why the MCG is five times the capacity of Lords? Thank Australian Football.

Now, in the mid 1960s (pretty much 100 years on from where we first started our story), the then VFL had had a gutful of effectively paying for a ground (the MCG) that it didn’t own or control – and thus started a long, ambitious journey to full independence that continues to the present day.

The VFL purchased some land (a sizeable chunk) in the outer south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, called Waverley. It was ambitious in the sense that it was the very largest football stadium ever built (perhaps on the face of the Earth in terms of dimensions), only ever got to a capacity of some 86,000 odd (can’t quite remember the exact figure), but the initial plan was to one day have a stadium that far surpassed the capacity of the MCG.

The idea was that the day would come when the VFL would play its own grand final on its own ground, and pocket millions upon millions of dollars that were otherwise leaving the game every year (and had been from day one).

Why didn’t the VFL proceed with this audacious plan?

Because the then Cain government stepped in, and one way or the other, was going to force the VFL to remain at the MCG against its will and against its commercial interests.

Yes, people, far from being an aide to the VFL, at that very moment the Government was being an obstacle to complete financial independence!

Eventually, after years of negotiations, threats of legal action, etc. a settlement was reached, and the MCG remained the home of the grand final, was further developed – and has continued being enhanced to the present day.

This little story also helps explain why when Australian Football makes a deal with the MCG.

It is a very long one!

While the relationship has been good to the AFL over the last 18 years (but still with its problems in terms of sharing revenue) – there’s little doubt that without Australian Football, the MCG would not be the stadium we have today – it has not been one way traffic.

In the meantime, the AFL eventually sold its interests in Waverley, and ultimately initiated the construction of the Dome at Docklands, another audacious project, which it will own outright in 2025.

This project was built with no funding from Government, that is, 100 percent private equity.

So when people North of the border start telling stories about Australian Football, grounds and Government, they better get their story straight or they will end up looking like a dill.

As we all await to see whether the FFA is capable of putting together a bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 that is at least half credible, we remain with the uncertainty as to whether the largest sporting competitions in the land will need to shut down for up to eight weeks.

What has taken me aback the last few days are a couple of articles that have attacked the major football codes in this country with unrestrained venom, when in truth, there appears to be no good reason to do so.

Firstly, Mike Cockerill, of Fox Sport and the SMH wrote an article that accused the major football codes of causing an uproar at the news of a possible eight week shut down, and even labeled them as saboteurs.

But had there truly been any sort of reaction that warranted this sort of attack?

A few league CEOs had expressed concern at the possibility of an eight week shut down, and to be honest, you would expect no less of a CEO under those circumstances.

The AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou gave no comment except that he was awaiting further details from the FFA.

Not a word has been forthcoming form the rugby fraternity of any description.

So it remains a mystery as to why Cockerill would choose to label the other codes as saboteurs, especially when the FFA is doing a good enough job on that front on its lonesome by completely underestimating the technical requirements of hosting the World Cup.

Then yesterday, I came across this online article in The World Game by Phillip Micallef.

If we can charitably describe Cockerill’s article as premature, we can label Micallef’s as absolutely venomous.

He opens with this statement: “rugby league’s feral mentality was at its height of hysteria …”

Micallef goes on to use offensive terms such as: insular, chest beating frenzy, boofhead, narrow minded, fools and head in the sand.

If that wasn’t enough insulting language for one day, he closes with: “… rugby league could stage half a dozen tin pot World Cups of its own.”

Quite vicious, even if it is slightly unoriginal.

But two questions that come immediately to mind:
1. What on Earth has the NRL, and league supporters generally, done to deserve this sort of treatment?
2. Is it smart of someone who is interested in promoting football?

The answer to the first question is “nothing.”

The answer to the second question is, “probably not.” But it’s even more complicated than that.

League is a huge sport in NSW and Queensland, two markets where one could argue the A-League is underperforming.

SFC has never got back to the healthy crowds it attracted in its first season (which ultimately bore a championship).

The Roar’s attendance figures have gone from bad to worse over the course of the last few years, while their near neighbours, GCU, have become an absolute laughing stock of Australian sport (while at the opposite end of the spectrum, league clubs the Broncos and the Titans rule this part of Queensland).

So why would a pro-football journalist be so keen to denigrate league?

Part of the answer is to be found in the new confidence Frank Lowy has brought to all football lovers across the country. They have been uplifted by an influential figure, a talisman, who is intelligent and has plenty of business acumen and foresight.

This has been compounded by the current close relationship with FIFA, in the lead up to the deadline for putting a bid in to host the World Cup.

This has enraptured and emboldened football fans who for the most part are imagining that FIFA will walk into the country and crush the AFL and NRL forever on their behalf, or at the very least, take over Parliament, and pass legislation that winds them down as corporate entities.

Football fans across the country have a new sense of confidence, of being able to stand up to the school yard bully – with the help of their older brother from the secondary school across the road who happens to be momentarily passing by.

But older brothers are notoriously unreliable, and generally don’t really give a damn about their kid brother, especially when other adventures await, where there are more important people to impress, who offer far more cachet.

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It’s about six months out from the deadline, the FFA has to put in its formal bid to FIFA for Australia to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, and the fans of Australia’s more popular domestic codes have discovered the sacrifice they will need to make smack bang in the middle of their seasons.

No less than an eight week hiatus over June and July.

It’s inconceivable that the AFL would ever agree to such a drastic action, considering that Melbourne has not gone with more than one weekend without its own brand of football over the course of 150 years.

Interestingly, Ben Buckley would know this only too well, having operated as Demetriou’s right hand man up to a few years ago.

So what precisely is happening?

The clue to the game being played out is in the manner in which Frank Lowy always publicly mentions 2018 as if Australia is a realistic chance to win hosting rights.

We all understand that Australia has a snowball’s chance of winning the rights to 2018 (it’s a slightly different matter for 2022), and most importantly, Frank Lowy would know that better than anyone else.

This is our main clue to what is truly happening.

That which is being played out before our very eyes has nothing to do with winning hosting rights for 2018, and everything to do with the Federal Government (and State Governments) believing that Australia is a realistic chance for 2018.

With the bid due in May 2010, and the details of all dozen or so stadiums that will be required around Australia needing to be finely calibrated, at some point over the next few months, the Federal Government (along with any State Government wanting to get further into debt) will need to commit two or three billion dollars over the next six years to put in a credible bid in relation to 2018.

Whether 2018 is won or lost is not the key here – nailing those billions of dollars in government funding is the name of the game.

The money will be locked into the forward estimates of the 2010-11 budget by May 2010, and that will be a victory in its own right.

Pretending to win 2018 means the money is committed sooner rather than later.

What if both 2018 and 2022 fails? Some heavy duty lobbying will need to commence to ensure that as much money in the budget as possible is salvaged – but the all important first step is getting it in there.

So as you read this, Ben Buckley is meeting with Andrew Demetriou in Jolimont, and the conversation is going something like this:

AD: Two months??!! You never said anything about closing shop for two months.

BB: It’s all right Andy, it’s not going to happen, we won’t win it, you just have to pretend to agree to it.

AD: But mate, footy fans will want my head for this.

BB: You just have to ride it out, think of all the loot that’s waiting at the end of it all!

AD: All right Bucks, let’s talk about how we split it up.

BB: We both get a multi purpose stadium in Adelaide.

AD: Tick. And can you throw in an upgrade of Subi?

BB: Ok. We get an upgrade of Bruce, and you get an upgrade of Manuka.

AD: Tick.

BB: We get upgrades of the grounds in Wollongong and Newcastle, and a new ground out West somewhere; you get your upgrade of the showgrounds.

AD: Hmm ok, but we need that one pretty quickly.

BB: I’ll try and set that one up as the first cab off the rank.

AD: Ok.

BB: We get an upgrade of Dairy Farmers, and you get an upgrade of Carrara. How’s that looking?

AD: Hmm, can you throw in an upgrade of the oval at Cairns??

BB: Geez, how am I going to sell that one?

AD: Tell ‘em Costa Rica will use it as a training base.

BB: Good one Andy!!

AD: Is it really this easy to get money out of the Feds?

BB: Yeah, it is, we just keep telling them that for a $3 billion investment in sports infrastructure, we get $5 billion back in economic activity (which includes their original $3 billion, but they don’t know that), and we leave our kids a lasting legacy – it wins the argument every time!

(The above dialogue, and indeed the whole of this article, is completely made up and is not intended to cast aspersions on anyone’s good character except my own).

The last two Socceroo outings have done nothing to change this mix, certainly not in favour of Pim.

There are two camps that we can identify:

1. Those who have been around a while, understand the enormity of making two consecutive world cups, and fully appreciate that just to replicate Australia’s results in 2006 will be a massive achievement. Let us call these people: the pragmatists.

2. Those who demand far more from Pim and the Socceroos, not just in terms of results, but in terms of what we might call the team’s aesthetic qualities (the ability to string a few passes together). Let us call these people: the fantasy leaguers.

Now, allow me to warn you all, I have no idea where this discussion is about to head, only that I would like to touch on a few inter-related topics. If this doesn’t appeal to you – turn away now.

I have this nagging feeling that we have reached a stage in our football development where perhaps a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I am reminded of this when I read the reviews of bloggers of A-League games who are very quick to accuse a coach or team of playing a “long ball” game, and I wonder to myself: have people observed a hapless defender go route one under pressure, and assumed that the manager has instigated a long ball game, or are they truly aware of what a long ball game actually entails in terms of game plan and philosophy?

While the whole long ball philosophy is pilloried in the modern age, curiously its underlying philosophy is backed up by a statistic that remains unchanged since the 1950s, and that is that the vast bulk of goals are scored via four or less passes – in fact, it’s a ridiculously high percentage, not just in some countries, but right across the world.

But let us leave that little oddity there.

Regular and highly esteemed Roar football analyst, Tony Tannous, mentioned soon after the Holland match that Australia was set up to get plenty of crosses in from wide (with Josh backed by Timmy). This was undoubtedly true, the only trouble is that the crosses never came and the Dutch absolutely controlled the game with impunity.

Regular Roar contributor, AndyRoo, made the comment around the same time that he much preferred a recent game that featured Macdonald as the sole striker, for the simple reason that it forced the team to keep the ball on the deck.

However, a few days before the Holland game, Pim made it very clear that the time for experimentation was over, meaning the set up we’ve seen for the last two matches: two screeners and Josh backed by Timmy is probably the set up Pim is thinking of taking into the WC.

Both the Dutch and Omanis gave us a hint of what we can expect in the middle of the ground if we proceed with this sort of game plan, and I think that despite his amazing goal scoring record, we are all starting to understand that Timmy is not going to play as a typical CAM – to be honest – I don’t think he is capable of that (at WC level).

What does it all mean?

If you have connected all the dots – I think it’s pretty obvious.

But my closing question: considering what we are likely to be up against in 2010, with a squad that is starting to look like a shadow of the 2006 version, do we have a lot of choices?

In the last article I wrote on the AFL finals, where I looked at the likely source of goals for each finals team, I placed the Saints and Bullies at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of describing their respective forward lines.

The Saints possessed the twin towers of Captain Riewoldt and Kozzie, while the Bullies relied on a more unorthodox small, pacy forward line, with plenty of goals coming from midfield.

After the loss, the Bullies’ coach, Rocket Eade, rejected the claim that the naysayers had been proven right by casting doubt on the Bullies’ ability to succeed at finals footy with that sort of forward set up.

Looking at the closeness of the scores, and the fact that the Bullies had more scoring shots, one could almost be forgiven for agreeing with Rocket.

Almost.

However, a closer inspection of the stats reveals all – the Saint’s more orthodox forward line structure did indeed win them the game.

Firstly, the good news for the Bullies. They managed to stay in this match til the very end of the game by winning the contested possession count and splitting the clearances. That was a very good achievement given the strength of the Saints across the park all season.

But things start to look less bright from here on in. The Bullies frustrated St Kilda for large parts of the game with slow, patient, build ups, moving the ball laterally, and even backwards, to deny them the ball, who in turn, were prepared to plug up the space in the Bullies forward 50 to ensure there were no easy targets – confident that once they had the ball, it was an easier path to goals for them.

Thus St Kilda were able to score six of nine goals from turnovers; while the Bullies scored 5 of 7 goals from stoppages.

When the turnovers came, as they eventually did, the Saints had Dal Santo, Hayes and Fisher making a bee line for goal, gaining metres of 780, 731 and 653 respectively. The Bullies best, Gilbee and Griffen, could only gain a touch over 500 metres each – a reflection of their direct run and carry and the lateral movement of ball by their team mates.

At the end of line for the Saint’s prime movers lay the twin towers. The Saints took 20 contested marks to 12. Seven of those were to Riewoldt who ended with a game high four goals, while a further three goals came via Riewoldt’s play.

While the Bullies probably did as well as they could against the best team of the season, at the end of the day, they lacked the direct path to goal that the Saints possessed.

Both sides made it tough for clean possession all night, but a special mention must be made of St Kilda’s smothers – I doubt I have ever seen more smothers in a game, and I suspect they must have numbered over 30.

Congratulations to both St Kilda and Geelong for being the best two teams of the season and making the Grand Final.

Essendon
The youngest and most inexperienced team in the finals, the Bombers really only have one thing going for them: that they are the youngest and most inexperienced team in the finals.

When the Bombers play with youthful abandon, they are a pretty hard team to stop. If they slow down to smell the flowers and think too much about what they are embarking on, they will be absolutely dead in the water.

There’s no better example than the last two minutes of the ANZAC Day game against the Pies, when Essendon threw caution to the wind and conjured three goals in two minutes to win the game, starting with a typical run through the middle by the speedster, Lovett that kick started the come back.

Carlton
Fev must be pretty close to the only traditional leading forward in the final 8. He’s certainly the most prolific, currently leading the goal kicking by 8 goals from Jonathon Brown.

With Gibbs and Judd racking up the possessions and the ability to hit Fev’s chest with a 50m pass, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work this one out.

This is not typical of the sorts of goals Fev will normally kick, but it’s still worth a look.

Brisbane
If Fev is the classic full forward, Jonathon Brown is the classic centre-half forward, the sort that win finals, very much in the mould of Wayne Carey. As mentioned earlier, he’s coming second in the goal kicking, a sign that he has been very close to his very best this season.

Brown still has a few triple premiership players around him, notably Black who has also been in decent form, along with youngsters like Daniel Rich.

This is an older clip, but shows why players like Brown win finals. Typically the move starts with Black winning the ball on centre-wing, Power spots up Brown on the 50, and right on the siren he steers it home to level the game.

Adelaide
The Crows have the porpoise on the ground and the birdman in the air, and an evenness around the ground that has just started to gel.

It’s pretty hard for any defender to stop this. Watch for the 2nd lift, a sure sign that someone is pretty high.

Collingwood
The pies have been relying on a bit of flair and unpredictability for their goals this season, epitomized by the exploits of Dale Thomas and Neon Leon.

The latter, in particular, has added a good dozen to his highlights reel and scrapbook. This one is a typical example: fast, slick, no time to think, pure instinct.

Western Bulldogs
It’s no secret that the bullies have lacked a tall target for, well, since Templeton won the Brownlow in 1980. One doesn’t have to look too much further than that for a string of finals failures.

However, the bullies have the highest points for this season, and by a considerable margin, so the question does need to be asked: can they get ultimate success with a short, pacy forward line?

Here’s one last interesting fact, despite having the highest points for the season, the bullies do not have a single goal kicker in the top dozen, but have a spread of them as long as your arm: Johnson, Welsh, Akermanis, Hill, Higgins, and that’s before we add blokes who love to run and carry through the middle and who can split the sticks from outside 50: Griffen, Gilbee, Eagleton, Boyd and Hahn.

This clip shows the two typical goals the bullies scored in the last few minutes against Collingwood to get them in to 3rd position. One comes from a Missy Higgins run and carry through the middle to inside 50 having broken through a massed defence via slick handball, and the other is a regulation 20 metre spot up of Johnno just inside 50.

Geelong
No team scores more goals from forward line pressure than Geelong. Once the ball spills, there’s a production line of skillful speedsters ready to snag it from around 50, led by Ablett.

One bloke who underscores the defensive forward role like no other is Max Rooke.

This is from last year’s preliminary final against the team they will meet this weekend. Rooke has no real right to make this spoil, but makes it; absolutely poleaxes Johnno, bounces straight up to accept the handball from the spillage for a regulation snap.

St Kilda
If the bullies are at one end of the spectrum with no tall timber, then St Kilda are the exact opposite, with an absolute embarrassment of riches.

Not only that, the two main floating forwards, Riewoldt and Kossie, have each had stellar seasons and have been the icing for the onball work of Montagna and Dal Santo. Riewoldt is 3rd in the goalkicking.

If that weren’t enough, they have other blokes who can take a grab when the team needs it most, like this one from Gardiner to win the game against Geelong earlier in the season.

Watch how he comes from out of the screen, makes up about 35 metres, and then hits the pack with a bang, with a vice like grip on the footy, sending three cats tumbling to the ground.

Now that’s definitely the sort of marking power that wins finals.

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Three rounds into the fifth A-League season and few would deny that Socceroo star, Jason Culina, has been the man of the moment, representing everything fans have longed to see in the Australian competition.

It’s worthwhile recalling that in the latter part of last season, Carlos ‘El Zorro’ Hernandez was being viewed in a similar light, hailed by all as the best player in the league at the time.

Given that both have similar roles in their respective clubs, I thought it would be a bit of fun to do a comparison of each others’ skills (just for fun folks, it’s not signed in blood or anything).

Another interesting point of interest is that they appeared in their first World Cup in 2006 and are odds on to represent their respective countries in the 2010 World Cup.

I have chosen a list of 20 attributes with which I felt I was reasonably positioned to give a mark out of 10 for, with 10 representing best or close to best in the league, 9 excellent, 8 very good, 7 good, 6 reasonable, 5 passable, and so forth.

One word of warning, I said earlier that both play similar roles – but not identical roles. Culina has become a true play maker within Gold Coast United, in a formation that approximates a traditional 4-4-2.

While Hernandez occasionally played the same role last season, this season the Victory have played something closer to a 4-2-2-2, with two defensive mids, meaning Hernandez has floated in and out of wide positions and more central attacking positions in support of the two strikers.

As such, he hasn’t played a clear cut play maker role to date.

Attributes and scores, in no particular order (total = 200):

Culina / Hernandez

General athleticism:
9 / 6

Pace:
9 / 7

Fitness/stamina:
9 / 6

Balance:
8 / 9

Football smarts:
8 / 9

Reading the game:
8 / 9

Creativity/vision:
9 / 9

Work rate:
9 / 8

Off the ball:
8 / 9

Decision making:
9 / 9

Influence:
10 / 8

Set pieces:
8 / 10

Long shots:
8 / 9

Dribbling/ball control:
8 / 9

Passing:
9 / 9

Keeping possession in tight:
9 / 10

First touch:
9 / 9

Defensive duties:
8 / 6

Finishing:
8 / 8

Overall technique:
9 / 9

Total:
172 / 168

That looks like a fair outcome to me!

I’m happy to take questions on why I have marked them the way I have or to receive your comments for possible improvements in the gradings.

Also, let me know whether you would like to see this as a bit of a regular feature in relation to A-League players. Suggestions for future candidates to compare will be happily accepted.

The title drew me in immediately, but I was soon left a bit disappointed to find Fos descending into the wide eyed speculation and wishful thinking we sometimes see of our younger bloggers.

I have a great deal of respect for Fos, in particular, the analysis and understanding he brings to unraveling the tactics managers use in games at the elite level, but on this occasion, I can’t help thinking he has missed the mark by a wide margin.

Early on Fos mentions attending a charity luncheon in Melbourne, which he describes as venturing into the “heart of a rival code”.

This immediately struck me as odd. Melbourne, the home of the biggest and most successful football club in the land, reduced to being viewed as the home of a rival code instead?

Much of the article then goes through various “smell the fear” cliches that we’ve heard without cessation since the establishment of the FFA some 5 years ago.

Towards the end of the article, Fos draws on a quote from an AFL rep, that “everyone can coexist”. Fos took this as a sign of weakness from the AFL, foreshadowing a times-are-a-changin’ scenario of biblical proportions “as the strong become weak and the weak ever stronger”.

Now I understand how segments of his readership would lap up that sort of wishful thinking, but people should be aware that all indicators presently available to us show that what Fos is saying isn’t based on anything too solid.

But never mind what the financial figures and metrics show, let me all give you an insider’s view of how the AFL hierarchy contemplates such matters.

It was some 10 years ago that I attended a presentation made by the then AFL CEO, Wayne Jackson, at the National Press Club.

He responded to a question very similar to the kind Fos heard at the luncheon, and his response was along similar lines: “All the codes can coexist”.

Let me tell you, the AFL has been trotting that line out since the national comp was first formed in 1990 (when the VFL officially became the AFL).

Sitting in Sydney, seemingly oblivious to all relevant metrics and indicators, Fos probably can’t see it, but I see it as clear as day.

When an AFL CEO says “we can all get along just fine”, I promise you this: he doesn’t say it from a position of weakness!

For those unfamiliar with this story, it goes back to the closing minutes of the Heineken Cup quarter final against Leinster last season. With Quins trailing by a point, Tom Williams came off under the blood rule, which in turn allowed for the re-entry of goal kicker Nick Evans.

The cameras caught the Quins physio slipping Williams a little something, what we now know to be some sort of blood capsule, presumably ordered by mail from one of those joke shop ads at the back of Mad magazines, replete with whoopee cushion.

The club phsyio involved, who happens to be Australian, was rubbed out for two years. But the club doctor, who happens to be female, got away with a light rap over the knuckles.

A key aspect about this whole matter has been the premeditation involved (what we might loosely describe as match day planning), and the presentation of evidence that indicated it was not an isolated incident.

I’ve raised this case because:

1. It’s a bit out of left field
2. I have an interest in the various rules and philosophies that surround this whole area of interchange/substitution in the four football codes.

A question that arises for me immediately is whether it is worthwhile having such stringent rules of substitution if it means that coaches will think up ingenious ways of substituting players to meet an urgent tactical need out on the field.

It’s curious that well into last century, all four codes had fairly similar principles in terms of when and how often players could be substituted, but then rules started to diverge from the 1970s onwards, to where we are today, where all four codes have differing approaches in this respect.

The different rules are, in most cases, backed by different philosophies as to what the respective games entail.

I would like to you use this odd sporting story as a catalyst to explore people’s views on the different rules and philosophies that are currently at work in the four codes surrounding the interchange or substitution of players.

It’s appropriate that Essendon was the team to do it, since they themselves were the last team to come closest to an undefeated season in 2000 when they fell to the Western Bulldogs in round 21.

Another similarity between the two episodes is that both Essendon and the Bullies were scratching around in the lower reaches of the eight at the time.

Of course, one team has gone through the home and away season undefeated, and that was Collingwood in 1929.

That was in the days of 18 rounds.

Collingwood lost the second Semi Final against Richmond, but went on to win the grand final. It was one of four consecutive flags the Pies won between 1927 and 1930, a record that remains to this day.

Since moving to a 22 round season in 1970, no team has been able to go through the season undefeated.

The only other team to come close to the feats of Essendon and St Kilda, was Carlton in 1995, who won 20 games during the home and away season. Their two losses were relatively early in the season, and they went on to win the flag on the back of sixteen wins (including the finals).

I’m pleased that the record remains intact. It would be nice to see the current record remain in place 50 years from today.

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Consider this:
1. Ireland is in the middle of their World Cup qualifiers and are doing reasonably well (having recently earned an away draw against Italy).
2. Ireland have an excellent record at home, especially defensively (with Dunn and O’Shea featuring in the back four).
3. Pim was essentially experimenting with the back six – but you wouldn’t have known it.

Given the context, a 3-0 win is well beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, although as the commentary team mentioned, perhaps it reflects our new high ranking?

Let’s have a look at some of the performances and what it means for the squad as a whole.

Central defenders
With Keane limited to just one scoring opportunity, you would have to say that they did well. Kisnorbo found himself in the unlikely role of the senior defender, and despite being impeded by heavy bandaging round his head, was solid.

North was occasionally shown up, particularly with his first touch, but generally performed satisfactorily.

Madaschi and Spiranovic replaced them at various points in the second half, and were both able to maintain the cohesiveness of the back half, although Ireland did start threatening a bit more in the last 25 minutes.

With all the expectations that we have put on Spiranovic, I have to say that he just keeps impressing every time he gets a run. I know he’s young and relatively inexperienced at international level, but he still seems the most likely to me to partner Neill next year, and he will ultimately become a 10 year Socceroo.

Full backs
Rhys Williams gave another solid performance. He has a good attacking instinct backed up by a solid defensive game. For the second goal, he won the ball in an advanced position, cut into the box and managed a good shot on his left which was parried away to Cahill who slotted it home.

He’s probably our third choice right back, and in that context, he’s pretty handy.

Carney did his case no harm to be the one to take over from Chippers, given that that left back position is currently wide open, with no one’s name penciled in, let alone written with indelible ink.

His attacking qualities cannot be faulted: overlapping runs, skill on the ball, crossing, and as we saw at the 90th, he can smack it from distance. His defensive game is still not quite there yet, and while he did reasonably well in that department, just occasionally it was obvious that his positioning was slightly awry, allowing the attacker to get a slightly more advantageous position than should have been the case.

Defensive mids
Wilkshire partnered Jedi as an unlikely holding mid partnership, and one would have to conclude that it proved to be a very successful partnership.

Wilkshire has already stamped himself as Mr Versatility, a quality that Hiddink admired in the last WC. What Wilkshire possesses is great tactical awareness and flawless, quick decision making, and he displayed these qualities many times over during the game.

Jedi had a nervous few minutes with the odd stray pass, but once he settled down, his game too was flawless, in particular, his positioning and reading of the game. I lost count of the amount of times that he was able to intercept a pass.

In fact, this was a feature of the team as a whole – any stray pass from the Irish was quickly dealt with and tidied up. What’s more, we were able to do it cleanly. If I’m not mistaken, the foul count at the end of the first half was 8-2 against the Irish.

Do not underestimate the importance of making clean challenges and winning back possession when it comes to playing in World Cup finals.

Attackers
I’ll put our front four together, because that’s pretty much the way we played it. While Timmy was playing ostensibly as a midfielder, he was often to be found forward of McDonald, and almost just as quickly helping out in the back third, that’s the way Timmy plays the game.

While we all have doubts about McDonald’s capacity to play as a lone striker, we’re all aware that if there was a player who can support McDonald from a slightly deeper position, it’s Timmy, and that’s the way it worked out, with both combining for the first goal, and it was a gem.

Neither Bresh or Kewell were stand outs, but both had decent games, popping up in unexpected places, helping to retain the ball in the final third, and helping the full backs out when it was necessary.

Holman replaced Timmy at the start of the second half and did reasonably well. We all know he’s not Timmy, and we all know his first touch occasionally lets him down (as it did once tonight in what should have been a good scoring position), but he brings other qualities to the squad and he’s a decent back up.

Ruka and Carle came on late in the game. Ruka showed glimpses of his pace, while Carle played a few deft chips that helped us get behind the Irish defence. He really did make the most of his 10 or so minutes.

Conclusion
Almost faultless.

Following on from the terrific result the Socceroos got yesterday morning against the Irish on their home ground, discussion amongst some Roar participants naturally turned to next year’s 23 man squad.

I know this subject has come up and recent months. All I can say is, expect it to keep coming up until the team is officially selected!

One reason for the current interest is the realisation that our depth is perhaps as good as it has ever been – and I mean in the history of the Socceroos.

That’s the good news.

But it also means that something like 10 to 12 players are going to be unlucky in missing the cut.

So as a discussion point, I decided to think of three current or potential Socceroos for every position, except for four strikers and four goalkeepers (4-2-3-1 formation), giving a list of 35 (the squad of 23 plus twelve emergencies).

I’ve shown the current age against each player for information. For the sake of convenience and clear presentation, where players are capable of more than one role, I’ve slotted them in where I think they fit best.

The only question I have for you is this: who would those twelve emergencies be?

Goalkeeper
Mark Schwarzer, 36
Adam Federici, 24
Brad Jones, 27
Michael Petkovic, 33

Right back
Brett Emerton, 30
Luke Wilkshire, 27
Rhys Williams, 21

Left back
Scott Chipperfield, 33
Dave Carney, 25
Shane Stefanutto, 29

Centre back
Lucas Neill, 31
Craig Moore, 33
Patrick Kisnorbo, 28
Matthew Spiranovic, 21
Adrian Madaschi, 27
Jade North, 26

Defensive mid
Vinnie Grella, 29
Jason Culina, 29
Mile Jedinak, 25
Jacob Burns, 31
Carl Valeri, 25
Billy Celeski, 24

Right mid
Mark Bresciano, 29
Richard Garcia, 27
Dario Vidosic, 22

Left mid
Harry Kewell, 30
Michael Zullo, 20
Aaron Mooy, 18

Central attacking mid
Timmy Cahill, 29
Brett Holman, 25
Nick Carle, 27

Striker
Josh Kennedy, 26
Scott McDonald, 25
Nikita Rukavytsya, 22
Bruce Djite, 22

This sort of presentation gives a good indication of the overall balance of the team and requires some tough decisions.

Some names are obviously making up the numbers at this point, and would be the first to drop off (Celeski and Zullo), unless they did something incredible in the A-League this season.

Others were very hard to fit in, such as Sterjovski and Coyne.

While others again are a chance to replace one of the three in a particular position. And I think Scott Jamieson would be in that category given the uncertainty surrounding that left back spot.

Anyway, no whining or complaining, this is merely to kick start discussion. So off to it!

I recently read that Adam Griffiths had just signed with a Saudi club. An attraction for him was the fact that the side had finished fourth last season and had qualified for the ACL.

Naturally, this got me thinking about our prospects of having four teams qualifying for the ACL, which in turn, inevitably led me to mulling over the question of promotion and relegation.

Now, I know this topic comes up regularly on many forums, so I thought I would use this article to synthesise some of the better ideas I have come across in the blogosphere (including my own, of course).

Assumptions:
1. Promotion and relegation is going to be tough in the Australian context – don’t pay attention to anyone who thinks otherwise. I’m not saying impossible, I’m just saying it will be extremely difficult.
2. The next TV deal will result in an approximate doubling of TV rights from where we are presently (realistic, but by no means a given).
3. The current trend of plenty of bidders for licenses will continue into the foreseeable future, meaning that the A-League could breach 16 teams in four or five years.

Each assumption in turn leads to an important plank of how we get to a promotion and relegation system.

Firstly, why will it be difficult?

Consider what every single club CEO has ever said about the prospects for their club. I will bet you that at some stage or another, they have said something along the following lines: if we can get some success on the field, our future looks bright, and so on.

Does anyone see the obvious paradox in these sorts of statements?

Clearly, in a very young league, with most clubs still struggling to establish themselves, I can tell you right now that if relegation was introduced tomorrow, the first team to be relegated would be as good as dead in the water in terms of its long term viability.

This leads us to the second assumption.

It seems to me that the commercial reality is that even with a doubling of TV rights in a few years time we can choose to either:

a. double salaries; or
b. introduce a second tier,

But we can’t do both. Why?

Because a promotion and relegation system can only work in the Australian context if the second tier is only marginally below the first tier in terms of quality and consequently, access to cash flow.

In other words, the second tier salary cap would need to be around two-thirds of the first tier salary cap, and this immediately tells us that average salaries cannot increase in the same proportion as TV rights because the 2nd tier will need to be subsidised from those TV rights to maintain a relatively high standard (i.e. a standard higher than would otherwise exist if there was no cross-subsidisation).

Now the third assumption: what was the point of mentioning ongoing growth that would take us beyond 16 clubs? To start a comp from scratch with 8, 10 or whatever number of clubs is actually a big ask at the best of times.

For this reason it has occurred to me that if we can achieve steady growth to 16 teams, in that final year where we accept the last two clubs to make up the 16 teams, the FFA would proclaim the commencement of a second tier the following season, on the understanding that the two bottom teams of the current season would be relegated, to be joined by six new teams to form the new second tier.

We would then end up with 14 teams in the A-League, and 8 teams in the First Division (for argument’s sake).

There’s nothing magical about these numbers except to state that a jump in six teams in the one year is about the very tallest order we should be aiming for – anything higher is just too difficult in terms of logistics, in other words, it’s a realistic transition plan.

But make no mistake, even with all of the above occurring (more or less), the second tier would present a major challenge for years to come. I would predict a revolving door of clubs at the bottom of that second tier continuing for decades, maybe forever.

Would we end up with a permanent top three or four clubs as is to be found in the rest of the World?

Not while there’s a salary cap we won’t.

On the contrary, I would envisage a solid big 10 (or so) teams, with three or four at the bottom of the first tier in a constant struggle to stay above, joined by the team newly promoted.

The honest truth is that if we end up with a solid big 10 or so clubs who never experience relegation, the A-League will probably remain more financially secure.

For instance, what good is there for the league to see the Victory’s membership drop from 30,000 to 10,000 if they were ever to experience relegation? Absolutely zero benefit.

The FFA can’t guarantee that won’t happen of course, but it can progress to the sort of environment where that’s unlikely to happen (it’s in its best interests).

Every now and then, we might get a team rising above the morass on a semi-permanent basis, and that’s where the romanticism comes into it for all those new clubs starting out in the 2nd tier.

The reality for most of these clubs, though, is that life will be short and brutish.

That’s what we will have to pay the piper to get our four teams into the ACL.

Even the two new clubs have managed to present themselves with a unique club culture in a relatively short space of time.

I thought I would have a go at describing the unique cultural aspects of each A-League club. Using Tony’s method, I’ll start with Wellington, and then go counter-clockwise from there.

Wellington Phoenix
It’s very much the us and them philosophy (the ‘them’ basically being every other team). The club that is on the outer in more ways than one. If you are born with a massive chip on your shoulder – this is the club for you.

Sydney FC
The original “Bling”, I say that because no doubt, others will appear in the future (as has already happened). Sydney is a club based on largesse and profligacy, where no thought is given to ever needing to pay the piper. A club that mistakenly thinks money is the answer to all the world’s problems. A club that epitomizes the maxim: shop till you drop. A club highly attractive to the me-generation and yuppies of the Eastern suburbs.

Central Coast Mariners
CCM is all about staking its own little spot in the sun, for the most part, in a place about which few Australians know anything nor will they ever visit it. Mariners fans would not want it any other way.

Newcastle Jets
If there is a difference between the Jets and the Mariners, it’s only one of degree. The Jets have history on their side (in terms of football in this country), and above all, have brought home the bacon once. If there is a rivalry between the two, it’s very much about avoiding the title of “least significant club in the A-League”.

Gold Coast
The club of the nouveau riche and aspirationals. A club for all those who really do believe that all that glitters is gold, and what’s more, that some of it is available to them. Scratch at the gold plating, and what will you find? Alloy, cheap junk and very little substance.

Brisbane Roar
A bit like the lion who relied on the mouse to extract a thorn from its paw, the Roar know they have a solid place in this league, the only trouble is that the mouse might ultimately be more valuable and of more use.

Townsville Fury
It’s a bit like that good ol’ pioneering spirit that sits behind much of Australia’s modern mythology. A club for all those who toil in far away places, sweating in the sun, going where no man has ever gone before (inevitably with holes in the soles of their shoes and in their pockets).

Perth Glory
The team could just as easily be called Past Glories, since that is what most takes up discussion amongst Glory fans. A hankering for a bygone era when the colour purple wasn’t viewed as embarrassing and Perth was at the heart of a sporting revolution (which has since moved on).

Adelaide United
This is a club for all those who enjoy being thereabouts. If you enjoy being thereabouts on a quasi-permanent basis – this is the club for you.

Melbourne Victory
The first club to win the double, the first club to win the double twice (even a triple), the first club to get 30,000; then 40,000 and then 50,000 to an A-League home and away fixture; above all else, Melbourne is a club of firsts.

Which is appropriate since Melbourne views itself as both the sporting and footballing capital of Australia. Its massive supporter base is right up there with just about any other football club in Australia of any description.

There is an unwritten contract between the Victory and every Melbourne member: we will always be number one, we will always be the biggest, we will always be the best.

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The first point that has to be made is that none of the three Socceroos in question (playing for Perth), did anything to ensure that Pim would have double-checked his mobile to make sure he had their numbers stored.

In fairness, the whole of the Perth team played as if they had only assembled together for the first time an hour or so before kick off, particularly in that first half, where one through ball after the other was played into space with no one chasing it.

And where each series of intricate short passing found an Adelaide player around the third or fourth pass without fail.

The only goal of the game was a penalty converted by Dodd after one of the Socceroos, Coyne, was adjudged to have hung onto Cornthwaite’s shirt during a set piece. Coyne must have been wondering to himself: “Geez, I would have got away with that one in League One!”

Needless to say, Cornthwaite played the part of the dirty dobber superbly, a role he has slipped into seamlessly over the past year or so.

Jamo was the one whipping in the ball when Coyne got caught out, and his first half was a bit of a highlight for Adelaide.

He won a stack of free kicks coming down the left, and his set pieces really had the Perth defence scrambling. Make no mistake: a player like Jamo is worth goals, and he will single handedly deliver Adelaide a spot in the top 6.

The other player that warrants a special mention is Dodd.

He appeared to have a bit of a free role across midfield, bobbed up everywhere to mop up stray Perth passes (of which there were plenty), and he got better as the game wore on. At one point, Perth’s possession hit the 90 percent mark late in the game, and invariably, it was Dodd involved in the other ten percent.

On Perth’s side, I think Sikora came into it when he was shifted to the right in the second half. He inserted himself between the Jamo-Cassio axis a fair bit, and had some very good touches himself – but often his team mates were failing to read him, and that was the story of Perth’s night.

There was a bit of a similarity with the Thursday night opener, but this time it was the home team with the early goal, and who then set themselves up as spoilers for the remainder of the evening.

Perth may have had the big signings in the off-season, but Adelaide had the one player capable of turning a game with just about the best left foot in the A-League.

This helps explain my sense of déjà vu in watching the opening game of the A-League. There was much about last night’s game that reminded me of our title defence from two years ago: Hernandez struggling to get into the game, and given his normal high standards, displaying quite a few poor touches.

Crosses from good positions that went nowhere; amateurish first touches and passes completely missing the mark.

And to top it all off, the Mariners getting some early points on the board, despite a dour game plan with very little to recommend it.

Indeed, when the Mariners walked out on the pitch, I thought they were wearing their training shirts. The match certainly possessed the quality of a pre-season training run.

The ungainly Simon, despite possessing poor ball skills, was on the spot to score the first goal of the new season. A harmless set piece landed in a nest of Victory defenders, none of whom were capable of providing what should have been a regulation header to safety.

The ball trickled out to a thankful Simon, who actually failed to drill it, but rather applied a shank of such lollipop proportions that it dipped under the bar.

The second goal was even more comical. The less said the better.

I have previous expressed the concern that one injury to either Muscat or Vargas will send the Victory reeling, and my worst fears have materialized after only the first match (once again, parallels with Milicevic injuring himself in the first game two years ago).

So early in the season, and the parallels with two years ago are quite eerie.

A meager 18,000 attended, and that may well be the most disappointing aspect of the opening night.

I would have expected close to double that under the circumstances.

It’s a bit of a concern, because that quality of game will not get the football aficionados parting with their money. Equally, apart from Richmond supporters, I can’t imagine too many AFL fans being attracted either.

I then had a sudden, terrible thought: what if the Mariners make it to the grand final again, playing like that?

It just doesn’t bear thinking about.

It appears to have caught everyone by surprise, with more than a hint of the cloak and dagger about it from the AFL – going all the way to the top.

My personal take on it is that it’s nothing more than a career decision on the part of Hunt. That it’s probably good marketing on the part of the new club. That some league players and their agents may try and get a bit of mileage out of it for future contract negotiations.

But otherwise, I reckon it’s business as usual for both the AFL and the NRL. There are no long term ramifications.

However, silly comments are already pouring in about all manner of things: it’s bad for the NRL; or it’s bad for the AFL; or it shows how weak they both are; shows that anyone can play AFL, and so on.

Basically, these are ignorant and prejudiced comments that are made without any knowledge of what Hunt can or can’t do, and any knowledge of what is required of either game at the elite level.

So I’d like to split this article into two parts:

1. What the chances are of Hunt making a successful transition from rugby league to Australian Football
2. Answering some of the more stupid comments I have seen on various forums.

The Probability of Success
Firstly, I would define a successful transition as Hunt playing ten games in his first season of AFL and then exceeding that number in his second season (barring injury, of course). I think that would be a fair enough achievement and would be deserving of plenty of praise, if he were to achieve it.

We should all bear in mind that the idea of recruiting players from other codes was first put into practice by Ron Barassi while coaching Melbourne in the early 1980s. In 1984, he brought over a few young Gaelic footballers who were all recognised as future champions in their sport at the time.

The group included Sean Wight, and in particular, Jim Stynes, who went on to achieve great success with Melbourne, winning a Brownlow and playing in a Grand Final along the way.

So let’s have a look at Jim Stynes.

The most important thing to bear in mind is that there are similarities in the biomechanics of each game, primarily being able to kick and handball while running at full pace (two of the key distinguishing features in Australian and Gaelic Football as compared to other codes).

Yet, it took Jim Stynes a full three years of special training and running around in the Reserves (often with a “runner” alongside him) to be in a position to finally debut in 1987, after which he was immediately dropped.

In other words, it required a massive effort from both the club and Stynes to become a regular player (which he eventually did with distinction).

It should also be remembered that Stynes was a very gifted athlete, with good stamina and good natural fitness, which no doubt helped him finally achieve the record of the most consecutive games ever played – 244, an incredible achievement in anyone’s language.

But even with everything going for him, including having the physique to play the specific role of ruckman, it was a long and arduous journey for him.

Stynes is not only remembered for longevity in the game, he is also remembered for one infamous event.

In his debut year, 1987, playing in a preliminary final, and with Melbourne only seconds away from qualifying for their first grand final in 23 years, Stynes committed the mortal sin of running across the mark and providing Buckenara with a 15 metre penalty that put him in range of goal, which he duly converted from about 45 metres.

Put all this together and the lesson?

Absolutely everything, absolutely everything, has to go your way just to have a fighting chance at making even a small success of the game if you’re coming from outside the game – and that also includes oodles of effort on the parts of both the club and the player.

Also, as the preliminary final example shows, in any game, there are little nuances that you better get on top of very quickly otherwise it’s going to be a very short career.

To show the basic skills out on the training track is one thing – to display an intuition for the game in the helter skelter chaos that is Australian Football is something completely different.

Back to Hunt.

The one disadvantage he has is that he can’t naturally slot into an identifiable position like ruck, whereas Stynes, and more recently, Mike Pyke, obviously had the right build and temperament to play ruck.

Some have mentioned half-back flank, where, for arguments sake, he might be asked to mind a player like Gary Ablett.

Let’s consider this scenario.

Hunt is minding Ablett on the flank (which in the modern game, might mean almost anything). The ball is 100 metres downfield, but could be in Ablett’s hands within a few seconds via a huge number of variations in play, far too many to mention in even a longish article such as this.

Would Hunt have the smarts right now to make sure Ablett didn’t get his hands on the ball?

I can promise you now, he wouldn’t.

This isn’t a question of relative skills, toughness, speed, or whatever. It’s about reading the game and having real time on-field smarts – and Hunt would not have that right now in any meaningful degree (certainly not sufficient to stop Ablett getting to the footy).

Responding to silly points being made out there on the blogosphere
1. It shows that anyone can play AFL
Seeing that where AFL clubs look beyond the AFL, they target gifted athletes, one could mount the argument that it shows the exact opposite.

2. It shows that you only need to be an athlete to play AFL
It’s certainly true that athleticism will get you far if you don’t have a background in the game, in the sense that the Swans don’t mind trying out Pyke because he’s 200 cm and can run with pace and has great stamina.

If he had been that tall but lacked the pace and stamina, they wouldn’t have bothered!

However, as you will see above, athleticism, hardness, and ball skills, are not enough on their own. As in all sports, you need to have an understanding of the game at an intuitive level – that’s the biggest challenge.

3. AC Milan or Barcelona wouldn’t recruit someone from another game
I’ve come across this one a few times already in various blogs. It sounds true at first glance, but then it occurred to me – some of the biggest and best names in the game do not come from an Association Football background (think about it).

That aside, I’m aware of a few former Gaelic Football schoolboy champions who have had very successful careers at the elite level of Association Football. Niall Quinn comes to mind. But I know there are others.

4. This is a disaster for the NRL and/or the AFL
Yes, different people are saying it’s the end of the world for one or the other. Pay no attention to that. This time next year, most will have forgotten that Hunt is scratching around for the footy in the VFL in some bumpy suburban ground somewhere in Melbourne.

This tale has a long way to play out. Just follow it and enjoy the ride!

Collingwood’s song harks back to a bygone era, long ago, a time when the premiership was indeed a cakewalk and the shoe factory workers had something to cheer about.

Essendon’s is full of the eternal optimism to be found amongst the manicured lawns and rose beds of Methodist Moonee Ponds.

Geelong’s carries the usual operatic theme of independence and autonomy.

Melbourne’s is straight out of the parade ground where vice-regals and the landed gentry stand alongside the officer class.

Hawthorn’s smacks of the sort of contentment and satisfaction that comes from being a well-paid professional living in the Eastern suburbs.

North’s comes straight to us from the picket lines of the old abattoirs, where workers once stood united demanding better working conditions.

Footscray’s carries a similar theme, more of the painters and dockers persuasion; the original words loudly proclaimed the fact that they were just as likely to lose as they were to win.

But the Sainters have the best fit of all.

Their jazzy blues-gospel number fits St Kilda like a glove, as if it’s come walking straight off the pier into one of the side alleys, home to vagabonds, penniless artistes, writers, philosophers, hopeless romantics and assorted castaways and fringe dwellers of modern society.

Is is a song of hope, of one day being delivered the ultimate prize.

Alas, this is St Kilda, one premiership since the founding of the Victorian colony; but around 25 wooden spoons to go with it, far too many for anyone to know with any accuracy.

A bit like one of those junior footy games where one team completely outclasses the opposition to such an extent that the goal umpires have trouble keeping an accurate tally.

But there is one thing I do know for sure, just as we are reminded by that gospel tune – it may pray for them, dream about them, but in reality St Kilda does not win premierships.

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Apart from the final term of the Howard government, the Government of the day has rarely had the numbers in the Senate to push through their agenda, certainly since the political crisis of 1975.

That the Government of the day is never complimentary of the Senate should be a hint to all of us that in fact the Senate does a pretty good job at holding the Government to account (power corrupts; checks and balances; and all that).

Some of the Senate’s very best work, which is mainly invisible to the majority of Australians who are generally more concerned about how their footy team is going (a sentiment I understand completely), involves the work of the Senate Committees, who spend their time investigating the latest hair brained scheme being put forward by the Government (giving money away; building white elephants, pork barrelling etc).

The range of things the Committees look into are quite varied, including: gene patents; bank mergers; childcare; the welfare of international students; access to justice; bushfires in Australia; climate policy and men’s health.

In other words, stuff that actually affects the daily lives of all of us.

But occasionally the committees look into things that strike one as odd.

I’ve only just discovered that the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee recently completed an enquiry entitled: Matters relating to the establishment of an Australian Football League team for Tasmania.

Call me crazy, but this seems like a bizarre subject for our elected federal representatives to worry themselves about.

Part of the scope of the inquiry was to determine “whether the decision of the Australian Football League (AFL) Board of Commission to prioritise admission to its competition of teams from Western Sydney and the Gold Coast over a proposed team for Tasmania is fair and equitable.”

I would have thought a commercial body should be able to make its own decisions as to where it will focus its operations without having to worry about the equity of such decisions. It’s a bit like telling BHP to put its head office in Alice Springs in the interests of equity.

This bit is really interesting. An argument in favour of the AFL establishing a team in Tasmania put forward was to ward off the threat of soccer in that state.

I kid you not – it’s in the report!

This is the Committee’s conclusion: “Finally, the committee is of the view that the committee’s plan for a Western Sydney team are very ambitious. Although it is not the committee’s intention to tell the AFL how it should manage its expansion plans, there are cultural barriers facing a Western Sydney-based AFL team that appear to be insurmountable.”

The gratuitous advice from the Committee does not end there, the report continues: “There must be concern, however, that primary school-aged children participating in modified Australian Rules via school programs will not necessarily translate into meaningful support for the code.”

True enough. But that’s for the AFL to worry about – not politicians!

Friday’s Age quotes Andrew Demetriou as saying that the AFL would pay scant attention to the Senate finding that there were “cultural barriers…that appear to be insurmountable”, and fair enough, too.

Honestly, for a group of Australian politicians to suggest that a section of the Australian population will never, ever take to the great Australian game … it makes me want to suggest that they are better off getting back to investigating something useful, like gene patents.

The bulk of these things have been discussed at great length on The Roar, such as keeping Dukes in the fold for insurance; finding a partner for Neill; trying out a few of the younger players, and so on.

The fifth of Lynch’s points caught my eye: the need for players such as Moore, Sterjovski and Culina to stay fit when their season finishes up in early March (if they’re lucky).

As we know, it’s not just the quality of the A-League that might put their international careers in jeopardy, it’s the shortness of the A-League season that is likely to do the most damage in that regard.

His suggestion was to organise loan deals for them to enable them to play for an additional couple of months. And this is certainly doable and becoming more common for A-League players.

But an alternative idea came to me as I was mulling this idea over.

What if we were to put together an A-League squad of eighteen or so players, including the four or five names that are in contention for a trip to South Africa, and have them train together and play a series of friendlies in the two or three months following the end of the A-League season next year.

It wouldn’t matter who we played, as long as we organised a game every two or three weeks.

This would be over and above the program that would be organised for the full national squad of 23 to 26 players (I imagine a few of the A-League players would join as training members, like last time).

Not only would we keep the key four or five players match fit, they’d be training together. And we would also be blooding a few younger players at U20 and U23 level (such as Kantarovski, Celeski, Mullen, Jesic, Danning, Gan, Payne, Zullo, and Patafta) from which we might be able pull out a name in case of last minute injuries, as can often happen.

I would see the benefits going a bit beyond keeping the true Socceroos match fit. Surely this is a better idea than finding them individual loan deals?

Or is it?

We are all taught about that first famous game in 1858, and about the first set of rules written in a pub in Richmond the following year.

We are all taught that Melbourne and Geelong footy clubs are amongst the oldest football clubs in the world: Melbourne being formed in May 1859 and Geelong in July 1859.

But in what may well have ramifications across the globe, it has recently been claimed that Geelong is not the second oldest football club in the land after all.

A local Castlemaine historian, engaged by the Castlemaine Football Club to research its history, has uncovered documentary evidence of the club being formed in June 1859 (reported in The Age, 17 June 2009).

The evidence was uncovered in an article from the local paper of the time, and refers to a meeting held in the Supreme Court Hotel on 15 June 1859 to establish the club, meaning that club has just celebrated its 150th birthday.

There are doubts about what happened next, as no evidence exists that the club did very much until 1871.

Get ready for a multitude of 150th birthdays over the next twelve to 24 months, with many country and city clubs having been formed during this period.

After Geelong, Ballarat will be celebrating its 150th birthday in the first half of next year, and plans are already afoot for celebrations that may even rope in the AFL.

In the 1870s, the Ballarat league was almost on an equal footing with the then VFA, and regular representative games took place between the two competitions.

This discovery means a rewrite of footballing history as we know it. And not just in local terms

The discovery has world wide consequences in terms of human history and understanding the human condition.

2. How good is Timmy Cahill? How good is he?! He’s not stylish, he’s not technically gifted. In fact, his all-round game is quite average. But he can sniff a goal out better than a hog can sniff out truffles. With that first header, he has come in two deep, with no less than Josh and Takana in front of him. Just unbelievable. Japan must be sick of the sight of him.

3. There were eerie similarities in this victory to our last victory over the Japanese. They score a goal from a set piece (something that is meant to be our strength) in the first half, and Timmy comes back with two of the best in the second.

4. Speaking of things that are meant to be our strength, strength is meant to be one of our strengths. But slowly, slowly, I’ve been noticing a change in Japanese teams whereby they are more than willing to match it with us in that department (and are largely succeeding). We are seeing a national team in transition in more ways than one, and it augurs well for our rivals.

5. Okay, I’m getting to the meaty bit. Pass or fail for Nicky Carle? For about the first hour, there really wasn’t too much there to get excited about in all honesty (allowing for the fact that he probably wasn’t in his most favoured position). But in the space of 30 seconds, he more than justified his selection with a turn and quick snap that drew the corner, which he then swung in for Timmy to tap in (and folks, it was a bloody good corner too! We’d happily accept some of those every day of the week)

6. Have we found a new big bazooka at centre-forward? The answer is no. But it’s not all bad. As the game wore on, Josh showed a bit more than he did in the first half. He can’t replicate Dukes’ game, but we don’t necessarily need that. What we need is for him to do a bit more in the game to add to his obvious armoury. That’s all we ask. Because if Takana can take care of him easily in the air, so can most defenders in the world. He needs another string on his bow to be an automatic starter. He showed glimpses, along with a willingness to try a few things. Nothing that regular football won’t improve.

7. Debuts and other experiments. Apart from having a funny running style, Williams was reasonable, I thought, as was North. I’m not a big wrap for Stefanutto. Didn’t see enough of the subs.

8. Was it my imagination, or was every second throw-in a foul?

9. In conclusion, we’ll take a 2-1 victory over Japan every time, regardless.

10. Prediction: Australia to defeat Japan 3-1 on the MCG in the World Cup final in 2022 in front of 118,000 fans.

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For those relatively new to the game of rugby (most people living south-west of Goulburn), the concept of the Barbarians is an interesting one. They have a wonderful history, far longer than one might initially think.

And the sentiments behind the concept are quite noble – right up there with the five rings (the brotherhood of man, peace to the world, and so on).

But despite the obvious merit, I am starting to wonder whether there is a place for the Baa-Baas in the modern era.

On the one hand we have both the chivalry in the off-field behaviour demanded of all those who are honoured with an invitation to partake, tied with the desire to play entertaining, running rugby on the field (the latter aspect perhaps reminding us of the raison d’etre of the Harlem Globetrotters).

On the other hand, we have the likelihood of the Barbarians coming up against teams who come ready to play, and have little interest in such romantic notions as bringing joy to the masses.

This is what happened a few days ago when Australia inflicted the worst ever defeat on the Barbarians.

Listening to the game on the radio, it was patently clear that one team had a bigger hunger for the contest than the other team.

And of course that would be the case!

How can a team cobbled together with the express purpose of entertaining be competitive against a full national team where the players are playing for spots in that team? (and in some cases, for their professional careers)

Impossible.

The outcome is known before the game even begins. That mismatch in objectives will always produce a lop sided game.

I’m afraid to say that in the modern era, the Baa-Baas are at risk of becoming a parody of what was once a wonderful and noble concept.