Nominated articles for the Armchair Sports Writer Award
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The following articles have been nominated for The Roar’s Armchair Sports Writer Award. You have one vote each week to select your favourite entry. Every Tuesday we’ll run the next three nominated articles.
Week Thirteen nominated articles:
Bring on the stewards, they must have something in the water
By Gatesy. September 1st, 2008
As I was going to bed on Saturday night, 5 minutes before the end of the Wallabies v Springbok debacle, I couldn’t but help thinking, if this was a horse race they would probably be having a Steward’s inquiry. Read more
For the Wallabies, it’s Advance Australia bare
By Benjamin. September 2nd, 2008
That’s it. The bar is dry, the food’s gone, the cupboard is empty. As a young fan enticed by late-1990s Australian rugby, the 1999 World Cup was a professional epiphany, a veritable feast of accurate, modern rugby. Read more
Pim, are your ‘Roos ready?
By The Bear. September 1st, 2008
Before Pim Verbeek batons down the hatches, and really gets down to business for qualifying Australia for the World Cup in South Africa 2010, he needs to take stock. And stock is something of which he still has in abundance. Read more
Vote now
– votes closed –
Note: you only have one vote each week. The top voted article each week will go through to a shortlist of finalists, announced September 9th. More.
The winning articles
Week Twelve
With 67% of the vote, week twelves’s winning article was China second on the medal tally? Only in America by Benjamin Conkey.
Other nominated articles
- Greg Bird is caught in a net of shame
- Backing the underdog is much more fun
Week Eleven
With 100% of the vote, week eleven’s winning article was Only four teams can win the EPL by Gabriel Knowles.
Other nominated articles
- Could motorsport ever be an Olympic sport?
- USA vs China, losing my basketball virginity
Week Ten
With 79% of the vote, week ten’s winning article was Federer vs history: who are his real opponents? by Rory O’Donovan.
Other nominated articles
- Gallop ban stripping, of the ball that is
- Argentine tango too much for Australia
Week Nine
With 44% of the vote, week nine’s winning article was Give the NRL back to the people by John.
Other nominated articles
- Why expose AFL to the NRL’s problems?
- When it comes to rugby, let’s stay positive
Week Eight
With 69% of the vote, week eight’s winning article was Mark Bosnich: the return of the troubled prodigal son by Jimbo.
Other nominated articles
- He may be quiet, but Casey Stoner’s a true champion
- How the All Blacks can stop the bleeding
Week Seven
With 63% of the vote, week seven’s winning article was
- Will South Africa be ready for 2010? by Mohammed Patel.
Other nominated articles
- True grit from the Wallabies
- Hand over the money, or the game gets it
Week Six
With 83% of the vote, week six’s winning article was
- What Next For Federer? A Coach Would Help by Rory O’Donovan.
Other nominated articles
- The next World Cup and football violence
- The greatest sporting match, ever!
Week Five
With 77% of the vote, week five’s winning article was
- The Mariners bring grassroots football to a rugby heartland by Jason Gray.
Other nominated articles
- Smith versus Waugh: the Great Debate Rages
- The AFL must consider a twilight Grand Final
Week Four
With 67% of the vote, week four’s winning article was
- Hewitt versus Federer: an enticing showdown by Daniel Tilley.
Other nominated articles
- Why the National Competition Won’t Work
- The A-League is about to put the other codes to shame
Week Three
With 47% of the vote, week three’s winning article was
- Adieu Paris, ‘Allo London by Tania Tchea.
Other nominated articles
- A short history of AFL as we know it today
- The rise of football: who has it hurt?
Week Two
With 52% of the vote, week 2’s winning article was
- Issue more yellow cards, sooner by LeftArmSpinner.
Other nominated articles
- Faingaa’s Twins: My Brother’s Keeper
- Where did the Bears go?
Week one
With 48% of the vote, week 1’s winning article was
- The A-League, salary caps, and the good old Aussie ‘fair go’ by Millster.
Other nominated articles
- A reminder of the power of sport
- Is Sydney’s sporting landscape dying?
The results of this week’s vote will be announced on this page next Tuesday.
Nominate an article
We welcome articles for submission from either The Roar or other Australian blogs.
Nominate an article now.
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![Aren’t the Roosters the team that just keeps on giving? How pleased David Gallop must be that on Grand Final week he has yet another stench to clean up around Bondi Junction.
Did someone at the Roosters call someone at the Sharks and scream “FULL HOUSE!” down the phone?
And whole swag of assaults, DUI and the [...] Steve Kaless: Is the match fixed at the Roosters?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/wrong-roosters-braith-anasta-th.jpg)
![The AFL’s umpiring department claim they made just 6 mistakes from 10,000 scoring shots last year, yet in the sport’s showcase event, the Grand Final, there was a glaring error for Tom Hawkins’ 2nd quarter ‘goal’. It begs the question does the AFL need video replays?
You often hear people say, “this or that could one [...] Ben Somerford: Grand Final gaffe shows AFL needs to improve umpire accuracy](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/grand-final-afl-umpire-accuracy-th.jpg)
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US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, representing Goliath, laid out a list of reasons why [...] Adrian Musolino: Australia faces a colossus in its bid for 2022 World Cup](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/despite-indifference-soccer-beckham-th.jpg)
![Expansion hasn’t been the golden ticket to significantly better crowd figures with a below 10,000 average crowd for the last round highlighting the complexities of drawing punters at this time of the year. But rather than being the ticket to better crowds, expansion is partly the reason for the deplorable crowds in Brisbane.
Brisbane came into [...] Adrian Musolino: FFA needs to reconsider expansion plans for 2010/11](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ffa-needs-reconsider-th.jpg)
![Gary Player clinked a longish shot on to the eighteenth green at Augusta, about 25 feet from the cup. He then meticulously three-putted, and to a fervent standing ovation from the huge crowd, made his slow way off the course and into the forever green memory of the game.
That long hit to the green was [...] Spiro Zavos: Farewell to the the players’ Player](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/farewell-players-gary-player-th.jpg)
![There seems to be a consensus amongst many long time league fans that the eighties were a golden period for the game. The game expanded beyond Sydney and the seeds were sown for the national competition that we have today. Good times.
There’s probably still many who wouldn’t mind if the game was the same [...] Gabriel Knowles: Memo NRL: bring back the five minute sin bin](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/memo-nrl-ben-cummins-th.jpg)
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Ponting didn’t rise [...] Alec Swann: Ponting shouldn’t take the fall for Ashes defeat](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ashes-loss-th.jpg)
![The Sports Minister, Kate Ellis, who famously did not know the difference between rugby league and rugby union, is floating the proposition that successful athletes should pay back part of their expenses incurred training at the Austalian Institute of Sports and other similar institutions.
The Minister, in the great tradition of the Rudd Government’s penchant for [...] Spiro Zavos: Should successful athletes pay back their AIS costs?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/should-successful-athlete-pay-back-th.jpg)
![The race-fixing scandal involving the Renault F1 team is getting ugly with the team commencing legal proceedings against Nelson Piquet for defamation and blackmail following his bombshell accusations. The saga is only going to get uglier.
For the uninitiated, Renault have been accused of fixing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix by allegedly ordering Nelson Piquet [...] Adrian Musolino: The ramifications of race-fixing saga will run deep](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-formula-1-rotten.jpg)
![It really is a funny old game this football. For six straight games, Branko Culina and his Newcastle Jets played with a back four, dished up some delightful football, and had very little to show for it.
At times, like against Melbourne in round 11, the football was top shelf, with Labinot Haliti and Michael [...] Tony Tannous: Old fashioned formation finally delivers Culina points](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/old-fashioned-formation-culina-th.jpg)
![Like him or loathe him, as I presume Lote Tuqiri now does, it’s clear John O’Neill rules Australian rugby with a firm hand. (I was going to say “he casts a long shadow”, but that is true only very late in the day!)
I was even going to put O’Neill in my list of “Top [...] Andrew Jones: The Next 5 things on John O’Neill’s To Do list](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/next-five-things-john-oneill-th.jpg)
![This time of year is always my favourite. There are the Christmas and New Year festivities, the fantastic weather, and the love/hate relationship that comes along with the beginning of pre-season training. And of course the international cricket season kicks off here in Australia.
As much as I love to watch the cricket, what has [...] Natalie Medhurst: Why can the guys strip down, but not the girls?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/calendar.jpg)



