Some sporting facts for you to unquestioningly accept

I find the carry-on about women's sports, particularly the contact sports that they just started playing, incredibly condescending and patronising. Case in point - Taylah Harris's kick. It was like it was the greatest kick ever, even though men have been doing exactly the same thing for 100 years. The unsaid words at the end of every superlative about women's sport is "for a woman". That's what everyone means but is afraid to actually say. Just call it as it is; have some respect for them as people, not just women.

More so a reflection on Tomic and Kyrios getting far to much attention. On results alone they should be buried on about page 6 or 7 of the sports section.

Cycling

AFL players should be allowed to pass the ball properly, even grid iron style, in any direction, and to tackle properly. That would make the game interesting.

Hello LK - perhaps the players have been hit on the head ten times more than they can endure with brain cells intact. A bit like bull riders who go out with a bag of marbles . . . no marbles left then a rodeo bull rider

I stopped watching the NRL footy shot not long after Sterlo’s exit. It became too much loutish banter and not enough about the game. Even Matty John’s does it way better these days.

That's the point often missed about Kerry. He knows cricket at every level, he lives and breathes it and he enjoys it. What he says is always insightful (although his 'Jason Sangha is the future' might have been OTT.)

Why? O'Keeffe has a sense of humour I enjoy and he also makes some telling observations on the game. He's streets ahead of the Warnes, Slaters, Healys, etc who treat the commentary box as a place to relive past glories. As Rellum said, only guys like Rogers, Ponting and Alison Mitchell come close to Skull.

Same with basketball - the last 5 mins is plenty ????

You are being silly, Paula !

Fact: Australian soccer fans are overly sensitive and Australian soccer fans are overly sensitive about being overly sensitive.

But that’s true of all sport. The A-League is nowhere near the standard of the EPL but people still watch it. Same for NBL, In Trust Super Cup. Heck it’s the same for the early rounds in a tennis tournament. Anyone who watches the Titans week after week. People don’t just watch sport because it’s the best otherwise club competitions wouldn’t exist apart from the best one in the world, and in the end those comps would have two teams.

Fact: Breakdancing has been approved as an Olympic sport.

Swimming fits in with this idea. Best to show only the last 5 metres of any race.

What's all this talk about fitness, endurance, strength, being an athlete etc., got to do with something being a sport or not? All of the above tend toward you getting hurt because you end up playing against people who are also like that. These sorts of people tend to have issues with body image, arrogance and life-long problems with injuries that all stem from the fact that they tried too hard. Best to be a little over-weight, not too fit lest one strain something. Chess fits into this line of thinking with ease, especially as it allows one to drink beer while PLAYING. Which brings me to my second point. Playing! People who are too serious, aggressive, competitive (you know where I'm going with this) aren't PLAYING sport, they're just got psychological issues.

But they do qualify by reason of having to carry injuries into middle and old age as do all true sports.

And chess would fit the bill there.

1. Not only did Dirk Wellham score a test century on debut, he is only one of three players in cricketing history to score a century on debut at both first class and international level, and is the only player to captain three states in the Sheffield Shield. 2. I also wholeheartedly agree that t20 is the fast food equivalent of cricket, ODIs are the mid priced sit down family restaurants and test cricket is and always will be the fine dining experience. 3. Cricket administrators have strangled the laws of on play behaviour where there are no characters left in the game. 4. Female tennis players should be allowed to wear whatever they want on court if it makes them feel comfortable. 5. If the US wants to export its sports to other countries, they should allow equal share of other international sports into theirs with the same amount of exposure. 6. All commentators of all sports should be trained before being allowed to sit in a commentary box. Just because they played the game doesn’t mean they should be allowed to write or commentate on it. 7. Before any player represents his/her team or country , they should have a good idea of the history of the jersey/cap their putting on and why it means so much to the people they represent. I get very annoyed by sportspersons who lack understanding and importance of their team’s history and great players. 8. E-sports and chess are not sports. 9. What happens on the field should stay on the field. If players have issues with their coach or administrators, they should keep it behind closed doors, and not use social media to criticize or condemn as it is nobody’s friend. 10. Lots of the stuff at the Olympics are not sports. Some examples are synchronized swimming, diving and the ribbon twirling event, equestrian events (eg dressage) and trampoline. 11. Great players do not make great coaches.

A bit like jazz, Slane. The musicians love playing it, but the vast majority of listeners can’t get away fast enough.

Overhyping Australian tennis players is a curse. She's getting the perfect amount of attention – she gets praise for her successes, and is always supported, but not overhyped so the pressure is too much. Ash is also very down to earth, and not the sort of woman who wants to be in the spotlight all the time.