It brings in money because the AFL play the long game – it took nearly 30 years for the Swans to win a premiership. They number of juniors is increasing, it is played around Sydney quite a bit. The same is happening on the Gold Coast. The AFL then reinvests the money in these areas.

Football Australia has no patience, they won’t wait 30 yrs for something. The NRL is the same. The big broadcasters, need to have access to the Sydney market. Did you also notice that Ch. 7 broadcasts different games into different states?

Football Australia, also doesn’t invest the money in grassroots like the AFL and to a lesser extent the NRL. I have seen it firsthand with my daughter – always putting their hand out for more. The money her NPL club charged is 6 times the state cricket charged. By the time we add in the fees for playing in the other competitions, we will barely have reached $1000.

It is a twisted scenario because Football Australia can’t get the money from TV rights for whatever reason, though I think a Summer season is partly to blame. Personally it is because the A-League is not as cared about in this country as the other codes. Secondly, the children really only talk of the EPL and some of the other European competitions. Football Australia can be arrogant in a way that the other codes can’t be – it is the biggest sport in the world, so it will look after itself. Well it won’t in this country – no other country has 4 professional codes of football to the level that it is here. The Government has shown they are willing to spend money on Football by spending $40m on the 2018 bid for the Men’s WC.

There is also no clear pathway unlike the other codes. That is why my daughter is leaning towards cricket, also if she makes it, she would be earning an average of $150K a year in Australia. Throw in the Women’s IPL and that would easily double. Yet Sydney FC had one full time player in their Women’s squad this year that won the title.

Sorry for the rant – I really struggle with the Myopic Highlander view (there can be only one) of many people who support only one code. I also struggle with the concept that yes it is the World’s game, but it isn’t here (the same in the US). Get over it, be glad people are playing and help improve the game. I love playing the game, I grew up on Aussie Rules which I still love watching. I follow the NRL and Union (Saffa wife 😊 ). Love my cricket, watch Basketball (my son). Am watching the World Swimming Champs as well at the moment as well as the WC.

Because it brings in the money regardless. NRL are poor outside QLD/NSW yet they still get the money.

Football is its own worst enemy – think they are the best, but really do nothing to build it. The claim of being the most popular sport in the world means nothing in the unique Australian environment where there are 4 football codes. The (what I like to call Highlander approach) “there can only be one“ is very myopic. They laugh at the AFL for approaching people who didn’t grow up with the game to see if they can play, yet won’t do it themselves. Even though Kerr grew up on Aussie Rules and only turned to Football when she couldn’t play with the boys anymore. Their “pride” won’t let them. Who knows how many more “Kerrs” are out their, and it may only take a tap on the shoulder

My daughter plays NPL1 in NSW and is in the Female academy for cricket. Yet with better qualified coaches, it costs less to play cricket. The pathway is clearer, and clubs are happy to put players forward, even if it means losing them. From my POV it is based more on talent than who you know. She is a bowling allrounder who rumour has it, if she wasn’t so young she could be playing 1st Grade cricket. I have seen her have 1st Grade players in trouble.
Football, however, expects her to make a choice at such a young age, but puts out no clear pathway. Kids get more opportunities based on who they know, who coaches them, etc. again from my POV. She is valued enough to play up a level, and is a left footer (ironically it is the only thing she does with the left), but can’t give her a clear pathway for whatever reason. That attitude from the football people has her leaning towards Cricket, even though she is passionate about football just as much.

Yes it is, but still behind the SOO, AFL & NRL finals unfortunately. I thought it would rate higher than that. I mean this is the biggest game in town at the moment. I wonder what the next Matildas games and finals rate. Can’t blame advertising – it is everywhere, and if you missed it, you are living under a rock.

The atmosphere was great, had tickets on the 16yd box at Ireland’s end in the 2nd half.

Ch. 7 only has 15 of the games to show live, put of their deal with FIFA and Optus. Talk to FIFA then, traditionally they go for the money over growing the game.

Buried it is not the right word, as they don’t have all the games to show, 9 of those are the half of the finals games, another 3 are the Matilda’s games, that leaves 3 other games out of the other 45 pool games. So they only have access to 6 of the 45 pool games.

Would CBS really have done a better job? We can’t know when it comes to FTA.

There TV viewership that only counts is in Australia when it comes to Australian TV, that is the problem. Ch. 7 doesn’t get money from OS as they don’t televise in other countries. Same with Optus sport. The 2 billion is a great figure, but it doesn’t matter to Australian TV providers. They don’t get to sell the rights to other countries, FIFA does.

Maybe because year in year out those other codes bring in the sponsorship money to pay for you to have access to FTA? Unfortunately Football doesn’t do that in this country.

“know we have been the better team , more entertaining and the team dictating even if they have contributed to our own downfall.”

Sounds like the quote “PRIDE COMETH BEFORE A FALL”.

You can say all that, yet they lost the chance to regain the Ashes. Not sure England are the better team. They have certainly ridden their luck. Crawley himself could have been out several times
1st ball – gloved just wide of Carey (Crawley 0 at the time)
8th Over – edge just wide of Warner (12)
12th Over – edged past his stumps (20)
22nd Over – edged just past Carey (42)
26th Over – Chopped past his stumps (62) are some of his chances, then he chops on anyway. If he doesn’t make 189, England don’t find themselves in the position they were.

The English cost themselves in the first test by declaring. Then couldn’t get Lyon or Cummins out.
They lost the 2nd test to the better team
3rd Test – Australia lost the plot in bowling short when the English were still 120 runs behind with only 3 wickets left to allow England to get within 29 runs.
4th Test – Arrogance cost them, Stokes chose not to declare when 120 in front. It would have given them 3 full sessions to bowl the Aussies out and then chase with their Bazball “spirit”.

Not sure they are the better team across the series, else why are they 2-1 down? It could easily have been 3-0 Australia, 3-0 England which indicates there is no better team.

As for playing in the right “SPIRIT”, accepting the Umpires decision is the right SPIRIT of the game. Australia accepted Starc’s catch wasn’t out and haven’t brought it up again, yet the English are still talking about a wicket that happened in the 2nd Test. The English still bring up Starc’s catch. SPIRIT of cricket has Root not claiming he caught Smith, as it is in the SPIRIT of Cricket “If in doubt, give not out”. The SPIRIT of Cricket has Stokes pulling his troops in and telling them to move on, yet in some cases he is the most guilty.

So what you are saying is “there can only be one”? That’s a pity, as there is a lot of beauty out there in the world that you are missing because of the Myopic view.

It’s like saying you will only drink one kind of drink, because that is what you grew up on and you won’t taste anything different because it is not the accepted drink.

Agreed – recency bias has a lot to answer for.

Stoles missed twice off Murphy before he gets to 50. The lead is then more like 60. Imagine another minimum 40 runs to play with. Also bowling bouncers to Woakes and co is asking for trouble. Pitch it up, set a field for that, and remove many scoring options through slogging. Half of those 6’s are more likely to be caught on Australian grounds.

Don’t forget Carey was hit in the head as well, it might have been a reason as well. I would think more likely the other hullabaloo. That hit in the helmet can make grown men do funny things when facing fast bowling.
Remember this guy hasn’t done it easy on his path to test cricket. He was drafted by GWS in the AFL, then told he wouldn’t make it and went back and did the hard yards to make it at cricket. I don’t think the English Press and Spectators are going to rattle him as much as people are saying.

Watch all the Tigers supporters say there is nothing in it, yet it is close to couple of others that have left them baying for blood.

Stokes and Baz have backed themselves into a corner. Now

1. They need to tell each of their Batters to walk when they know it’s out (Spirit of the game),

2. That if they slightly interfere in the field or when batting and the decision goes their way (even if it is correct under the laws of the game), will have to withdraw the appeal or give themselves out.

3. If they have any doubt, they can’t appeal.

Yes I did, just stating it took 10 years for him to apologise, cause that is a skyscraper horse

So Cummins has 10yrs to apologise then

Except Broad….

So Bairstow trying it the other day was ok just because he didn’t effect a wicket? You also need to remember England have form in this type of dismissal too – Pope on de Grandhomme just last year. Also Bell claiming the runout (on Elliott from NZ) dispite the queries of the umpires.

Also who wanders out of their crease before over is called (he had been doing it consistently as well) and Carey threw the ball as soon as he recieved it. If you watch carefully, Bairstow is in his crease when the ball is thrown, and wandered out. He hadnt waited for the umpire to call over, and the umpire couldn’t have had time to call over before the ball was thrown. I bet if the ball had gone to the boundary from Carey, Stokes would’ve taken the boundary and not invoked “the spirit of cricket” defence.

The umpire was not in the motion of calling over, he hadn’t even started to hand back the cap! We are taught not to leave the crease until the umpire has called over.

Nice article, but HG advantage does come into play when you consider the number of games one team plays at the ground compared to their opposition. Think about Adel & PA even when low on the ladder defeat teams at Adelaide Oval. They know the wind conditions better, meaning how to kick a goal from a certain pocket, etc. The same goes at GMHBA stadium, even Marvel and Optus. SCG has seen many good team come a cropper as well.

Also it is a bit disingenuous to claim the Cats as a tenant of the MCG when they play only 2 home games at the G. Stats can be manipulated any way you like to make a point.

8 times in the history of the AFL, the higher ranked interstate team has played the lower ranked Victorian team at the MCG (except 1991).
1991 – 1. WCE v 2 Haw (Waverley)
1996 – 1. Syd v 2 NM
2004 – (2 Non-Vic teams) 1 PA v 2 Bris
2005 – (2 Non-Vic teams) 3 Syd v 2 WCE
2006 – (2 Non-Vic teams) 1 WCE v 4 Syd
2012 – 3 Syd v 1 Haw
2014 – 2 Haw v 1 Syd
2015 – 3 Haw v 2 WCE
2016 – 7 WB v 1 Syd
2017 – 3 Rich v 1 Adel

Do some of these results change? For example in 2017 Adel beat Richmond comfortably at the Adelaide Oval, though Richmond defeated PA there.

You don’t think Bancroft has done enough? Leading scorer in the Sheffield Shield with nearly 1000 runs in 20 innings and average over 55.

As mentioned by others, Green was in control of the ball, and his body, before his hand hit the ground meaning it is out. Just because the ball touched the ground under this definition doesn’t mean it is not out.
Think about it – if the grass is longer at one venue to another (even longer in some parts of the same venue), this would change if it is a catch our not. So it is not out at the GABBA, but out at the MCG as an example.

She already does, but often is told she should have done this instead. She has a great left foot and is pretty good on her right. She is the Ms Fix-it of the team. Played in a Singapore tournament and scored half the goals to win it. Then the goalie goes down and she is thrown in there as she plays like a sweeper. The best I’ve seen is her go against the coaches advice from defence (just outside the 16yd box from an off-side call), sum up the situation call out her striker, kicked over the circle and set the striker for a goal. The coach wanted her to play it to the side and down the line. She was congratulated after, but only because of the result of the goal.

As stated earlier, cricket she plays on instinct. One rep game she took 4/10, and was asked to bat at 4. She came in at 2/1 and decided to attack 60runs later (out of 78), the game was won. Another game (again at 4 and not many on the board) she built the innings so her team could chase a score. Only was asked to watch the ball and do what she could do. She was not told to defend and keep her wicket, she was left to figure it out.

Coaches of junior sport should give guidance, not instructions. It should be more like “if this is happening, did you think about this?” not “this is what we are doing”.

To an extent – runs against WI and RSA, but didn’t do much in SL or Pakistan. So maybe being dropped forced him to look at his technique and approach. Now he is benefitting from it.

Maybe it was being dropped that has put Head in this vein of form?

My daughter plays in the U14NPL1 in NSW, and the club she plays for have coached the impulsive/instinctive decision making out of most of the players. They need to get nearly into the 6yd box before shooting. She even got told off for taking a shot from 20yds when the team was 0-4 down and nothing was working. They struggle to move the ball quickly at times because they are trying to play to technically, which in term leads to mistakes and turning the ball over. It is the same with most of the other teams in the NPL at her level. Yes Australia is a very team orientated country (whatever the sport), but you can still play as a team while playing on instinct, taking a chance, etc.. My daughter will do the team thing, when it is working, but gets frustrated when it’s not and she is not allowed to try something different.

She is a bit disillusioned with Football, and is leaning to cricket (where she is already on the radar of state team for her age group and Brewer’s U18 grade cricket) as they allow her to play on instinct. Maybe being an opening bowler alrounder helps as well.

We are moving between the two – some salaries (polices. teachers, nurses, politicians, etc.) can be easily found when looking. Others are private. I don’t have a problem either way. If they are public, they may need to be broken done to yearly so Joe Public can see a team is not over the salary cap. The down side is some players will cop a lot of grief over performance, especially from the teams spending years in the bottom half of the ladder because each club must pay 95% of the salary cap.

It might have helped better explain the GC salary dump with Bowes and pick 7, or how the Cats/Tigers have remained under the cap. In the NRL it might have helped explain why Cronulla were over the cap in 2015, not 2016 (when the won) and then again over in 2017.

Because the Waratahs are booked to play there on the same night…