I don’t go to many roundball football games – probably about ten in my lifetime – although I am getting a greater appreciation of the game.

But I can certainly say from going to many AFL games in at least 7 different venues across 5 states at many times of the day and night that the ‘traditional’ ‘family friendly’ time of a 2:30 or 3pm start usually provides the least satisfying atmosphere and experience- and that’s even when it’s not blazingly hot.

I find twilight or night time games better as a spectator for many reasons. I don’t know why the various football codes persist with so many daytime ones, especially during the summer.

Brisbane has a fair bit of momentum too – especially when it comes to playing at The Gabba this year. From all reports, the fans at MCG played their role in getting Carlton over the line in those last two close ones. While there will no doubt be a decent number of Carlton fans at The Gabba, the crowd will help Brisbane – and it’s been nearly 20 years since the Lions played in a Grand Final, so there’s a fair bit of impatience built up in Brisbane too.

There were few better sights than watching Daniel Rich’s long bombs when he was at his peak. A great club man that had to endure a lot of grim years before the finals started happening. It’s a shame he’s almost certain to miss out on these finals (barring some injury catastrophes) but losing that little bit of speed & acceleration catches up with everyone in the end, and it’s so crucial in the modern game.

This is a very insightful comment. (Seriously, not sarcasm). It’d be great PR for a band to be promoted as the AFL GF entertainment, but terrible PR for them if it was to go badly.

It’s pretty rare in my experience for the bands at Grand Finals to come across as little more than average, given the way it’s usually set up and how far away most of the crowd is. It’s a bit of a risk – and while Crowded House have some wonderful songs, they don’t really have ‘pump it up’ style tunes for this sort of situation.

(Although I though Robbie Williams somehow managed to come over wonderfully – he genuinely entertained me, and I am not even remotely close to being a Robbie Williams fan).

Sounds like you were watching a different incident to the one I’m talking about, but just in case we’re talking about the same thing, if that counts as a send off then most games will be ending with both teams having ten players.

As always with officiating, the key thing is consistency. If the officials want incidents like this one to be a send off they should do it all the time, not randomly out of nowhere while not doing it for ones that are far worse.

Robinson doesn’t impress me much in his press conferences, and I’m never unhappy when the Roosters lose. But it’s still ludicrous that that was a send off.

If the Australian cricket team selectors had dropped their bizarre NSW fixation, they’d have been world champions in every format some years ago. It’s risible.

Langer was from the era when the Australian cricket team were a giant pack of knobs that made me support whatever team Australia were playing against. Perhaps he had his place at a specific point in time time – although the way he got all his mates from that same era onto act like a pack of giant knobs didn’t exactly make me think he’d got any better.

It’s very much time for new people with fresh mindsets.

It’s a two way arrangement that has benefited both countries immensely.

Unfortunately, in the last couple of decades Australia has gradually treated NZers here far worse than NZ treats Australians.

It is pathetic that Australia is happy to grab as many NZ & Pacific Island people as possible and stick a yellow jumper on them so we can feel better about ourselves because of our “Aussie” football team, when we make it so hard for them to actually become Australian citizens.

Happy to have them live here for decades – take their taxes, pretend they’re Australian if they win is some footy games or have a hit single or win an Oscar – but also happy to deny them the same supports as others & kick them out if they get nicked shoplifting after living here for decades even if they’ve raised a family.

It’d be a disgrace even without the hypocrisy of cheering on “Aussies” who win us games when we make it so hard for them to become Aussies.

It’s outrageous how hard it is for many people to be able to gain citizenship – especially New Zealanders. It’s not Quade’s fault though. The guy moved here over 20 years ago & first played a test for Australia in 2008.

It’s pathetic how happy Australians are to have Pacific Islanders & NZers play as “Australians” if it can win us some footy games, but still make it so hard for them to become Australians. The same applies for so many other migrants who we are also happy to make use of & get advantage from, while keeping them as non-citizens for longer and longer.

Whatever the arguments people are having in Australia about coaches, administrators, etc, it’’a less nothing than compared to the shambles that England have descended into in this department – with their selectors seeming to be the worst of the lot.

(Come to think of it, the Australian selectors are one of the few parts of the Australian cricket set up that seems to have got almost no criticism in recent times, which is a bit of a rarity. They must be enjoying the peace and keeping their heads down)

What’s this?! A balanced article, written in a moderate tone, encouraging a reasoned approach which puts things into a rational and wider perspective, rather than venomous argument back and forth over the froth-mouthed, hypocritical rantings of a few people with massive bias, conflicts of interest and relevance deprivation?

No way are we having any of that reasonable, moderate rubbish around here sir!

The opportunity of finally getting the Australian men’s cricket team back to a decent level of respect with the wider community with a popular, fresh captain and a new approach must be sacrificed on the altar of high dudgeon, set aflame to pay tribute to the mythological legends of the past who still shriek for tributes like gods that know they are fast becoming forgotten. All hail to JL and his mates Haydee, Warney, Tubby, Tugga & their little closed circle of mates – though shalt not bring false gods before us.

I thought the fact that Australian cricket had a problematic culture was so well-established & so widely written about and acknowledged that it barely needs asserting. Gideon Haigh wrote a whole book on it. The only real issue is what to do about it (which would normally include looking at how it came about, as well as how it can be fixed).
I used to love cricket when I was growing up, along with plenty of other sports but cricket was my favourite. By the time I was in my late 20s I loathed so many Australian cricketers – and the national side in particular – that I almost stopped following local cricket, (especially once Queensland finally won that Sheffield Shield) and the team i barracked for for international games was whoever was playing Australia.
The early stages of Tim Paine’s captaincy gave me some hope, but it looked to me like things were regressing again even before the Indian team’s visit here. The New Zealand team’s significant successes is a very clear example that you don’t need to do sledging to be successful.
I don’t envy Pat Cummins his task, but the early signs are good.
(& for what it’s worth, I agree the comment about Shane Watson was pretty poor)

I imagine it’d be hard to do justice to the role while still playing full-time professional in the USA. Plus Dylan Alcott will make a good contribution, and as he’s just retired he’ll be able to put more time into it – especially as it’s an unpaid role!

Thorn has also shown himself to be a pretty decent coach as well. He’s certainly helped turn the Qld Reds around.

I’ve always found it hard to get very excited about basketball, but this guy is all class.

By the time he retires we should be about due to have another sportsperson as Australian of the Year, and he’d be ideally suited.

Excellent piece. I totally agree (even though I do have a bit of a soft spot for Chappelli). The avalanche of butthurt comments from former players & the hypocrisy that many of them are showing is jaw dropping. I surprised & disappointed that so many fans seem to be taking their side.

No I’m not. I’ve attended a few Iftar dinners over the years & once helped local Muslim groups with organising one, but I’m not religious.

It’s a stupid law, but then rugby is now full of so many ridiculous, overly technical, inconsistently applied rules that it is often barely watchable.

It’s been such a mess for so long that I’ve mostly given up on the game, even though it’s the sport I played more than any other when I was younger. There are plenty of other much more entertaining and watchable sports, where the outcome isn’t mostly dependent on a goal kicking contest & which side can ‘earn’ the most penalties.

The important aspect of this situation is that Haneen Zreika didn’t express her opinions is a hateful or abusive way (unlike say Israel Folou).

She clearly has the support of her teammates, some of who are part of the LGBTQ community, and she has shown support for them by participating in pride games and photo shoots before. But she presumably felt wearing a pride jumper on her person was taking at a step beyond what she felt comfortable doing.

Supporting Diversity will sometimes mean differing beliefs and values coming into conflict. As a society, we have to decide which ones we can work through as acceptable differences, and which ones – such as racism – are simply unacceptable red lines.

I hope, as part of the respectful way the club and the players have handled this issue, that it will gradually enable the homophobic components of the Muslim community to reconsider their views. Hatred and fear is still too common amongst parts of the Islamic community, but wider Australian society wasn’t much better only 20 or 30 years ago – indeed there are still some fundamentalist Christian groups pushing for their right to discriminate to this day. Change can come about reasonably quickly, but the best hope for change to happen is respectful engagement, while saying no to hatred or discrimination.

The key difference is “not trying to advocate hate or division”. Folau just spouted his garbage, didn’t care and didn’t think he should have any consequences despite a clear warning. That’s a big difference from this situation, where the player has clearly expressed her support for her teammates and for the principles of the Pride round. Wearing a specific garment obviously is a step too far for her at the moment – possibly in part because she is in that difficult position of being a bridge to and a symbol of her community, some of who do clearly hold hateful & discriminatory views towards LGBTIQ people. The same as some players have objected to wearing alcohol logos on their playing gear – it’s easy enough to leave a logo off a jersey, but can’t really wear a completely different jersey to every other player.

An Iftar dinner is not the same breaking the fast during Ramadan. It is a significant communal event which is about sharing and togetherness, when Muslims welcome others to eat and celebrate with them. To say it is “just for show” is just wrong.

It’s not a general public or televised event, so none of us would know if all players go or not. Nor are they required to wear specific clothing when they do. If the women players were required to wear hijabs or the like, I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two felt they couldn’t do that, but I presume that’s not the case.

The important aspect of this situation is that Haneen Zreika didn’t express her opinions is a hateful or abusive way (unlike say Israel Folou). The position Haneen has taken has also been one that has been to own cost – missing out on a game (and presumably a match payment, although I assume most AFLW players still receive fairly low pay). She hasn’t sought to lessen or impede others with her stance.