Roar Pro
Joined March 2009
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Psssss... that sound you hear is the air rapidly escaping from a large number of sky blue balloons. On Friday evening the allegedly rampaging…
Australian football fans beware – the gods of sport are watching and they despise negativity. As a former soccer fan who came to the…
[caption id="attachment_30541" width="300" caption="NRL Rugby League, Melbourne Storm v Warriors at Etihad Stadium, Sunday April 25th 2010. Digital image by Brett Crockford, NRL Photos"][/caption]…
Every Monday night, I sit down and watch the wonderful Fox Sports program On the Couch. For those not familiar with it, the show…
Pop quiz: What’s the only thing worse than sitting in the driving rain in the south east corner of Canberra stadium whilst all the…
[caption id="attachment_16122" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Australia\'s batsman Phillip Hughes, left, plays a shot as South Africa\'s fielder Jacques Kallis, right, follows play during the third…
As I watched the live scorecard from Adelaide barely moving throughout my work day on Tuesday, an unsettling realisation settled in my stomach: this…
There is a debate going on as to whether the new Melbourne A-League franchise should retain the working title of Melbourne Heart or whether…
In news that will come as a great relief to injured fast bowler Brett Lee, it has been revealed that the Australian cricket team…
[caption id="attachment_9455" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Dallas Johnson from the Storm is spear tackled in the NRL by Gold Coast Titans players AAP Image/Action Photographics/Jeff Crow"][/caption]…
[caption id="attachment_21783" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Australia\'s Shane Watson plays a shot off the bowling of England\'s Graeme Swann on the first day of the third…
With the NBA season starting this week, my friends and I held our annual Fantasy NBA draft recently. When it came to my turn…
It's almost that time of year when Major League Baseball flickers through the Australian sporting landscape for a scant few minutes. The World Series…
It was announced today that Jarryd Hayne has won the 2009 Jarryd Hayne Medal for the best player of the NRL in 2009. Hayne…
I've always found it odd that the general quality of sports talk shows in Australia is so poor. This very website is proof enough…
After another season of exciting rugby, and also some games that featured the Australian teams, the magnificent Bulls have reclaimed the Super Rugby title…
Welcome back Canberra Raiders. We missed you. Obviously it would be presumptuous at this stage to suggest that the Raiders are out of the…
[caption id="attachment_8703" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Trevor Thurling in action during the NRL Round 18, St George Illawarra Dragons v Canberra Raiders match at WIN Stadium,…
There was a setback yesterday for the Penrith Panthers’ Origin hopeful Michael Jennings. After an excellent start to the season, he was at the…
It won’t come as any great surprise, but I am not particular impressed with the Raiders after Sunday’s game. I said last week that…
The problem is that all the guys who are certainties to make the team are certainly not captain material and all the guys who are captain material are not certainties to make the team.
Gidley isn't the right man for the job
The Lime Green also lost David Shillington which is a big blow becuase it means more minutes for the Drop-the-Ball Brothers Dane Tilse and Troy Thompson – but still, Raiders fans have got to be happy that the Dragons will be missing their entire vaunted left-side attack
Which teams are most hurt by Origin this weekend?
Hopefully the SANZAR people are already thinking along the lines of having the domestic games first and then the international games. Hopefully that will reduce the travel burden on some of the South African teams and give them a chance to bring some momentum to Australasia.
I’m not sure about the secondary competetion idea but i think we should consider anything that makes the latter rounds more meaningful (although i suspect a 6 team finals series will help).
Introduce Tiers into Super 15 rugby
I wish i was going to get “only” four or five years earning $200k before going back to whatever else i’m qualified to do. Its not like the players are prohibited from working ever again
League players are just plain greedy
I never understand why so many fans, who presumably have to pay to attend the games, or to watch their team on Fox Sports are so keen to “pay the players what they’re worth.” If there is so much more money available then how about reducing ticket prices or merchandise prices?
League players are just plain greedy
I should clarify that when it comes to biased commentary Murray Mexted is reigning, and permenant, champion and his Kiwi colleagues are rarely much better than him.
However i do think the SuperSport fellows are usually excellent.
The Australian’s are so bad that even as a Waratahs supporter i hate having Australian commentators becuase its so embarrassing.
Where are the quality local rugby shows?
I very much hope you’re right Jay. I’m probably seeing through lime green tinted glasses but this team does seem to have a good combination of big prop forwards, hard working and playmaking back row forwards and a potentially mercurial backline. But as Steve says, there is a lack of experience there that could be disasterous
The magnificent seven to watch this NRL season
The best part of the story for Raiders fans (like myself) is that Steve could have easily chosen not just the three Raiders he mentioned but also Travis Waddell, Joel Thompson, Shaun Fensom or the returning Justin Carney. By the halfway mark of this season the Raiders could easily be fielding eight or nine players from the 2008 Toyota Cup winning team.
The magnificent seven to watch this NRL season
Mark Waugh’s 173 was at the MCG and it was in 2001 which as far as i can recall was before the significant roping off we see these days began. the ground probably was roped but in those days i’m pretty sure it was rarely more than a metre or two.
Tendulkar shatters yet another ODI record
The problem i have with this innings is the same problem i had with Matt Hayden pinching Mark Waugh’s spot for highest ODI score by an Australian – the rules are different. How do you compare Saaed Anwar’s 194 or Mark Waugh’s 175 with 15 overs of fielding restrictions to this 200 with 20 overs of restrictions?
Tendulkar shatters yet another ODI record
Will Genia isn’t even close to du Preez yet. In fact Genia isn’t even ahead of Piri Weepu or Jimmy Cowan at the moment. I like what Genia has done so far but to suggest he would make a world XV is a huge stretch. He wouldn’t even make the bench of my Southern Hemisphere XV.
As for the other contenders – is Stephen Moore even the incumbent Wallaby hooker? Digby has plenty of potential though.
How many people can honestly judge a world XV anyway? I know i can’t becuase i don’t get to watch as much northern hemisphere rugby as i’d like.
Three Wallabies in World team, but we need two more
I think its interesting that Spiro has looked at the rule interpretation changes and concluded that teams may two fetchers now instead of one. Most of the stuff i’ve been reading has suggested the opposite – that with the rules now favouring the attacking team the defence might just forget about trying to get turnovers altogether and carry two running flankers
SANZAR referees to promote attacking rugby
The Bulls drifted in the betting after Bakkies Botha was ruled out for a large chunk of the season. That coupled with the loss of Bryan Habana to the Stormers has seen them fall to third in most markets.
The Stormers are a fascinating prospect this year. They gained Habana and Jauqe Fourie and they shed monumental distraction Luke Watson. If they get rolling early they could be a great dark horse
Brumbies should win the Super 14 title
As some one who watched every Brumbies home for the last couple of years i would add my voice to any call to get Gerrard back in the fold, for any Australian province. Last season he was the only thing keeping the Brumbies alive in quite a few games and if not for his deservedly much praised kicking game the Brumbies would have lost twice as many games.
I also agree with the Crowd here in questioning the idea of playing him at number 10. his kicking style would be an absolute charge down magnet and ask any Brumbies fan how painful it was watching various Brumbies kickers (including Gerrrard on a couple of occassions) getting charged down again and again last year (as a Waratahs fan though i found it quite amusing).
That being said on the firm he showed last year i suspect he is probably Australia’s best fullback and it would be great to have him available at World Cup time
Mark Gerrard should be welcomed back to Australia
The one current that runs through all debates about the makeup of the Australian cricket team is the idea that ‘we have to do’ certain things. We have to find a spinner. We have to blood young players. We have to have a pace bowler that gets reverse swing. We have to have an allrounder.
My question would be – who says? Who dictates to the Australian team what our team should look like? Just pick the six best batsman in the country, the four best bowlers and the best wicket-keeper. Don’t worry about trying to check things off a list.
As for securing the future nothing breeds success like success. I mean for goodness sake at one point the Australian team plugged Colin Miller into a winning outfit and still prospered. Phil Hughes, Shaun Marsh and Tim Paine aren’t going to be the next dynasty if they come into a team that is alwyas losing.
Australian cricket needs to blood youngsters
That looks pretty good to me. My only question marks are de Villiers at 12 and Burger at 6. I would give some consdieration to Tana at inside centre. I’m nto really sure who i’d prefer at 6 (Elsom maybe?) but Burger doesn’t feel quite right.
An international rugby team of the decade
The idea that we have to pick someone now so that they’re good in a few years has always seemed strange to me. Why not just pick a guy who is good now?
The idea that you can’t debut at 29 and have a successful career is also odd. Only 42 players in the history of Australian test cricket have played 50 or more tests. at an average of 15 tests a season (which is about right over the last 10 years) you could debut at 29 and still end up in the top 40 or so in test appearences.
Australian cricket needs to blood youngsters
I’m afraid i don’t see enough northern hemisphere rugby to comment on a complete world XV. However i can say that there is no way Ashley-Cooper would even make my best of the southern hemisphere team (Mils Muliana is well ahead of him for starters).
Also as much as i love Polata-Nau as a Waratahs fan there is no doubt in my mind that Bismarck is the best hooker in the southern hemishpere at the moment.
Selecting a world rugby side of 2009
Is Paul Gallen still captain of Cronulla? I thought they took it off him after the racial slur incident earlier this year?
I don’t think it will matter anyway, the NSW selectors will find a way to pick Gidley to start, even if they have to play him at five-eighth.
Blues to get new fullback and skipper
Is there some sort of competetion in the A-League to out do each other with stupid team mates? I follow sports from all around the world and the A-League has far and away the stupidist names in world sports as far as i can tell. All four of those options are horrible but in a league that already has a Fury, a Roar and a Glory i guess Heart is just par for the course
The Melbourne Heart name saga rolls on
Really funny stuff this. I wish i’d thought of it first actually
Kevin Rudd apologises for Wallaby performance
Yeah absolutely right Knives Out.
The Fox Sports Commentators are even worse. Everything is the refs fault.
Has Dan Carter been the victim of video foul play?
I certainly agree that NFL players are amongst the most incredible athletes in the world, and i cannot imagine more scary prospect on a sportign field than Justin Tuck or DeMarcus Ware coming after me. But i agree with several Roarers who have commented that ‘best athlete’ is simply too broad a characterisation.
There really is no way to compare the explosive first step of an offensive lineman with the remarkable concentration of a shooter or the endurance of a football midfielder.
All that being said i were told i could pick one sport in the world and i would get the same athletic capacity as a star player in that sport, i’d take AFL player every time (well so long as i wasn’t turned into a ruckman). I follow almost every sport known to man and i cannot think of a sport that requires the combiantion of speed, power, endurance and ball skills that AFL requires.
Who are the best athletes in sport?
Both big time clutch performers though
Return of Major League Baseball's Pinstripped Empire
As an unashamedly green-eyed Raiders fan it will come as no surprise that i endorse this preview.
I’m a big proponent of Joel Thompson (TAB have him at $67 to be top try scorer – worth a punt given he will probbaly play at right centre outside offload machine Bronson Harrison) however he is coming back from a serious injury and we have seen time and again that getting back on the field is one thing, getting back to full capacity is entirely different.
As Alan has correctly pointed out the Raider’s big strength this year will be in the forwards. The starting pack may not be the biggest in the competition but that is only because they sacrifice size in the back row to allow for three 80 minute players in those spots (Picker, Harrison and most likely Fensom). That will allow the Raiders to keep two genuine props on the bench. Sure there will be a lot of teams that can go toe to toe with our starting pair but nobody in the compeittion is bringing props of the quality of Dane Tilse and Brett White off the bench.
NRL Preview 2011: Canberra Raiders