Roar Guru
Joined May 2014
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@brinpaulsen
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'Athlete as role model' sounds more like a painting by Monet than a cultural catch-cry. The phrase gets thrown around so frequently it has…
On Monday, Anthony Mundine announced that he planned on making a comeback to rugby league. According to The Man's own timeframe, he'll be running…
Following news that Nathan Coulter-Nile has been called into the Australian Cricket squad to face the Windies in the next Test, I've officially cracked.…
On Monday, when Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith didn't turn up for the annual NRL Captain's Call - a media event designed to celebrate…
After 20 rounds of the NRL competition, it's clear that there's only one man this season worthy of accepting the Dally M – and…
Watching the Brisbane Lions play footy has become a Sisyphean act. The problem isn't that the team is totally devoid of playing ability, the…
State of Origin has come down to a decider and it's about time Queensland stooped to the level of New South Wales to win…
It’s early March and I’m sitting on the hill at Davies Park, a beautiful suburban football ground nestled next to the river in the…
In light of Daly Cherry-Evans' recent flirtations with a number of clubs, and Greg Inglis' speculative departure to French rugby, I've managed to dig…
What a wonderful week of ‘Murican football it was. Peyton beat Sextin' Brett's touchdown record. The Rams ran the most entertaining fake punt play…
Following Jarryd Hayne's announcement, there's been gargantuan amounts of uninformed comment and speculation about ‘Murican Football. I'm just going to get straight to it…
Faithful readers, after four weeks of sub-par tipping performances the Big Dawg finally delivered something resembling a decent round of selections hitting 10/15 for…
This week, Matt Geyer wrote an article saying suspended players should be allowed to play the grand final, with their suspension carried over into…
Earlier this week, The Roar's Cameron Rose wrote a column about booing. The article said something about not booing, but I wasn't really paying…
Last week the Big Dawg lived up to the billing and produced a round of tips that was dodgier than a 3am kebab. 5/13…
Before he passed away in 1984, my grandfather wrote a letter to an unborn me, scrawled across a series of TAB tickets. The letter…
There was much to be excited about in last week's round of games. The Denver versus Seattle game didn't let anyone down, there were…
It's time for the Cowboys to put Johnathan Thurston out to pasture and place their future in the hands of Queensland's next great player:…
After two weeks it seems harder than ever to get a read on most teams, with plenty of the impressive week one performers failing…
In the Big Dawg's first column for the year I failed to cover myself in glory, tipping a below-average seven games correctly - although…
Joe,
You watched the Tour de France while you were in England. I don’t think I need to point out the issue there…
Listen to Tim. There is no sporting experience like being on top of a Col in the Pyrenees while watching the tour roll up and over and onwards.
That being said, make sure you pick the summit of a mountain that has a pop-up bar setup so you can get a cold beer and watch the TV broadcast after the peleton has gone past to see what happens during the rest of the stage.
First live taste of le Tour: Heaps better on TV
Interesting article Ryan. Thanks.
While you’ve shown that there is real data to underpin the importance of contested possessions I’ve always believed that the growing profile of the CP count (aside from King’s love affair with the term) is due to it being one of the few stats that coaches can choose to use as an indicator of effort.
Players can rack up disposals and uncontested possessions just by standing in open space. From a coaching perspective, CP can give you a real, tangible idea of whether your team is putting in if your blokes are winning the direct, head-to-head contests against opposing players.
It’s a new-world stat for an old world idea.
The coach says “Do your job, show me you want it more, beat your man one-on-one to the ball”. CP is the closest statistic we have to showing whether a player is putting in the effort and doing that.
Believe it: Contested possessions are important
Personally I think Barba is doing enough. Sure he’s not setting the world on fire in attack but defensively he’s been very good (with a dodgy game here or there under the high ball). I think the real issue for Barba is that Josh Hoffman is playing in the 6 jersey. The bloke refuses to pass the footy when there’s something on and pushes terrible passes when they’re isn’t.
And before you put a line through Barba completely, I think it’s unfair to discount his impact on Matt Gillett’s form this season. Teams still have to respect Barba floating out the back on the overlap and in doing so they’re giving Gillett the half a yard that he needs to hit those flat passes and burst through the edge. Gillett has scored a couple of tries (and bombed a couple) because of the threat that Barba poses when he’s floating around.
McCullough, Hunt, Milford, Barba as a spine might sound undersized but I don’t think the 2015 Broncs will be short of attacking talent.
Enough excuses Barba, do something
C’mon now Sean, isn’t every round really the Fans’ Round? 😉
It's not just superheroes who deserve their own round