I personally think that the Gold Coast Suns need to seriously look at the model that the Greater Western Sydney Giants have implemented; starting from the coaching and right down to the depth (especially in relation to player mentality and fitness) of the squad itself because these areas have been where Gold Coast have faltered but GWS have improved since their inceptions. It’s obvious that their original plan of players building around Ablett has failed on a long-term basis and starting off with Guy McKenna as coach (who didn’t really have a lot of experience in coaching at AFL level beforehand) has obviously set them back a few years from where they should be in comparison to the Giants.

Just to comment on the British people’s use of the minutes applause, they don’t do it all the time. For the mourning of events such as Hillsborough and the Munich Air Disaster, the fans have a minute’s silence for those who lost their lives in those tragedies and not a minute’s applause.

But anyway, it was absolutely disgusting to hear what was going on during the minute silence. Just imagine if this was to occur during the ANZAC games, these fans would have to get lifetime bans for sure. Quite clearly, we are living in a society where our interests and actions are more worthy than say taking care of someone or paying respect to fallen soldiers or sportsmen etc.

One of the other big problems steveng is the amount of politics that in recent times has overshadowed the racing itself. To be fairly honest, Formula 1 is in some form of identity crisis at the moment in regards to whether it will be relevant for future audiences if they don’t change the sport to be appealing to both long-term fans and those who like a bit of entertainment. In regards to your comment on cricket, it has become exciting due to the ever-growing popularity with the T20 format but even the test matches have been entertaining to watch over the last 5 years.

Maybe, for F1 to be relevant and entertaining again in the near distant future, they probably need to feature shorter race formats and have possibly 2 or 3 races to “spice up” the competition as seen with T20 cricket and the Rugby 7s and NRL 9s series’.

Speaking of Kimi Raikkonen, he’s apparently announced that he will retire from Formula 1 after the 2015 season. But speaking of Ferrari, the FIA have certainly stopped their success with the changes in regulations regarding testing, tyres and engines etc. They, along with McLaren, have certainly not been “with the times” which is why they’ve been hurting badly behind Red Bull and Mercedes.

I think Ferrari’s biggest woes have certainly been from a management perspective. When Jean Todt arrived at Ferrari in 1993, he had previously been the team principal with the Peugeot Le Mans team whilst Stefano Domenicali, who had been at Ferrari for a long time, mainly spent his time being the sporting and operations manager along with being race engineer during Schumacher’s early years at Ferrari I believe. It’s become obvious that maybe the lack of management experience from Domenicali and Mattiaci, the current team principal at Ferrari, could be why they are heading towards the wrong direction in terms of performance and results.

Ferrari’s package in the last couple of years has been somewhat sub-par and it’s obvious that this has been affecting their results. I’m surprised Alonso has continued to commit himself to Ferrari but I think he will be changing teams by 2016, either to McLaren or somewhere else. Maybe, Ferrari and McLaren should take a look at Williams’ approach this season since they have been the surprise package this season considering that they dropped off from their glory days like what is currently happening to Ferrari and McLaren.

There’s apparently been a few petitions and blogs online demanding for Sky Sports F1 to be introduced in Australia on Foxtel when the new television deal for F1 occurs for 2016. As I am expecting, Foxtel is certain to get the Formula 1 rights for 2016 but I’m not sure whether any of the Free-to-air networks would commit to broadcast the championship. If a Free-to-air network, ideally Ten gets the joint broadcast deal for 2016 with Foxtel, as Bayden pointed out they would probably only cover the races or extended highlights like what the BBC currently does in the UK.

But, let’s be honest, had it not been for the success of Alan Jones, Mark Webber or Daniel Ricciardo in Formula 1, we would’ve had very little, or worse off, no coverage of the Grands Prix. I guess considering that there are not many riders in the MotoGP other than Jack Miller who competes in Moto3 and a few others such as Ant West and Broc Parkes, that was why Ten scaled back coverage of the MotoGP since their ratings dropped after the retirement of Casey Stoner in 2012.

One thing that would also be great is if Schumacher recover well, have a special type of tribute in Hockenheim this year where they can not only wear red but be also able to display some of Schumacher’s vehicles and replicas of some of his trophies he has won. I’m not sure whether they already have such a display at the Hockenheim museum but I think that having this sort of occasion would be good for the sport.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Schumi. Get Well Soon. Formula 1 has, is and will be never the same without you.

I hope Michael can recover well and be able to live life just as everyone should be able to. This has to be one of the saddest stories I have ever read, listened or watched in my life knowing that someone who I admired and loved was seriously hurt and may never get to live again. When I was a child, I would often get up and watch the recordings of the Formula 1 races on Monday mornings and hope that Schuey would win. To make sure, sometimes I checked the news so then the race was worth watchable. For Christmas and birthdays, I often received the Lego Ferrari kits which had the cars Schumacher and Barrichello drove for and I would often race them around a track I would make up and do practice pit-stops with the 2 cars. I wasn’t born when Ayrton Senna died but I knew how much pain and heartbreak everyone in the world had to cope when they heard the news that he was killed in that unfortunate accident at Imola in 1994 and when I heard that Schumacher’s injuries were life-threatening and very critical, the first thing I could recall was Senna’s death.

What makes this worse is that Schumacher’s birthday is on Friday this week and I know how sad it is for his wife Corinna and his 2 children, Mick and Gina-Marie as well as Ralf, Michael’s brother, to suffer in such a way that they won’t be able to celebrate and cherish the man who has loved his family so much as much as they did in the past knowing that the doctors can’t predict how long he is going to live.

Let’s hope that the great man who is Michael Schumacher can be able to pull through this unfortunate event and like his 91 wins before, win what is the most important race which is his life.

I think with Sturridge and Gerrard out due to injury, Suarez has now been able to show that Liverpool aren’t depleted when it comes to lack of players available. A lot of people were saying that Liverpool were going to drop with no Gerrard and Sturridge being available but when you’ve got a player who has scored 1.5 goals per game, that’s something to look forward to with confidence. The only problem now is when they play against Chelsea next week, who even though their forwards continually misfire, the midfielders of Lampard, Hazard and Oscar will step in and create an impact for the game.

I still however think that the title contention will be between Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United even though United are currently sitting 7th but if Rooney can step in for van Persie and score lots of goals along with a strong defence and midfield, they can be capable. Man City are also within a chance but my main concern for Liverpool is if Gerrard, Sturridge and Suarez are all out at the same time due to injuries and suspensions etc, they can drop very badly. However, other players such as Flanagan, Henderson and Raheem Sterling have proven to be well capable of filling in at the midfield and forwards which ensures that Liverpool shouldn’t drop as badly as Southampton, who have had a shocking form after I had written an article questioning their stance as a top team in the Premier League even though they have played against top teams.

Had Gareth Bale not left Tottenham for Real Madrid, they may not have been in this sort of turmoil.

Just to fix up an error made on the article Bayden, in NSW, the V8 coverage was shown live on Channel 7 itself with the AFL being shifted to 7mate but I guess as you are in Victoria, AFL was given higher priority over V8 Supercars. However in 2010-11, I think the minor V8 races were shown on 7mate in NSW.

I’m not sure whether if Crompton returns to Channel 10 he will join the F1 coverage as he would be happy just to focus on V8’s. I know he covered F1 on Channel 10 in 2002-06 but they have Alan Jones now even though he’s not as good as he was when he was on Channel 9’s coverage of the Formula 1 back in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Great to see V8 Supercars returning to what is the home of motorsport. Channel 10 did a fantastic coverage of the sport in the 2000s decade and it looks like that the premier home for free-to-air sport is Channel 10, not Channel 9. Of course, like the AFL coverage, Foxtel will get the whole package of every practice, qualifying and race session but 10’s coverage will just be as good. Not sure who will replace Matt White as lead commentator. They might try and bring back Leigh Diffey even though he is in America covering Formula 1 for NBC or maybe even put Greg Rust since he’s done a great job in covering V8 races in the past plus MotoGP races.

Channel 7 did a great coverage of V8 Supercars by providing as much detail in the sport but the shifting with AFL which resulted in races being cut short so then Channel 7 could cover AFL was a big issue along with the commentary being somewhat dull at times.

I wonder if Mark Larkham will shift to Channel 10 and continue with his pre-race diagrams and drawings.

I hope Ron Dennis returns to McLaren. Whitmarsh has made the team look like idiots and his handling of very critical decisions has been very poor. I can’t see why when Button joined McLaren in 2010, Whitmarsh tried to make Button the number 1 driver over Hamilton. Of course, Button won the championship in 2009 only because he was in a good car but Hamilton’s skill and driving style was far more superior to that of Button. Hamilton did lose to Button in 2011 but that was because Lewis had a lot of issues on and off the track so for him it was a bit difficult to concentrate on racing when there are lots of problems surrounding you.

I’m not a McLaren supporter but when Dennis was at the team, the team ran very smoothly and they had some really good drivers i.e. Hakkinen, Coulthard and Raikkonen plus Prost and Senna if you want to look at the late 80s and early 90s. His decision to have the team run Mercedes engines from 1995 paid off well with the team finding success just 3 years later. To me, Whitmarsh as head of McLaren has made the team look like a joke and until he goes McLaren will never have the same success as they’ve had in the past.

The European/British media are sort of like that Jawad. Earlier in the year they were praising Verne’s effort at Torro Rosso and how they were angry that he didn’t get the Red Bull seat. Verne was a better driver than Daniel Ricciardo last year but I think Ricciardo was able to prove himself a lot more thoroughly this year with consistently great qualifying and consistent points finishes.

I’ve heard some rumors that Di Resta was possibly going to Indycar to replace Dario Franchitti at Chip Ganassi who retired due to suffering severe injuries in that crash in Houston. However, Ganassi have got a full line-up for 2014 which means that won’t be happening.

To be honest, Di Resta wasn’t really F1 material considering that he spent several seasons in DTM which is completely different to Formula 1. If he had spent more time in open-wheel racing after Formula 3, he would’ve not only received interest from non-Mercedes teams but would’ve been able to prove his capabilities in a Formula car, not a touring car.

The only reason why Alonso and Dennis didn’t get on well was because Alonso did not receive the number 1 treatment in 2007 as that was given to Lewis Hamilton even though it was only his 1st year.

If the FIA wants to award more points, instead of going for double points at the end of the season, they should award points for drivers who qualify on pole position, score the fastest lap of the race and points for leading a number of laps in the race. The only problem with this is that Vettel would probably dominate yet again since he is able to do these things.

Another proposal would be to run a playoff format such as the Chase for the Sprint Cup in NASCAR. After about 3/4 of the World Championship, drivers in the top 5 or 10 would be able to compete for the championship. To make it fair, the points would be reset to about 350 or less for drivers in contention so then everyone has an equal playing field.

Skrtel needs to find another club. Rodgers wouldn’t be that foolish to keep him at the club if he continues to score own goals and let midfielders go on a wing play and score easy goals which happened when Cabaye scored for Newcastle United.

Speaking of Manchester United, Moyes has apparently been scouting for players mainly from Spain and Portugal as he was spotted in Spain at an Ateltico Madrid match against Porto where he was looking at Koke, a midfielder for Ateltico Madrid. United have also been interested in signing Wesley Sneijder from Galatasaray which should bolster their midfield which in the last several seasons has been uninspiring ever since Ronaldo left. It’s bizarre that players such as Kagawa and Hernadez played exceptional last season but they have been misfiring badly this season. I also wonder if Giggs is causing a hindrance to the squad since he is consistently getting game time at 40 years of age when Moyes should try and bring up young players such as Januzaj.

If Formula 1 was to have a Grand Slam concept, here would be the circuits that would be suited:

Albert Park, Australia (1st race of the season)
Monaco (usually dubbed as the glamorous Grand Prix)
Silverstone, England (Historic Grand Prix)
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (Historic Grand Prix)
Monza, Italy (Historic Grand Prix)
and finally either Singapore or Suzuka would be the final venue for the Grand Slam.

I agree with everyone’s comments about how ridiculous the current point scoring system is. What we are seeing is that drivers of lower quality who somehow will manage to stay in Formula 1 for a long time will unbelievably be able to score more points than the likes of Senna, Prost, Mansell and Schumacher.

What I would also like to see even though none of you may agree with this is like football have a promotion/relegation system where teams who are at the bottom of the Formula 1 championship would be demoted to GP2 and successful GP2 teams can be promoted to Formula 1. This way, teams have to prove that they are Formula 1 material in which we have not seen with Caterham who this season probably had the worst driver lineup which resulted in them finishing dead last in the Constructor’s championship. The only major criticism with this idea has to be cost as the budget for an F1 team like Red Bull and Ferrari would be about 10+ times the amount to that of a GP2 team.

Here are some points as to why Moyes was picked even though they are not actual facts.

1. He previously managed Everton, a team that Manchester United get along with since they both hate Liverpool.
2. He like Alex Ferguson, is of Scottish nationality.
3. Ferguson and Moyes happened to have got along well when they were both managers.

Nothing to do with skill and talent whatsoever which to me is frustrating as Manchester United can do a lot better. But, do remember that often in seasons where United won they often got off to mediocre starts and somehow by Christmas they were able to be towards if not top of the table. The problem with Moyes is that he thinks that the tactics he used at Everton would work at United in which he was completely wrong as the calibre of players at Manchester United can perform obviously higher than Everton players. But I think the problem with Ferguson as manager at Manchester United was a lot longer than of recent times. Do remember that in the early 2000’s he often bought players (mainly strikers and defenders etc.) who were absolutely rubbish and it was not until when Cristiano Ronaldo replaced David Beckham in 2003 where United started to perform well even though it took them 3 years to eventually win another title. It’s obvious that United’s success in this decade and the last will not be as remembered as in the 1990’s where they did destroy the whole competition and dominate in such fashion

Also Eddy, you forgot to mention about the Liverpool signings of Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez and Phillipe Coutinho as they have played a large part into Liverpool’s recent success. I know I’m saying this because I support Liverpool but they too should be given credit for their efforts in changing the team.

How good is it to see 2 crash masters in the same team? But, really I’m not sure if Lotus have made the right decision in signing Maldonado and not Hulkenberg if it’s reasons other than money.

As a Liverpool fan, losing these games is surely cossting us a chance of winning the Premier League. With Sturridge out for 2 months, we seem to have almost no chance of scoring goals and Suarez looked uninspiring this morning. Earlier in the season, we were able to beat teams like Hull even though Sturridge was available but I have to say, the defence really needs to be improved. Skrtel has been shocking this year; I think this year he’s already scored about 3 own goals and the only defenders whom have been satisfactory are Johnson and Toure.

But we need to make sure that without Sturrdige, we can have an attack that can score goals but whether if that means shifting Coutinho from a support forward to a striker could be an issue but he has shown that he can score goals. I’m not sure when Aspas returns even though his appearnces in the Premier League have not been as good as the appearances in the friendlies.

I guess you’re right about the fact that we don’t seem to have clubs that could be suited to the A-League 2 or B-League apaway. The major problem with this idea is of course stadium quality. This is the monumental factor which is holding up expansion in every single competition in Australia. The majority of stadiums we have other than Suncorp, ANZ Stadium, MCG etc. are not good enough in terms of crowd capacity and suitability in regards to pitch quality. I can’t believe how they were able to play in such derelict stadiums during the NSL era but since quality is important, maybe promotion and relegation won’t happen in Australia.

In Germany, they have a playoff system where the team that finished 2nd in the 2. Bundesliga plays against the second last placed team in the Bundesliga. The winner of that playoff either stays in the Bundesliga or gets promoted. I can’t exactly remember how it goes but I think that’s how they do it.

At the moment, there have been plans to create clubs in Canberra, Wollongong, Darwin, Townsville, Geelong, Ipswich, Tasmania, Sunshine Coast and another team in New Zealand. With 10 clubs already in existence plus approx. 9, that means we would have 19 clubs but the big question is whether the FFA is wiling to grant licenses to these teams knowing that their financial viability could be under scrutiny. We’ve already seen 2 expansion clubs (North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United) fold due to financial issues and lack of support so the FFA needs to make sure that these teams are worthy of being part in the competition.

As a result of more teams being established, this will also mean that stadiums will need to have significant upgrades to be suited to the A-League once it becomes a serious, professional, top-class football league. Judging by the average crowd figures, new stadiums that are not the MCG, ANZ Stadium or Suncorp Stadium etc. would need to hold a capacity of at least 20,000. I’m not sure whether the stadium expansions that were going to happen for the 2022 World Cup would continue but this will need to happen to make the A-League viable.

I think Ben is absolutely right about promotion and relegation. The majority of high-level football leagues in the world apart from Major League Soccer in the US have a promotion and relegation system and the AFC is pushing for all of their leagues to have this system. This way, it can help football (soccer) in Australia even more and if possible, overtake the NRL and AFL. Of course, that is incredulously impossible but football in Australia’s image will consistently grow. It’s very popular amongst Saturday junior competitions so why can’t it be popular in a professional level?

The FFA was also planning to create a nationwide competition similar to the FA Cup where clubs from all over Australia including the A-League clubs would play against each other in a knockout-style format and the finalists would play in a final at Suncorp Stadium or Etihad. In my opinion, it’s best to run this competition first then worry about a tiered football system so then if this competition works, then it would be possible to run a tiered system for the football leagues.

I think as we look back, I wonder what would’ve hapened to Webber if he competed in Formula 1 before driving for Mercedes at Le Mans. If he had the talent back then, could he have achieved a drive with McLaren or Williams and would he have won several championships as a result?