Yes, the goalkicking factor did cross my mind but it’s such a limiting factor to take into consideration. Have you seen the video the Storm website of Cameron Smith showing Billy Slater how to have a go at kicking a goal from the corner post? Ridiculous!

maximillian: I knew I’d leave someone out. Matthew Ridge was certainly up there. And sure I’m with you, way ahead of Richie Barnett in the fullback stakes.

soapit: Passing under pressure around 50%. That stat comes from where?

He throws some glorious passes. He’s certainly a risk taker and might occasionally throw a pass that comes unstuck, but I go back to the comment Craig Bellamy made: his mistakes are made having a go.

Belated thanks to all those who commented.
It’s taken me until Friday to recover from excitement + sleep deprivation. Crazy week. Especially when in the end it was more scoring plays in the Socceroos Netherlands game than in the Origin rugby league:: One try and three goals in total in Origin. 5 goals in total in the World Cup game. Slightly random and apples v oranges stat, but still says something surprising about both games.

Jimmy S, if you assume TV ratings are the only measure of what’s good for the game, then your point of view is unbeatable.

But some of us don’t think that’s necessarily the case.

Jimmy S, you’re obviously not aware I’ve held this same opinion about Origin for many years, years in which quite often the Bulldogs have barely been affected.

I’m a Bulldogs fan sure, but I’m by no means so fanatical that all my thinking about the game revolves around what’s good for them. My job requires me watching/ listening to and keeping tabs on games involving all clubs and I’m concerned about the impact of Origin on the NRL and on rugby league overall.

And, I also believe Origin would benefit from the excitement carrying over from game to game if they were just a week apart.

code 13, the “Mickey Mouse” knockout cup I’m proposing wouldn’t insist on any club risking their top tier “pros”.

I’m talking about feeder clubs but the option would be there for NRL clubs to send back some of their players to play Cup football if it’s felt they need more match time. It’d be a good chance for lower tier players to make a name for themselves. I think it was Brad Walter in the SMH who suggested last year that if there was a knockout comp involving second tier teams a transfer window could be organised to co-incide with it and players who are struggling to get game time in the NRL might be able to earn themselves a spot at a new club.

Those valuable players who aren’t selected for Origin could be rested and not risked.

At least knockout football has a bit of a different feel to it. It’s better than some of the “Mickey Mouse” NRL games we get during Origin.

btw, my memories of the Amco Cup don’t include instances of semi amateur players from the bush head-hunting and injuring the pros. Does anyone else recall it being an issue. In any case, it was a very era in rugby league fighting, head shots and violent foul play were more prevalent at all levels of the game.

Oops. I really should keep up.

Boom boom. Comment of the round award goes to Ivan the Tolerable 😉

AL, of course I read your comment. The great thing about The Roar is the feedback from the Roar crowd. And to read that someone thinks what I’ve written is beautiful gives me great pleasure, cheers!

Arsenal’s nett spend is 18th out of 20 EPL clubs over last 5 years according to the website Transfer League.

http://transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer-league-table-last-five-seasons.html

Sure, Arsene is not operating on a shoe string, but he’s also kept the club steady as they financed and built a new stadium.

I have no admiration for clubs that win titles because they are owned by some oil billionaire who wants to inflate his ego and doesn’t care how much that deflates his super fat bank balance. What does it prove?

Check this out: Net spending of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City since 2008.

Arsenal net spend = £11.1 million.
Chelsea net spend = £328.7 million.
Man City net spend = £509.6 million.

Source: http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/a-graph-showing-arsenal-chelsea-and-man-citys-net-spending-since-sheikh-mansour-moved-into-the-etihad-picture/

If you think it’s clever and shows something special that Manchester City and Chelsea outplay Arsenal on these figures, you’re cheering a different game to me. Don’t know what kind of pleasure is to be gained from such ‘contests’.

Midfielder, I think as I mentioned in the article, Wenger was more the impetus for me to find out more about the game. Listening to him talk about football made me wish I understood the nuances more, so I tried to read more about it, watch it more and ask more questions of those around me who’d been following it for longer.

And, in a very basic sense, watching Arsenal play was so rewarding that I kept doing it. And the more you watch, the more you learn.

So it’s not so much a case of learning directly from Wenger, but learning because he made me want to know more.

Yes, I’ve heard of Cruyff and watched documentaries about him. Agree he also seems fascinating.

I had already read “Fever Pitch” well before I became an Arsenal fan. In fact, read it while I was working for the Bulldogs in the NRL and thought it the most brilliant examination of football fandom I’d ever come across.

As far as Arsene never admitting he’s seen any fouls committed by his players this is what he says about that:

“Sometimes I see it [a foul by an Arsenal player], but I say that I didn’t see it to protect the players and because I could not find any rational explanation for that they did.”

Nordster, winning is not possible all the time. Holding together the best teams in the face of outrageous spending by billionaires who own other clubs that they run at massive losses is not possible. The Highbury era was not just a different place, but a different time.

To say Arsenal have won barely a thing is technically true but you can chalk up amazing achievements without actually winning trophies. If winning titles/trophies is the only thing that can satisfy and give pleasure to a sports fan, then most fans of most teams in most sports must be very disatisfied and frustrated most of the time.

He’d have to be up there, Justin3.

Put it this way, it’s hard to imagine a manager who, if put on the open market, would attract more offers from all around the world than Wenger would. National teams, club teams, board positions, administrative roles.

That’s an enormous wrap, Mick. Much appreciated.

When you understand what a jewel of world sport we have at our club it’s hard not to get frustrated and furious when some critics and even “fans” say it’s time to move him on. And replace him with who? To achieve what?

We could find some egotistical mercenary like Mourinho, who accumulates a stack of big name players, then gradually irritates them and the club management so much that he’s poisoned the whole environment and has to move on to where the next bucket of money is waiting? That would be hideous.

One of the best Wenger quotes I didn’t fit in to the above was about Mourinho:

“He’s out of order, disconnected with reality and disrespectful. When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.”

btw, Bondy just watched that YouTube clip. You get it! Wouldn’t you love to be able to sit down and talk with him?

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlAr76ZFKQ)

Actually, right now, what I wish most is that we could hear him in commentary at the World Cup. He does of course work for French TV at the big events, but as I don’t speak French even if I could access their coverage, I wouldn’t understand it 🙁

Thanks Bondy, nice to know someone else appreciates getting more from a manager/ coach than purely trophies.

Wenger really was the key to me actually making an effort to understand football. I reckon that if you’re not raised with a love of a particular sport, either as a player or a spectator, it’s hard to find a reason to get into it. Wenger intrigued me so much when I first started hearing him talk that it actually gave me the motivation to seek more information on him, and through that I began to understand the game.

I would’ve been devastated if an FA Cup final loss had forced him out the door.

I do.

Capper was a sweet guy. No rocket scientist, for sure, but a lot more personable than many other sports stars I’ve dealt with. PR, marketing and media aren’t necessarily an indication of reality. If course, if you actually spent time sitting next to him at lunches and interviewing him, then feel free to contradict me,

But enough Tad. If you’re really committed to disagreeing with me, go for it. I don’t want to spoil your fun or your preconceptions with genuine interaction. that would be a pain in the arse for you I can see.

Tad, I just explained, I don’t watch a lot of AFL because I’ve got a full schedule covering other sport at the moment.

But back in the 80/s I spent a bitt of time covering the Swans. Loved the game. Still love Tommy Hafey. Interviewed Ricky Quade heaps of times. Admire Paul Roos enormously., Have stayed friends with Neil Cordy. Remember Gerard Healy and Warwick Capper fondly. I was lucky enough to have had a bit to do with both of them back in the day. I have no anti AFL agenda, I just seriously don’t have a huge association with the game these days, other than what hear through ABC and FoxSports news.

But, in terms of marketing and promotion, I hear a lot from all codes, and that’s an area I do feel qualified to comment on,

Sorry if I don’t worship convincing at your altar.

Also, if you really read what I’ve written (yep, to the end before disagreeing) I don’t in any way suggest that ANZAC day should be “football free”. I just don’t like the fixtures being slid as “tributes to the ANZAC Spirit” and the solemnity of war time sacrifice being treated as pre-match entertainment,

Let’s look at it another way. If the clubs said, “stay for 30 mins post-game while we pay tribute to Australians who’ve fought in wars” how many fans would stick around?

I actually checked times for Good Friday services across the Christian churches before filing, and both Anglican and Catholic Churches had 9am services, as well as some later in the day.

I certainly don’t rely these days on what I recall from my convent education, given it ended some 40 years ago. But I am enough a disciple of the church of Google to actually check facts before I write.

Thanks Midfielder. I’m sorry for the sacrifices your family made.

I’m extremely lucky that my family escaped damage from the big wars of the last century, A fluke really. My grandfathers were both a but young for WWI and too old by WW2. My Dad did national service in the 50s, but was never required to serve overseas. Then, the father of my eldest daughter avoided being sent to Vietnam when the Whitlam government was elected shortly after he was conscripted,

You’ve understood completely my point. Play games on ANZAC Day by all means, just don’t sell them by linking them with what ANZAC day is really about.

That’s different.

Thanks for at least understanding where I’m coming from.

Sure, if a bit of pre-match, entertainment-based ceremony makes kids investigate “the ANZAC spirit” or gets them interested in the sacrifices made by our military over the years, then it’s not all bad. But I can’t help feeling it’s a bit sad that a token recognition before at a football match (whatever the code) is the best way to do this,