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Favourite player - Brad Fittler Memorable match - 2000 preliminary final Roosters v Knights Quote I live by - you only get one chance at life
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The preliminary final between the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne Storm at the SCG on Saturday night will determine the NRL's team of the 2010s.…
Brace yourselves this weekend for what shapes to be the start of a virtual final four knockout tournament in the quest become the NRL’s…
There is an enormous amount of deja vu entering into the second State of Origin encounter of 2018. In 2017, New South Wales comprehensively…
Basketball is this country's sleeping giant, and it will remain that way unless Basketball Australia submits a bid to host the 2023 World Cup…
The Brisbane sporting landscape experienced a shift in 2016 when the Brisbane Roar staked a legitimate claim as Brisbane's second most popular team. In…
So another year draws to an end that has seen the cricket calendar suffering from a combination of oversupply, three different versions of the…
In all the euphoria and fairytale storylines of the Cronulla Sharks being on the verge of claiming their first premiership, you would be led…
With the AFL on the verge of seeing its $100 million investment in the GWS Giants reach its peak within its fifth season, it…
For those US sports fans that follow Bill Simmons, most would be familiar with the 'Ewing Theory' which is named after the New York…
The loss of James Pattinson for the rest of the Ashes tour is no doubt a big one for the Australian team. However, it…
The NRL should turn the dismal City-Country attendance from last Sunday into a positive by breaking free of the event permanently and replacing it…
History is repeating itself, with the Australian Ashes squad announced yesterday leaving the most talented left-handed batsman at home for the biggest Test series…
It appears the Brisbane Broncos have effectively bungled the rebuilding of their club in the wake of Darren Lockyer's retirement through the signing of…
The parallels of the plight of the current Australian cricket team and the fall of the great West Indian cricket side are so alarming…
It seems it's a toss up between Andrew Johns and Mal Meninga as to who should be announced as rugby league’s eighth Immortal this…
The opinions of David Gallop's 10-year-reign as NRL CEO vary from inept to competent to saviour. After taking some months to digest the Gallop…
Adam Scott's British Open collapse is just another chapter typical of Australia's sporting story across the past 10 years. Gone are the days when…
The commentators and fans of the AFL who fear that free agency could ruin the AFL, as reported in today's media, are either dinosaurs,…
Here is my examination of the NRL season. The NRL team tiers analyse the respective NRL sides in an attempt to determine where each…
So here we are again, another unpredictable NRL season dawns upon us; the time of year when armchair experts discuss their premiership predictions for…
Khawaja averages 42 in FC. 42. Cowan averages 39 in FC. 39. None of them average above 35 in tests.
Marsh should have risen in the Ashes
Great points about Gagai, Taylor, Sims (Henjak’s fault), Korbin and even disciplining Hoffman last year. Utterly hypocritical!
Prince signing could turn Broncos into paupers
Fair points Alex, although Norman was responsible for most of there tries in the time period you refer to so I’m unconvinced they can be that strong in attack without him.
Prince signing could turn Broncos into paupers
Not really, Kelly was the best half on the field and Sezer didn’t play!
Prince signing could turn Broncos into paupers
The Bulldogs were caught cheating before they had a chance to win a premiership with their illegitimate squad, hence the weaker penalty compared to the Storm’s who got away with it for years. The problem with the Bulldogs penalty was that they didn’t have to dismantle the squad, instead they were permitted to add Andrew Ryan to the club and continue on their merry way to a premiership two years later.
Salary cap penalties miss the mark
Pleasantly surprised with the level of support here for Provan and Coote, I hope one of them wins it but I just thought the media has shifted the debate totally to Meninga and Johns so I figured it’s just between those two – maybe there is hope yet!
Who should be the eighth rugby league Immortal?
Agree with the size of the dog in the fight Johnno, and for the record I did fear for Campo’s safety against Lomu, but was assured his speed and goose step would enable him to get out of the way of a steaming Lomu. Guru and Chicka playing against each other was before my time.
Who should be the eighth rugby league Immortal?
Fair point no question Tomic has to pull his head in if he wants to be more successful and respected, I guess I got a little side tracked! I’d argue that a better analogy is that tomic’s petulance is more similar to Hewitt than Philippoussis.
Rafter blasts Tomic for disgraceful US Open showing
Agree about Tomic but you need to pull your head in with what you say about Rafter and Philippoussis. Firstly, Rafter was not a career long gentleman of international tennis – in fact he was ejected from many tournaments from poor behaviour, was largely unpopular on the tour and was constantly selfish in Davis Cup to our detriment.
Sure Philippoussis under-achieved, but only because his expectations were insanely high due to his enormous talent. You name me a player of his height that stayed at the top for years? Safin struggled much the same throughout his career with similar talent and Del Potro is doing the same now. People need to realize that if he trained as hard as the smaller and less talented players like Hewitt and Rafter Philippoussis probably could have burned out more and not even reached the heights he did.
People need to stop riding professional athletes that don’t reach their full potential due to injury and circumstances completely out of their control, but in the case of Tomic, he is not even in the same league as Philippoussis yet and he can improve if he gets better at things that he can control, but it’s his life and who are we to judge if he doesn’t care about trying to rescue our weak Davis Cup team?
And for the record, Philippoussis had a more impressive tennis career than Rafter anyway.
Rafter blasts Tomic for disgraceful US Open showing
Well you could easily argue as well AR that by the time GWS/Suns improve and increase their crowds (still no guarantee) the NRL will have expanded in some way so they are easily in the potential category. Sure Grant says no to expansion now, but its a strong possibility they will have to by the time the next TV rights deal is around and the poor Sydney clubs are struggling. Plus isn’t the Perth stadium still in the potential category? And the new SCG isn’t going to change attendances that much.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
NRL has the same opportunities to increase attendances as the AFL with the examples you raise. Eg, relocate Penrith / Cronulla to Perth / Central Coast, move Warriors to Eden Park, play Sydney blockbusters at SFS or ANZ, add a 2nd Brisbane team.
GWS and GCS are at risk of being swamped in terms of support with the new NRL TV rights deal, it is going to take years for them to be competitive and when they are, that will mean the top of the table clashes are being played by the teams with the smallest supporter bases which will reduce the total attendances by more than what they are today.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
Sorry to nitpick but I disagree clipper. Over the past 5 years the AFL has gone from 6.51million in 2008 and will get approximately 6.28million in 2012, an overall reduction of 3.5%.
I think the AFL will struggle to increase attendances in NSW and Qld as a result of the new TV rights deal. The only way the AFL can increase crowds is to move to the new Adelaide Oval and build a 60k seat stadium in Perth, or make the Piers, Blues, Bombers, and Tigers permanent Top 4 contenders. Otherwise the new norm for AFL crowds is 32k per year max, and it will drop to the high 20k’s if GWS and the Suns ever start to dominate.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
AFL crowds have been larger than the NRL’s for over 100 years, so it has nothing to do with Vlad’s leadership that the AFL will continue to remain in front. Interesting stat, AFL had average attendances that were 2.45 times more than the NRL when Gallop and Vlad took over the codes, now they are 1.95 times which is the closest they’ve been since 1993. You’d imagine that gap is going to continue to close with the NRL now having the ability to pay the best rugby league / union talent to play in the NRL, all the while the AFL crowds continue to level out or drop in the wake of the eventual (re-)emergance of low drawing teams like GWS, Port, Suns and Lions into the Top 8 if they successfully draft over the next 5 years.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
Well I could go on all day about stats Clipper but I thought selecting a 10 year period for average regular season attendances was most appropriate given Gallop and Vlad have been in charge for that same duration.
If you take the past 5 years NRL yearly regular season attendances has increased by 3.5% while the AFL has decreased 3.5% even though it has “expanded” the league over that period. And over the past 10 years the NRL has increased 19% while the AFL has increased 7%. Either way, Gallop has been more successful than Demetriou in increasing is codes attendances.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
I take your points Hamish but at the end of the day Gallop restored the NRL to more than double its TV rights under the same FTA arrangements it had previously while matching the AFL’s TV revenue which clearly the most important metric. It’s too early to tell on how successful Vlad’s expansion will be for the game, so far it has watered down the weekly AFL product and reduced attendances which may in the long term reduce the total revenue of the code.
Agree that some NRL crowds are fudged, but I’d some AFL crowds are fudged in non-southern states as well.
Gallop a better CEO than Demetriou?
Khawaja and Cowan have the same strike rate but we are talking a small sample size. At least Marsh has shown an ability to destroy bowling attacks in shorter forms of the game.
Agree that he also has an LBW problem, most likely from poor front foot planting, but this obviously can be improved with hard work. Every batsman has weaknesses, at least you can isolate Marsh’s to being just a couple technically, if he can improve those two aspects of his game he won’t be far off replicating Hussey’s career soon.
As for Khawaja and Cowan, well I think they are playing to their potential at Test level.
And I’m pretty sure if you asked England who out of those three would they least like to bowl to in the Ashes their answer would be Marsh.
Marsh should have risen in the Ashes