Roar Guru
Joined June 2012
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During last week's World Cup qualifiers, while Europe's sporting media were focused on the giant, and not-so-giant, nations of European football taking each other…
A few years ago, cartoonist David Squires, who was recently interviewed on The Roar about his weekly A-League comic strips for The Guardian, came…
A Roarer recently wrote an article listing the greatest fictional sports characters of all time. A specific character mentioned in the comments got me…
While it's a common occurrence to see an Australian or American sporting organisations and clubs referred to by their nickname, English football clubs, even…
We’ve come to that time of year again, when the English Premier League’s PR machine is in full swing, gearing up for the upcoming…
I’m getting to the point where I don’t understand Channel Nine’s raison d'être (that’s French for ‘reason for existence’, in case any of Nine’s…
After last year's Rugby World Cup, most keen sports watchers would be only too aware of a shared low opinion of Channel Nine and…
Some sporting historians will point to English non-league football team Kettering Town's deal with a local tyre firm in the mid 1970s as being…
Before the ink was dry on newspapers reporting the Wallabies' loss to Scotland, the whinging began. "It was the wind"; "it was too cold";…
“England will meet a side that has superior quality than themselves… In Brazil, this was Italy.”
I’d say Uruguay were the side that proved far superior for England that year. While Italy won their encounter between the two European teams they were pretty shambolic in those group stage games too. Neither nation covered themselves with glory at that tournament.
What Australia must learn from England
I thought Moyes was “The Chosen One”, and Mourinho “The Special One”?
Jose Mourinho: The chosen one is still the only one for Manchester United
Is it a bit of a stretch to describe the Eurythmics as Scottish when 50% of the band come from Sunderland?
Scotland walking the 500 miles to respectability
Not a podcast, but The Guardian’s weekly email The Breakdown provides decent analysis of the week’s big stories, as well as coverage of stories that may have been missed elsewhere.
The Guardian has had a Six Nations pod in recent years too, which is well worth checking out if they do it again.
11 rugby podcasts to follow this season
Does Lee Cattermole count? He seems to be from the Muscat school of leg-hackery, spends more time suspended than not, and has even had brushes with the law for off-field criminal activity.
I reckon that when he’s on form he has the potential be one of England’s best players, but he’s so rarely on form, preferring to scythe down opposition players instead.
I think Graeme Souness would be a worthy addition to this list too. Not only was he a stereotypical hardman, but a brilliant player too.
Football's all-time bad-arse XI
I do like seeing clubs (in any sport) make an effort to return to a classic, less cluttered, unfussy design, but that change strip serves no purpose whatsoever.
What are the odds that a third strip will make an appearance before the Brumbies match in Melbourne? Neither of these kits are suitable for playing against the Rebels.
Brumbies reveal new throwback-style jersey for 2018
The flipside of that though is when the crowd gets on to the team for not performing. Hearing the fans booing or chanting “you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ (as is more common than the Roker Roar these days) is also pretty loud!
Do you support a different team to anyone else in your family?
Congratulations to you both on your engagement!
My extended family is pretty evenly split between Sunderland and Newcastle fans, which makes for a lot of banter at family get-togethers, although it’s never boiled over into anything nasty, despite the volumes of booze that often accompany these events!
Social media accounts can be a testy place after a local derby too!
Do you support a different team to anyone else in your family?
I wrote a piece last year regarding this subject. At the time my club, Sunderland, were embroiled in the Adam Johnson scandal, and potentially guilty of continuing to select him for the first team squad, even though he’d admitted his guilt to the club’s chief executive prior to his court case.
It can be found here: http://www.theroar.com.au/2016/03/10/dark-times-stadium-light/
Since then the media has gone cold on the issue (apart from an exposé in a tabloid regarding Johnson bragging about his crimes in prison), but there’s still a nagging doubt in my mind about the club’s culpability in this sordid tale, even though the majority of the coaching team and boardroom personnel that were present at the time are no longer at Sunderland.
This has led to my affections for the club cooling somewhat, and I can’t deny that Sunderland’s continued on-field malaise isn’t a factor too. The truth is, the current squad are probably the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. Even when we were regularly struggling at the foot of England’s second tier, or during our sole relegation to the third tier, the players seemed to have a little more pride in pulling on the shirt (perhaps because, back then, many of them were local lads who’d come up through the youth team ranks). The current mob though? They’re dire & overpaid.
Lately though I’ve been finding that my home town’s non-league team, South Shields FC, have been catching my eye, in the manner of the Distracted Boyfriend meme. They’ve recently returned to their home ground after years in the wilderness ground-sharing with other teams, have won two promotions in a row, and the FA Vase last season, and currently sit top of the Northern Premier League Division One North, England’s 8th tier, with crowds that match teams that play in leagues way above them.
While I doubt that I’ll ever truly stop being a Sunderland fan, I’m spending more time & effort following Shields online and have been wearing my team shirt with pride whilst out & about in Melbourne.
Is it ever okay to change teams?
“the entire Welsh, Scottish, Irish and English teams had variations on approximately five surnames”
While that often gets said about the Welsh (Jones, Evans, Williams, Morgan etc.), that’s not an accusation I’ve ever heard levelled at the Scots, Irish or English.
Argentina: The perpetual rugby oddity
“Last season Arsenal finished fifth and missed out on Champions League football”
Oh, how my heart bleeds…
Sunderland fan here, forgive me if I’m not too sympathetic to your plight.
An honest assessment of Arsenal from a devoted fan
Hang on. Didn’t the Wallabies play Fiji, Scotland & Italy recently?
If they weren’t enough of a warm then I’m not sure playing against an Australian Barbarians team would offer anything more in preparation for playing the All Blacks.
Wallabies need Test warm up: Hooper
A great re-signing for the Rebels, but there’s still no word on whether they will be allowed to play in SuperRugby next year. I presume Mafi could end up loaned out somewhere, or reduced to only playing NRC matches for the Melbourne Rising.
This situation is beyond farcical.
Melbourne Rebels make key re-signing for 2018
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who thought Rooney looked awful at last year’s Euros.
I recall a few pundits saying at the time that he looked great in that role, and I read somewhere that he had something like an 85% success rate with his passes. However, most of those passes had the recipients either tracking back, sprinting ahead, stretching to their limits, slowing or stopping their runs, or even sprawling onto the ground to get to them. The result being that Rooney’s pass got to the intended player, but they then weren’t able to do much with it.
England’s golden child loses his lustre: What's next for Wayne Rooney?
I’m pretty sure that the NZ-Lions match is on Foxtel, not BeIN.
International rugby union, AFL, NRL and much more: How to watch all the best sporting action this weekend
Australian rugby was in far better health in 2011, when the Reds were Super Rugby champions , but the Wallabies were beaten by Samoa in Sydney.
Can Georgia beat Australia at the 2019 Rugby World Cup?
Poms? The British & Irish Lions? Poms? Really?
Are Lions fans whistling past the graveyard?
I’m at a loss to understand this argument; Optus’ provided exactly that with their coverage of the Premier League too.
The EPL is now invisible thanks to Optus
Is it invisible? I never subscribed to Foxtel (and probably never will) so didn’t get access to it at all in the past.
I do have Optus though, which I understand has more customers than Foxtel so presumably a far greater reach, and got every single match live & on demand via their catch-up service. There were highlights packages, previews, reviews, various different shows detailing analysis etc., again all available to watch as & when I chose to.
I also never encountered any of the streaming issues that many said blighted the coverage, although I do live in a well-populated area of Melbourne, and can imagine that other areas are probably not so well-served by Optus.
It’s interesting though that one of the greatest opponents and critics of the NBN has been Murdoch’s organisation.
I wonder why that would be…?
The EPL is now invisible thanks to Optus
Not sure which La Liga you’re watching, but the one I’m familiar with has some pretty dire teams in it too, Tony Adams’ Granada being a particular stand-out.
The EPL is now invisible thanks to Optus
Indeed, how times change.
It didn’t seem that long ago when Robert Rosario was considered a big-money buy for Chelsea…
The highs and lows of being a Chelsea fan
Anyone that claims Peter Schmeichel isn’t a Manc hasn’t heard the bloke speak.
The only way he could be more Mancunian would be for him to front a late-80s baggy band.
Ten reasons why City will always be better than United
To be fair though, Barry Glendenning is an Irishman, so is unlikely to overplay England’s chances.
He’s also a Sunderland supporter, so speaks from experience of disappointment and low expectations…
What Australia must learn from England