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";…
Right.
So years after telling us that an influx of overseas players would be great for English players and the national team, the FA are now saying that restrictions on overseas players will be great for English players and the national team?
OK, got it.
FA: Brexit good for British football
I’ve never understood Australia’s fascination with FIFA rankings, the calculations seem overly complex, and they rarely apply to a nation’s actual results or standings in current qualifiers.
Look at the example of Argentina, they’re ranked 2nd by FIFA, but are 5th in the CONMEBOL WC qualifying group. How’s that logical?
Australia slide down in new FIFA rankings
I feel your pain, I know that I had my heart in my mouth when there was talk of my local team, the Rebels, being cut. However, I realise that this was nearly 4 years ago, but I can’t help wonder how much damage the Force did to themselves when they recruited a bunch of amateur players from NSW to represent the club against the B&I Lions in 2013.
A sold-out match, possibly the first in the Force’s short history, a showpiece to boost support for the WA team, and they put up a team bolstered with unfamiliar faces to get steamrollered by a Brian O’Driscoll-led Lions team? I understand that many in the ARU were fuming over that decision.
If the Force go, then so do I
That’s just as offensive! 😀
Time to pull heads out of the sand and admit Australian rugby is dying
My son plays both rugby and soccer:
His rugby registration was $175 a year (but that was with the early bird discount, it’s usually closer to $200) and that pays for qualified coaches & match refs, a Rebels membership, and the opportunity to play at half-time at Aami Park. A few of the Rebels usually attend club functions too, signing autographs, training the kids, having photos taken etc.
His soccer registration is around $375 (still tbc, but that’s what I paid last year), and us parents are usually asked to help out with match-day coaching and refereeing, despite none of us having the qualifications to do so. There’s no input from FFA, or either Victory or City.
I’d say that the rugby rego equates to much better value; what may be worrying, from an Australian perspective, is that the bulk of the kids that play across my son’s team’s league are the offspring of Kiwis, Brits, Irish, South Africans, Pacific Islanders etc.
Time to pull heads out of the sand and admit Australian rugby is dying
Another potential nail in the coffin comes with the weekly FTA Super Rugby highlights package shown late night on One. Anyone noticed the type of ads that One broadcast at that time of night? Constant ads for phone sex lines, online adult magazines and specialist dating websites mean that it’s wholly unsuitable for showing to any younger fans.
I record the show each week, but can’t show it to my 9 year old son (who was likely to have been on last night’s show, as he was on the pitch before the game and at half-time during this weekend’s Rebels-Chiefs match) as even fast-forwarding doesn’t always avoid the ads.
Time to pull heads out of the sand and admit Australian rugby is dying
That means little in an international competition. South Africa is west of Melbourne too, & Cape Town is the capital of the Western Cape province.
Besides, it’s rare for the Western part of their name to be used, they’re usually just called Force.
My point being that, to the uninitiated, a team called Western Force could come from pretty much anywhere within Super Rugby’s geographical area, these are not clubs with 100+ years of heritage and history to fall back on, or strong ties to local communities; but relatively modern clubs often with names decided upon by a committee of marketing types.
Time to pull heads out of the sand and admit Australian rugby is dying
You raise a good point, one that I’ve said since moving to Australia: the Super Rugby clubs really struggle with their identity. Being unfamiliar with the clubs when I moved here I had no idea even which country many of them were from.
Cheetahs, Lions, Brumbies… OK. But Stormers, Force, Blues, Reds etc. these names mean little to casual fans.
It’s also difficult to foster any loyalty amongst locals, especially for new clubs, when they’re being marketed with names like the Rabobank Rebels (as my local team were for their first few years).
Time to pull heads out of the sand and admit Australian rugby is dying
I suppose any issues with the bid will be smoothed over with large bags of cash, in FIFA’s usual manner.
If they can happily turn a blind eye to the reports of multiple deaths and slave-labour practices in Qatar, Russia’s hooliganism problems, & the existing draconian laws implemented in both those countries then I’m sure even Trump (who won’t be president in 2026) won’t be an obstacle to the USA’s bid.
Trump ban may hurt US' 2026 World Cup bid
Interesting to read these comments that the Brumbies would be the first to go, elsewhere on the Roar today there are some suggesting that Canberra should be the next location to get an A-League club.
It’d be a bizarre scenario (but quite plausible) were the Brumbies to get ousted from Super Rugby at the same time as the A-League decide to set up shop in the same city.
Rebels owner confident about Super Rugby future
A parallel could be made with this Roar article, also published today: http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/03/07/rebels-owner-confident-super-rugby-future/ where a few have made comments that they foresee Canberra’s union team, the Brumbies, being scrapped in order to strengthen Super Rugby, specifically Australia’s faltering sides.
It’s certainly interesting to read comments here that Canberra could be ready for an A-League team, at a time when an existing (and rather successful) sports team in the city is being mooted for closure.
I’m not quite sure what to make of it TBH.
If south Melbourne and south Sydney succeed, Australian football is dead
Did Mitchell Johnson’s Swisse endorsement coincide with the time “he bowled to the left… he bowled to the right…”?
The worst celebrity endorsements in the history of Australian sport
Was that the ad where Greg Matthews strolled around a deserted MCG, juggling a cricket ball & espousing his weave, until two models appeared out of nowhere just to drape themselves over his shoulders?
What the hell were they all doing in an empty MCG anyway?
The worst celebrity endorsements in the history of Australian sport
Cadel Evans in 2012 too, he advertised Swisse just prior to the Olympics & the TdF, with ads featuring him riding his bike around London.
He finished 7th in the Tour, not a bad result but a marked drop from his win in 2011; but was 80th in the Olympics Road Race, and pulled out of the Time Trail, citing fatigue.
All in all, probably not what Swisse had in mind.
The worst celebrity endorsements in the history of Australian sport
Wow! Some clunkers there, although Liz Ellis advertising possibly the worst looking pizzas ever sticks in my mind: exclaiming “Great pizza!” before taking a mouthful of what looked like a piece of cardboard covered in tomato sauce & cheese.
Also, not an Australian sportsperson, but Pele’s ads for Viagra were something quite special: “I don’t have a problem, but if I did…”
The worst celebrity endorsements in the history of Australian sport
27 degrees, but to borrow a quote from one of the late Bill Paxton’s greatest characters “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat”.
Bernard Tomic's opponent retires due to the Australian's "unbearable flogishness"
Probably worth mentioning that Sun Bets, the bookies that offered the 8-1 odds on Shaw eating a pie during the game, sponsored Sutton United for this game too. The players took to the field wearing the News Corp-affiliated online betting agency’s logo on their shirts instead of their usual club sponsor, Green Go Waste, a local recycling & waste management company.
The FA and the UK’s Gambling Commission are both investigating the incident, which has further soured what should have been a great occasion for Sutton, following allegations that fans had been censored on the club’s online forums for criticising the one-off sponsorship deal.
The Sun is looked upon very unfavourably by many football fans in the UK, following their partisan and inflammatory coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. The decision to have their betting agency sponsor the club has upset many Sutton United supporters.
Pie-eating goalie annoys team manager
This is surely a case of giving an existing security chief a new title?
I’d be rather surprised if most major British teams don’t already employ some form of security personnel with a specific remit for terrorism.
This is the UK we’re talking about, remember; while the media and politicians would have us believe that terrorism is something recent, new, and only committed by people of a certain faith, it must be remembered that terrorist atrocities are nothing new across most of Europe, and Manchester has had to deal with major terrorist attacks long before the latest bêtes noires started mobilising.
Sports and security: Manchester United appoint counter-terrorism chief
Thanks Mary,
I was forgetting that there is also Sam Lane, who, like Kelli Underwood has endured a torrid time, not least from her own Channel 7 co-presenters; and of course there have been multiple incidents from Channel Nine personnel concerning Caroline Wilson.
Women's sport weekly wrap: Who wants to listen to a bunch of blokes in suits?
While this progress is to be applauded I do think it rather telling that only one name, Kelli Underwood, gets a mention in relation to AFL coverage, and she’s had to put up with an obscene amount of abuse from viewers.
I still think that the Australian media has got a long way to go to address the imbalance; and some fairly recent significant incidents – like that infamous Channel Nine interview with a couple of women cricketers, or the Eugenie Bouchard “Give us a twirl” comment – as well appallingly regular offensive comments and actions from the likes of Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman, do a great deal of harm.
Women's sport weekly wrap: Who wants to listen to a bunch of blokes in suits?
Apparently he was.
I’ve long given up on Nein’s coverage so can’t vouch for how much airtime he got, although it does look like there’s maybe an inkling of hope that they’re moving away from their stale commentators club.
Channel Nine's cricket commentary team needs an injection of youth
Nice piece Mick, Nein’s team are long overdue an overhaul!
Another criticism I have of Nein’s cricket coverage is that they rarely have a commentator who represents the opposition, except during an Ashes series. One of the things I really like about coverage in the UK is the input of a commentator or ex-player from the other country. They usually add insight into the team’s players, tactics, history etc. even team politics.
One of the best I’ve heard, and in keeping with the theme of the article, was Donna Symmonds of Barbados. For a while she was on BBC radio whenever England played the West Indies, and offered a refreshing change to the usual old boys club.
Channel Nine's cricket commentary team needs an injection of youth
Any truth in the rumours that Hodgson was spotted taking in a cruise along the Yarra before the match…?
Make no mistake, City will buy victory eventually