Roar Guru
Joined May 2011
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'A grade' Sports Geek providing independent views on cricket, NBA, EPL, AFL & more.... or less. Also at twitter.com/leemacsports
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There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ryan Harris is a fantastic bowler. On playing ability alone, he deserves his call-up to the…
The Australian batting line-up is currently as fragile as butterflies made of snowflakes. As pretty as that sounds, from an Australian perspective it makes…
For 20 years, Australian cricket fans have greeted each summer with enthusiasm. This was born from the knowledge that, like Mark Cosgrove at the…
Australians and South Africans don’t get along on the cricket field. There, I said it. Now we can all acknowledge the elephant in the…
Shane Warne could be Australia’s Michael Jordan. I’m sure that would come as a welcome comparison to a man who chose to wear the…
Cricket, as they say, is a funny game. By funny I’m guessing they mean funny as in weird, not funny as in “ha-ha”. And…
The biggest game of the English Premier League season so far is this Sunday. Surprisingly, it doesn’t involve Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea. Not so…
[caption id="attachment_17892" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Pakistan\'s Shahid Afridi makes a run against Australia during the one day international cricket match between Pakistan and Australia in…
The Mumbai Indians won the Champions League Twenty20. Does anyone care? Maybe a few Mumbonians/Mumbainians/Mumbaiz do, but most people were about as interested in…
Kids have Christmas, shopaholics have Boxing Day, alcoholics have St Patrick’s Day, pirate obsessives have Talk Like a Pirate Day, and AFL fans have…
Australian cricket was shot. Down and out. It was without a paddle while exploring the upper reaches of a particularly pungent creek. Now it…
The 2011 AFL Finals series has been a bit of a snooze-fest. So much so that while watching Hawthorn and Sydney on Friday night,…
By next Tuesday the mystery that is the state of Australian cricket will either take a step towards being solved or plunge back into…
The Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium (or the Muttiah Muralitharan International Cricket Stadium if you prefer the long name) may be located in the sweetly…
Fortune favours the brave but also sometimes the naive. Whichever Nathan Lyon is, he deserves all the credit he gets for his five-wicket haul…
“It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”. The Australian cricket team and their fans should adopt the slogan from the Pantene shampoo commercials…
England are number one in the Test rankings, India are insipid and Australia are in crisis. Kind of like Bizarro Superman, welcome to the…
For three Test matches now England have played the role of Jean-Claude Van Damme. India, on the other hand, have played the role of…
[caption id="attachment_36418" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="India\'s Pragyan Ojha, left, V.V.S. Laxman, center, and Suresh Raina. AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi"][/caption] To be number one in any discipline…
Confession time. I’m a Manchester City fan. Since the dawn of time, aka my birth in a Manchester hospital, my Dad and his Dad…
That’s the point of issue 5 Woodsman. It’s borderline ridiculous. Good to see you’re starting to get it. Also, you’ll notice that later in the article I mention “the 4 key issues”. Thus admitting that issue 5 was silliness.
Next you’ll be bagging me for not using the 2010 Magpies side for the metaphor I use in the second paragraph.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
Because that simply wouldn’t be as funny Woodsman. Collingwood are blamed for much of the ills of the AFL (some of it true, some of it rubbish). A light-hearted comment that they always get what they want from the AFL is playing up to that stereotype.
Additionally, one of the issues I bring up is that high profile Melbourne teams get protected from traveling. I would include Essendon in that group with Collingwood.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
I think the AFL say they “try” to do something to this effect. However certain marquee match-ups happen twice every year no matter what. My feeling would be that evening out the draw over 4 years is too long a period.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
Interesting option there Brian. I do like it in principle. However I think you’d have a hard time convincing a 13th place side that they can’t make the finals with 5 rounds to go. Particularly if they are only a couple of wins behind 8th. Same would go for a 7th side chasing a top four finish.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
Relegation and promotion would simply never get in. In the EPL clubs lose so much money if they get relegated. Even if they are well supported. The AFL wouldn’t want to be setting clubs up to fail financially. Plus it would be exceptionally hard to work out how it ties in with the draft.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
It would be the fairest system to play each other twice but not the most practical. The Players Association are keen not to significantly increase any workload on players. I’ve heard it mentioned on several occassions from players on TV saying that each week is simply about recovery ahead of the next game. You would essentially be cutting their recovery time in half. It would be nigh on impossible for most players to play two games in a week. Yes you could increase squads but then you are diluting the quality of the product.
I like the number of games that the NFL play and a similar number, say 17 by playing each other once, I think would suit the AFL well. But I’m not sure about the random way some of the NFL fixtures are decided. In some ways their scheduling is more unfair that the AFL’s!
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
Getting rid of teams is another option that I didn’t cover. I mainly didn’t though on the basis that it would just be so hard to do for the league. It was hard enough for the league trying to get North to move to the Gold Coast and in the end the club stayed. Imagine the fight those clubs would put up if you said that they were getting cut from the league?
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
Hi Tom. I actually favour 2 conferences. By mentioning in the article that there could be three was just listing the options within the option. I’ll be submitting a follow-up piece early next week on how I think it could work next week.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
England are actually 3rd in the Test Rankings going into this series. Not 2nd as stated in this article.
http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/match_zone/team_ranking.php
However, they can rise to number 1 by winning the series by 2 clear matches.
Milestones aplenty as India, England duel for supremacy
The comments are a tad tongue in cheek Paul. I understand that Collingwood’s draw is not entirely of their own doing. Every team in Melbourne normally requests a home game against each season.
Better options for a fairer AFL fixture
You are right. They are officially called the Essendon Football Club. One of the contributing reasons as to why Essendon most likely won’t have any grounds for legal recourse.
I think the point is though is that it is Essendon’s accepted nickname. Yes legally the new Brisbane NRL side can choose to have the name, but by doing so they are missing an opportunity to build their own brand and identity.
Brisbane bomb Essendon
True. I am contradicting myself in that statement a little bit. Let me clarify.
From a traditional Rugby League heartland point-of-view Brisbane deserve a team. However, financially and support-wise can another team survive? Brisbane & Gold Coast are extremely close. There are already 2 NRL teams, 2 AFL teams, a Rugby Union team, an A-League team, cricket etc in the region. The market there already seems crowded given their population.
Brisbane bomb Essendon
Brisbane does deserve another team, but the point is that they should have chosen another name. Wendell Sailor has come out today and agreed with that sentiment.
Also, can Brisbane support another team? Gold Coast is only down the road and the sports market seems to be little congested at the moment.
Brisbane bomb Essendon
Wise words. Have you thought about starting your own dating-tips blog? 😛
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
Good point DJ. One of the reasons that the show has been struggling is it’s unreliable time slot.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
The Wildcats were winning titles back then so it was good for us Perth-ites! Though I admit it would have been better for the league if the Kings had won one during that period.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
I always liked Woods and Matthew White the most. I didn’t mind Webster but he never really struck me as being as passionate as those two.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
I think the Worsfold plays a role in building and impressing that winning mentality/culture at the club. But I think he is just one cog in the the overall winning culture of the club. Something I wrote about here a couple of weeks back:
West Coast an example for clubs to keep the faith
Classic! If it was unintentional then it’s funny, but if the comment was deliberate then it is pure comedy gold.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
The problem for FTA TV is that the both the NRL deal and now the new AFL deal have more games exclusively on PayTV than ever. They are paying big bucks to get a few games but then inadvertently hurting themselves by on-selling those games they don’t see as ratings winners (or simply can’t fit in) to PayTV. With more games on PayTV people are only naturally going to start to gravitate towards it. They are cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
Isn’t the normal reaction these days to create a Bookface group?
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
It will be interesting to see where McEwan ends up. Though if he leaves we will no longer be entertained by the bizarre sexual tension between him and Sandra Sully.
One things for sure, with no AFL and no ST there won’t be too many sports related positions at 10.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
I agree that Fox Sports News can get a bit repetitive. You can keep watching all day otherwise you will see the same thing 15 dozen times. But I find I watch it for about 15-30 minutes a day and it’s not too bad.
Sports Tonight goes the way of the ex-girlfriend
Second division? Do you mean like the EPL with promotion/relegation? If so, I think that is a more extreme idea than having conferences.
How an AFL conference system could work