Matthew Tomczyk's Roar Profile

Rock, I had in mind when I wrote that two particular articles: one by Fitzy that claimed Jarryd Hayne would already be back home begging for an NRL contract, and when Jake White said that choosing Folau to play for the Wallabies would cheapen the Wallaby jersey.

You’re welcome to find your own counterexamples, but that might be hard to do. Since rugby went professional it’s pretty much been all one way traffic with converts going from league to union.

PRENTICE: Our sporting risk-takers are copping serious flak for no reason

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Bradman is indisputably the best sportsperson across all sports by a long way. That’s a statistical fact; his average is 6 standard deviations above the mean for all other batsmen. So for Australia you have Bradman first, daylight second, then probably Laver.

Rod won all four grand slams in a calendar year twice, seven years apart, a feat unlikely to ever be matched.

“While Rod Laver’s career was outstanding, worthy of high acclaim, his success came in tennis, a sport in which Australia has traditionally been a world power having won five Davis Cups, the third-most of any nation (despite a recent lack of success).”

Woeful. Maybe Laver is part of the reason Australia was such a powerhouse in tennis? It’s not as if success in tennis is somehow independent of its players.

Is Tim Cahill second to Don Bradman?

Football

I agree that Burgess would have gone back to Souths after the RWC no matter what. Kind of like a poor man’s Sonny Bill Williams.

League players like to test themselves in other sports, it’s like the NRL are the bones that men sharpen their teeth on. The negativity aimed at the code hoppers says more about the followers of union than it does about the leagies anyway.

The Scott McIntyre case is an interesting one. If I recall correctly, McIntyre was asked to write a disclaimer that his views don’t reflect those of the SBS but didn’t do so. It’s a case that’ll probably come down to the details of his contact and the media code of conduct. His tweets are still up there on the internet I believe, so it’s not a free speech issue.

There is a league that explicitly forbids fans and teams from making political gestures — it’s the UEFA Champions League. Apparently they fined Barcelona because some fans brought in a Catalan independence banner.

As for the politics sport mix, I couldn’t find a better place to make a political statement than the sporting field. All those cameras and people watching.

Sport and politics: An inevitable partnership

I should have held my tongue for 15 minutes longer.

Australia vs New Zealand: First Test highlights - Day 5 cricket scores, blog

Cricket

The libertarian in me agrees with you, but the dad in me wants to protect the kids from getting inculcated in gambling culture. There will be some children out there who won’t be able to separate gambling from sport.

At the start of the day I was thinking whether or not McCullum could replicate what du Plessis did in 2012 to force a draw against the Aussies. Very similar positions and it can be done if his batting partners can stick around.

While we’re on the topic, I’m not a fan of Peter Fitzsimons. If he wasn’t prodigiously talented, his columns would come off as pro trolling. As to Malcolm Knox, it seems that World Rugby agrees with him since they’re trialling new rules in the 2016 season to make the game more try oriented.

SPIRO: Sam Burgess is a league great and rugby journeyman

Rugby

The reason that Burgess was bagged by the UK media is the same reason why you had people like Peter FItzsimons actively putting down Jarryd Hayne. It’s not a good look for a sport when a leaguie can stroll into a national rugby union team and succeed (as has been the norm for over a decade now). The English also needed a scapegoat despite the fact that choking is almost a national pastime. Sam could play that part.

As to the rule changes, they’re a positive move, but again highlight the superiority of League rules. Union should have adopted a 6-2-2-2 point structure 12 years ago after Johnny Wilkinson kicked England to a RWC win.

It’s easier for a domestic league to change itself (just look at how spectacular the corner post rule change has been!). In my lifetime I’ve seen NRL go from unlimited interchanges to 12 to 10 and now to 6. The result is a brutal game, with 100kg men engaging in an 80 minute long beep test. No wonder they’re so good.

Did Sam Burgess take the easy way out, or the sensible option?

Here’s one for you: maybe Burgess was always going to come back to league no matter what happened. Kind of like an English Sonny Bill Williams.

I disagree.

The NFL is a hospital ward where players get hurt often due to the brutality of the game. Former players were launching a class action against the league over the issues of player concussions. League and Union are very 180 degree games; you can always see them coming. In the NFL they come at you from all sides. QB is probably the hardest position in sports.

As to catching the ball, WRs are probably the best in the world. Just think of Odell Beckham Jr.’s one-handed overhead catch.

What I’m trying to say is that the game calls for each player having a very specific set of skills and developing those skills to a supreme level. And yes, being 400lbs and running 5yds is one of them.

ProRugby in the USA: It's not near, it's here!

To be fair, NFL has a spot for all body types; the smallest QB is about my height and weight. And let’s be honest, rugby forwards don’t exactly have a body fat % in the single digits. It’s true that there’s about 15 minutes of actual game time in an NFL match, but the stuff that happens is off the charts.

If anything the appeal of the NFL to the Americans is that it represents war, something they’re very good at.

All Gallen is ever good for is coming on and giving away a few penalties. The Sharks making the top 8 last year was all on the back of Valentine Holmes and Jack Bird.

Regards,
Bill Gates

Paul Gallen wins boxing bout over Bodene Thompson

Good talk. Steve Waugh, by the way, should have played until 50 he was that good.

Australia's youthful obsession: Forget the figure in the age column

The points we’re discussing are tangential to the entire point of the article I wrote. At no point do
I even mention CPR or ‘wastage’.

I did do a lot of digging before I published and came up with very little from industry websites. Trust me, I don’t want to be quoting figures from CPR either. From the estimates I have, there have been similar numbers of track deaths this year as last year, giving me the impression that racing hasn’t done anything to improve horse safety, and if it has it hasn’t been very effective.

This really:
http://m.smh.com.au/sport/us-sports/why-jarryd-hayne-and-his-success-at-the-san-francisco-49ers-proves-rugby-league-players-are-the-best-athletes-20150904-gjey39.html

Twitter explodes over Sam Burgess' rugby league return

Well presumably with their budget they couldn’t afford to rescue a single racecourse maintain its upkeep. They think they can do the greatest good for the greatest number by spending it on campaigns and public advertising. I had to go to their websites to look up the figures of deaths in racing. Why? Because RV has an interest in keeping the workings of the industry under wraps.

P.S. I’m not a member of that coalition.

Hard to see what relevance this has to anything I wrote above.

Paynes victory is a massive pr win for the sport, but racing doesn’t obey the same rules as other sports. Since we don’t really follow it week in week out, any chance of the sport reforming itself in any positive way is non-existent.

Hey, there ARE female jockeys you know!

+1 to you for stealing the words out of my mouth:

“Think of Johnson and Harris in the 2013/14 Ashes, England’s five-prong attack in the 2005 Ashes, and how Boult and Southee have made New Zealand competitive.”

Were very fortunate to live in a place that has “result pitches” that offer more than just 5 days of endless batting.

Can day-night Tests improve balance between bat and ball?

I recall Peter FitzSimons suggesting not long ago that ANZAC Day should be devoted to playing several Test Matches across various sports. He mentioned RL, RU, Netball and a Chess tournament to be held in Martin Place.

Australia leads the 2015 Trans-Tasman Championship

It’s not an outrageous stance to make, and I think it’s accurate. Plenty of sportspeople die yearly, however not in as great a proportion as horses in horseracing. Nor are their deaths met with the same air of inevitability as in racing.

And yes, I hear animals rights activists telling us to rescue from shelters instead of buying from puppy farms, etc.

This…

Gallop is one of the best administrators in sport and shows that even the CEOs of league manage to code hop successfully.

The ARU must make rugby a game for all

The counter narrative:

https://theconversation.com/four-reasons-rugby-union-in-australia-is-struggling-despite-the-wallabies-success-49741

World Cup wrap: Worthy final confirms rugby is in great shape

Simply because it’s boring, objectively speaking.

The rugby world cup is a spectacle, but the majority of people who watched it, myself included, won’t be watching it week in week out. You can’t exactly use the fact that lots of people watched a once-in-four-year event to justify rugbys relevance. It’ll remain second or third fiddle to other sports almost everywhere it’s played.

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