Roar Guru
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Was brought up in Victoria, where I barracked for the Bombers in winter and the Aussie cricketers in summer. Life took me to Sydney many years ago, where I've gained an appreciation of many other sports; including tennis, rugby league and soccer/football. But AFL remains my first love; and I'm now proudly a member and supporter of the Greater Western Sydney Giants. In between working a boring desk job and attending sporting events, I trawl the internet for sporting stories and discussions.
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It's not enough to put a couple of scapegoats on gardening leave. Cricket needs a paradigm shift. The culture is toxic and now is…
As the second season of AFLW nears its conclusion, we can see they've done a lot right with this competition. But we haven't got…
It may only be a sample size of two, but this is the most even AFLW season yet. Had Collingwood been able to run…
Enough with the negativity! AFLX is here, I'm looking forward to it, and I think you're going to love it. It promises to be…
Fixturing can be tricky at the best of times, but some interesting ideas can come from unlikely places. For the AFL it's hard to…
And so this is Christmas/ And what have you done?/ Another year over/ And a new one just begun. John Lennon's classic Christmas song…
It won't come cheap. $2.3 billion dollars and these things always blow out. But the decision is made. Allianz Stadium and ANZ Stadium are…
With the National Basketball League looking to expand, speculation is circling that AFL clubs are looking to field teams in the competition. In Europe,…
The Ashes. Australia versus England on the cricket pitch in one of world sport's greatest rivalries. While the men have had the limelight for…
In a city of many sports, it's hard to find common ground. And competing priorities are up for grabs when the stadium funding pie…
Stalemates and brinkmanship run high as the AFL trading period meanders along. We're nearly a week in and not a single trade is done.…
The game of Australian Football is well known in Australia. But a new shorter form is under development. Known as AFLX, it's still a…
When it comes to expansion, the difference between the AFL and reactionary short-term knee-jerk panic merchants is that the AFL, when it has made…
There's always a sense of excitement when game day comes around. But there's always a crucial decision to make - to go to the…
Someone at the Brisbane Lions must have broken two mirrors, as the club's rotten run with luck continues into its 14th year, missing out…
The Ides of March are come. But not gone. And while this is a day for Julius Caesar to beware, for cricket fans it's…
It’s Thursday night and JLT Community Series footy is back. Join us live on The Roar from 7:40pm AEDT tonight as the Western Bulldogs…
The coming of AFL Womens has transformed the pre-season period. We're now in footy season from the beginning of February. AFLW has gone better…
Match result: The Adelaide Crows have stayed undefeated in AFL Women's with a big goal from Erin Phillips in the final quarter delivering them…
Match result: The Brisbane Lions have maintained their undefeated start to the AFL Women's competition, and left premiership fancies Fremantle winless, taking a 13-point…
You wonder how they ever got that one through. Spruce Moose’s article today talks well about that – it’s a stadium that is rarely filled in its current form. Will be interesting to follow the money when the contract is issued……
But the decision’s been made, and it’s going to happen. That being the case, what do we need the new stadium to be like so we’re not doing this again in 20 years?
What do Sydney's new stadiums need?
Your chances of being rookie listed by GWS Giants is Buckleys…….
Interestingly, both Buckleys that the Giants listed today are the sons of AFL players.
Dylan Buckley’s father Jim was a premiership player for Carlton.
Jack Buckley’s father Ben played for North Melbourne and is now the Kangaroos’ Chairman. He is also a former soccer FFA CEO.
2017 AFL Rookie Draft results: Every player picked and where they went
Being a dead rubber, the pressure was off. But some very sloppy fielding last night.
Not the result we wanted last night; but a very enjoyable Womens Ashes series. Ellyse Perry’s double century the highlight.
Hoping to get to North Sydney Oval in a couple of weeks for the WBBL opener.
Aussie fielding a shambles as women's Ashes ends in 8-8 draw
Unlike in Queensland, where the Suns without doubt have cannibalised the Lions support, that hasn’t happened in Sydney. When the Giants were introduced, the Swans’ membership went up. You can’t say that the Swans have suffered in any way due to the coming of the Giants.
Footy in Sydney has grown enormously in recent years, and that’s good for the game. Buddy has played a role in that – it’s a very expensive contract, and there’s still five years to run on it. And unfortunately for him he had a shocker in the 2014 Grand Final. But there’s no doubt he’s a popular marketing figure and gets bums on seats.
The Swans and Buddy: A match made in heaven
Being the first innings of Test cricket, Bannerman’s 165 was the highest score by an Australian on Test debut – although the term “Test” hadn’t been created yet.
Amazingly, 140 years later in 2017, that record will still stand.
The very first Test match revisited: Australia vs England 'live' blog, Day 2, March 16, 1877
Second Melbourne and Perth teams have a lot to recommend themselves. But they would need start-up capital and resources. The AFL clubs are cashed up.
But could it work and benefit both AFL and basketball?
Goals, behinds and fouls: Could AFL clubs have NBL teams?
Tennis and horse riding are fine. But men and women in the same game in a body contact sport is an unacceptable risk profile.
TELL US: What would you do to keep growing women's sport?
I’m fairly conservative with my selections. Not quite sure I’ve got 6 & 7 right, but the others are clear-cut in my opinion.
Warner
Renshaw
Khawaja
Smith (c)
Handscomb
Maxwell
Wade (wk)
Starc
Cummins
Hazlewood
Lyon
Pick your Australian Ashes team for the first Test against England
Previous attempts by AFL clubs Collingwood and Carlton to invest in soccer, back in the old NSL days, ended in tears all round. Hard to see it happening again, but you never know what the future holds.
Somehow, even if an AFL club wanted to start up an A-League team, I suspect both the AFL and FFA would block it……
AFL clubs eyeing NBL expansion
Interesting to see whether anything comes of this. In Europe there are “super-clubs” that have teams in multiple sports including soccer and basketball, often handball as well. But it’s a rare thing in Australia.
AFL clubs investing in soccer, with Collingwood and the Carlton in the 1990s, was an abject failure. But basketball could be different.
GWS Giants and Collingwood already have branched into netball. It’s not uncommon in the country for footy and netball to be under the umbrella of a single club; but it’s unusual at the elite level in Australia. But both the Giants and Magpies had success with a netball club in the first year of Super Netball; and both are interested in having a crack at basketball.
Basketball has had something of a resurgence recently; and is probably getting to the stage of needing more teams. Over in Perth, the Wildcats regularly sell out Perth Arena, and Freo may well have detected an opportunity for a second team from Perth.
Sydney is the exception, where the Kings are struggling on the court and stagnant off it. For Sydney to have missed out on the basketball resurgence could potentially make it ripe for a GWS basketball franchise to move in and have a crack where the Kings have failed.
AFL clubs eyeing NBL expansion
Or play more than one Test per two years so the players know what they’re doing.
Perry's 200 gives women's cricket a new lease of life
On the Saturday when I was there, over 300 runs were scored for the day, which isn’t bad.
If you turn back the clock to the 1970s & 80s, before full-time professionalism, the scoring rate was similar to the womens test. Even Ian Chappell’s invincibles and the all-conquering West Indies teams of the 1980s struggled to score 250 in a day.
Warner-esque scoring in Test cricket is a relatively recent thing.
Historic day-night Ashes Test ends in draw, but there was no shortage of highlights
An outstanding innings, that’s for sure.
And it’s unlikely to be beaten for a very long time. For starters, with so little Test cricket being played, there’s very few opportunities to break that record. It could be two years before our women play another Test match.
Perry's 200 gives women's cricket a new lease of life
It’s a missed opportunity. TV coverage would have been great publicity for womens cricket. Channel 10 have done well with WBBL, and Nine could have made this work on Gem.
Seen a few pics on social media. Looks like an OK crowd for a weekday and will probably grow in the evening.
Women's sport weekly wrap: Get your bum on a seat
You’re spot on there Spruce Moose. North Sydney Oval is a very picturesque little ground and will be a great backdrop for some good cricket.
I’ll be out there on Saturday for the third day. Hopefully they’ll get a good crowd – it would be a good sign of growing interest in womens cricket and sport in general if there’s a good roll-up.
Women's sport weekly wrap: Get your bum on a seat
I love cricket, but there’s no doubting It’s a massive time commitment. Five long days back to back is a long time. In contrast, you can watch a whole T20 game from start to finish after work in one evening.
With other sports, where the regular form of the game is no longer than a T20 game, the need for a short form isn’t so obvious. The short form has non-stop action but can be a time commitment.
A day at rugby 7s can be much longer than a 15-a-side rugby, because they are played as tournaments with several games in a day.
AFL hasn’t got AFLX right yet, but I’m sure they will.
I like the traditional forms and the short forms. I like a marathon and a sprint.
TELL US: What's your verdict on short-format sports?
They’ve avoided Friday nights in Perth. 6pm Friday night is too early for locals to get there, but later than that is too late for eastern states TV.
But when there’s a Saturday night game in Perth, if I was running the AFL’s fixturing I’d have it an hour later, at 6:40pm local time (8:40pm eastern). There’s still another game at the normal Saturday timeslot, but half a game’s overlap would be avoided.
Grand final rematch pencilled in for Round 2 as 2018 AFL fixtures released
Tough for GWS Giants to play Adelaide, Sydney and West Coast twice; but we knew that already. Overall it’s not too bad for the Giants, although having two Adelaide trips, both Sunday twilight, will be tricky. And our only Friday night game is away at Kardinia Park where we’ve never won.
A lot of Saturday night home games, which is a great timeslot. But the mind boggles at a Saturday 7:25pm in August at Manuka – we’ll need to rug up for that one!
Grand final rematch pencilled in for Round 2 as 2018 AFL fixtures released
The playing area is a bit on the small side, and I doubt the corporate facilities would be up to scratch for AFL standards. But it is a very picturesque ground.
Sydney sports stadiums: Oval options or oblong obfuscation?
Hopefully we won’t have a Friday 4.30pm at Blacktown again…..
AFLW headed for prime time
Fair comment. The commercial sponsors who put their names to the stadiums sure get their money’s worth in exposure. Probably more than they deserve, since none of them have given me any money……
Sydney sports stadiums: Oval options or oblong obfuscation?
That would make sense. There’s more rugby union played on the SFS than ANZ; which I think only hosts a Bledisloe game and that’s about it.
Sydney sports stadiums: Oval options or oblong obfuscation?
It is one of the curious points of the AFL’s submission. Neither the Giants nor the Swans are interested in ANZ; but the AFL are.
A couple of theories here. The AFL put some money into ANZ in its current form; they were the only code that did. For it to be turned into a rectangle now, the AFL’s blown their money. Obviously I haven’t seen the AFL’s books, but if they capitalised that investment, they’d have to write it off, which would affect their balance sheet.
And they don’t want to see a stadium that they paid for and none of the rectangular codes did turned into a permanently rectangular stadium.
The other thing the AFL is trying to do is future-proof. At the moment the Giants and Swans aren’t interested; but who knows what the future holds. At some point in the future, there may be a reason for the AFL to need a big stadium in Sydney. Right now, there’s no reason for it – but things may change in the future. But if the ground is turned into a rectangle, it’s gone forever.
They’re unlikely to succeed, but they think it’s worth a try. But what they really want is the oval stadiums at the SCG and Spotless to be done before ANZ is. Which would keep open the option of using ANZ for bigger games while building works reduces the capacity of the oval stadiums.
Sydney sports stadiums: Oval options or oblong obfuscation?
The SFS in its current form is rectangular, so nothing would change there.
ANZ can currently be configured for rectangular or oval sports, but this will be lost – so it will actually have less possible usage than it currently has; albeit that it has only hosted one AFL match and no cricket in the last two years.
Rebuilding ANZ as a permanent rectangle reduces its possible use. Rectangle sports can be played on an oval, but oval sports can’t be played on a rectangle. But it produces a better experience for the rectangle sports; and as I mentioned in the last paragraph, it’s only been used as an oval once in the last two years. But the option would be gone forever.
What do Sydney's new stadiums need?