I’m with ol’ Benitez on this point. I hate to be rude on this site as so many are….but Dan seems incredibly naive with his head in the clouds.

belief??? hope???? why would you look to this man for any of those…i love sport but i don’t tie up my self worth in athletes. THIS MAN CONNED YOU DAN!!!!! HE CONNED THE ENTIRE WORLD and is paying for it. Believe in what you can do.

In a twisted way I believe Armstrong needs to be remembered in cycling not forgotten. Remembered for the cheat he was and that no matter how big you get, the truth will find its way. He should serve as a beacon to all those thinking of doping and used as a reference point by the cycling community of how you can lose everything you worked for if you cheat.

i agree Chris. Dan, LA is a cold…calculating….LIAR. No one (especially me) doesn’t marvel at him for beating the cancer he had when the disease takes so many people but his entire career after that wasn’t built on hope…it was based on lying, cheating, coercion and a win at all costs mentality.

LA coerce other team mates into taking drugs, he supplied drugs to teammates…he organised the distribution of drugs through 3rd parties while racing, he got doctors to fake presciptions to cover up positive tests, he also bullied, intimidated and harrassed anyone who dared speak out about this. THESE ARE NOT THE ACTIONS OF A HERO OR SOMEONE TO BE ADMIRED.

His cancer foundation does cancer awareness campaigns, it doesn’t fight or treat cancer like say the Jane McGrath Foundation that ex cricketer Glenn McGrath works for to provide breast cancer nurses. It solely worked around the personality of Lance…whose identity was built around a person who survived cancer and won 7 Tours…ON THE BACK OF CHEATING IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. He never would of raised that amount of money if not for those Tour wins, which if you don’t know by now, was won through dirty means.

He looked into every single of of those cancer patients in the eye and said you can achieve great things like me…knowing he cheated every step of the way. A real hero are those cancer patients who beat the odds and simply go back to their everyday living, humbly and without fanfare….not a cheat who bullies everyone around him.

Im sorry Dan…but the life he led in racing was fake….the image he built around him through cycling was fake. Knowing a real hero from a fake one is the most liberating lesson you can learn from this sorry tale.

Thanks for that sittingbison. I believe he is guilty yet only being a bandwagon jumper at TDF time i was unaware how someone could ‘dope’ for that long and get away with it. I don’t get all of the science but i understand enough to know LA might of been a top athlete but the drugs put him in a commanding advantage. It makes you wonder if he could of won a TDF without drugs.

I think it is now up to the sponsors of cycling to help fund the testers as well as the team. Their money is propping up the sport and if they care for it they should help fund the push to make it clean.

I think your middle paragraph says the most. Usually big games like that don’t live up to the hype but this one certainly did. Well done for everyone. Even though the Jets won…Football was the victor yesterday.

Didn’t he already win a premiership in 2010 with Collingwood? If he did he probably feels the team isn’t a genuine shot anymore and now is the time to actually make some money out of the game rather than sacrifice some cash for the lure of playing in another premiership, much like the Geelong stars did (Ablett the exception of course).

Also Buckley probably feels he isn’t part of his game style/plan that he wants the Pies to play. He might want to have a quicker more nimble forward line in the same mold as their midfield and Dawes might of been seen as one to many big men. Jolly can play as a second forward just as well as he can play first choice ruckmen with Lynch playing the back up ruckmen role. Buckley probably thought that combo would work better then a rotating Cloke/Dawes/Jolly/Lynch system.

You never really do know the minds of coaches and clubs when they make these decisions.

I agree with all of this article and it makes a great point. I do however have a different opinion on Yi Shewin. The thing for me is that as a 16 year old female her free style leg on the 400 IM was faster than the mens winner, Ryan Lochte. I very strongly believe in equality, but at that elite level of swimming, elite women cannot swim faster than elite men and have never swum faster than them.

A 16 year old female does not have the strength to compete with full bodied men…Ryan Lochte was also just not coasting along…he went fast and was a mere 2 seconds off WR pace set by Michael Phelps who came 4th in the race.

Sure Yi might be able to swim a quicker time than the man who came maybe 15th in the race…but 1st????? and on the last leg of the most technically hardest of all swims to master????? in an Olympic final???….. NO WAY. This must be treated with suspicion.

This is not to do with the fact she is Chinese (Although as the writer correctly points out there is a massive double standard when it comes to these things)…it did however give it more publicity because she was Chinese.

How could the authorities not even catch him once? how could a professional cyclist beat a professional scientist or teams of medical scientists who should know there field of study inside out and all the ways that someone could take EPO have not have it detected in the body? also this may sound very strange…but can those blood results be produced naturally? could someone be literally a freak of nature and have more red blood cells than anyone else?

I think you would find if the Asia Cup isn’t on FTA then it wouldn’t seep into the conscious of the public like the World Cup does. The Socceroos would have to win it or at least make a real good showing of it but for other teams in Asia playing the Socceroos has become a bit like a giant killing experience like beating Japan…they lift for the games…much like we lift when we are playing England, Germany (last WC game aside) or Brazil.

I hope it does go very well after the heartache of the WC bid…but don’t fool yourself we still are very much Europe/ British looking. Yes we travel to Asia, but in schools European languages still dominate, and we expect people in Asia to speak English when we communicate. Kevin Rudd was an exception rather than the norm speaking an Asian language and statistics still show that the vast majority of our migrants come from New Zealand, Britain and Ireland.

We are still having the battle within Football itself over the English ‘route 1’ style of football and still bemoan how more people watch the EPL than attend an A league game.

Like most people here i agree with the sentiments from this article. I would only say stats are the simplest/easiest way of determining a players output. In the aftermath of a GF and all the emotion the game itself seems like a blur and it would be hard to pick a deserving winner. Using stats helps solve that problem, in that the player with more tackles, disposals, kicks, marks must logically be doing ‘more’.

Games are won on individual moments like Goodesy’s goal yet medals will almost by their very nature be given to midfield types as due to their role…they have the most time on the ball as their job is to follow it up and down the park…rather than a Franklin type whose main job is to stay on the 50 line and mark and score. As a Swans supporter myself i thought Hannerbery was pretty close to best on ground (with even Mike Pyke in the top 5 of players) but i think what swung it in O’Keefe’s favour was the tackle count. 15 is an extraordinary number in Aussie Rules, combined with his disposals and kicks.

Three stats i would like to see used more often or at least feature prominently when deciding a players output are:

1. Time spent on ground – I think i heard something once from an announcer that Ted Richards plays the most minutes of anyone in the AFL in 2012.

2. K’ms run – How far are players running each game

3. Output for and against – this was touched on i think in an earlier comment. What if you have a half back who manages to restrict their opponent to no marks or like 2 or 3 possessions…is there a stat that measures that value???? It would come up on the opponent’s stat sheet as 0 marks but credit should also go to the defender.

I agree with you but really what could Port do?…what if the coach that replaced Matthew Primus for the rest of the season turned out to be really good? This happened with the Swans. Paul Roos was a temporary replacement for the sacked Rodney Eade. Terry Wallace was all but assured the job before Roos gave a spirited performance and won the job off the fan’s requests. People seem to forget that story.

Melbourne players are very unlikely by nature to leave Melbourne…unless they want to escape the “Footy fishbowl ‘ life…and they wouldn’t get that in Adelaide that’s why people choose Sydney or Brisbane.

Who cares what choice he was in relation to applicants. He has the job. Let him prove it was the best luck Port could ever have in 3 other candidates dropping out of the race.

If we really study it…i mean Rodney Eade?…..the man has had his chance with the Swans and Bulldogs and is probably really comfortable being an assistant with Collingwood. Great facilities and less pressure of a head coach. Brett Ratten apparently gave a very bad presentation and removed his application before they refused. Leon Cameron?……it was probably more calculated as footy culture up here in Sydney isn’t as intense as in Adelaide. He would be given more leeway if things went wrong and more time to build his team and experience away from the media glare than would Hinkley at Port.

All in all still a good article from a committed fan.

As an avid Swans supporter i like the Mike Pyke story. He is one of my favourite players at the club along with LRT. He is an honest hard grafter type of player with great fitness for a man of his size. Even his supporters know he cant kick very well.

The reason he works so well isn’t because of the AFL…its because of the Swans. He loves the contested ball and contested mark. His job is to be a back up ruckmen for Mumford and to go into the forward line…take a contested mark (which is he very good at) and potentially kick for goal or at least handball to a better kicker. That is his entire game plan and it works because thats what the Swans ask of him. His natural style suit their game plan.

This talk of AFL vs rah rah’s is nonsense. If a team can find a Pyke type player….and more importantly their game plan needs one, they should go for any athlete willing to do it. They would of got Pyke on the cheap as an unproven AFL player and he has repaid that gamble but he would be more the exception than the rule. Better to look for aggressive basketballers or super fit Gaelic Football players in my view.

Good idea. Two football competitions would cancel each other out in Australia.

Everton needs money…first and foremost…to crack the glass ceiling of the EPL. All the other pieces are in place.

Woggaballiri is a name of an Aboriginal game similar to Marngrook. It has nothing to do with any slur (of which i would never use)

Enough said Cameron.

It seems the comments section as gone way off kilter. I called it Association Football in the article just to ward off confusion between Australians who use the same ‘Football’ term to refer to their game. People get very uptight with calling it soccer now a days so by calling it ‘Association Football’ people at least know it refers to the round ball game.

I know that elements of ‘mangrook’ or Woggabaliri did have an influence, especially in the ‘speccy mark’…the most sentsational skill in Australian Rules. My claim was about this unique game in Sheffield were elements have found their way into two different codes of Football.

Brewski… the idea that Tom Wills played an indigenous type of football and this formed his whole basis for developing the game is also disputed by historians.

I just seeked to show people the interlocking web of rules and committees and decisions that went into our popular games and how they are all cut from the same cloth

Players will always have limited rights or freedom of movement as the AFL is the only first rate fully professional Australian Rules league in existence. Clubs will always have the upper hand as players can’t threaten to go overseas like they can in RL, rugby and football to a rival league. They have one league to operate a professional career in and three lower leagues to offer a decent semi pro life style (VFL, SANFL,WAFL).

I welcome any incremental step to give players more rights. Some people need to get over this strange concept of ‘loyalty’ they keep dishing out. Everyone knows this is a buisness. As a Swans fans personally I would love to keep our best players but I take the notion that whoever stay with the club, I’ll support…whoever leaves the club..I won’t. No malice, no disgusting twitter rants…just good luck (and I hope the Swannies beat your new team!)

I would agree with you Brendan. But ruckmen rarely win any type of plaudits as the Norm Smith and Brownlow usually go to midfielders. I think Paul Roos put it better than Matthews when he said (me paraphrasing) ‘if people were looking at Pyke now and didn’t know his story you would say he was an AFL player…rather than a rugby convert from less than 5 years ago’.

Technically Tadgh Kennelly (who won with the Swans in 2005) played Gaelic football and started playing ARF in his late teens/early 20’s, although the two games are similar, so he would take the mantle before Pyke. I’m sure you would have to go back to the days of the old VFL and SANFL, WAFL leagues to find players who maybe played rep cricket and won a Premiership.

ads are a necessary evil… they help pay for the game with the massive media deal the game got.

My Swannies won…i’m all smiles

The only way to get people talking is with a FTA component. The old phrase ‘out of sight…out of mind applies’. The vast majority of people in Australia don’t have Foxtel and know aside from watching sport, the package is rubbish. People seeing highlights on their screen every night on the news will get them thinking about it and talking with other people like “..see that goal last night?!” that is when you can start turning all this potential into actual fans and revenue.

teaching 6 year olds?…i’m sorry all we should be doing is letting them have fun, run and kick. Getting them to do formalised training and ‘understanding space’ is a waste at that age. I teach primary school kids and have a taught a lot of children in that age bracket and weekend sport at that age should be about running, laughing, talking with friends, waving to mum and dad on the sideline and trying to kick the ball. When they are 10 children start to have cognitive ability to realise football is a game with a ‘strategies’ and ‘skills’.

Agree with you Ian. I used to watch the A league at my dad’s who had pay tv (primarily to watch his beloved Everton in the EPL). Pay TV as it stands in this country is an absolute rip off and I will not pay for such a poor quality service. Being i don’t live in Sydney and can’t regularly access the Sky Blues i have been lost to the a league for several seasons.

FTA brings the code respectability. Yes it isn’t on the big 3 commercial stations (big 2 really) but it gets its brand out there.

Just like your last point says. Football and Rugby and 3 and 4 in football’s codes pecking order. 1 and 2 are AFL and NRL…with much daylight in between with extensive FTA coverage.

I agree with everything said in the article except for one thing. Leave the players alone to train. This is where they need to focus on drills, teamwork and also where they can have a laugh away from the pressures of match day. Leave all the chanting and autograph hunting for fan focus days or match days and let the players get simply on with the job.

About active support i always found it puzzling the ‘active’ supporter base always seem to focus more on coming up with witty chants than actually following the game on the park.

We need to create our own ‘Aussie’ football culture. That what is keeping the game back from being accepted by the mainstream.

With all due respect to supporters what we have now is a combination of imported English football culture (singing fans) and Italian football culture (flag flying…and unfortunately once in a while… flares).

We need to stop looking overseas and create an organic football culture thats quirky and only we ‘understand’.