The Roar
The Roar

Ray McLachlan

Roar Rookie

Joined March 2019

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Don’t underestimate the Kogarah effect. I think it’s enough to take at least 4 points off the Sharks this year.

While you could argue that professionals are always travelling and half the competition can’t really boast a true ‘home’ ground, the Sharks have always played almost every home game at Woolooware, and the indignation and indifference of Sharkies fans that I know will lead to low crowds and will ultimately have an impact on the team.

There is a sense that Cronulla will be in a holding pattern over the next two years, and I’m predicting they will be somewhere in the bottom half.

Expert ladder predictions are offensive

Decent side mate, but sadly I don’t think Warner has the mental capacity to bat at 3 – and what I mean by that is he only knows how to open and would be lost with two others walking out to bat and having to sit there and wait his turn.

Maxwell's hot form a World Cup boon for Australia

Hi Paul – you’re 100% here, When I finished this article I felt it lacked a bit of flow and a convincing argument – it turned out to be a bit of a story instead.

I think the point I was trying to make is that we have been bad for so long in the one day format and all of a sudden we have hit form. Ok, so India may have taken the foot off the gas during the series over there but the 359 chase is still a fantastic effort, and now we’re 4/4 against Pakistan. All I can see is that we are starting to show some mettle at the best possible time and we are gonna give this tournament a red hot go. England (clear favorites in my opinion) should be on notice because they are perennial tournament chokers and we will sweep the rug out from under them if they’re not careful.

Why Australia can win the World Cup in the wake of the ball-tampering saga

Absolutely mate. I’m so excited for the English summer – back to back CWC and Ashes – absolute scenes when the aussies win both!

Why Australia can win the World Cup in the wake of the ball-tampering saga

Good addition – to be honest the actual breakdown of how the teams would qualify was not something I put a lot of time into, my article was just to get the ball rolling. I like your method, just be wary that you’ve really only got March to have these qualifiers (unless you have the final rounds in early June right before the tournament) so you can’t have too many rounds.

Are we watching the last ever Euro qualifiers? Hopefully

Very true, I considered using their European rankings rather than overall, although that may have confused some people. Also…. let’s be real here – the Fifa rankings leave a lot to be desired – but I haven’t seen a perfect alternative either. The rankings are always going to be hard because teams from different confederations rarely play each other these days outside of the World Cup and confeds. It makes comparing confederations a bit like comparing eras in sports – it’s very difficult.

Are we watching the last ever Euro qualifiers? Hopefully

Agree re: 24 into 16 although it simply seems to be the way the world is going – more teams = more games = more revenue.

The fact that Portugal won in 2016 after finishing 3rd in their group is absurd in my opinion, but I haven’t gone into that here because that’s another opinion for another day.

Are we watching the last ever Euro qualifiers? Hopefully

Mate absolutely. The concacaf nations league is about to kick into gear, and I think 100% there should be nations leagues in each confederation. At the top there should be a world group as well (which would replace the confeds cup) – that’s something I’ll write about another time.

I also think Asia as a confederation needs to be looked at, perhaps splitting into east and west due to the sheer size, and while it’s not a popular one I think you just need to absorb Oceania into Asia and follow the concacaf example – again another article for another time.

Are we watching the last ever Euro qualifiers? Hopefully

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