Roar Guru
Joined December 2011
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Completed a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) degree at The University of Newcastle in 2015, which I have been doing since 2013. Completed a Bachelor of Communication (Honours) degree in 2016 on a sporting/media topic, achieving an Honours Class II, Division I. Completed a Diploma in Communication and Media at Hunter TAFE in 2012. I have done work experience at The Maitland Mercury, NBN Television, and completed work placement for my Communication degree at 1233 ABC Newcastle. My life outside of study is watching/following sport, sport and more sport, and my aim/dream is to become a sports commentator, a sports journalist, a sports writer/columnist or a combination of those three. I have recently been an Intern-At-Large at 1233 ABC Newcastle, writing a number of sporting related articles, including a number of Olympic profile articles on Hunter-bred athletes competing in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, which have appeared on the 1233 ABC Newcastle website, and even on the ABC Grandstand website. I am keen to work and get involved in the media industry professionally in the near future. Any media organisations that might be interested in me working for them, or are interested in helping me in achieving my aims/dreams can contact me by email at ryan.eckford1@gmail.com (preferred), or at ryan.eckford@uon.edu.au and/or via my LinkedIn profile, http://au.linkedin.com/pub/ryan-eckford/94/532/678. If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can via @RyanEckford.
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Sport has been a wonderful past-time in Australia for as long as I can remember, and it has been an exhibition of this country's…
The 2015 Wimbledon Championships are approaching very fast, and there are plenty of storylines to follow over the course of the fortnight at the…
In an interview with Fairfax Media this week, Pat Rafter opened up on his issues with the Tomic family, saying, "This whole thing with…
The Newcastle Knights' season is going from bad to absolute hell. With just five wins and eight losses, including only one win from the…
The biggest surprise of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship so far, particularly in the last few races, has been Honda's struggles. Marc Marquez, who…
The 2015 French Open is shaping up to being one of the most open championships in many years. Can Novak Djokovic claim his first…
The Newcastle Knights are a team showing no signs of wanting success after a pathetic 30-10 loss to the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale…
Three rounds in, the 2015 MotoGP World Championship has been full of excitement, unpredictability, surprises, shocks and revivals. However, what do I make of…
In the aftermath of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, and Australia becoming world champions for a record fifth time after defeating New Zealand in…
Fight. Fight. Fight. This is what local sports reporters and writers in Newcastle are saying about the Jets. The fans of the club are…
Nick Kyrgios has made two Grand Slam quarter-final appearances as a teenager, the first player to do so since Roger Federer achieved the same…
The 2015 Australian Open men's singles draw was kind to the Australians, yet has thrown up some blockbuster match-ups in the opening rounds, and…
Ever since Ricky Ponting was demoted from the number three batting position in the Australian Test team, Australia has been looking for a replacement.…
There has been plenty of talk about sporting venues in Sydney and its surrounds. Some of the plans for some sporting venues in Sydney…
On Thursday morning, Australian cricket team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris explained to the waiting media that Michael Clarke will not miss the whole Test series…
The Newcastle Jets' performance on Friday night against the Brisbane Roar, in which they lost 4-0 at Hunter Stadium, was utterly disgraceful. There was…
Here we are at the biggest game of the rugby league season - the 2014 NRL grand final. The game is between two clubs…
It has been nearly a week since the infamous contact between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the Belgian Grand Prix at…
In recent weeks, there has lots of talk about which riders are going to take which seats for the 2015 MotoGP season. Lots of…
Marc Marquez is totally dominating the 2014 MotoGP World Championship at the halfway mark of the season. From nine races, Marquez has won all…
I agree! When you look at Milos Raonic, he is probably less naturally talented than Tomic, but has been totally committed to his career, working on all areas of his game, reaching a career high ranking of No.3 in the world, and has won eight career singles titles. If Tomic could be this committed, he would be a very special player.
Bernard Tomic could learn a lot from Mitchell Johnson
It seems to me that there are problems with young people breaking through in all various professions in this country, not just cricket, not just in other sports, but also in the media. I think Australia has a culture problem, and this must change, lest we will have long-term problems going forward.
Young Australian batsmen being ignored by Test selectors
With no response to my earlier query, here is my Australian Test Team:
1. J. Burns
2. D. Warner
3. U. Khawaja
4. S. Smith (c)
5. S. Marsh
6. A. Voges
7. P. Nevill (wk)
8. M. Starc
9. N. Lyon
10. J. Hazlewood
11. J. Behrendorff
12th Man. M. Marsh
What are your thoughts on my team?
Pick your Australian XI for the first Test against South Africa
I may not want to select an all-rounder in my team. Is there a provision in for that?
Pick your Australian XI for the first Test against South Africa
I wonder if this is a problem of Jackson Bird and Chadd Sayers actually lacking pace, or lacking something when they bowl at their speed with the new and old ball?
Australia's 140km/h policy cruels Bird and Sayers
How about Optus create their own channel, called Optus Sport, or something similar, and have it available on Foxtel, like you have with BeIn Sports, and possibly customers, if people want to watch things on that channel, they may have to pay a separate subscription fee to unlock the channel, hopefully at a reasonable price, like you have with BeIn Sports, and have multiple viewing options of how you watch, and what you can watch. Thoughts?
Optus, the new player in Australia's sports media rights battle
A fair chunk of his, instead of, A fair chunk of is.
I'll miss you Shane Watson, now get outta here
In any sport, including the game of cricket, one of most critical aspects about performing at a high level, and continuing to do it over a long period of time is having problem-solving skills, both in terms of sorting out mind teasing things, and technical deficiencies in your game to become a better and more complete player.
All players can overcome mind teasing things, but not everyone can overcome technical deficiencies. Watson has never been able to improve and refine his technique to overcome major flaws in his batting. A fair chunk of is inability to do this is because he just struggles to handle the pressure of expectation, and lacks the mental strength/confidence/trust/belief that he will reap the rewards of his hard work in the middle.
I'll miss you Shane Watson, now get outta here
I think anyone who accuses anyone of tanking has probably tanked themselves at something in their lives, or in their sport if they played a sport at any sort of level. I don’t think Kyrgios, (or Tomic for that matter in the past), have tanked, and it is against my own personal values, and it should be against the values of anyone who is, or wants to be in public view, via any sort of media, be it in print, online, television, radio, etc., to say that anyone has tanked, or deliberately lost a match/contest. It is disrespectful to the professional athlete, because they are always giving their honest best.
It's not tanking, but Kyrgios needs discipline
Count the number of times that the letter “I” has been used in this article, and then comeback to me saying that this article of mine is a personal vent.
The Knights are sinking like a Stone, and the coach must go
For the record, I am NOT a Newcastle Knights fan. A neutral person trying to find a good path in life.
The Knights are sinking like a Stone, and the coach must go
What are you meant to do when everything you say is true? Definitely no personal vent. Tell me where there is a personal vent in this article of mine?
The Knights are sinking like a Stone, and the coach must go
I am referring to the thought process of people, not whether he would have agreed with me on this particular issue. It is the thought process.
The Curious Case of Chris Sandow
I think the main problem with Chris Sandow is the ability of his coach(es) and to a lesser extent his teammates to understand the way he sees a rugby league field. Sandow has got an incredibly good rugby league IQ, and he sees things on a rugby league field very differently to the vast majority who have played the game at this level. What I think Brad Arthur, or any other coach who coaches him now and into the future has to do (and they have to understand this and commit to this) is to allow Sandow full/majority responsibility to decide the team’s game plan. Sandow must be treated as a senior player and a leader of the team, and actually shown some respect. Right now at the Parramatta Eels, Arthur has shown that he cannot give a ‘special’ talent like Sandow any of this, and to be better than an also-ran/ordinary coach, he must be able to give incredible talents more rein and trust the inputs, both in-game and in theoretical discussions, of his key players, which in any rugby league team are the fullback, five-eighth, halfback and hooker.
Sandow good be as good as Andrew Johns, but only if everyone in his team, including the coach and his teammates, actually try to start understanding him, because right know, no one at the Eels, or probably at any other NRL club for that matter, understands him. Too many clubs demand structure, structure, structure, and that is to the cruel detriment of special talents like this today.
I doubt anyone reading this comment will understand, and I don’t expect anything more than 50% agreement on this issue, or on any other issue for that matter, as for those who sees things in the way that I see it, for example the late great cricketer, commentator and journalist Richie Benaud, are more often than not see things in the way that is ultimately right.
The Curious Case of Chris Sandow
The problem with V8 Supercars has got nothing to do with whether races are being shown live on free-to-air, or not. The problem is with the actual product, the lack of good quality tyres for both racing/qualifying part of the weekend, as well as practice, the lack of longer races, the lack of strategy differences/flexibility, the lack of practice/qualifying time, and silly rules and regulations which drives everyone insane. If V8 Supercars don’t change, there is no chance the ratings will improve.
Perth SuperSprint Ratings spell trouble for V8 Supercars
Well, list the incidents of Marquez being reckless, and Rossi being reckless, and if you can’t, I will report your comment. Questioning someone’s knowledge of a particular sport is pretty poor form. Gathering from your comment, I can safely say that I know a lot more about a lot more sports than you know about one, especially one (you) with biased glasses on.
What I make of the MotoGP heading into Jerez
But why did Rossi leave room for Marquez without following all the way through to the next turn, and beyond? Look at the last replay of the incident, before the interviews with the Top 3 on motogp.com. It shows Rossi looking behind after the exit of Turn 5, to see where Marquez was, then just swipes across him, which results in taking him down. Marquez did not expect Rossi to make a sudden move just like that, clearly, because he didn’t move his bike off the line that he was on at that moment. It backs up my claim that Rossi did infringe the regulation that I stated in my article above, and the only suitable punishment in this situation is disqualification from the race.
What I make of the MotoGP heading into Jerez
Kris Swales, you may be a Roar expert, but the way you have written this article, you have shown that you are no expert in sports commentary. It is utterly pathetic dribble. Tell me who you think is the best TV and radio rugby league and/or sports play-by-play commentator in Australia and/or the world, and I will give a view on them.
The ‘voice’ of rugby league is off the pace
Crehan is there mainly to interview the drivers, while Murphy is there for his technical expertise/in-race news on competitors strategies.
Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar broadcast report card
I agree with most of your assessments. I think that you are a bit hard on Riana Crehan. It is a good thing to have one of your pit/paddock reporters being a woman. However, I think that she gets a little over excited, and maybe a little nervous at times, like she is a little bit starstruck. It is quite understandable, and in my view, I like her being the way she is, rather than someone that is completely the opposite. Most of the other assessments are spot on.
Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar broadcast report card
Adrian, I think the way to answer this question is to look at the back end of last season, basically from the start of Townsville onwards. From this point of the season, only six full-time drivers won races. They were Jamie Whincup (9 wins), Shane Van Gisbergen (4 wins), Scott McLaughlin (3 wins), James Courtney (1 win), Chaz Mostert (1 win), and Garth Tander (1 win). The general form grain was that Triple Eight built cars, Volvo and HRT were strong. Mostert’s win, whilst deserving, was a lucky one for FPR (now PRA), as they were struggling to qualify well enough to use the real strength of that car, which was its long run pace, and especially in unusual dry conditions, which goes against the norm. PRA and BJR seemed to do well in similar conditions, and in that part of last season, PRA (then FPR) recorded only seven podiums, and BJR only two podiums. At Sydney Motorsport Park in the SuperTest Shootout, four of the Top 10 cars were either PRA or BJR cars, and the conditions weren’t ideal for fast times, and the shootout was really the first time the cars were on new tyres.
So I think PRA will struggle a little bit, as will BJR, relative to the front-runners. I also think Triple Eight built cars will be strong, along with Volvo and HRT.
Can anyone stop Jamie Whincup in 2015?
I am getting Foxtel, and it will be arriving at my house next week, and I mainly got it because all the V8 Supercars events would be shown live on Fox Sports, before the new F1 deal was announced. It will be great for subscription television, but I can’t help but feel deeply saddened that motorsport coverage in Australia on free-to-air television is being reduced significantly. I know many people who will be unhappy about this, that is for sure.
Formula One moves to pay TV in 2015
Definitely no favouritism! Neutral and honest opinion backed up with some research and some good stats.
My 2017 NRL season preview