Dead f-ing right Blaze

Good article Matthew, and I agree with a lot of your points. I am personally a huge fan of SOK and he should be over there IMO. However, I have to disagree with your opinion that “Team dynamic though, is built on and based around results”. It is most certainly not. A good team dynamic comes from factors such as effort and leadership. People would have to be extremely one eyed to still accuse Clarke of not displaying strong leadership, both on and off the field. As for effort, I don’t think our bowlers’ efforts can be questioned, they might not be getting the wickets we need however I think this is due to a lack of actual talent than effort (I’m looking at Doherty and Maxwell here).

Our batsmen on the other hand have shown little application and their positions should be in far greater question than the likes of Lyon and Doherty. Spinners can bowl with far more flight and general confidence if they had 400+ to bowl at instead of the meagre 237 the ‘best batsmen’ in our land conjured up on Day 1. I fully supported the attacks on Doherty and Maxwell after Day Two as neither of them would be in my team ahead of Lyon and SOK, however, at least it seems like they are toiling away for their country. I’m not sure the same can be said for Wade, Watson. Warner and Hughes.

Superb article Cameron. Having been a Perth boy who moved to Sydney in 1993 at age 5, i have been defending the AFL for years to my union and league loving mates. Over the past 5-10 years especially (as the Swans have been more successful) especially I have made serious inroads into turning my mates to the good side of the force and now have numerous mates who are also Swans members.

This tanking issue though has been an absolute farce and has been the first time in my 25 years I have seriously had no idea what they were trying to achieve with fining and suspending clubs/staff for something which the AFL said didn’t happen.

As for McLachlan I felt for him having to bear the brunt of the media in announcing the decision, however, after reading his comments which you so rightfully criticised in your articel, all this sympathy is well and truly gone.

“Actually, AFL, we love this game in spite of all of the above, not because of it. We love it because it’s in our veins. We love it because of memories forged in a more innocent time. We love it because we know no other way.

Newcomers to the sport feed off the passion of those already entrenched as much as the game itself.”

Some of the truest words I have ever read. As all loyal sporting (not just footy) fans can attest to, the hard times make the good ones that much sweeter. For me, moving to Sydney in ’93 and adopting the Swans as my team with all my Eagle loving family back in Perth was hard, especially considering their reign at the time and our stranglehold of the bottom of the ladder. However, without those memories, 2005 and 2012 would have been far less significant and they are both days which I will never, ever forget.

Chris Judd to Carlton?? He was the best/second best player in the comp when he went there. Judd has done an incredible job at the Blues, however, that was to be expected of him. I think this article was trying to find players who weren’t ‘certainties’ to perform like they did.

I’m in for $20

I just watched the race on youtube, one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.

Great article Andrew, only being a ‘part-time- racing fan I have never even heard of Crisp, so this was a refreshing read!!

Glenn, this is such a refreshing article. Firstly, I applaud you for mentioning your own battle with mental illness, and secondly, it is just so great to hear someone in the media not relishing the opportunity to speculate on what his problems are, what he has done to break the Bulldogs code of conduct etc etc.

All of you Roarers who have mentioned how poor the culture is in the NRL and how many players have “gone off the rails”, you should be ashamed of yourself. I totally agree that the culture is poor, however, how the Bulldogs have handled this affair is to be commended (from what we know anyway). I was particularly impressed by Todd Greenberg’s press conference yesterday, and everyone (online bloggers included) should wish Ben the best and hope for a speedy recovery for him instead of attacking what he might or might not have done. I have never suffered from mental illness, and can not even slightly relate to what Ben Barba must be going through at the moment, but I for one hope he can recover and hopefully come out the other side and learn that the culture he has/may have immersed himself in the oreviosu years is not the rtight one and become a great role model in the years ahead.

All in all, great article Glenn.

I love the idea of an all-stars game the night before/morning of the Grand Final. I especially like the idea of the night before. It would give 50-60,000 fans a chance to see a showpiece game on the GF weekend, surely a good thing considering how hard it is to come by Granny tickets. Not sure how motivated the players would be though, especially those that lost a Preliminary a week before… as well all know though, money talks…

Ryan- fantastic article and I couldn’t agree more with your point. I really hope that people WANT to be a selector. As you mentioned, I hate to think that some of the best cricketing brains/talent spotters are not motivated by the position due to the remuneration package.

Also, just reading through a few of the comments, I felt your pain having to clarify what your point was 5-10 times to people criticising points you hadn’t put forward.

Glenn, you’re articles/countdowns of late have been my highlight of The Roar, a more than refreshing change-up from the endless “Who’s our best XI” drivel that has been clogging up The Roar’s cricket pages of late!

Can’t wait for Thursday.

My 2c worth would include one that hasn’t been mentioned yet, Blewett’s 214 in Jo’burg in ’97.

Best I have probably seen though was Punter’s 169 in ’05 Ashes

Myles- another good read mate, have been looking forward to these each day and stoked to see another one pop up today.

I must say I have been looking forward to your analysis of my beloved Swans but as you now have neither GWS or the Suns finishing with The Spoon, I think I’m looking forward to the analysis of your wooden spooners’ the most!! I think the boys above are right with the guess it will be the poor old Doggies, but maybe you have the most successful club in Australian Football anchored to the bottom, the boys from Port Adelaide??

I also think that the Dees might come good this year. I don’t have them as a Finals contender but wouldn’t be surprised to see them up around 11th or 12th.

Anyway, Iooking forward to your final instalment next week.

CC, thanks for the video. I actually remember seeing this one, unbelievable stuff.

Not being an avid NFL fan but not missing a Superbowl for at least the last 5 years, I can say I would give a lot to be part of the dinner table discussions at the Harbaugh household. It would be AMAZING.

My leave for Monday has just been approved and I can’t wait to watch my first full NFL match for the year, of course accompanied by a few Buds and hot dogs… you beauty!!

Christo the Daddyo – I don’t think everything Warney says is newsworthy but he had, and in my opinion still does, have one of the best cricketing brains that the world, let alone Australia has ever seen. For this reason, what Warney says should always be taken on board by Cricket Australia and the cricketing public in general. Clearly, like most people’s advice, a lot of it will be rubbish and won’t work, however, some of what the second best Australian cricketer of all time has to say probably has a lot of merit. I particularly enjoyed his idea that the best 11 cricketers for each format should be selcted for each (or at least most of) match. It would be a whole lot better than the current poor game of tetris that Inverarity & co. are playing with our First XI’s in each format of the game.

Spiro- good article, I love this idea and let’s hope the ARU, CA and all other major governing bodies adopt this approach sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, I don’t even think it will be later, it will be never. We can always hope though!

SOK should definitely be given a chance, and I like the idea of Rogers going as well. I don’t have the stats handy, but Rogers also has a formidable record on English decks in county cricket which surely is a tick in his column for gaining a shot at The Ashes. We need two spinners for India and for me it is between SOK and Doherty. As for Maxwell, I have no idea how he is even in contention for a Test spot.

I would love to see Bayern bring home the Champions League in the next year or two. After heartbreaking losses against Chelsea last year and of course Man U back in ’99, I can’t think of a team more deserving. Go the Munchies!

I think you are around about the mark Myles. You are also a very brave man doing your predictions this far out, hats off to you.

The only problem with this is you are only doing three teams a day… I was just getting into the swing of it and then that was it! For the remaining 15 teams, any chance fo upping it to 5 per article?

Great article Jason. In the past twelve months I too have had someone close to me in a similar situation and I share your thoughts towards Lance. One thing to add to your article, which really drives home for me what kind of a person Lance is, is that after everything he overcame and saw what so many people must have done for him to cure his cancer (like Erin and the doctors did for your wife), he still had the integrity, or severe lack thereof, to go after all the people who attacked him and ruin their careers.

As you so correctly argued though, “Lance has had way too much media coverage lately, when our attention should be directed towards those riders who are still relevant in cycling, the ones we’re going to watch sprint, climb and fall during the 2013 season”. Some things are much more important, and as per the comments above, all the best to you and your family.

Really enjoyed this article, mainly because I agree. Sport at all levels, from junior sport, to school sport, to grade sport to state and national level is designed to be a feeder to a higher level. Clearly, in rugby’s case, the peak of this pyramid is the Wallabies. Once Deans picks his squad, all players in that squad should be pulled from Super Rugby and have the sole focus of winning the Lions series.

I echo everything that Fraser has said above.

Fantastic article Glenn. As mentioned above, more than anything it just brings back some great, and some not so great memories. Being only 25, I didn’t have the luxury of seeing Imran, Lillee, Garner, Marshall and Holding (or if I did I don’t remember it). In saying this, I have trawled YouTube and watched countless videos of their exploits and watching Lillee, Marshall and Holding was simply mesmerising.

Therefore, my top 5 is based on bowlers who have been around since the early-mid 90’s, and include guys who are still playing. In no particular order, here they are:

Akram (my favourite bastman growing up was Slater, and every time Akram would come on, I just knew it spelt the end for my hero… the things he could do with a ball were simply unbelievable at times).

McGrath (as mentioned earlier we would have won the 05 Ashes had he not gone down. Except our series loss to India in ’01, this was the first series I remember losing growing up, and the big Pigeon was why my childhood was just so great!)

Anderson (in the last couple of Ashes series, both home and away, his bowling at times has been simply unplayable)

Steyn (Glenn, when you write the updated version of this article upon the South African’s retirement I wouldn’t be surprised if he was nestled up in your Top 5 somewhere)

Ambrose (like Akram, used to instil genuine fear in me when he came on to bowl to the Aussies in my younger years… just loved/hated watching him bowl and generate that bounce from a length)

Any other Roarers out there from my vintage, what do you think?

I would LOVE if they did this… absolutely love it.

Tommy- 1pm on Friday AEDT

I’m with you Tailender… they are my first three picked.

Paddyeff, there has been a lot of chat on The Roar of late about our line-up for the Indian and English tours, and I don’t think any of us are any closer to knowing who’ll be there Day One in India, let alone the first morning at Trent Bridge. For this reason I like your article. However, I disagree with England having an advantage knowing who their best attack is. At the moment, in regards to our bowling stocks we have an embarrassment of riches, whcih surely can only serve us well for 14 gruelling upcoming Test matches against India and the Old Enemy.

As you point out Lyon and Siddle will definitely be chalking up their frequent flyer miles in the upcoming months and the rest is really anyone’s guess. Hopefully, after India and the warm-up matches for The Ashes, our best four or five will come to the fore and make Inverarity and co’s job easy for them, because right now I reckon they have as much idea as we do who’ll be planning the downfall of Captain Cook’s men in July.

There is no question what he did for the sport has been amazing, so much it is unquantifiable. Proof of how big the man is, is how many comments an article on cycling would have received ten years ago, and now just look at this thread. The whole LA scandal is a perfect example of the old addage, “All publicity is good publicity.” At this year’s TDF, I am sure some true cycling fans will choose to switch off, but this will be greatly outweighed by the amount of new fans this scandal will be sure to generate.

For me though he is just a lying, bullying cheat and deserves everything that comes to him both financially and legally in the years to come if he chooses to admit to his doping.

What his foundation has done for thousands of people is absolutely fantastic and this work should never be forgotten, and viewed as a completely separate entity to however LA is remembered on the road. Whatever people achieve in their chosen profession is more often than not how they are judged, especially sportspeople, however, LA should also be remembered for the incredible work his foundation has done, as this work is far more important than any sporting achievements anyone has ever achieved.