Caught behind off a spinner

Photo by Peter Argent A great catch by Northern Jets keeper Matthew Wright off the bowling of leg spinner Cameron Williams.  

Vale Peter Roebuck

  As a website which values writing – more specifically writing on sport – it is fitting that the tragically premature passing of one of sport’s finest scribes and commentators has already drawn eloquent tribute. More is likely to follow. At the risk of redundancy, I feel compelled to add a few thoughts of my [Read more]

I knew Peter Roebuck

    I knew Peter Roebuck.  No, correction, I didn’t know Robey.  I had spent two weeks with him in the Press Box in Sri Lanka as one of a small group of Australians covering the test match series.  I grew to know most of the others in the box Conn, Maxwell, Lalor and co.  [Read more]

A Post Mortem in Eight Parts

Patrick O’Keeffe 13/11/2011 Back in the good old days, when the Australian cricket team lost a test match, the period that followed would involve extreme inebriation. This would be followed by soul searching, name calling and blame levelling. In turn, this would lead to hand to hand combat, followed by more inebriation. Eventually, everyone would [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Unpretty Kiwis out of Four Nations

Getting rid of Foxtel for the summer during the week has already back-fired – no Channel 9 coverage of the England vs. New Zealand clash at Hull means I am forced to trundle down to the local drinking hole at 10am on Sunday morning to catch a replay.  The sticky carpet and faint odour of [Read more]

Tangled Up In White – Reflections on the Passing of Peter Roebuck

  For the last week I have been tempted to write about cricket – but who cares these days?  Corruption; meaningless space fillers for pay TV; the cosy self-interest of administrators, marketers and media; the decline of the first class competition inAustralia.  Brendan M, Skip and PJ had all said it more eloquently than me. [Read more]

Zurbo on Roebuck

I just got back from wood cutting all morning and heard the news. Terrible news. Peter Roebuck has passed away. I don’t know the whys and whens and wheres and don’t care. It is cricket’s loss and our loss as a people, that Peter is gone. Roebuck was the best commentator and journalist I knew [Read more]

Australia at 6s and 7s on 11/11/11

  by Andrew Gigacz After the day 2 shenanigans of this Test, the third day was almost certainly going to be an anti-climax. How do you top – or should that be how do you “bottom”? – a session and a half in which 18 wickets fall for 68 runs (from SA being 1/49 to [Read more]

A Wasted Opportunity

What a total embarrassment for Australian cricket last night in Cape Town. The soft underbelly of modern-day Australian batting has again been exposed. In 2005 it was bad umpiring and a substitute fieldsman, in 2009 we apparently batted well except for a few sessions. Last summer we supposedly picked the wrong blokes from our bottomless [Read more]

Crio’s Racing: The Sandown Saturday After, 2011

Hmmm….the Saturday after “Final Day”. Tough to convince anyone that there’s still races on, let alone Sandown’s “Classic” meeting, strewn with highly competitive Group and Listed races. It’s a particularly hard sell to punters who copped a pounding last week and there will be little solace that the bookies who roll down Dandy Rd in [Read more]

Discussion: Australian Open Golf

A low scoring first day. The traditional Daly circus. Pretty much the expected first day as a strong field contests the Oz Open. There’s much to discuss apart from Tiger. Your thoughts folks?  

Day 2: Believe it if you saw it.

In normal circumstances, I would have started proceedings by talking about Michael Clarke’s wonderful batting performance: an innings which, hopefully, will not define his captaincy, but will be a portent of the maturity he is beginning to show. Upon coming to the crease with his team precariously positioned at 3-40, the new skipper played possibly [Read more]

Grand Finals Pt.5. Netball.

The piece first appeared in the fantastic www.scoreboardpressure.com If you haven’t seen the sight do so! It is a ripper! All photos (my old teammate!) Brad Trotter. It was a big day. Grand Finals always are. I was standing under the grandstand with Trots and few rusty old Otway salts when Rocket saddled up. “I [Read more]

Coaching appointments

Now that the coaching dust has settled and all clubs have made their choices for 2012 I thought it would be an opportune time to see whether history tells us anything about the wisdom of going for a brand new coach (Adelaide, Collingwood, Melbourne, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs) or someone who has been ‘in the [Read more]

Clarke’s counter-punching saves the day

  It didn’t have the feel of the first morning of an Ashes series. But it should have. It seems obvious these two competitors should play five-Test series, home and away, every couple of years. Or at least three and three if neither home broadcaster will give up their summer income. But it was a [Read more]

Dawn and those mad Sainters

by Yvette Wroby There’s no shortage of crazies at the St.Kilda Football Club.  This was proven when 1000+ Saints fans and members rocked up to the St.Kilda Beach front at 5 am Tuesday 8th November for an advertising shoot for 2012 Membership Drive.  At 6.30 am, another group was waiting at Frankston beach, and at [Read more]

Farewell Smokin’ Joe

  by Damian O’Donnell The headline says “When the mountain came to Muhammad”. It was 1971 in Madison Square Garden. There’s Joe being lead to the corner by the referee. There is no discernable look on his face; it’s fixed in a deadly glaze. He’s returning to the corner like a bloke strolling home from [Read more]

South Africa v Shane Warne

  by Matthew O’Connor Unfortunately for South Africa, its return to the Test Cricket fold in 1993 coincided with the rise and rise of Liz Hurley’s fiancée. But more of that later. To a 27yo Test Cricket following nut, the return of South Africa was a gift to be savoured. A whole box of new [Read more]

In A-League of its Own 5 (2011/12)

  Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League Before their draw with Melbourne Victory at the weekend, it would have been very difficult to dispute Brisbane’s stronghold on the A-League. But the team who many fancied pre-season to take out the title, Melbourne Victory, somehow managed to get a point from what was an absolute epic [Read more]

Larceny, Labour Day and Lakeside

  by Mic Rees Victorian Premier Cricket’s Country Round, traditionally played in early January, was brought forward to the final weekend in October this season with the North Victorian town of Numurkah hosting the clash between Casey-South Melbourne and Footscray Edgewater Cricket clubs. Casey-South Melbourne spinner Clive Rose’s figures of 5/43 included a hat trick [Read more]