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
November 14, 2011 by 2 Comments
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
November 14, 2011 by 9 Comments
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
November 13, 2011 by 7 Comments
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
November 12, 2011 by 4 Comments
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
November 11, 2011 by 25 Comments
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
November 11, 2011 by 12 Comments
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
November 11, 2011 by 8 Comments
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.
November 11, 2011 by 51 Comments
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.
November 10, 2011 by 10 Comments
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
November 10, 2011 by 4 Comments
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
November 10, 2011 by 33 Comments
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
November 9, 2011 by 7 Comments
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
November 9, 2011 by 5 Comments
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
November 9, 2011 by 6 Comments
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)
November 8, 2011 by 5 Comments
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
November 8, 2011 by 20 Comments
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]
Almanac Rugby League – Benji back to form in half-baked victory
November 8, 2011 by 1 Comment
by Will Evans My childhood recollections of seeing my heroes in black and white play at Wembley aren’t great. The Kiwis approached the first Test of the 1993 away series against Great Britain with confidence after pushing Australia earlier in the year and drawing a home series with the Lions one-all the previous season. But, [Read more]
First Test preview
November 8, 2011 by 7 Comments
The footy and racing are over and it’s time to turn attention to some real Test cricket coming back from South Africa. And what a mini-series it is in prospect, with the ramifications for both teams being huge. We were entitled to feel pretty happy with the performance under our new skipper in Sri Lanka, [Read more]
GWS Poaching
November 7, 2011 by 2 Comments
I’ve seen it happen before, we all have. Weeks and weeks of speculation, concern, hope. From Round 1 to Grand Final Day, the interest in the matter does not falter. Whether you be a number one draft pick, or an absolute champion of the game, the spotlight does not miss you. The media focuses on [Read more]
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