Crikey Sports

Our balls and all sports blog

AFL season 2010 preview: everybody is fantastic

It’s a great time to be an AFL footy fan. Your team is flying high. Doing great. New recruits are valuable additions to the side. Things couldn’t be better. Just don’t let the small matter of the season having not kicked off yet interrupt the wondrous reverie as you think about your club’s glory days just around the corner.

It’s that time of year again. The time when sports reporters (and coaches) breathlessly report that players are performing magnificently pre-season. Here’s a wrap of all 16 AFL clubs’ pre-season preparations. There’s no bad news here. Everybody is fantastic. Remember the current good times once the realisation dawns mid-season (or after round one if you’re a Richmond fan) that your team is going to let you down. Again.

BANG! Big, bad Barry Hall is the missing link. The missing link in the Western Bulldogs push for a Premiership, that is. The Herald Sun’s Jackie Epstein reports Bazza is an ‘instant smash’ in the Doggies’ first hit out of the pre-season, with a show of ‘controlled show of aggression’, kicking two goals from five marks. Flag drought be damned. It’ll be raining ticker tape round Footscray way in 2010 according to ex-Hawk Shane Crawford who predicts a Bulldogs Premiership – their first since 1954.

Collingwood fans are salivating (no change there then) over new Magpies’ ruckman Darren Jolly’s ‘jolly good’ dominant performance in the ruck and going forward. Jolly will give Collingwood ‘a valuable target’ up forward at times, with Jolly booting two goals in an intra-club match. Could this and Travis Cloke putting an awful 2009 behind him mean 2010 is Collingwood’s year?

Be afraid rival teams. Be very afraid. Port Adelaide ‘has appointed a new, mean-looking leadership group’ according to the Adelaide Advertiser’s Andrew Capel. And Justin ‘The Hoff’ Westhoff is looking hot. And former Richmond utility Jay Schulz is ‘looking good’. Looks like the Power could be the best team this season. In Adelaide, at least.

Or will they? Coach Neil Craig believes the Adelaide Crows third AFL flag is within reach. So does Crows CEO Steven Trigg. Shaggy haired forward Trent Hentschel is ‘flying’ and ‘training the house down’, adding to an already impressive‘ multi-pronged attack’. The Crows can score from anywhere it seems. Unstoppable this season?

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Victoria T20: Rare excellence in team sport

On the weekend, Victoria won its 4th domestic T20 competition in 5 seasons. It would have been 5 from 5, but for a very narrow loss to NSW in last season’s final.

For an elite level sports team to perform so well, so consistently, is rare. The relatively small size of the competition does help, as most elite sports competitions have many more than six competing teams. Also, the domestic T20 competition was not taken very seriously by every state from the beginning.

Despite these mitigating circumstances, and given the unpredictable nature of T20, it is a remarkable achievement. Similar domination in other sports is hard to find in modern times.

The Brisbane Lions 4 grand finals for 3 premierships early last decade is one example.

The Melbourne Victory are closing in on the premiership in the A-League, which would be their 5th major trophy out of a possible 9 since the league’s inception. They would also be in good position to then make it 6 out of 10 by going on to win the grand final.

American sport has had some similarly dominant teams in periods over the last 20 years. NFL: New England Patriots. NBA: Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers. MLB: New York Yankees. NHL: Detroit Red Wings. To varying levels, these successes are dictated by financial clout, particularly in baseball (least so in the NFL). The number of genuine contenders is often much smaller than the actual number of competing teams.

In the United Kingdom, the Glasgow teams, Rangers and Celtic, dominate the Scottish league, and Manchester United’s supremacy in England has only briefly been punctuated by other teams since the early 90’s. In reality, only the same two teams in Scotland can ever win the league, and only three at any one time in England have been realistic contenders during United’s period of dominance.

Are there any other examples of domination in team sport that approach or surpass the Victorian team’s achievements in T20?

Australian Open open thread (with extra cheesel)

One of the world’s great sporting event events has started this week in Melbourne. The Australian Open is a truly fantastic spectacle.

Who will win the mens and ladies championship?

How will the Aussies go?

Anyone interested in the doubles and mixed doubles?

Let Crikey Sports know your thoughts.

And, as a completely unrelated segue — this has to be the funniest story I’ve ever read, courtesy of today’s NT News (click to enlarge):

cheesel

UPDATE:

The Gold Coast Bulletin have some awful front pages, but check out today’s effort (22 Jan 2010) regarding Tomic’s 3am outburst:

22-01-2010 10-55-08 AM

Is Australia finally embracing MMA?

A few months ago, I wrote about the coming media shit-storm over the UFC event taking place in Sydney this year. Bit of a follow-up:

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Hobartistan: Can Mohammed Yousuf’s men make the Third Test a keeper?

Kamran Akmal: will he be at Ballarat for today's races?

Kamran Akmal: will he be at Ballarat for today's races?

So the Third Test starts today in Hobart. Simon Katich is in and Phillip Hughes is out for the hosts. Marcus North has been placed on notice.

Notably, Pakistan has dropped vice captain Kamran Akmal (actually he fell on his sword amidst huge media pressure both here and at home), replacing him with Sarfraz Ahmed ( a supposedly superior gloveman but inferior batsman). Faisal Iqbal, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami have also been replaced with Shoaib Malik, Khurram Manzoor and Mohammad Aamer.

So four changes all up for Pakistan. That’s a helluva lot change between one Test to the next. Reminds me of my own exploits as captain for a suburban cricket team here in Melbourne where four changes in a week is quite commonplace — but usually due to the Spring Carnival or schoolies.

Is Kamran Akmal going to the races?

So how will the Pakistanis go? Despite the gloom and doom predicted before the West Indies series (and strengthened after the landslide that was the Brisbane Test) the rest of the summer has been superb cricket.

Will the Pakistanis fight in a dead rubber? Will Marcus North stand up? Will Jason Krejza do a nudey run, ala Maxy Walker in The 12th man, resplendent with a “give me my job back” sign in protest to Nathan Hauritz’ continued (and justified) selection?

Manchester United and the green eyed devils

Manchester United, arguably the most famous football club in the world, is having some money problems. Its owners, the Glazer family, have borrowed against the club, citing Babcock & Brown style “management fees”:

As The Guardian reports:

Manchester United’s owners, who loaded the club with more than £700m in borrowings to fund their purchase, have taken £10m out of the club in “management and administration fees” and have personally borrowed a further £10m in the past year, it has emerged.

The club’s financial results, released yesterday, revealed that six members of the Glazer family on the Red Football board had borrowed a total of £10m, which does not have to be repaid for five years.

Further, it was revealed that it was only the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid that helped balance the club’s books:

In its financial results the club revealed that it was only the £80m sale of Ronaldo and other transfer dealings that lifted Manchester United out of the red last season.

As The Guardian’s David Conn writes:

The fees to be earned by the bankers and professionals who have made this all possible is £15m. By the end of it, the Glazer family may be able to replace £500m they have borrowed with a different £500m borrowed on slightly less terror-inducing terms. But Manchester United, formerly the proud, rich, football behemoth of the Premier League, will still be laden with the extraordinary debts of a takeover which nobody wanted, except for seven members of a family in Florida, and their very well-paid advisers.

Is Manchester United in danger? It’s an interesting situation.

As a Leeds United fan, I watched my club self implode due to debt and over extension — so it is possible.

Is reckless spending and debt accumulated over the past decade (during the global financial crisis) going to come back and bite some of the world’s biggest football clubs?

First Agassi, now McGwire. Who next? Benaud?

So baseball legend Mark McGwire has admitted to taking steroids in 1998; the year in which he broke the single-season home run record, previously held by Richard Maris.

As ESPN reports:

McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade. During a 20-minute telephone interview shortly afterward, his voice repeatedly cracked.

“It’s very emotional, it’s telling family members, friends and coaches, you know, it’s former teammates to try to get a hold of, you know, that I’m coming clean and being honest,” he said. “It’s the first time they’ve ever heard me, you know, talk about this. I hid it from everybody.”

Is nothing sacred? Well when it comes to baseball, probably not. Fellow major league big hitters Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds have both had the speculation of drug use hang over their heads in recent years.

USA Today reports:

Fans have a right to feel cheated by McGwire. Numbers are such a big part of baseball lore that McGwire, in effect, changed the course of history. The question is: what’s really different now?

So does drug use taint the image of Mark McGwire? And does it taint baseball fans’ memories of his achievements? His 62nd home run in the 1998 season to break Richard Maris’ record, for instance?

Similarly, did tennis great Andre Agassi’s confession in October last year that he had taken meth amphetamines during his career tarnish tennis fans’ opinion of him?

If Richie Benaud comes out and says he used to binge on cocaine during the the 1960 tied Test between Australian and the West Indies then I’m giving up.

KFC cricket ad labelled “racist”: only second worst cricket ad ever

So KFC has come under fire for it’s latest advertisement featuring “Mick” who, besides screwing up the classic catches segment by putting in his favourite catches of all time, is shown handing a West Indies crowd a bucket of chicken to shut them up.

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As Mediabisto’s Kiran Aditham writes:

Here, a flustered white guy gets out of an “awkward situation”–which in this case appears to mean being stuck in a crowd of happy, cheering black people at a sporting event–by ordering in fried chicken.

Storm in a chicken bucket?

I’m not sure.

What I am sure about is that the ads are terrible. Actually most cricket ads are terrible. Dammit, why can’t someone make a decent cricket ad!?

Ponting and Swiss Multivites, Ponting and Rexona, anything with Michael Clarke, anything with Shane Warne and can someone tell Mike Hussey (I love you though Mr Cricket) that he CAN’T ACT!

But the good news for KFC is that they are not the worst ads in cricket.

That award surely goes to Cadbury:

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I love Mr Cricket

Meet Mike Hussey.

He’s 34 years young and bats at number 4 for the Australian cricket team. He’s played 46 Tests for his country, countless one day internationals and a score of Twenty20 matches.

Importantly, he has a sort-of-cool (in a Wheels from Degrassi Junior High kinda way) nickname in “Mr Cricket” and he feasts on making runs. He needs runs to survive. He’s like a shark. If he doesn’t score runs his momentum stops. He dies.

Wheels (left), sporting an 80s Footscray jersey (Ha!) and Mr Cricket (right) -- same but different.

Wheels (left), sporting an 80s Footscray jersey (Ha!) and Mr Cricket (right) -- same but different.

He’s the zany uncle of the Australian cricket team who really isn’t that zany at all. But he is also steel personified. Chuck Norris is scared of him.

If they made a movie of Mike Hussey’s life, Morgan Freeman would play him.

Mr Cricket’s been under the pump in recent years for having all his form desert him (it went to Queensland for the warm weather). His head has been called for and because of that, somewhere, a fairy died. Mr Cricket was set to become Mr Cricket (ret.).

But then Mike Hussey saved Australia.

Today he scored a magnificent century in the second innings of the Sydney Test against Pakistan to potentially save the match for Australia.

Like water buffaloes love First Dog on the Moon, I love Mr Cricket.

2010 resolution: beat the Saffa gameplan

How do you wipe those smiles?

How do you wipe those smiles?

Matt is the Editor of Green and Gold Rugby.com

It’s undeniable, 2009 was the year of the Saffas; Super 14, Tri-Nations and the Lions. What’s also undeniable was the extreme game-plan that the Springboks employed along the way; a game-plan that exploited a unique set of new IRB laws through their talents – both established and emerging. What has this meant for rugby, and more importantly, how do you beat it in 2010?

When watching the Springboks this year you had a good impression at how differently they were playing the game, but it’s only when you look at the resultant stats reports from the IRB that you see just how stark and extreme their strategies were. Read More »