Roar Pro
Joined March 2020
36.8k
Views
28
Published
304
Comments
I care too much about the teams I support to actually watch them play. It's easy to watch with no investment but if Carlton, Sydney Thunder or Arizona Cardinals are on it's too stressful...! Fond of sporting history - there's a lot of that already so I struggle to keep up with new history every year.
Published
Comments
The current era is India’s most successful, but there are periods gone by where they were also a tricky proposition.
New Zealand took 28 years to win a Test match, finally triumphing in 1956. There were plenty of skilled individuals before that but not a complete team.
Through electric bowling, dashing batting and acrobatic fielding the West Indies made themselves one of the most popular teams throughout history.
South Africa’s all-time XI had some interesting decisions behind them. A slew of all-rounders throughout the country’s history as well as some celebrated names…
The all-time XI for Australia would capture any audience’s attention whether with bat or ball. The team will be presented in batting order, and…
Everyone has their opinions on what an all-time XI would look like, and the beauty of the exercise is that no-one is wrong. However,…
Now that we have 21 teams based on surnames, it’s time to look at a few selection changes based on feedback and additional research…
The composite team has some of the greatest big men of all time, as well as some current players still going strong. Back line…
The W team has a prolific midfield, a talented forward line and a mercurial backline. Read the previous alphabet teams here. Back line David…
The V team might not have the depth of others, but there is enough quality to trouble some of the best sides. Back line…
With a forward line as potent as the one boasted by the T team, there would be plenty of shootouts. Back line Bill Thomas…
The S team is surprisingly light for scoring options, but with a midfield as good as this, there will be plenty of opportunity. Back…
The R team could have been a true family affair, with the likes of Rocca, Riewoldt, Rankin and Richards all having claims to multiple…
The P team is one that has a fine balance of class, flash and toughness, with several milestone holders among their number. Back line…
The ‘O’ team doesn’t have much out-and-out star power, but can boast plenty of consistency across the board. Back line Max Oppy (Richmond 1942-54)…
The N team is short on depth, but high on quality, with one team's era heavily featured. Back line Ian Nankervis (Geelong 1967-83) 325…
The M team has well over 1000 players eligible to be selected in the squad, so to have reached this 25 is no mean…
We move now to the L team, with firepower enough up front to outscore almost anyone. Back line Wes Lofts (Carlton 1960-70) 167 games,…
Up next is the K team, with three generations of one family all finding a spot in the squad. Back line John Kennedy Sr…
We move to the J team, and one of the most dynamic forward lines of any squad thus far. Back line Horrie Jenkin (Fitzroy…
I have to admit to being mighty confused when I read the Rowdy mention in the TJ section as I temporarily forgot about our esteemed colleague in the comments and instead focused on the fact that it wasn’t Ashley Mallett under discussion 😛
The Best of the South: A Shield-winning Redbacks team who played 14 Tests or fewer
I’d take the FJ Holden ‘On The Prowl’ myself…
The nearly men: The best Test cricketers to never score a century or take a five-wicket haul
Punch Magazine was no fan of Scotton – this poem is from 1886 after an opening stand of 170 with WG Grace in which Scotton’s contribution was 34:
Block, block, block
At the foot of thy wicket, O Scotton!
And I would that my tongue would utter
My boredom. You won’t put the pot on!
Oh, nice for the bowler, my boy,
That each ball like a barndoor you play!
Oh, nice for yourself, I suppose,
That you stick at the wicket all day!
And the clock’s slow hands go on,
And you still keep up your sticks;
But oh! for the lift of a smiting hand,
And the sound of a swipe for six!
Block, block, block,
At the foot of thy wicket, ah do!
But one hour of Grace or Walter Read
Were worth a week of you!
The nearly men: The best Test cricketers to never score a century or take a five-wicket haul
Good to see Wayne Clark in there, he was the first name that came to mind when I saw the title. Seven times he took a 4fa, incredible numbers.
Not much in the way of spin for Australia, Brad Hogg or Trevor Hohns would be the best specialist option even if Bob Cowper, Chappelli, Harry Trott have a handful more wickets – you’d hardly call them first choice spinners!
The nearly men: The best Test cricketers to never score a century or take a five-wicket haul
If Carlton’s up and about I love footy, if they’re struggling to reach scores that were par for the course of 100 years ago and putting up more predictable games than Connect 1 I’ve got enough going on in my life to put footy on the backburner and glance at scores on occasion. No stakes so no bother.
That said I really would like to anticipate the weekend of footy for once instead of writing it off by Friday morning.
Footy Fix: The Blues are a second-half shambles - here's exactly what's going wrong
As fed up as I am with Thursday night games at least it means I don’t have to worry about paying attention to the footy over the weekend. Smallest of small mercies.
Footy Fix: The Blues are a second-half shambles - here's exactly what's going wrong
I can’t say I know too much about him myself but he was probably the 2nd or 3rd best cricketer in South Africa – Herbie Taylor and Dave Nourse the others in the top 3 – during his career. In general I respect the deep pulls from days of yore considering these days an 18 Test career can last about 18 months rather than 12 years (WWI included in fairness).
Passing ships in the night: Forgotten fast bowling duos who got just one Test together
Love these historical articles and a Jimmy Blanckenburg mention is always a good time.
The first bowling partnership that popped into my head was Larwood and Voce. In unrelated news, I finished Duncan Hamilton’s biography of Harold Larwood about a week ago. There’s also Gregory and McDonald for those of an even older vintage – or Barnes/Foster, Turner/Ferris… or Merv Waite and Ted White circa The Oval 1938.
Cameron Cuffy is a name I haven’t heard in a good long while, if I remember he had a very compact action but never crossed the line from good to great.
I wonder how many spin partnerships would have the same sort of history – Grimmett/O’Reilly the obvious one, Faulkner/Vogler/Schwartz/White for South Africa in 1907 popularising the googly, and Prasanna/Bedi/Chandrasekhar/Venkataraghavan in the 60s and 70s (the quartet played only one Test featuring all four of them, against England in 1967). Ramadhin and Valentine had England 1950 as a crowning moment but were the Windies’ attack leaders for most of that decade…
Passing ships in the night: Forgotten fast bowling duos who got just one Test together
As wonderful as the rest of the article is I’m just flabbergasted by Matthew Hayden being the answer to that trivia question. I guess if the question was meant to be Test high score and it was in that 6 month period before Lara took it back…?
The joy of 99.94 is that it’s a failed success. If Bradman had hit that four runs – heck, even scratched around for a single or two – it wouldn’t have had that everlasting resonance. But it was two balls and gone, with everyone knowing he most likely wouldn’t need to bat again after England had been bowled out for 52. The perfection of imperfection, almost.
Why The Don's 99.94 is the perfect number
“Could the Magpies miss the finals again?”
Let’s hope 🙂
AFL Oracle: Fresh off a premiership hangover, could the Magpies miss the finals AGAIN?
Guru, Rookie etc are more of a reflection of the amount of contributions made to the site than any qualitative judgment. I think I’m considered a guru even though I rarely comment because I’ve done 30-odd articles through the years.
That said I don’t really take these articles to be a genuine breakdown of the lists and 2025 prospects; more a fun curiosity as to the honour board for each club, so to speak. Someone like Ryan Burton is comfortably in Port’s top 100 for games played even though it feels like he was only traded a few years ago (2018 WAS only a few years ago, right?) and that’s kind of interesting to me.
AFL Top 100: Can Boak and Wines power Port to elusive premiership?
I just took the tweet as Kane leaning into the joke that he hates the long term contracts. 50 odd people tagging him in the Freo announcement for the laughs as well probably didn’t help.
'Way to ruin the holidays': You'll never guess who has a problem with Freo gun's monster contract extension
Except Barrett has a national reach and ‘credibility’ by writing for the league’s masthead – and being paid for it – and Macca is a biased fan commenting on articles out of the love of the game and his team just like everyone else here.
Incidentally extremely negative views about Collingwood are the correct ones to have 🙂
Why the Blues' draft-first trade period approach could mean disaster for Michael Voss
I’m actually impressed.
The inanity of trade radio and all of this rubbish finally made Kane Cornes say something I agree with.
'SANFL flag on hold': Cornes rejoices after Port backtrack on mega-deal 'as good as done' involving forgotten Sun
Loved the subtle and not so subtle nods to incidents from the past – Arthur Whitelaw’s cheque merry go round was fantastic.
Genuinely surprised that Peter May ranked so highly but he’s not really that out of place. I think the key difference is that the specialist batting was better than the all rounder batting – only Kallis and Sobers have records close to anyone on the specialist side while only one player can bowl at a time so having 11 great bowlers can only do so much.
The Sobers-Bradman Trophy: Who would win in a Test between the best ever all-rounders and specialists?
“Corne should limit himself to talking about the game he understands…”
We’d like that because in essence it means he would just be quiet 😛
'They're on something': Voss' brutal return serve for Kane Cornes over whack at 'shocking sport' NRL, highlight-less GF
Two Warne moments (who else?) come to mind:
Cullinan pulls Warne’s flipper for 4. Benaud: “Well, that looks to be the one he shows them…” Cullinan is bowled two balls later by a much more vicious flipper.
Greig: “OHHHH he’s got him has he caught him yes he has! He’s got him it’s a hattrick! Yes he’s gone! He’s GONE IT’S A HATTRICK! That’s a hattrick to Shane Warne, a great moment in his career… WHAT A CATCH BY DAVID BOON.” All in approximately one and a half breaths.
Two of cricket's iconic voices that still echo a decade later: Remembering Richie Benaud and Tony Greig on their shared birthday
I think the word you’re looking for is ‘egregious’ – a gregarious egg lay would be very different indeed.
This is the most inexcusable of the four GF losses IMO – 14 was Hawks at their peak, 16 was Dog destiny, 22 they just weren’t ready yet. 2024 would have been about the right time to rise to the top but I wonder if 22 ended up leaving some scars that affected this year.
September scars: The Swans' latest GF loss will cut even deeper than the rest
Nah, LRT was fantastic that day and deserved it.
Every grand final of the 2000s, ranked first to 25th: Which classic is 'the most underrated decider in footy history'?
Hill was absolutely the mark of the year (H&A season only – Heeney was incredible). He pretty much levitated to the top of the pack. Plus the TV direction on Elliott’s mark was genuinely atrocious and ruined its prestige.
Reid’s goal was the best of the three nominated but we really didn’t need three facsimiles as the finalists. Moir, Bont, Merrett, Fritsch, all fantastic. One of Daicos’s reminded me of Ballantyne’s 2011 GOTY (incidentally I also think that was a wrong call; Betts dancing around a couple of Essendon players while right on the goal line was my favourite for that year – in the same match as Walker’s mark!).
Forget Cripps - Harley Reid's bog standard Goal of the Year was the most ridiculous win of Brownlow night
Just putting this in the news article because it’s the best spot, but I wonder how Don is feeling about Taberner being delisted. Biggest non-Essendon discrepancy between hype and output in the comp.
AFL News: Port's brutal selection call as Hinkley defends coaching future, former Dees president urges Goodwin axing
But that’s incorrect – you don’t just rely on stats. Contemporaneous reporting, context of the time, style of play etc all factor into it. Adam Voges has a Test average of 61 or so, but is he really a top 5 batter of all time? No.
I don’t understand why you’re comparing Siddle and Armstrong in any event; very different bowlers and players.
Cricket's State Of Origin: The King leads this Victorian all-time XI, but there's plenty more star power behind him
“He’s caused us to be talking about this now. Why would he think it’s a good idea, after what happened before the Grand Final last year, to go to a pub?
“He’s done nothing wrong here – he’s out until 9pm, he’s home before half time – but to put yourself in this position, what’s the risk-reward here?”
Sorry let’s look at the first part of that second paragraph again.
“He’s done nothing wrong here”
So why even bring this up at all?
“He’s caused us to be talking about this now.”
No, your pathetic obsession and desperation for any content that’s not about the on field product has caused you to be talking about this. Why not talk about the games ahead and whether the Hawthorn momentum can continue on, why not finish up a deep dive on the 10 teams that didn’t make the finals and where they fell down before focusing on the 8 still in with a shot, why not discuss the absolute inanity of three running goals by media darlings being nominated for Goal of the Year instead of Bont beating three defenders, Moir soccering it through on debut, Treloar from the boundary? No no, let’s continue the pile on Ginnivan for a complete nonstory.
Seriously.
Man has dinner at pub and is home at a reasonable hour. News at eleven.
AFL News: 'Hasn't learned' - Ginnivan slammed for finals eve pub visit, Cornes rips into 'pathetic' Port
“Why they will: They’re white hot. The Hawks have won six of their last seven games and 13 of their last six”
Quite frankly anyone who can win over two games for each one they play deserves favouritism. Hawks to win 😛
Why every team will win the 2024 AFL premiership... and why they won't
I had to go and check just for my own edification of Don’s Don-ness and looking here Walters kicked 17 goals – which, last I checked, is not 23.
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/M/Michael_Walters.html
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/2024.html#8
AFL Tipping: The Roar's expert tips and predictions, Round 9 - It's Showdown time in the toughest tipster week of the year