Clever selection of Cameron White

October 4, 2008, 6:49pm, 17 views,  Leave a Comment

It was a good call by the Australian cricket selectors to add Victorian captain Cameron White to the Australian squad for the tour of India. Read more

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Best team should have played

June 29, 2008, 4:43pm, 162 views,  Leave a Comment

I didn’t agree with Pim Verbeek’s decision to play a development team in the dead World Cup qualifier against China. Read more

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Olympic sacking harsh

April 19, 2008, 1:57pm, 187 views,  Leave a Comment


Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates emailed swimmer Nick D’Arcy to tell him he was off the 2008 Olympic team. Read more

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Big bad Barry

April 15, 2008, 11:27am, 122 views,  1 Comment

There is no excuse for Barry Hall’s brain explosion which led to him thumping West Coast’s Brent Staker. Read more

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Something in the water

February 22, 2008, 6:22pm, 182 views,  1 Comment

Sacked Western Force player Matt Henjak is likely to play in Europe after the Australian Rugby Union rubber stamped the Perth club’s decision to sack their star halfback. Read more

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A slap in the face

February 13, 2008, 9:31pm, 149 views,  Leave a Comment

The Australian Rugby Union is furious over the Western Force’s decision to allow Matt Henjak to tour South Africa despite being under investigation over an altercation which left teammate Haig Sare with a broken jaw, AAP reports.

The former Wallaby scrumhalf was on the flight to South Africa on Tuesday, while his teammate Sare was leaving hospital, having had a plate inserted in his jaw following the fracas on Sunday.

It’s a curious decision by the Western Force and coach John Mitchell given the signal it sends. After the furore in Perth over special treatment for Ben Cousins by the West Coast Eagles, a hard line would have been expected.

Mitchell has said Henjak will play the Super 14 opening round match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday.

I think it will take all three games in South Africa to assess the merit of this decision. If the Force don’t win at least two of those games, and show discipline on and off the field, it will be judged a failure.

Until recently it has been part of Australian sporting culture that the team is bigger than the individual.

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Australian rugby woes

February 9, 2008, 7:50pm, 178 views,  Leave a Comment

Australian rugby is on the edge of an abyss. The code is losing money, spectators, television viewers and players.

The cancellation of the national club championship has nearly killed the sport in Victoria and hasn’t done it any favors elsewhere.

Poor Super 14 performances have translated to the international stage and there is no end in sight. So what’s the solution?

Money would help. It’s traditionally been rugby’s strength and when rugby league was weak the code flourished. League’s revival and the growth of soccer has created pressure on multiple fronts.

Rugby needs to recapture the public imagination. A new John Eales or Mark Ella needs to be found. Big names need to be recruited from league. An Australian Super 14 team needs to fire.

And the national club championship has to be restored.

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Ben Cousins’ drug problem

November 9, 2007, 5:01pm, 234 views,  Leave a Comment

Channel Nine has reported that fallen West Coast Eagles star Ben Cousins was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles last week after a five-day cocaine binge.

Cousins was reportedly admitted to the Little Company of Mary hospital, in the suburb of Torrens, and remained there for two days before being discharged on Friday, November 2.

It was during his son’s stay in hospital that Ben’s dad Bryan Cousins told reporters Ben wasn’t missing, as reports had claimed, but was “receiving treatment at an appropriate facility”.

What continues to amaze me about this ongoing saga is that nobody accepts any responsibility. Not Ben, his family, his club or the AFL.

Cousins is entitled to some privacy, but he is also a public figure who has fallen from grace. The club betrayed him and the sport by returning him to the fold before he was rehabilitated. The AFL should be accountable for this mess.

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Cousins drug charge

October 16, 2007, 8:24pm, 368 views,  1 Comment

The report in The West Australian says it all:

“Troubled West Coast star Ben Cousins has tonight been charged with drug offences after a highly public arrest in Northbridge this morning. Police allegedly found a prohibited drug in his car during a traffic stop, and also charged the football star with refusing to comply with a police drug test.”

If the charges are proved, it’s disturbing that he wouldn’t take a drug test considering he previously did a runner from a random breath test.

This issue is political given the AFL’s apparent soft handling of drugs in the sport. Cynics believe the league is more concerned about protecting its brand image than stamping out rampant drug abuse.

Earlier this year the Prime Minister’s key adviser on illicit drug use Christopher Pyne told ABC Radio: “These AFL players have a particular place in our society, and therefore they have a particular responsibility, and that means that the AFL’s policy on illicit substances has to reinforce a zero tolerance approach.”

The circumstances surrounding Chris Mainwaring’s death remain a mystery until an inquest is held, but there is enough superficial evidence to suggest the West Coast Eagles have harbored a pervasive drug culture which has been out of control for some time.

This raises all sorts of questions, including the integrity of their 2006 premiership. In the political arena, Labor has so far been reluctant to criticise the three-strikes policy, leaving the issue as one which could unexpectedly influence the election.

Earlier this month Labor’s spokesperson Kate Lundy said: “We might end up with a one-strike, two-strike or three-strike policy. Or no strikes. It will depend on what our working group of experts suggests,” she said.

The government’s policy, announced by Sports Minister George Brandis after the grand final, is more definite. The Coalition proposes public naming after the second strike.

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