Rob's Blog

Major Entertainment

September 30th, 2006 · AFL, Spectators

The end of the season is here, and my third favourite team had made it to the AFL Grand Final! The West Coast Eagles playing the Sydney Swans. Our seats were not too bad, on the top level above the pocket, and just under the scoreboard.

We were early enough to catch all of the pre-game entertainment, though I would struggle to describe it as entertaining. They need to get some class acts and not just use mediocre performers that satisfy sponsors or the media. We have probably been spoiled with Olympic and Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies in recent years, where they go over the top with the displays.

At halftime, the main entertainment was the sprint race, which for some unknown reason was handicapped this year, and the winner started well ahead of the others – it was a joke. The game was much more exciting, as it should be, it was the reason we were there. The Eagles got off to a good start, but such was the closeness in ability of these teams it was never a comfortable margin. The Swans crept up on the Eagles and the game finished with just a point between the teams.

We finished the day of entertainment at the ‘after party’ at Punt Road Oval as did thousands of others. We were lucky to get in as they closed the gates not long after we passed through. We got a beer and watched Mark Seymour while waiting an hour or two for the victorious Eagles to show up – which they did for only a few minutes. We were satisfied, and ready for home.

Related Pages: AFL, MCG, Sydney Swans, West Coast Eagles

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Parading the Stars

September 29th, 2006 · AFL, Spectators

For the first time, I went into Melbourne city to watch the AFL grand final parade, where the grand final teams are presented to the people of Melbourne the day before the big game. We arrived in time to get a spot only one row back from the front with pretty good views of the street. We had another half hour to wait around for the parade to arrive.

It all happened pretty quickly, the players passed by sitting in the back of cars, occasionally waving to the crowd. The players seem disinterested – maybe they had something else on their mind, like a game of footy? I am sure they all just itching to get out onto the MCG and play, as we were itching to see the game.

It was a disappointment really. The crowd disappeared just as quickly as the players passed, leaving an empty street for us to walk along. The street blockade remained for a while, leaving us the chance to parade down the middle of the street too. That was the highlight for me!

Related Pages: AFL

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Brownlow Countdown

September 26th, 2006 · AFL

Last night was the vote for the fairest and best AFL player of the year. It is one for the die hard footy fan – reading out the votes round by round has never excited me very much. Even in the media, it seems like more of the interest was on what the female partners of the players were wearing. This year the AFL enforced their black tie dress code for the players. Apparently this requirement has been around for a couple of years, but this year they were going to enforce it. The whole thing backfired anyway, as the winner was not present, and was in Sydney at their own function, wearing a red and white tie! For the players, it appears like a good party night out, as every time the camera went on them they were swigging from a bottle of beer. It became a good advertisement for Crown Lager. By the end of the night, many of them probably did not remember if they polled any votes.

Related Pages: AFL, Brownlow Medal

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Searching for Grand Final tickets

September 24th, 2006 · AFL

Tickets to the AFL Grand Final are hard to come by. Although the MCG has a capacity of nearly 100,000 people, in this footy-mad city many more than that are eager to go to the game. Even though I have connections to the Richmond Football Club, there were no tickets allocated to the general staff, as all of their tickets go into corporate packages available at thousands of dollars each.

The AFL administration had blocked anyone selling them on eBay, though there were plenty of people asking for tickets there. Our only hope was obtaining one through the extra tickets allocated to the Grand Final participating teams. Both Fremantle and Eagles were chances for the final, and through members that we knew in Perth we were able to put our names down for tickets in case either team made it into the final.

The Dockers failed in their preliminary final, thankfully the Eagles won theirs, and our tickets for the big one came through the following day. We are going to the Final!

Related Pages: AFL, Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles

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Hewitt in Danger

September 19th, 2006 · Tennis

Lleyton Hewitt arrived in Buenos Aires Argentina on Sunday night for a Davis Cup tie, accompanied by two personal security guards. He has previously been abused and felt threatened by the Argentinean supporters, but it seems like overkill to me.

If he was not popular with the Argentinean fans and players before now, this will certainly not make it any better. David Nalbandian, who Hewitt beat to win his Wimbledon title in 2002, has said that none of the other players like Hewitt, and out on the court this animosity may be just the extra fuel that players need to beat him.

Related Pages: Davis Cup, Tennis, Lleyton Hewitt profile

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Beach Cricket

September 8th, 2006 · Cricket

In the upcoming Australian cricket summer there will be three beach cricket internationals – between Australia, England and the West Indies. The matches will be played in temporary beach stadiums, in Coolangata Queensland, Scarborough Western Australia and Maroubra New South Wales. Each team will comprise six players, including some of the greats of world cricket. It will be great to see these guys in action again, and having a bit of fun too.

Australia: Allan Border (c), Dean Jones, Mark Waugh, Kim Hughes, Damien Fleming, Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee.
West Indies: Courtney Walsh (c), Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Phil Simmons, Jimmy Adams, Curtley Ambrose, Joel Garner.
England: Graham Gooch (c), Robin Smith, Allan Lamb, Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Adam Hollioake, Darren Gough.

The rules for these matches with be similar to those we are used to when visiting the beach with some mates. To make it more interesting and entertaining for the crowds, the games will be played on plastic matting to give the ball some bounce, and a special beach cricket ball will be used that is loaded on one side to increase swing.

Related Pages: About Cricket, Beach Cricket,

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Agassi Out

September 4th, 2006 · Tennis

Andre Agassi’s long and very successful career is now over. He played his final match on Sunday, September 3, 2006, losing to Benjamin Becker in four sets in the third round of the U.S. Open. He is 36 years old, having turned professional at aged 16. I must say that I was not too impressed with him early in his career â€“ he seemed like a spoilt brat. This may have been a result of his missed childhood as he was drilled as a tennis player from an early age. He is reaping the rewards now, and over time he has mellowed to be a very respected player around the world. His bald head will be sadly missed on the tennis court. Now we wait for the day the super player children that he and his wife Steffi Graf have produced to make it to the court.

Related Pages: US Open, Tennis, Andre Agassi profile

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Interstate Domination

September 2nd, 2006 · AFL

The Australian Rules Football home-and-away season is over and it looks like it is going to be another finals campaign dominated by the interstate teams. It is an interesting term, ‘interstate teams’, as it is supposed to be a nationwide competition, yet any team that is not based in Victoria is classified as such.

This year, there are only four Victorian teams in the final eight, and after the first week of finals there will only be two left, and they face an uphill battle to reach the Grand Final. In addition, there is only going to be three final matches played in Victoria, with the Grand Final one of them.

It is great for the competition and for the spread of the game, but in the home of football, it is another disappointment for the armies of supporters.

Related Pages: AFL

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More Dopes

August 23rd, 2006 · Sports Medicine, Track & Field

Does the drug nightmare for sports ever end? Track and field are having their turn at the moment. World and Olympic 100 meters champion Justin Gatlin admitted failing a drugs test in April, and has just been given an eight-year ban, though this may change over time. The world record for the 100 meters of 9.77 seconds that he shared with Asafa Powell has been taken off him. The harsh penalty follows his previous positive for an amphetamine at the 2001 US Junior Championships.

Also in the news is five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones, who has been linked to doping in the past, and recently gave a positive result for EPO. Her second sample has yet to be tested, but her reputation must now surely be tainted.

All this in the wake of the other high profile USA athlete found to be doping, cyclist Floyd Landis, who tested positive for elevated testosterone during the Tour de France. As talked about previously, the answer to this problem of drugs in sport does not seem apparent.

Hopefully, as more high profile athletes are found to be cheating, this will deter others from doing so. What happened to the old adage of just playing fair? Maybe one day that will return. In the meantime, I hope the scientists continue to fight and catch the cheats so I can again truly enjoy watching sport.

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Pakistan Spits Dummy

August 22nd, 2006 · Cricket, Umpires & Referees

An interesting thing happened in a Test Match between England and Pakistan the other day. It was unfortunate for controversial Australian umpire Darrell Hair that he happened to be officiating on this day, however it seems like he just followed the rules as they are laid out. Originally, Pakistan were penalized five runs after the umpires noticed that the ball had been tampered with. Whether they did it or not, the Pakis should have just got on with the game. Instead, after the tea break they decided to have a ‘sit in’ and did not retake the field. After giving them adequate time to make it to the pitch, the umpires decided that Pakistan had forfeited the match with victory being awarded to England. As with all sports, the umpires are the sole adjudicators of the rules out on the pitch, and the umpires decisions should be final. It really doesn’t matter that people have paid to see a game – they have paid to watch a fair game of sport, and if the umpires declare that the game is not fair, and a team does not follow the rules and laws of the game, then they (and the supporters) will have to suffer the consequences. I don’t like how so much of the blame went to the umpire Darrell Hair (but not his co-umpire?). The blame should go to the Pakistan Cricket team for spitting the dummy and not playing ball.

Related Pages: Cricket

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