August 2008 - Sports Bar

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Sports Bar - August 2008

It's Official - England cheated us out of the Ashes!

August 25th 2008 07:33

For those who knewEngland could never beat us in cricket. Those who have been forever haunted by those late nights...

The memories you had locked away in deep dark places - never to be mentioned again. Perhaps we might finally get closure on this nightmare.

The winging Poms - those guys that hadn't beaten us dating back to 1989. They finally beat is in 2005 with some doggy umpiring decisions and now it seems underhanded tactics.

We knew they couldn't beat us.

Oh how they cheered, oh how they celebrated, who can ever forget those ghastly images of Freddy Flintoff, Kevin Pieterson and Michael Vaughn jumping about. I think I just threw up...

It brings tears to your eyes...

But now we know why...

plain and simple - they cheated.

Former England opener Marcus Trescothick has admitted in a new book that he illegally shone the ball by sucking on breath fresheners during the 2005 Ashes series.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said on Monday the unplayable reverse swing generated by pace bowlers Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff - which was crucial to England's 2005 Ashes triumph over Australia - may have been caused by Murray Mints, which, as with other artificial substances, is illegal.

The saliva from these mints aided swinging, Trescothick wrote in his autobiography Coming Back To Me.

"I was firmly established as the man in charge of looking after the ball when we were fielding," he wrote.

"It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish.

"And through trial and error I finally settled on type of spit for the task at hand," he added in an excerpt which appeared in Britain's News of the World newspaper.

"It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to keep its shine for longer and therefore its swing."

This is an outrage! Swing bowling is credited as the masterstroke that beat us. Does anyone feel violated?

Sure Australia had the underarm - sure we have sleged... but everything we have done has been strictly under the laws of the game - even if they were moraly questionable...

But to blatantly cheat to get an edge... Smacks of desperation and un-sportsmanship...

It just isn't cricket!

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Phelps v Bolt - who will history remember?

August 18th 2008 07:00

Greatest Sporting Moment of all time?

Well the Beijing Olympics are halfway over, but it is hard to imagine them being remembered for anything other than two people

Michael Phelps will be forever remembered, without doubt. The number 8 will be synonymous with his name.

But has he been overshadowed by the most incredible performance my eyes have ever seen?

Ussain Bolt’s run will be one of the enduring and everlasting moments in the Games history. His antics before the race, so laid back, playing with the camera while all the other sprinters were so focused… And then to run the way he did, with arms outreached and 20metres still to run… to break the World Record and to have pulled up well short to enjoy the moment… it is one of the single greatest things I have ever seen.

What Bolt did looked so natural and yet was so inhuman it defies belief. No one has dominated a final like that, not even the grates like Jesse Owens was that far in front.

It will be forever etched in my mind, far in front of Phelps 8 Gold…

Now, what Phelps did, took incredible stamina and determination, of that there is no doubt. But for sheer theatre- Bolt wins for me hands down.

It is funny to think though that Phelps was .02 seconds away from winning 6 gold and 2 silver… The relay came down to .01 and then I still have no idea how he won that Butterfly event. Even in Super-Doper Mega Extreme Slow motion, I still don’t know how he won that by .01 – funny how fickle sport can be, he was millimeters from winning ‘only’ 6… Perhaps it was fate, I don’t know, but sport is definitely a strange creature.

How does he win this?

But it got me thinking, what sporting events match up to Phelps 8 Gold Medals and Bolt’s Bolt?

I’m talking on a world stage, so I am going to skip Bradman (as much as it kills me) and also I would love to put the MAN UTD comeback in the 1999 European Champions League Final, but probably not a world sporting phenomenon… even though it had all the ingredients…

I would have to put up Ali v Forman and the Rope-a-dope… Ali comes back from sporting obscurity and beats all the odds to reclaim his title. It is the original irresistible force meeting the immovable object…And it confirmed Ali as a World Icon, a legend – the Greatest

Michael Johnson 100 and 200 double

Torvill and Dean’s perfect Ice Skating routine At the 1984 Winter Olympics the pair became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme) receiving 12 perfect 6.0s, including artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge.

Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old Romanian, arched in midair for an instant on her dismount from the uneven parallel bars, then the feet supporting her 4-foot-11, 86-pound body landed softly on the mat.

The silence was shattered by an explosion of cheering and applause that, after a few seconds, turned to consternation. Flashing on the electronic scoreboard was 1.00.
It took a moment for the 18,000 spectators at the Forum to realize that Comaneci had, in effect, outperformed modern technology.

What she had achieved at the Montreal Summer Games on July 18, 1976, was a perfect 10, the first in Olympic history. It registered as 1.00 because the scoreboards were limited to three figures, the maximum being 9.99.

"I knew my routine was flawless," Comaneci said later. "I had performed it many times before in practice the same way."

Miracle on Ice - hockey between USA and Russia was massive simply because of the context.
Rag tag assembly of mostly teenaged amateurs, barely together a few months and playing a sport invented and perfected elsewhere, take on the most polished, professional and seemingly unbeatable team in the history of international hockey and win; producing the greatest upset in the pantheon of sport in a time of international political tension smack dab in the middle of a Cold War that defined the parameters of the century. What makes the ultimate upset even more unbelievable is the fact that the same two teams played only a week earlier in an exhibition match and the Soviet Union cruised to a 10-1 victory, setting the stage for the expected American embarrassment that never came.

I Mentioned him before Jesse Owens marched into Adolph Hitler's great Berlin arena and spit in the face of the Third Reich's claims of Aryan superiority by setting three world records and one Olympic record, earning four track and field gold medals in the same Summer Olympiad, a performance that would remain unmatched for 48 years. In front of the visibly infuriated German dictator and a stunned international audience, Owens won the 100 meters in an Olympic-record 10.3 seconds, the long jump, setting an Olympic record of 26-53/8 and the 200 meters in an Olympic-record 20.7 seconds. Owens won his fourth gold medal, leading off the 4x100-meter relay that would set a world record at 39.8 seconds.

Roger Bannister – first man to break the 4minute mile! - it was thought that not only was it impossible, but any man who attempted to break it would die.

Tiger Woods wins the major on one leg – enough said.

Maradonna's hand of God followed by one of the greatest goals scored on the World stage...

I had to add it, but not for a single moment -
Lance Armstrong - 7 Tour de Frances... But for a single moment? When he narrowly avoided a crash and went cross country on the grass and somehow managed to keep his bike upright... but that one was just for me...

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Stats show Raiders are the best team to watch!

August 11th 2008 23:53

Excitment machine - Joel Monaghan

If you haven't already, jump on the Raiders Bandwagon. They did what not many clubs in their position would do, they sacked their only marquee player (Todd Carney). Canberra is not in a position where it can attract this caliber of player and yet when push came to shove, as a club they decided his actions were inexcusable and they made what must have been the hardest decision. To get rid of a player who they had invested endless hours and finances into developing, a player who they were obviously building their team around.

A Player with unquestionable talent and potential, a player that was seemingly destined to lead the Raiders to a Premiership within the next 5 years...

What Canberra did was make a statement, we as a club will not accept this behaviour here, regardless of who you are. It must have been a gut-wrenching decision. Many forecasted that it would be the end of the Raiders season... The Raiders had just been pulled through a week of turmoil and losing a halfback of all people, they could have accepted an inevitable fate.

This from a team who can not attract any marquee players! Even if they have the money, no one seems to want to play at Canberra. Long gone are the Laurie Daley's, Ricky Stuart's and Mal Meninga's. How a club can sack a player like Carney, knowing they probably won't get another player of his ilk is inspiring.

But what a breath of fresh air they are proving to be. Without recognized stars, the Raiders are proving you don't need the superstars in the game to be competitive. What they have is superior work ethic and an adventurous nature.

People like Colin Best and Joel Monaghan have never been in better form. In fact, they are the form players in the competition. Monaghan selection in the NSW team was no fluke, he has been in sparkling form and his a cornerstone of what the Raiders are doing.

Mo-Bro - Campese is the most improved player in the NRL

and then we have Terry Campese, if you mentioned his name at the start of the year as one of the best in the league, you would have been laughed at more than you laughed at his ridiculous mustache.

But he must be one of the most improved in the competition. The way he guides his team around the park, especially in the cold, wet and slippery conditions in Canberra defies belief.

The Green Machine is the best team to watch in the game at the moment. Better than even Melbourne with their 10 Origin players and better than Manly who are playing like the Manly dynasty side of the mid 90s.

All this with a team on paper that has no obvious star. When you are looking to recruit players, you never really think of taking Raiders players, this may all be changing.

It has a very Wests Tigers feel about it, where stars were created overnight. Can they win it? Probably not, but it will be a fun ride while it lasts. The top four teams would be nervous to face the fearless Raiders who back themselves and play a highly adventurous and attractive style of football in the finals.

74-12 the most points the club has ever scored - and we are talking a club who once boasted essentially an Australian team. If you were not a Panthers fan, it was poetry to watch.

The list below highlights just why the Raiders are the best team to watch in the League.

Get on the bandwagon now and enjoy football with no structure, the way it is meant to be played.

Points for

Manly 503
Raiders 500
Roosters 473
Tigers 466
Storm 456
Broncos 455

Tries

Manly 92 tries
Raiders 91
Roosters 84
Storm 82
Tigers 81
Broncos 78

In General Play

Raiders 83
Manly 81
Roosters 74
Tigers 72
Melbourne 72

Off Kicks

Roosters 35
Broncos 23
Dragons 22
Warriors 22
Cronulla 21
Raiders 21

From Linebreaks

1. Storm 53

2. Newcastle 49

3. Manly 48

4. Canberra 47

5. Tigers 47

…

15 Roosters 32

16 Sharks 31

51 metres

1. Raiders 21

2. Broncos 12

3. Storm 11

4. Panthers 11

5. Tigers 11

They have almost scored double the next best in tries from 50m out. Now that is good football! That is what we love to watch.

Oh, last call for the Bandwagon....

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November 2008

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October 2008

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