The Roar
The Roar

The Roar

Clay

Roar Pro

Joined March 2020

22k

Views

25

Published

214

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

Older Submissions

Have a look at the 1993 list of nominees and tell me that’s not the highest density of superstars to have come out of a class.

Peter Everitt
Shane Crawford
Nathan Chapman
Joe Misiti
Scott West
David Neitz
Nathan Buckley
James Hird
Dustin Fletcher
Matthew Richardson
Brodie Atkinson
Glenn Archer
Saverio Rocca
Darren Kowal
Duncan Kellaway
Mark Ricciuto
Ilija Grgic
Ang Christou
Ricky Olarenshaw
Mark Mercuri
Brad Nicholson
Leigh Colbert

10 club and league greats

6 very good players (and I might be a bit harsh on Mercuri/Misiti/Rocca by putting them in this category)

5 solid role players

And then Brodie Atkinson is the outlier but surely deserved more chances after 25 touches and 2 Brownlow votes on debut.

AFL Rising Star Power Rankings: Every nominee rated from 1-24 - is it Sheezel's to lose in the best crop of young guns ever?

View Comment
AFL
 
5d

Wow that’s a strong top order even beyond the obvious man at #3.

I had predicted the pace attack to be Richardson/Thomson/Akhtar after a full 2 minutes of research so I’m claiming that 2 out of 3.

Good shout for Mohammad Nissar in the HMs too, one of the first great Indian bowlers.

Team of the Month: an August-born World Cricket XI

View Comment
Cricket
 
Aug

The hurdle goal against Collingwood is the single greatest 15 seconds of football I’ve ever seen. Football in excelsis.

Thanks for everything Buddy. 19 years is a hell of a career.

Farewell to Buddy, the greatest player of the 21st century and the game's most awe-inspiring entertainer

View Comment
AFL
 
Jul

Wonderful article and a shame that it took so long for Ron Todd to get his due. Collingwood possibly cost themselves the 1945 premiership by putting pride above ability as having him at full forward rather than the limited Len Hustler in the preliminary surely would have kept Carlton at bay and from there who knows how the GF would go.

I thought he only kicked 672 goals for Williamstown, for the longest time I remembered thinking it was such a shame he ended on 999 senior goals across the VFL/VFA so I’m glad records have been updated or corrected to give him over a thousand.

We’re never going to see a schism like that of the VFL/VFA at that time again – for the best I would say, but there is so much history and interest there to explore.

Banned by the game, shunned by Collingwood but still standing strong: The forgotten story of Ron Todd

View Comment
AFL
 
Jul

I have to say I’m disappointed in Oliver Holt actually being rather balanced outside of the unnecessary quote marks around the word ‘stumping’. But at least we can always rely on Piers Morgan to be completely unbalanced in his role as professional dunkee.

UK View: 'Timid, petrified' Aussies escape in 'galling travesty' - as Pommy Pauline Hanson's hypocrisy exposed

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

Goodness, that list of England Honourable Mentions is something spectacular – not quite an all time attack there but not far off.

I feel like McAlister might be trying to disrupt the March team’s meeting a bit rather than face off against WG or AB 🙂

I think I’ve picked out two of the August pacemen but the third is a bit tricky – there’s someone from the 19th century who would warrant a mention at the very least.

Team of the Month: a July-born World Cricket XI

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

So he’s made an apology to Murali 10 years after the fact… but still hasn’t apologised to Christopher Mpofu for doing the same thing to win a test against Zimbabwe. Selective sportsmanship at its best.

Prime whingers: Albo responds as British PM joins meltdown, Boycott demands apology, McCullum still sooking

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

Oh for sure we did, but there’s a difference between “he cheated and it sucks” and all of this holier than thou bollocks.

COMMENT: Cummins failed the moral test and tarnished these Ashes. He had the chance to be a legend and blew it

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

What other game has these ‘moral tests’ that cause so much discord and whining? Do you think the Italians failed a moral test when Fabio Grosso fell over in 2006? Or did Neale Daniher fail a moral test in 1981 when Mike Fitzpatrick was done for time wasting? Give me a spell.

COMMENT: Cummins failed the moral test and tarnished these Ashes. He had the chance to be a legend and blew it

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

Good lord, there’s a worldwide pearl shortage the way they’ve been clutched so strongly here.

UK View: 'He didn't look like a leader. He looked pathetic' - Cummins caned but Poms also skewer 'dozy' Bairstow

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jul

When I did my alphabet teams series in 2020 one of the closest calls was Gawn vs Grundy for the G backup ruckman.

The last free years have showed me that I chose incorrectly.

Footy Fix: What's the point of Brodie Grundy if Gawn-less Dees get smashed like that?

View Comment
AFL
 
Mar

Good old Tinny Tim. Always keeps his sprits up.

I’m not as bullish on St Kilda (and yes, I know 13th is hardly bullish in the first place) – dipping back into the Ross Lyon well when there are significantly less out and out stars seems fraught with danger. This could be a litmus test for is it the coach or the players that make a team successful.

Gold Coast have to perform before I believe. They’ve barely got the crawls on the board, let alone the runs.

I want and expect Carlton to play finals but it’s been 11 years since a legitimate top 8 position so until it’s confirmed I’m going to be nervous and have that dark cloud of worry hovering over my head. On paper it’s all there but games aren’t played on paper.

AFL Oracle: These teams just missed the eight last year - can any of them go a step further in 2023?

View Comment
AFL
 
Mar

I daresay Ross Lyon will be waiting for Max King to come back and not his brother…

Daicos in the guts, Gawndy's first run and new coaches galore: Ten things to watch out for in AFL pre-season matches

View Comment
AFL
 
Feb

Let’s also not forget the most famous catch in Domestic cricket with Adam Dale’s stunner to remove Phil Emery. Whenever I see Jack Prestwidge playing these days I wonder what happened to the passing of time considering it was his father Scott that bowled that ball.

The history of Australian domestic limited-overs cricket: Part 3 (1993 to 2001)

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Those are both cracking teams, and still a few names missing that are worth discussing – Clive Rice, Vince van der Bijl, Morne Morkel, Denis Lindsay, ‘Tufty’ Mann who could have formed a really strong spin partnership with Tayfield if not for his untimely passing.

It’s easy enough to make an All Time XI with no restrictions but I enjoy the challenge of fitting players into a team where one selection could impact others as it offers more opportunity to research, learn about the history of the team and players etc. Would I know as much about Dave Nourse or Bonnor Middleton had I not insisted on having players from that era? Absolutely not.

The all-time XI for all time: South Africa

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

He played less than half the Tests in the 2000s than Pollock or anyone listed in the HMs – if I picked him it would be to represent the 2010s but then I would need a keeper. Do I choose Waite to displace Tayfield and unbalance the bowling, Cameron over Mitchell to unbalance the batting, Halliwell over Sinclair when the only selling point he has is that he played in the 1890s, Lindsay over Pollock (which I seriously considered but… it’s Graeme Pollock)… it’s all a very intriguing puzzle to put together.

Re: Nudge’s call on Kallis – he would have to replace SPollock for the 2000s but then the pace attack is Donald plus a couple of third seamers unless PPollock replaces GPollock but the same reasoning for not picking Denis Lindsay rears its head again.

The all-time XI for all time: South Africa

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Wade Seccombe, Darren Berry, Chris Hartley, maybe Graham Manou – all keepers with much higher claims to the gloves than Jimmy Maher.

I preferred Bichel to Kaspa but they both fill that role of genial Queenslander who was the 4th choice seamer behind McGrath/Gillespie/Lee.

Best of the rest: The Aussie XI that should have played more Test cricket

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Tayfield is a big call but I like the logic behind it. My immediate thought was Graeme Pollock but there are a lot of different ways you could go.

For Zimbabwe it’s either Flower or Heath Streak, India most would say Tendulkar, England has a lot of high level choices but no obvious standout that demands being name #1 on the team sheet.

Who makes the cut for Pakistan's all-time Test XI?

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Whitney wrote in his autobiography that the rest of the team were having a go at him for being so irresponsible and costing AB the chance for a first century in 3 years or so until Border told them he was going to declare anyway so shut up.

And they did.

Who makes the cut for Pakistan's all-time Test XI?

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Macartney had great figures (and inspired Bradman during his visit to the 1920-21 Sydney Test) but only 14 Tests made it tough – same as Dougie Walters only playing 20-odd Tests to Simpson and Lawry with 50-odd.

Lindwall was in my first draft team for the 1950s and more than anything else that’s a matter of preference but Miller has so much on- and off- field legend surrounding him that it was more fun to write about him 🙂

The all-time XI for all time: Australia

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

The main thing that gave Simmo the edge was that he could roll his arm over if need be. Turner over Spofforth is really a flip of the coin.

The all-time XI for all time: Australia

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

Apparently Turner was timed at around 55mph at the time, so a similar pace to the likes of Warne and Lyon these days.

The all-time XI for all time: Australia

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

They can only check if it carried IIRC. Surely that would have been given out as a result…

Cricket needs to consider law change or batters will keep exploiting benefit of doubt for low catches

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

I’m reading a book by Jack Pollard about wicketkeepers through the years at the moment and a common theme was that their hands would be mangled as anything and the majority would stand up to the stumps – whether Strudwick, Blackham, Carter etc – so much so that Godfrey Evans standing up to Alec Bedser in the 1950s brought back reminiscences of Tate and the like.

I vaguely remember Larwood being timed at 140 or so, I’d expect Tate to be not quite as rapid but still brisk.

The all-time XI for all time: England

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan

I did consider Simpson/Lawry but considered Hayden/Langer a more iconic pairing, same as Greenidge/Haynes (one could argue that the majority of great quicks were sitting in the dressing room while they were in the middle).

It’s interesting that most of the other nations don’t have that opening partnership synonymous with the team. Individual batters such as Graeme Smith, Sunil Gavaskar, and Glenn Turner, sure. Not so much their partners.

The all-time XI for all time: England

View Comment
Cricket
 
Jan
Older Comments
close