I don't think anyone outside of Philadelphia can fucking stand Sidney Crosby.

This is true, but even in general, I don't like him. I think as a person, he would be a prick, in my opinion of course. Dunno just me...

But also, Phillies HUGE win last night and hopefully Padilla will show up drunk this afternoon like his old days!!

Australian Rules Football. Greatest sport on the planet by a long long long way....

[JuZ]

Australian Rules Football. Greatest sport on the planet by a long long long way....

Indeed it is! Although we may be biased.

And I'm a huge sports fan so I'm not about to denigrate other sports! Love the EPL (although Liverpool have not exactly had the best start to the year - selling Xabi was a huge mistake, and we need help for Torres) and a bunch of other sports.

Back to aussie rules - Bradshaw's out of the Lions side, so it'll be an interesting draft with him, Luke Ball and a few others looking for a new home. Being a Pies supporter I'd be happy to get Ball, but was also very happy we didn't offer more for him than we did, and won't be upset if he ends up elsewhere. Got Sidebottom and Beams to slot into the midfield full-time in the next two seasons, so Ball would just be a very nice bonus to getting Darren Jolly.

Who's going to be a flag chance next year? I'd say Geelong up there again for one more tilt before a few blokes get too old ala Brisbane a few years ago. Will be interesting to see how the Saints rebound from the GF loss. Terrific, tough side. Could have (maybe should have) won the GF if they had kicked straight and stuck to their game plan. Pies, Crows and Dogs to be up there again in the top six, and I'm really curious to see if Hawthorn can get it together and stay fit, and how they'll go if they do. Carlton's forwardline and to a lesser extent their backline just doesn't match up with the quality of its midfield to be a serious contender yet I think. Midfield is absolute class when they have their tail up though. Don't think anyone else is a real flag chance - West Coast need two more years, Essendon need time too. North rebuilding, Sydney may do ok but can't win the premiership, Port way off, Melbourne a couple of years away Freo are Freo, Brisbane will be very interesting with Black and Rich feeding Brown and Fevola but not good enough to win the flag either.

Footy rant over - hate this time of year when footy's finished and cricket hasn't begun.

Australian Rules Football. Greatest sport on the planet by a long long long way....

Indeed it is! Although we may be biased.

And I'm a huge sports fan so I'm not about to denigrate other sports! Love the EPL (although Liverpool have not exactly had the best start to the year - selling Xabi was a huge mistake, and we need help for Torres) and a bunch of other sports.

Back to aussie rules - Bradshaw's out of the Lions side, so it'll be an interesting draft with him, Luke Ball and a few others looking for a new home. Being a Pies supporter I'd be happy to get Ball, but was also very happy we didn't offer more for him than we did, and won't be upset if he ends up elsewhere. Got Sidebottom and Beams to slot into the midfield full-time in the next two seasons, so Ball would just be a very nice bonus to getting Darren Jolly.

Who's going to be a flag chance next year? I'd say Geelong up there again for one more tilt before a few blokes get too old ala Brisbane a few years ago. Will be interesting to see how the Saints rebound from the GF loss. Terrific, tough side. Could have (maybe should have) won the GF if they had kicked straight and stuck to their game plan. Pies, Crows and Dogs to be up there again in the top six, and I'm really curious to see if Hawthorn can get it together and stay fit, and how they'll go if they do. Carlton's forwardline and to a lesser extent their backline just doesn't match up with the quality of its midfield to be a serious contender yet I think. Midfield is absolute class when they have their tail up though. Don't think anyone else is a real flag chance - West Coast need two more years, Essendon need time too. North rebuilding, Sydney may do ok but can't win the premiership, Port way off, Melbourne a couple of years away Freo are Freo, Brisbane will be very interesting with Black and Rich feeding Brown and Fevola but not good enough to win the flag either.

Footy rant over - hate this time of year when footy's finished and cricket hasn't begun.

We ARE biased. I think growing up in Melbourne, Footy has spoiled me for other sports. I really can't get into any other sports, just cricket in summer and tennis when there's Aussies doing well. I certainly can't get into any other Football codes. Footy is just so fast, so flowing, so attacking, so skilful, such a grand and panoramic spectacle. After going to Grand Finals and other big games at the greatest sporting arena on the planet, within walking distance, with 70, 80, 90 and 100,000 other people, everything else just pales by comparison.
I'm pretty confident my beloved Hawks can bounce back after a horror year crueled by injuries, and recapture some of the magic of a 2008 that is almost surreal to me now. Good pick ups in Burgoyne and Gibson. I think we'll be top 4 again. The Pies....they'll definitely be thereabouts again. Jolly = best ruck in the League IMO, and my Missus is a massive Swans supporter, so I've seen plenty of him over the past few years....

[JuZ]

I reckon there are two opposition culbs I'll be watching with extra interest next year - Brisbane and the Hawks. Voss seems to be on crack, signing and delisting players - he's either a genius or an idiot. As a player he was a genius but all signs during his TV career pointed to idiot. Will be fun to watch anyway!

Hawks - who knows how they'll go? Will Buddy be back to 2008 form, will they stay injury free? The Age just reported that Clinton Young may never play again with his hip injury. There's doubt over Ladson too. Campbell had to retire. But there are still plenty of young guns at the club, and they beat Geelong in the GF just a year ago, so I guess it's watch this space.

I agree that Jolly's the best ruck too - I live in Canberra so we have Sydney games thrust upon us, like them or not (in my case, definitely not!). He's a gun - got 53 hitouts against us this year. Cox wasn't at this best and Sandilands is a dinosaur around the ground. Very happy!

Too many months to go...

I reckon there are two opposition culbs I'll be watching with extra interest next year - Brisbane and the Hawks. Voss seems to be on crack, signing and delisting players - he's either a genius or an idiot. As a player he was a genius but all signs during his TV career pointed to idiot. Will be fun to watch anyway!

Hawks - who knows how they'll go? Will Buddy be back to 2008 form, will they stay injury free? The Age just reported that Clinton Young may never play again with his hip injury. There's doubt over Ladson too. Campbell had to retire. But there are still plenty of young guns at the club, and they beat Geelong in the GF just a year ago, so I guess it's watch this space.

I agree that Jolly's the best ruck too - I live in Canberra so we have Sydney games thrust upon us, like them or not (in my case, definitely not!). He's a gun - got 53 hitouts against us this year. Cox wasn't at this best and Sandilands is a dinosaur around the ground. Very happy!

Too many months to go...

Yep, hate the off-season. Cricket doesn't quite enthral me like it used to...

Fuck you! The local sports team from my area is better than the local sports team from your area!

Cricket doesn't quite enthral me like it used to...

A man who is tired of cricket is tired of life. As Samuel Johnson almost said.

Biert, do you have cricket at all?

We have cricket! And apparently we're not all that awful. We're 11th in the rankings... Alright, we're 11th out of 12 teams but hey, we're somewhere on there!

[swervedriver]

So... I watched the F1 race yesterday as well as the 125, 250 and MotoGP races and was thoroughly entertained. Button really showed his class yesterday by pulling off some very daring overtaking maneuvers to take 5th place coming from 14th and take the world championship. Of course he was quite lucky with all the crashes around him, but he still showed he knows how to race so I thought it was quite deserving. Stoner's return to MotoGP after a 2-month absence is nothing short of amazing, taking 2nd place last time and winning his home race this weekend. In my book he seems like the only person to be able to consistently fight (and occasionally beat) Rossi, thus making every race interesting. Lorenzo is a good rider, but he's basically riding a bike Rossi has been helping to improve for years. I doubt he would be as strong if he was riding with a different team. Still a shame he crashed out yesterday at the start, would've made the championship much more interesting if Rossi wasn't going into the last 2 races with a 38 point lead... Then again, I'm a Rossi fan anyway.

Sorry to interrupt all this cricket/hockey talk, or whatever particular sport this thread has been about so far.

Sorry to interrupt all this cricket/hockey talk, or whatever particular sport this thread has been about so far.

It's ok, it's the SPORTS thread.

Two football-related statements...

1. For any Liverpool fans raging about "Ballgate", AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
*ahem*
Yeah, the match against Sunderland essentially 100% proved that Liverpool are NOTHING without Torres and Gerrard.

2. For anyone French, choo reckon about the World Cup Playoffs draw? We're sort of shitting it playing ye, because of the star power on the French team, but inconsistency has been looming it's head a lot this campaign, and possibly no Ribery or Henry for the games is giving us mild hope.
I heard a French reporter saying that there's some fear of us because, well, everyone hates Domenech being a useless shithead, and everyone thinks Trapattoni is the dogs bollocks.

So yeah, thoughts on that? D'ye reckon we'll really just be a weak pushover or are ye genuinely a bit worried about drawing us as opposed to any of the other three possibilites?

Also, if maxoulou is reading, maybe pop off to November 18th there and let us know who goes through, eh?

Now, to MotoGP, and it must be said that Lorenzo doesn't deserve the title this year because he simply has been way too sloppy at crucial times. He had to perform at Phillip Island to get his nose right up Rossi's ass for the last two races and he failed in the first bloody corner! He needs to get rid of the mistakes and keep on the bike consistently through the season before he can have any aspirations of winning the title. I agree with swerve about Stoner being something simply out of this world, and it's a damn shame he was missing for so much of the season with those fatigue problems. Hopefully next season he'll be there all year and we can get a proper lunatic battle for the title. Rossi's got it this year unless something miraculous happens.

Also lold hugely at DeAngelis nearly binning it on the straight at the end of the race after his hyper-wheelie nearly careened him into the pit wall!

In the 125s, nice to see Julian Simón get the title. He worked his arse off this year and was thoroughly impressive throughout. Absolutely brilliant passing manoeuvre on the third from last corner to get past Smith to clinch it.

250ccs... It's definitely the most interesting at the moment in terms of closeness in the title race. Aoyama, Simoncelli, Bautista and Barberá all still in it. The drama never fucking stops in this class this year! Race red flagged due to a majorly nasty crash for Locatelli which immediately knocked him out. Simoncelli's on a fucking tear the last few weeks. Last five races he's come first four times and didn't finish one in San Marino. That's the most consistent dominance the class has seen this year, even with the DNF. Aoyama, leading the Championship, is going permanently backwards, it seems. Bautista had a disaster and crashed but got back on to be 10th and earn some points, at least, and Barberá came second! So the top four are now separated by 33 points with a max of 50 left up for grabs. Oh the finish to this is gonna be goooood.

I'll be back to spam more sports rambling about the Champions League shortly.

Three posts in a row but I just heard a guy on the radio making this point this morning and I thought it was great. With the Champions League upon us again tonight and tomorrow we can expect plenty hard tackles, and also plenty light ones, all with a lovely hint of over-exaggeration and diving. And if, heaven forbid, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Didier Drogba are hit on the nose by a falling snowflake, they'll hit the deck and roll around as if they've been shot point blank with a shotgun.

So consider the insignificant things footballers head to the touchlines for treatment for, and then consider this:


Ruby Walsh at Ascot, trapped underneath his dead horse, Sanglote. And as soon as the horse was removed he got up and walked off.

tl;dr: The football world needs more Vinnie Jones type characters and less overacting muppets who require a small operation for stubbing their toe in the grass...

Also thread bamp.

[JuZ]

Three posts in a row but I just heard a guy on the radio making this point this morning and I thought it was great. With the Champions League upon us again tonight and tomorrow we can expect plenty hard tackles, and also plenty light ones, all with a lovely hint of over-exaggeration and diving. And if, heaven forbid, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo or Didier Drogba are hit on the nose by a falling snowflake, they'll hit the deck and roll around as if they've been shot point blank with a shotgun.

So consider the insignificant things footballers head to the touchlines for treatment for, and then consider this:


Ruby Walsh at Ascot, trapped underneath his dead horse, Sanglote. And as soon as the horse was removed he got up and walked off.

tl;dr: The football world needs more Vinnie Jones type characters and less overacting muppets who require a small operation for stubbing their toe in the grass...

Also thread bamp.

Agree that football has become far too soft - where are the hardnuts these days?

Not that it bothers me too much as I live in a country full of tough sports and my wife is a roller derby chick - no wimping out there!