Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Inside Sport

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1 Big-time football? The UEFA Champions League final is arguably the biggest annual football match on the planet, drawing an audience double that of the NFL’s Super Bowl. On June 3 the eyes of the world will be focussed on Cardiff’s Principality Stadium (above, and formerly known as Millennium Stadium) which will stage the final, making Wales the smallest country to host the European decider. 2 Think of this year’s Champions League as the tournament where sporting fairytales went to die; the best narratives ultimately couldn’t sustain themselves through the knockout rounds. Barcelona pulled off its unbelievable six-goal second-leg comeback against PSG, only to go out scoreless in the quarters – raising questions about whether Barca’s grand era has come to an end. Meanwhile, Leicester City, the darlings of 2016,…

Does it really matter where a footballer is born, or where he believes he’s from? REASONED ARGUMENTS IF YOU ARE ON THE BLUE SIDE Try to emphasise a simple argument – “Your origin is where you come from, which is where you’re born and raised. Especially if that place is Bowraville or Minto.” Politely offer any rival Queenslanders a deal – “If you stop picking blokes born outside of your state, we’ll gladly do the same.” IF YOU ARE ON THE MAROON SIDE Get real philosophical about the foundations of a person’s background: “Does it really matter where a footballer was born, where he first played his junior footy or where he believes he comes from?” If that doesn’t stick, pivot to NSW’s obvious advantage in population and player…

Eavesdrop on any pub discussion on State of Origin night, any viewing party in any living room in Australia. Eventually someone will produce that most bleeding-obvious statement; geez, he’s a great player, Johnathan Thurston. And that’s cool. We’ve all thought it, we all know it. It’s fact. But how exactly is he great? What do we mean when we label Thurston – 36 Origins deep into a stellar interstate career – one of the best ballplayers of all time? We also marvel at his determination. But doesn’t every Origin player, every athlete, want to win? Rarely do we have the deeper philosophies behind these queries explained to us past sound bites from euphoric television commentators. Inside Sport wanted answers; deeper analysis and explanation than the usual commentary provides. As luck…

Load up on Broncos Since Brisbane’s arrival in the comp in 1988, victorious Maroons sides have averaged 5.4 Broncos in the run-on line-up. The number has been as high as ten in 1999, to three in 2010 and ’13 (with the exception of the ARL-only side of 1995, which had one). Patience for Grasshopper Queensland awaits another Barry Gomersall – record in Origin matches refereed by Grasshopper: seven wins, two losses. Penalty count in that time: Queensland 65, NSW 56. Get a bloke from Roma Origin players from the western Queensland town (population approximately 7000) include: Artie Beetson, Willie Carne, Brent Tate and Darren Lockyer. Go the Big Rig! Ties are your friend The two drawn Origin matches, both deciding games, have worked just fine for Queenslanders – a 10-10…

Even after he had stepped down as the first coach of GWS, Kevin Sheedy was buzzing around the club’s Homebush base, with a role best described as evangelist. During an interview, he broke out a diary and a road atlas that detailed his journeys through the team’s academy zone. “You fly into the airport in Coffs Harbour, bang, Swans signs,” Sheedy said with approval. “You fly into Albury or Wagga, I want to make sure I have Giants in the airport.” Sheeds has since moved on, but what he and GWS seeded, particularly in the NSW-Vic border region, became the latest flashpoint of the academy debate. Under pressure from the clubs, the AFL stripped the area from the Giants’ academy zone earlier this year, which provoked a bitter reaction from…

YOU KNOW you’re getting close to BC Place Stadium in downtown Vancouver when, through the grey high-rises and specks of rain, you see the Super Mario Brothers eating great slabs of pizza and many Wallies declaring, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re drinking beer.” Rugby sevens has come to Vancouver, as it has come to the world. And it’s really quite cool. BC Place is bubbling inside, and full enough that you can’t get a ticket. On the sideline, flame-haired Englishman and former Fiji coach Ben Ryan is dressed in a red Canada jersey and firing T-shirts into the crowd with one of those air cannons that killed Maude Flanders. Big game on: Canada-Russia. Were these people playing ice hockey (or as locals call it, “hockey”) it would be front-page news…

In front of 85,657, star Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt was the hero on Anzac-eve at the MCG, kicking two goals in the final term as the Tigers overturned a 20-point deficit at the final change to beat the Melbourne Demons 88-75. Meanwhile in the 13-man code, the Sydney Roosters scored an epic 13-12 win over league-leaders St George-Illawarra at the SFS. In another Anzac Day heart-stopper between the two sides, Roosters half Mitchell Pearce kicked the Bondi boys home with a field goal in golden point, in front of a record Anzac Day crowd of 40,864. The next day at the G, to an audience of 87,685 this time, Essendon snapped a three-game Anzac Day losing streak to defeat Collingwood by 18 points, returning to form after a tough fortnight…

Feat of clay Roger got his wind-back-the-clock victory in Melbourne; will Rafa get his at Roland Garros? Nadal’s season has continued nicely since the Australian Open, and this French Open (May 22-June 11) shapes as the Spaniard’s best chance to win his first Slam in almost three years. With the rejuvenated Federer not doing any clay-court prep, and Novak Djokovic still mired in his form slump, Nadal could be looking at a remarkable tenth French Open title, putting Margaret Court’s single-Slam record of 11 Australian Opens within reach. On the women’s side, it’s all become a scramble, with a pregnant Serena Williams taking the rest of the year off. Worth asking: has defending champ Garbine Muguruza succumbed to the force that drags down every potential next great star on the…

To describe rugby league’s annual State of Origin series as pedestrian or predictable in response to Queensland’s ten victories from the past 11 events would be selling the series well short. Despite the Maroons’ current dominance, each year this interstate battle throws up more and more questions, which become obssessed over in the intense glare of the Origin spotlight. The ability to generate mass intrigue in the great unknown is perhaps State of Origin's greatest strength – not knowing what magic and drama this annual state-against-state smash-fest will produce next is what keeps us all, no matter our favourite flavour of sport, coming back. Here are five such unknowns ahead of the 2017 State of Origin series, and some possible answers … 1 This is Johnathan Thurston’s last year for…

Occupation golf professional Origin Columbia, South Carolina,United States Born June 22, 1984 Height 1.93m Weight 94kg World No.1, 2016 US Open champion, 15 PGA Tour victories, first player to win Status each of the four WGC titles, third player to win in each of his first ten seasons on the US Tour (with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods). MIND As obvious as Johnson’s talent was, so were the questions about his state of mind. He got a reputation for partying hard, and left the tour for personal reasons in late 2014 in what was rumoured to be a suspension for illicit drug use. On the course, he’d buckled notably under major pressure at the 2010 PGA (the non-bunker incident), the 2011 Open and the 2015 US Open. With his return…

In accordance with the AFL’s equalising spirit, its solution to the academy controversy was to give every club an academy ... sort of. Last year saw the start of the Next Generation academies, which will encourage teams to discover prospects from non-traditional football backgrounds, such as remote Indigenous communities or young people of Asian or African heritage. The 14 clubs outside of NSW and Queensland have been allocated their own zones in their home states, with Essendon, Geelong, Hawthorn, Collingwood and Melbourne also getting parts of the Northern Territory. Much like the rationale of the northern state academies, the emphasis of the program is to cultivate talent and support that the AFL otherwise wouldn’t get in the 11-to 18-year-old age range (while GWS lost its claim on the Murray region,…

Full of rare stats and lists of records, The Rugby League Records And Stats Trivia Book covers 100 years of rugby league history. All the great names are in there. Indeed, one of the great names in league stats put the book together! We quizzed him about his passion for the game ... and its numbers. You have followed rugby league for most of your life, but even in your former life as an accountant, did you find yourself watching the game via numbers – counting things done instead of watching the action? Initially no. As a very young boy I grew in a family that loved its rugby league. My dad was a very loyal worker for one of the local junior league sides. I had a passion for…

1 Even when you’ve won four premierships, you’re only as good as your last week – even to your own kids. Hawthorn great Luke Hodge shared a lighter side of the Hawks’ swoon in 2017, tweeting that he asked his son Cooper why he was laughing. The boy replied: “Do you know that you guys are on the bottom of the ladder?” 2 The NRL sends out a stern warning that players will be sin-binned... for slapping other players. Some blamed the punch being taken out of the game for the increased occurrence of slaps. And while some will still advocate for the place of fisticuffs in league, the open hand is verboten. “Slapping is not a good look for the game, and I support any efforts to ensure that…

After another storybook Masters, golf’s majors move along to the toughest tournament of the year, the United States Open. America’s national championship usually has the pros sweating pars, although this year’s venue – a new major host in Erin Hills in Wisconsin – promises to allow some scoring. Of course, that’s if the organisers don’t cook the greens or start assessing penalties out of nowhere again ... Jordan Spieth $11 Dustin Johnson will be the favourite, and rightly so (see why in Anatomy Of A Champ, p.58). So good is his recent record in this major that his odds lowered even after he missed the Masters because of his slip down the stairs. But we’ll be curious to see how Spieth, who won the 2015 US Open after Johnson three-putted…

Secret ingredient: eel Blues Origin series wins have coincided with Parramatta players claiming the Dally M Player of the Year award twice – in 1986 (Peter Sterling) and 2014 (Jarryd Hayne). How do you spell that? The Blues haven’t been short of a long surname over the years. Andrew Ettingshausen (pictured in a Blues winning year in 1994) helped NSW to a few series victories during his interstate career, as did Anthony Minichiello, of course. Tommy Raudonikis wasn’t as useful, only playing up to Origin’s inception match in 1980. Time for a scandal? In 2004, during/after a boozy bonding stretch, a NSW State of Origin player used a teammate’s phone to leave a lewd and offensive message on a woman’s answerphone. It sent the Blues camp into meltdown. The Blues…

IT’S A SWEET deal for an 11-year-old: a day of footy during school break, decked out in a Sydney Swans-branded hoodie, carrying a Swans-branded backpack that appears way too oversized for their slight frames. And, oh yeah, they get to play on the SCG. The honest-to-goodness Sydney Cricket Ground. Same one that Buddy Franklin and his mates play on. This is the entry level of the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, as it is officially known. There are 106 boys assembled in the seats of the members’ stand. Screens above them tout the next home match, the derby against the GWS Giants. For a club that has grown accustomed to success, the Swans are in an unfamiliar position, having gone winless to that point in the season. But it’s a minor…

IN THE MIDDLE of Canada, in an area roughly the size of the mighty island continent of Australia, there’s a lump of flat land known as “The Prairies”. It’s what we would call “the bush” or “the country”. Big sky country: flat horizon, gleaming blue sky, freezing fucking cold. And like much of Canada, there’s nothing to do except skate about on frozen lakes and whack at vulcanised black rubber bullets with the whacking sticks of ninjas. This is not entirely true. Indeed, there are many thousands of things to do in Canada, a crackerjack country much like our own except with southern neighbours far crazier than Kiwis. In Canada, you can eat a bison burger. You can wash it down with an India pale ale craftily brewed by a…

If you’ve got eggs, you’ve got breakfast, lunch and dinner! Affectionately called the poor man’s protein, eggs are an easy way to boost the satisfaction of any meal. Eggs join bread and milk as pantry staples, and are loved by chefs and athletes alike as they are tasty and packed with nutrition. You’ll find six grams of protein housed in one little shell. In fact, eggs have the highest nutritional quality protein of all food sources. Protein helps to keep you full and also assists with muscle recovery post-exercise. And, they’re a cracking way to start the day. Eating eggs for brekkie increases satiety and reduces hunger, compared to eating cereal or a croissant with the same number of kilojoules, according to a small study. Two eggs on wholemeal toast…