Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i Inside Sport

Amy Duggan noted that she had been in the magazine before – on the cover. WE’VE REACHED our triple century at the magazine – the 300th issue, notched up a quarter-century after the first appearance of Inside Sport in late 1991. While we’ve opted for a low-key raise of the bat rather than running around fist-pumping, we couldn’t help but note a couple of signposts in this edition that mark the passage of time. The first is Amy Duggan’s column on the upcoming W-League season. When we corresponded with Duggan, who covers the league for Fox Sports, she noted that she had been in the magazine before – on the cover. Back when she was known as Amy Taylor and playing for the Matildas, she indeed graced the cover in…

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The Bulldogs became the first team to win the flag from seventh place, an astonishing feat. This year the sporting world has taken us on an unforgettable and exhilarating ride. In this modern era of ultra-professionalism and spin, when we’re constantly fed cliched lines like “we’re just taking it one game at a time”, something shifted. Sport delivered the unpredictable, the unexpected and ultimately in many codes, the underdog! First there was Leicester City, who started the English Premier League season at 5000-1 to win the premiership. In a system where the big clubs get bigger and the small clubs continue to battle, Leicester City needed a miracle. And that’s exactly what happened. After a period of off-field turmoil, the club appointed a charismatic Italian manager and pulled together a…

Things were looking up for the Aussies in August last year, when in Sydney the Wallabies inflicted the New Zealand All Blacks’ first loss in nine Tests. The Kiwis, though, have since responded in the most devastating fashion possible, claiming a record 18-straight Test wins. So from Eden Park, where they opened their sequence in 2015 ... to Eden Park, where they wrapped up the consecutive-win record with a dominant 37-10 victory over the Aussies, we track the path of one of the most superb international sporting teams the world has ever seen.…

Even Andrew Gaze, an NBL partisan to the core, is blunt: “For a while there, it was suffering because the product wasn’t great.” The domestic hoops comp had been in such a beleaguered state for so long that its name became a byword for dysfunction. NBL general manager Jeremy Loeliger freely admits when the new regime of Larry Kestelman came in, “The league was so broken we could do anything we wanted with it.” The two years since Kestelman’s $7m takeover has seen some positive signs. The re-branding of the NBL, from the Hardball campaign to a uniform deal with noted hoops brand Mitchell and Ness, has been astute. The league has re-established itself on TV with Fox Sports, and has pushed its own live streaming option. The NBL has…

Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn is known for his ability to hit sixes. The Australian one-day and T20 player lit up BBL05 with his consistent display of power hitting. His performance reached its peak with a stunning feat of five consecutive sixes off Melbourne Stars bowler Ben Hilfenhaus in January. After overcoming serious shoulder injuries earlier in his career, Lynn can now lay claim to being one of the world’s best strikers of a cricket ball. We talked to the 26-year-old about how he trains for six-hitting, the physical preparation that goes into generating explosive power, and how his approach to playing cricket has changed over the course of his career. EXPLOSIVE EFFECT “Cross-training is a big one for me. I used to play a lot of rugby league when…

Esteemed as one of the world’s great cricket writers, Gideon Haigh is back on his turf with Stroke Of Genius. This book takes on Victor Trumper as its subject, but its focus is not limited to the legendary batsman – Haigh instead tells a story about the equally iconic 1905 photo taken by George Beldam, “Jumping Out”. You have a deep interest in Trumper – you named your cat after him. Was this book inevitable? I’ve nursed a lifelong devotion to the Trumper memory. But the strange thing is, the obvious subjects aren’t the ones you get around to. You lean against your own inclinations; it’s so personal that people couldn’t possibly share your enthusiasm. So it never crossed my mind to write a book about Trumper ... It wasn’t…

The state of Victoria prettied up and took the day off, the rest of us seethed at having to work, and Melbourne Cup day was off and running. The Robert Hickmott (Australia) trained 11/1 shot Almandin scored the chocolates in a thrilling finish over the Tony Martin-mentored Heartbreak City (obscured). Hey, there was even a horse race, featuring 24 animals competing for a total of $6 million in prizemoney. Only one of them was Aussie-bred. Bloody foreigners ... With 300m to travel to the finishing post, Almandin (left) and the Joao Moreira-ridden Heartbreak City GOT IT ON in as good a two-horse war up the straight in a Melbourne Cup you will ever see. The winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy and owner, Victorian businessman Lloyd Williams (Almandin’s owner, not Kerrin’s) celebrated…

In Saudi Arabia, 50,000 hostile locals made it an uncomfortable night for the ’Roos. Anyone who believes that qualifying for the World Cup through Asia is a cakewalk should take a look at the Socceroos’ passport stamps from the last two years. Theirs is a journey that would make even the most dedicated traveller wince. Starting in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan on a pitch with more bumps than a retired boxer’s nose, it continued on an artificial pitch in Tajikistan, just days after an insurgency killed ten people, meaning heightened security for the players and staff. Although the next excursion – to Jordan – was uneventful (save for the 2-0 loss), the trip to Dhaka for the heat and humidity of Bangladesh couldn’t have been much fun, not…

The past three editions of the UEFA Champions League have been dominated by El Clasico giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. With an abundance of world-class stars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez, over the past few seasons the two Spanish heavyweights have shared the most prestigious club trophy in world football. Though both sides are still among the favourites to conquer Europe this season, a few others have been strengthening their own squads in an ongoing attempt end the dominance of Real and Barca. Bayern Munich $4.50 The leading club from Germany is aiming to add to its five European crowns. Under Pep Guardiola, Bayern was knocked out by Spain’s big three consecutively across three semi-finals, while opportunities to repeat the club’s last success…

The sporting passion that drives players and volunteers every weekend is invaluable. But the economic contribution it makes can be measured – and it might surprise many just how large it is. A 2014 study from the Confederation of Australian Sport found the economic contribution of Aussie sport was $22.4 billion a year. With a participant base of 14.1m people, this amounted to $1588 per individual. The most significant portion of this contribution was in the area of worker productivity, which was estimated at $12 billion. The other major portion was the work of volunteers, whose efforts were valued at $8 billion. Sport also had an important role in promoting healthier lifestyles and reducing health care costs, and it was in this area that CAS’ report saw a need for…

“For me it was never about the ‘battle’ or anything like that. It was about what I was doing, what I was learning.” You’ve just been announced as the face of the 2017 Australian Open of Surfing at Manly beach (February 25-March 5). Sounds like an awesome opportunity … “I feel so lucky to be in the position I am to be able to take the role on and come down and support something I really enjoy doing. As far as any PR work is concerned, I’m excited about rolling along with it all. I’m pretty cruisy like that.” There seemed to be a theme to your answers in interviews throughout 2016: as soon as you realised you wanted it, it became easy. How so? “Once I decided to go…

FEELING MOODY In March 2016, Peter Moody, the man who took Black Caviar to an unprecedented 25-straight victories, walked away from racing. Suspended for six months after he was found to have presented a horse on race day with an illegal level of cobalt in its system, the trainer made the drastic decision to close down his Caulfield stables. How had it come to this? In Moods, respected journalist Helen Thomas traces Moody’s extraordinary career, and shines a spotlight on the cobalt scandal that engulfed him. Through interviews with family, colleagues and friends, and with Peter Moody himself, Thomas explores what drives the man who will always be remembered as Black Caviar’s trainer, and a true Aussie legend. RRP $34.99. Visit www.blackincbooks.com.au for more info. SUMMER FOOTY Look the part…

“There are plenty of other countries who I think would be good enough to play in women’s Test matches.” After securing the inaugural ICC Women’s Championship with a sweep of Sri Lanka last month, Meg Lanning and her Australian team-mates are on a new mission – to dominate the South Africans in their upcoming four-match ODI series (November 18-27). But while the Southern Stars’ success in that format of the game rampages along in their ultimate quest for back-to-back World Cup titles in London next year, a burning desire remains for our elite women’s players. If they could change one thing, Lanning and her peers would be playing more Test matches ... During her ODI debut series against England at Perth in 2011, Lanning became the youngest Australian player (men’s…

Women’s football is on a wave and has been for some time. Nerves, that’s what you feel as you run out onto the field. The smell of fresh-cut grass, the darkness of the tunnel gives way to sunshine on your face as you cross the white paint of the line. You know the battle is about to begin. There’s nothing quite like the first or the last game of a season. No matter the game, it’s a fantastic time to be involved in women’s sport. The unprecedented success of our golden girls over the past few years has led us into uncharted territory. One thing is for certain, we’re in a boom, a growth phase for female sport. The announcements keep coming like firecrackers: they’re big, they’re bright and they’re…

1 The contest to determine the grandest of grandmasters has begun in New York in earnest. Reigning champ Magnus Carlsen, who won chess’ top title in 2013 against Vishy Anand and defended it in a rematch a year later, lines up this time against Sergey Karjakin (pictured below left). 2 Okay, we can already hear the “chess is not a sport” objections, and it’s fine if you think that. But like the winners of the Olympic 100m sprint or heavyweight boxing crown, there’s a universal quality to being the best chess player on the planet. And for those who don’t think it’s physically taxing, here’s where we bring up Anatoly Karpov, who lost 10kg over the course of the 1984-85 championship match. 3 This is indeed a grand title; the…

“The Poms had a couple of tough guys back then. I remember one of them, Barrie McDermott; he had one eye!” WHETHER playing for Penrith in his earliest days, or for Souths, Manly or New South Wales, Mark Carroll is still regarded as one of the toughest enforcers ever to play The Greatest Game Of All. With the Rugby League Four Nations underway, we caught up with Carroll at his East Sydney gym – “Spudds”. The hardman backed up his 1990 Kangaroo Tour appearances with a spot for Australia in the 1995 World Cup final, played at Wembley Stadium in London. He sacrificed a lot to play in such a prestigious fixture, even his trusty old boots ... “I was fortunate enough to be part of the 1990 Kangaroo Tour.…

I was thinking, 'This is pretty good. I’ve got $2000 in the bank, won another $2.5k – I should retire!' In the mid-to-late 1980s, as Greg Norman plundered his way around the globe like a blond uber-man of golf, Australia actually had its own golf tour. There was the NSW Open, Victorian Open and the Queensland PGA. And they were all shown – seems quite incredible now – live on free-to-air television. The great Norman would return to Oz by Concorde and play on Concord, and stride about in his red happy pants, and we’d all tune in, and look at him. There was something about the man, something magnetic ... We’d watch him battle Rodger Davis, Bob Shearer, Wayne Grady and Ian Baker-Finch, and win just about everything…

In cricket, when the number comes up, you can be sure that something is up. The game abounds with numerical markers, but 300 often draws the line where performance begins to push into elite status, whether it’s a batsman embarked on an epic innings, a Test bowler with a career’s worth of vanquished opponents, or the one-day side scoring at a run-a-ball. As Inside Sport reaches its own 300th this summer, we put together a trio of our cricket thinkers to muse on the significance of the number – a triptych of the triple-hundred, as it were.…

"I REMEMBER SAYING AT THE TIME THAT I DIDN'T THINK THEY SCORED NEAR ENOUGH... THE REASON WAS BECAUSE THEY STARTED SO SLOW." THERE HAVE BEEN 19 ODI INNINGS OF 300 MADE OVER THE LAST SIX MONTHS. Aaron Finch was clinical in his answer, exuding professional certainty. “I don’t think,” said the hard-hitting opening batsman for the Australian limited-overs sides, “teams are overly daunted by a 300-run chase anymore.” The Victorian had reason to believe it. He had just made a half-century in 18 balls, matching the Australian record for fastest 50 in a one-day international. Finch’s hit-out propelled the Aussies to victory over Sri Lanka, reining in the target of 213 with 19 overs to spare. Only the day before Finch struck, England had burned up the scoreboards with a…

Think about quantity: Most of us – particularly men – are already raising our steak intake above and beyond what’s considered healthy. Eating too much red meat is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and some cancers, so stick to a serving of about 100g (raw) – which is roughly the size and thickness of your palm. And, of course, opt for lean cuts, such as rump steaks and eye-fillets, and trim away any visible white fat. A healthy alternative to meat is fresh seafood, such as prawns and salmon, as it has a fraction of the saturated fat of greasy sausages and burger patties. Cook it right: Barbecuing is one of the healthiest cooking methods because the high heat and a fast cooking time means you get…