Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2017 i Inside Sport

How the public reacts to the political athlete is always fascinating. JUST WHEN we thought sportspeople had become entirely anodyne, we now have a full-blown outbreak of athletes taking a stand on a slew of issues. Whether it’s the current political climate, or a generational characteristic, or the mind-altering effects of social media, we could be seeing an era of militant sport stars akin to the 1960s. How the public reacts to the political athlete is always fascinating (the Australian sporting public particularly). There are the supporters and haters either side, including those who don’t care much for the sport, but revel in the back-and-forth on the issue. There’s the don’t-mix crowd, usually conflict-averse and polite; the less-polite hurl the “who cares what you think, you play a game”. Either…

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Connect four We’re down to the UEFA Champions League semis (May 2-3 and 9-10) this month, with its familiar cast of characters. We’ll devote this space to giving Barcelona credit, even if they fail to advance to the last four – Barca’s comeback effort against PSG in the round of 16 was the stuff of legend, even by the standards of the venerable Catalan super-club. To turn around a 4-0 deficit from the first leg was amazing; to overcome Edinson Cavani’s away goal with another three scores after the 88th minute was fanciful. Whatever else happens in the Champs League this season (even if, dare we say it, Real beats the back-to-back hoodoo), Barca’s 6-1 win will be the thing it’s most remembered for. And to think the manager is…

It was anything but an extended holiday for Nat Fyfe as he recovered from a second broken leg during most of last year. “Once I was ruled out for the season, I started to think creatively as to how I was going to get through a long rehab stint,” Fyfe said. “From discussions with Jason Weber, our high-performance and strength and conditioning coach, we decided that my eight-week, off-season period needed to be utilised.” Plan A saw Fyfe spend two weeks in Perth, working intensely on his speed and strength, as well as testing the injured leg with repeated jumping and landing exercises. Plan B, however, highlighted the stop-at-nothing approach that Fyfe applies. Fyfe, along with team-mate Alex Pearce (also returning from a broken leg), spent two weeks training in…

Author Malcolm Gladwell , the person most responsible for why you hear the terms “ tipping point” and “outlier ” dropped into conversation these days, has been known to draw on basketball when making one of his characteristic analogies. In his podcast series, he had devoted an episode to antisocial courage of the underhand free throw; a couple of episodes later, he was at it again, this time talking about why wealthy people donate to already-rich universities. Gladwell introduced the context of “weak” links and “strong” links, referencing the work of football analysts David Sally and Chris Anderson. They posit that football is a weak-link game – that the quality of a team’s 11th-best player was more influential in winning matches than its star. In a sport with few scores,…

Aussie Dan Ricciardo’s home Grand Prix was basically over before it began. He crashed during qualifying on Saturday, and was also penalised five grid spots for a gearbox change before the race. THEN his car suffered an electrical fault on a procession lap, locking his vehicle in sixth gear. He finally started the race two laps after everybody else from pit lane. Out on the track, pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes beat Ferrari’s Seb Vettel out of the first turn. On lap 29 of the 58-lap journey, Ricciardo’s race was over, with his car coming to a complete stop. “Sorry mate. Car is done. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he told colleagues over the team radio. German Vettel, who had endured two winless seasons over the last three…

ANZAC Day Footy 1 Our most solemn day of military remembrance is now distinguished as an entire week of red-letter football fixtures. While footy’s eagerness to indulge in martial associations can be off-putting, what better way is there to get large groups of Australians together than to bring out the crowds for a big match? 2 For the modern concept of an Anzac Day blockbuster, we have Kevin Sheedy’s fertile mind to thank. While AFL/VFL and rugby league matches have been held on April 25 going back decades, it was the then-Essendon coach’s idea to give an Anzac game an event feel. Sheedy, who had served two years in the army during his playing career, gained the support of the RSL and Collingwood. When the Bombers and Magpies met in…

“LAST SEASON WAS THE SEASON FROM HELL, COLLECTIVELY AND INDIVIDUALLY … AT THE END OF THE DAY THERE ARE STILL SO MANY THINGS THAT YOU JUST CAN’T CONTROL.” Nat Fyfe wants our conversation to be about the Fremantle team, about learning from the disastrous 2016 season and, importantly, about reclaiming respect from the AFL community. And it is. But it’s also about him. Fyfe’s career is a microcosm of what the Dockers are fighting to become. His evolution is their evolution. It’s Nat’s team now, and his ability to steer them in the right direction will have a major say on the club’s fortunes. “I am really keen to acknowledge where we’re at as a team, and as a club,” Fyfe said shortly after the club’s 2017 season launch. “As…

MIND In elevating his game during 2016 to international player-of-the-year levels, Barrett made his greatest improvement on the decision-making side. The All Blacks and their fans grew long-accustomed to Dan Carter’s rugby genius in the no.10, and his successor would have to live up to that standard. Barrett showed that he was capable enough in the game management stakes, as well as flashing touches of intuitive brilliance – like his length-of-the-field intercept try against France in a Test last November – that even Carter couldn’t match. SPEED Among Barrett’s many talents, this is his standout attribute – Wallabies fans won’t soon forget his kick-ahead, chase-down try that iced the 2015 World Cup final. Having established himself in the early part of his international career as the All Blacks’ super-sub, he…

"A thing my coach told me was, 'You have to forget you have skis on your feet.'” Like many of our aerial skiers, you made the transition after competing at an elite level in another sport, gymnastics. Can you tell us about your sporting background? Yeah, I was the youngest to be offered a scholarship at the AIS. From a young age, I was very driven and had the idea of going to the Olympic Games one day. I retired when I was 13; very young. By the time you turn 18, you’re old in the sport. Unfortunately, the program I was training in fell apart and I never got the opportunity to reach my full potential. I looked elsewhere – I started getting my hands on any other sport…

Politics is the organised control, overt or covert, of a community or field of endeavour and of its resources and power. The sporting heroes I refer to here – the recognised, unrecognised, misunderstood and manufactured – are folk heroes and personal heroes, regardless of their significance to non-sports lovers, many of whom resent the use of “hero” in relation to players of games. Politics, in various guises, is taking sport in new directions. Some cling to the ideal that the two should “never mix”, but their citadel of Timeless Values is a castle in the air. What party politics hasn’t exploited, cultural politics has. Sport, ideally the purest, simplest and most “democratic” expression of human endeavour, lies beside a clinging bedfellow. Sometimes, after sharing an intoxicating brew of social issues…

Travelling for training and competitions can lead to disruptions and distractions to your usual eating habits. But with a little careful planning, you can keep your diet on track so you’re ready to perform at your best. Plan ahead: Depending on how long you are away for, and the type of travelling you are doing, it’s quite easy to pack you own food and healthy snacks so you don’t have to rely on the unhealthy options at roadside stops. If you are travelling by car, pack an esky or cooler bag with pre-prepared meals, sandwiches, wraps and snacks, such as muesli bars, protein balls, yoghurt and fruit. And don’t forget to pack a drink bottle to avoid dehydration while on the road. Flying interstate or overseas presents extra challenges, but…

1 NFL prospect John Ross broke the speed record at the league’s draft combine, clocking 4.22sec over the 40-yard benchmark (that’s 36.5m for you metric diehards). Before the event, Adidas had offered a novel prize – a private island – for anyone who broke the record. One catch: they had to wear Adidas shoes. Alas, Ross wore Nikes and missed out on the prize, but he wasn’t too hung up on it: “I can’t swim that well.” 2 Yet another entry for the “boy, those Russians are hard” file: Russian MP Igor Lebedev, trying to pre-empt crowd violence issues at next year’s FIFA World Cup, called for hooliganism to be legalised. If you’re not sure what Lebedev means, search YouTube for the video of Russian fans wearing MMA-style gloves taking…

We received a tremendous response to The Clubbies, our community sport awards co-presented with the Confederation of Australian Sport and our partner Polar. In the second year of these awards, we received hundreds of entries from across Australia. The submissions aÿrmed our belief that the grassroots are what makes our great sporting nation go. We read countless stories about coaches who care, volunteer committees working invaluable hours and clubs full of participants who prove that the passion to play knows no age requirement. We’ve selected finalists in our five categories – here we present our lists for the best coach and best club stalwart categories. These two categories draw, perhaps, the most passionate submissions every year. Weekend warriors, as well as parents of sporting juniors, are beyond grateful to the…

Amid this free agency era of ours, rumour and intrigue surrounding a star player’s contract has reached unprecedented levels. When Gary Ablett (pictured right) signed with the newly formed Gold Coast Suns in 2010, the door to the new world was unlocked. Entering 2017, the fascination about whether fellow Brownlowmedallist Nat Fyfe and Richmond star Dustin Martin will stay at their respective clubs or accept the offers from cashed-up rivals is certain to lead the season’s narrative. It’s something Fyfe is aware of, but he remains adamant that the decision will be his and his alone. “I refuse to just tick boxes, or bow to external pressures,” he said. “If you look at my history when signing contracts, there should be no surprises; everyone should know how this story is…

September 1982: The eyes of the sporting world – the Commonwealth countries at least – are on QEII Stadium. Close to 1600 athletes from 45 nations have converged on the Queensland capital of Brisbane to compete in 141 events across 12 sports in the latest instalment of the Commonwealth Games. Every Games has a mascot, and this year it’s Matilda, who television sports caller Norman May crowns “Australia’s First Lady” during Opening Ceremony commentary. Matilda, a six-tonne, 13m-high kangaroo (actually a heavy-duty industrial forklift truck) enters the arena, Along The Road To Gundagai screeching out of the stadium’s sketchy speakers. Trojan horse-like, and with a “pouch” filled with children dressed as joeys, she begins a lap of the QEII running track. Every time she winks, swishing her seductively long eyelashes,…

Sure, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks lifted their first-ever premiership trophy on the back of the game smarts of five-eighth James Maloney, the toughness and leadership of veteran Paul Gallen and the longevity of the ultra-reliant Luke Lewis. But an equally important component to the Shire Boys’ success along the way has been Andrew Gray. The Sharks’ Physical Performance Manager for two and a bit seasons, Gray has been in and around NRL squads for just on two decades; he’s a physiotherapist, strength and conditioning specialist and sports scientist rolled into one. Where the Sharks’ head coach, Shane Flanagan, will generally be responsible for tactical preparation and skill acquisition of this players, Gray heads up the performance side of the club, focussing on three key areas: strength and conditioning, sports medicine and…

Craig Wilcox is a historian whose new book Badge, Boot, Button looks at uniforms in Australian culture. What our soldiers, schoolchildren, nurses and, yes, sportspeople wore has something to tell us about the nation over time. We have some distinct sport uniform icons: the baggy green cap, the Aussie rules guernsey. But as you explain in your book, we inherit and adapt our tradition of uniforms ... Not until after the Second World War, when Australians were a bit more confident to do their own thing; we’re watching carefully what’s going on overseas. The classic story is the first female Australian track athlete at the Olympics, in 1928, Edith Robinson. She gets a sewing machine out and cuts down what she’s wearing so it matches her competitors, because they’re a…