Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2015 i Inside Sport

WE TAKE OUR selections of the Top Ten Australian Sportspeople of the Year very seriously around here. As you would. But I have a hunch we’re going to get some stick this time around – as we usually do. But maybe more than usual. Why no Nat Fyfe, Brownlow medallist? No Massimo Luongo – player of the tournament in a winning Asian Cup campaign? No Mitchell Starc – player of the One-Day World Cup and undoubtedly the world’s best white-ball bowler? No Rohan Dennis, winner of the Tour Down Under, world hour record-holder, world champion team time-triallist, Tour de France stage-winner? No Matthew Dellavedova, toast of the USA when the NBA Finals came around? No Israel Folau, deemed the rugby player of the year (again) when they handed…

Scottish pro Chris Doak cared not for the burn at the Old Course, splashing out for his second shot at the Dunhill Links Championship. His luck would run out, though – Doak withdrew a round later because of a wrist injury. This is how you explode out of the tunnel pre-game ... Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ receiver Vincent Jackson was Action Jackson as his team went up against Jacksonville. Fired up as he was, Jackson had only one catch, but the Bucs did win. First thing that comes to mind: hope that bloke is covered for dental ... Mike Sawyer copped one from Jimmy Lange in their light heavyweight bout in Virginia, which Lange won – no surprise – by TKO. Carlos Sainz experienced a force of 46G in this scary…

1 Which winner of the AFL Rising Star Award went on to play the most career games? 2 In which individual swimming event have both Cate and Bronte Campbell been world champions? 3 Before 2015, what was the last year that neither Hawaii Ironman Triathlon winner was Australian? 4 How many of the 11 Presidents Cup tournaments have been won by the Internationals? 5 What number car did the all-female team drive at the 2015 Bathurst 1000: 100, 200 or 300? 6 What is the only Australian state to have had three grounds host a Test cricket match? 7 How many tries were scored in the 2015 NRL grand final? 8 Ireland has now reached the quarter-final stage of the Rugby World Cup how many times without progressing further? 9…

GEORGIA WHO? Sheehan was just eight years old when she first saw her idols compete. By the time she had just turned 15, she was competing alongside them at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the youngest member of the Australian diving team. “Georgia keeps surprising us” says her coach, three-time Olympian Mathew Helm. As she did in Glasgow last year: the Ipswich-bred diver placed fourth. “I couldn’t believe I’d come so close to a medal” she says. The success and subsequent self-belief has sparked an 18-month purple patch. Since Glasgow, she has accumulated 19 medals from various Australian and international events – seven gold, four silver, eight bronze. Now she’s building to the Rio 2016 qualifying event; Sheehan says the trials are as close to the Games as possible…

AND SO we turn our attention to summer’s second Test series, and another set of inbound cricket tourists, our old friends from the West Indies who bring a storied and proud history of dashing, fearsome, often-times wonderful “calypso” cricket ... and a squad featuring players who’d struggle to get a start with Randwick-Petersham. Actually, they’re not that bad. Some are actually quite good. But once the dominant force of world cricket, today the Windies are, as the saying goes, deep in despair. Step back. I know what you’re thinking: Ripper. Another in the great canon of “what’s wrong with West Indies cricket” yarns. Soon he’ll be harking back to the ’80s and talking about Viv Richards’ cool arrogance and strut and well-muscled buttocks, and lamenting politics and money and how…

BACK IN September, Australia had another cycling world champion crowned, in Andorra. Usually, such an esteemed addition would be hailed widely, especially in the lead-up to an Olympic year, as our worldbeater joins a distinguished roll call of rainbow jersey-wearers. But even Janine Jungfels calls trials riding the “quirky cousin of mountain bike riding” and understands if we missed it, though she’d like that to change – and we reckon her achievement deserves its place right alongside cycling’s superstars. Think gymnastics or parkour on two wheels and you get the idea: competitors traverse an obstacle course divided into sections, scoring points if they are forced to put their feet on the ground (one point one foot, five points two feet – yes, this is a sport where you DON’T want…

Santa’s a pretty switched-on bloke. As well as knowing if you’ve been naughty or nice all year, he’s also clued-up as to which sports you’re into. (That’s kinda creepy, actually). If he delivers a sports equipment gift to you this year, bring it along to grandma’s or to you cousins’ house because, without any sport on TV, that ball or bat is going to be vital for keeping yourself and your relos entertained throughout the day. What makes the following sports so great is they can be played and enjoyed by anyone, regardless of gender, age or athletic ability. Some may argue further that, if it can’t be played on Christmas Day with stubby in hand, let it go through to the ‘keeper. On that note, we present our top…

THREATENED KIWIS The Wellington Phoenix haven’t been the most successful franchise in the A-League, but they’re not Robinson Crusoe. They do, however, add a bit of something to the competition, and it would be nice to think that the A-League has added something to New Zealand football in return. Did the participation of the Phoenix in the A-League assist, even in a small way, in NZ qualifying for the 2010 World Cup and nearly doing so in 2014? I’d like to think so. One problem with NZ football is that it is stuck in the Oceania Football Confederation along with a number of other fine nations who, despite their many other qualities, can’t play football. So NZ can organise a few friendlies with nations that can actually play, but to…

“This will probably go down as the best loss in my career ... We know the history of Wales and we are the first team to actually qualify properly.” – Welsh football star Gareth Bale, on his team making it to Euro 2016. Wales had made only one previous major tournament appearance, the 1958 World Cup, via a play -off after another team withdrew. “Dick Johnson hasn’t finished heaps of races, so he can’t talk.” – V8 driver Renee Gracie, half of the all-girl duo racing at the Bathurst 1000. Johnson had said the pair was a million-to-one to finish the Great Race. “I was relieved after the first press conference. I have said some stupid things in my life. But never in English ... Did I dream about becoming…

CRICKET If it feels like we’ve seen more Test cricket at Trent Bridge than at the WACA recently, well, it’s because we have. Five-dayers return to Perth after slipping off the schedule over the ’14-15 summer, with the Second Australia vs New Zealand Test (from Nov 13). Between the teams’ pace attacks, this should be a cracking return to WA. This too-short series concludes with the Third Test (from Nov 27) in Adelaide, and no matter what the status of the contest, there’s a surefire talking point –pink ball! Too many questions to ponder from the first day-night Test, but here is the first one to GT’s mind: can people wrap their minds around the tea break coming before “dinner”? Out with the Black Caps and in with our visitors…

Whatever you want to call it: soccer, football... Australia goes pretty damn okay at it. And a man who probably doesn’t get enough credit for Australia’s tough, no-nonsense approach to the game today is former Socceroos captain Paul Wade. One of the true legends of the round-ball game in this country, Wade was an inspirational midfielder – especially in defence – across 118 appearances for the green and golds throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. Born in Cheshire in the UK in 1962, he represented Australia at the 1988 Olympics and was involved in two World Cup qualification campaigns. He played 345 games in the old National Soccer League, including a nine-year stretch for South Melbourne. He was named NSL Player of the Year in 1988 and won a title with…

AN AUGUST NIGHT, not your usual cricketing hour. Unless, as it happened to be, an Ashes match was on in England, Nottingham’s Trent Bridge to be more precise. It was the fourth game of a series that had already shown itself to be capricious, mainly tied to the fortunes of Australia’s top order. When it performed to expectations, like it did in the Second Test at Lord’s where a Steve Smith double-ton led to a first-innings total of 566, the Aussies won the match. When it didn’t, induced to nervy collapse by the sideways-moving ball and dependent more than once on a tail-led bailout, the English had claimed the other two contests in Cardiff and Edgbaston. Before the opening session at Trent Bridge, the jitters mixed with the assurances. The…

as good as it gets a keeper worth considering ho-hum in the bin BOOKS LEADING BY ALEX FERGUSON WITH MICHAEL MORITZ, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $39.99 Sir Alex Ferguson might be the last of the sideline doyens, as quarter-century-long stints at the one club just aren’t the way things are done anymore. The end of his legendary tenure at Man United naturally segued into that sphere of management guru-dom, even as Fergie protests that he’s not exactly the type to tell football parables in boardrooms. And yet, here’s the book. Co-written with Michael Moritz, head of noted Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital, Leading is less a manifesto of principles and more the story of how Ferguson went about his business. Get past the corporate allusions (unless, of course, you’re into…

WINNER Couldn’t help but love those internet memes that illustrated how rugby’s “World” Cup only applied to half the planet. Yep, it’s a proud moment for our rugby hemisphere, which went to the game’s historic birthplace and proceeded to lock their northern counterparts out of the tournament’s last four. Furthermore, the open, athletic style of the south proved itself an effective way to win, as well as an attractive way to play. Particular credit should go to Argentina, now a two-time Cup semi-finalist and on the cusp of joining Super Rugby – seeing how the sport has progressed there over the last few decades is proof of what can be cultivated when a game commits itself to being global. Some astute observers noted that there was a bit too much…

AUSTRALIA’S LATEST WORLDBEATERS A roll call of world champions emerged from last month’s IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha. Carlee Beattie (Qld, above left) soared to the top of the podium (finally!) in the T47 long jump for athletes with arm deficiencies. Her trophy cabinet already contained the silver medal from the London 2012 Paralympic Games, as well as a silver and bronze from the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2013 and 2011 respectively. She was thrilled to make the step up: “I’ve always been the bridesmaid, so to have this before Rio is such a massive confidence boost. It will give me the drive to keep going, to want it even more and to make sure that I can do the same thing again at the Paralympic Games” Scott…

The Big Bash League is back in all its frenetically paced pomp, ready to reclaim cricketing nights for T20. Again, it’ll rush by in little more than a month through the holidays – 35 games in 39 days, which will see the return of the final to the home ground of the best qualifier after last year’s detour to Canberra. And while BBL has become the face of domestic cricket (sorry Sheffield Shield), the influx of top-level international talent (McCullum! Sangakkara! Gayle! KP!) promises a bigger Bash this season. SAFE BET Okay, we admit it – after shortchanging the Perth Scorchers over the last few years, there really is no safer bet in this capricious game than the franchise out west. We recommended brushing the Scorchers last year, arguing they…

JASON DAY HAD AUTHORED AN ALL-TIME MOMENT IN GOLFING GRIT. JASON DAY WORLDBEATER OF THE YEAR Late in 2007, having just completed his first year as a professional golfer, Jason Day created a stir by declaring he wanted to be world no.1 one day. Innocent enough for a talented 20-year-old, except for the fact that the Tiger era was still in bloom, and this rookie had the temerity to say he would “take down” Woods. It was one of those quotes ripe for misunderstanding, an unfortunate way to introduce yourself to a wider golf-following world which was hearing from you for the first time. It entirely bypassed all context; Day wasn’t dissing Tiger but instead aiming up at his inspiration, as it was Woods’ own amazing story that inspired him…

T’S HARD to pinpoint why Australia’s ex-wicketkeeper, Rodney Marsh, has been an “innovator”, but he has. He was a burst of newness from the start. From the time of his controversial inclusion in the Australian team through to today, Marsh has been the sort of man to make good things happen; often unprecedented things. Part of it has been his unabashed love for the game. Part of it has been his deep understanding of it. Marsh’s tenure as Australia’s wicketkeeper was a turning point in Australian cricket for many reasons, and after he retired, he went about effecting more turning points. What he did differently then and now was to ... bring Rod Marsh to the role. In his various positions in the sport over the years, Marsh always did…

WHAT WE WERE SAYING 23 YEARS AGO (in Dec 1992) • In his autobiography, Viv Richards revealed how the Australian team of 1975-76 “created” the monster; the armed-to-the-teeth Windies of the ‘80s... How important it was for the Aussies to prove themselves against them. Cricketers as colourful and numerous as the nonpareils on my hundreds-and-thousands sandwiches. Players uninfluenced by the stiff, axiomatic English tradition. Sure, Ashes cricket was the bread and butter of Test cricket, and I loved it. But what a contrast was a series against the laid-back, loose-limbed exponents of calypso cricket to the grind of an Ashes ... What wonderful, mutual foils the Aussies and West Indies teams had been. Apocalypso Now by Robert Drane • Ethnicity, the backbone of the sport for close on 50 years,…