Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Inside Sport

A LITTLE more than a year ago, Inside Sport made its first foray into the podcast world, a rugby league-themed show named Dead In Goal. It was hatched by our resident league nut James Smith with then-online editor Anthony Brand, and James remains the driving force behind the pod today, having cultivated a devoted audience of NRL fans who wanted something other than the negativity that passes for the sport’s weekly discourse. If you’ve never listened to Dead In Goal – or never clicked on a podcast at all – we enthusiastically invite you to give it a try. For one thing, if you’re reading this magazine, we think you’ll find it worthwhile. The reason that podcasting has dovetailed neatly with outlets that deal in the written word is how…

IMAGINE: the best cyclists in the world rolling down a start ramp on the steps of the Opera House, before time-trialling across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A 200-strong peloton cycling along the iconic Great Ocean Road. Or Chris Froome going head-to-head with Richie Porte on the gruelling mountain climbs of Tasmania. Now envisage one or more of these forming part of a Grand Tour, an elite trio of three-week races that dominate the annual cycling calendar. The Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta a España in Australia. Fantasy? Maybe not. “I don’t see why any of the Grand Tours could not commence in Australia,” says Daryl Herbert, chief executive of race promoter GTR Events. “These events are globalising and the distances are getting smaller. Although it would…

The latest record-smashing instalment of The Clubbies has proved to be a wellspring of inspiring stories from Australia’s grassroots sport. Inside Sport’s 2018 awards, co-presented with the Confederation for Australian Sport and partner Sportscover, set new benchmarks for nominations and voting. Now it’s time to announce the outstanding winners! Combining the views of an expert panel and an online poll, which attracted thousands of votes, we ended up with a group that typifies The Clubbies’ spirit of dedication and commitment. Sportscover Australia chief Executive Simon Allatson was thrilled with the response: “The Clubbies Awards are important to us because we understand and recognise the importance of clubs in making sport available to all Australians. Most of our people have been, or are, members of clubs. Sponsoring the awards enables us…

YES JC: Or, mostly yes. Two lines of thought on this one: horse has already bolted; you’ve had players from all over the place in this game for years. We’ve got the Denis Carnahan song to tell us exactly that, for Queensland. But NSW hasn’t exactly been innocent of this either. Second line of thought: what’s the harm in separating Origin from rep football? I can’t see the logic in Andrew Fifita being all right to play for the Blues one year, but not the next after committing to Tonga. Origin is great no matter who plays, but the series benefits for having the stars. Otherwise, it’s on the path to City-Country. NO JS: It is not an all-star game. Using the all-star analogy may be the easiest way to…

SPORTS FANS in Australia seeking world-class action can find it right on their doorstep in Singapore, as Asia’s entertainment capital has fast become a global sporting hub. In July, three of the world’s biggest football powers will return to the city’s National Stadium, as the stars of Arsenal, Atlético de Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain come to play. In its sixth instalment, the 2018 International Champions Cup takes on a new global format, featuring the largest number of clubs, matches and venues to date. This year’s chase for the Cup features 18 of the world’s best, playing 27 matches across the United States, Europe and Singapore. Where past tournaments recognised a winner within each participating continent, this year’s competition presents a unified format, with one global champion to be crowned. “The…

Low-carb diets are back in a big way. When you see low-carb brekkie bowls on the menu at cafes, and hear elite athletes spruiking those ultra-low-carb ketogenic diets, you know it has gone mainstream. But do bread, pasta and potatoes really have to come off the menu? The reality is carbs are found in a range of different foods, from bananas and legumes through to cakes and lollipops. While most of us would certainly benefit from cutting back on highly processed foods such as biscuits, burgers and pizza, eliminating fruit from your diet because it’s “high in carbs” is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Carbohydrates are essential to life. They’re the petrol that fuels the body’s engine. Without carbs, you lose water, sodium and potassium, and your muscles…

The Sydney FC faithful was in full voice throughout the A-League semifinal at Allianz Stadium, as the front-running Sky Blues continued their quest for a highly anticipated second-straight A-League title. Early in the second half of the 46th Big Blue derby, James Troisi silenced the home crowd when he knocked in an easy goal from clear space to put the Victory ahead 2-1. Deep into extra-time, Antonis redeemed his early mistake by charging from the halfway line, avoiding several lunges from Sydney FC defenders, before snapping home a screamer. He was appropriately mobbed by Victory's travelling fans. With just 13 seconds of regulation time remaining in the tense and thrilling match, Victory’s Terry Antonis, looking to tap a short and light Sydney FC cross out of bounds, horrifyingly skewed the…

3 (State of Origin, Bledisloe Cup) In 36 Origin series: Queensland 21, NSW 13, drawn two. Using the first match as a proxy for a one-game Origin: Queensland 18, NSW 18. 5 (Ashes cricket, MLB division series) Assuming one team is favoured against an opponent 60/40, the difference in win probability for favourites from a three-to a five-game series is 64.8 percent to 68.3 percent. 7 (NBA and NHL Play-offs, MLB League Championship and World Series) Only six comebacks from 3-0 in history of best-of-seven: four in ice hockey, and one each in baseball and NBA. 13 (America’s Cup 2017) Premier yacht race has been contested over 13-, 17-, three-, nine- and seven-race series since WWII, having seen both big sweeps and crazy comebacks. 23 (World Snooker Championship rounds played…

"It's an exciting time with the Blues changing the way they approach it. We've got a good core group ..." After returning from a stint in rugby union, you set yourself a goal to play representative footy – which you’ve done. What do you put that success down to? When I came back, I really wanted to play Origin footy. I was sort of on the other side of the world and wanted to go home and give it one last crack, and leave no stone unturned and try to get that. A lot of hard work went into it and I probably can’t thank Craig [Bellamy] and the coaching staff enough down here [at the Storm], who helped improve my footy. I guess I’ve become a consistent first-grader and…

Occupation Baseball player for the Los Angeles Angels Origin Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, Japan Born July 5, 1994 Height 193cm Weight 92kg Status As an MLB rookie, first player to win two games as a pitcher and hit three homers since 1919; named to Japanese baseball’s team of the year as a pitcher and hitter in 2016. II. FRAME One big reason he’s accomplishing this – he’s a natural physically. He’s a 193cm-tall, throws-right, hits-left package of baseball athleticism. Scouts gushed that he rates among the most gifted power hitters and hard-throwing pitchers they’d seen, but never had a player combined the two. In his last year of school, he became the first Japanese amateur to throw 160km/h; a year later, he was playing professionally for the Nippon-Ham Fighters. III. ARM…

Two moments stand out clearly from November 15, 2017 when Australia finally booked its place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The Socceroos had dominated Honduras in the second leg in Sydney before a packed ANZ Stadium, and celebrated a fourth successful World Cup qualification in a row. It hadn’t all gone to plan, with tense home-and-away play-offs against Syria and Los Catrachos, and later head coach Ange Postecoglou would bizarrely fall on his own sword with their place in Russia secure. But all that mattered was that the green and gold would be there. There wasn’t quite the outpouring of emotion at the same arena that we saw in 2005, when 31 years of pain and hurt ended. But it was particularly special for Trent Sainsbury, who bolted into…

A leading scholar of race politics (and former Inside Sport columnist), Colin Tatz, with son Paul, has updated his tribute to Aboriginal sports legends in Black Pearls. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) This is the latest in a line of books that is the veritable Aboriginal Sports Hall of Fame. Can you tell us about this background? My friend produced a book about sporting museums and he asked me to write a chapter. I wrote a chapter called “The hall, the wall and the page of fame”, saying that a book could be a museum in the absence of having a physical building. This book, I’ve intended with its predecessors as well, to be a museum on paper. This book is as much a history book…

1 It seems the main takeaway from Gold Coast’s Commonwealth Games is that, yes, you can screw up a closing ceremony bad enough that the television commentators will start criticising it (either that, or don’t mess with something Johanna Griggs takes seriously). Instead, we’ll always remember the best name to emerge from these Games, Lesotho distance runner Toka Badboy. 2 Russell Crowe, sports memorabilia fanatic. Who knew? As the Hollywood star went about decluttering after his divorce, he put a bunch of sporting artefacts up for auction. Some were really good, including Bert Oldfield’s baggy green from the Bodyline series, complete with the broken peak from where Harold Larwood broke it. 3 AFL website reports GWS would rather be known primarily as GIANTS (all caps!). Then Grant Thomas says the…

AS THE 2018 FIFA World Cup draws closer, we’re still in the zone of hopeful speculation: can the Socceroos defy expectations and make a run in Russia? Can Australia punch well above its weight on the biggest footballing stage of all? To put what the nation faces in perspective, we take a look at some of the equivalent bets that fall into the category of World Cup longshots. And, hey, why not us? Australia $41 The bettors have modest hopes for the Socceroos, lumping them in with a tier of sides that offer the third-longest set of outright odds. But optimists looking at the top four can conjure a scenario, particularly if France starts the tournament slowly (always a danger, with the French). Coming out of Group C, the Aussies…

Goes to 11 The courts turn to clay and the umpires start saying “zéro”, which means there’s a Grand Slam in Paris. And in another rite of the French Open (May 27-June 10), Rafael Nadal is the favourite. The Spaniard is seeking his 11th at Roland Garros, which would tie Margaret Court’s mark for most wins at a single Slam (she won hers at the Australian Open, although seven pre-Open era). With Roger Federer again taking his clay-court hiatus, the challenge will have to come from this long-awaited next generation, with Dominic Thiem and Sascha Zverev bringing some form. On the women’s side, there’s another big name driving the narrative – Serena Williams makes her grand return, out since Melbourne last year, and seeking a fourth French title of her…

Back in the mid-winter of 2003, Queensland and New South Wales were about to face off at Suncorp Stadium in the opening clash of the 22nd series of Australian sport’s most vicious rivalry. The Gorden Tallis-skippered Maroons were dotted out across their half of the field, awaiting the kick-off from Andrew Johns’ visiting Blues. Hulking prop Shane Webcke caught the ball on the first bounce in his own in-goal. He barely had enough time to commence his routine charge upfield before he was met rudely by a blue missile by the name of Danny Buderus. The Novocastrian rake hit Webcke hard in a full body check on the Blues’ tryline, which would have stung both men from head to boot. The impact sent Buderus bouncing back in the direction from…

THE MOST ORIGIN THING WE EVER DID James Smith: So in 2000, I went on a World Cup supporters’ tour. The tour group got on so well that we had a number of follow-up reunion events. One of the reunions was in 2001; we caught up for Origin, the year that Allan Langer made his emergency SOS return to the Queensland side. The game was at the old QEII in Brisbane. The whole place feels as if it’s temporary – you walk up to your seat and it’s like you’re stepping up on those steel seats you had at primary school. You could feel the grandstand move beneath you. It was awesome. Alfie had the night of his life. The Blues scored one of the fastest tries in the history…