Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Inside Sport

You couldn’t have penned a better script for the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Season, with one of the closest championship races in recent memory. And as the new season dawns there’s every expectation the 2019 season will be even better. Last year we saw a changing of the guard in the championship, with Craig Lowndes hanging up his helmet and Scott McLaughlin and Shane Van Gisbergen igniting a rivalry that will last for years to come. Speaking of rivalries, one of the greatest rivalries in Australian sport has always been between factory Holden and factory Ford and that rivalry will only intensify this year with the arrival of the Ford Mustang. The Mustang has always been a successful plate and a favourite amongst Australian motorsport fans. Pete Geoghegan’s three Australian…

With the NBA’s finest gathering in Charlotte for the 2019 All-Star game, the basketball world will get a look at who stands out among the best of the best – and among them, the man who will be Most Valuable Player by season’s end. The 2018-19 campaign has witnessed some big-name moves, a crop of hungry, new talent emerging and dysfunction surrounding some of the league favourites, which means both the MVP and NBA Championship are up for grabs. Giannis Antetokounmpo $3.50 Antetokounmpo is no longer the young player to keep your eye on – he’s launched into superstardom and defied all expectations of that raw, wiry teenager drafted back in 2013. With the ability to stuff a stat sheet and dominate nearly every aspect of a game (even without…

Sportscover is the leading sports and leisure services provider in the world, providing unrivalled expertise across insurance, risk-management, legal services and live streaming. Sportscover Australia chief executive Simon Allatson says: “With oÿces in London, Sydney, Melbourne and with partners worldwide, we have the global reach and experience to provide the right solution for your sports and/or leisure business. “It is our passion for sport and leisure, together with our focus on providing excellent customer service, that has enabled Sportscover to grow to become the force in sport and leisure services that it is today. “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…

The retirement of Rangana Herath last November means we won’t get to see the diminutive Sri Lankan star, who ended his career with some staggering numbers. He goes out as the all-time leading Test wicket-taker among left-arm bowlers, and considering the active set of southpaws chasing him, his status is safe for a while. Herath held another distinction – the 40-year-old was the last Test cricketer to debut before 2000, which puts his records into deeper perspective. RANGANA HERATH 93 TESTS · AVE 28.07 · 5WI 34 Next five Active Debuted before Herath was born 98 No English left-arm pace bowler in history has taken 100 Test wickets. The top mark is held by Bill Voce, best known as Harold Larwood’s opening-ball partner during Bodyline. The emergence of Sam Curran…

PART of the mystique of those great West Indies teams was the initials on the scorecard. You knew the names, but when the game returned from a commercial break, you’d get thrown for just a second. Who exactly is IVA Richards again? Oh, yeah. Wonder what the “I” stands for? PJL Dujon, anybody? AL Logie? It’s a wonderful bit of the game’s esoterica. By the ritual act of following the score, we came to know our icons as DG Bradman and SK Warne. We told our Waughs apart as SR and ME. There was always a strange amusement in learning that a spinner from NSW was named SCG MacGill (which was only made better when you found out the “G” stood for Glyndwr). Cricket clings to its anachronisms, and the…

AUSTRALIA 1ST INNINGS 256 MATaylor 43IAHealy 66*UCHathurusingha 4/66CPH Ramanayake 3/51 SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 547-8 DEC RSMahanama 78APGurusinha 137ARanatunga 127RS Kaluwitharana 132*GRJ Matthews 3/93 AUSTRALIA 2ND INNINGS 471 DCBoon 68DMJones 57MEWaugh 56GRJMatthews 64SDAnurasiri 4/127CPH Ramanayake 3/113 SRI LANKA 2ND INNINGS 164 RSMahanama 39UC Hathurusingha 36APGurusinha 31*PAdeSilva 37GRJMatthews 4/76SKWarne 3/11 AUSTRALIA WON BY 16 RUNS…

When you return to training from your off-season break, are you bursting at the seams waiting to rip back into action, or weary about the whole footy season process starting again? I get really nervous leading into pre-season. I dread it. It’s not something I look forward to. I want to play footy; get out on the field and play. But it is part and parcel of playing rugby league. You just have to deal with the pre-seasons. I don’t know too many players who would say they enjoy them, but you get so much out of them as a bonding-type thing with the group. Everyone finds out yours and everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses. When you’re in certain situations, mentally and physically exhausted, that’s when people show their true…

Ralph Doubell is one of those names that kill at pub trivia nights: who is the last Australian male to win Olympic gold on the track? That would indeed be Doubell, who won the 800m at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. To put his name alongside Edwin Flack and Herb Elliott was legacy enough; that Doubell’s time in Mexico would last for another half-century, finally broken last July by Joseph Deng, only deepens the esteem of his accomplishment. But as this book notes, Doubell never received the kind of credit his nation would usually accord an Olympic champion. He even missed out on being the forgotten man of ’68, with that status going to Peter Norman. The account of Doubell’s career and life goes part-way to explaining this obscurity…

There’s a quote in here from a genuine great of the Aussie rules sideline, former Hawthorn and St Kilda coach Allan Jeans: “As a coach, you’re saying the same thing week in, week out ... you look in the eyes of certain players and can tell some are thinking: ‘I’ve heard the same things a million times from this silly old bastard’.” True enough about coaching, and true enough about this book. There are some awfully familiar lines in here, but that could be because either: a) the job draws a certain personality type, given to saying the same things; or b) they are silly, old, repetitive bastards ... That said, there are some gems in here: Jack Dyer shines, unsurprisingly, as footy’s answer to Yogi Berra, as does Malcolm…

In horse-racing terms, the A-League is about to round the bend and head down the finishing straight. As is the case every year, there is still plenty to play for – the Premiership, Asian Champions League spots, a home final, or just being in the end-of-season play-offs in their own right. Reigning champions Melbourne Victory face a crucial month of February, and one that may determine whether they win the Premiership and give themselves the best possible chance of adding what would be a record fifth title. After the top-of-the-table clash with Perth Glory on February 10, Victory journeys across the Tasman to Wellington in round 19 – a trip that brings mixed fortunes for Kevin Muscat’s team. In their last eight visits, Victory have won four, lost four. A…

CADEL EVANS was a master grafter on cycling’s World Tour. Among almost countless other achievements, the 2011 Tour de France winner also claimed the men’s road race at the ‘09 UCI Road World Championships ... personal career highlights that wouldn’t leave anyone’s memory in a hurry. But right up there with the Aussie legend’s favourite heartstrings moments is the start of his very own annual bike race. Each year thousands of cycling disciples flock to the very roads he used to train on for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Set down for January 24-27 and taking in Geelong, Barwon Heads and Torquay, as always the flavour of this year’s Great Ocean Road Race will be pretty straight-forward. It aims to cater for every cyclist out there. Whether you’re…

The development of young Australian cricketers hasn’t been quarantined from a fast-changing world. The difference from the system in the 1950s is dramatic but in recent years it’s occurred at a much quicker pace. The last exceptional Australian side began to disband when Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retired in 2007. The first World T20 event was held later that year and up until then the development system for young Australian cricketers was evolving gradually. With the widespread growth of T20 leagues, the players now have an extra choice when it comes to earning a living and this also means having to choose a development direction from a more cluttered path. A young player now comes through a system that includes many structured net sessions, hours facing bowling machines or…

In 1975, Sri Lanka was the comic relief of the World Cup. In 1982, they became the eighth Test-playing nation. They moved quickly from those humble beginnings. On the back of remarkable performances, outstanding characters and marvellous players, the underdog’s journey has been a picaresque, an adventure. Their fortunes pivoted on the deeds of outstanding individuals. Along the way, they broke records. They’ve made the finals of three World Cups and won one; they own the highest team totals in Test cricket (6-952 against India), ODI cricket (443 against Netherlands) and T20 cricket (260 against Kenya), and the highest batting partnership in Test cricket (624 for the third wicket, against South Africa, Jayawardene and Sangakkara). Along the way, they’ve been an inspiration and they’ve proven just how successful the World…

JELENA DOKIC is finally home. After a lifetime of upheaval – fleeing war in the former Yugoslavia, surviving family turmoil and abuse at the hands of her father, struggling for years with depression as a baseless tennis pro – the former world No.4 is happily ensconced in Melbourne. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else, especially during the Australian Open,” she says. Dokic joins Channel Nine’s all-star commentating team at a new-look Australian Open. Inside Sport sat down with the 35-year-old near her city apartment to preview the first Grand Slam of 2019, look back on her tumultuous history at Melbourne Park and explore the happy aftermath of her harrowing memoir, Unbreakable. A new era for the Australian Open, with Channel Nine serving as the new broadcast partner. What are you looking…

FACE OF THE SPORT Sam Kerr FOOTBALLER Just how much of a game-changer is Sam Kerr? Consider this: her feats and spectacular form over the past 12 months have her placed as Australia’s highest-profile football player. (By this we mean soccer, but Australian women’s footballer of any code would’ve worked, too.) Traditionally the home-grown doyens of the roundball game who we’ve worshipped have been men: Craig Johnson, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill on anyone’s walls growing up? And rightly so, they were all freakishly talented and worthy of our praise. But things are different now. In front of packed houses, from Penrith for the Matildas to Perth as she electrifies for the Glory, or in the US where she dominates for the Chicago Red Stars, this…

Recognising the near-futility of a preview format for anything as mercurial as Big Bash, and the near-impossibility of saying anything conclusive about the composition of teams until the day before the competition starts, Big Bash Superstars focuses on just that: the heroes of BBL and WBBL, complete with interviews and pocket profiles, all penned by Daniel Lane. For people like us, it’s still a handy research tool; it brings us quickly back up-to-date and it’s an entertaining resource for the BBL and WBBL fan. It’s reader-friendly and as instructional as you need it to be. Big Bash Superstars is a chance for the kids to get a glimpse behind-the-scenes, to hear some stories and to understand what it is that makes the competition so fascinating. GOOD FOR: Keeping track of…

THE QUOTE IN CONTEXT Gerulaitis was playing in the semi-finals of the year-end 1979 Masters event in New York, where he met fellow American Jimmy Connors. Connors had won the previous 16 meetings between the two (Gerulaitis actually won once, in a walkover). But when Gerulaitis pulled the upset 7-5, 6-2, he headed to the post-match press conference, bottle of champagne in hand. When asked how he had done it, he served up one of the great quotes of tennis history. “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row.” – Vitas Gerulaitis SPEAK OF THE SPEAKER Gerulaitis had the misfortune of emerging in a golden age for tennis talent, having to contend with Connors, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. He made three Grand Slam singles finals, won the Australian…

Super Rugby is still the best provincial rugby competition in the world. Yes, I know there are some in the Northern Hemisphere who beg to differ nowadays, but I still firmly believe that the best is Down Under. The format has been tinkered with over the years, but whether it’s a round robin or conference system, the cream still rises to the top at the end of every season. So who will be lifting the trophy at the end of the 24th tournament? Can anyone stop the juggernaut in Christchurch, the Crusaders, from claiming a three-peat? Will the Melbourne Rebels finally break their play-off hoodoo? Can a South African franchise break a nine-year drought for the republic? I look forward to it all unfolding over the coming months. This Super…

Minor sporting contests have been known to accrue significance long after they’ve been contested. The first Test of a three-match series in August 1992, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is a notable example. This game, and the ostensibly unimportant series it kicked off, had historical traction. A win for Australia that Allan Border described as “the greatest heist since the Great Train Robbery”, a match Shane Warne described as “one of the greatest Tests of all-time” was, looking back, a formative moment in the grand victory narrative about to unfold for Australian cricket. Later events in the fabula of Australian and world cricket had their seeds in this very series, most of them in this match. The spin revolution effected by Warne and Muralitharan, their astonishing individual achievements, the removals,…

Amid the chaotic swirl of AFL football, it helps to be mindful. Kirk, the former captain of the Sydney Swans and current assistant coach at the club, has a deep interest in mindfulness going back to his playing days. He’s become an advocate for meditation and other mindfulness techniques, to the degree that he hosts a podcast on the ABC called Mindfully. While the podcast looks at the subject from various perspectives, it has a distinct interest for the sports-inclined – Kirk talks to the likes of cricket coach Justin Langer, star footballer Nathan Fyfe and BMX champ Caroline Buchanan about how they quiet their minds, stay in the present and be aware of what’s happening around them. As Kirk noted to us in our chat, it’s a powerful method…

Back in our September 2018 edition, we dedicated most of a page within our Guide To The Best New Sports Books feature to a title about Winx. It was Trevor Marshallsea’s Biography Of A Champion. Marshallsea and Rule are among the first to write extensively in book form on this modern hero of Aussie horseracing, and the more the merrier we say. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with putting down on paper the exciting journey we’ve all been on via Winx for future generations to take in. Rule’s is the authorised version, which has presented fantastic access to the key members of Team Winx: breeder, owners, trainer, rider. Despite growing up with horses, Rule is not your average sportsbook writer, and so the reader gets to enjoy a story written by…