Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i Inside Sport

1 Tickets to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, to be staged in Australia in 2020 (funny that) were released for sale one year out from the start of the tournament. Adding to the 20-ness of it all, tix start at $20 for adults, while all kids’ tickets are $5. The final of the 23-match Cup will be held at the MCG on Sunday, March 8 – International Women’s Day. 2 Rugby league living and playing legend Cameron Smith called on the NRL to reinstate Melbourne Storm’s two stripped premierships in the wake of the penalties handed down to the Sharks over their own salary cap breaches. Smith says the Storm’s and Sharks’ breaches are comparable. Yeah Cam, about as comparable as jaywalking and armed robbery ... 3 After…

A RECORD number of votes poured in for the 2019 Sportscover Clubbies Awards, as finalists across 30-plus sports vied for glory. At the time of going to print, Clubbies HQ was sorting through 9000 votes and counting, demonstrating some fierce competition at the grassroots. The awards culminated with a presentation luncheon attended by sports industry leaders at Sydney’s historic Tattersalls Club on April 11, where the eight winners were honoured. This month, Inside Sport again turns the spotlight on some outstanding finalists for 2019. Go to www.insidesport.com.au/clubbies to check out who picked up a gong at the awards event. BEST CLUB Playing in a church league, the only religious character Matt Young could think of was Ned Flanders of The Simpsons. Before you could say “okely dokely”, a cricket club…

GEORGE ROSE enjoyed a brilliant NRL career. He played a tick over 150 first grade games, won a premiership in 2011, got to play for his people in the annual All Stars fixture five times and met a lot of great folk along the way. But there’s one thing that still bugs the former Sea Eagle, Rooster, Storm trooper and Dragon about his playing days – and it’s an unusual thorn for a rampaging prop to carry around. Believe it or not, Rose was a try-scoring freak in his youth, but wasn’t able to transfer such a penchant for four-pointers into his elite first grade days. His post-playing career? Couldn’t be happier. As you’ll read over the following pages, these days the larger than life Manly cult figure has an…

There’s a terrible, apocryphal, flat-out hideous story of a man known as Everett Sanchez who, on account of a drunken bet, perched himself over a golf-ball-washing machine, opened the little lid and dipped his testicles therein. The tale continues that one of his foursome, for a jape, turned the washer’s rotary handle and wedged poor Everett’s lolly bags firmly within the mechanism. Upon immediately exceeding his pain threshold, Everett passed out, fell to the ground, snapped the brand new $300 Callaway driver he was balancing upon, and left a detached, bloodied testicle trapped within the workings of the terrible machine. Told you it was hideous. “HE WAS LIKE SOMETHING FROM THE MIND OF STEPHEN KING, A BABY-FACED ASSASSIN, A CHILD SOLDIER. NERVELESS, RUTHLESS.” Luckily for Everett Sanchez and all those…

EP 1. PAST LIFE As a child, Kalyn Ponga’s family moves around like a baseball team in the big show. Born in Port Hedland in Western Australia, he grows up in Mount Isa in Queensland, also living in Palmerston North in New Zealand, before his family relocates to Mackay in the sunshine state. The ultra-talented youngster represents Australia in touch football at the 2015 Youth trans-Tasman series, before eventually being picked up by rugby league. Soon, people in the know start referring to him as the most exciting young prospect to emerge in the 13-player code for generations. An 18-year-old Ponga makes his debut in first grade for North Queensland in no less than a 2016 Week 2 Elimination Final against the Cowboys’ fierce rivals the Brisbane Broncos at a…

In the works for the last three-four years, the FIH Pro League has finally arrived. An entirely new concept which replaces the Champions Trophy and World League Finals, the Pro League is designed as an entertainment product, pitting nine of the world’s best men’s and women’s international teams against each other in a league format, moving away from hockey’s traditional tournament style. The world’s first-ever global league in any sport, the FIH Pro League runs annually for six months. For fans Down Under, the event’s inaugural running commenced in early February, with matches held in Melbourne, Hobart, Perth and Sydney. The FIH Pro League is logistically massive, with teams flying all over the world to play home-and-away matches. It’s pretty crazy stuff. Over 20 venues across 11 nations will play…

Since the creation of the A-League in 2005 only two clubs from that inaugural season have never won a premiership or a grand final – Wellington Phoenix, who started life as the New Zealand Knights, and Perth Glory. For the Glory it has largely been a period of averageness and disappointment; unable to capitalise on their strong position from the old National Soccer League. Founded in 1995 and led by owner Nick Tana, the Glory quickly became the NSL’s flagship club. In just a decade it won two championships, reaching four grand finals and finishing in the top three from 1998 to 2004 by playing exciting, attacking football. Perth was the standard-bearer franchise of what the A-League would become – professional, attractive, flashy and unhampered by ethnicity or cultural heritage…

■ THE QUOTE IN CONTEXT A notable line from ice hockey’s greatest player has become famous beyond sport, as entrepreneurs have picked it up and made it into a credo to rank alongside “Winning is not a sometimes thing” and “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take”. But as so often happens with the cliches that end up in business books, there’s some question about whether the Great One actually said it ... ■ SPEAK OF THE SPEAKER In considering Gretzky, the words resonate because they perfectly captured the essence of how the NHL’s all-time leading scorer played. Never the biggest or fastest on skates, he dominated his game with a foresight that was once described as like he was seeing the ice from above. Gretzky indeed…

Long weeks A late Easter this year has crammed the codes’ red-letter holiday fixtures into a span of ten days. And if you’re not taking some strategically placed days off to head out of town, then what’s a better way to spend it than watching footy? The NRL serves up a good one on Good Friday, with the grand rematch of the Melbourne Storm vs Sydney Roosters (Feb 19). Monday evening action brings the old-school rivalry of Hawthorn vs Geelong (Feb 22), while Parramatta vs Wests Tigers (Feb 22) inaugurates the new Bankwest Stadium. Come Anzac Day, and the traditional ties take over: Richmond vs Melbourne (Feb 24) on the eve, followed by Essendon vs Collingwood (Feb 25); league-side, it's the Roosters vs Dragons (Feb 25) at the Sydney Cricket…

1 The royal and ancient game isn’t known for embracing change too quickly, which is why the PGA Championship’s move from its customary August date to one three months earlier is a, well, major shake-up to the golf calendar. With the PGA slotted between the Masters and the US Open, it effectively recasts the golfing year – the grand slam events now roll off in a four-month window from April to July. 2 The immediate cause for the date change: the addition of golf to the Olympics, which squeezed the 2016 PGA into July and promised to do so again with the Tokyo Games next year. In a broader sense, though, American golf has long had schedule problems later in the year, with the PGA, the pro tour’s FedEx Cup…

Max Gawn rollicks – or so it seems, because he’s deceptively unserious – while other modern big men gallop with clomping intent like Shire horses. One way or another, he thunders down into the forward line, a reluctant runner, not to rise regally out of the pack like an orca, supple and indestructible, as Brodie Grundy, Nic Nat or Paddy Whack might. He arrives, and snatches big grabs, levelling clusters of defenders on his thudding descent. His highlight reel includes minutes’ worth of shanks, fluffs, face-plants and pratfalls interspersed with enough unlikely goals, poetic pick-ups, deft taps and pack-splitting marks to suggest that we’re watching a wonder of resourcefulness, energy and industry. I can think of two games he lost for his team at the last gasp, one with a…

When a gangly, young Liz Ellis made her debut in what passed for a national netball league back in 1991, bulky polo shirts tucked into pleated skirts were the equivalent of the sleek lycra dresses of today, and big hair contrasted with the minuscule payments for state-aligned players who were exclusively home-grown. In this, the third season of Suncorp Super Netball, the minimum player wage is $30,000 and the average more than $50,000. Channel Nine and Telstra are the broadcast partners in a landmark five-year deal announced in 2016 for a 17-week competition that – having reinvented itself after ditching the flagging trans-Tasman model – unashamedly aspires to be the world’s best female sporting league. Of the 80 players on the eight club lists, more than a quarter are internationals,…