Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2015 i Inside Sport

THIS is a special month in the life of the magazine: this issue we launch the inaugural Inside Sport/CAS Clubbie Awards. We make our announcement on page 50, but I’m beating the drum here because these are BIG. The Clubbies are a series of awards in six categories, with major prizes, to recognise the fabulous contributions made to grassroots sport by enthusiasts around the country. There’s more than a fair chance that if you’re reading this magazine, your interest in sport extends well beyond elite sport to community sport, whether it’s you playing, your kids, or someone you know. I implore you to get across what is on offer here, because these awards boast serious prizes that can be a massive boost to your sports club. For The Clubbies, we’ve…

1 Which AFL team has seen the three members of its 300-game club lose their milestone games? 2 In the penalty shootout against Uruguay that took Australia to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which Socceroo missed his penalty? 3 Who is the only female tennis player to be a WTA No.1-ranked player to have a surname beginning with the letter ‘d’? 4 Which German city was second in voting behind Pyongyang to host the 2018 Winter Olympics? 5 Who was Australia’s flag-bearer at the Sydney 2000 Olympics’ closing ceremony? 6 Among current National Rugby League players, who has scored the most career tries? 7 Which Formula One team does 17-year-old Max Verstappen drive for? 8 Which horse won American racing’s Triple Crown this year, the first since 1978? 9 How…

CHARLOTTE WHO? Since her debut in 2013, Charlotte Caslick has become a key member of the Australian Women’s Rugby Sevens team that is eyeing gold at next year’s Rio Olympics. The 20-year-old has scored an amazing 29 tries in the green and gold, her fleet feet leaving opposition defences and spectators in awe of her speed and elusiveness, and her footy smarts establishing her as our first choice half. Her fabulous form has also led to her being named in World Rugby’s 2014/15 Team of the Season. Having helped her country qualify for the Rio Olympics, Caslick finished the season by being nominated for the 2015 Women’s Player of the Year award – though Caslick doesn’t think she’ll take out the honour. “I think [New Zealand’s captain] Sarah Goss is…

For swimming and athletics locally, the time since London 2012 has been all about restoring internal order – and public confidence – in its elite teams and administrations. Both leading Olympic sports have lived through far-reaching internal reviews, and the associated negative publicity generated by the actions of a handful of athletes and officials. Now, as supporters, we’re about to find out how both sports are tracking before Rio at their respective 2015 world championships. Our swimmers (and divers, water polo players and synchro swimmers) head to Kazan, Russia, for the FINA World Championships from July 24 to August 9. The IAAF World Championships has Beijing’s famous Bird’s Nest stadium as its venue from August 22-30. Australian swimming’s bright and shining status was first tarnished by a disappointing London 2012…

The Dane Swan effect has at least partially relied on impressions. That’s how he scurried underneath the pack’s awareness in the first place. They say of him that what you see is what you get. But what you see is only part of what you get. In 2007, we were busy seeing something else – probably discussing where to clear floor space in the Hall of Immortals for Hodge and Judd – when Swan scampered through the tradies’ entrance and pinched himself a podium. In fact, nothing Dane Swan says and does is contradictory in the slightest. The contradictions are in our heads. It’s hard to imagine any public figure who contradicts himself less. When he finally emerged in the media, in 2007, we were a little unprepared for the…

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ACK CARMINE is your typical Australian sports fan: he likes watching virtually any form of human activity as long as it involves some element of competition. So he was quick to enter the Fox Sports WOW Card competition after finding out about it on Facebook. What wasn’t to like about the prize on offer back in May? This was gobsmacking: tickets to Melbourne for the A-League grand final. Then on to a plane to Europe for the weekend of the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco, including a meet-and-greet with Daniel Ricciardo at the Red Bull Energy Station. And then a short hop to Paris for three days of the French Open at Roland Garros. VIP treatment all the way. Yes, it sounds ridiculous. And Jack had a ridiculously good…

“The guy that kicked Hazard three times in ten minutes impressed me, because I like that. No friendlies.” – Jose Mourinho, on what stood out to him during Chelsea’s game with Sydney FC. “The way they’re going on the road we’re on, in 20 or 30 years’ time rugby league will be as slow as an NFL game. We will stop the play after every tackle and review what’s happened. That’s what referees will end up doing.” – Rugby league thinker Phil Gould, bunker buster. “When you’re on, no one is going to slow you down. When you’re off, no one is going to pick you up, either ... This is a lonely sport.” – Tiger Woods, after some career-worst scores at Jack Nicklaus’ tournament. “When we thought about Luis…

RUGBY With the contest for the Webb Ellis Cup nearing, there’s a pared-down version of the Rugby Championship to be played this season. Instead of home-and-homes, the four nations will play each other once, with the Wallabies and All Blacks playing a second match outside the hemispheric frame. Australia vs South Africa (Jul 18) will be at Suncorp, which means the men in gold won’t have to make the oft-fruitless trek to Newlands or Loftus Versfeld. The Wallabies are South America-bound for Australia vs Argentina (Jul 26), in a stadium named after (no kidding) the Falklands War. And a Bledisloe brace of Australia vs New Zealand (Aug 8) at ANZ and Eden Park (Aug 15) is the last hit-out before the World Cup, only a little more than a month…

HIS genial tones are now part of the soundtrack of our summer, routinely piped into our lounge rooms via the Nine Network’s cricket coverage, but it’s easy for anyone under 30 to fail to appreciate what an outstanding cricketer Ian Healy was. Thrust into a faltering Australian team in 1988 after just six first-class appearances, he found himself touring first to Pakistan under the captaincy of Allan Border, then the following year off to England for the 1989 Ashes in the famous “worst Australian touring side ever” – only to win 4-0 and reclaim that funny little urn. Healy would be literally at the very centre of Australian cricket’s revival through the 1990s as they collected the biggest prizes in the game and took over the world number one ranking…

With Winning Edge, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) now manages high performance funding across 37 sports. For the 2014/15 financial year, this included $85 million in grants to National Sport Organisations (NSOs) for able-bodied sports, as well as further $12 million in direct athlete support. Money talks, and, as the list below proves, so do medals. Here are the top ten Summer Olympic Games recipients of Winning Edge funding for 2014/15. * Note cycling’s funding is for all disciplines: road, track, mountain bike and BMX. Volleyball receives funding for the highly regarded men’s indoor program and the women’s and men’s beach volleyball program.…

RON CLARKE’S recent passing had many recalling the so-called “Golden Era” of Australian athletics – and lamenting our diminished standing on the world stage in distance running. Which is really unfair to superb athletes like Ben St Lawrence. He may not (yet!) have knocked off the Africans at a major meet, but he runs faster over 10k than Ron Clarke or Steve Moneghetti or Craig Mottram ever did – he’s been the Australian record-holder for the distance since 2011. And if things come together he is poised to put his name in lights: his best time puts him in the top ten in the world, and if he’s able to stay healthy and produce his best at this month’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing, the 32-year-old from Sydney could find…

ENDURA PRIZE PACK We have an 800g tub of Endura’s new Rehydration Formula – Performance Fuel, as well as 20 Energy Gel sachets to give away. Performance Fuel helps prevent muscular cramps and spasms and relieves aches and pains. Total prize value $90. CANTERBURY PRIZE PACK Our Freeze Frame Freebies caption comp winner will also score for themselves this awesome bundle of goodies, which includes a Packaway gym bag, three sock packs, a Packaway jacket and a cap. That’s almost $160 of high-quality gear! “IT’S PERFECT WEATHER FOR DUCKS... NOT CHOOKS.” June’s Freeze Frame Freebies caption competition was won by Justin Singleton of Banora Point, NSW. BRIDGESTONE DRIVER SUBSCRIPTION COMP WINNERS: Jim Yeadon, Ballina (NSW); Marilyn Buckley, South Yunderup (WA); Dr Albert Lam, Mona Vale (NSW); Ray Dunn, Bundaberg East…

• “How we won still has me absolutely flabbergasted. We won well, in fact, by about six goals, and I’ll never forget the comment made by Darren Millane to Sheedy when Sheeds walked into the bar back at the hotel for the after-match drinks. He said this with everyone listening: ‘Sheeds, you couldn’t beat us last week sober and we beat you easily this week pissed.’ You could imagine Sheeds – he didn’t take it too well.” – Collingwood star Peter Daicos, on the Magpies’ win over Essendon in a London exhibition match, only a week after beating them in the 1990 grand final. • Contrary to the view of him always being high-hatted, Jones is a man of simple origins who does not place himself above the menial. When…

LOSER If we thought that Daly Cherry-Evans’ turnabout would be the final straw for the NRL’s archaic system of player movement, the Kieran Foran contract controversy proved to be the aftershock that rumbled louder. The debacle at Parramatta – which had agreed to the demands of Foran’s management for an escape clause, then angered the Kiwi playmaker by trying to change the dubious terms of the deal – had figures such as Phil Gould lamenting the sorry state of rugby league governance. Gould is right. This situation reflects so poorly across the whole of the game, calling into question the NRL’s standing. What modern, professional sport would conduct itself like this? That the player manager felt they had to ask for such a clause is the worst kind of entitlement…

AUSTRALIA’S LATEST WORLDBEATERS Andrew Bogut became the latest Australian to claim the greatest prize in basketball, an NBA championship, after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 Finals series, four games to two. The 30-year-old from Melbourne, the first Australian to be selected no.1 in the NBA Draft when he entered the league in 2005, had been an integral part of the Warriors’ dream season, providing the defensive presence and big-man savvy to a team that had been seeking exactly that when it acquired Bogut via trade three season ago. The drift of the Finals, however, saw Bogut relegated to the bench, as Golden State opted to go with a speed-oriented, “small-ball” line-up, and it was compatriot Matthew Dellavedova who became a sensation with standout performances…

International netball’s peak event, now known as the World Cup (nee Championships), will be contested on our turf in Sydney for the first time since 1991, when names such as Vicki Wilson and Michelle Fielke led the hosts to a memorable victory. Australia has won this title ten times, and will start as raging favourite again following an undefeated 2014. Expect a familiar cast of contenders around them – the Aussies, New Zealand, England and Jamaica have made up the last four at each of the four worlds since 1999. SAFE BET The Diamonds face the situation in which they’re not just playing for a World Cup – they’ll be judged against the standard of the best teams ever. Victory at home will cap a remarkable period for Lisa Alexander’s…

Monday mornings at our publishing house are the same as at any other office, we suspect. Before settling in for a day at our desks, there’s the important matter – and fair dinkum Aussie tradition – of dissecting the weekend’s netball games. There’s not a watercooler on our floor that isn’t surrounded by blokes arguing whether or not the Aussie umps destroyed the Northern Mystics’ chances of beating the Queensland Firebirds, or whether the Swifts are finally the real deal. All this chatter and attention is hardly surprising, as there seems to be an endless stream of women’s sport on television these days. Be it netball, basketball, soccer or athletics, the blanket coverage of elite-level women’s sport never stops. Australia’s obsession with female sport hardly seems fair to male athletes,…