Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2015 i Inside Sport

I FOUND myself interviewing Stuart O’Grady for this issue, the first time I’ve ever spoken to him. O’Grady’s career doesn’t only run parallel with the incredible boom in cycling in this country, it encompasses the life of this magazine. It seems like another era now, probably because it was, but he was there with our team pursuiters back at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, winning silver in the first year that we were putting this magazine together. Even with all the question marks around his sport, I have to say I have particularly admired him as an athlete and as a person, without ever meeting him. There was always something about the way he rode a bike that moved me. No flash. No dash. Just pure grit. We…

1 Which team has been promoted to the top level of English football for the first time in its history? 2 How many NHL teams are Canadian-based? 3 Whose 200m athletics world record did Michael Johnson break in June 1996? 4 Who scored the most runs in the 2015 Indian Premier League? 5 Who kicked the field goal in the first match of the 2015 rugby league State of Origin series? 6 At which VFL/AFL club did Mick Malthouse start his head coaching career? 7 Tony McGahan is the coach of which Australian Super Rugby franchise? 8 In May 2015, which baseballer set the record for most career RBIs in the American League? 9 Australian Indigenous brothers Beau and Kyle Anderson are professionals in what sport? 10 How many Commonwealth…

WHAT’S HIS STORY Tolu Latu was born in Tonga and grew up in Sydney, ending up with Canterbury in the middle of league land. But instead of the Bulldogs, Canterbury RU got hold of the lad and quickly realised they had a live one. Word passed to Sydney University Football Club and the young man was brought into Colts. But the Under-20s couldn’t hold him. “He was identified early as being talented,” says Uni head coach Chris Malone. “Like a lot of kids who grew up out west, he had to travel a lot. He’d commute in most days to train. He deserves all the opportunity he’s got. It’s not easy to travel all that way every day.” Malone first met Latu in 2011 when Uni played the lad in…

IN DAYS just before mobile phones, a dozen or so kids from the streets of Campsie would gather every day after school for a game of footy on an unused green of the South Campsie Bowling Club. It was full-on tackle rugby league. Farahs versus the rest. And it was the furnace that forged Robbie Farah. They called their ground “The BOC” and they still aren’t sure why – where the “O” came from ... it’s one of those things. But it was rock-hard and fast, and the boys broke bones, split heads, lost a heap of skin. They were furious games with street rules, played until they could no longer see. And always in amongst it was Robbie Farah – two, four, even five years younger than the rest…

WORST OF ORIGIN Over the years I have enjoyed Inside Sport’s original and deeply insightful views on sport, whether they be connected to issues affecting the on-field mechanics of a game, or the machinations of sport at boardroom level. Amidst the almost-unbearable hype leading up to the opening match of this year’s series, it was refreshing to read your story “The Price of Origin” in your last issue (June 2015) for a look at the damage the showpiece of the sport is causing to the domestic National Rugby League competition. Anyone who witnessed that horrifying, almost-tryless, boring match played out between the Wests Tigers and North Queensland Cowboys at Campbelltown before the series opener would agree with you guys that the “price” of Origin may just be too high. If…

CALL IN THE FEDS “Whether you call it soccer or football, the fans, players and sponsors around the world who love this game should not have to worry about officials corrupting their sport. This case isn’t about soccer, it's about fairness and following the law.” – FBI director James Comey. “Our investigation revealed that what should be an expression of international sportsmanship was used as a vehicle in a broader scheme to line executives’ pockets.” – US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch, on the charges. “When I went to bed last night I thought it might be quite a boring congress. Now I think it might be quite lively.” – English FA chairman Greg Dyke. “He is not dancing in his office. He’s calm, he’s fully cooperative. He’s not saying it’s cool…

CRICKET Remember how, the last time an Ashes was about to begin in England, it was Australian cricket that was in total disarray? The Poms had the urn and three-straight series victories; we were picking Ashton Agar and not doing homework. Ancient history, it seems, but that was less than two years ago. And now, the baggy greens are swaggering back into the game’s oldest contest as current Ashes holders and World Cup champs, and a shaken England are cowering like it’s the ‘90s again. But it’s worth noting – the Aussies haven’t won an away Ashes in 14 years, meaning Michael Clarke has never played in a winning Ashes side over there. Did we say the Ashes begin in England? Not quite right, as the first Australia vs England…

F pursuit OR MORE at the than 1992 two Barcelona decades, since Olympics taking , Stuart silver O as 'Grady a youngster represented in the team everything we want to believe is great about Australian sport. He wore Tour de France yellow jerseys, numerous rainbow jerseys, Commonwealth and Olympic gold medals (he attended six Olympics), and won probably the most famous brick in sport when in 2007 he took out Paris-Roubaix. But apart from those individual honours, there was also the impression of him as the devout team man, the guy at the pointy end of the peloton controlling the traffic, protecting his team's number one, guarding their interests like a doberman on wheels. But then came the fall. In 2013, Stuart O'Grady admitted that he had doped. He said…

W have HATEVER to listen the too sport long , you before generally an elite don’t player or coach touches on the issue of game plans; how, if Team A doesn’t come up with an effective one, team B will score the chocolates. But what does this term actually mean? After all, if a sports contest is a sequence of millions of random events, how can a “plan” possibly be thought up to take any sort of advantage of all that resistance and human error? Luke Lewis seems the perfect professional athlete to ask. Since landing on the scene as a Penrith Panthers pup back in 2001, he’s probably sat through more game plan meetings than anyone playing in the NRL today. A premiership winner with the Mountain Men, for…

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“RICHIE BENAUD? Innovator?” anyone from Gen X onwards might ask. “The cricket commentator? Best known to non-cricket people by his alter-ego, Billy Birmingham? Chew for chwenty chew and all that?” For those who witnessed his days as an outstanding – at times match and series-winning – all-rounder, the assumption that the way people play Test cricket today can be attributed largely to the influence of Richie Benaud is reasonable. First as a player, then as arguably the most accomplished captain the Australian cricket team ever had, Benaud ushered in a revolution of cricket consciousness in three phases. In the first, he was a “rebel” just by virtue of his enthusiasm, his dashing persona, shirt unbuttoned to chest adorned with pendant, collar upturned. Every wicket he celebrated joyously, never disrespectfully. As…

WHAT WE WERE SAYING 11 YEARS AGO (July 2004) • Coaches can identify the potentially great players, of course. But if they don’t have the potential to begin with, no coach can make them great. Wayne Bennett, who has had some of the most outrageous talents of the modern era under his control, tells: “It’s a God-given gift in players. I’ve always thought God gave some of these guys great ability and said, ‘Work the rest out for yourself.’ You can turn a good player into a very good player, but you can’t turn him into a great player. That’s got to be there from the start.”... Bennett did that with Darren Lockyer, and now he’s doing it with the brilliant teenager Karmichael Hunt. The Nature Of Nurture by Greg…

LOSER The unravelling of FIFA has a long way to play yet. Anyone who thought that president Sepp Blatter would simply step aside when the scale of corruption under his watch was revealed has been mightily wrong. In fact, it looks like it is going to require some kind of explosive force to unseat a scoundrel of his stature. Maybe his arrest? Stay tuned on that one ... Staying tuned and keeping the blowtorch to FIFA’s belly is what is required in the corridors of football power now. Sadly, we are already seeing a quietening of the story in the media as the entrenched powers in that toxic organisation reassert themselves and news editors start to worry about scandal fatigue. It is the way of the modern world, but hopefully…

AUSTRALIA’S LATEST WORLDBEATERS Last season, Australia had a pair of representatives on the NBA champions team. This year, we have had one on either side of the NBA Finals, with Andrew Bogut anchoring the Golden State Warriors (right) and Matthew Dellavedova scrapping for the Cleveland Cavaliers (below). Bogut, who began his NBA career in Milwaukee after being selected as the top pick in the 2005 draft, proved to be the last essential piece that Golden State had been seeking when they acquired him via trade three seasons ago. The fast-paced, sharp-shooting Warriors relied on the Melburnian for his interior defence, rebounding and overall big-man savvy. Defying the injury bug that has long plagued him, Bogut was part of an outfit that won a league-leading 67 games during the regular season…

The Open Championship makes its customary return to St Andrews, marking the 29th time that golf’s most important event (still) is played on its most important course (sorry, Augusta). And while an Open in the auld grey toon screams timelessness, there are evident signs of change: more fiddling and tweaking to the links, a couple of legendary champions bowing out, and, hey, the R&A will have female members in attendance! Last April’s Masters offered up what looked like an historic moment in golf – the Old course usually produces a similar kind of significance. SAFE BET It might feel dull banking on Rory McIlroy, but there’s a reason, and it’s not just that he’s the world’s best golfer. The Irishman seemed deflated by Jordan Spieth’s first two rounds at the…

“There think yoo should be prayersing them all th’ taime!” moaned Geoff Boycott, who rarely praises anyone, in lugubrious Tyke. “’Ow thee ’ell d’ye prayers perfawminces lark thart?” Never more at home than when English cricket’s prospects are as chill as the Wolds in winter, Boycott went on to appreciate how lucky the Aussie team is to have sunny ex-champions like Shane Warne buzzing about, reincarnated sledgers, letting them know when they’ve gone to crap. The English team “need soom of tha’,” droned Boycs. But his observation that it was ego – voracious as Warney of old, that ate all the praise and when the larder was empty, embarked on an orgy of self-consumption – was most telling. The Aussies have mirrors held up to them wherever they look. The…

CANTERBURY PRIZE PACK Our Freeze Frame Freebies caption comp winner will 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, so make sure you have your sense of humour finely tuned. “ALRIGHT BOYS; NOW JUST AS WE PRACTISED: ONE, TWO, THREE…TICKLE!” May’s Freeze Frame Freebies caption competition was won by Colin Simms of Marylands West, NSW. Email your entries for this month’s Freeze Frame comp on page 19 to iscomps@insidesport.com.au, or check out the website: www.insidesport.com.au. If, however, you are still “analogue”, and resist the march of technology, you can still post your entries the traditional way to Freeze Frame Comp, Inside Sport, PO Box 5555, St Leonards, NSW 1590.…

as good as it gets a keeper worth considering ho-hum in the bin AUSSIE GRIT: MARK WEBBER BY MARK WEBBER, MACMILLAN AUSTRALIA, $39.99 There’s a distinct throwback quality to Mark Webber – one suspects he would have loved to come along in an earlier age of grand prix racing, when it was less technical and much more devil-may-care. Webber makes a fascinating admission in this memoir, noting that his career-defining years at Red Bull were the ones he was least enthusiastic to write about. By contrast, the grind of his early time in the minor classes and early F1 seasons are treated with great affection. Opening with the “Multi-21” incident in 2013, it’s a tale of car-racing true believer falling out of love with the messy, often political reality of…

Welcome to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan for this very important National Hockey League clash between the city’s beloved New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, captained by the good-looking, highly skilled – and therefore highly hated in these parts – Sidney Crosby. It’s only game two of the first round of the Stanley Cup play-offs, but the winner of this match will claim ownership of the entire universe, or so it seems. Madison Square Garden, located between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, holds 18,000 people for hockey. The Rangers’ co-sporting tenants are the New York Knicks, but seeing as though Carmelo Anthony’s men never play past the regular season, it gets pretty lonely at MSG for the Rangers this time of year. Excitement is building for this epic encounter. Already…