Macca

Traditionally cricket has been a lot different to most sports especially when it comes to who calls the shots on the field ... for a long time the captain had nearly all the say including being a selector on overseas tours. For instance, the batting order was part of the captains role but that might have changed The captain would still be the main man (in my view) so Cummins might prefer to take more of a neutral view on the coach. And that's fair enough too To me it's all about respect rather than like or love. Helps if the coach was a top player too. Footy coaches are viewed the same way by the public & players as well Of course Langer was a top player but the talk & innuendo around his coaching style was front & centre and wasn't going anywhere But our history with coaches and their departure hasn't been first rate ... Lehmann, Arthur, Buchanan, Simpson etc were all questionable departures. And it can happen to the captains as well ... Lawry, Hughes, Paine etc Just my opinion from afar though, WCW We the public don't often get the nitty gritty information And the interim coach seems to be a bit of a laid-back quietly spoken type (Andrew McDonald) The decision by CA to only offer a short term extension (6 months) is obviously not just based on winning

And we are still a chance in at least 6 more events (see listings near the top of this page) Another 2 - 4 medals would be a very good result when considering that a total of 4 medals was the apparent target Big day of alpine skiing today but our next chance is Belle Brockhoff on Wednesday (2.00pm/5.30pm) in the Snowboard Cross

Didn't know that, WCW, but I know we haven't won a lot of medals (We're not exactly Norway*!) What I do know is that we've got a lot more competitive athletes in a lot more events. Moguls, Aerials & Snowboarding especially We're probably never going to be super-strong but we could build it up to 6-10 medals in the future. That's like a medal every 2nd day of the 16 day Olympic competition *Norway has won a total of 368 medals at the Winter Olympics including 132 Gold Medals!

Jakara wins!! Gold medal to Australia! That was tense ... the pressure was enormous. Reminded me of Jess Fox in the Canoe Slalom. One tiny error and it's all over But Jakara performed when it mattered! A fabulous effort and a fantastic result

I'm struggling to remember another coach* parting ways after so much immediate success (t20 World Cup & Ashes) And both wins were comprehensive Too old school and too intense seems to be the issue but we're still in the dark on the reasoning He'll get another position (if he pursues coaching) but where he might end up is anyone's guess. I view Justin as being thoroughly professional and I'm not sure he misses much It's still a bit of a head scratcher, all the same, WCW *Apart from Norm Smith although he was reinstated a week later (damage was done of course)

Weather permitting the Men's Downhill will be held at 3.00pm AEDT tomorrow (Mon 7th) By the way, the Women's Downhill will be held on Tues 15th at 2.00pm. Again, a must watch! (in my view) The Women's Giant Slalom will be held tomorrow as well ... 12.30pm (Run 1) & 5.30pm (Run 2) And FYI all the events can be viewed in their entirety on the 7Plus app on a device of your choice. That's for each particular event As for tonight, we've got 3 Aussies in the final of the Women's Moguls ... starts at 10.30pm (the first of 3 runs)

Tess Coady Bronze Medalist! Snowboard Slopestyle!

The Men's Downhill event has been delayed due to high winds ... won't start until at least 4pm

Exciting competition too so well done Tess Coady. Bronze!! Top effort too and well deserved Zoi Sadowski Synnott wins Gold for New Zealand ... Zoi was born in Australia (Sydney) so we can lay strong claims

Cooper Woods into the Super final of the moguls ... qualifying 5th And now anything can happen in such a precise event ... one small mistake can be disastrous He'll go for it you'd reckon Edit: That was a terrific final with all the athletes performing under pressure Cooper Woods was very good but unfortunately for him the others were a shade better! That's the Olympics Still, we've got 2 Aussies competing for medals tomorrow and as well as that, the Blue Riband Men's Downhill is on at 1.00pm/2.00pm tomorrow. A must watch!

Schedule & Results - Official Site The Aussies have got 44 competing athletes and here are our main chances to medal Matt Graham - Moguls (Sat 5th 9.00pm/11.40pm) Tess Coady - Snowboard Slopestyle (Sun 6th Feb 12.30pm) Jakara Anthony - Moguls (Sun 6th 10.30pm/11.40pm) Belle Brockhoff - Snowboard Cross (Wed 9th 2.00pm/5.30pm) Cam Bolton - Snowboard Cross (Thurs 10th 2.30pm/6.30pm) Scott James - Snowboard Half-Pipe (Fri 11th 12.30pm) Jaclyn Narracott - Skeleton (Sat 12th 11.20pm) Laura Peel - Aerials (Mon 14th 10.00pm) Bree Walker - Monobob (Mon 14th 12.30pm)

Fabulous news! And Tess Coady has qualified 8th for the snowboard slopestyle final tomorrow (12.30pm) but she'll need a big performance to medal. But you never know Matt Graham has a 2nd chance to qualify for the moguls final tonight along with 3 other Aussie men (9pm - Midnight)

Thanks for that ... I'll add Cam in on a new post (listing our chances) directly There's probably a few other outside hopes as well but I'm certainly no aficionado on the Winter Olympics! Edit: By the looks of it Cam Bolton competes on Thursday (10th) from 2.15pm (Final is on at about 6.15pm later that day)

Some fascinating bits of information The Ski Jumpers can travel in the air for up to 140 metres after leaping off into the air at 100kph The downhill skiers can reach speeds of 140kph ... that's rather quick The 'Luge' athletes can reach speeds of 140kph (steering with their feet whilst endeavouring to peer at the course lying on their backs) ... Skeleton 130kph (think bobsleigh, but head-first, lying on the bellies, on a tea tray) And the Bobsleds can get to 150kph The Aerialists can be launched up to 15 metres into the air (The Triple Kicker) That's 50 feet in the old language That's all a far cry away from cruising down Bourke St at Mt Buller! The speed skaters reach speeds of 60kph which seems rather cruisie compared to the snow skiers but that's still traveling quite quickly with just skates underneath The Steve Bradbury story has many layers ... 8 years prior to his stunning gold medal win he was involved in an accident in a world cup event where he lost 4 litres of blood and required 111 stitches in his thigh. Also, in another accident in 2000 he broke his C4 & C5 vertebrae ... it was only later on that he won gold after being one of the favourites to win 4 years earlier (where, ironically, he crashed out of the event) ... every dog has it's day So a lot of these Winter Olympic sports would best be described as extreme sports. I'm happy just to watch!!

On Ch7 every day from 10.00am/Noon until 2.30am (the next day) ... as well as a comprehensive coverage on the 7Plus app) Schedule & Results - Official Site The Aussies have got 44 competing athletes and here are our main chances to medal Matt Graham - Moguls (Sat 5th 10.30pm) Tess Coady - Snowboard Slopestyle (Sun 6th Feb 12.30pm) Jakara Anthony - Moguls (Sun 6th 10.30pm) Belle Brockhoff - Snowboard cross (Wed 9th 2.00pm/5.30pm) Scott James - Snowboard half-pipe (Fri 11th 12.30pm) Jaclyn Narracott - Skeleton (Sat 12th 11.20pm) Laura Peel - Aerials (Mon 14th 10.00pm) Bree Walker - Monobob (Tues 15th 11.15pm)

If so, the NFL might want to go after the Raiders for tanking (x 6?) haha Raiders, Philadelphia 76ers & Carlton - Tanking Kings! An artform for those 3! And how about the Houston Astros? ... tank, tank, tank, World Series Win! And for a time there paying $100k for losses would have been a waste of cash ... the Dolphins were going to lose anyway!

Excellent post For the reasons you outlined, I reckon we're at least a year away from getting full capacity crowds on a constant basis ... however, there will be a heap of Demons attending the Dogs encounter (in my view) And across the board I reckon we might see a 10% - 15% drop off in crowds on what would otherwise be expected if Covid wasn't a factor But memberships could easily increase as many still will want that connection to the club even if they choose to not attend in the same numbers And TV ratings will be healthy (or healthier) especially if we see the trend continue towards less congestion and more open play So augurs well for another bumper windfall for the AFL in terms of broadcast rights dollars (2025 onwards but they might negotiate an earlier agreement)

Can't help but think that providing absolute proof will be difficult but my opinion is that token interviews are a real thing. The Belichick text is the red herring though As for the cash for losses, that's how far tanking has gone. Tanking has been rife for decades now in the States much as tanking has been widespread in Footy for decades Again, hard to prove unless people spill the beans. And it's so widespread that it has become part of sports (tanking)

A big issue is the access to the best young athletes ... Footy, League, Cricket, Union, Basketball and other sports all take their fair share So where does soccer sit? ... perhaps 1 from every 10 top athletes where as in most other countries, soccer gets the cream of the crop unhindered. Often from a much larger population base In numerous other countries soccer is clearly the number #1 sport and it's often daylight to the next most popular sport To be honest, I'm not sure that soccer in Australia can do anything about it as the pathways here in those other sports is often quite well mapped out Sending young soccer players overseas is a good idea but soccer is missing out on the Oliver's, Petracca & Bont types ...and that's just footy and that's just 3 examples Across all the other sports, there are literally hundreds of other top talented sportsmen where soccer is not their chosen sport As previously stated, we punch way above our weight in terms of world cup qualification

Hasn't this thread degenerated! Slagging off at any team that loses and it's probably only going to get worse by the looks of it If that happens I'll be asking the mods to close the thread

Sure does Back in '06 we might have reached the S/F's if we had have somehow got past Italy in the round of 16 Ukraine were next up in the Q/F's but then Germany & France were after that! The issue looking ahead (in terms of qualification) is that the Asian countries are getting better each time Iran, the Saudi's, South Korea & Japan are all quite strong and other nations like China & Iraq can be expected to get better So again, just qualifying for the World Cup is a real achievement in my eyes Fast forward to right now ... our last 2 games are against Japan (home) and then Saudi Arabia (away) But the Saudi's might have already qualified before that last game A big ask but if we defeat Japan by at least 2 goals we're in with a chance of automatic qualification. Japan beat Australia 2-1 in the earlier match-up (stand corrected but overall placings are decided by head-to-head results and then it goes to goal difference) Points Table (all teams have played 8 games) Saudi Arabia 19 (GD +5) Japan 18 (GD +6) Australia 15 (GD +9) Oman 8 China 5 Vietnam 3 n.b. Our next game is in Sydney ... Thursday 24th March vs Japan The last match at Saudi Arabia is to be played in the early hours of the 30th March (AEDT)

Automatic qualification seems a stretch but we might still be able to qualify via the 3rd place playoff scenario ... but if we're in that scenario and then win that playoff we will then have to defeat the 5th best qualified team out of South America (probably either Uruguay, Peru, Chile or Colombia) And that's a tall order Our likely 3rd place playoff opponent (if it falls that way) will be one of 3 underperforming teams (UAE, Lebanon or iraq) I reckon we sit about where we sat last time ... we're not that good a team both in terms of quality & depth but we're still in with a chance anyway What we do know is that we have definitely qualified at least 3rd in our group so it's not quite over yet I'm a realist so my expectation of the Australian team is a hope that we can qualify for the World Cup (in any given 4 year cycle) Do that, and that's a high achievement (in my view) Anything above that is a total bonus. We are not a strong soccer nation and I highly doubt that we will ever be In terms of adult participation, we are miles off at least 30-40 nations. We seem to have good infrastructure & pathways and great fighting spirit so there's all that We were a terrific side in '06 though ... really punched above our weight then. Kewell, Viduka & Cahill were very good More of an aberration era though We often struggle to qualify for World Cups for good reason ... talent

Well done on making the SB, Gorg ... as you forecast, you stopped their run and left it up to Garoppolo to beat you. All the best in the big one but those Bengals just keep getting it done and they've got excellent fight-back qualities (during games) Rams are 4 point favourites which I see as line-ball. Fumbles, interceptions & errors can always be a big factor in this sport Blocked punts, missed field goals, the works. A 7 point play can eventuate from nowhere Should be a good game but I'm not sure many were predicting this SB match up even a few weeks ago. That's the sport hey!

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