- 10:02 PM
- 07/06/08
| Name: | Rodger Donaldson |
|---|---|
| Homepage URL: | http://diaspora.gen.nz/~rodgerd/ |
| Location: | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Member since: | July 23, 2003 |
| Last visit: | July 6, 2008 |
rodgerd has posted 13 links and 210 comments to SportsFilter and hasn’t posted any threads or comments to the Locker Room.
Wake up, you're off! To quote the New Zealand Herald: Ah, the irony. Welsh lock Huw Richards was having a pat-a-cake struggle with Gary Whetton during the 1987 World Cup semi in Brisbane [...] Richards was revived by the side of the pitch just so he could be shown the red card for giving Whetton a few handbags before Shelford arrived with his peacemaker.
posted on Nov 22, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
Novel excuses for losing Well, I've heard a few, but how about "Town was too boring"? That's right: after a hiding in Hamilton, the Queensland Reds have blamed the city for being so boring as to put the players into a snooze before the big game. But how boring is Hamilton, really? After all, Waikato and All Black half-back Byron Kelleher seems to keep himself amused.
posted on Mar 6, 2006 - Go to the detail view for this result
The end of an era. Australia's rugby leage team have not been beaten in an international series in more than twenty years; New Zealand has not prevailed over their neighbour in over fifty. That ended this past weekend with a crushing victory in the Tri-Nations final in England. Aussie players are embarrased, Kiwis delirious with joy.
posted on Nov 28, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
"Hacking at my tackle" When devotion becomes insanity,
posted on Nov 15, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Formula Ferrari After Bridgestone's inability to provide decent tyres to Ferrari for the 2005 season, Max Mosely decides to revoke the rule change that left them unable to compete with Michelin. 50% of the F1 revenue stream isn't enough of an advantage?
posted on Oct 31, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Paul Ince is Blackburn's new manager and first black English manager in EPL. Frenchman Jean Tigana with Fulham and (Dutch/Surinamese) Ruud Gullit with Chelsea and Newcastle are the only other two black managers to have managed in the Premier League. Ince will be officially presented as Blackburn's manager on Tuesday.
posted to Soccer at 3:39 PM CDT
Eight Wimbledon Matches Might've Been Tanked in 2007 The Sunday Times of London serves up a scorcher: "Eight matches at Wimbledon have been reported to the tennis authorities on suspicion that their results have been fixed by professional gambling syndicates." Hints are dropped, but no players are named. Five of the losers are playing in this year's men's singles.
posted to Tennis at 6:20 PM CDT
I would imagine it's easy to fix with less that win/loss outcomes, as well. Get a player ranked in, say, the 30s, who's expected to steamroll a player a hundred or more places below, bet on the higher ranked player losing the first set instead of winning in straight sets. The player doesn't have to lose, just drop a set, much easier to convince them that's OK, but the smaller upset still provides the ability to make some money.
posted at 4:44 PM CDT on June 22
The Decline of Commentary in cricket, but probably applicable to all broadcast sports. Osman Samiuddin takes ex-players to task. A well-considered rant.
posted to Other at 5:19 PM CDT
In F1 you have the asinine James Allen whose endless felation of Lewis Hamilton is utterly nauseating.
Ahh, the English national passtime.
Most ex-players are just terrible. Stu Wilson (rugby, New Zealand) is fucking embarrassing. Literally. I was staying in a hotel with a bunch of Lions fans in 2005 (while working away from home), and I found myself apologising to them for what a rude,obnoxious, smug shit he was. He is almost as bad as Stephen Jones.
Most ex players aren't particularly astute commentators (with rare exceptions like Ian Smith and Grant Fox over here); in fact they're a plague on commentary; they're usually relentlessly partisan, and often surprisingly uninformed (most ex-players in rugby in Australia and New Zealand are so busy bagging the referee they obviously have no time to keep up with the rules of the games, because they're so often wrong).
I want commentators who know more than me about the game I'm watching, and can explain what's going on and why people are making particular calls. I can see for myself who's passed the ball.
posted at 7:26 PM CDT on June 18
I suspect, owlhouse, that (much as with Bodyline bowling), the MCC will suddenly press for it to be banned when it's used against English players, rather than by them.
posted at 3:42 AM CDT on June 19
Robert Kubica wins the Canadian Grand Prix. Robert Kubica becomes the first Polish driver to win a Grand Prix, scoring BMW's first ever victory in the process. His teammate Nick Heidfeld made it a BMW 1-2 after Lewis Hamilton ended his and Kimi Raikkonen's race in a bonehead incident in the pitlane. A year ago, Kubica was lucky to leave Montreal with his life. This year he leaves it leading the drivers championship by four points. What a difference a year makes.
posted to Auto Racing at 2:40 PM CDT
I shall be entertained by British press accounts of Hamilton's exit. They will, no doubt, blame it on UFOs or somesuch.
posted at 9:16 PM CDT on June 8
Arsenal's Eduardo Da Silva injured in outrageous tackle, possibly ending his career. A truly horrific injury, broken pieces of bone were sticking out of his sock as he was stretchered of the field. This is the sort of injury that you never truly recover from (See Alex Smith). I hope the FA bans Martin Taylor for life.
posted to Soccer at 1:12 PM CDT
even if he does remain very one eyed.
Being a Birmingham City fan...
Let's not forget a heroic performance by the Blue boys
posted at 7:43 PM CDT on February 24
A Fight to the Death CBC program The Fifth Estate investigates the effects of undiagnosed concussions in WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's tragic demise. Also relevant to other SpoFi threads about NFL disability pensions, etc.
posted to General at 9:13 PM CDT
It's worth noting than when New Zealand international rugby player Leon McDonald suffered 3 concussions in a couple of years he was advised to quit contact sports by a couple of neurologists.
Unfortunately the IRB, presumably bending to pressure from teams unhappy at losing stars, have changed their rules from a mandatory 3 week stand-down after concussion to a bunch of tests administered by the team doctor (cite), which seems like a recipie for long-term problems.
posted at 1:24 AM CDT on February 9
Soccer Is As American As Apple Pie The Guardian's Jeff Wells responds to some false assumptions about The Beautiful Game in the USA.
posted to Culture at 10:07 PM CDT
Of all the criticisms related in the article, the ones that are funniest are the claims that football is Communism, football is socialism...
Let me see, which sports have player unions, owners' cartels exempted from antitrust laws, salary caps, compulsory drafts, limited numbers of teams, no promotion/relegation (ensuring the in crowd stay the in crowd irrespective of merit), where stadiums are built on the taxpayer dime; which sport flourishes in a brutal free market for players and clubs, where failure means elimination from the top tier, where success means entry to ultra-lucrative tournaments, where stadia are funded by clubs that play in them, where saw, naked social Darwinism is a constant, grinding force on players and clubs.
I'm sure as hell not describing mainstream US sports in the latter, am I?
posted at 6:43 PM CDT on January 18
RIP Sir Edmund Hillary "...he parlayed the makings of an ordinary life into a truly extraordinary one - and showed us in the process that greatness is possible for anyone."
posted to Other at 9:50 PM CDT
How many of us would be this generous and not brag about being the first.
Not only that, but you know all the photos from the peak? That's not Sir Ed. He took photos of Norgay, but couldn't be bothered getting ones of himself.
posted at 3:20 PM CDT on January 12
Vick Sentenced to 23 Months in Prison Six months after news first broke of an alleged dogfighting ring at his house in Virginia, Michael Vick was sentenced to federal prison Monday for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit bulls. The earliest he could get released is May 2009. On the field, Falcons Coach Bobby Petrino's desperate search for a replacement now turns to Chris Redman.
posted to Football at 12:04 PM CDT
...if pushed, you would prefer to see a human being perish before an animal.
posted at 3:08 AM CDT on December 11
Casualties of the NFL: The fits, when they come, turn him as white as the walls and send unself-conscious tears down his cheeks. It's DeMarco at 35: dirt-poor, broken, and in a headfirst spiral, taking his wife and children down with him. .... "There was no food in the house, and I mean none -- not a box of mac and cheese or a can of tuna ..... Brian and Autumn hadn't eaten in a couple of days and between them had 75 cents. Total." A harrowing account of post-NFL experiences.
posted to Football at 8:53 PM CDT
I couldn't finish this. It was too revolting. Every one of the team doctors that passes players to play with serious injuries should be disbarred.
Were I in a country where grid iron was a big draw, my kids wouldn't be playing it. Not for a single day. Not when that's where it ends.
posted at 1:01 AM CDT on November 17
Football can't deal with the issue without putting flags on the hips of its players and banning contact.
posted at 1:08 PM CDT on November 20
Barry Bonds indicted on perjury, obstruction charges
posted to Baseball at 4:26 PM CDT
Until a trial and failure of his defemse to impeach witnesses that testify against him proves that he has, he hasn't.
posted at 3:35 AM CDT on November 16
Foreign player quota gathers steam in England. UK Sports Minister wants to study the impact of foreign players on the local game. I've been noticing a recent increase in reports of various soccer notables calling for foreign player limits in Europe. FIFA president Sepp Blatter seems to have re-ignited the debate by saying he'll challenge the EU anti-discrimination laws in order to instate the "only five foreign players in the starting 11" quota system. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson agrees. Steve Coppell (Reading manager) claimed it would improve the quality of the national team. Steve Gerrard (Liverpool captain, local boy and England midfielder) agrees. What's going on here? It's not like this is a new issue. And lots of these managers and their high-end teams are first in line to benefit from open trade in international players. Why is this an issue now? What's your take on this?
posted to Soccer at 12:49 PM CDT
r8rh8r27: So long as fans place country results behind club ones, what incentive does a club have to change. Imagine Liverpool, say, went with a a maximum of 3 foreign players, for example. Imagine they spent a season in the bottom half of the table. How many Liverpool fans would say, "Oh well, it'll help the national side! We don't care!"
One? Two?
posted at 1:04 AM CDT on November 17
Had Enough Steroids Yet? Marion Jones, You're Next! Multiple Olympic medalist Marion Jones has admitted using the steroid known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999. Jones, once considered the best female athlete in the world, says her former coach Trevor Graham gave her the steroid, telling her it was flaxseed oil.
posted to Olympics at 5:41 PM CDT
Is there a pro sport that has not been hit with steroid issues this year?
Haven't noticed any in top level rugby union, rugby league, or cricket.
posted at 12:32 PM CDT on October 5
It's not that much of a surprise, considering it's not that long since 'fans' would chuck bananas at black players.