Football Drama

The weekend was a football show piece of what ruins a great game.  In all cases in caused for game changing situations and affected the final result. Sport in itself sees plenty of poor decisions and it is something that will always happen as human error is always bound to occur. But it is when mistakes are made that should never happen that cause greater concern. The main incidents I am referring to are the disallowed offside goal in the EPL during the Everton v Liverpool game and back home in the A-League it was the dive by Adelaide's Geronimo after being interfered with by Wellington's Ben Sigmund.

Offside?? Never!!

The rest of the article can be read at....The Armchair Selector

Rugby 4th Stringers Do Alright

On Saturday night the World Champion New Zealand Rugby Union team ran out their strongest side possible and approached the game like they just needed to turn up. What they didn't account for was a resilient 4th string Australian side to stand up and play with pride and determination, something that has been missing all season. Considering Australia had about ten players who would not have been selected if all players were eligible it was a good result for Australia even if it was a draw.

Australia needed to come out strong early and show New Zealand that it was not going to be a cake walk for a side that is used to winning.  Also Australia needed to play a whole game and not just glimpses here and there.  In general it was Australia's defence that ensured the game was drawn and to hold a New Zealand side tryless is no mean feat.

What I want to talk about though are the two areas in the game that cost Australia victory............

The rest of this article can be read at The Armchair Selector


I have joined forces with The Armchair Selector after being approached to submit articles to the site.  I will still be writing articles here but you will notice that not all articles can be fully read here.

Why Take A Flare?

When going to a game a supporter ensures they have certain things in their possession to take to the game. They ensure they are attired in their teams colours, their ticket for the game is on hand, money to cover the cost of the celebratory ales before, during and after the game, flags and signs heralding their team and favourite players and of course the chants that have been put to memory to shout during the game. All of this I can understand, where I fail to follow the logic though is when the supporter makes sure that the flare is carefully concealed before they head off.

Whilst setting off flares is a common happening in football, one has to ask why? Fans are not only letting flares go off in the stands now though they are taking the idiotic decision to throw them onto the playing surface or as seen recently at the VPL Grand Final a supporter took it to a new level when they fired a flare across the ground.

When a flare goes off questions are rightly asked of ground security and how the supporter was able to get it into the ground. With with such stringent security at grounds now this is a legitimate question. When I see a flare go off though, I always question the intelligence of the person that set it off and the people around them that surely knew it was going to happen.  

Something else that eludes me to the whole childish concept is why it is seen to be a good idea by the intending culprits. Even stranger is why someone would think it is smart to fire one across a ground where the only thing that is going to come from it is most likely an injury or worse. The game is quite happy to vilify publicly a player on the field who dives, maybe it is time for the game to start doing the same to offending people who set off flares. Lengthy bans are always a necessity but a little public humiliation could do so much more.

Dog Act by A Bulldog

2012 for the NRL will never be forgotten and it is unfortunately for all the wrong reason. In a season ruined by video refs everyone was very worried that they would have the final say on who were the premiers for 2012. This in one way was luckily not the case but instead we are now dealing with an issue that is one of the  worst I have ever witnessed in sport. So instead of talking about the game lets highlight an incident that will go down as one of the worst the game has seen and should be dealt with accordingly.

Before I prattle on though take a look at the incident itself.

The Dog Act

This incident raises many issues.

1.  Why did the referees not ask for it to be reviewed when after all, this is what the judiciary will do. If the game is happy to stop everything for more than five minutes to review a try or a melee, why did they not take what could have been seen within 5 minutes was obvious to everyone else. Why are the referees so scared to send players off. A player can commit a high tackle or similar and get sent off after a review, so why change it now.

2.  How can a the Bulldogs as a club or any supporter of the club from this point forward want this player as part of their organisation?

3.  Why did the commentators gloss over this issue so easily yet make more complaints about strips that were rules as knock-ons.

For one I am glad that this player did not end up affecting the end result of the game. What I cannot understand is how they managed to finish the game. What needs to happen from here though must be a hard stance and carried out very quickly. A very long suspension at minimum is required, and personally I would like to see this player rubbed out of the game for good. No normal person in their right mind takes this action and the game needs to acknowledge that. If allowed to ever play the game again in the NRL then he and the NRL also have to be accept that every game, opposition players are allowed to say "watch out, make sure he doesn't bite you". If the NRL doesn't want this to happen then a life ban is the only option.

If the Bulldogs as a club want to retain any respect then it should act on this issue very quickly, accept any punishment the player receives without fighting it and then terminate the contract of James Graham. Rarely do I swear on twitter or facebook, let alone in my club but this is a rare instance that has caused that. I have commented on many issues through the season and admit to be very vocal about certain issues but on this occasion, if the NRL take a soft stance then it is going to lose a lot of fans and sponsors in the process as it will be highlighted as a grubs game.