AFL second qualifying final match review: Geelong v. Hawthorn at Melbourne

The last time these two teams met, DANGERFIELD!, well, Dangerfielded all over the MCG with 43 disposals. Now, just like in 2014, they meet in the second qualifying final at the same venue.

This match promised to be not only a renewal of – cliché alert – one of AFL footy’s greatest modern rivalries, but also a mouth-watering tactical match-up. Geelong have dominated the league aerially, taking 6.727 more contested marks per game and 6.909 more marks inside fifty per game than their opponents. They have also redefined footy as a struggle for territory as well as possession via Patrick Dangerfield’s other-worldly ‘metres gained’ numbers.

The Hawks, on the other hand, have been on a mission to put the ‘foot’ back in ‘football’. They may win 16.77 fewer contested possessions per game than their opposition (the lowest in the league, although as Madness of Sport points out, that still equates to 47% of the contested possessions in their matches), but they make up for it with sublime foot skills. At the zenith of run-and-carry footy, the period between 2009 and 2011, AFL teams began to handball more than kick over the course of a season, but the influence of Hawthorn (and of the ex-Hawthorn assistant coaches who have landed coaching gigs at other clubs) has reversed that trend. Hawthorn’s kick-to-handball ratio of 1.341:1 is the highest in the league; Geelong’s 1.228:1 is still above the league average of 1.209:1.

The stage was thus set – the ruck/clearance dominance, verticalité, and aerial threat of the Pivotonians against the ground-level proficiency and the Gaelic-style, MCG-optimised short game of the Mayblooms.

The first quarter began tensely, Geelong kicking the first goal and preventing Hawthorn from responding until after the mid-point of the term, despite the ball spending nearly three-quarters of this period in the Hawks’ attacking half. Paul Puopolo and Tom Hawkins both took hangers, but only the latter converted, and the Cats went into the first change with a seven-point lead.

In the second stanza, the pendulum began to swing in Hawthorn’s favour. They matched the nominal hosts in the centre and their positioning at kick-ins was such that the Cats struggled to clear the ball beyond half-way following a Hawks behind. With five goals (two in a row to Luke Breust being key) to three, the three-time premiers finished the half ahead 6.6.42 to 5.5.35.

Soon after the main interval, the Mustard Pots got out to a seventeen-point lead before Hawkins won a holding-the-ball free with a superb tackle. His kick to Daniel Menzel resulted in the first of three quick goals; after one more major each, the Cats headed into the final change up by two points.

The last quarter began with Hawthorn taking a lead of less than a goal before a hard-fought period of more than ten minutes in which either side could only register behinds. The ending of the match couldn’t have been scripted better: Geelong five points down, Menzel to Josh Caddy for a goal, two Steven Motlop behinds, then Isaac Smith takes THAT mark and the boy from Cootamundra wattled it across the face of goal.

Tactically, the most unexpected aspect of this game was Hawthorn matching Geelong in areas in which the Hoops’ tall brigade would have been expected to dominate. Geelong won the clearances by one, 39-38, Hawthorn won the centre clearances 14-11, the hit-outs 40-38, and took thirteen marks inside fifty to Geelong’s ten. Geelong did, predictably, win the contested possession count 170-118.

Despite losing or breaking even in all the other statistical categories relating to ball-winning (clearances, centre clearances, hit-outs, marks inside 50) and ball movement (kicks, inside 50s), Geelong won this qualifying final by simply making more efficient use of the ball when they did get it.

It wasn’t an epoch-making (or even epoch-ending) encounter, but Geelong have shown the rest of the competition the blueprint for defeating ‘Fourthorn’.

Geelong 12.13.85 (Motlop 2.3; Caddy 2.0; Hawkins 2.0; McCarthy 2.0; Blicavs 1.0; Guthrie 1.0; Menzel 1.0; J. Selwood 1.0; Cowan 0.1; Dangerfield 0.1; Enright 0.1; Stanley 0.1; rushed 0.6) – Hawthorn 12.11.83 (Breust 3.1; Burgoyne 2.1; Gunston 2.1; Rioli 2.1; Schoenmakers 2.0; Hill 1.0; Fitzpatrick 0.2; Mitchell 0.1; Shiels 0.1; Smith 0.1; rushed 0.2)

AFL women’s match review: Western Bulldogs v. Melbourne at Footscray

This blog has previously expressed interest in the wingman-less sixteen-a-side form of footy played in the Victorian Football Association between 1959 and 1992. We got a chance to see how this would work in a modern footballing context on Saturday night, when the AFL’s women’s exhibition match was played on the Whitten Oval between two sixteens notionally representing the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne.

The Bulldogs’ captain Steph Chiocci won the toss, and a tight first quarter ended with one goal apiece, the hosts leading 1.3 to 1.2. The Bulldogs responded with the first two goals of the second stanza, and thanks to some wayward Demons kicking – a product, perhaps, of the undersized ball being trialled – they outgoaled their opponents four to two to head into the main break leading 5.3 to 3.7.

It was the four consecutive third-quarter goals of VWFL centurion Moana Hope which put the match out of Melbourne’s reach: a holding-the-ball free, an uncontested snap, a snap under pressure, and an angled set shot took the Tricolours to a thirty-three point lead at the final change. With six goals for the night, the tattooed Collingwood recruit would pick up a well-deserved best-on-ground.

As fatigue set in despite the six-strong interchange benches, the two sides combined for a seven-goal last quarter, book-ended by Tayla Harris’ one-bounce set-shot bomb from outside fifty and Hope’s running supergoal. 6365 had taken advantage of free entry to witness a hard, contested encounter by the new ‘it’ girls of Australian sport.

But what exactly did they witness? I recorded the ball-ups, boundary throw-ins, and secondary stoppages, and also took note of the inside 50s toward the end of the match.

This season, AFL teams averaged 52.17 inside 50s per match. Considering that the women’s match was played over flat twenty-minute quarters instead of the thirty minutes (inclusive of time-on) used by the men, that equates to 34.78 over eighty minutes. Melbourne’s tally of 42 and the Bulldogs’ tally of 39 are both comfortably higher than the rate of inside 50s achieved in the AFL. The teams combined for 1.741 points per inside 50 (Bulldogs: 2.308, Melbourne: 1.214), which is higher than the 1.701 in the 2016 AFL season.

According to a publication put out by the AFL during last season’s hullabaloo about congestion, AFL matches in 2015 averaged 43.7 boundary throw-ins and 29 ball-ups, for a total of 72.7 stoppages, 22% of which were secondary stoppages. (Equivalent figures for 2016 have not been released by Champion Data or sought by the media; apparently everyone has moved on from the Great Congestion Debate of 2015.) Adjusted for the difference in playing time, this equates to 29.13 boundary throw-ins, 19.33 ball-ups, and 48.47 total stoppages.

The women’s match had 34 ball-ups and 11 boundary throw-ins for 45 stoppages, five of which, or 11.1%, were secondary stoppages. The number of ball-ups was thus 14.67 more than expected, the number of boundary throw-ins was 18.13 fewer than expected, the total number of stoppages only 3.47 fewer than expected, and the percentage of secondary stoppages was just over half that of the 2015 AFL season.

So how does wingless sixteen-a-side footy shape up? If the purpose was to reduce ‘congestion’, which is usually defined as the number of stoppages in a game, it failed. Forcing teams to avoid the wings and flanks simply replaces boundary throw-ins with ball-ups in the corridor. It does, however, increase the number and quality of inside 50 entries: this is why VFA teams averaged 102.37 points per game in the Association’s sixteen-man era.

And that would appear to be the way that AFL House wants it. The rhetoric surrounding the women’s league has been all about ‘free-flowing’, ‘high-scoring’ footy, free from ‘congestion’. The powers-that-be have floated nine-point supergoals, last-touch out-of-bounds free kicks, and zones to enforce one-on-one match-ups among key position players.

That might appeal to the purists (and to the target audience for the half-time advertisement for the minimal-contact AFL 9’s format) but some of us actually like the congested, handball-heavy, high-interchange modern footy. Let’s have these girls play the game as it is played nowadays, not the way it was played in the imagined golden past of the purists.

Western Bulldogs 14.6.90 (Hope 6, Vescio 3, Ashmore 2, Brennan 1, Jakkobson 1, Lambert 1) – Melbourne 7.9.51 (Frederick-Traub 2, Harris 2, Marinoff 1, Foley 1, Eva 1)

Super Rugby Grand Final match review: Hurricanes v. Lions at Wellington

The Hurricanes, representing the southern and eastern coasts of the North Island, played host to the Lions, representing the Witwatersrand conurbation and the veldt to its west and east, in a grand final which would crown a virgin winner of the Super 12 14 Rugby competition. A forecast of chilly temperatures, a mild downpour, and squally winds promised a distinctly un-Super Rugby forwards-battle-slash-kicking-duel, and the two sides didn’t disappoint.

Lions fly-half Elton Jantjies has had a stellar season, but he fluffed his lines early in this one, sending the opening kick-off over the dead-ball line and then misjudging the weather conditions to crash a third-minute penalty into the goalpost padding. His opposing number, Beauden Barrett, didn’t take long to insert himself into the picture, kicking a teammate over for a try only to be denied by the TMO, missing a drop goal attempt, and then putting the hosts ahead with an eleventh-minute penalty goal.

Much of the match was taken up by kicking duels, and it was a wayward Lionel Mapoe kick that Cory Jane intercepted and ran over for the first try of the match. After Jantjies made no mistake with his second penalty attempt to make the score 10-3, the Africans had a string of attacking scrums in much the same part of the pitch as did the Chiefs for a key period of last week’s semi-final. The matter ended the same way: the ‘Canes won a scrum against the feed and got out of jail with their kicking game.

After numerous handling errors on high balls leading into the break, the Gramscian war of position began again in the second half, until broken up by a Barrett penalty goal after an offside infringement. Home captain Dane Coles was substituted off, before making a short but impactful return as a blood bin replacement. Despite having the better of the penalty count, the men from Johannesburg were unable to make it count on the scoreboard, Jantjies missing another from forty metres out just after the hour mark.

Barrett sealed his man-of-the-match performance eleven minutes from time when he pounced on a ball which had sprung loose in the chaos ensuing from the Lions spoiling of a Hurricanes lineout. The Wellingtonians’ superlative defence denied the visitors at the other end, and the long-suffering franchise had won its first ever title against a team of likeable cast-offs from the veldt.

Hurricanes 20 (Cory Jane try 22’; Beauden Barrett try 69’, 2/2 convs., pens. 12’, 52’) – Lions 3 (Elton Jantjies pen. 26’)

Trans-Tasman Netball League Grand Final match review: Queensland Firebirds v. New South Wales Swifts at Brisbane

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the [Sponsor’s Name] Championship, est. 2008, comes to an end in favour of a back-to-the-future eight-team all-Australian circuit. Whether this is for the best remains to be seen, but the Queensland Firebirds and New South Wales Swifts gave the grand old girl an almighty send-off with a thriller on the polished floorboards of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

‘THEY MEET AGAIN’ screamed the Channel Ten promo, reminding us that These Two Teams Faced Off In Last Year’s Decider. The Swifts signalled their intentions with an interception from the first centre pass, Caitlin Thwaites’ no-nonsense shooting putting them up 6-2 within five minutes and 12-7 within ten.

But it was the shooting form of the Firebirds’ goaler Romelda Aiken which surprised everyone unused to seeing the tall Jamaican miss. Having shot for 87.5% in the season thus far, she looked out of sorts, relying on her rebounding skills to mop up her missed shots and even, in an interesting role reversal, handing the ball off to Gretel Tippett.

The Swifts’ territorial dominance wasn’t translating into dominance of the scoreboard, and Laura Geitz marshalled her defensive line to get the Firebirds back into the match. Tippett sank her first score of the afternoon to put the hosts up 16-15 at the first change. By the long break, Aiken had settled to twenty-six goals from forty attempts and the Queenslanders led 29-27.

Just as the Swifts began the first half with an interception, the Firebirds began the second in a similar fashion, a coast-to-coast goal putting them three clear. Ahead 37-36 and in the tenth minute of the third quarter, Aiken intercepted Sharni Layton’s lazy inbounds pass and goaled. A see-sawing quarter saw the Swifts take the lead soon after, and the denizens of the Siren City of the South led by one goal at lemon time.

The final term began with the all-too-familiar sight of an Aiken-Layton aerial duel won by the Jamaican. The next three Swifts attacks ended in interceptions or defensive rebounds, and the Firebirds assumed a five-goal lead by the eighth minute. They led 54-51 with just over a minute to go, but the Swifts weren’t done; midcourt turnovers and Thwaites’ offensive rebounding got the three goals needed and we were headed to extra time.

The Firebirds looked the likelier team after the resumption, leading 61-59 at the changeover when Swifts coach Rob Wright rolled the dice: centre Kimberlee Green came off for Paige Hadley, and goal attack Susan Pettitt was replaced by Stephanie Wood. It worked for a while: the Swifts led 63-62, and the score was tied at 66-all when Layton denied Aiken an aerial ball; the resulting shot was missed by Wood.

That was the end of extra time, except that it wasn’t: the match proceeded into a first-to-lead-by-two sudden death ‘double extra time’. Gabi Simpson, one of the standout players for the Firebirds this season, manufactured the crucial turnover, Aiken converting to end the contest at 69-67, after sixteen minutes and forty-four seconds of extra time so hardcore that Kellie Underwood twice described it as “pulsating”.

Where was the match won and lost? The home side converted 69 of its 100 shots; i rossoblu 67 from 84. Poor shooting was compensated for by Aiken’s twenty rebounds and Tippett’s forty-seven shooting circle feeds constituted a textbook performance at goal attack.

It’s one of the most shopworn sporting clichés, but netball was the real winner here. The sport couldn’t have devised a more fitting way to launch next season’s national competition.

Queensland Firebirds 69 (Romelda Aiken 63/89; Gretel Tippett 6/11) – New South Wales Swifts 67 (Caitlin Thwaites 34/41; Susan Pettitt 30/39; Stephanie Wood 3/4) (a.s.d.e.t.)

State of Origin 1 match review: New South Wales v. Queensland at Sydney

In front of a packed Olympic Stadium, the opening match of this year’s State of Origin series was played out and didn’t disappoint. Despite the loss, New South Wales played as well as they have done in some years, and will go into the second match with the knowledge that they have Queensland’s measure.

After just thirteen minutes, James Tamou was penalised for holding down Matt Gillett at the play-the-ball; the darling of the commentariat, Jonathan Thurston, snaring the two points which would prove decisive. Queensland dominated the field position stakes early, being tackled inside their opposition quarter twelve times before the Blues could even get off the mark.

Penrith fullback Matt Moylan had an up-and-down night, conceding goal-line drop-outs at one end and setting up attacks at the other. His effort in the twenty-first minute began a series of four consecutive attacking sets, culminating in James Maloney putting Easts second-rower Boyd Cordner over for the first try of the night.

New South Wales coach Laurie Daley unleashed the ‘Beast of Belmore’, David Klemmer, soon afterwards, but Queensland ended an even first half 6-4 up thanks to an old-school backline movement that ended with Dane Gagai’s inaugural Origin try. As the two sides headed for the sheds, they were, statistically speaking, virtually inseparable. The hosts had had fifty-one percent of the possession, but both teams had completed seventeen of nineteen sets and made two offloads.

The second half was a disappointment for those who want rugby league to be glorified touch football producing a collage of highlight-reel moments (which seems to be most people in this town); it was, however, a delight for those of us who savour the physical and tactical intricacies of le rugby à treize. The boys from the Premier State began to dominate the statistics, but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard. Josh Morris came closest, having a try disallowed in the sixty-sixth minute by what the hip cats these days are calling ‘The Bunker’.

Our lads threw everything at the cocky overdogs from Sir Joh’s Mrs. Palaszczuk’s Bananaland: Klemmer and Andrew Fifita, Robbie Farah’s sumptuous kicking game, even ten minutes of Dylan Walker, but to no avail. With fifteen missed tackles and four penalties each, this was rugby league played to perfection.

New South Wales 4 – Queensland 6

Tries: Cordner 25’ (N. S. W.); Gagai 37’ (Qld.)

Conversions: Reynolds 0/1 (N. S. W.); Thurston 0/1 (Qld.)

Penalties: Thurston 1/1 (Qld.)

2018 World Cup qualifying match review: Australia v. Jordan at Sydney (SFS)

Needing only a draw, if that, to book a spot in the next phase in their long and winding World Cup qualifying campaign, the Socceroos faced the oddly-shaped nation of Jordan at the scene of many great international matches, the Sydney Football Stadium.

Given Jordan’s 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture in Amman last October, a close match was to be expected; instead, the Socceroos routed their opponents, whose appointment of English supercoach Harry Redknapp has been in vain, having failed to secure one of the top four runners-up spots.

The hosts were slow to get going: the first major incidents of the match were an early Brad Smith’s tête-à-tête with Baha’ Abdel-Rahman and a Tom Rogić shot on target in the seventeenth minute. Hamza Al-Dardour then snuck onside from a free kick but lacked passing options and was closed down by the Socceroo defence.

In the twenty-fourth minute, the procession of goals began. The first combined assists from Aaron Mooy and Robbie Kruse with a Tim Cahill six-yard-box tap-in. The second came from a counter-attack, Mooy finishing with a sublime strike, unmarked and well outside the box. For the third, Kruse deftly chipped an aerial ball onto the head of Cahill, acting as stand-in captain in the absence of Mile Jedinak.

Cahill’s first shot of the second stanza was blocked, but Tom Rogić goaled with the rebound. Mooy and Mathew Leckie were rested in favour of Massimo Luongo and Chris Ikonomidis after the hour mark; five minutes after their introduction, Ikonomidis got on the end of a Smith throw-in and laid up the assist through a napping Jordanian defence for Luongo to score Australia’s fifth.

The sourest note of the match was the sixty-fifth-minute caution of Yousef Al-Rawashdeh: the Jordanian forward appeared to deliberately ‘cork’ Kruse, whose injury troubles have deprived Socceroo followers of an interrupted experience of his glorious crosses and breathtaking runs down the wing. Not taking any risks, Ange Postecoglou replaced him soon after with Nathan Burns.

Los australianos hammered the Jordanian goal in the final ten minutes but goalkeeper-captain Amer Shafi’s cat-like reflexes repelled everything they threw at him. Al-Nashāmā botched a counter-attack two minutes from time, but soon found a consolation goal when Abdallah Deeb threaded through a fatigued ‘Roos defence.

Australia 5 (Tim Cahill 24’, 44’; Aaron Mooy 39’; Tom Rogić 53’; Massimo Luongo 69’) – Jordan 1 (Abdallah Deeb 90’)

Cautions: Yousef Al-Rawashdeh (Jor.) 65’; Baha’ Faisal (Jor.) 77’; Bailey Wright (Aust.) 80’; Tom Rogić (Aust.) 89’

AFL Round 1 match review: Geelong v. Hawthorn at Melbourne

Melbourne, March 28

Footy’s back. Well, it restarted on Thursday night but one had to wait until Easter Monday for The Greatest Team Of All™ to begin their campaign.

Both sides signalled their intent with a relentless defensive effort: neither scored until the eighth minute of regulation time, when Luke Breust snapped a major from inside fifty. But it was all Geelong for the rest of the term; Zac Smith, Lincoln McCarthy, Smith again, and Josh Caddy all goaling to put the hoops fifteen points up at the first change.

The biancoazzurri onslaught continued at the resumption: Steven Motlop and McCarthy piled on two more early, and the Cats outgoaled their opponents 7-4, finishing the quarter with a spectacular Tom Hawkins soccer in the goal square. By the main break, Geelong led 11.1.67 to 5.7.37, had won eighty-three contested possessions to the Mayblooms’ sixty-six, and star recruit Paddy DANGERFIELD! had racked up twenty disposals and effectuated five inside fifties.

But there have been strange rumblings in football this weekend, the new cap of ninety mid-quarter interchanges per team per match seemingly causing wild turnarounds in fortunes. And so it was in the third quarter: Puopolo, Gunston, Burgoyne goal but Andrew Mackie can only hit the post; a turnover and Billy Hartung receives the ball from a teammate’s volleyball spike; Puopolo runs onto another loose ball inside the arc and majors; Hawkins misses the lot and Selwood’s nine-iron snap sails through for a behind. A five-goals-to-none third quarter, and the Mustard Pots head into lemon time two points up.

It all came back now: the 2008 Grand Final, the 2013 preliminary final, Easter Monday 2015. That fatalism, that sense of being outgunned by a brown-and-gold máquina that wins premierships and Chooses Swisse. That awful feeling that Hawthorn were about to unleash The Real Julia on us.

Darcy Lang and Jack Gunston traded goals. Dangerfield remonstrated with an umpire after being denied a free kick. Dennis Cometti, demonstrating a superb knowledge of the sport’s history, referred to that line at the top of the goal square as the “kick-off line”. Joel Selwood marked outside fifty and handballed off to Cam Guthrie, whose long-range effort put Geelong two points up.

The new fashion in the ninety-interchange-capped era of footy is to rest midfielders in the forward line, a homage to the Good Old Days when your ruckman spelled in the back pocket and your ruck-rover and your rover occupied the forward pockets. And so it was for the boy from Moggs Creek: mid-way through the final term, he outmuscled the Hawthorn defence, kicked a behind, took a screamer on the shoulders of Ben Stratton near what Cometti again called the “kick-off line”, and booted another behind.

Four points ahead, the Pivotonians’ lead hit double digits with Lachie Henderson’s first major in the hoops, but this state of affairs lasted only as long as Breust’s lovely floating set shot. DANGERFIELD! added to his tally of behinds with a poster before Caddy extended Geelong’s lead.

Luke ‘Bloody Idiot’ Hodge, heretofore having a quiet afternoon, copped Mitch Duncan’s elbow in his face on centre wing, but the subsequent report was the only black spot for the Cats, who stacked on another three goals in the last five minutes to win what Cometti described as “a real tug-of-war at the M.C.G. this afternoon”. Tug-of-war, I recently discovered, was a medal event at the five Summer Olympics between 1900 and 1920, and this was an Olympian effort.

And the most Olympian of them all was DANGERFIELD! The Crows recruit tallied forty-three possessions, breaking the first-match-for-a-new-club record held by Greg Williams (thirty-seven for Sydney after transferring from Geelong in his Brownlow-winning year of 1986). Thanks to his duet with Selwood, Geelong won the centre clearances 51-39 and the inside fifty count 61-46. And ninety interchanges? Who needs them? We only needed eighty-four.

Sydney, March 29

Was this real? Did I dream this? I’d certainly dreamed about something like this all summer:

Dangerfield leads Geelong to 30-point win over Hawthorn

The ABC News24 newsbar said it, so it must be true.

Geelong 18.8.116 – Hawthorn 12.14.86

Goals: Caddy 3, Lang 3, Smith 3, Hawkins 2, McCarthy 2, Blicavs, Guthrie, Henderson, Motlop, Murdoch (Geel.); Gunston 3, Puopolo 3, Breust 2, Langford 2, Burgoyne, Hartung (Haw.)

Best: Dangerfield, Blicavs, Guthrie (Geel.); Mitchell, Frawley, Puopolo (Haw.)

2018 World Cup qualifying match review: Australia v. Tajikistan at Adelaide

The Socceroos, presumably in homage to Coldplay, unveiled their All Yellow strip (with green socks) as they resumed their World Cup qualifying campaign against Tajikistan on a cut-up Adelaide Oval surface seemingly covered in big strips of green masking tape. Piling up a cricket score against the hapless and wounded Central Asians, they ploughed on ahead of Jordan at the top of Group B.

The sizeable crowd were barely in their seats when Massimo Luongo opened the scoring in the second minute, taking his chance from outside a chockers penalty area. Ten minutes later, captain Mile Jedinak converted a penalty occasioned by keeper Alisher Tuychiev professionally fouling international debutante Apostolos Giannou.

The Socceroos kept firing balls into the penalty area – twenty-three by the fortieth minute to Tajikistan’s one – without adding to the 2-0 scoreline, and the visitors had two players stretchered off. Looking très haut-couture in their white shirt with thin green-then-red-then-green-then-red-again chevrons, they were looking competent enough at the back until they came undone after the interval.

Defender Davron Ergashev was cautioned for collaring Giannou in the box, substitute captain Mark Milligan putting i gialloverdi 3-0 up. Nathan Burns had a few chances before tapping in an Aaron Mooy cross in the sixty-seventh minute, and the subsequent introduction of Tom Rogić, on for Luongo, fired up the Socceroos’ offence. Within five minutes, the Celtic man had netted a brace: the first a Wembley-Tor from a Mooy free kick, the second an opportunist extra-areal strike.

Not done yet, Rogić hit the bar in the seventy-fifth minute, and his team would hit the woodwork twice more. Burns’ second goal completed the rout, a mere training drill on the road to Russia.

Australia 7 (Massimo Luongo 2’; Mile Jedinak [pen.] 13’; Mark Milligan [pen.] 57’; Nathan Burns 67’, 87’; Tom Rogić 70’, 72’) – Tajikistan 0

Cautions: Alisher Tuychiev (Taj.) 11’; Daler Tukhtasunov (Taj.) 27’; Davron Ergashev (Taj.) 56’; Trent Sainsbury (Aust.) 81’; Kamil Saidov (Taj.) 85’

Women’s Olympic soccer qualifying match review: Japan v. Australia at Osaka

According to my television’s electronic programme guide, the Matildas “captured the hearts of the nation with their deeds at last year’s World Cup”. Maybe, but it sounds rather disingenuous coming from the same commercial networks which regularly slander the men’s game with talk of Hooliganism! and Flares! Nonetheless, one couldn’t resist the patriotic temptation to get behind Our Girls on the proverbial Road to Rio.

Having never beaten Japan in the Home Islands, the Matildas opened their account with a stunning 3-1 victory at the Kincho Stadium in Osaka, earning an invaluable three points. The opening quarter-hour was a cagey one, with few real chances for either side. Mizuho Sakaguchi was denied by a Lydia Williams save before Lisa de Vanna put i gialloverdi 1-0 up by heading in a Katrina Gorry cross.

From just outside the box and straight in front, Alanna Kennedy almost curled in a superlative free kick shortly after the half-hour mark. But the highlight of the night came minutes later, when the Italian referee, Carina Vitulano, couldn’t get out of the way of a Japanese cross-field pass. Her unintentional header on the half-way line turned the ball into the visitors’ attacking half, where de Vanna was ready to pounce, laying it up for Michelle Heyman to score.

But Nadeshiko wouldn’t go quietly, responding in stoppage time when one of their regular goal-mouth scrambles was turned in by striker Yūki Ōgimi. Japan had the better of the third quarter of the match, Sakaguchi and captain Aya Miyama forcing saves from Williams. Les Mathildes threw some fresh blood into the mix in the seventieth minute, swapping Heyman for Kyah Simon.

Seemingly content with coasting to a 2-1 win, they got a third goal against the run of play eight minutes later, when Emily van Egmond combined with Gorry, who beat the keeper with a well-timed header.

Japan 1 (Yūki Ōgimi 45+2’) – Australia 3 (Lisa de Vanna 25’; Michelle Heyman 41’; Katrina Gorry 78’)

Cautions: Caitlin Foord (Aust.) 94’

Women’s Big Bash League match review: Sydney Sixers v. Sydney Thunder at Sydney

Needing to continue their six-match winning streak to cement a finals birth, the Sydney Sixers sent themselves into bat. Alyssa Healy came out firing, with three fours off the first over, while her opening partner, the ‘It’ girl of Australian sport Ellyse Perry, floundered with a sextet of dot balls off Lauren Cheatle’s first over.

Perry was sent packing in the fourth over, having scored one run from fourteen balls, and having been bowled down middle and leg by Nicola Carey. But Healy continued the slog-a-thon with Ashleigh Gardner, the pair combining for a second-wicket partnership of seventy-six.

The Thunder’s poor fielding was perhaps the Sixers’ greatest asset; Gardner was dropped on thirty-four by Alex Blackwell at mid-off, while Healy was dropped on the boundary rope by Naomi Stalenburg the following over on thirty-five. By the time Rene Farrell was able to dismiss Healy for forty-four with a successful catch at mid-off, the Sixers were 2/95. Gardner then brought up her fifty in style with a six over long-on before skying a shot into the infield and the waiting hands of Blackwell.

Kiwi import Sara McGlashan and South African Marizanne Kapp continued the onslaught, picking off fours with nonchalance. Eventually, Kapp’s impetuous running between the wickets led to her downfall: after surviving one referral to the third umpire, a failure to get back to the non-striker’s end during an aborted second run led to a run out at the hands of Farrell.

The same fate, sealed by the same bowler, awaited the next batter in, Sarah Aley, in the penultimate over. A McGlashan six, as Lisa Sthalekar sans helmet stood in awe at the non-striker’s end, ended the innings, the pink ladies bringing up the highest total of the season, 6/172.

The Sixers’ bowling attack picked up where their batting line-up left off, Kapp setting the tone with a first-over maiden. The feisty right-arm Port Elizabethan brunette snagged three wickets in her first three overs: Rachael Haynes caught in the infield for six, Blackwell l.b.w. for a golden duck, Stafanie Taylor caught for ten. With Stalenburg also stumped for a golden duck off Aley’s bowling, the westies were 4/30 at the end of the powerplay.

With the target of 173 now seemingly impossible to chase down, Carey and Erin Osborne set about doing just that. They put on eighty-one runs, including thirty-three between the twelfth and fourteenth overs. Carey reached her half-century (scored off thirty balls) in the fourteenth over with a well-timed drive down the leg-side, and not even a 120km/h delivery from Perry could unseat the pair.

It took until the sixteenth over for the hosts to get the breakthrough they desired, when Sthalekar’s off-spin bedazzled a reverse-sweeping Carey, leaving the Thunder 5/106. Wicketkeeper Claire Koski entered the fray and hit a quick-fire ten off five balls before getting herself caught behind. Osborne and Farrell kept the runs flowing before the former was caught by the substitute Sara Hungerford.

By the time Kapp bowled Farrell in the nineteenth over, the run chase was well and truly over. Seven wins in as many matches, and fourth place on the road for Perry, Kapp, Sthalekar, and the gang. (Postscript: the Sixers finished the regular season in third place, and will face second seeds the Hobart Hurricanes in the semi-finals.)

Sydney Sixers 6/172 (20 overs) (Ashleigh Gardner 55; Sarah McGlashan 49*; Belinda Vakarewa 1/13; Lauren Cheatle 1/19) – Sydney Thunder 9/151 (20 overs) (Nicola Carey 53; Erin Osborne 36; Marizanne Kapp 4/18; Lisa Sthalekar 3/34)

Women’s Big Bash League match review: Melbourne Renegades v. Sydney Thunder at Melbourne (Docklands)

Another Saturday, another televised afternoon of the best thing since sliced bread women’s T20 cricket. The bottom-of-the-table Melbourne Renegades put themselves into bat against league leaders the Sydney Thunder at the open-roofed Docklands Stadium.

Needing to come out firing, Kiwi wicketkeeper Rachel Priest and South African batter Dane van Niekerk combined for a mammoth opening partnership of sixty-eight. They hit over the top during the powerplay, assisted by the pacy outfield, with van Niekerk hitting left-arm pacewoman Lauren Cheatle for a six (the only one of the match) in the fourth over, then a pair of fours two overs later.

Priest survived a stumping appeal which was sent upstairs, before her opening partner lofted a short ball to mid-wicket on twenty-nine. Danni Wyatt was the next batter in, and copped another knock to her body while stationed at the non-striker’s end before spinner Maisy Gibson clipped the top of her bails with a leg break.

Having made 5/86 in last week’s MCG derby, the Renegades took 12.2 overs to get to 2/86 this week, and Priest brought up her fifty with little fanfare in the fifteenth over. Captain Sarah Elliott made a quick-fire eighteen before being stumped; Kris Britt followed her into the pavilion the following over after being caught at cover.

Priest went off the first ball of the penultimate over, caught by Gibson at square leg for fifty-seven from fifty-five balls, twenty of those runs coming from fours. A late-innings collapse saw one Renegades’ batter run out and two more caught lofting the ball high into the infield. The power hitting of Priest, van Niekerk, and Elliott, who hit eleven fours and a six between them, had ensured that the hosts would set their opponents a target of 140.

Unable to find their rhythm, the Thunder’s batting line-up wilted under the hot Melbourne sun. The Docklanders opened the bowling with off-spinner Molly Strano, who dismissed both opening batters in the third over: Rachael Haynes bowled for three and Jamaican import Stafanie Taylor l.b.w. for seven, leaving the sirens from the Siren City reeling at 2/13.

Naomi Stalenburg was out shortly afterwards, skying a ball to short third (wo)man. The Thunder were 3/27 at the end of the powerplay, but corvopolitan captain Alex Blackwell and partner Nicola Carey steadied the ship. Carey fell to a Sophie Molineux l.b.w. in the ninth over, Claire Koski and Charlotte Anneveld also coming and going in quick succession. Blackwell then combined with tail-ender Rene Farrell, executing a wide array of power hits, ramp shots, and switch hits.

The Sydneysiders kept going, but failed to make the target chaseable going into the final overs. Molineux and Strano dismissed Farrell and two more tail-enders, before Blackwell ended her captain’s knock of forty-five when she was caught and bowled by her opposite number Elliott.

Winning by thirty-six runs, the Renegades belied their status as the league’s cellar-dwellers, putting on a fine exhibition of cricket. This blog particularly enjoyed the contribution of the petite Pretorian van Niekerk: a superb innings at a strike rate of 120.83, the only six of the match, and some fine work in the field, including a spectacular last-over dive at deep square leg to deny Blackwell a six of her own.

Melbourne Renegades 8/139 (20 overs) (Rachel Priest 57; Dane van Niekerk 29; Belinda Vakarewa 2/13; Nicola Carey 2/23) – Sydney Thunder 103 (19.4 overs) (Alex Blackwell 45; Rene Farrell 18; Sophie Molineux 3/18; Molly Strano 3/20)

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Big Bash League

The bourgeois liberal economist John Maynard Keynes once challenged an adversary: “when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” This blog has also changed its mind: about T20 cricket.

Test cricket is a batsman’s game. That sounds counter-intuitive, given the common refrain from the purists than modern limited-overs cricket is based around an uneven contest between bat and ball. Sure, there are fewer sixes hit and run rates are lower in the five-day game, but that misses the point: the primary aim of test batting is not to lose one’s wicket.

Given that nearly one-third of tests end in draws, I would say that batsmen are doing just fine defending their wicket. Because cricket lacks any equivalent of baseball’s strikeout, and because bowlers need to deliver something like the Gatting Ball to dismiss a batsman bent on protecting his wicket, the wielders of the willow can stay at the crease forever, only getting out when they start trying to score runs.

If one were to design the ideal form of cricket, what ingredients would one put in it?

First, I would force batsmen to play at most deliveries, not just block or leave the good balls and hit the bad ones. T20 brings urgency to cricket, leaving batsman no time to ‘get their eye in’ and forcing them to play at most balls.

Second, I would want innovative, often unorthodox, 360-degree strokeplay. The ‘Dilscoop’, although first used by Learie Constantine for the West Indies against the M.C.C. at Lord’s in 1933, is a common sight in T20 matches. As is the ramp, the reverse sweep, Kevin Pietersen’s ‘switch hit’, and impromptu tennis shots. Test cricket, hidebound by the customs of Victorian England which problematised leg-side play and haunted by the spectre of Bodyline (‘fast leg theory’), fails to deliver this variety of strokeplay for the spectator.

Third, I would like to see the strategic use of singles to rotate the strike, assisted by fast running between the wickets: the cricketing equivalent of baseball’s ‘small ball’ tactics. Test cricket, defined by the lack any urgency to score runs on the part of the batting team, lacks this element, which also renders athleticism less important.

Fourth, I would like to see a wider range of deliveries used by fast bowlers. This Cricinfo article details the fascinating evolution of the slower ball, first used by Australian pacemen in county cricket in the 1990s during the death of a one-day innings, now a staple of T20 fast bowling. Such balls are pointless in tests, where batsmen are generally in no hurry to play shots and will just block or leave anything they don’t like the look of.

Fifth, having grown up idolising Shane Warne while hearing the doomsayers claim that spin bowling would die a natural death in limited-overs cricket, I would be excited to see spin bowlers dominating the bowling averages. Spinners have not just been the best-performing bowlers in the Big Bash League, but are often used strategically as opening bowlers, something unthinkable in tests, where they are used mainly to exploit the old ball or a friendly pitch.

Sixth, I would wish to see bowlers under the same pressures as batsmen. With (at most) twenty-four legal deliveries, bowlers are looking not just to get wickets (as in tests) or keep down the run rate (as in one-dayers), but to create dot balls and take wickets to slow the batting side’s momentum. Slower balls and yorkers are mixed in with stock balls to create a varied package of deliveries; in tests, the ball is in the batsman’s court, so the attacking skills of bowlers are emphasised at the expense of defensive containment.

Seventh, I would like to see good fielding. The fielding in the BBL is not just good, it is phenomenal. We’re all Jonty Rhodeses now. Test fielding, typified by large gatherings in the slips cordon and vacant outfields, lacks the spectacular boundary-rope catches and four-preventing slides that are the bread and butter of T20.

Eighth, I would want to see efficient field placings. Test cricket’s slips-heavy fields allow shots which beat the infielders to race away to the boundary for four; one-day cricket was (until the I.C.C. changed the playing conditions in mid-2015) hampered by the requirement that two fieldsmen be placed in catching positions, leaving the fielding team with five infielders and two outfielders with which to staunch the powerplay onslaught. T20 fields allow the defence to kill the powerplay with a ring of seven infielders, six infielders and a ‘shortstop’, or whatever else they fancy.

After watching so many BBL matches this summer, I feel that cricket is selling itself short by promoting T20 as the hit-and-giggle form of the sport, a ‘gateway drug’ to what the purists define as the ‘real thing’. This is the real thing: in contrast to T20, test cricket lacks the urgency, the unorthodox strokeplay, the variation in slower balls, the consecutive yorkers, the strategic deployment of spinners, the drama of a dot ball at a crucial moment, and the ‘small ball’ of fielding, strategic single-hitting, and running between the wickets.

The purists’ case for test cricket as the supreme form of the game rests on the valorisation of skill over speed, power, and athleticism. But sport is about more than mere skill: the various football codes as well as other spectator sports such as basketball and ice hockey understand this. Test cricket remains a platform for great individual achievements – centuries, double-centuries, five-wicket hauls – but too easily turns into a damp squib when two mismatched teams face off on an unsuitable pitch.

T20 simply provides a better platform for a contest between two teams’ batting and bowling/fielding line-ups. The Australian sporting public understand this, and are voting with their feet (and their remote controls).

Women’s Big Bash League match review: Melbourne Stars v. Melbourne Renegades at Melbourne

Winning the toss, captain Meg Lanning sent her Melbourne Stars in to bat. After having set the women’s circuit alight with seven best-on-grounds in seven matches, she proceeded to be dismissed for two, edging a defensive shot to wicketkeeper Erica Kershaw.

Without their talismanic captain, the Stars’ top order collapsed in a heap. Natalie Sciver and Emma Inglis were bowled in consecutive balls by South African pacewoman Shabnim Ismail, while Lanning’s opening partner Katie Mack was caught l.b.w. playing across the line. All of a sudden, the hosts were 4 for 8.

Needing to steady the ship, Mignon du Preez and Kelly Applebee accumulated singles, constantly rotating the strike. The green machine were 4 for 15 at the end of the powerplay, and du Preez broke through for the first boundary of the afternoon in the eleventh over. The breakthrough for the Renegades’ attack came in the next, when Applebee was caught behind off the bowling of Dane van Niekerk, ending a solid thirty-five-run partnership.

New Zealander Hayley Jensen came in and was soon picked off by a Molly Strano caught-and-bowled; it was the third of the off-spinner’s five wickets. Du Preez built another partnership with Tasmanian tailender Kristen Beams; the Northern Transvaal right-hander survived a stumping appeal in the fifteenth over before being caught at mid-wicket in the nineteenth. Beams and Gemma Triscari would fall to Strano in the final over, the Stars finishing on 9 for 85.

Emma Kearney opened the Stars’ bowling with Triscari. The latter bowled a maiden in the second over, and runs were hard to come by until van Niekerk began hitting over the top in the fourth. The South African was stumped in the next over, her replacement Kris Britt combining well with opening partner Sophie Molineux.

Eighteen runs later, Britt was herself stumped on the final ball of the tenth over, leaving the Renegades 2 for 31. Staffordshire all-rounder Danni Wyatt was the next batter in, and lifted her side with her aggressive running between the wickets and her toughness in shaking off a knock to the back of the head occasioned by one of Molineux’s straight drives.

The pair began ticking off the runs, with singles, twos, and fours; the Docklanders would hit five fours to the Jolimonters’ three. At the top of the sixteenth over, Molineux was run out dashing back to the non-striker’s end, ending a fine innings of thirty from forty-six deliveries.

Renegades’ captain Sarah Elliott would be the next batter run out failing to keep up with Wyatt, her wicket bringing the pocket rocket Ismail to the crease. The required run rate trended downwards: 24 from 24, 12 from 12, five from six. Ismail was defeated in the last over by a fabulous Triscari throw from point; the score at this juncture was 5 for 83. But a wide and two more singles was all the Renegades needed, Wyatt finishing on an unbeaten twenty-three.

This was the sort of match that demonstrated what T20 cricket can be: intelligent, tactical, and highlighted by good fielding and running between wickets. With eight fours and no sixes (due in part to the M.C.G.’s expansive dimensions), this was small ball cricket, cricket as it should be.

Melbourne Stars 9/85 (20 overs) (Mignon du Preez 36; Kristen Beams 14; Molly Strano 5/15; Shabnim Ismail 3/10) – Melbourne Renegades 5/86 (19.5 overs) (Sophie Molineux 30; Danni Wyatt 23*; Natalie Sciver 1/7; Kristen Beams 1/19)