Super Rugby grand final match review: Lions v. Crusaders at Johannesburg

A tumultuous Super Rugby season came to a conclusion Saturday as the Lions and Crusaders met in the grand final at Ellis Park. The top seeds from the Witwatersrand were on a fourteen-game winning streak, albeit with some of those wins against teams of questionable quality, and hoping to win their first title.

Their opponents, the seven-time champions from Christchurch, have had a stellar season, dropping only two matches (to the Hurricanes and to the British and Irish Lions). But a win here would perhaps be the sweetest of them all, being their first Super title since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

The Lions’ livewire fly-half Elton Jantjies tried to insert himself onto the scoresheet first with a missed drop goal attempt in the fourth minute. But his team conceded two tries before a quarter of an hour had passed: one an eighty-metre run from a ruck turnover and the other the culmination of a passing movement which rolled through an insipid Lions defence.

The visitors led 12-0 and could have made it more if Israel Dagg hadn’t spilled the ball at the last hurdle. The sides traded 50m+ penalty goal attempts, Jantjies converting his to make it 12-3.

Dominating possession with 57% of the ball, the Lions had a passing movement broken up by a deliberate knock-on, but came up with nothing after eschewing the easy three points. Things got worse for the hosts two minutes from the break when flanker Kwagga Smith was sent off after his head connected with David Havili’s behind while said Crusader fullback was mid-air. An unrelated penalty after the expiration of forty minutes put i biancorossi up 15-3 going into half-time.

The Crusaders took swift advantage of the power play: a try between the posts and a penalty for illegal scrummaging and they were ahead 25-3. It was only now that the men from the veldt began throwing everything at their tormentors, and the introduction of replacement scrum-half Faf de Klerk in the 62^nd minute would change the tenor of the contest.

De Klerk, with his flapping blond hair reminiscent of peak Warwick Capper, had a noticeable impact on his team and hooker Malcolm Marx was over for a try within two minutes. Five minutes later, the Lions got within metres of another try but Sylvian Mahuza lost the ball forward, but a try between the posts to replacement prop Corné Fourie in the 73^rd minute made the scoreline 25-17, as the Crusaders struggled to hold on in the face on the onslaught.

The men in red continued to throw the kitchen sink at the seven-time champions, and when the Crusaders were awarded a very kickable penalty with twenty seconds left, an exhausted Richie Mo’unga just booted the ball into touch. They had hung on, but only just.

Lions 17 (tries: Marx 64’; Fourie 73’; conversions: Jantjies 2/2; penalty goals: Jantjies 1/1; drop goals: Jantijies 0/1) – Crusaders 25 (tries: Tamanivalu 8’, Goodhue 12’, Read 43’; conversions: Mo’unga 2/3; penalty goals: Havili 0/1, Mo’unga 2/2)

AFL round 11 match review: Geelong v. Adelaide at Geelong

Geelong’s up-then-down-then-up-again season rolled on Friday night at Kardinia Park, where the Adelaide Crows were the next side to feel the wrath of Chris Scott’s men, losing both the match and their place at the top of the ladder (thanks to Greater Western Sydney’s win over Essendon at Homebush the following day).

The match witnessed another fine performance from ‘Dangerwood’: 35 disposals and 21 contested possessions for the Bendigoan, 31 disposals for the ex-Crow. But it was just as much about Scott Selwood keeping Rory Sloane to 22 disposals and Zach Tuohy keeping Eddie Betts to the one goal.

The Cats won the first quarter three goals to two, the biggest story being the Rory Sloane benching saga: Adelaide’s star midfielder found himself on the pine for over eight minutes, unable to convince a teammate to switch places. Patrick Dangerfield kicked the first major of each of the first two terms, and Tom Hawkins’ first goal in his 200^th game put Geelong 23 points up early in the second quarter.

Adelaide got to within ten points midway through the quarter, but it was Nakia Cockatoo who summed up Geelong’s dominance with a magnificent stiff-arm on Charlie Cameron as he galloped along the wing. A mélée of sorts developed in the centre square shortly before half-time, and Hawkins’ jumper-punch on Matt Crouch was the only dampener for the Cats as they led by 29 at the main break.

Two consecutive goals, a mid-air soccer from Daniel Menzel and a set shot following a strong lead by Dangerfield, put the result more or less beyond doubt. The crowd waited until nearly three-quarter time for the obligatory taste of Eddie Betts magic, but Menzel’s snap in the goal square early in the last quarter sealed it for the hosts.

Twelve consecutive inside fifties came too late for the Crows: the third, and so far the biggest, big-name side in successive weeks to be outclassed in Sleepy Hollow. By winning the contested possession count 164 to 130 and by neutering Sloane, Geelong exposed their opponents as pretenders.

Geelong 13.18.96 (Dangerfield 3, Menzel 3, Hawkins 2, Taylor 2, Motlop, Parsons, Selwood) – Adelaide 10.14.74 (Walker 3, Jenkins 2, Lynch 2, Betts, Cameron, Otten)

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

For the first time in some years, New South Wales went to Lang Park as favourites ($1.85 to $2.00 according to that modern Shakespeare, Joel ‘Sugar’ Caine from Sportsbet). A Queensland side with no Thurston, Slater, or Inglis (but still so scarily good that Hunt, Holmes, and Cherry-Evans couldn’t crack into it) signalled a fresh start for the concept. In other words, New South Wales Might Actually Have A Chance This Year.

But in the end, the result was never really in doubt. Sure, Queensland nearly scored the first try only for Corey Oates to lose control of the ball, and they kept New South Wales from holding more than a two-point lead until half a minute short of the break, but the Blues played with a swagger not seen for some years.

After James Maloney opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a try under the posts, the combatants put on display of near-perfect rugby league: both sides were garnering an equal share of possession and registering a 100% completion rate until late in the half. The first uses of the bench came earlier than normal, and Dane Gagai looked the most dangerous Maroon, his run around the 35-minute mark setting up Cooper Cronk’s cross-field kick which led to Oates scoring the hosts’ only try.

Another line break and easily-converted try, this time grounded by Mitchell Pearce off the back of a brilliant Andrew Fifita run, put i azzurri comfortably ahead going into half-time.

The men from the Premier State kept up the pressure in the second half: Cronk was called upon to bat a ball over the dead-ball line, then a series of head clashes put both Pearce and Origin débutant Anthony Milford in the head bin. Cameron Smith’s why’d-he-do-that decision to go short on a goal-line drop-out ended with James Tedesco over for New South Wales’ third try, and the fourth came courtesy of Fifita’s tenth tackle break following a Queensland error.

The visitors’ fifth try came on the hour mark, resulting from a line break by Jarryd Hayne, but by then it was all over. Not just the contest, but a decade of the Maroons being simply too good.

Waking up the next morning, for the first time in a long time, it felt good to be a New South Welshman.

CATTLEDOG!

Queensland 4 (Oates try; Smith 0/1 conv.) – New South Wales 28 (Fifita, Hayne, Maloney, Pearce, Tedesco tries; Maloney 4/5 convs.)

AFL round 10 match review: Geelong v. Port Adelaide at Geelong

Another week, another win for the mighty Cats, who must now be considered a serious premiership contender. This week’s victim was Port Adelaide, as the New Kardinia Park witnessed a Thursday night thriller. In the end, two points was all that separated the sides, as a wasteful start by Geelong was followed by a thrilling middle half and a tense final term.

The Cats’ pressure from the previous week carried over into the opening of this match; it took nearly two and a half minutes for the ball to leave the hosts’ attacking half, yet their first thirteen inside fifties yielded only four behinds. Port went into quarter-time up three goals to one and signalled their intentions early in the second term when Charlie Dixon laid a ferocious hit on Joel Selwood.

Geelong drew level through a Patrick Dangerfield goal, and pulled ahead when the same player majored from a fifty-metre penalty. Two more lead changes followed, Geelong taking a narrow eight-point buffer into the long break despite Paddy Ryder’s domination of the rucks. The fiercely-contested match kept see-sawing, with more changes of lead, Dixon’s checkside goal and Robbie Gray’s diving mark the highlights of the third quarter.

The Power had regained the ascendancy late in the fourth quarter when Dixon, taking more than the allowed thirty seconds to take his set shot and forced to play on, kicked the ball into the man on the mark. After Tuohy won a free at the other end, Geelong won the ball from a stoppage at the top of the square, Selwood (with his nineteenth and last contested possession of the match) and Dangerfield combining for the winner.

Next up in the three-game home stand in the Pivot City is Port’s noisy neighbours, the Crows, in what could be a preview of September with the added twist of Danger going up against his old side.

Geelong 11.15.81 (Dangerfield 3, Blicavs, Hawkins, Menegola, Menzel, Motlop, Parsons, S. Selwood, Tuohy) – Port Adelaide 11.13.79 (R. Gray 3, Ah Chee, Dixon, S. Gray, Polec, Powell-Pepper, Ryder, Westhoff, Young)

AFL round 9 match review: Geelong v. Western Bulldogs at Geelong

After a few disappointing results, the pressure was on as Geelong played host to the Western Bulldogs at the new and improved Insert Sponsor’s Name Here Stadium Kardinia Park. Four quarters and a club record 134 tackles later, the Geelong show was back on the road, as the Cats ran out 23-point winners.

Channel Seven’s telecast began to notice the tackle count shortly before the midpoint of the first term, and despite two goals from Patrick Dangerfield and a stunner from Mark Blicavs, the Bulldogs went into the first change with a nine-point lead, a figure which might have been higher had Lin Jong and Marcus Bontempelli been less wasteful in front of goal.

Harry Taylor opened the second quarter with the first of his five goals, but Geelong were dealt a blow with the withdrawal of Nakia Cockatoo with an injury to his right hamstring. Dangerfield, Taylor, and Zach Tuohy all majored before the hosts cruised into half-time with a 26-point lead, their Taylor-less defence having conceded just four inside 50s in the quarter.

But the reigning premiers were far from beaten, having entered the sheds with their own club record for most first-half tackles. Mitch Wallis, straight outta the VFL, kicked two of his side’s six goals for the term, the second coming from a set shot as the young midfielder won a sensational holding-the-ball free in his attacking fifty. The margin was back to nine in favour of i tricolore, and the sight of Jason Johannisen’s hair marauding from the half-back line was starting to unnerve the Geelong faithful.

Joel Selwood got the Pivotonians back into the contest with a set shot from outside fifty, and then assisted his brother Scott to give Geelong the lead. The Dogs held on until late in the final stanza, but the door was slammed shut when Marcus Adams was pinged for holding the ball, Taylor converting the resulting free kick. With 134 tackles (71 of them in the first half) and 12.0 from set shots, this was a footballing masterclass, although Footscray by no means performed badly.

The three Brownlow votes, the first awarded in front of the new Charles Brownlow Stand, seem destined for the boy from Moggs Creek: thirty-six disposals, twelve tackles, ten clearances, four goals.

Next up on Thursday night at the same venue is Port Adelaide, fresh off a bye after their Big Win in Little China. With los porteños known around the League for their intensity and athleticism, this could be one hell of a game of footy.

Geelong 16.8.104 (Taylor 5, Dangerfield 4, Menzel 2, Blicavs, Hawkins, J. Selwood, S. Selwood, Tuohy) – Western Bulldogs 12.9.81 (Boyd 2, Dickson 2, Redpath 2, Smith 2, Wallis 2, Cloke, Webb)

NRL round 3 match review: Melbourne v. Brisbane at Melbourne

The third round of the nineteenth season of the National Rugby League kicked off with a 2-0 Melbourne Storm side facing the Brisbane Broncos, who had so far notched a win and a golden-point loss. Overshadowing the clash between these two supernovas of modern rugby à treize was the return of the king, Billy Slater, and the addition of Benji Marshall to the Broncos.

In the end, the appearance of neither was the decisive factor in a game which had it all. Slater’s entry into the fray came in the twenty-ninth minute, coterminous with a penalty which put his side 8-6 ahead. The preceding half-hour had seen one try and one disallowed try apiece, with the most spectacular being James Roberts’ interception and length-of-the-field run with Josh Addo-Carr hot on his tail.

Somehow, a Storm outfit which was tackled eighteen times in its opponent’s quarter and which completed fourteen of its twenty-two sets went into the sheds only slightly scathed. The Purple Curtain looked like it was about to burst open soon after the break, when Ben Hunt sold it the dummy and left a diving Slater in the dust to put the men from Bananaland 12-8 ahead.

La viola had an opportunity to regain control a few minutes later, when Suliasi Vunivalu and Darius Boyd had a to-do, but the selfsame Fijian winger fumbled out of bounds to blow what should have been an easily convertible penalty set. And it continued to feel as if the footballing gods had been angered by the hosts: Addo-Carr was denied a try by a Ben Hunt tackle, Cameron Munster clashed heads with Corey Oates and retired to the bench, Will Chambers lost the ball centimetres short of the line to flash up the big red ‘NO TRY’, and Jesse Bromwich knocked-on just shy of the paint.

The final flourish came with less than three minutes on the clock. It’s still a blur to me. Melbourne gained some territory thanks to consecutive penalties. Ryley Jacks with the ball…a Bronco knocks it back…another Bronco fumbles…and Addo-Carr levels it. Cameron Smith, as is his wont, doesn’t miss the conversion.

This was the Melbourne Storm at their best: dominant, professional, and born to inspire much fear and loathing in opposition supporters.

Melbourne 14 (Jacks, Addo-Carr tries; Smith 2/2 convs.; Smith 1/1 pen.) – Brisbane 12 (Roberts, Hunt tries; Kahu 2/2 convs.)

AFL Women’s round 5 match review: Adelaide v. Brisbane at Norwood

The fifth round of the AFL-W competition served up an unexpected top-of-the-table clash and our first free-to-air look at both the Crows’ superstar Erin Phillips and the Lions’ key forward combo of Tayla Harris and Sabrina Frederick-Traub. The match itself didn’t disappoint, Brisbane winning a thriller by three points.

The first quarter was a tight one, Emily Bates opening the visitors’ account and vice-captain Sally Riley hitting back for the Crows as the two sides headed into the first change with six points and seven inside 50s apiece. Big full-forward Sarah Perkins was the only goalscorer in the second term, Adelaide leading by eight points at the main break.

Kate McCarthy blasted the Lions back into the game in the first minute of the second half with a glorious running goal, and teammate Kate Lutkins’ snap dribbled through shortly afterwards to put them into the lead. The momentum see-sawed as Perkins won a free and goaled, then Harris soccered the ball in mid-air from outside fifty for a behind. A pair of goals from set shots, one for each side, saw the hosts head into lemon time with a two-point lead.

Brisbane snatched the lead early in the last with a seven-point play, McCarthy kicking her second major. Two more behinds to Adelaide was all she wrote, and i marroniblu had asserted their favouritism for the flag with a hard-fought win.

Adelaide 4.6.30 (Perkins 2, Holmes, Riley) – Brisbane 5.3.33 (McCarthy 2, Bates, Lutkins, Zielke)

NRL round 1 match review: Cronulla-Sutherland v. Brisbane at Cronulla

In a not entirely unexpected development, given the defection of Ben Barba and the retirement of Michael Ennis, Cronulla lost the opening match of their NRL title defence, going down 26-18 to a spirited Brisbane Broncos side.

The Sharks had Adam Blair pinned in his own in-goal area thirteen seconds in, but they never really controlled the match. Broncos’ winger Jordan Kahu was the star of the show, converting all four of his team’s tries, scoring the first himself against the run of play, and slotting a penalty goal in the eighteenth minute after which i giallomarroni never trailed.

The hosts had only themselves to blame: much of the Brisbanites’ first-half yardage came courtesy of penalties, promising advances to the goal line being snuffed out only by ball-handling errors. Cronulla equalised through Gerard Beale in the eleventh minute, but Kahu’s penalty goal and James Roberts’ grounding off a superb Anthony Milford kick put the Broncos up 14-6 at the break, having secured three-fifths of possession and completed six more sets.

When Corey Oates went over in the corner six minutes into the second stanza, it felt over, and the Harold Holt metaphors started flowing thick and fast. But there were some late flourishes: Chad Townsend broke the line and chipped for James Maloney to chase and score Cronulla’s second try. Ten minutes later, CSFC’s momentum induced a Ben Hunt dropped ball leading to a Ricky Leutele try.

With the margin at two points, it was a nervous period for the visitors. They endured Korbin Sims being held up before Milford capitalised on a Paul Gallen ‘falcon’ to put some space between the sides.

Cronulla without Barba and Ennis failed to impress in their first run, while Wayne Bennett surely has the makings of another great Broncos side under his charge.

Cronulla-Sutherland 18 (Beale, Maloney, Leutele tries; Maloney 3/3 convs.) – Brisbane 26 (Kahu, Roberts, Oates, Milford tries; Kahu 4/4 convs.; Kahu 1/1 pens.)

An Anti-Purist Manifesto

This blog should really be sub-titled ‘The Anti-Purist’. Over the last few years, having observed debates about unlimited interchange in the AFL and NRL, about the rise of such formats as rugby sevens and T20 cricket, about the entry of the Red Bull-backed club RB Leipzig into the Bundesliga, and about doping and sports science, I have come to realise the limitations of the ‘purist’ view of sport.

When I speak of ‘purism’, I have four things in mind. First, the purist believes that his sport is – or should be – dominated by players and teams with better ‘skills’ than their opponents. The AFL purist bemoans the recruitment of “athletes over footballers”; the rugby union purist disparages modern players as “gym junkies”. Tactics, training, and sports science are anathema to the purist.

Second, the purist is generally opposed to technological innovation in his chosen sport. This can include players’ equipment (such as meatier cricket bats, graphite tennis racquets, or lacrosse sticks with pinched heads), the playing arena itself (in the case of artificial turf or better-prepared cricket pitches), or the use of video referees.

Third, the purist is nationalistic about his sport, crying foul at innovations that appear to make it more like another sport. Examples: the cricket purist thinks T20 is too much like baseball; the rugby purist thinks any lessening of the contest for possession makes union more like league; the netball purist opposes two-point goals as making the game too much like basketball; the soccer purist opposes anything they see as pandering to American TV dollars, i.e. pretty much any change to their sport.

Fourth, the purist is the defender of the interests of the ‘fans’, a term usually referring only to those who watch the game in the stands. Night-time or day-night matches, sponsor-named stadia and trophies, technicolour uniforms, relocation, expansion, and innovative competition formats are all opposed and taken as evidence that the relevant league or governing body is conspiring against the ‘fans’.

In contrast, I intend to use this blog as a platform to present what I call the ‘modernist’ view of sport. The modernist welcomes the deployment of tactics, training methods, and sports science – some, including this blog, would legalise doping as merely another frontier of sports science. The modernist sees the positive effects of technology and hails the cross-pollination of ideas and personnel between sports. The modernist also takes a multi-stakeholder view of sport, realising that players, sponsors, broadcasters, betting companies, and equipment and apparel manufacturers have legitimate interests in the governance of sport, as opposed to the fan-centric stance of the purist.

Where the purist is antediluvian, the modernist is Whiggish: better-conditioned players, more even playing surfaces, better equipment, warmer temperatures, new revenue streams, and a global market for players’ services have produced the best sport ever played. And things will only get better.

These ideas will be fleshed out further and will, hopefully, form a coherent worldview for this blog.

Van Basten Is (Mostly) Right

Dutch soccer legend Marco van Basten has copped a hiding in the world’s press in recent weeks for tackling one of sport’s great sacred cows: the rules of soccer.

Some of his ideas are admittedly off-target: replacing penalty kicks from the twelve-yard spot with ice hockey-style breakaway penalties is unnecessary and has led to vicious reactions from the most anti-American sections of the world game’s supporter base.

But almost everything else he has proposed is spot on. The details vary depending on what media outlet you read, but here’s a brief rundown:

Four quarters instead of two halves: English fans booed drinks breaks at league games earlier this season, but extra breaks are a no-brainer given player burnout and global warming. Will it take another Marc-Vivien Foé for soccer to get with the program?

Maximum sixty matches per year: the devil is in the details, but player burnout is a serious issue.

No extra time, drawn matches straight to penalties: don’t agree with this one, but the thinking behind it (reducing player burnout and doing away with cagey, scoreless half-hours) is sound.

Six substitutions instead of three: a small step towards unlimited, rolling substitutions which speed up and tactically enrich any sport they are introduced into.

Orange cards (10-15 minute sin-binning for minor second yellows): introduces another layer of punishment for players who are cautioned for a foul and then, say, hand-ball in the centre circle or take their shirt off during a goal celebration.

Abolishing the offside law: van Basten is thinking outside the box, but as I will explain below, he has the right problem but the wrong solution.

Having witnessed the debates around limited/unlimited interchange in both the AFL and NRL in recent years, I have become a convert to the cause of free substitution. Limiting substitutions in any of the invasion sports is a concession to the purists who want slow play and unfit players, and who abhor coaching and sports science. Soccer, like rugby union, sticks to the antiquated model of a single-digit number of one-time-only subs.

Van Basten’s musings about the offside law have caused the most consternation, provoking invective from Arsène Wenger and Jürgen Klopp, among others. The Dutchman made the point that soccer today sometimes resembles European handball, with nine or ten players dropping deep to defend against attacks. Increased fitness and the judicious application of tactics and sports science is the cause of this: the average distance run per match by outfield players has doubled from 5km in the 1970s to 10km today.

Abolishing the offside law in isolation wouldn’t alter this, and indeed the increased space in the midfield would encourage teams to drop more players further back. What is needed is something like lacrosse’s offside law (which limits teams to placing no more than six of their nine outfielders in either half of the field at any time) or the anti-defense rules used in the NHL in the 1920s (which barred teams from having more than two defenders in their defensive third if the puck was in their attacking two-thirds of the rink).

But van Basten was right in his observation that soccer backlines can often resemble handball’s perimeter defences, something which has gone unaddressed by the purists who howl at any proposed change to their beloved offside law except for the changes that have been made in the past.

As These Football Times notes, liberalising the offside law actually makes teams more defensive and enlarges the midfield. The 1925 change from three defenders to two resulted in the shift from the 2-3-5 formation to the W-M (3-2-2-3). The tweaks made in the Era of Blatter took us from the 4-4-2 and the 3-5-2 to the modern 4-2-3-1, with its two specialist defensive midfielders.

In the centre of the pitch, more numbers behind the ball means more uncontested passing: the last changes to the offside law gave us the word tiki-taka and possession percentages. But a bigger midfield can actually diminish the importance of midfield play, as an attacking team has space in which to move the ball unmolested towards a retreating defence. Just like in basketball and handball.

Barring teams from having more than six outfield players in one third of the pitch (which would necessitate the addition of two extra white lines), a rule borrowed from eleven-a-side outdoor European handball, would spread players out more and force teams to work the ball through a crowded midfield.

Or, we could accept that the sport has evolved and that packed penalty areas and lightning counter-attacks are the wave of the future.

AFL Women’s round 1 match review: Carlton v. Collingwood at Carlton

The debut of the AFL’s long-awaited national women’s competition seems as good an opportunity as any to get this blog up and running again.

“The anticipation is building” spaketh DANGERFIELD! as he conducted a pre-recorded pre-match interview with the face of the new league, Magpies ponta-de-lança Moana Hope. This was the culmination of a summer of hype about teh wimminz finally getting their own league and what a great moment in Australian sporting history and and…

And then…yeah.

No-one can pretend that this was high-quality footy. Eight goals and 57 points were scored, a rate of goal-scoring and point-scoring lower than any season of the men’s VFL/AFL. There were fifty stoppages, 41 ball-ups and nine boundary throw-ins, a higher per-minute rate than the 2015 AFL season. And let’s not forget that the women’s match was played sixteen-a-side.

The usual suspects will trot out the usual excuses: these are semi-professional players, they haven’t had access to the same coaching and sports science facilities as the men, they aren’t used to the size 4 Sherrin having used a size 4.5 in their state competitions. That’s all well and good, and the standard of play will improve, but this was not an attractive start to history being made.

The opening passage of play looked more like rugby union than Australian football. It took the players five ball-ups and 95 seconds of regulation time to get the ball out of the centre square, and the first clean possession was shanked out of bounds on the full. Lacking the speed or the strength of male players, it was difficult for anyone to run or kick the ball away from the congestion. Collingwood scored the historic first behind (Steph Chiocchi) and first goal (Jasmine Garner), but only four behinds thereafter, with Hope particularly ineffective at centre half-forward.

The story of the night was Carlton forward Darcy Vescio, who snagged four majors, two in the first quarter and one each in the second and third. She outscored the entire bianconeri team, outshone Hope who finished with one behind to her name, and etched her name and her 5’6” figure into the history books.

There isn’t much more to say about this match. Princes Park was full, with another two thousand locked out: when we ignore the gender of the players, and view them as semi-professionals playing footy on a suburban ground, this isn’t surprising. Melbourne is full of purist-traditionalist footy fans who a) preferred the VFL/AFL when it was played by less fit and less tactically aware players and b) preferred the VFL/AFL when it was played at dingy suburban grounds. Gillon McLachlan has pulled off a masterstroke here.

Carlton 7.4.46 (Vescio 4, Arnell, Davey, Jakobsson) – Collingwood 1.5.11 (Garner)

Ball-ups: Q1: 17, Q2: 8, Q3: 13, Q4: 3; total stoppages: Q1: 19, Q2: 9, Q3, 16, Q4: 6.

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.)