A season of drama and recent controversies of their own all faded into the background as the Fever secured their first premiershipIt was not the closest, nor most exciting grand final, but in the end the 2022 Super Netball title decider characterised the entire season. It was physical, it was emotional, it showcased the contentious nature of the two-point super shot and it was dominated by the West Coast Fever.Although the Melbourne Vixens were minor premiers and had the measure of their grand final opponents in their two regular season outings, the Fever can never be under-estimated and their nine-goal win in the major semi-final showed what they were capable of. They faltered only four times in 2022 – twice...
Noah Lolesio was a late injury replacement at fly-half but his second-half intervention proved crucial in PerthCourage, character, craziness. Dave Rennie’s Wallabies pulled off one of the great back-to-the-wall victories on Saturday, defeating England with 14 men and snapping Eddie Jones’s eight-game winning streak against his homeland with a brave, barnstorming victory in the first Test of the Ella-Mobbs Trophy three-match series.Already missing their first-pick playmaker injured in the warm-up, the men in gold then lost their full-back to a season-ending injury, lost the foundation of their scrum to a head-injury assessment and lost their lineout caller to a red card – all within the first 35 minutes. The most desperate of hours loomed. Continue reading...
The tourists face a daunting prospect on a dry pitch, even though they will feel more competent against the turning ball than on previous tripsTrial by spin. That was the likely scenario for the Australian men’s Test team, as posed by Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne. Softly spoken and not inclined to swagger, the content of the message rather than the delivery held a challenge for Australia, with the likelihood that Sri Lanka will take four spin options into the first Test at Galle. “Last time we had two fast bowlers, we did not use one,” said Karunaratne, referring to last year’s Test against West Indies when his quicks Suranga Lakmal and Dushantha Chameera bowled 14 overs between them across...
Poor tackling, basic handling errors and a lack of discipline ensured a dire final script for the Maroons in State of Origin Game 2A star was born in debutant Matt Burton. An all-time game was produced by halfback Nathan Cleary in an arena he had failed to truly put an imprint on. A maligned pack dominated from beginning to end. It was New South Wales’ night in Perth, a dominant 44-12 victory that levelled a compelling series.At its core though, it was a failure at the basic fundamentals of the game that saw Queensland on the back foot for much of the opening half before being blown away in the second stanza. Poor tackling, a loss through the middle, basic...
The bitter rivalry shared by the Cats and Tigers only intensified after the weekend’s MCG thrillerAmidst all the sanctimonious slop, the slaps on the wrist, and the shock jock slanging matches, an actual round of football broke out. It was billed as Moving Weekend. It was supposed to be the round where the big boys made their run, and where the also-rans stood revealed. It pitted first against second, third against fifth, fourth against sixth and seventh against eighth. By Saturday afternoon, it had already re-established Melbourne as the top dogs, exposed the less than leonine Brisbane and added another half dozen pages to Essendon’s internal review.As Richmond and Geelong warmed up at the MCG, the Dockers were trudging off...