Without its own unique location or a grassroots connection, the Super Netball expansion club faced challenges from the outsetAs the sun set on the ANZ Championship in 2016, the most salient question centred around where three new teams would come from to form a standalone Australian competition. Five Australian teams participated in the trans-Tasman league, all of which had history dating back to the start of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy in 1997 and were owned by their respective state netball associations.Things moved quickly and with little time to build the kind of following those existing teams had, Netball Australia made it clear the new teams should have the ability to bring in their own fanbases. This resulted in the granting...
Bairstow is the best Ashes option at No 7 and England have not taken the easy route of picking both wicketkeepers in squad for Ireland TestSurrey didn’t hang about. Just 10 minutes after the England squad was announced, confirming Jonny Bairstow’s return behind the stumps for Ireland and thus the start of the Ashes summer, and with Ben Foakes missing from the list of 15 players, the club’s Twitter feed fired up in solidarity with the fall guy.“The best keeper in the world was at it again last week,” read the pointed post, accompanied by a lightning emoji and a video of his silken glove work during the win against Middlesex. Alec Stewart gave Foakes that title a couple of...
Nick Montgomery’s highly watchable team have defied the odds to get within one game of an A-League grand final appearanceSince he landed in Australia, Jason Cummings has lived up to his reputation as something of a jester. But beyond the jovial nature and Joker-inspired tattoos adorning various parts of his body, the Central Coast striker has established himself among the A-League Men’s best.His arrival from Dundee in January 2022 passed without major fanfare but 17 goals in 26 appearances in a Mariners shirt, a Socceroos debut and a run out at the Qatar World Cup, have done much to change the narrative. Most recently, his strike against Adelaide proved decisive in a 2-1 win in the first leg of their...
After another terrible loss, Carlton is a club in tatters with the coach, captain and CEO staring down the barrel of frustrated fans and angry “assassins”When Brian Cook was CEO of Geelong, he had a folder on his computer for all the vicious emails he received from fans, coterie groups, and board members. He labelled it “Assassins”.It’s easy to forget just how dire things were at the Cats when he took over. The coach and captain walked out. The team was useless and the club had no money. Garry Hocking was forced to change his name by deed poll to ‘Whiskas’ to rustle up 100 grand. “The organisation had no structures, no layers,” Cook told writer James Button. “It was...
Socceroos will be wary of tricky opponents in Qatar finals Improved subcontinent side are first up on 13 January While the return to Qatar may not bring first round games quite as tough as France, Denmark and Tunisia, Australia have been handed one of the tougher 2023 Asian Cup draws in Group B. Uzbekistan and Syria are the teams from pots two and three that many wanted to avoid while India are the highest ranked of the basement boys. As even third place may go through to the second round, the 2015 champions should have few problems in progressing but if they want to finish above all three geographically diverse opponents and enjoy an easier route forward, then it will...