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...
Do not be fooled by the late tries when Australia had the game won, there were no obvious signs of progress from EnglandYou have to wonder what might happen to England the next time their opponents keep 15 men on the field. For the second match running they were outclassed, outfought and out-thought by opposition who had a player sent off. If there was a degree of mitigation against the Barbarians, this was a troubling first defeat by Australia in nine matches and the first under Eddie Jones, who now comes under intense scrutiny. Positives for England are limited to Henry Arundell’s mesmeric late cameo on his debut and the fact that Australia did not backheel any conversions.The laws will...
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 brash Australian is a divisive but definitely modern figure, and the embodiment of sport in the social media ageIn the mid-90s, when the internet was all prairie-land as far as you could see, there was a genuine feeling this new frontier was a force for enlightenment. Here was a space where the shared human essence could coalesce and commune, a pure shore on which the future would be crafted by gentle, unhurried humans with bulbous green Apple Macintoshes, concerned only with upcycling blogs and really cool typefaces and artisan bagel houses in Prague.The reality has of course been a little different. It turns out our shared human essence isn’t a mild dove-like thing, but is instead an ambient swamp...
Wallabies and Rugby Australia have cause for optimism as England Test series arrives after a chastening periodAs the local mining community would no doubt agree, to find gold in Western Australia this week you have had to go looking for it. There is the odd Wallabies flag fluttering in the wind but blue and maroon have been the dominant colours in Perth, which staged the second State of Origin match last Sunday to considerably greater fanfare than that which greets the first Test between Australia and England on Saturday.Maybe that should come as little surprise given the limited appeal of rugby union in these parts compared with the National Rugby League, but for all that starting the series on the...