Sport

The flame of nationalism

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

As the Olympic torch touches down in Australia, it is hard to see how any good can come of the entire exercise.
After Kevin Rudd’s visit to Beijing, which seemed to herald a newly mature relationship between Australia and China, we’ve spent a week or more embroiled in a petty squabble, of a kind which is [...]

Breaking the drought

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

After 44 years, Geelong has finally won a Grand Final, and in stunning fashion with the largest margin ever in a grand final.

Bullets win!

Friday, March 9th, 2007

The Brisbane Bullets have just completed a 3-1 win over the Melbourne Tigers in the National Basketball League Grand Final series, for their first win in 20 years.

One up!

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

Just back from the Entertainment Centre, where the Brisbane Bullets scored a thrilling 3-point win over Melbourne in the first of the best-of-five Grand Final Series, making their record 21 wins in succession. This might be the year!

New football thread

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

Due to the fact that a well-known leftwing political ideology contains the name of a drug for male performance problems, much touted by spammers, my blog software is rejecting all comments on the football post below…. In the meantime, please comment here.

Capitalism, soc1alism and football

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

There’s nothing remarkably original about the observation that of the world’s football codes, Association Football (soccer to Australians and Americans) is the only one organised on capitalist lines.

October surprise in Austria

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

The outcome appears to promise a departure from power for Jorg Haider, although the combined vote of the far-right parties was still 15 per cent, which is disappointing.For CT election-followers, the outcome is of interest in another respect…. Can anyone point to market odds for this outcome?Meanwhile, on the local betting front, I was surprised to find, reading the magazine just before the Brisbane Bullets opening home game, that the new-look Bullets team was second in the betting markets for this year’s title.

Thriller

Saturday, September 30th, 2006

Another great Grand Final, with some excellent play and some misses that will be rued for a long time to come.

Queenslander!

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

A great win, and a stunning riposte to everyone who was bagging the team and coach after the 1 point loss in the first game. It was a good series, but taken in all, Queensland earned their win well.

Penalties

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Due to ‘a series of unfortunate events’, and despite at least moderate effort on my part, I managed to see only one of the goals scored in Australia’s World Cup campaign as it happened, and this was of course, the Italian penalty that ended our chances.

Queenslander!

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

Having grown up in AFL territory, I don’t follow rugby league really closely, but in Brisbane it’s impossible to avoid being caught up in the State of Origin which was, after all, essentially a Queensland creation.I couldn’t really understand all the doom and gloom that followed the first-round loss.

Posts I don’t need to write

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

Caz sums up my thoughts about walking, considered as a sporting eventYou see, the “walk”, with all its stylized strangeness, has become more and more unnatural over the years. Sure, perhaps not as unnatural as the girl coming out of the well and through the television set in The Ring (the real version), but all the same, it was always a tad ungainly.The walk, to my mind, is no longer just another silly walk, worthy, apparently of a medal; rather, it has morphed into a silly jog.

Category mistake

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

According to my local suburban paper, Western Brisbane has won more gold medals at the Commonwealth Games than either Canada or New Zealand. I’m sure Doreen Root would have something to say about this.Although I’ve contributed nothing to this outcome beyond some desultory cheering at the TV set, and have never previously considered Western Brisbane as a distinct entity, I am, of course, filled with patriotic pride at this glorious victory.

Guest post

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

The occasion is an AFL proposal to allow goal and boundary umps to award free kicks.An economist tackling the problem of optimal number of umpires would use the law of diminishing marginal returns…. The optimum number of umpires is achieved when the marginal benefits equal the marginal costs,and the challenge is finding this number without overshooting.

The great purge

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

The Brisbane Bullets have sacked their captain Derek Rucker, having already axed Daniel Egan and Lanard Copeland. It seems pretty clear that Bobby Brannen will go as well.

The race is not to the swift …

Sunday, January 29th, 2006

nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.Marcos Baghdatis put up an impressive fight, but ran out of legs in the end against the calm professionalism of Roger Federer in the Australian Open.

At home with the Bullets

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

Coming home from another great win for the Bullets, it struck me that the part of the season I’ve seen has been great. After a few early hiccups, they’ve won consistently, beating more highly-fancied teams with ease.