Before he took a hammering at the hands of Terence Crawford in Las Vegas, Australia’s fleeting world welterweight champion, Jeff Horn, claimed that the scales had been doctored before his weigh-in for the bout. He needed to strip naked and then still lose another 8oz to get down to the 147 lb limit for his division. Given Crawford’s clear superiority in the ring, you’d have to … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2018
The most important statistic in sport
What is the most important statistic in sport? Clearly, it’s the FU-TU ratio. Forget goals scored, assists, tackles, missed tackles, meters gained, passes completed, rebounds, efficiency rating and any one of a hundred other stats. None of them hold a candle to the FU-TU ratio. Every coach on the planet needs to seriously consider the FU-TU rating of every player on … [Read more...]
Confessions of an addicted mungo – my love for League (and the Rabbitohs)
We’ve all heard the joke about the good ol’ boy from Bumcrack, Alabama, who likes two kinds of music - country AND western. Well, I am similarly mono-cultural in my appreciation of footy. Being born and bred in Sydney in that golden age before the AFL’s South Melbourne arrived in town to re-brand itself as the Swans (until they won the 2005 grand-final, whereupon coach … [Read more...]
What is going on in the mystery photograph?
Could you guess? No engagement, head butt or red card involved in this image at all. Despite the complete lack of sliding across the turf, flashing of over-developed abs, jumping on each others backs, playing of stacks on the mill, punching of corner flags, giving of esoteric hand signals, crawling along the ground like goannas, pulling off of shirts or performing of back … [Read more...]
Risks of trusting Video Assisted Refereeing? – The deskilling of match officials
When was the last time you saw or heard of a police officer pulling a driver over for not stopping at a give-way or stop sign, changing lanes without indicating, not stopping at a pedestrian crossing or turning right or left without indicating? Twenty years ago, these were considered serious traffic violations and resulted in nasty fines and loss of points. Not now. The police … [Read more...]