Some day the virus will be gone, and our sporting lives will return to normal. Manly and Melbourne will again battle it out for the honour of being the NRL’s most hated club. Collingwood supporters will still be the butt of jokes of their fellow AFL fans. Multitudes will again, cruelly and not completely accurately, complain about how crap the A League is. But will things … [Read more...]
Socrates the spewer – Two philosophers look at pre-game anxiety
Socrates and Seneca are enjoying each other's company at the philosopher's sports bar when Socrates confesses to his mate that he has a problem that is driving him nuts. Little did Socrates think that he was about to get an earful of stoic philosophy from the "hard-man" Roman. Socrates: Mate. I can’t stand it. Its driving me nuts. I love playing rugga, but these pre-game … [Read more...]
Tribalism in sport – lets hear it for the twitter twits
A few days back I stumbled onto an example of one of the sports clubs that, despite being ranked highly by the Australian Sports Commission as being potentially worthy of a federal government sports grant, had been turned down by the Federal Sports Minister. The Victorian soccer club in question had been assessed by the ASC (Australian Sports Commission) on a ranking scale … [Read more...]
Rugby scrum and sports rorts – government employs Spartan approach
I can’t believe that its over two thousand years since I last packed down in the front row of the Athens 1st fifteen. We were good. Especially our scrum. I was the best hooker in the Hellenic Union if I do say so myself. Those Spartan sissies thought that they could match us in the scrumming department, but they were dreaming. We kicked their arses. Time and time … [Read more...]
Expectations on professional athletes – is it fair to expect pros to uphold certain values?
Did Israel Folau cross the line in his recent social media post that declared that non-repentant homosexuals can expect a reward of hell or was he reasonably expressing his personal religious views. There has been no shortage of comments from people who say that they disagree with his views but support his right to make such statements. The argument is that no employer has the … [Read more...]