Two of the world’s greatest global games are rotten with jargon. Positively stinky with it! Why? I can’t say, for sure, but it has something to do with the fact that while both games crave growth and acknowledgment as the globe’s biggest and best sports they, ironically, seek to exclude outsiders by generating their own exclusive languages. Is basketball and soccer jargon … [Read more...]
A-League goings on – “Bes” gets two weeks. Teenager gets “mandatory year. WTF?
The Besart Berisha suspension after last week’s A-League football game opens a huge can of worms, the way I see it. If Berisha gets a two-week suspension for pushing a match official in the A League, how come a seventeen-year-old girl gets a twelve-month suspension for unsporting conduct toward an official in a regional third division game. According to the soccer … [Read more...]
The A-League – a football feast that fails to fill
For a product to sell, not only does its marketing have to be flawless, but the product itself must be pretty bloody good. At the commencement of the 2016/2017 Hyundai A-League season, the FFA, Australia’s leading football organisation, announced that they would be rebranding to enhance their expansion both nationally and internationally. This rebrand came in the shape of a new … [Read more...]
A boy and his team – coach makes his mark early!
The muscle-bound sports master with the short-back-and-sides haircut and sergeant-major booming voice lumbered across the playground straight towards the group of eleven-year old kids who were having their regular daily lunch-time soccer ball juggling session. “Have we got a soccer team?”, he bellowed in the general direction of the kids. The group of half a dozen … [Read more...]
The things that made me… Clare Polkinghorne
The statistics, awards, selections, accolades, medals and achievements speak for themselves. Clare Polkinghorne, a tenacious, tough and effective defender for both Australia (Matildas) and Brisbane Roar (W-League), has played 26 internationals and over one-hundred W-League games. She is Captain of both the national team and her club team the Roar (where she has been club … [Read more...]