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News, Punting

Gelding’s tips for 8 January 2011

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The Gelding’s attention returns to his home track at Caulfield for the first race meeting of the year there.  Followers of the Gelding will have started 2011 with a win and a third last week and so should have a little bank to use towards today’s selections.

Punters should take some care with selections as a storm is predicted for today so that may have some affect on the runners.

Caufield

Race 1 Horse 2 – Covered in Class
Race 3 Horse 3 – Grail Jeurney
Race 6 Horse 1 – First Command (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 7 Horse 3 – Mid Summer Music (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 5 – At the Heads

Good luck and good punting!

The Gelding

News, Sports

Rose Bowl decides nothing

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For the record let it be known that the TCU Horned Frogs (from the Mountain West Conference and ranked #3 in the NCAAF rankings) defeated the Wisconsin Badgers (from the Big 10 Conference and ranked #4) 21-19 to take out the prestigious Rose Bowl.   Also for the record, TCU had a perfect season and finished with a 13-0 win loss record.

Only the vagaries of the NCAA/BCS (Bowl Championship Series) system could allow an undefeated team to not play for the #1 spot. Currently there are three undefeated teams in NCAAF play.  Auburn, Oregon and TCU.  Auburn and Oregon play off for number one spot on the 10 January 2011 in the ‘so called’ BCS Championship game.

My question to both the NCAA and the BCS is “How can the winner of that game possibly be crowned number one?”.  If nothing else, at least the game will eliminate one of those teams from contention as one will suffer defeat and that will leave only two teams with perfect records.  No amount of computer or human prediction will ever be able to tell us whether the TCU Horned Frogs could beat the other undefeated team.

Countless people, including President Obama have called for urgent change to the BCS system…and with good cause.  The BCS is the equivalent of an exclusive club – in this case six BCS conferences who are guaranteed automatic berths to the big money Bowl games.  These six BCS conferences are supposedly ‘stronger’ than the other conferences and therefore somehow have a greater entitlement. Let me say that in my years following NCAAF, that assessment can only possibly have been made on an historical basis.  Clearly, that is not the case today.

Let’s for a moment take a look at the BCS Conference Wisconsin hails from – the Big 10.  In Bowl games yesterday that Conference went 0-5 – a big duck egg!!  If we now take the time to also review the Mountain West Conference, they are 4-1 in Bowl games this year, the fourth consecutive year they  have sent five football teams to bowl games, posting the best win percentage among the eleven FBS conferences for the fourth time in seven years.  The MWC will also claim the 2010-11 Bowl Challenge Cup, becoming the only Conference to win the trophy four times since the award’s inception in 2002-03.

So you tell me…on those figures alone, are the Big 10 stronger than the MWC?  The answer is a resounding “No”!  Do the Big 10 deserve preferred treatment over the MWC?  The answer is also a resounding “No”!

As I see it there is only one solution to this impasse.  Change the system!  Bring in a playoff system between the top ten ranked teams.  This could be done within the current Bowl calendar.  It would also mean that many of those Bowl games would gain some relevance rather than be as they are now, a match between Colleges who managed to scrape together a .500 season.  Hardly riveting, prime time viewing! 

Fairness demands that parochial vested interests be set aside for a fairer system.  Will it happen?  Not unless the sporting public brings pressure to bear on the people controlling the system.  Aside from the vested interests of the BCS conferences maintaining the status quo and hanging on to the big money Bowl games, perhaps more worrying to those Conferences is the spectre of being required to regularly compete against MWC colleges in the big games!

I am certainly looking forward to discussing this topic with our US correspondent, Dan Butterly, when Sportzfan Radio resumes on 16 January 2011.  Our show won’t rest until the system is changed for the better!

Sports

Australian cricket needs a revamp and quickly!

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I often listen to Stan (@sportzfanstan) on Sportzfan Radio calling for underperforming sports administrators and coaches to be sacked. Recently, he has been critical of the Australian Test team’s performance in the Ashes series against England and I would say with good reason.

If I compare how the successful teams from other codes behave – Collingwood in the AFL and St George in the NRL, there are hallmarks that lead to that success. Discipline, elite training regimes centred around world class training facilities, an astute and experienced coach, forward planning for filling the gaps that regularly occur in the playing ranks over time, investment (money and time) in drafting replacements and succession planning.

These hallmarks are not apparent in the Australian cricket team. I am continually surprised at Australian players making comments in the media regarding team selection, injuries and batting order. At best this shows an amateurish approach by those in charge of Australian cricket. Can you imagine for one moment that Alan Didak would suggest that a fellow Collingwood team mate should be playing in place of another?…or that he should be playing on a half forward flank as opposed to the wing? It just would not happen. Please take note James Sutherland.

Australian cricket was once at the forefront of all cricketing nations in all forms of the game. Well out in front of the pack with the rest struggling to remain a respectable distance behind, let alone catch up. Instead of building and laying solid foundations for the future, leading Australian cricket administrators have taken their eye off the road ahead and it has been left to deteriorate to the shambles that it is today.

There is one thing for certain. In this crowded sporting marketplace, it takes little time to lose relevance with the sporting public….just ask the NBL. Professionalism of a high order needs to be injected into Australian cricket and quickly and this means more than changing captains, players, coaches or selectors. An attitude change is required and quickly to reverse the trend.

Punting

Gelding’s tips for 1 January 2011

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The Gelding is back bigger and better than ever after a lovely break for some fine Christmas pudding and is looking to start the new year off with plenty of winners.  What better place to do this than at headquarters tomorrow at Flemington.

As always the bets are on an each way and all up basis.

Flemington

Race 1 Horse 4 – Fashion Black (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 5 Horse 1 – Macedonian
Race 6 Horse 7 – Clear Mystic (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)

Good luck and good punting for this first race meeting for 2011!

The Gelding

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #184.1

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@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!19 December 2010 184.1 – The show starts off with a festive intro and Daniel, Stan, the Gelding and the Professor talk about what they would like for Christmas. Daniel then discusses the blockbuster NBA trade sending Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson & Hedu Turkoglou to the Orlando Hornets for Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus. Stan is all over the poor form of the Melbourne Tigers and the Houston Rockets scouting Eric Devendorf and Luke Nevill. Daniel says the Tigers need a miracle to make the playoffs.

Nick Tedeschi comes on to talk rugby league and the retirement through the week of Eric Grothe Jnr from Parramatta Eels. Nick thinks Eric did not live up to his potential and was basically a waste of space, He believes the Eels may go after Greg Inglis as they have a very big war chest.   He sees Canterbury as being the big improvers next season.  The Wests Tigers can go one better and make the Grand Final and Melbourne Storm will bounce back.  Parramatta Eels and Cronulla will struggle in 2011.

The Gelding and the Sydney Colt talk winners and losers at Flemington and Randwick whilst Mark Fiorenti talks all things soccer with the A League and Premier League updates.

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #183.2

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@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!12 December 2010 183.2 – Mark Fiorenti continues his discussion of the A League looking at Sydney Rovers dropping their bid to join and also reviews at Premier League and Champions League. John O’Callaghan and Nicole Chvastek return to discuss a number of sporting topics including the World Cup bid fiasco which highlighted the lack of leadership by those running the bid process for Australia and the secrecy of surrounding money spent on the bid. Daniel says that it was OK for Elle MacPherson to be involved with the bid….he wouldn’t complain about that. Nicole queries the cost benefit analysis of spending so much money for one vote. The Professor eblieves the money paid to consultants was an absolute waste.

John also looks at the ‘rivalry’ round in the ABL and he believes after four weeks that is an absolute nonsense idea. Sean says Brendan Fevola smashing a car windscreen in a baseball promotion gave the ABL some main stream press during the week but for all the wrong reasons. Daniel talks about the stupidity of one match last week being called a tie becaue of the time curfew restrictions at the stadium.

Nicole starts off a discussion with the Panel about Shane Warne – his suntan, his eyebrows and his teeth, the mediocrity that is Australia cricket and whether or not Warne will make a comeback. She also believes that Geelong officials should be deemed to be ‘negligent’ for allowing Bomber Thompson and Garry Ablett to not talk to each other for about eight months. She says whoever oversaw such a debacle should be kicked out of the Club.

Daniel and the Professor discuss the NBL, particularly the new imports with both the Adelaide 36ers and the Sydney Kings. They also talk NBA and the improvement of the New York Knicks this season after recruiting Amare Stoudemire.  Daniel wonders if Carmelo Anthony will sign soon with the Knicks.  He talks about Julius Hodge who says he has finished with Australia and won’t be back to play in the NBL.

Paul Dalligan also wants to talk ABL and he was impressed with his first game watching the Melbourne Aces. He also has NRL mail that Wayne Bennett will coach the Rabbitohs in 2012.

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #183.1

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@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!12 December 2010 183.1 – Sean makes a rare appearance in studio and Daniel starts with an apology as it took him five days to read Mark Fiorenti’s blog so he knows nothing about what happened in the sports world for the week. He also adds his favourite Qatar player after some research is Eric Clapton and Sean adds that FIFA’s new game Qatar hero. Stan gets into Daniel again about basketball asking him how he thinks the Melbourne Tigers will go against Perth. Sean thinks as it is Al Westover’s 200th game it may get the Tigers across the line. Their is also a discussion about the the test cricket side and Stan is for sacking all the player sand the selectors. Dan Butterly talks US sport and commences with his view on the Heisman trophy and who will win it. He thinks Cam Newton from Auburn will win it, even with all the cloud of suspicion over him regarding the behaviour of his father. Dan also talks about the Bowl matches coming up with 35 being played over three weeks. He likes Oregon to beat Auburn in the Championship game and TCU to beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. There are moves afoot within the Conferences and Hawaii has now decided to leave the WAC and join the MWC in 2012. The Professor asks whether the MWC will play a game in Australia given Hawaii is halfway here. Dan agrees that it would raise the MWC profile. Sean says AAMI stadium would be perfect to host such a game. Dan feels Brett Favre’s streak will end at 297 as he will not recover in time to play in tomorrow’s game.

The Professor thinks there may have been a first last week when the Gelding was not on the show at all. The Gelding talks cricket first discussing the problems with Victorians trying to get into the Test side. He then moves on to racing and reviews his selections for the Flemington meeting. Although he got off to a great start tipping Aloha to win, it was all downhill from there with his other three selections failing to even be placed. The Gelding’s favourite Qatar player is Jimmy Page from Led Zepplin.

The Panel discusses Gary Ablett’s revelations during the week where he hadn’t spoken to his coach, Bomber Thompson since March this year. Sean talks about a rumor that James Hird and Thompson had been talking about getting together for 2012 but because Essendon’s coterie groups wanted Matthew Knights out, everything got moved forward twelve months. Daniel starts talking about Bob Costas (NBC sportscaster) but he really means the Geelong president, Frank Costa. Stan is swinging the axe again and Sean observes he is going to put Centrelink out of business as everyone is getting the knife.

Mark Fiorenti talks up the local Melbourne derby between the Heart and the Victory with over 23,000 at AAMi stadium. Sean went to his first game during the week to see Heart play but they went down in front of around 2,000 people. Mark says it was the lowest ever at an A League game in Melbourne. He says the FFA must address this as mid week games don’t work.

Sports

AUSTRALIA’S WORLD CUP BID DIDN’T SELL

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So, what was Australia’s point of difference to make us unquestionably the only choice for the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Hmmm… Beaches, Kangaroos, and locally known sports celebrities. No, they’re not strong enough to make our pitch unlosable. That’s a selfish and cheesy chest beat.

The question we needed to ask ourselves was, how would Australasia, the game of soccer, and the world, benefit from Australia winning?”

So how would it? That’s where the brain storming starts. That’s where we find our point of difference, that’s where we find THE ANSWER!

After we have the answer, we then work out the best way to sell our solution (the pitch process). That’s when we look at who we are presenting to, which in this case was to older, wiser and well travelled FIFA officials. That’s where we make our sell interesting for them, because they make the decision.

Bells and whistles usually means the polishing of a turd. And didn’t we polish it well. A 45 million dollar polish on a thieving cartoon Kangaroo, that reminded me of a Caramello Koala commercial.

I hope we learn from Qatar. They did it beautifully, using changing the world’s perception of The Middle East, and recycling stadiums in developing countries after the World Cup ends with the over arching idea of PEACE. Qatar’s bid sold the idea that if Qatar wins then lives will be saved. That’s powerful, that’s pitch winning. You’re not choosing Qatar, you’re choosing peace. That’s unquestionably the only choice!

What I don’t know is after the announcement was made that Qatar won, why did our bid stop. Why didn’t we have something ready to steal the lime light away from Qatar to make us favourite for the next bid and already show that we are committed to bringing the World Cup to Australia?

Scott Hall
Art/Design Director
McCann Erickson Melbourne

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #182.2

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@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!5 December 2010 182.2 – Daniel and the Professor talk ABL and in particular the ‘rivalry’ round and ask how you can have a rivalry after three weeks of a new league. The Panel talk about whether the ABL will be a success. Stan is not so sure as there have been six or so attempts at starting a league over the years. The Professor believes with the MLB putting money and young talent in, it has its best chance. Some of the up and coming players include Quincey Latimore.

The Panel also discuss emails including the Gabba’s entry restrictions for bags.  Daniel wants to know how Wayne Bennett won the coach of the year award over Mick Malthouse.  Paul Dalligan weighs in with his opinion and believes Wayne Bennett is not only head and shoulders above all other coaches in the NRL, but he also gives his team an ‘x’ factor, so much so that he would love Wayne to coach the Rabbitohs.  Paul believes that Benji Marshall deserved his Golden Boot award and whilst the Professor queries whether the NRL are serious about arranging a World Club challenge in Las Vegas Paul thinks it is a good idea.  Although Paul yet to get to a Melbourne Aces game due to wash outs, he thinks it is a bit early for a rivalry round in ABL. 

Dr Leslie follows Paul’s segment this week and leads into a discussion of the NBA by the Professor and Daniel.  The Professor is amazed that the Knicks are 11-9 and struggles to remember the last time they started a season so well.   Axel is a huge fan of David Robinson…the General….no make that the Admiral.  Daniel believes the Knicks may make the playoffs but it depends on whether they go after Carmelo Anthony.  Daniel finds a way of bringing his team the Clippers into the discussion even though they are on the bottom of their division.

Sean Callanan looks at how social media was used in the World Cup bid and whether Australia used it effectively.  He believes it worked engaging fans but not in getting votes.  Sean reveals he did the ‘shimmy’ at the U2 concert and was rcognised as ‘the shimmy guy’.  The twitter handle ‘the Ashes’, is owned by a US woman who doesn’t know anything about cricket and she is getting cross about people tweeting her about cricket.  Sean will pluck the best three or four tweets he sees over the coming weeks to talk about on Sportzfan Radio.  He is considering bringing out a ‘how to’ shimmy dvd for Christmas.

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #182.1

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@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!5 December 2010 182.1 – ‘Hostilities’ start early with Daniel noting that Stan is growing a beard and is dressing like a metrosexual.  Guest panelist Axel Dench is welcomed  by the Panel and the Professor comments that he thought the Melbourne Tigers, given their recruiting of seven footers, may have called on Axel to fill out the roster.  Daniel is on NBL “import” watch and indicates he thinks Eric Devendorf will survive but Craig Winder from the 36ers was wound up.  He also confirms LeBron James did the ‘powder clap’ and that the game between the Cavaliers and the Heat was like an NBA finals game.

Mark Fiorenti comes on to talk about the failed Australian bid for the 2022 World Cup.  He is shocked that Qatar won and that the Aussies only received one vote in the first round and therefore was eliminated.  Mark believes we may have been too honest and not cunning enought to get the required votes.  Axel wants to know how Australia could have been so blind sided by how countries would vote.  Mark believes we could have been naive and other countries thought getting Australia out early inproved their chamces in latter rounds.  The Professor asks just what we could have gotten for our $45 million spent on the failed bid.  Australia’s bid video gets unanimously panned by the Panel and Mark says it looked more like a tourism advertisement whilst Daniel says the sports stars we used may be big here but not to the rest of the world.  Mark thinks our next bid won’t be until the 2040 World Cup.

The Panel look at a tweet from Lisa Hayes regarding Tom Brady becoming a spokesperson for UGG clothing.  We find out that Daniel is a New England Patriots fan.  The Professor has Daniel speechless twice in a few minutes saying Tom is the elder brother the Brady Bunch never spoke about.  Daniel says the only thing he likes better than basketball is Star Wars and Axel says he gave out more Star Wars autographs than for basketball.

A tweet from Craig Eyles is also discussed regarding the Australian cricket team and the Ashes.  Stan says there aren’t enough players playing cricket and not enough care about whether we win the Ashes or not.  He says we should sack the selectors and Daniel actually agrees.  Axel believes the Aussie fans are front runners and tend to fall off when Australia is not doing well.