16 January 2011 185.2 – Daniel believes that skill goes out the window in 20/20 cricket and therefore this is not a good thing for cricketers who are wanting to be successful in test matches. He says 20/20 should be scrapped. The Professor says there are too many players over thirty in Australia’s cricket sides and the Gambler suggests that perhaps there should be a compulsory retirement age. Daniel thinks it could be a case of mates scratching mate’s backs and even he gets into the groove suggesting sackings. Mark Fiorenti talks soccer in particular the Asian Cup and reviews the Socceroos matches against India and South Korea. He thinks Holger Osieck is demanding a more attacking game from the Socceroos. He thinks the squad is getting older and a few players are at the end of the road. Mark also talks about the A League, in particular the form of Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory and the poor crowds attending A League matches. There is also a discussion with the Panel on the happenings in Premier League with Man Utd, Man City & Arsenal going well at the top. Paul Dalligan chats about the ABL and the recent poor form of the Melbourne Aces having lost 6 in a row. He also talks with the Professor about Sportzfan Radio’s broadcast of the Aces match against Perth Heat. Paul even manages to sneak a discussion of rugby league in even though it is not in season. Daniel exclusively announces a charity baskets game to aid the Flood relief appeal. Sean Callanan comes on to talk social media and a Liverpool soccer player being charged by the Football Association over what he had written in his twitter account. The Gambler talks about Essendon FC’s high numbers on their Facebook account. The Panel conclude with their thoughts on which Australian tennis players will do well in the Australian Open.
Sportzfan Radio #185.1
16 January 2011 185.1 – The Professor, Daniel, the Gambler and Sportzfan Stan are back for 2011, bigger and better than ever. There is some discussion to start the show about Sportzfan Radio’s Christmas party and the Gelding now being a greyhound expert as well. They also discuss the first radio broadcast of an ABL game in Victoria from the previous evening by Southern FM. The Panel then discuss Stan’s call for the sacking of the AFL’s Andrew Demetriou over the decision of choosing Virgin Blue over Qantas as the airline transporting the teams. Dan Butterly talks US sport including the NFL playoffs and selects New England to beat the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons over the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears over the Seattle Seahawks. Dan also talks about some of the coaching changes at NFL teams who haven’t made the playoffs. He wraps up the College football season and says it will be interesting to see what the NCAA do about the Cam Newton situation and possible rule infractions as it could be that Auburn may not hold the national championship they won. He is still all for a BCS playoff series whether it be an 8 or 12 team series and would like to see that in place sooner rather than later. The Gelding talks racing from Flemington and discusses the winners and losers in racing from the weekend’s meetings. The Panel then look at the Australian cricket team, the chairman of selectors, the CEO and the coach. Stan calls for an inquiry to be headed by Ric Charlesworth. Daniel says it’s good that Stan is finally giving someone a job given that he has sacked so many over the last few months. Stan says Tim Nielsen’s record as a coach on a win/loss basis is terrible and he should be sacked.
Sydney Colt’s Mail For 15 January
There is not much value about today’s mail horses on wet ground but I have put my money where my mouth is. All 3 are favs but I am extremely confident we can turn a profit betting with the corporate bookies. Join me.
Race 3 n1 SEA LORD ($1.7) Very short but looks the anchor bet all over Aust today. Should stroll in!
Race 5 n4 KING LIONHEART ($3.4) I am told this neddy is a standout based on ratings. Will race on the pace which has been an advantage here lately
GOLD COAST Race 7 n9 KARUTA QUEEN ($3.4) Sydney Colt’s groupies already know about this neddy as I highlighted it recently as a horse to follow in 2011. Has always been set for this race and looks better than these. Should go on to be a genuine Golden Slipper hope!
Money lost, nothing lost. Confidence lost, everything lost.
Gelding’s tips for 15 January 2011
The Gelding’s attention is on Flemington this fine Saturday and isn’t it wonderful to see the sun shining!
As always the bets are on an each way and all up basis.
Flemington
Race 3 Horse 1 – Warm Love (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 4 Horse 4 – Fashion Black
Race 5 Horse 2 – Verdasco (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 6 – Lord Pindari
You can hear me discuss all today’s racing results with the Professor from 12.30pm tomorrow on Sportzfan Radio broadcast on 88.3 Southern FM.
Good luck and good punting!
The Gelding
Send in your #madeupbaseballfact for @MelbourneAces broadcast
Reprint from SportsGeek.com.au
This Saturday night the @SportzfanRadio crew will be calling the final game of the Melbourne Aces inaugural season in the ABL. With a home final at stake the Aces will be trying to get some Ws before the finals.
Baseball commentary is all about statistics & telling great stories while the action continues out of the diamond. As @SportzfanRadio has embraced Twitter wholeheartedly gaining listeners from around the world via Twitter we will be taking tweets during the game make sure you tag your tweets #LetsGoAces.
To help the commentary team – Mark Seymour (@packers4), Sean Callanan (@seancallanan) & Daniel Eade (@DanielEade) we would like to have some fun with the broadcast and we need your help. Please share your best “Made up Baseball fact” on Twitter, we’ll sneak the best ones into the broadcast 
.
To enter please send a tweet with the hashtag #madeupbaseballfact to join in the fun.
Listen to the broadcast on 88.3 Southern FM or streaming from SportzfanRadio.com.
To enter please send a tweet with the hashtag #madeupbaseballfact to join in the fun. If you are not on Twitter then add yours in the comments.
Asian Cup – Australia vs India….An upsize without the Big “Mac”
Australia commenced its Asian Cup campaign with a 4-0 romp against a technically inept India in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nevertheless, the Socceroos’ passing game and strike rate needs to improve if we are to progress to the semi finals and beyond of this tournament.
Socceroos’ coach, Holger Osieck employed an expansive 4-4-2 formation opting for Cahill and Kewell up front (the latter surprisingly in favour of Scott McDonald) and Brett Emerton and Holman pushing high down the flanks and Mile Jedinak partnering Jason Culina in the centre of the park in front of a defensive back four.
The positives included:
- Two goals from Mr Consistency, Tim Cahill, who is surely Australia’s most important player and is
now on par to becoming Australia’s highest goal scorer. The ‘F Word’s man of the match.
2. A lively performance from Brett Emerton in both defence and attack on the right hand side of the park. Cahill’s first goal came from an Emerton delivery, as did Holman’s headed goal.
3. A fully fit and firing Harry Kewell who scored with a beautifully struck shot.
There were, as alluded to earlier, some concerns though….:
- A sloppy and wasteful second half. Yes, the game was arguably in the bag by then, but the passing left a lot to be desired at times and the crosses did not always find their intended target. Further, Australia may rue the goalscoring chances it missed if Group C comes down to goal difference.
- An inept passing game. For much of the 90 minutes the Socceroos preferred a long ball game to take advantage of the small Indian players, rather than employ an intimidating, short and quick passing game. This tactic will not be successful against the pacy and technically sound South
Koreans. - Scott McDonald. “The Mac” lacks bite in attack and yet again, failed to open his goalscoring account for the Socceroos after 22 games. Against a country ranked 142nd in the world, no less. Scotty appears incapable of scoring even in the “House of the Rising Sun”. One must now wonder if he will be given another chance. Burns, and even Kruse must surely be given a look in….
In short, Australia’s performance was sound and solid but it is hard to imagine the Asian Cup’s other heavyweights “quaking in their boots” after this performance.
But at least there were clear signs from the players and coaching staff that this team is determined on making up for the disappointing failure of 2007.
Tougher tests await in the shape of the South Koreans who put in an excellent performance against Bahrain, comprehensively beating them 2-1 and playing the last part of the game with ten men.
I wait with bated breath….
The Melbourne Aces – The Heat Is On….
Well here it is…crunch time.
Your Melbourne Aces face their biggest challenge of the season starting this Thursday night January 13 when they take on the second placed Perth Heat in a 4 game series to be played at Melbourne Showgrounds, Flemington.
The Aces and Heat will play 4 games on 13 -15 January, with 7pm starts on Thursday 13 January and Friday 14 January. There will also be a massive double header starting at 4.30pm on Saturday 15 January 2010 with Game One at 4.30pm and Game 2 at 7.30pm.
And in a first for the Melbourne Aces, Southern FM is proud to announce that it will be broadcasting live from Flemington Showgrounds on 15 January 2011, going to air at 7pm for the crunch second game 
of the Aces v Heat double header.
The two teams will then head across the country to play 4 more games in Perth to finish the ABL season from 20 – 22 January.
Whilst making the finals is any club’s main goal at the start of the season, the main prize is being able to play those finals at home in order to benefit from that extra lift in intensity that only home supporters can provide.
The ABL table currently stands as follows:
| Club | W | L | PCT | GB | *ELIM # | |||||
| Adelaide | 18 | 12 | .600 | – | – | |||||
| Perth | 18 | 14 | .563 | 1.0 | – | |||||
| Sydney | 17 | 14 | .548 | 1.5 | – | |||||
| Melbourne | 16 | 15 | .516 | 2.5 | – | |||||
| Brisbane | 13 | 17 | .433 | 5.0 | 7 | |||||
| Canberra | 11 | 21 | .344 | 8.0 | 3 | |||||
Only the top 4 teams will make the playoffs, and with fifth placed Brisbane recording some strong wins of late the Aces need to make sure they put up a strong home stand against the Heat before heading across to face Perth in their home cauldron to finish the ABL season.
In the ABL playoffs, the team finishing first will host the team finishing second in a best of 3 series from January 27 – 29. The winner of that matchup will have the honour of hosting the Australian Baseball League Championship in a 3 game series on February 11 – 13.
Unlike our American baseballing compatriots, where the World Series goes back and forwards between the two cities involved, in the Australian Baseball League all 3 games will be on the home turf of the team that wins when first plays second.
The team that finishes third for the season will host the team who comes fourth for a 3 game series on each night of January 27 – 29, and the winner of that matchup will face the winner of the first v second series to determine the other team in the Championship Series.
The equation is simple – for your Melbourne Aces to play finals baseball at their fantastic home ground, the Melbourne Showgrounds, they need to finish the season no lower than third place.
The Aces will need to be at their best to catch the third placed Sydney. Given however that Sydney plays the struggling Canberra Cavalry in their last 4 games to end the season it is absolutely vital that the Aces come out firing against the Heat in Melbourne.
Dare we say, the Perth Heat have been in sizzling form, managing to win all 4 games at Sydney to surge into second spot and in contention to play for a place in the Championship Series in week one of the finals.
Perth Heat starting pitcher Matt Zachary was last week named Player of the Week for Round 8 after throwing down seven complete innings while conceding just four hits, no runs, and no walks while striking out four Blue Sox batters.
Perth’s Robbie Widlansky is also 6th in the ABL for batting average for the season with a very impressive average of 0.328.
The Aces have the second and third best batting averages for the ABL season in Melbourne’s very own Andrew Russell and Grant Karlsen who have averages of 0.363 and 0.354 respectively. These local
lads have no doubt caught the eye of many of the 28 of the 30 Major League teams who have sent scouts to Australia to scour new talent. Andrew Russell has also belted an ABL high 7 home runs for the season, and will be looking to go deep against Perth at the Showgrounds.
It will be a massive series against the Heat, and the Aces season may very well ride on whether it can head to Perth with a few victories under its belt as it attempts to secure that all important top 3 finish. With the Aces dropping their last 3 games against league leaders Adelaide they are desperate for your support against the high flying Heat.
Get out to the game or join us live on 88.3 Southern FM from 7pm on Saturday 15 January 2011 with your host The Professor, Sean Callanan and Daniel Eade who are all very excited to bring Melbourne Aces baseball to the airwaves for the very first time.
Baseball on @SportzfanRadio this Saturday night from 7pm
Tune in this Saturday on 88.3 Southern FM as the @SportzfanRadio crew returns for 2011 one day early with Live ABL action!
Come down to see the Aces at the Showgrounds this Thursday, Friday or Saturday, if you can’t make it then tune in.
Sydney Colt’s Mail For Randwick 8 January
The mail is a little light on today as a couple of our sources continue to enjoy some R&R. Both our tips today are ridden by Corey Brown and so we have also had a few dollars on him to win the jockey’s challenge at $5.0
Race 2 n3 COMBAT KITTY On a tough day this neddy looks the banker. The experts really rated its win at Kembla. I expect it to lead here.
Race 4 n4 FLYING EMPRESS Should get a soft lead here, is trained by the in form Jo Pride and has Corey Brown to steer. Sounds like a winning formula.
Money lost, nothing lost. Confidence lost, everything lost.
Gelding’s tips for 8 January 2011
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