New rules for NAB cup

Five new rules have been announced by the AFL, and are to be trialled during the 2011 NAB Cup, including awarding a free kick against the last team to touch the ball before it crosses the boundary line.

Boundary umpires will also have the power to award free kicks for holding and high contact at stoppages, whilst video replays will be used to assist the goal umpires.

The rules to be trialled are:

- A player awarded a 50m penalty which takes him inside the 50m area can elect to kick from outside 50 for nine points or from inside 50 for six points

- The goal umpire can consult with the official scorer to determine the correct decision in situations where a video replay is immediately available

- Boundary umpires will be empowered to pay free kicks for holding and high contact at stoppages

- A free kick will be paid against player who drags or holds the ball under his opponent

- A free kick will be paid against the last player to touch the ball before it went out of bounds.

This last rule will apply for the first round of NAB Cup matches only when each of the 18 clubs will be broken up into six groups of three.

A free won't be paid if the umpire is unable to determine who touched the ball last, if the ball goes out of bounds from a spoil after a marking contest, or if the ball goes out of bounds as a result of a defensive smother to a kick or a handball.

Man in hospital following umpiring decision

A man was taken to hospital after an argument over an umpiring decision at Melbourne Park took a violent turn yesterday.

A 48 year old man was allegedly assaulted by a 51 year old man during a juniors tournament, prompting a call to Emergency services.

Police spokeswoman Sharna Roberts said officers were called to the spat about 4pm.

"As a result, one man was arrested and interviewed for assault-related matters", Ms Roberts said.

"He was released pending further inquiries".

Ms Roberts wouldn’t comment on what triggered the spat or whether a weapon was used.

Susannah Wilson, spokeswoman for Ambulance Victoria, said the 48 year old was left with bruising to his face, a cut to his nose and grazing on his knee and elbow

The spat occurred during a game at the 'December Showdown', a series of national junior titles being held at Melbourne Park.

The Good, The Bad and The...(14/12)

The Good – Peter Senior

Peter Senior has proved that "age is but a number" and shot his way into the record books, as one of the rare golfers to win tournaments across five decades.

At the second hole of a sudden death playoff on Hyatt Coolum's closing hole, the 51 year old toppled Australian Open champion Geoff Ogilvy to claim his third Australian PGA title.

The victory comes 21 years after Senior's first Australian Open triumph in 1989, and he seems to be enjoying his golf more than ever.

"Tom Watson proved that age is nothing when he nearly won the British Open (at 59), so we are really lucky that we play a long-life sport that we can get a lot of enjoyment out of".

Senior has now earned above $1 million in earnings for this year.

The Bad – Donald Sterling/Baron Davis

Baron Davis is used to being heckled, however, the recent jeers directed at the team’s struggling point guard are coming from a far more surprising source: The man paying Davis, Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Sterling has expressed his displeasure about Davis’ play by taunting him from his courtside seat at Clippers’ home games, amongst Sterling’s verbal attacks:

“Why are you in the game?”, “Why did you take that shot?”, “You’re out of shape!”.

While Sterling has also taunted other Clippers players since the middle of last season, none have received it worse than Davis. Davis has missed 14 of the team’s 25 games this season and is only averaging 7.4 points, while making a team-high $13 million.

One member of the organization who wished to remain anonymous expressed disappointment in Sterling’s lack of support for Davis and the players.

“The owner of the team has to be the main supporter of the team and the staff”, the source said.

“And when the owner of the team isn’t supporting the players, it doesn’t give you confidence to play the way you want to. This guy is supposed to be on your side, not against you. You want someone who can support what you’re doing and be on your side”.

The … Streak – Brett Favre

Brett Favre will miss his first NFL start in more than 18 years as a strained throwing shoulder has sidelined the quarterback for today's game against the New York Giants.

Favre was listed on Minnesota's inactive list with an injury that snapped his National Football League record for consecutive starts at 297, dating back to September 20, 1992 with the Green Bay Packers.

The 41 year old Favre has fought through various injuries to get on the field throughout his illustrious career with the Packers, New York Jets and Vikings, but the three-time league MVP could not overcome the latest injury, suffered last week against the Buffalo Bills.

Opinion: Confusion reigns over Test team

Andrew Hilditch and his team of Australian test selectors are puzzling the nation one person at a time, and slowly killing interest in one of Australia's favourite past times.

Yesterday Andrew Hilditch announced the third test squad to a wall of silence, the media and public stunned.

Hilditch called back Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson into the squad, a step into the past, but looked to the future, with Steven Smith and unknown spinner Michael Beer joining the squad... the message ... still very unclear..

Are we looking forward, or clinging to the past?

In Mitchell Johnson's case, obviously his mental and bowling issues are now well and truly rectified, a full week after saying he wasn't ready for the stresses of test cricket.

The selection of Michael Beer is one for the future, and I praise them for that, but the reasons Hilditch gave for the selection confused me even more.

"Michael is a left-arm orthodox spinner who has been very impressive at domestic level this year. He took wickets against England in the tour match earlier this summer and we expect he will bowl very well against the English on his home ground".

But Hilditch's comments seemingly ignore the fact that the WACA has been Beer's home ground for only a few months, after he moved from Victoria during the off-season. He has played only THREE first class matches at the ground and in his five first class appearances, all of which have taken place this summer, he has 16 wickets at 39.93 with a best of 3 for 39.

Nathan Hauritz looks like Shane Warne in comparison.

The move smelt of desperation, just like the inclusion of Philip Hughes for the injured Simon Katich.

Hughes has had a horrible summer, averaging a mere 22 runs, and most recently made a combined four runs in his two innings against South Australia.

Why can't Michael Hussey open the batting (which he has done with great effect before), and bring in a David Hussey or a Shaun Marsh to provide some stability in our shaky middle order? Both are in terrific form, and the latter would certainly love the opportunity to bat in front of his home crowd.

As one cricket fan put it to me last night, "I'm just not interested anymore; they've just lost the plot".

Your Mate … (10/12)

Australian Cricket fans

A “Bring Back Warne” website (www.bringbackwarne.com) has been created and are taking donations from the public, which they will then present to Warne in order to entice him to return to test cricket.

Donations have already topped $4,000 but as “The Daily Telegraph” reported, a group of Queensland businessmen are said to tempt to Warne with a whopping $1 million carrot.

The concern for Australian cricket is that by using Warne to regenerate interest, they are not making it sustainable for the future. At some stage, cricket must identify new heroes to market and follow in the shadow of Shane, now matter how hard the job may seem.

What message does it send the rest of the team? Are we in that bad a state that we have to call on a 41 year old who hasn't bowled in a creditable match since 2007?

This would be nothing more than a sideshow distraction, a marketing ploy, attempting to ease the decline of arguably the greatest cricketing team ever seen.

It's time for the Australian media and Australian sporting fans to stop clinging to the past and embrace the future of cricket in this country.


Anthony Mundine

In what may be the first of many appearances for ‘The Man’ in this column, Anthony Mundine may have just been served his first reality check.

Anthony Mundine was planning to head to the US with bigger plans in mind, but after suffering a shock fifth round knockout at the hands of little known Garth Wood in their middleweight bout on Wednesday night, those US dreams are shot.

In typical Mundine fashion before the bout he spruiked, “Kessler couldn't do it (knock Mundine out), Green couldn't do it… he (Wood) ain't got it”, but Wood did knock Mundine out, maybe finally knocking some sense into him...

...maybe...

Mundine had planned to use this fight, Wood's reward for winning 'The Contender' television series, as his final stepping stone before heading overseas, but admitted everything was now up in the air after Wood left him sprawling on the canvas 58 seconds into the fifth round.

Maybe this fight proved it's time for Mundine to hang up the gloves and close his mouth, because 'The Man has finally become 'The Myth'.

History made at European Golf awards

Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer have been voted joint winners of the 2010 European Tour Golfer of the Year award, the first time the prize has been shared in its 26 year history.

McDowell and Kaymer both won their first major titles during the 2010 season, with McDowell winning at the US Open and Kaymer at the US PGA. The pair also both won four times during the season, and were members of the victorious European Ryder Cup side.

McDowell, who on Sunday beat Tiger Woods in a play-off for the 'World Challenge title', commented; "I am truly humbled to accept this coveted award",

"It is the icing on the cake on what has been a very special year for myself, Martin and everyone involved in European golf".

Kaymer, who also this year topped the coveted 'Race to Dubai' money list said; "This has been a truly great year for me and winning this award is the perfect ending",

"I am always trying to follow in Bernhard Langer's footsteps and to see that I have now won an award that he was the first to win back in 1985 is very satisfying indeed".

1977 Ashes legends square off

Ashes legends Ian Chappell and Ian Botham have been involved in an altercation outside the Adelaide Oval according to reports.

The 'Sydney Morning Herald' reports Botham reacted angrily as Chappell directed a jibe at him follow Australia's crushing second Test defeat at the hands of England.

The knighted Englishman and Chappell had to be separated after clashing in the car park of the Adelaide Oval.

"It could have got very nasty if there hadn't been people on hand to keep them apart", said a Channel Nine source who spoke to English newspaper 'The Mail'.

The pair have been at odds ever since 1977 when they clashed at a pub after words were exchanged.

The Good, The Bad and The...(06/12)

The Good – Serbia

World number three Novak Djokovic and under rated youngster Viktor Troicki swept Serbia to an historic first Davis Cup title, overturning an overnight deficit to beat nine-time winners France 3-2.

Troicki, the world number 30, eased past Michael Llodra in straight sets, after Djokovic had crushed Gael Monfils in similar fashion.

"It's the best moment of my life", said Troicki, who had lost Saturday's doubles alongside Nenad Zimonjic to Llodra and Arnaud Clement, forcing his team to face a nail biting last day.

Djokovic has been in scintillating form in the Davis Cup this year, winning all six of his ties.

The Bad - Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods just can’t catch a break at the moment. After dealing with a scandal that threw his personal life into turmoil, Woods still hasn't won a tournament since the 2009 Australian Masters.

Tiger had his chance in the recent ‘World Challenge Tournament’, where he headed into the final round with a four shot lead. It seemed Tiger had the tournament at his mercy, but after three-putting on two of the first three holes, trouble once again circled the former world number one.

Capitalising on a nervy Woods, Graeme McDowell pushed the tournament into a playoff, and defeated Woods on the first hole. The defeat marked the first time in his professional career that Woods has lost a tournament when he led by three or more shots after 54 holes.

As the tournaments pass, Tiger's once magical touch seems to be unraveling, but hopefully for all sports fans this is a merely a small bump in what has been a stellar career.

The…Horrible Idea – The FFA

With our nation still grieving over the loss of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, we are seeking people to blame, and in this instance an animated kangaroo is the target.


In defence of Frank Lowy and the FFA bid team, they were clearly playing to what they thought were Australia's strengths; a beautiful country with a rich, multicultural population with a history based on running with kangaroos and catching crocodiles.

The animated kangaroo was cute, and was a good mechanism to showing off the country, but it also appeared to be slightly childish and not something appealing to a board of senior citizens.

What the bid seemed to leave out in everything were the Australian people. Nothing could promote Australia as a nation better than us.

In what was a rather dated pitch, appearances by Elle McPherson and Paul Hogan showed Australia as being still stuck in the past with nothing fresh and new to offer.

Hopefully the FFA have learnt a big lesson from this failed pitch, and the next time we throw our hat in the ring, we can truly showcase the passionate and loving country we truly are.

Rising star under investigation

Rugby League's betting scandal continues to grow, with a rising star being drawn into investigations after being captured placing a bet on a contentious match earlier this year.

Brad Murray, 20, played for the Sydney Roosters last season before joining the Parramatta Eels, where he will play for the next three years.


Murray has been touted as being the Eels starting halfback next season, and is the second rugby league figure to be caught on CCTV placing a highly irregular bet on the match.

The game involving the Canterbury Bulldogs and the North Queensland Cowboys has suspicious activity involving a penalty goal being the first scoring option.

Murray placed his bet on the game at 1pm on August 19 in a Flemington hotel on Parramatta Rd.

Over the next two days an unusual number of similar bets were placed with punters standing to win more than $250,000.

"We didn't go into the specifics but, yes, I have spoken to Brad", said Parramatta chief executive Paul Osborne.

"It is a difficult time for him and his family but I've encouraged him to fully co-operate with police".

Johnson dropped for 2nd test

Mitchell Johnson will aim to straighten out the problems with both his head and his bowling action, after being dropped from the Australian Test team for the first time.

At a sombre press conference Johnson vowed to fight his way back into the team.

"It's not the end of the world", he said, sitting next to Australian coach Tim Nielsen, "I've come back from stress fractures when I was younger".

After not taking a wicket in Brisbane, Johnson said he was looking forward to getting away from the hype of the Ashes series and attempt to rebuild, whilst remaining on the fringes of the Australian squad as he is counseled by Nielsen and bowling coach Troy Cooley

After leading the bowling attack for the past two years, Johnson will watch as Peter Siddle and either Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger or Ryan Harris start in Adelaide.

The second test begins tomorrow, with the series tied at 0-0.

Transgender players welcomed in the LPGA

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour commissioner Michael Whan has confirmed that a requirement for players to be "female at birth" will be removed from the LPGA constitution.

Whan said players voted on Tuesday night to make the change, and the change will be finalised in the coming weeks which opens the door to transgender players playing in the 2011 season.

A federal lawsuit filed last October in San Francisco by Lana Lawless, a 57 year old American who underwent a sex change operation five years ago to become a woman, prompted the move.

Lawless was seeking a ban on LPGA events in the state of California until the state changed the law, claiming the "female at birth" requirement violated California's civil rights laws

The LPGA's first major championship every season is the multi million dollar 'Kraft Nabisco Championship', which is staged in California.