Holiday Thoughts

I like penguins

It’s the holiday season and I haven’t given you guys the gift of my brain for over a week now. Shame on me. I am making it up to you by given you another edition of my random thoughts to ponder. Also I’d like to wish everyone a happy whatever they celebrate and a Happy New Year.

• I am already enjoying the Jackson Bird era in Australian cricket. He bowled well on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test (On Boxing Day no less!) and without being some sort of revelation, he took wickets, bowled a nice line and length and even had the ball swinging on occasion. Plus you get to make a lot of ‘Bird is the Word’ references and link to things like this:

          If his nickname isn’t Surfin’ Bird by the end of the day, you have all failed.

• Our fast bowling depth is looking super strong as we head towards the Ashes. Now if we can just get everyone fit at the same time and figure out our top order, we will be in business. Not to mention, everyone seems to be in agreement that Clarke and Hussey need to move up the order. Some say Clarke should be in at first drop, I could live with him batting at 4, Hussey at 5 and Watson at 6. But I think we can all agree that 5 and 6 for Clarke and Hussey is too low. Agreed? Agreed.

• Supporting the New York Giants in the NFL is a frustrating experience. On one hand they win two Super Bowls in the space of five years. On the other hand they have historic collapses like they did this season, where they not only lost form, but played like they had just met or even learnt the rules of the game. I told my dad not to count his chickens when the team had a three game lead halfway through the season and sometimes I actually hate being right. They are frustrating but not nearly as frustrating as….

• Liverpool. Oh my Liverpool. I really don’t want to rant about everything I would change about my beloved Reds, although I might in another piece, but seriously if I start drinking again, I’m blaming Liverpool.

• I miss ice hockey. I even got a new Bruins jersey for my birthday and it just makes me sad looking at it when the league is having yet another lockout. Gary Bettman is the opposite of Batman. It’s also unfortunate that his name is so close to being Batman.

• So much is being made of all the Los Angeles Lakers struggles until their recent winning streak and return of Steve Nash, but not enough is being made of the fact that Dwight Howard really isn’t 7’ tall. I don’t know how I only noticed this once he got to the Lakers and not when he was at Orlando, but seeing him stand next to Kobe and Pau makes me realise the guy is 6’9” tops. He looks 2-3 inches taller than Kobe and about 4 inches shorter than Pau. Did the back injury make his spine get shorter or was he always this way? Yes, I know this was touched on in a BS Report podcast, but seriously this should be a bigger deal.

• The LA Clippers on the other hand are ridiculously good right now and a huge part of that is their 6^th man Jamal Crawford. Sure that isn’t a big surprise given his history as a great 6^th man, however it’s interesting that he admitted that this offseason was the first time he actually worked on his game and practiced shooting. Now he is having probably the best season of his career and it makes me wonder how good he could have been if he had that Kobe-level competitiveness in the first place. Either way, he is fun to follow on Twitter.

• Did you know that Boxing Day was Jared Leto’s birthday (and technically still is in the US)? Who cares you ask? More importantly, did you realise that the actor and lead singer of an emo band with a largely teenage fan base just turned 41? I wonder how many 30 Seconds to Mars fans realise the lead singer is easily old enough to be their dad and in some cases, probably older than their actual dads.

• You know who else is 41? Brad Friedel. He just signed an extension at Tottenham for a couple more years, most likely to remain as backup to Hugo Lloris in goal and I really want to see a keeper try and push 50 at a high level. Peter Shilton got to 47 and there are probably others who did it too, but with modern training and understanding of how to prolong careers, how cool would it be to see an actual 50 year old playing high level football?

I’ve recently started getting more and more suggestions on things to write about and things people would like my thoughts on. If you have ideas for a Back Sage piece, I’d be happy to hear from you.

Happy New Year!

What's Wrong with Arsenal?

Arsene Wenger

A friend of mine who supports Arsenal recently suggested to me to write about the struggles the Gunners are going through and whether the club should bid adieu to Arsene Wenger. Most of the Arsenal fans I know and most of the stuff I’ve seen online, suggests that more and more Arsenal fans are ready for Wenger to leave and to start the next generation, despite the fact that Wenger has had so much success at the club in his long reign.

As a neutral observer, it’s an issue I’ve been back and forth on because I always respected the way Wenger was able to develop talent and always keep his team competitive without spending the same amount as other top teams. However the recent form (not including their most recent 5-2 victory) has really made it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the current setup.

Arsenal has certainly had some hits and misses in their transfer activity in recent years, but the same can be said for all the teams fighting for Champions League spots. The problem is for clubs like Arsenal, as well as Liverpool and Tottenham etc. is that they can’t just continue to buy their way out of trouble the way Man City and Chelsea do. When money turns out to have been wasted on guys like Marouane Chamakh, it is money that now can’t be spent on someone else.

Historically the way Arsenal avoided this problem was they were better than anyone at finding young talent around the world, usually from France or Africa, and then developing them into world class players. Yes they still have Jack Wilshere and others, but the depth of talent coming through simply isn’t there anymore. The reason for this is that the rest of the clubs in the Premier League and around Europe have caught up in terms of scouting and Wenger can’t get the hidden gems he used to for such minimal fees. Buying young players is still a valuable strategy, but the prices are now inflated even for youngsters and it can only work in conjunction with a broader transfer strategy.

Another issue is that Arsenal under Wenger have always had to play this great to watch style and end up passing the ball into the net after breaking down the defence. For this reason I’ve always loved watching their games, but realistically it’s not a strategy that will always work. There seems to be very little Plan B when they can’t break down a defence. Not every team can be Barcelona and when the talent isn’t quite what it used to be, the tactics need to adapt. Nowadays the game adapts and changes year to year, if not even in the middle of a season and if a manager gets too stubborn, it can undo a lot of hard work.

One manager will try something new and it works and very quickly everyone is copying it. Eventually someone else figures out how to beat that tactic or formation and everyone adapts again. Wenger still wants Arsenal to be the team that went undefeated in 2003-04, but in all modern sport it is ‘adapt or die’.

For that reason I think it’s time for Wenger to move on from a club that he returned to glory. That being said, if I were the owner of another lower EPL team looking for a new manager, I’d show up to his door with a truck full of cash trying to entice him to do it all over again.

The Billionaire Blues

Nathan Tinkler wondering what happened

It was not long ago that I wrote about the freak out Rabbitohs fans were having when Russell Crowe announced he would give up his ownership share after 2013. Today Newcastle fans in both rugby league and soccer (I’d say football but in this context that would complicate things) must be having a heart attack after reports came out that the ATO are looking to wind up Nathan Tinkler’s assets, including of course the two Newcastle football teams.

Obviously this is huge cause for concern for Novocastrians as whilst private ownership can be a huge advantage in sport, the downside is situations like this. League’s typically go through rigorous procedures to approve of potential owners before allowing them to buy teams, but I don’t think either the A-League or the NRL even considered Nathan Tinkler going broke.

Unfortunately this story isn’t all that surprising. There are many stories of people getting rich quickly and blowing it. Often those stories come from things like lottery winners, however sometimes it happens to people who actually earn the money through business ventures.

The Tinkler situation reminds me of the Eddy Groves situation that occurred with the old Brisbane Bullets in the NBL. Eddy, if you remember, was the founder of ABC Learning Centres and was fast becoming one of the richest men in Australia. He was expanding his business overseas and looked on top of the world. Eddy bought the Brisbane Bullets and the NBL thought it not only now had a rich owner of a team, but even maybe the Frank Lowy style benefactor the league needed. However Groves, much like Tinkler, got ahead of himself, overextended his business interests and the good times didn’t keep on rolling.

Sometimes the mentality it takes to make the fortune in the first place is the same mentality that eventually tears it down.

Of course representatives of Tinkler claim the bills will be paid and all will be well, but few people at this stage believe them. Whether the Newcastle teams go the way of the Bullets will not just be a function of the owner’s finances, but also the finances and strategy of the league as a whole. The NBL were in no position to save the Bullets and could do little but watch the team go under, however the NRL is certainly not in that same position.

The NRL is sitting on the goldmine that is the new TV deal and I doubt they will want the Newcastle market to go under. Whilst it’s not a huge city, it’s a city that is passionate about rugby league and they always have good crowd numbers and merchandise sales. It’s also a hotbed for up and coming talent. Whilst we can’t know yet how it will play out, I think if required the NRL will step in and save the Knights, much like the NBA did with the New Orleans Hornets until they found a new owner for them.

The A-League on the other hand might not do the same for the Jets however. They too just received a shiny new TV deal which they are delighted with, but it isn’t in the same ballpark as the NRL deal and I think they will do everything they can to find a new owner for the Jets, but won’t be willing or able to foot the bill themselves if required.

If the Jets went under it would be a real shame as Newcastle has embraced the team and their local rivalry with Central Coast is something the A-League has over other sports.

A year from now I doubt Nathan Tinkler will still be the owner of either team, but whether those teams still exist at all, at least in Newcastle, is a story we will have to watch unfold.

Come in Spinner

Will Warney answer the call?

Australian cricket may soon see the comeback of the greatest spin bowler ever and one of the greatest players ever in Shane Warne. Of course Warney has been around the Twenty20 circuit but he is long retired from the long form of the game and is 43 years old. The thing is if he came back he would be not only the best spinner we have, but probably add a lot of value helping Michael Clarke as a sort of de-facto captain.

When Warne retired from Test cricket it became clear that he was the man doing a lot of the field setting and such, as without him Ricky Ponting’s flaws as a captain became more and more apparent. Ignoring the bowling benefits, simply having Warne field in the slips and mentoring Clarke may very well improve his captaining skills.

Of course the biggest benefit would be the return of a legendary bowler. Whilst we would obviously need to see how he went at club and/or state level first (from both a form and a selection policy perspective), I think most people suspect Warne would quickly become our leading spin option. Despite his age, his bowling style is one conducive to longevity in terms of his short run up, not to mention Warne looks to be and by all accounts is in the best shape of his life.

Whether that translates on the pitch is another story, but I’d love to see him try.

This raises a bigger question though. What does it say about Australian cricket at the moment that most people, including the current captain of the team, expect a retired 43 year old player to be able to easily get back into the team should he so choose?

Nathan Lyon is not a bad bowler by any means, but at this point doesn’t seem like a world class spinner either. There were some definite positive signs from our bowling attack in the South Africa series and we played the Third Test with an entirely new fast bowling attack. Assuming they can get and stay fit, James Pattinson and Pat Cummins, along with Mitchell Starc and Peter Siddle could form a dynamic fast bowling core. That’s not to mention Ben Hilfenhaus, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson and others like Doug Bollinger.

The spin option however still seems to be a bit of a concern. Michael Clarke says that Warne would be a great mentor for Nathan Lyon and that is definitely true, but it shows little faith in Lyon’s current ability to drop him for a retired guy. How long is Warne expected to play for if he returns? Simply for the Ashes and then leave again?

It actually surprises me that Australia is struggling so much to find a spinner these days. I remember during Warne’s heyday every kid wanted to copy him and become a spinner. Much like how so many kids wanted to be Michael Jordan in the USA (hell it was considered a problem in American basketball that too many kids were trying to play ‘Like Mike’), kids here wanted to be Shane Warne, so I would have thought there would be more spin options than before if anything.

Sadly that’s not the case. Nathan Lyon is a good bowler but not a great one and is not being challenged and pushed by any of the other spinners going around at state level. Therefore we turn back the clock and hope Warne’s return will at least provide a stop-gap until Lyon or someone else is ready to be the world class spinner we need.

It’s a prospect to both drool over and consider an indictment of the current state of affairs, but as long as we get to see Warney roll the arm over again I’m all for it.

Safety Hurts

Jovan Belcher playing for the Chiefs

By now I imagine many of you, sports fans or not, have read about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdering his girlfriend and mother of his child and then driving to his team’s practice facility, before shooting himself in front of his coach and general manager. I cannot pretend to know why he did this and whether or not there was some sort of medical cause, but what I do know is that questions are being asked about whether or not he may have been suffering from any concussion related mental issues.

I am sure we will learn more once an autopsy is performed, but the fact that the question surrounding concussions is being asked legitimately proves in-and-of-itself that any time something bad happens to a current or former player, the question of brain damage is going to come up and deservedly so. We have enough evidence already about the impact concussions have and we also have enough evidence about just how common they are in American football at all levels of the game.

At the same time, the NRL here in Australia has banned the shoulder charge, which when performed correctly makes no contact with the head, however due to how often it goes wrong and head contact is made, the league has acted on it. The response has been near unanimous in disapproval. However, one must wonder if it’s situations like what is happening in the USA that is the actual cause behind the decision taken to ban the shoulder charge. Clearly everyone agrees now that concussions are probably the most serious regular injury suffered in contact sport, but we don’t like when rules are changed based on that fact.

The problem with the rule change though is that there simply isn’t a history in rugby league of brain damage as there is in gridiron. The cases of depression, memory loss, suicide and other problems regularly facing retired NFL players simply isn’t happening here to the same level. Four Corners on the ABC had a story on the impact concussions are having in Australian sport, so clearly there is a precedent for it here too; however it really seems to occur en masse in the USA. Yes we want to cut out concussions, but there isn’t evidence to suggest the shoulder charge specifically is a massive problem causing serious long term issues. After all, most of the research suggests the high impact, memorable concussion incidents that we usually think of aren’t actually the ones causing all the problems, but rather it’s the small, more regular impacts occurring between American football linemen that is the bigger issue.

Now some people may wonder why head injuries are so much more prevalent in the American game where players wear so much padding and helmets and of course are involved in so many fewer plays across the course of a game. Shouldn’t games like rugby or rugby league, which seems so barbaric to many in the USA, be dealing with as many if not more of these problems?

But the answer is no and I think I know why.

It’s the helmets themselves. American football players feel protected due to their padding and helmets and are trained to use them as weapons. Obviously recent rule changes are trying to crack down on this, but it still happens all the time and the players are killing themselves by doing it. It’s counter-intuitive.

I genuinely believe that if you had American football played without the pads and with only rugby headgear or even the old leather helmets the NFL players wore 100 years ago, you would see a drastic change instantly. Yes it would change the game itself quite a lot. Player’s instincts are currently a certain way and they would have to very quickly have to adjust, but I think it would happen a lot quicker than it is right now, where they change the rules to punish guys for doing what they have been taught to do since childhood.

I would love to see a one-off game of American football played in this manner. I can’t imagine it ever happening and if anything I feel like they will bring in more protection with new and improved technology. But honestly, they might just be doing more harm than good.

What is certain is that the game is changing and will continue to change as they try and solve this problem. The question really is though, what is causing the problem?