One Summer...

EVERY so often people get excited.

This can be a blessing and a curse. We all need a little excitement in our lives lest we all end up comparing sweaters becomes the height of our social lives; likewise too much excitement could have you ending up the same way as "I'm excited" Big Kev.

Last Ashes series in Australia was a case in point. Having been in the UK for the first time ever in 2005 and watching the excitement around the country grow as England did better and better, everyone was hoping - nay, expecting - more of the same.

Until this.

Australia won that series 5-0 (only the second time that has happened; the first was after the horrors of World War I), but lost two of their greatest bowlers in Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath after the Fifth Test. As such, a rebuilding Australian side in 2009 matched the 2005 team in losing 2-1, despite having England on the ropes in the First Test.

Eighteen months have passed, with Australian seemingly still rebuilding. Injuries to first-choice bowlers Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle - and backups Ryan Harris and Doug Bollinger - have meant that Australia's pace attack has been unsettled. Mitchell Johnson, the one constant, has been like the girl with curl - when he's good he's great, when he's bad he's woeful (yet still somehow takes wickets). The spinner's spot has been even more unsettled, with first choice Nathan Hauritz rarely in most pundits first XI.

Compare this to England's (and Wales' if we're going to be honest) bowling attack. Two tall seamers in Stuart Broad and Steve Finn, a swinger in Jimmy Anderson, and a canny spinner in Graeme Swann give the English attack a balanced line-up that should thrive on the bouncy Australian wickets.

The batting for both sides is problematic though. Australia's top order of Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke are solid, although the middle order of Michael Hussey, Marcus North and Brad Haddin seem to follow each other to and from the pavilion like lemmings of a cliff. Likewise for all the undoubted skill of Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell, batsmen Alastair Cook, Paul Collingwood and the relatively untested Eoin Morgan will be targeted by the Australians for some low scores.

That's without mentioning England's record in Australia - no series wins since 1986/87. In fact, they haven't even won a live match in that time. Australia had been unbeatable at home from 1991/92 until 2008/09, when they lost a three-match series against South Africa.

All this is befitting of a series between the teams ranked four (England and Wales) and five (Australia) in the world... and yet to just label it as that would be selling it short. This is the Ashes after all.

And I'm excited.

After the Storm...

CHEAT.
It’s not a word you throw around lightly. To be branded a cheat is one of the worst insults possible; acknowledgement by your peers that you deliberately broke the rules to win.
Cheat.
Ordinarily in sport the word cheat is used to describe athletes who take illegal substances to help them win. It’s also used to describe organisations that break the rules to help them win.
Cheat.
Ben Johnson was a cheat. Marion Jones was a cheat.
The Melbourne Storm for the last five years? Cheats.
Cheats that paid their players around $1.7 million above the salary cap over the last five years.
For rugby league fans it’s the ultimate shock. The Melbourne Storm, grand final winners in 2007 and 2009, minor premiers between 2006 and 2009, a club that let go players like Israel Falau, Michael Crocker and ??, but could still boast superstars Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis while tapping into a talent feed that was the envy of the National Rugby League (NRL).
How did they keep finding this talent? Some muttered darkly about how the Storm are owned by News Limited, the Rupert Murdoch’s multi-national behemoth that helped tear rugby league apart in the mid-1990s. They seemed to think that having one of the game’s part-owners as their owners meant they were getting some kind of a helping hand. The more fair-minded – yours truly included – felt that instead of trying to drag the Storm down, other clubs should be trying to lift their games.
Ha.
Today’s news took News – and the rest of us – by surprise. News Limited chairman John Hartigan was scathing in his condemnation of Storm management, as well he might be. The Storm were stripped of their two latest premierships (they won their first in 1999 – just their second season), their last four minor premierships and all their 2010 competition points; they will not receive any more competition points for 2010 no matter how many games they win; they must pay back around $1.1 million in prizemoney as well as pay another $500,000 in fines; not to mention the troubles they will have in the future in trying to keep their current stars and recruit new ones.
The penalty is without precedent in Australian sport, although the NRL has come down harshly on teams breaking the salary cap. In 2002 the club had 37 points taken from them after the NRL had found they had systematically rorted the salary cap. The Bulldogs were able to come back from this setback to win the 2004 competition after negotiating with its multitude of star players. The Warriors were docked four points in 2006 for smaller salary cap rorts, while Canberra Raiders fans must still be thankful a different administration was in charge in 1991 when their salary cap rorts from their premiership-winning team in 1990 were uncovered – they were allowed to keep playing and only fell short to an inspired Penrith Panthers team in the grand final.

SO what for the future of the Melbourne Storm and their players?
For the players there isn't much left to play for - except a representative jersey. Expect the Storm's stars to lift their games in the lead-up to the Test against New Zealand, and again before State of Origin as they aim to win the only competitions available to them. Also keep an eye out for some seriously attacking football from them as well - it's not like they have anything to lose now, is it?
To survive, the club will need to take a leaf from the Bulldogs' book - but not the NRL's version. In the latest Inside Sport magazine is an article explaining how the Australian Football League's (AFL's) Western Bulldogs have taken the lead in the local community, with players making many trips out to local schools and sporting organisations to try and build grassroots support - something akin to convincing Eskimos about the wonders of snow. The only way the Storm will survive - and eventually thrive - is to take the opportunity now given to them and go out in a massive effort to build up some grassroots support again. They need to go out to schools, community organisations and local rugby league clubs and try and repair the damage an idiot few have done to their cause.
It may not work - it may even end up the proverbial selling of ice to Eskimos - but it would seem their only chance to survive.

What A Feeling...

HAVE you ever had it?

You know what I'm talking about: that feeling of sheer exhilaration; that knowledge that you've just experienced something very few others have.

I still remember the first time I had that feeling. Ok, so I shared it with a few million other people, but how can any born-and-bred Queenslander forget where they were when big Carl Rackemann took the catch that finally won Queensland their first Sheffield Shield?!? Granted, it was the first time Queensland had actually hosted a Shield final, but given the previous 60-odd years of heartbreak, who could blame a whole state going into a mass state of ecstasy when we finally won the bloody thing?

Likewise that fateful night in 2005 when the Australian men's soccer team (the Socceroos) took on Uruguay in the final match of the World Cup qualifiers. Australia hadn't appeared in a men's World Cup since 1974 and had a mountain to climb, being down 1-0 after the first leg in Montevideo.

Living in the tourist town of Port Douglas didn't necessarily mean there were any spare seats in the pubs that night; I ended up heading out to the last pub on Macrossan Street, parking my beer at a table where an English gent told me the last time he'd been to Australia was when they last qualified.

Omens, right?

I don't remember much of when John Aloisi scored the winning penalty, other than to say I was radiating love and affection in every direction - and I certainly wasn't the only one!

Which brings me nicely to an average suburban house north of Brisbane on February 19. A mate had texted through a message of support (surprising because I actually cannot remember the last time said mate had ever supported an Australian athlete) for Cooma's own Torah Bright.

When I first moved to Cooma the talk was of this girl who had the potential to be a world and/or Olympic champion. This was naturally a big thing for a town of around 8000 people.

Having met and interviewed Torah while in Cooma, it was with great interest I tuned into the women's snowboarding. That, and the text message had woken me up.

After sitting through the semi-finals, it was onto the final, where Torah's first-placed qualification meant she could watch what everyone else had done and lay down a good initial run.

That was the plan: two missed landings later and Torah was sitting 11th rather than 1st.

This meant she was the first out on the second run, knowing that any mistake would literally wipe out any plans she had for an Olympic medal.

Now I don't profess to know much about winter sports (I'm from Queensland, not very well known for snow or cold or anything like that really), but at the end of Torah's second run I - and many, many others around the country - were doing fist pumps and hoping like hell the judge's trained eyes saw what our untrained ones did.

They did.

Now it was the simple matter of watching 10 of the world's best snowboarders try beat 45/50. While the other 21 million Australians scattered around the world turned fingernails into chewing gum, Torah was at ease, knowing she had done her best.

Every rider that crashed out brought a big sigh of relief; every clean run was analysed for any faults that may drop the score below 45.0.

When Hannah Teter finished the final run, all looked to the scoreboard to confirm Torah's - and Cooma's - first ever Olympic gold medal.

In a sport most knew little about before February 19, 2010, millions had it.

You know what I'm talking about: that feeling of sheer exhilaration; that knowledge that you've just experienced something very few others have.

I know I did.