Praying to sporting gods in 2012

Sorry Santa. This request for a bunch of presents goes to the gods of sport - Winnius, Loseus and the Great Draw.

The hard working team at Sports Grunt don't just want a bunch of gifts on one day. They need to be spread out over the 366 days of 2012.

And, yes, it is a leap year, so there are 24 extra hours of sporting joy to be had.

So you patron saints of the athlete's foot, answer these prayers for a bumper season in the New Year.

Here is our short list of wants.

They aren't too great and we don't expect all to be granted.

But a few would be nice.

WA soccer glory is for all

It has become a strong trend in this office on Monday mornings in summer.

With little or no AFL news - although those days are fewer as the league commands the spotlight with or without a ball being kicked - sports tragics need something else to talk about after the weekend.

In recent years the sports topic du jour during this period has been the English Premier League.

Today was no different.

As soon as a couple of features writers had been scanned through security, they were talking about David Silva's winning goal for Manchester City over Arsenal. Or they were discussing another touch of skill by Wayne Rooney.

And that is a problem for Australian soccer.

Gold pass eases life after AFL

It is one of the few times in the AFL that it was impossible to determine a winner.

In one corner were the league bosses. They were chest pumping and air punching after standing their ground in the protracted pay deal negotiations with the players' association.

The on-field talent wanted a fixed percentage of league income. They said for months they wouldn't accept anything less than 25-27 per cent.

But when the new arrangement was revealed that figure wasn't reached.

Yet it is impossible for the players not to be happy with what they will be receiving in their brown paper envelopes from next year.

Don't bash cricket's new direction

Sporting historians mark down December 16, 2012. From then Australian cricket will never be the same.
On that day the reincarnated Big Bash Twenty20 competition arrives on the sporting landscape.

Instead of State versus State, the new version of the century-old code will pit - and to unfortunately borrow a term from US sporting culture - franchise versus franchise.

There are plenty of crusty old cricket cronies who don't like the change. There is still some lingering resentment to the 50-over game among more seasoned watchers. Well then T20 must come from the devil.

Bowlers don't get rewarded for finding edges, batsmen swing like woodchoppers and fields have more holes than Chris Martin's defence. Teams are filled with players from all parts of the world.

Such methods must surely be having an impact on the longer form of the game. Maybe T20 is the reason why Australia's Test team is in a slump.

Too bad.

Foreign influx threatens local talent

It will be more than just a chance to roll the arm over and get the eye in.

Should Paul Collingwood be rushed into WA's one-day team on Saturday it will be a defining moment for the abridged format on this side of the wide brown land.

There is no doubt about the popularity of the Twenty20 game. Yet the new version has a gun-for-hire attitude about it. Composite teams have been accepted almost since the first match. Such selections have suited the entertainment-at-all-costs attitude of 20-over cricket.

But to use an official one-day match involving a State side as little more than an opportunity for an import to get match practice for a cricket carnival degrades the 50-over game almost to the point of irrelevancy.

The Ryobi Cup is in danger of becoming simply a warm-up before the "speed cricket" starts.

WA might be better off not playing in the series after struggling in the first half of the season. The Warriors are without a point from five matches.

High cost on the baggy green

Any former Test players considering selling their baggy greens to fund their retirement should get in quick.

Where Southeby's would normally handle such a rare piece of sporting memorabilia, there are so many cheap Australian caps flooding the market that their future sales could be more suited to eBay.

Three more hats will be handed out on Thursday morning. It used to be unusual for one to be presented per series.

There is no doubt Australian cricket is struggling and combined with an increase in Test commitments, the value of what was once the most prized piece of sporting equipment in this country has been devalued.

Receiving a baggy green was a reward within itself. It was the prize for years of work and patience waiting for an opportunity.

And once you had it, no-one could take it from you. Even if sold (Don Bradman's cap fetched $425,000 at a 2003 auction) it will forever remain the spiritual property of the first wearer.

Steve Waugh held off replacing his dilapidated baggy green because it contained the smell, the feel, the essence of his Test career.

Now there is hardly the trace of a bead of sweat in some Australian players' hats.

Life after AFL for good old Subi

Good old Subiaco Oval, she has served WA football so well.

But, in what is well known to every AFL fan still picking splinters from their backside after surviving substandard seating at the venue marketers now want us to call Patersons Stadium, there isn't much life left in the old girl.

On a whim Premier Colin Barnett deemed Perth's new super multi-purpose venue - the next home of AFL football in the State - would be built at Burswood. It is easier to have a collect from Lotto than determining when the first ball will be kicked in Col's Bowl.

Yet, it is more likely that sooner rather than later Subiaco Oval will be retired.

So what do you do with an old sports ground with room for 43,000 people?

There isn't a Sunday market that has a grandstand stall. And unlike overseas sports that frequently explode old stadiums as they move to bigger, more modern, digs, Australia doesn't have a lot of experience with recycling redundant sports grounds.

The major stadia in Australia's big cities have been around for more than a century - MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval, Gabba, even our WACA Ground. They have undergone significant renovations but are mostly on the site they have occupied since the turf was first tossed to develop the venues.

The AFL's quickly-forgotten ground in Waverley is one example of a major coliseum put on the sporting scrapheap. Just 20 years ago VFL/AFL Park hosted a grand final. Today it features a new housing estate, although the playing ground and the main grandstand still exist as the training base for Hawthorn.

Neither the WA Football Commission nor the City of Subiaco has yet discussed what to do with the Subiaco Oval corpse once its lifeblood has disappeared.

Commission chief kicked key goals

The football merry-go-round has been in full swing over the past few weeks.

It almost seems there is a fixed pool of capable people at the higher levels of the game. And they jump from job to job. The names are the same, only the colours of their polo shirts change.

Yet there will be a significant figure missing from the top of the code next season. Not surprisingly, there has been little fanfare around his departure. Maybe if he worked for a club, not a State organisation, his legacy might be more prominent.

But it hasn't been Wayne Bradshaw's style to seek the limelight. And it is a trait that has served the local game so well for a decade.

When Bradshaw took over the reins of the WA Football Commission at the turn of the century the local industry was in great turmoil.

Changes test Freo fans' faith

Change is supposed to be as good as a holiday.

Maybe not if the vacation is actually a one-way trip to the AFL scrapheap.

The throw-out pile belonging to Fremantle is currently the biggest in the league.

In the space of 12 months, the club's famous - or possibly infamous - anchor logo, something of great pride to true port footy supporters, has been pulled and turned into what looks like an out-of-shape paper clip.

The original jumper, coloured in maritime starboard and port, has been sunk.

The unique theme song is also about to be swamped.

And now the coach, who just 12 months earlier had guided a rebuilt team into the finals, has been sent "down below".

It is an extraordinary transformation for any club. It is even more remarkable for one that has been operating just 17 seasons.

Australian sport's happy homecoming

For every winner there has to be a loser.

So whenever Australia celebrates the graduation of a locally-produced talent to a top overseas league there is also the lament that the athlete won't be showcasing their skills at home.

For our soccer and basketball - the two biggest participation sports on the planet - it has been a pleasant unpleasantry. While wonderful for the sport to have Australians starring abroad, their absence has had a detrimental effect on the codes at home.

It is tough for FFA and Basketball Australia to make the A-League and NBL more appealing when they know the competitions aren't the best going around. That task becomes more difficult when parts of the sporting marketplace perceive that even Australia's best aren't involved.

But over the past week the winds - probably more like a zephyr but movement at least - of change have blown through both competitions.

Tanks for nothing AFL

Integrity has been the AFL's buzz word for 2011.

After all, trust is an important element for any sport on a marketing drive.

If the punters think your competition is a bit dodgy - and with all apologies to WWE - then they are going to take their faith to another venue.

That is why the AFL was at pains to highlight the drop in positive drug tests earlier this season. The league wants to be considered one of cleanest competitions in the world. When it comes to players, no-one should have the unfair advantage.

In recent times, AFL House has made examples of those who have bet on matches. Remember, Sydney's Kieren Jack was reprimanded for placing two $5 wagers on matches not involving his Swans.

Only last year AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson said on sanctioning others for gambling on games, "'(The penalties) may seem in some cases to be more than people may expect, but you cannot underestimate the importance of protecting the integrity of our game."

There's that word again.

So it has been hard to reconcile that level of integrity with what happened in the AFL this week.

WAFL need to pick up their game

A lot of key football people have flown the flag for the WAFL over the past few months.

The league has been under siege. With the spectre of the two AFL clubs trying to muscle their way into the local competition and concerns about how they will be able to generate much-needed funds from a new stadium deal, the WAFL have needed a few mates to stand by them.

State clubs haven't been shy in trying to raise support for their causes, either.

For the time being, the WAFL's efforts at resisting the entry of West Coast and Fremantle reserves teams have been successful and - according to influential football identities - the integrity built over 126 years has been maintained.

But, in significant ways, the WAFL aren't keeping up their end of the bargain.

In their submission on the reserves teams the Eagles and Dockers played on the view that the WAFL was a competition in decay. Clubs were broke, supporter interest had waned, facilities were poor and unless there was a radical change in approach to its marketing the local league would soon be critically ill.

It prompted some important football stakeholders to step forward and protect a sporting structure they have supported for decades.

However, the WAFL have let the team down.

News, reviews and previews in WAFL

It's hard-hitting, news breaking, a little bit irreverent and very entertaining.

Let's WAFL, the State league's leading podcast, talks about all the big news from the 126-year-old competition.

Each week Online Sports Editor Ross Lewis and senior WAFL writer John Townsend, who have more than 50 years combined experience covering the league, will pick the topics of interest around the league and dissect them like only they can.

This isn't the old-time radio chat whereby commentators ramble on about team placements or game-day tactics. Let's WAFL takes a more in-depth approach to the big issues that affect the competition.

It is part of the thewest.com.au's comprehensive cover of the WAFL, so remember to stay with The West for all the latest news on the WAFL competition, including score updates and full match reports on game days.

Let's WAFL - Round 14, pt1

Let's WAFL - Round 14, pt2

These Cats are running out of lives

The excitement surrounding the return of football for 2011 overshadowed a very significant development in Melbourne’s AFL circles.

Last Thursday, Richmond unveiled the Fighting Tiger Fund. It is a scheme aimed at reducing a debt coach Damien Hardwick said had “crippled” the foundation club.

According to the Tigers they need $6 million and they require it by yesterday. They want $4.5 million to reduce debts and raise another $1.5 million to invest in the future of the club.

By way of investment, Hardwick suggested the cash could be used to pay players more or entice other club’s stars to Punt Road.

Richmond chief executive Brendan Gale painted a bleak picture concerning the club’s lack of cash.

“The brutal fact is, that right now, our debt position means we are unlikely to deliver the critical resources required to win premierships,” Gale said

Haven’t we heard all of this before from Tigerland? Indeed, the cash call has come more than once over the past 25 years. And the club has only got itself to blame. But it could also be the greatest obstacle in fixing the situation.

Tainted flags aren't black and white

Football is a team game. Matches can’t be won by individuals. However, a single person can greatly influence a contest.

It is all about the one percenters in the AFL and WAFL these days. Take the smother by Daniel Chick that set up West Coast’s match-winning goal in the 2006 grand final. And before that there was Leo Barry’s game-saving mark for Sydney in the previous premiership triumph.

When it comes to close matches – and the results of both of those big AFL days in September 2005 and 2006 were less than a kick – a single act can be the difference between elation and despair.

But what about if one of those significant efforts was produced by a player who has allegedly broken the rules to play?

It has become a trend in modern sport to talk about tainted premierships. Some have even suggested records should include an asterisk against particular champions because of the doubts about the condition of some of the personnel that were prominent in the success.

Victorian-based AFL critic Robert Walls wrote in The West Australian in 2007 that the Eagles’ premiership cup from the previous year was tainted because of the drug scandals, spearheaded by Ben Cousins, which had enveloped the WA club.

The same question was posed to Swan Districts this week following the revelation premiership player Travis Casserly had registered a positive drug test arising from last year’s WAFL grand final.

Shorter games are just not the same

Shame on you Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

How dare you put us through us through almost five hours of tennis at the Australian Open.

Don't you know that is the not the way sport is played nowadays.

Tense struggles that put athletes through an almost superhuman test of their physical, and mental, powers just isn't the go anymore.

If the administrators of the games we follow continue with current trends those enthralling battles of will and strength will be confined to the archives along with the black-and-white film footage of a bloke called Don Bradman.

Almost every sport around the world is looking for an abridged version of their code.

Fans the losers in private ownership

Tony Sage is the epitome of the passionate sports supporter.

Not only does Sage have an emotional investment in his beloved Perth Glory but he has made a financial one as well. A big one. We're talking huge bucks here. The kind of cash that is made through digging minerals from the WA dirt.

But while Sage has forked out an estimated $6 million to prop up WA's A-League team over the past three years, his side haven't been able to turn that support into success on the pitch.

Sage is an astute deal maker. He has negotiated with some of the shrewdest mining executives here and in Asia. He knows a bum offer when he sees one.

And what happens to WA's premier soccer team when Sage decides enough is enough? That day might be closer than you think, especially if the Glory can't rebound.

Social media becomes athletes' weapon

Socks, mouthguard, protector, shirt, towel and hat.

Now, the mobile phone has to be in the modern athlete’s kit bag.

The first batch of items is needed to play on the pitch, grass, court or oval. And the phone is crucial to playing a whole new ball game in post-match time.

Social media is the new plaything in world sport. But sportspeople aren’t just using Twitter and Facebook to send nice messages to friends. They’ve become a virtual world soapbox on which athletes are making a stand.

The past few days have highlighted the influence of Twitter and how athletes are using it to make a point to the world or push their own brand – or both. It has become a weapon for athletes because they don’t have to go through a middle man to get their point across – just type in 140 characters, point the phone and shoot.

Take Melbourne Tigers NBL player Corey “Homicide” Williams. Last week he and officials from the Perth Wildcats conducted a slanging match through Twitter.

Williams defaced a picture of a Wildcats player at Challenge Stadium following a practice session. Normally, such an issue would have been dealt with through the proper channels – or at least that would have been the sportspeak that clubs love to use when they make public a complaint without having to actually declare their rage.

Not this time.

Winds of cricket change could be draft

There is a strange sense of anguish about present-day Australian cricket

Defeat is tough. Losses against the team we hate more than any other in world sport are excruciating.

And considering we haven't lost an Ashes series at home since 1986-87 there are a lot of avid Australian cricket fans that don't know what it is like to watch first-hand their side cop it from the Poms. Enter a strange new world.

But it is from that generation that Australia wi ll draw on talent to turnaround their flagging fortunes.

Unfortunately, the cupboard is a little bare at the moment. Indeed, the Australian team has been playing on rations, too often from NSW, for too long. And the combination looks like a mishmash of leftovers.

The gumleaf mafia have put a price on the Test captain's head and the person set to fill his concrete shoes doesn't quite have the blessing of all the cricket mob. Other candidates are reluctant to come forward. One of the openers should be batting lower in the order, the No.6 batsman is a bowler and the nation's best spinner, whoever that may be this week, doesn't play at all.

So how can we fix Australian cricket? There needs  to be some winds of change and it could a draft.