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.