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Sport: The Australian Disease - sportingaustralia.com

The Olympics minus the bad bits

March 24th 2012 05:51

Photo: Erik van Leeuwen, www.erki.nl

How much better would the Olympics be if we knew no one was cheating?

A shrewd idea to help clean up the Olympics has been proposed by an economics lecturer at La Trobe University. But more on that later.

Anybody who loves sport cannot fail to be stirred by the Olympics. To love sport is to be seduced by its drama and beauty – and the Olympics epitomises both.

It is extraordinary theatre to watch the best of the best. Their years of sacrifice end in remarkable wins, heartbreaking losses, personal bests and inexplicable failures. We feel their joy and pain because we understand something of what they have endured to make it that far.

That is why we are moved when an athlete produces a performance that appears to be superhuman. It is not hyperbole to say that this is the best of the best of the best. There are seven billion people in the world, but here is one who has combined God-given talent with years of training to stand above us all. Those who love sport understand the significance of such achievements and are duly moved.

Hundreds of millions of people would still be moved by the memory of one historic moment from Beijing 2008.

It was not the moment Usain Bolt left the blocks or drew level with his rivals or nudged ahead of them. It was what came next – a display of such astonishing acceleration that he was able to leave the world’s greatest sprinters in his wake and finish in a world record 9.69 seconds, despite slowing down near the end.

It was dramatic. It was beautiful. We felt privileged to watch it.

But an unpleasant feeling would have gnawed inside most of us. It was dramatic, it was beautiful – but was it legal? Could anybody perform at such stratospheric levels and remain within the rules? And what about when he further lowered the record to 9.58 seconds a year later?

We were moved by Carl Lewis’ remarkable feats. He turned out to be a drug cheat. We were moved by Marion Jones’ remarkable feats. She turned out to be a drug cheat.

Most viewers would have tried to block out such uncomfortable thoughts as they watched Bolt record his historic win, but few would have succeeded.

That is why all reasonable steps must be taken to clean up the Olympics. Cheating can never be eliminated, but if fewer athletes do it and a higher percentage of those who do are caught, we will all feel better about the Olympics and performances like Bolt’s.

Enter Liam Lenten from La Trobe University. He has an economics solution to a sporting problem.

He told The Australian that athletes should put a percentage of their prizemoney and endorsements into superannuation-type funds. The clean ones would get access to their fund when they retired; the cheats would not. It would make all athletes think twice about cheating, especially those who decided to turn to drugs late in their careers when they had relatively little to lose from a positive test.

Here’s another suggestion: any Australian athlete caught doping should have to pay back every cent of government assistance they had ever received. Our taxes are meant to be subsidising their training, not their injecting.

Anybody wondering how much more we might enjoy the Olympics if we regarded it less cynically should think about Makybe Diva and Black Caviar.

Racing has always had its share of ‘colourful identities’, but despite the Fine Cotton scandal and countless other acts of corruption, few think dark thoughts when they witness extraordinary feats on the racetrack.

Watching Makybe Diva win her third consecutive Melbourne Cup had all the drama and beauty that we love about the Olympics. Only a remarkable athlete could have carried so much weight and still found a way to win such a competitive race. It was a privilege to watch.

The same can be said of Black Caviar and her 19-race winning streak. The horse gallops along unremarkably in the pack, until, with 200 or 300 metres to go, she unleashes that once-in-a-generation display of acceleration and speed. It is a privilege to watch such a superlative athlete.

Makybe Diva and Black Caviar have given us only drama and beauty. We haven’t wondered ‘what if’. We have just watched, admired and felt privileged.

How much better would the Olympics be if we knew no one was cheating?

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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Other sports

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Little Aussie battler

January 29th 2012 14:41

Photo: Charlie Whelton

Hail Novak Djokovic, by all means. But hail Lleyton Hewitt while you’re at it.

One of the things that made the 2012 Australian Open fascinating was how thoroughly it exposed Hewitt. All aspects of his personality and ability were on full display.

No longer did anyone have to play the detective to work this complex character out – searching for clues from one tournament and combining it with evidence from another to piece together the Hewitt puzzle.

Different Hewitts had been revealed over the years – Hewitt the winner, Hewitt the loser, Hewitt the strong, Hewitt the weak, Hewitt the hero, Hewitt the villain.

This time, with everything exposed, a full and accurate assessment of Hewitt could be made.

What it showed was that the positives far outweighed the negatives.

First, to his personality. Hewitt haters would recoil at the thought, but the man is no monster. Accusations of racism in that famous US Open match against James Blake were always fanciful. Still, there have been many times in his career in which he has crossed the line from fierce competitor to bad sport. Such ugly incidents, while not excusable, were easily explained as the actions of someone desperate to win.

That is a part of Hewitt, but only a small part. Those who know him have often remarked on how calm and contemplative he becomes when off the court. He showed that once his Australian Open ended with a fourth-round loss to Djokovic. Immediately after, he praised his conqueror – something Hewitt haters might be surprised to learn he has made a habit of throughout his career. In the days following, he leant a friendly and astute presence to the Channel Seven commentary box, again praising Djokovic, while also lauding other stars, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who had gotten the better of him over the years.

The real way to judge a tennis player, though, is by his tennis. What Hewitt has been striving all these years to win are tournaments, not sainthood. How convenient, then, that this year’s Australian Open should have been a microcosm of his career. He played good tennis, he played bad tennis, he overcame injury, he launched fightbacks, he had stirring wins and, ultimately, he lost.

What all the ups and downs confirmed is that Hewitt has only ever been a player of middling talent. That might sound like an insult, but it is actually the greatest compliment he could be paid. Middling talents don’t win grand slams. But he has somehow won two.

Hewitt’s golden run at the turn of the century owed much to good timing – Sampras and Agassi were on the way out and Federer and Nadal had yet to emerge. He was also blessed with the robustness of youth; the continuous injuries that have devastated the second half of his career only arrived after his last grand slam final, the 2005 Australian Open loss to Marat Safin.

Another reason for Hewitt’s success was his skill at working the percentages. He didn’t so much outplay his opponents as outlast them. Keep getting the ball back and eventually the other bloke will make a mistake.

But that approach no longer works. Back then, he was fast enough and determined enough to seemingly chase down every ball, which helped conceal the fact he had a weak serve, a non-existent net game and only above average ground strokes. These days, the mind is willing but the flesh is weak. He can no longer chase all those balls down and his shots seem to be landing further and further inside the service line with every passing year.

The other problem is that his rivals worked him out long ago. They now understand he was the ultimate poker player – all bluff and no cards. Fearful of getting into long rallies with him – because he always seemed to have the skill to win them – they would force shots and lose the point. Eventually, though, it dawned on the rest of the tour that he was winning those rallies through tenacity, not skill. Why fear a player with a non-existent net game and only above average ground strokes? With that realisation, the other players called his bluff. They started bludgeoning shot after shot at him and Hewitt, his fitness and reflexes fading, found it increasingly difficult to get them back.

And so to this year’s Australian Open. Anyone else with Hewitt’s characteristics would have lost in the first round. His ranking was 181. His body was fragile. He had only played four lead-in matches for three losses and a win over China’s Wu Di.

He started with a creditable four-set win over Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. In the second round, he had come from behind to lead Andy Roddick two sets to one when the world number 16 retired. Then came a tough four-set win over rising star Milos Raonic.

That set up his showdown with Djokovic. The Serb blitzed the first two sets and strolled to a 3-0 lead in the first – just what one would expect from a match between someone filled with talent and another person only sprinkled with it.

The stage had been set for one hour of quintessential Hewitt.

He held serve to make it 1-3. A hard-earned break made it 2-3. At 4-4, he summoned all his willpower to overpower Djokovic – not with brilliance, but determination – and somehow break for a 5-4 lead. Serving for the set, he was placed under almighty pressure, before he struggled over the line. Nobody could explain it, but the set was his.

By the time it became 1-1 in the fourth, Hewitt was playing his best tennis in years. He was hitting the ball hard and deep and pushing Djokovic around the court. He had willed himself to this position. A break point arrived. For a fleeting moment, a win over the brilliant Serb seemed possible. Viewers all across Australia would have thought another improbable Hewitt fightback had begun.

But reality hit. Djokovic held serve. He then broke Hewitt. The Australian fought desperately to get back into the match – of course he did – but he couldn’t. He didn’t lack heart; he just lacked talent.

Hewitt had had no right to progress to the fourth round or steal a set off Djokovic – just as he had had no right to win the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, or fight his way to that Australian Open final in 2005.

If the 2012 Australian Open turns out to be the last time we see Hewitt play on local soil, we can say he has left us with fond memories. This was a player who was as inspirational in victory as he was in defeat. He never had the talent of a champion – but for a few glorious years, through sheer self-belief, he conned the tennis world into thinking he was one.

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

December 18th 2011 04:35

Brisbane Roar's superior system led them to a win over the Central Coast Mariners in last season's grand final. Photo: Geoff Auckland.

Now is not the time to panic for the Brisbane Roar.

Their record 36-game unbeaten run has given way to a losing streak that currently stands at four.

Thankfully, coach Ange Postecoglou is no Corporal Jones and is refusing to panic.

The key to Brisbane’s success in the last two seasons has been the system Postecoglou has created. It has made average players look good and good players look great. In other words, it has made the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

His system demands hard work, discipline, intelligence and teamwork – on and off the field.

During games, players are expected to create space, make runs and look for teammates. That means movement, movement, movement.

The philosophy is exemplified by the way defensive midfielder Erik Paartalu drops back to start attacks, fullbacks Ivan Franjic and Shane Stefanutto surge down the wings, midfielder Mitch Nichols buzzes around the hole and striker Besart Berisha darts between his markers.

And that’s just when Brisbane have the ball. When they don’t, the players quickly harry the opposition to win it back.

To learn and perfect the system required countless training sessions, because it meant unlearning old habits and painstakingly acquiring new ones.

Postecoglou deserves enormous credit for having had the foresight and courage to implement a system unique to Australian football.

He understood he had to go backwards before he could go forwards. That’s why he kicked out Brisbane’s core of recalcitrant veterans after replacing Frank Farina halfway through the 2009-10 season.

Few coaches would have had the nerve to dump Craig Moore, Danny Tiatto, Charlie Miller and Liam Reddy. Dumping the stars didn’t guarantee success; all it guaranteed was that the club would go backwards, at least in the short term, and put enormous pressure on Postecoglou. Coaching positions are difficult to attain yet he was prepared to risk his in pursuit of his vision.

The players that remained also deserve praise for being willing to open their minds and work hard, even when the results initially went against them.

Foresight and toil off the field produced scintillating and successful football on it. In just over a year, Postecoglou and co won the double, bagged a spot in the Asian Champions League and set an Australian professional sporting record that may never be broken.

All credit to the system.

Brisbane’s current losing streak doesn’t mean the system has broken. It is mainly due to some clever thinking from opposition coaches. It also owes something to Brisbane’s bad luck, loss of confidence and loss of form.

It would be tempting to say it was the Mariners that first made the Roar look fallible during several tough encounters late last season. However, that would only be half-right. They showed Brisbane were vulnerable against strong defending, thoughtful passing and incisive attacking – that is, quality football. But every team is. And no A-League side other than Brisbane is currently capable of playing that sort of football.

It was actually Gold Coast that really exposed Brisbane’s vulnerability – paradoxically, during a 3-0 loss in round three. To continue the paradox, Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg had the shrewdness to recognise that Brisbane’s irresistible attacking could be traced to the passing and movement of their defence. So to counter Roar’s attack from the back, he instructed his team to defend from the front.

Gold Coast pushed five strikers and midfielders forward to press Paartalu and the back four. Their energy and pressure made the Roar looked more vulnerable in possession than at any time during their unbeaten streak. But Brisbane’s composure proved telling. Recognising that they had an extra man in goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos, they were able to methodically – if riskily – pass their way out of trouble. Once Paartalu scored against the run of play in the 13th minute, confidence and energy drained from the Gold Coast, and the match was as good as over.

But where Bleiberg failed, Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka succeeded. He used the same pressing tactics to mastermind a 2-0 win and end the Roar’s unbeaten streak. Unlike Bleiberg, Lavicka had the luck go his way. Firstly, Dimitri Petratos’ goal in the opening minute gave Sydney confidence. Secondly, there was no Brisbane goal to drain their belief. Thirdly, the cool weather allowed them to keep pressing. Fourthly, the windy conditions affected the normally slick Roar passing.

Thanks to Bleiberg and Lavicka, A-League coaches now realise the way to beat Brisbane is to defend high up the pitch. They will pass and run you to death if given the chance; so better not to.

But that doesn’t mean Brisbane have suddenly become impotent. Even in their losses they have dominated possession. They still have an excellent system. It just needs refining.

Postecoglou made the first move. It took over a season for his rivals to respond. It is now Postecoglou’s move again. What he needs to do is not move away from his system but to further embrace it.

Enhanced pressure is making it harder and more time-consuming for Brisbane to play out of defence. However, long balls are not the answer. That will only lead to turnovers. Instead, Brisbane need to adopt even more short passing and running. Opposition teams can’t press high up the park without leaving space in midfield. So if Brisbane can eventually play their way into the middle of the park, they will find themselves with more openings than when teams parked the bus. Increased risks will produce increased rewards.

Brisbane may again have to go backwards to go forwards. If they continue trying to play out from the back in the face of ever increasing opposition pressure, they may go through a period during which they reguarly concede possession in dangerous areas, and subsequently cheap goals.

But the more they work on it – in training and during games – the better they will get at it. That will then spell even more danger for opposition teams than before, as they will have fewer defenders to combat Brisbane’s dynamic attack.

Don’t panic, Postecoglou. The system works and could make you the first coach to win consecutive A-League titles. That would be no more than you and your team deserve.

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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Football (Soccer)

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High-5ives not the answer

October 19th 2011 09:01

Credit: Jen mainly in Bangladesh

Welcome to the world of 5ives
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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Cricket

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Get Kewell!

August 19th 2011 08:19

Will Harry Kewell play in the A-League or won’t he?

Australian football desperately needs the answer to be yes – which is why the FFA needs to do everything in its power to make it happen

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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Football (Soccer)

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Money in sport – too much of a good thing

June 20th 2011 10:22

Photo: Vagawi

The latest salary cap scandal to hit Australian sport is a reminder of the value of salary caps and the importance of enforcing them

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The path forward for Australian cricket

April 22nd 2011 03:21

(Photo courtesy of Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5)

This is an important time in Australian cricket

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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Cricket

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What script has been written for our four star swimmers?

February 21st 2011 10:01

Can the sequel ever be as good as the original?

Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, Libby Trickett and Geoff Huegill will soon find out

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Posted By: Nick Bendel - Category: Other sports

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Back to the future for Sydney FC

December 29th 2010 13:49

Is Vitezslav Lavicka the new John Kosmina?

It seems an appropriate question given how much the Sydney FC of season six resembles the Sydney FC of season four – and how little the Sydney FC of season five

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Should they stay or should they go?

November 7th 2010 00:24

Do North Queensland Fury belong in the A-League or not?

If the conspiracy theorists are to be believed, the FFA have already decided to dump the Fury, but are waiting until after the 2022 World Cup vote has been held to announce the decision

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