The Ashes are here!

[mog]

Originally Posted by Beery

Hmm. I thought sportsmanship and fair play were particularly Australian character traits - or at least it's part of your national myth that they are. I thought you prided yourselves on such things. I guess it just goes to prove that national myths and reality coincide infrequently. But is winning at any cost really winning? I'm not so sure.

I think perhaps Australian sportsmanship was always predicated upon the notion that we could afford to be good sports because at the very least we could always count on beating England. Since we have lost the union and now the Ashes, our whole national identity is going arse over tit.

[Damo1977]

Originally Posted by mog

I think perhaps Australian sportsmanship was always predicated upon the notion that we could afford to be good sports because at the very least we could always count on beating England. Since we have lost the union and now the Ashes, our whole national identity is going arse over tit.

:hmm: What is Union? we have AFL and 'wogball' sorry fussball, mean football (had to be politically incorrect) here in Adelaide or nothing....Geez all my fellow Aussies pandering to the English, what is going on?

Remember Steve Waugh (my mentor)


what it says

ACCOUNTABILITY
When you make a mistake there are one of three things you should ever do about it.
1. Admit it
2. Learn from it
3. Don't repeat it

[mog]

Originally Posted by Damo1977

:hmm: What is Union? we have AFL and 'wogball' sorry fussball, mean football (had to be politically incorrect) here in Adelaide or nothing....Geez all my fellow Aussies pandering to the English, what is going on?

Just taking the p*ss, there's nothing unsportsmanlike about pointing out that we are still #1 on the official rankings. Union = Rugby Union. You're probably more familiar with Rugby League; Union is the version of rugby played at private schools and followed by lawyers and the like.

[Lamarck]

Originally Posted by mog

True to a large extent, especially regarding Ponting being tactically outclassed, but one look at Australia's results against Bangladesh and various county sides suggests there was more to the Ashes loss than England's game.

I don't have the figures in front of me, but I seem to remember the Aussies scoring pretty freely against the county sides between tests. Yet the same batsmen scoring centuries there couldn't reproduce it in the Tests.

It'll be interesting to see how well the they do against the World XI. They'll be burning to put in a good performance. The World XI will be stronger on paper than England, but they won't have anything like the same team spirit or tactical focus.

England had it really worked out how to bowl to the key batsmen. Even in the last test when Langer and Hayden both scored centuries the scoring rate was much slower than the Aussies needed to build up the momentum they're used to. Perhaps Freddie will pass enough of the tactics on.

[Damo1977]

Originally Posted by mog

Just taking the p*ss, there's nothing unsportsmanlike about pointing out that we are still #1 on the official rankings. Union = Rugby Union. You're probably more familiar with Rugby League; Union is the version of rugby played at private schools and followed by lawyers and the like.

No worries Mog, me was joking too about Union. Don't really know much about the 2 Rugby codes, but I am more familiar with I think Union (the one with hardly any stoppages). Anyhow as a Port Power supporter, must say congratulations on Sydney winning the AFL premiership.