Australia’s Will Power wins IndyCar season-opener

New season, same attitude.

Australia’s Will Power has won the Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St Petersburg, Florida, opening the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season in style. His twenty-second IndyCar victory surely sounds a warning bell to his fellow competitors that the #12 Penske Chevrolet will be a force in the championship race this year.

When you consider that Power, who suffered from a slow start to last year that basically put an end to his championship aspirations, won three of the final five races in 2013 (Sonoma, Houston and the season finale at Auto Club Speedway), you could make a solid point that it’s the Queenslander Power who is the hottest driver in the IndyCar paddock, not defending champion, New Zealand’s Scott Dixon.

There is a lot of optimism around the 2014 IndyCar Series. The new title sponsor, Verizon, comes in with a well-publicised desire to broaden the profile of America’s premiere open wheel racing series, has people getting very excited about the sport’s future. There are old faces returning to the series – Australia’s own Ryan Briscoe and former Indy 500 champion Juan Pablo Montoya – and exciting rookies the Colombian Carlos Munoz and Russian Mikhail Aleshin poised to mix it with veterans like Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves.

It would appear that the optimism has enthused Power, whose race on Sunday on the temporary street/airport circuit was one of his best. The tricky circuit, where there are concrete walls galore just waiting to punish even the slightest mistake, rewards clean and precise driving, and that was exactly what Power displayed on Sunday afternoon. His effort behind the wheel was matched by solid strategy from his Penske crew – what else is new?

Power took the lead from pole sitter, Japan’s Takuma Sato on 31, a brave move to the outside of turn one, where the track narrows from the runway first straight into a series of tight corners, and held his line into the second turn. It was a case of who blinked first, and it was Sato. We saw a typically brave move by Power, against a driver, in Sato, who’s known for his own bravery. Good driving allowed both to continue racing.

From there, Power was barely headed. Aside from an exchange of green-flag pit stops, he led the remaining laps, and took the checkered flag ahead of 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and Power’s own Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.

***

The race was caution-free for the most part, before Charlie Kimball nosed his Ganassi Honda into the tire wall at the bottom of the front straight. That resulted in a restart with 28 laps to run: the tipping point in what had previously been a well-driven, incident free race. There was plenty of passing and on-track action, just no carnage – a change from the myriad turn one moments we’ve seen in recent years.

On a restart with 28 laps to run, Power appeared to accelerate then slow up before the green flag was thrown, and a concertina affect ensued behind, with cars backing up quickly. Out of that melee, Marco Andretti and British rookie Jack Hawksworth crashed into the wall. It was perhaps a sign of the talent on show that a two-car accident didn’t become anything more, though that would be small comfort for the teams who now face the daunting task of rebuilding a race car in two weeks, before the next event.

It was a shame for Hawksworth. The newcomer, who has won Pro Mazda and Indy Lights races at St Petersburg in two consecutive years before graduating to the IndyCar Series, showed great speed through the middle portion of the race, driving for Bryan Herta Autosport. Based on his limited showing on Opening Day, he’s a guy to watch out for as he gains more experience through the season.

Marco Andretti, who flipped upside down on the first corner of the 2011 race, appeared to injure his elbow and perhaps his leg in the awkward contact. He was unimpressed with Power’s restart attempt, and told ESPN as much as they followed him down pit lane, eventually admitting that his car was ‘junk’ anyway. Gotta love Marco’s ability to cut through the usual clichéd racing talk and tell it how it really is.

Interestingly, both analysts in the booth blamed Power for not standing on the gas immediately. It’s strange to hear Scott Goodyear actually take a stand on anything in the booth. Normally, he tows the party line and tries to avoid jumping off the fence. Maybe he’s changing his ways. Finally.

With two weeks before the IndyCar circus reconvenes at another picturesque seaside destination, this one in Southern California, you can bet that the rest of the IndyCar community will have plenty of time to discuss the incident. Castroneves believes it was one of Power’s tricks, and Power himself vehemently denied brake-checking, and invited everyone to look at his data. 

I’m not completely sure what happened. I want to believe Power but the footage is a little incriminating.

***

Driving an IndyCar at St Petersburg for the first time, ex-Formula One and NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya found the going tough, finishing in fifteenth place. He wasn’t ever a factor at the pointy end, but anyone who thought he could jump into an open-cockpit car after so long driving NASCAR stock cars was crazy.

Obviously, it’ll take a few races for him to reacclimatise himself to this form of racing, and the physical pressures of not driving a closed-cockpit vehicle. I think he’ll be a factor later in the year. Watch for him at Indy. He’s won there before, in a Ganassi car in 2000, and is driving this time around for Roger Penske. If there’s one thing that the Captain knows more about than anyone else, it’s winning at Indy. Another Penske driver, Castroneves, is shooting for his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory this year.

***

With the first race of the year in the books, we look ahead to the next round of the season, and it’s the Indianapolis 500 of road racing, the fabled and iconic Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The race that revitalised the Southern California hotspot is back for it’s fortieth edition in front of what is sure to be a giant crowd.

Long Beach’s tough-to-tame street circuit is the one that every other temporary street circuit in the world – with the possible exception of Monaco – wants to be like. Many have tried, but none can quiet match that long front straight, the fountain turn and the final turn, that long, slow hairpin that brings cars back towards the start/finish line.

Drivers want to win at Long Beach almost as badly as they want to win at Indy. Takuma Sato scored a memorable victory a year ago, his first and the first for car owner A.J. Foyt. Can’t wait to see what unfolds on the SoCal streets this year!

Buddy Hell?

Alarm bells are certainly ringing for the Swans, who are staring down the barrel of a disastrous 0-3 start – which would be tough to come back from – ahead of a trip down to Adelaide to face the Crows on Saturday, but before you mistake the tone of my mood and of this piece, I’m going to make a bold statement:

Despite what the media will almost certainly report tomorrow, Monday and, most probably, throughout the rest of the week, the Swans 20-point loss to Collingwood at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night wasn’t Buddy Franklin’s fault.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Buddy was one of the better players in red and white. Although that isn’t saying much, based on the body of work the Swans produced tonight, it’s worth noting. Once, twice and maybe a third time, too. Buddy was pretty good. He kicked two timely goals, and toiled hard, double-teamed for most of the night, and with little support from his team mates. You know, Buddy did what he could. He was good.

I caught a look at Franklin at the full-time siren, and the look on his face said it all. Etched there was a mixture of frustration and hapless resignation. He knows that the reports aren’t going to be kind to him this week. Conversely, had the Swans won the game, then those bandwagon fans currently suggesting that he’s single-handedly responsible for the death of the Sydney Swans Football Club would be lauding his two nice goals and remarking about how much better he played this week.

That won’t matter to the media types. Listen closely…hear that sound? Yeah, that’s the Melbourne media sharpening their knives. They’ll be absolutely loving this, loving that Buddy, who apparently hated the suffocating fishbowl environment created by prying journalists enough that he wanted to head north to Sydney to escape it.

Of late, the Sydney media seems to have picked up on this Buddy bashing. He seems to be their favourite target. So much rumour and innuendo. Most of it coming from Melbourne journalists and their unnamed sources. It’s easy to shovel a steaming pile of you-know-what rumour and call it fact from sources that they can’t name. Even Buddy’s partner has been dragged into the firing line of late.

It’s getting to become disgraceful. Let’s get off the guy for his giant contract. He didn’t ask for such a figure – though you’d imagine he doesn’t hate getting paid what he’s getting paid. This was a decision made by the Swans. If you want to blame anyone, blame the recruiters for tabling that contract.

Though, I’d be waiting at least a few more weeks before doing that. This might yet turn out to work well. I’m not prepared to give up. Remember the last time the Swans started 0-2? No? Well, I do. It was 2006. The year the Swans made the Grand Final and very nearly made it back-to-back premierships.

The real issue is a deeper one than just the new kid on the block. Let’s face it: the Swans, as a unit, aren’t very good at the moment. In fact, tonight, they were pretty bad. Their basic skills and execution were sorely and notably and woefully missing on Saturday. Of course, Buddy doesn’t play in defence, so the three goals to Jamie Elliot and the powerful effort, despite wayward kicking, from Travis Cloke can’t be blamed on him. Similarly, he isn’t a midfield and a forward lives and dies on the footballs being stabbed his way by the mids. As a whole, I don’t know that I’ve seen a worse combined effort in a decade.

Sydney prides itself on the midfield brigade of McVeigh, Jack, Hannebery, Parker, Kennedy and co. Most of those guys were horrible tonight. Jack, in his season debut looked sluggish. McVeigh’s usual sharp decision making seemed to have deserted him. Parker didn’t seem to want to tackle. Kennedy toiled hard, but with little support. In the ruck,  Mike Pkye was (rather impressively) bested by Brodie Grundy.

It seems that Ted Richards’ bogey forward is Travis Cloke. Sitting in ANZ Stadium, I had the sinking feeling that I’d seen this move before. Time and time again, Collingwood’s towering forward has gotten the better of the usually-dependable Swan. The problem with Cloke is his immense size. If he gets in front of you at the outset of any given contest, you’ve got as much chance of moving him as you do of learning Japanese overnight. That’s where he gets the best of a lot of his opponents.

If Richards was bad down back, he wasn’t alone. Rhyce Shaw seemed a turnover machine. He coughed up the football to Collingwood on at least three occasions that led directly to a goal. Hard to win playing that sort of football. So dire were things in the Sydney back half that Sam Reid had to push back to provide some defensive stability which, of course, meant he couldn’t give Franklin any support inside their attacking 50m.  That will matter little to most journalists though.

You don’t need me to tell you that Buddy actually isn’t Superman. Even if he gets the better of his two opponents at the outset – they wore him like a glove most of the night – the sheer weight of numbers against him dictates that they’ll eventually get on top and make it difficult. Push some other red and white jerseys forward to give him some assistance. He is trying hard. It must be supremely frustrating, given all the ancillary pressure heaped on him, and given how many people seem to want him to fail and fall.

I thought John Longmire was out-coached tonight, and that’s something I haven’t had cause to think about much during Horse’s tenure. Nathan Buckley definitely won the duel in the boxes. Longmire seemed slow to adapt his team to the changing tactics. He must be frustrated, too, with his team’s inability to do the simple things right. They appeared unfit and devoid of both football smarts and, shockingly at times, interest in the contest.

It wasn’t the most spectacular game. More like a slog between two teams who might be okay, but don’t really look it at the moment. The ANZ Stadium turf appears to be as shoddy as ever, particularly on the wings, where the turf is covered by seats when the Olympic venue is in rugby league configuration.

My backyard looks better than the field out at ANZ at the moment. That isn’t saying much. The sheer amount of players going down and not being able to secure solid footing is an indictment on the condition of the ground. It also isn’t the first time we’ve noticed this. The AFL needs to do something. The on-field product is spoiled when players can’t hardly keep their feet.

So to, do the Swans. They need to do a lot of something’s before the trip to Adelaide Oval for next Saturday afternoon’s clash with the Crows, who have problems of their own, also staring down a 0-3 start. The Swans’ recent record at AAMI Park wasn’t great. Let’s hope the Adelaide Oval is a better hunting ground.
But, you know – buddy hell! It isn’t all his fault. He hasn’t destroyed the Bloods Culture. He didn’t single-handedly give up all those goals to Collingwood. He actually had a pretty good game, and will get better with Swans game experience.

We would do well to remember that.

Opinion: Indycar Double Points Races Are a Bad Idea

After many years of people wanting the old Indycar Triple Crown to be reinstated, the powers-that-be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have listened, and the venerable old competition-within-a-championship is back in a big way for 2014.

Obviously including the legendary Indianapolis 500 – not all that far away, in late May! – the Verizon Indycar Series will also hold 500-mile endurance tests at the triangular 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway and the season finale at the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

The idea itself is fantastic. Indycar belongs on all three of those tracks (and Michigan Speedway as well, but a deal hasn’t been worked out, so ACS will have to do) and so many of the sport’s greatest names have won the Triple Crown. You know, drivers who have built up such a fantastic history of open-cockpit cars in America, names like Unser, Andretti, Foyt and more.

What I don’t agree with is the recent news that, for the Triple Crown races, Indycar will award double points. If you win at Indy, Pocono or in Fontana, you get a leg-up on everyone else. Bad idea, Indycar.

I know it elevates these three races to a level of higher importance, which could be a good thing, but not at the expense of other events, which now seem, in the eyes of Indycar management, to be less important. It almost says to promoters at tracks like Long Beach, Toronto and Detroit that their events are far less crucial to Indycar racing than the Triple Crown oval races. That’s not a good look.

After all the negative talk in the Formula One world about the idea of the last race of the World Championship being a double-points race, you’d think that any other racing series considering some sort of similar gimmick would be scared off?

Apparently, not Indycar.  Is that bravery of foolishness? Sometimes, I wonder what the people thinking up these ideas at the Speedway on the corner of 16th and Georgetown are doing. Are they even using their minds? You’d be forgiven for often saying ‘no’.

The fact of the matter is simple: Indycar racing in 2013 was as good as any other racing series in the world. Consistently better than NASCAR, often better than Formula One, and on par with the drama seen week-to-week in MotoGP. Why would you need a cheap gimmick to liven a product that can’t get much better than it’s been on racetracks around North America over the last two seasons?

This isn’t NASCAR. The Indycar fan base, small but intensely passionate about the future of the sport, has long cried out against any suggestion of things like green-white-checker finishes, lucky dog passes (first driver a lap down at the time of a caution gets that lap back) and the other interesting elements that NASCAR has introduced to it’s national series’ over the last few years, obviously to spice up what can often be, especially on cookie cutter 1.5-mile ovals, mostly boring races, when cars are strung out and there isn’t much passing except on restarts or in the pits.

Indycar doesn’t have that problem. Far from it. Their racing product is top notch – the great shame is that not enough people around the country know that. These double-point races smacks of someone not involved heavily in racing stepping in and saying, “Guys, I’ve got a great idea here!!”

The Boston Consulting Group was called in during the off-season to provide some ideas on Indycar racing. They are not an organisation with a deep-rooted background in racing. Two of their ideas were implemented during the offseason: the condensed March-August season, and the road course race at Indianapolis to start May at the Speedway, a month traditionally reserved for events on the hallowed oval. This smacks of one of their ideas. Most of them have not been well-received by the fans, yours truly included.

What concerns me isn’t so much those who win, but a situation where the guy only a few points behind the leader in a championship race crashes out, caught up in an accident not of his making, and the leading driver goes on to win. That’s a massive hole to dig out of, and perhaps, in some circumstances, an insurmountable one. It’s a scenario that has the potential to squash a titanic championship struggle, and cost Indycar valuable mainstream media exposure as a result.

Every race – with the possible exception of the Indianapolis 500; if there absolutely has to be some sort of double-points bonus, this might be the right race for it – should be worth the same amount of points, so that the championship can truly be called a season-long test of the best driver and pit crew.

Leave the race gimmicks to NASCAR and Formula One, keep the points awarded even for all races, and let the Indycar boys race like we know they can!

Opinion: One Way To Fix the NRL's Attendance Problems

Originally posted at The Roar

It’s been well-documented recently that the National Rugby League has been suffering from attendance problems during the opening weeks of the season. More bluntly, some good football has been played to mostly-empty stadiums. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but on the whole, the attendance lists do not make for happy reading, particularly if you’re reading them from NRL headquarters.

Last Sunday afternoon, I went out to Brookvale Oval to watch Parramatta against Manly. I arrived towards the end of the NSW Cup fixture, and spent a sizeable chunk of time between the end of that game and the start of the NRL match twiddling my thumbs.

It gave me time to think about the game day situation at rugby league, and I realised that, these days, that what you see sitting in a grandstand somewhere is basically the same as what you can get sitting at home on television. Therein lies the problem.

The way to get crowds out is to provide something at the ground that you don’t get at home watching on television. Basically, as it happens now, the two teams come out onto the field, either with or without being serenaded by cheerleaders and the game is kicked off. Just like that. Really, it isn’t that much different to park footy. The thing is, it should be much bigger and better – flashier, slicker, more professional – than park footy.

Anyone who’s read enough of what I’ve written here knows that I spend a fair amount of time in America, and have just returned from a month there. The great thing that the North Americans do extraordinarily well is make you feel like you’re at the biggest game on the continent at that time. Not even talking about Kiss Cam and Dance Cam and whatever else-cam, there is a sense of anticipation slowly ramped up, the sense that there’s going to be a titanic struggle about to be played out in front of us.

I remember being at a Columbus vs. Los Angeles hockey game in Staples Centre back in late 2008, at which point neither team was even close to being labelled a powerhouse. It was a match-up of mediocre teams whose seasons, even in the early months, didn’t look like reaching great heights.

Though, based on the way the players were welcomed onto the ice, you’d have sworn that this was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, between two star-studded teams. There were light shows, smoke machines, clever graphics on the scoreboard, showing places skating through a snowy Los Angeles, and the blaring goal horn.

All combined, it was an exciting assault on the senses. It got me excited, or ‘jacked up’ as the Americans like to say, and ready for some hockey. Cheap bells and whistles, maybe, but it had the desired effect: the crowd were at fever pitch. The singing of the national anthem was spine-tingling, too. By the time they dropped the puck, the atmosphere in the building was great.

Basically, it was the sort of pre-game atmosphere and excitement that you can’t get from watching on television, and such a spectacle is why the NHL routinely sells out arenas, as do other sports in North America. To bring the crowds in, there needs to be an obvious difference to what you see and experience at the ground/arena versus what you get on television.

In America (and, I’m led to believe, in Europe and other parts of the world) that has been achieved. In Australia, it has not. You turn on your television, see the team run out and get the game underway…which is exactly what you are likely to see turning up at any football ground this weekend. That’s basically what happened when I was at the Manly vs. Parramatta game on Sunday afternoon, aside from the presence of a group of dancers to highlight the talents of those with physical disability or impairment – that, NRL, was a nice touch.

No wonder the fans are staying away. It’s cheaper to sit at home, and there isn’t really a reason to go to a game. There just isn’t any real reason to go when you can stay home, thus avoiding things like expensive food, long queues and the occasional group of loud-mouthed fans to sour the day. The exception is these big games, preceding which is, of course, entertainment.

Obviously, some of what is done in America isn’t possible here, but the idea is there, a way to pump into the game day experience something unique to being at the ground. Along with perhaps lowering the ticket prices – a subject best left for it’s own article – I’d hazard a guess as to say that throwing on something exciting before the game would bring the crowds back through the turnstiles, which in turn helps television advertising revenue and makes those wide-panning camera shots look more impressive, too.

Yeah, I know you’re going to say that the on-field product is arguably as good as it’s ever been, and that we don’t need cheap entertainment beforehand. Well, you’re right about how good the sporting product is, but having some form of a pre-game spectacle definitely raises the collective blood pressure of the crowd, and that makes the game-time atmosphere even better.

Last weekend, I was at the SCG for the opening game of the 2014 Major League Baseball season between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. From the moment we walked into the ground, there was a terrific buzz in the air. The atmosphere was tremendous.  The introductions of the players, who come out of the dugout to applause, is a baseball tradition, and gives the crowd a chance to put a face to the name of all the guys who would be out on the field. Having Adam Goodes out to throw a ceremonial first pitch was great as well, and something similar could – and should – be considered for sport here.

Closer to home, the AFL’s biggest regular season games are ANZAC Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon and the Dreamtime at the ‘G contest between Richmond and Essendon. Granted, both these are rivalry games, but the way the league packages the game with entertainment and spectacle around it. No wonder these games draw upwards of 85,000, the sort of numbers that (most) NRL preliminary finals don’t draw.

The AFL has sent various CEOs and the like across to America to study how the NFL does things. They are learning about turning a game into a big show. The NFL has it’s own problems with attendance in markets where teams are under-performing, but their low numbers aren’t anywhere near as low as what the NRL draws.

I could write a whole different article about ticket prices – which are pretty high, especially when you take into account the additional costs involved in taking a family to the footy – but I can’t help but wonder if people wouldn’t be more interested in shelling out cash if they knew they were going to see something different to what they can get far cheaper on television?

My Favourite MLB Ballparks

Following the great success of bringing Major League Baseball to Australia with the MLB Opening Series 2014 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondback at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the hallowed turf was lauded by everyone from legendary broadcaster Vin Scully Diamondbacks star Paul Goldschmidt, as being as good as any ballpark in America.

In that spirit, here are five of my favourite Major League ballparks. If you’re looking for a few must-go MLB venues to plan a trip around, there are some good ones here, and I list them in no particular order, except, of course, for the one right at the bottom:

AT&T Park, San Francisco: Home of the Giants, this is probably America’s most beautiful ballpark, a popular one on the list of visitors wanting a good baseball experience, and perhaps one of the only sporting venues anywhere in the world where you don’t mind getting stuck with seats high up in the bleachers.

If you’re up high behind home plate at AT&T Park, you can catch glimpses of San Francisco Bay, and the massive span of the Bay Bridge.  If the Giants aren’t going so well, you can enjoy a spectacular summer sunset over the picturesque Bay Area. It’s one of America’s most beautiful locations, so you won’t be disappointed by your surroundings, even if you are by the game.

Also, the atmosphere in the outfield, beneath the giant Coke bottle, is raucous, and the fact that the venue is just a baseball’s throw from the San Francisco Ferry Building and other transport, means that getting to AT&T Park is pretty easy, even if you’re from out of town. If that isn’t enough to convince you to go, the fact that San Francisco is a vibrant, exciting and beautiful city should be reason enough.

Beyond the ballpark, which is literally right on the edge of the Bay itself, sits the famous McCovey Cove, where kayakers famously sit in wait, clustered tightly together, waiting to catch balls that are hit over the outfield bleachers and off the property altogether. You won’t find a more spectacular Major League ballpark anywhere.

Wrigley Field, Chicago: Yes, the Cubs are cursed, and chances are better that you’ll witness a home team loss as opposed to a win, but that doesn’t matter. Wrigley is one of those places you have to visit if you’re a baseball fan. There’s something magical about the old ballpark, with the great view of the distant Chicago skyline.

As nice as some of these new ballparks are – see above – there’s nothing like the old-world charm, sitting in the outfield or behind home plate knowing that you’re sitting where generations of fans before you have. Sure, the seats aren’t going to be as comfortable or as roomy as a park opened in the last decade, but so much of baseball’s history can be traced back through big moments at places like Wrigley.

In terms of baseball venues, Chicago could be called a tale of two franchises. You have the grandeur of venerable Wrigley versus the home of the White Sox, the foreboding and impersonal US Cellular Field, which replaced the great old Comiskey Park some years back.

Very few venues anywhere in the country come close to matching the Cubs home in terms of history and tradition. Without a doubt, it’s one of America’s great sporting cathedrals.

Fenway Park, Boston: Speaking of great American sporting cathedrals! Even though I’m a Yankees fan through and through, I can’t ignore the greatness of Fenway, despite it being home to the team-who-shall-remain-nameless!

I love the downtown location of, how you can see the Boston skyline over the back of the outfield. Spend an evening in your seat looking over the field and enjoy the sunset as the home team – I can’t bring myself to say their name – does it’s thing. Like Wrigley, there’s a stack of baseball history here, right down to the old-style seats in the grandstands behind the plate.

Then, of course, is the Green Monster, with it’s spectacular vintage manually-operated scoreboard beneath the vaunted viewing platform. The left wall, at 11.33 m high, is the highest outer wall in the Majors, and the distance you have to hit a ball to score a home run – a mere 310-315 feet – isn’t anywhere near as long as the wait for seats up there.

Is there anywhere else in America where you have to go into a ballot and can often wait years to merely have the opportunity to purchase seats, let alone actually buy them? A unique situation for a unique baseball vantage point. Undeniably, the view from up there is fantastic, of both the ballpark and the city.

Fenway is versatile, having hosted soccer games in the past and, more recently, NHL and NCAA outdoor hockey games. Some might call it sacrilege, but opening up the famous ballpark to other history-making sporting moments – remember that great Winter Classic game between Boston and Philadelphia? – only adds to the legacy of the venue.

Busch Stadium, St Louis: A great baseball stadium in a city that eats, drinks and breathes the National Pastime. What the locals call ‘New Busch Stadium’ is one of those parks, constructed within the last decade, that’s vaulted straight into the hearts and minds of baseball fanatics everywhere. Really, what’s not to like about the home of the Cardinals?

Aside from the spectacular view – the iconic Gateway Arch is a grand spectacle, rising above the cityscape, part of the trend of modern ballparks to feature panoramic cityscape views rather than enclosing the field – from behind home plate, Cardinals fans have turned tailgating into a fine art and they are as knowledgeable and passionate as any fans in baseball.

A big game with a full crowd, and you won’t find a better environment to watch an MLB game than in the Gateway City.  The stadium is reputedly home to the friendliest ushers in the Majors, and some of the best sightlines, too. It’s popularity is immense: Busch Stadium has been home to an average crowd of more than 40,000 on all but one year of it’s existence.

Opening in time for the 2014 season, Busch Stadium – named for the brewing company rather than the legendary owner Gussie Busch – will have a precinct built on the grounds of the old Busch Stadium featuring restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. If it was a great place to watch a game before, it’s only going to get better.

Yankee Stadium, New York City: My favourite Major League venue, because the Yankees are my team.

A caveat: I don’t love ‘new’ Yankee Stadium quite as much as I did it’s predecessor. I don’t think anyone does – perhaps aside from the Yankees owners, who bring in far more corporate dollars courtesy of new suites that the venerable old ballpark just didn’t have – because the new stadium can’t lay claim to having had the likes of DiMaggio, Berra, Ruth and others gracing it’s field.

Even so, some of the great modern Yankees have done their thing at the new version of the great stadium – Jeter, Rivera and Pettitte – and the fact that it is home to the Yankees, undoubtedly one of the most easily-recognised franchises in world sport, makes it one of those places that every baseball fan should visit at least once. It’ll be well worth your while.

The ballpark in the Bronx is certainly popular with tourists, who flock daily, even during winter, to do the all-encompassing tour that includes the mysterious no-photos-allowed locker room. The Yankee organisation has done a great job memorialising the old venue and the many great moments there, and have transferred as much of the look and feel across to the new stadium, whilst improving the spectator experience. It’s a good place to watch baseball, football or even hockey.

In time, the franchise, no stranger to success, will build up a legacy that will, hopefully one day, be talked about in the same breath as we all now talk about the legends who played at the old stadium.

2014 Verizon Indycar Series Preview

This weekend on the streets of St Petersburg, Florida, marks the beginning of the 2014 Indycar Series season. Between now and the Labor Day weekend finale at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, sits arguably the toughest test in all of racing. To become an Indycar champion, you must be good on superspeedways, bullring ovals, permanent road courses and temporary street circuits.

As we count down to the first green flag of the season, here are a few things to keep an eye on this year:

Will Power: A disappointing early and mid-season gave way to a big finish for the Australian, though the season as a whole – one in which he figured to be a serious championship contender – just what was expected.

There’s obvious room for improvement, particularly at Indianapolis, where he has been fast, but never quite able to put together a full race and get a result. Driving for Team Penske, you know Power’s going to be in a car that has a shot at winning. He needs more oval wins to validate his abilities there, let alone to really challenge for a championship. Replicate his late-2013 form all year, and Power will be hard to stop.

Graham Rahal: After a few years in the Chip Ganassi Racing system (years which produced far less results than most of us expected), Rahal begins his second season with his father’s team, and with National Guard backing coming across from the under-achieving Panther Racing, expectations are high for a guy who has shown glimpses of speed ever since winning his first Indycar Series start with Newman-Hass in 2008.

The key to growing Indycar racing is cultivating home-grown stars. That’s where NASCAR is leaps and bounds ahead. Their drivers are household names in America, even if you’re only a casual fan. With Rahal, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and  rising star, Josef Newgarden, Indycar has arguably the best crop of Americans that we’ve seen in years. The thing is, they need to be regular visitors to Victory Circle.

A new engineer, and a renewed focus should help Rahal, a second-generation racer vital to Indycar, in 2014. National Guard brings a lot of money to the table – and, arguably, just as much pressure – and after lean years at Panther, they will be expecting big things.

This could be the year Rahal really steps away from the shadow of his father and becomes a legitimate, week-in-week-out threat. The way he conducts himself during media availabilities and with the fans makes me hope this is it.

Verizon Sponsorship: The new sponsor of the Indycar Series is coming into 2014 with a big portfolio of investment. Their logo has been emblazoned on the side of Australian Will Power’s Penske Chevrolet for a number of seasons now, and the naming rights sponsor of the Indycar Series will also be sponsoring returning Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya.

The real coup for the series is having the telco company, who has featured Power in advertising campaigns in previous years, coming on board as a series sponsor. The previous titular sponsor, IZOD, started off well, but a change of management and company direction effectively put an end to any promotional campaigning. Things will be different with Verizon. This kind of proactive series sponsor is exactly what the series needed.

Chip Ganassi Racing: This team took a hit during the off-season with the news that Scot Dario Franchitti would not be able to continue driving as a result of injuries sustained in a crash on the streets of Houston.

Despite the Franchitti blow, the powerhouse squad returns defending IndyCar Series champion, New Zealand’s Scott Dixon alongside promising American Charlie Kimball. With two seats to fill, Ganassi has gone to the bullpen and plucked Australian Ryan Briscoe for his second stint with the team, and reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, Brazilian Tony Kaanan.

There’s no doubt that Ganassi has a roster of very quick guys, all of whom are Indycar Series race winners, but their chemistry will be something to watch as the season progresses. Remember, this is the biggest shake-up this team has seen in years. There may be some growing pains early on, but probably nothing too major. Everyone’s far too professional for that.

Shortened Season: According to the Boston Consulting Group, who were retained by the Indycar powers-that-be during the offseason, the way to ensure people take notice of the series is by having a condensed season.

To that end, the season begins in Florida on the last weekend in March and winds up near Los Angeles on the last weekend of August. That’s eighteen rounds over fourteen race weekends – the temporary street course rounds at Toronto and Detroit are Saturday-Sunday double headers – in just five months.

Personally, I think it’s a bad move. The series needs to maintain at least some relevancy during football season. I get that going up against the NFL is a bad idea, but there are ways around it – Saturday races in non-college markets, for example – and the biggest shame is that we lose the excellent Baltimore street race on Labor Day weekend due to scheduling problems in the city. Instead, that weekend will see the series out west for the 500-mile finale at Auto Club Speedway.

The Indianapolis Grand Prix: Another brainchild of the Boston Consulting Group was a road course race on the rather bland circuit used by MotoGP (and formerly Formula One) to start the traditional Month of May.

As a keen historian of Indycar racing, I think it’s sacrilege to destroy the traditions of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by introducing a road course race, especially on such an uninspiring course. If the Indycar Series absolutely insists on having a race here, make it at some other time in the season. Start the season there, if you must.

For the record, my thoughts on an IMS road course race are these: having a race Speedway road course race on the schedule when other great road courses like Road America, Watkins Glen or Laguna Seca is an indication of the series not really understand what the majority of the fans want. The powers-that-be should listen more to the fans than the Boston Consulting Group.

Engine and Chassis Reliability: There’s been very little to talk about on this front in the two seasons that we’ve had the Dallara-manufactured DW12 chassis and Chevrolet and Honda engines. No reason to think that we can’t and won’t enjoy similar reliability this year.

That’s an excellent thing, because the racing we’ve witnessed over the last two seasons, which has been nothing short of fantastic, is a direct consequence of such well-built, bulletproof cars and engines. Credit where credit is due; the oft-maligned Indycar tech people have come up with a great combination, and also to those at Honda, General Motors and Dallara who’ve implemented it.

Future Planning: As I mentioned above, the fact that the Indycar Series doesn’t visit Road America, Watkins Glen or Laguna Seca is an indictment on the schedulers. Yes, I know there are things like promoters fees, but if you want to bring fans back to the fold, the best way of doing that is by having races at great tracks.

There is a chance we’ll see at least Road America, the exhilarating 4-mile road course that runs through the Wisconsin countryside, next year, and I’d wager that very few of the Indycar fans – perhaps less than 0.1% - would be against such a plan. A double header with the Tudor Series sports cars would be awesome.

Where else should Indycar be? I’d love to see an effort made to bring back the Cleveland race, run on a Burke Lakefront Airport course. It was always one of the most competitive races of the season. A return to Baltimore would be awesome! A great track, with a supportive fan base.

A 2014 Championship Winner: I’d love to say Aussie Will Power, who will undoubtedly bounce back this year, but it’ll probably be a driver from our neighbours, New Zealand. It’ll be really tough for anyone to beat Scott Dixon. The Ice Man is as good as they come. He doesn’t always win, but he has an uncanny knack of being able to stack up podium finishes, killing the field with consistency.

Enjoy the season!!

Opinion: Sport is Big Business - Get Used to it!

Originally posted at The Roar

Has the dust settled after the Swans 32-point loss to the GWS Giants last Saturday at Spotless Stadium? I really hope so. Talk about a week full of knee-jerk reactions.

Most interestingly, for mine, has been talk amongst both Swans fans and those who, because of Buddy and Tippett, choose now to hate the team, who had formerly been – and you’ll pardon the pun here – the AFL’s Ugly Duckling and apparently now is everyone’s most-hated team. It is all about the Bloods culture and how the recruitment of Tippett and Franklin has destroyed that culture, and that the Sydney Swans Football Club has sold out

Really? It’s time we all woke up and saw what is really going on here. This isn’t 1984, it’s 2014, and sport now is wholly professional, run like a Fortune 500 business – or sometimes more responsibly – because, perhaps more than winning championships, making money and keeping afloat is the aim of the game. You may not like it, but it’s the changing face of sport, and it’s the way of things going forward, and so it will continue. Gone are the old days and the associated nostalgia. It’s a cutthroat world out there, professional sport.   

As nice as that Bloods culture is, there is a more cynical view to be taken here. Let us examine the situation of the Swans: they are an AFL team in rugby league heartland, battling in a city where more people call Aussie Rules football ‘gay-FL’ than go to Swans games, or GWS games, for that matter.  Since the GWS Giants have been a part of the competition, things have gotten tougher for the Swans. They aren’t the beneficiary of AFL money like the Giants are. They must make do as they can.

I’ve seen the advent of free agency in the AFL and other moves that are bringing sports leagues in Australia more towards the American or European models, and the apparent outrage that it brings, talk of players selling their souls or whatever, and merely smiled.

Spending time, as I do, in America, free agency and big contracts are part of the cut-throat world over there. It isn’t uncommon for a guy who’s given his heart and soul to a team to move on when there’s better money elsewhere, and although that player is almost always booed upon his return, it’s more a out of tradition rather than any real malice. These things happen, it’s business, is how most fans look at it now. It’s almost accepted.

Now, the same is happening in Australia. It’s evolution. You see it all the time in America: big-name stars are traded or cut or dealt ruthlessly, because the people in management recognise they need to do what’s best for their team. Per chance, that’s why the Swans sacrificed the likes of Mumford, Lamb, Everitt and White for Buddy Franklin. Outside of hard core fans, those names aren’t going to fill anyone with superstar awe. The man who wears #23 just might. That’s why he was recruited. It was business.

I had a conversation with my old man about this the other week. He doesn’t like the idea of getting Buddy, but not because he hates the man, just the idea. In his world, he wants guys who have spent years in the Swans/AFL NSW system to come up into first grade, rather than players bought from elsewhere. That doesn’t work anymore, except on the rare occasion. It’s something of an antiquated view. I told him so. We agreed to disagree.

Focusing on the Swans: AFL here in Sydney is a tough sell. Even the A-League crowds, helped by Alessandro Del Piero at Sydney FC and the start-up success seem to be tracking so far upward that they will begin to overtake those seen at an AFL venue in a few years’ time. The Swans won a premiership in 2012, but almost closed the fiscal year in the red. That alone should indicate how dire their financial situation is.

At the risk of perhaps going under – or, at the very least, not making enough money to be a viable entity – the Swans did the smart thing. They went out and signed two high-profile players, guys who are at or near the top of their game, and are exactly the types needed to help the Swans win premierships. Holding up the Premiership Cup on the last Saturday in September is necessary for the Swans to stay properly afloat and to rate more than a passing mention on the crowded sporting landscape.

In the short term, Franklin’s presence (and, Tippett’s, though to a lesser extent) is putting butts on seats at AFL in Sydney. I sat in front of a group of first-timers at the Sydney Derby last Saturday. They asked us for some pointers on the rules and said, basically, that they’d spent half the summer hearing about Buddy Franklin, and wanted to see what the guy was all about. Would they come to another game? Yeah, as long as it didn’t rain, they said.

In a microcosm, right there, that’s what Buddy Franklin’s press can do, and doubtless what the Swans were hoping it would do. When you’re swimming against the sporting tide in this city, as they certainly are, the way to get ahead is to bring in big names who create buzz, and hope that that buzz raises memberships numbers – it has – and leads to a collection of silverware – I hope it does – in the trophy cabinet in the football club’s front office.

That’s why the Swans pursued Franklin. He’s a gun player on the field and he’s a marketable name, as previous big-name imports Barry Hall and Tony Lockett were before him. He gets people talking, even if they’re not necessarily AFL fans. The real problem is that most of the Swans are nameless and anonymous in this city.

With GWS now on the scene and competing for fans in the west, the AFL product in Sydney is diluted by half, and so, you might say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Anonymity is why players love being up here, of course, but it doesn’t help promotion of the game, which sells tickets and merchandise, which contributes to the financial wellbeing of the club, or lack thereof. The Swans will be hoping that Buddy Franklin and Kurt Tippett make the rest of the playing list far more visible as players. If those two marquee names spearhead a good team, that’s more than likely going to be the case.

In Melbourne, for example, Luke Parker and Tom Mitchell and Dan Hannebery would be big-time stars. People would come in their droves to watch them – that entire midfield, even. In Sydney, they’re not. It’s a shame for those guys, because they’re supremely talented athletes, and it doesn’t help the club financially, either.
I’m sorry, but the supposed destruction of the Bloods Culture just isn’t a thing for me. It’s better that that fabled team-orientated buy-in from years gone by falls by the wayside as opposed to the entire franchise falling apart, isn’t it?

Such is life in the business-orientated sports world. Get used to this – it won’t be changing anytime soon.

Concert Review: Toby Keith Allphones Arena, Sydney (March 18 2014)

Who: Toby Keith with special guests the Eli Young Band & Kellie Pickler

Where: Allphones Arena

When: Tuesday March 18, 2014

The Hammer Down Under Tour - HAMMER DOWN!

Shortly before my last trip to America, I was watching a college football broadcast, which featured the snippet of a song called ‘Days of Gold’ by Jake Owen. I’d never heard of him, but the song was definitely catchy – you know, summertime, beer, barbeques, girls – so I jumped onto iTunes and discovered that Jake Owen was a country artist. Not your traditional type, mind you. More like country-rock. Less banjos and more anthemic rock songs that really clicked with me.

Then, I heard Florida-Georgia Line’s massive hit single ‘Cruise’ and I was pretty much sold on the new incarnation of country – which, is to say, the sort that country traditionalists don’t like at all. It’s less about elaborate storytelling, more about summer nights, jacked up trucks, girls in cut-off jeans and swigging Jack straight from the bottle.

When we were travelling across America, we listened to a bunch of country radio, and heard a bunch of Toby Keith. He isn’t your country traditionalist – hasn’t lived in a day of his life in Nashville, does everything his way, writes some highly inappropriate but hugely entertaining ‘bus songs’ in amongst plenty of songs about drinking, girls and, of course, drinking with girls. It’s a niche that’s made him a lot of money.

You don’t get on the Forbes Rich List by accident, and Keith earned a cool $65 million in 2013, placing fourth on that prestigious list behind money-spinners Lady Gaga, Madonna and Bon Jovi. He hauls in heaps from touring and album sales, and is a shred businessman, too: he owns a chain of restaurants, a record label and a brand of clothing, amongst other ventures. Primarily, though, Toby Keith is a live performer of some repute.

Tuesday night at Allphones Arena was his first ever concert in Sydney – and my first ever country show – and the Hammer Down Under Tour was made better by the presence on the crowded bill of rising stars Kellie Pickler and the Eli Young Band. Seeing as the show was cut into three segments, so will this review:

Kellie Pickler 

An American Idol alumnus who is building a nice career in Nashville. I hadn’t heard any of her stuff before Tuesday night, but you can see why her star is rocketing upward quickly. A great set of songs, perfect voice, a good backing band and the right amount of strut to command the audience’s attention. Can’t be easy being the first act of the night, in front of only a mostly-full arena, but Pickler did a good job. 

Eli Young Band 

2014 marks the second time the Texas quarter have made the trip to Australia. Having heard some of their stuff, I was excited to see them live. It’s been a good few days for the band fronted by Mike Eli: their brand-new album, 10,000 Towns went straight to #1 in America as did the lead single ‘Drunk Last Night’.

They went through a cavalcade of great songs. Off the new album, I particularly like the title track and what will be the second single ‘Dust’, and from earlier cuts, ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’ and ‘Crazy Girl’ were popular. The EYB is building a nice back catalogue of radio-friendly country tunes. No wonder they are having such success in America. Sharp vocals and good musicianship is a combination you can’t beat. They seemed very glad to be in Australia.

The only disappointing thing about their show on Tuesday? It only went for forty minutes. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing the boys out playing their own headlining shows before too long.

I was lucky enough to meet them after the show, and they struck me as being very down to earth. Nice to know that guys who’ve just hit the big-time in America are still humble and very aware that their success rides on engaging with their fans. It was really good to  see them out and about after their set talking to their fans. It’s an idea that pop/rock and other artists could learn from. Country artists seem to genuinely care about getting to know their fans. In return, you get a career’s worth of loyalty. 

Toby Keith 

A career that began in the early 90’s with that decade’s most popular country song ‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy’ has finally brought the American country superstar to Sydney. After a very cool opening montage featuring a bunch of famous people incorporating the words “Hammer Down” into their regular lives, Toby, a cowboy hat-wearing Oklahoman, and the rest of his band were on the stage, firing up the crowd with a great opener, the hard-driving: ‘Haven’t Had A Drink All Day’.

Right from the outset, it was a party atmosphere. I find myself comparing every show to the legendary Bruce Springsteen, and this one was right up there.  Many people, including Toby Keith himself, were pretty drunk, but that only added to the vibe rather than taking anything away from it. ‘American Ride’ and ‘Beers Ago’ followed in quick succession, two giant hits that delighted everyone in attendance and really set up the night to come.

This wasn’t the country music that most Australians seem to assume country is. What we heard on Tuesday night was closer to rock than the old crooners of days gone by. Very few banjos, no long ballads. Modern country is everywhere now, and it’s closer to southern rock than classic country. The horn section was an unexpected touch. Then again, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. Toby Keith has always been an outlaw, doing things his way. A trumpet, saxophone and trombone added a very interesting layer of sound to the southern-fried music coming at us from the big stage.

It was a loud gig, but the sound mix was just right. No over-dubbed bass to make up for weak vocals here. The vocal range of Toby Keith’s voice is incredibly impressive. There might’ve been complaints about his delivery in Brisbane last Friday night, but he was dead-on in Sydney. He sounds very similar live to the way he does in his studio recordings: the mark of a very good singer, and probably the ultimate compliment you can give to a live performer.

The niche that Toby has discovered and made his own is the drinking/partying song, and there were many of them from the ridiculously fun ‘Red Solo Cup’ through an ode to country women and whisky ‘Whiskey Girl’ and the great ‘Beer For My Horses’, which was recorded as a duet with the great Willie Nelson, who appeared on the video screen. Great song, awesome chorus. The red solo cups were up, and everyone seemed to be singing!

There were a few songs I was surprised weren’t included in the set – ‘Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue’ and ‘Made in America’, both of which are staples of any Toby Keith show in America – but overall it was a broad brush stroke across nearly three decades’ worth of hit-making. A triple-play of some of Keith’s earliest stuff closed the main set: ‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy’ then ‘How Do You Like Me Now?’ and the rockin’ ‘A Little Less Talk & A Lot More Action’.

All night, Keith had been talking about his experiences with Australian military during his many USO shows – he likes Australians because they are allowed to have base on beer – and dedicated the closing song of his set, ‘American Soldier’ to the men and women of the Australian armed forces, changing the lyrics of the chorus to ‘Australian Soldier’. Keith is famous for being patriotic, and this was a nice touch, very well received by the crowd.

It was over too quickly. Some people in the audience had waited the best part of fifteen years to see Toby Keith live. There were so many songs missing from the set list that he could’ve played three hours or longer. Ninety minutes is better than nothing. Keith came, saw, and he damn well conquered.

Great show!

Hopefully this is the beginning of a bunch of big-time country stars coming down under. Ahem, Kenny Chesney?

Set List

1. Haven't Had a Drink All Day
2. American Ride 
3. I Wanna Talk About Me
4. Whiskey Girl
5. Hope on the Rocks
6. God Love Her
7. Beer For My Horses
8. Drinks After Work
9. Weed With Willie
10. Get Out Of My Car
11. Red Solo Cup
12. Who's Your Daddy?
13. As Good As I Once Was
14. I Love This Bar
15. Should've Been A Cowboy
16. How Do You Like Me Now?
17. A Little Less Talk & A Lot More Action
18. American Soldier/Australian Soldier

Sydney Derby loss isn't the end of the world for the Swans | Sydney Swans GWS Giants Battle of the Bridge

Swans Nation, I promise, the sky isn’t falling – although it seemed like it was on Saturday at about quarter time, and again a handful of hours later.

Clearly, the GWS Giants were the best team on Spotless Stadium, and deserve their first triumph in the sixth renewal of the Sydney rivalry – a rivalry which, up until probably about seven-thirty on Saturday night, had been mostly a manufactured one, without the real angst and hatred you see in games between Richmond and Essendon or Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

Now, it’s a different story. The Giants famous win, delivered on the back of six straight fourth quarter goals, has given the twice-annual contest between the established Swans and the fledgling western Sydney franchise, horribly named ‘The Battle of the Bridge’, a signature moment, one that will be remembered, with varying degrees of fondness (depending, of course, on whether you were wearing red and white (as I did) or orange on Saturday evening) for some time to come.

The best win in the history of the Giants comes on the first game of their third season, and it showed that their off-season moves have delivered the much needed veteran support that the young, developing list has needed. Amongst others, notably Shane Mumford in the ruck, Heath Shaw in the midfield seemed to give their junior comrades some direction. Boy, did it work well.

For me, the most disappointing aspect wasn’t that the Swans lost. It’s football. As in all sport, losses happen. The Swans have had their fair share of tough ones over the years, and they all leave a certain mark on you. However, there have been very few like the one we witnessed tonight, when – particularly in the fourth quarter – the Swans seemed uninterested, undisciplined and largely without spirit. That is an alarming thing to see.

The result, and the way GWS rolled over the Swans, kicking six unanswered in the final term, could be looked at thus: Sydney didn’t do the little things right, the things that they’ve done right again and again, en route to premiership glory. They fell off tackles, lacked vision down and across the field, at times seemed completely unable to bring the football out of their defensive arc, and, worst of all, apparently un-learned how to kick straight in front of goals.

It was a maddening thing to watch, for the names involved who were subpar for large stretches tonight – Malceski, Roberts-Thomson, McVeigh, Reid and others – because you know they can be great, and you know they’re warriors who, on pretty much any other week, can be relied upon for that extra effort, that little moment at the bottom of a pack in a struggle for the ball that allows them to get ahead of their opposition. Not tonight. Nowhere to be seen, either, was the ferocious pressure that has stunned opposing teams and been lauded by the media for so long.

Tonight, it was the Swans smashed and smashed again in the last quarter, something that they’ve done to other teams themselves. It was hard to watch, that one-way stream of traffic, though in the midst of the GWS surge, there were chances to steady the ship. Gary Rohan missed a shot midway through the final quarter, clanging the wood work, and from that blow, the Swans never seemed able to recover. It was over, the Giants racing to a thirty-two point win. A win by a better team, well deserved. It hurts to say it, but it’s the truth.

Yet, one game a season does not make. Things happen in the first round that you don’t expect. Granted, this was one from so far left of field that it was extraordinary both to Swans and Giants fans. The fact, though, remains: the first week of the season is not likely to be a barometer of how a team is going. A win, that’s great. A loss…well, you can work on things and get better.

The interesting outpouring on social media from the Swans faithful (some who are apparently not so faithful, as they want to hand in memberships and sell their jerseys on eBay for $1) has been generally along two tracks:

a)    The Swans played badly, were undisciplined and cocky

Now, the former is a true statement, at least to a degree. The lack of discipline was there, alongside some questionable skills, and perhaps there was some cockiness there, too. Not being inside the rooms, none of us will know for sure, but the way the press narrative has been in this city over the summer, since the Buddy signing, perhaps it was thought by some players that all they needed to do was jog onto the field, kick the footy to #23 as often as possible and walk away with a 1-0 record to start the season. Sometimes, it’s hard not to read your on press clippings.

If there is a time for a wake-up call, it is at the start of the season. Doubtless, the players will be disgusted with their efforts, and with two weeks exactly before their second game (against Collingwood at ANZ Stadium) there is time for change, and there is time to realise that it won’t be smooth sailing because Buddy Franklin’s stalking the forward line. It’s heads down, butts up time from now until the next game against the 0-1 Pies. As bad as the loss was, there is time to correct it. It’s a long season.

The Swans can – and likely will – bounce back, and this loss is likely to become a constant reminder of what getting away from the ethos of Bloods football can do.

b)    The Buddy Franklin trade is a disaster – trade him! Get Jesse White back!

To Buddy, and the ridiculous jumping all over him: as I said above, one game – especially not in Round One – should be used to decide whether an acquisition of a player or coach is a good thing or a bad thing. Wait eight or ten weeks, or even a season, and then make up your mind. Sure, the high-profile recruit wasn’t good, but then again, neither was most of the rest of the team.

It is downright ridiculous to claim that one of the most dominant players in recent AFL history is no good based off of one game, his first with a new club, and one that was affected by a weather delay. Even the best players have bad days.

Yes, there were times when Franklin looked at sea, but it will take some time for him to get used to the way things are done at his new club. At other times, like his goal from outside 50m, he looked like the Buddy of old. There were flashes and glimpses, and you would imagine those become more prevalent as the season progresses.

A parting message to my fellow Swans fans: yeah, this one hurts. It hurts a lot to be beaten so soundly and it hurts even more to see our boys lacking application and their usual manic pressure, but there is a long season ahead of us, and plenty of time to correct what mistakes were identified tonight – hint, hint, try looking at the clearances – and still challenge for a flag. The list the Swans have is very capable of winning a premiership.

Who knows? The bitter GWS loss might be just what the doctor ordered. I look forward to our next meeting with the Giants, this one on our home turf. Hopefully, it will be a different result and a far more committed team.