“You’re into AFL? You?” This is the typical surprised reaction I get when I tell people how excited I am about the new season starting this year.

New players, new coaches. I have carefully organised babysitting for months in advance and am literally counting down to that first game tomorrow night.

Yet somehow this seems strange for someone like me to follow sport – that is, female and non-white.

I have played, watched and loved sport for as long as I can remember. I have flown interstate to watch the Blues, stayed up all night to watch Sampras and left a girlfriend’s engagement to watch a World Cup game.

This doesn’t mean that I can’t also be addicted to Sex and the City, drool over Tiffany blue boxes and hasten to see Kate’s baby bump grow.

These two worlds are not mutually exclusive.

Gender equality can be extended beyond the sporting arena not just in equal pay, equal air time and equal sponsorship but also towards the spectators and their equal interest and commitment to the game.

One friend suggested that I was a lesbian because I followed the Southern Stars, while another assumed my interest was in males running around in tight clothing.

Is it really that hard for people to see women passionate and educated about sport? The idea that a game with its multitude of rules and positions is too complex for women, not only belittles the fans but the game as well.

So, if it’s not about being female, that leaves the issue of race.

Given my heritage it was inevitable I would like sport – raised in Australia with British and Indian roots. Resistance was futile.

One of our FISO boys won Fantasy Premier League ’12-’13. First among 2.6 MILLION players. Spidermatt, take a bow.

He also plays in Fantasy Football Scout. Here’s what they say about him.

And all of this while having to contend with the fans, who were disgusting, by the way.

Here’s a post from F365.

Well done, Rafa. Here’s hoping to see more of you at the Premier League, or if not, at the Bundesliga and the La Liga. Those are the only three leagues I follow

Read this (here), and then comment about this.

Before betting, before Sreesanth and company, and before two-feet no-balls on the second-last ball of the over.

Taylor. He had lost his way somewhat, for a while. Mouthed off too often, about too many things in the setup. .. Well, this is no transformation, yet. But a reminder that he can still do things which few others can. Read this piece. Click here.

Dale Steyn is not

Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest bowler South Africa has ever had.

You are the shadow of a doubt. Because you were better. Marginally better, but better.

I think that he had a spell – a duel with Paul Collingwood - in Cape Town. It was a Test match I commented on, a Test match in which England were in trouble. Steyn went past the outside edge probably four times an over in which he bowled at 148-150kph without any luck. I think it was one of those spells where you deserve a six-for or a seven-for. But it didn’t quite work out. England managed to draw the game right at the death, being nine-down. That was probably one of the best spells I’ve seen without any results.

It is probably one of the best, but not the best. Because the best was yours, with Atherton batting. And you got him out fair and square, and would have won the Saffers the match if not for an umpiring error.

(a) Arsenal win 2-1 at St James’ Park;

(b) Chelsea draw 0-0 at the Bridge against the Toffees on the final day,

Both teams will be identical on (a) points (b) GD (c) goals scored (d) goals conceded. 

and there could be a playoff to decide on third place.

Would not happen, surely. But in the realms of possibility. Interesting.

Stat courtesy F365.

Dave Whelan. Photo from Football365.com

This is a comment from RuggerTyke at a post in the Guardian:

It’s been a fairy-tale for the man who built a sports empire after breaking his leg in the FA Cup final, taking his local club from the bottom tier to the Premier League, culminating a stay of 8 years which many expected would merely last a year, with an FA Cup win against one of the richest side in the world only to then a few days later, do what had been expected of them ever since they were promoted and get relegated.

This has come in the same year that the business Whelan, a proud Thatcherite, founded, JJB Sports, a company he ran with very dubious ethics, finally went in to liquidation and ceased to exist, having been bought out by Sports Direct, owned by the chairman of Newcastle United and the team they could have pipped in their race for survival.

It’s been the end of a seriously elongated fairytale for Dave Whelan, the man who polarised a strong Rugby town when he built the stadium that propelled the Football side and had the Warriors grudgingly share, which has ended in a very bittersweet manner; a script so outlandish it is, along with the carving on the trophy made where Whelan was born, already engraved in folklore.

Martinez will most likely leave but despite being younger than the longest and most successful football manager in British history, it remains to be seen whether Whelan has the heart and desire to continue, so this may well be the end of the Latics – of the least recognisable with that moniker merely a decade ago – and their David; the Goliath slaying minnow may never reach the dizzy heights of the Top Flight again.

Then again, I wouldn’t put it past DW to employ the man who took them up originally, Jewell and bounce straight back up. With the usual blend of carefully sourced South American flair and homegrown heroes plucked from obsecurity, naturally.

——

Of course, you would find a lot of DW hatred across English websites and sports pages. In Guardian because of DW being a Thatcherite; and in the others because of him being an old blusterer.

But really, it’s been a fairytale for him and for Wigan. Loved their stay at the Premier League.

May they jump right back up.

I fear, though that it might not happen.

Here’s a nice article on what makes Jesse Ryder a cult hero, and even on the phenomenon of a cult hero itself…

From the Cordon – ESPNCricinfo.

Ryder, and Gavin Larsen before him, Shahid Afridi, Patrick Patterson, Venkatesh Prasad, Marvan Atapattu … these are my walk-on-water guys. These are the guys who will be discussed about when I start my cult

In the PL, number of red cards against Man United this season? Zero. In the PL, number of red cards against Man United? Zero.

Has this ever happened to any team at all earlier in any season in any major football league? I doubt it.

Interesting? Yes. Surprising? No.