Michael Collins’ Best Work: “Mika” (Basketball) Appeared on Downtown (http://downtownball.net/2015/03/mika/) The final minute of a seesawing championship clincher is a moment that nearly every player covets. The most unsettling thing about it though is the sudden realization that every dribble, swinging pass, rebound and basket will be forever embedded in basketball law, like the coins…
Before anyone ever cared where I spent my weekends, I was a kid from the Punt Road End. It’s where I walked. It’s where I cheered. It’s where I cried. It’s where I hugged an obscenely obese man after a Kayne Pettifer goal. It holds a special place in my heart. People there have seen…
Alastair Cook’s unusually conservative captaincy terminated England’s dominance over Australia and certainly has done no favours in promoting the game of test cricket. Cook said that he and Coach Andy Flower are still the right combination to drive England forward. Right, so are Dennis Dugan and Adam Sandler. Test cricket can ill-afford to stand still…
Point Guard Binczyk: Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) The LA Clippers’ little enforcer has certainly put his hand up as an MVP candidate so far this season averaging a remarkable 11 assists and 19 points per game. The attributes of the world’s best chess players are comparable to how Paul manoeuvres and dictates games on…
Point Guard Binczyk: John Wall (Washington Wizards) With not a lot of superstar grade talent to choose from in the East since Rose went down, I’m picking John. Although averaging less than Kyrie, his reliability and importance to that Wizards team is insurmountable. Lavalette: John Wall In a league that is top-heavy with elite point…
Binczyk: Let’s kick it off with the terrible start the New York Knicks have endured. Still early days but the loss of Tyson Chandler has left a defensive hole that is big enough to drive a Mack truck through. Is there any coming back for this Knicks team to be some sort of threat come…
Only 20 days ago, I was preparing to write a column about how there was only three sure things about Australian cricket: 1) Mitch Johnson’s claim to be a good cricketer is as legitimate as Lara Bingle’s IQ. 2) I trust the captain of the Costa Concordia more than Cricket Australia. 3) I’m going to…
Jimmy Anderson wants to punch George Bailey in the face and Michael Clarke wants Anderson’s arm broken. No, this isn’t some awful WWE wrestling match or even Dave Warner on a Saturday night. What was said and not what was achieved in the first test wrongly dominated the back pages. Australia haven’t hosted a tightly…
Was it English complacency that allowed Australia to break the match wide open in a dramatic middle session? Sure, to a degree. Throw in Mitchell Johnson finally contributing to an Ashes test match, Nathan Lyon actually top-spinning his deliveries and Alastair Cook’s incomprehensibly poor captaincy … and you have Australia in pole position! In the…
Tommy Hafey might have immortalised the words, “There’s nothing more tigerish than a wounded tiger”, but it was Jack Dyer who embodied these words more than any other player that donned the yellow sash. In today’s era of nine-year multimillion-dollar contracts and antler-deer-spray, revisiting the good old amateur days and the characters who helped shape…
IN a classic heavyweight clash, Box Hill Hawks survived the Casey Scorpions’ second half surge and prevailed by two points. The Hawks were perhaps the weekend’s biggest winners. They secured a home final and can avoid meeting Geelong possibly until the Grand Final, as Michael Collins reports. The game was what you would have expected…
Australian sport has been unforgettable this year for so many many reasons. Well, really only for two- Essendon and Australian cricket. One’s been accused of immorality and taking PEDs and the other should seriously consider pill popping. AFL fans have been the losers this year. Richmond finally crack into the finals after 12 years in…
Every country has its sporting coliseum. Australia boasts the Melbourne Cricket Ground, England treasures Lord’s and North America showcases Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. For New Zealanders, whose love affair for rugby grows deep, Eden Park is where they make their weekend pilgrimage. John McCrystal and Lindsay Knight’s Eden Park: A History is…
BOX Hill Hawks cemented a top four spot and dented Essendon’s late season surge with a dominant 72-point win. Essendon emphatically answered the pregame questions marks lingering over its finals credentials, but just perhaps not in the positive manner they would have liked, as Michael Collins reports. Joe Daniher, who presented strongly all day up forward,…
Dave Warner’s greatest contribution to Australian cricket in 2013 was landing a right hook to Joe Root’s head at a Birmingham bar, but even that couldn’t derail the Poms. Now, Warner has been gifted the opportunity to regain respect and add another needed storyline to the remaining eight Ashes test matches. Thanks to an innings…
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