Mega Thread 2022/23 Off-Season Sports Thread

[Nodgey]

My theory also with soccer is that these players are worth an absolute fortune, so there is no point in them hobbling on a fractured ankle perhaps exacerbating the injury. Put them in cotton wool and ensure they get the best possible treatment. You can treat your banged up Holden Astra like a piece of crap, but you'd take good care of your Ferrari.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

I realise

As this is an open forum which allows for people opinions I'm giving mine.

I can't take the sport seriously when they clearly aren't injured yet they are crying for a penalties. Barlow breaks his leg in half and tries getting up because he wants to desperately play football.

Barlow 1
Soccer 0

We get that you dislike the sport and many actual soccer fans do agree there is too much carrying on, but please don't tar all players with the same brush.

Look up the 1970 WC semi-final and Franz Beckenbauer if you want. Old mate had his shoulder dislocated, there were no subs left and he played out the game and extra time with his arm in a sling.

 

[Square Peg]

An oldy but a goody for the haters

 

[Wobbly Punt]

We get that you dislike the sport and many actual soccer fans do agree there is too much carrying on, but please don't tar all players with the same brush.

Look up the 1970 WC semi-final and Franz Beckenbauer if you want. Old mate had his shoulder dislocated, there were no subs left and he played out the game and extra time with his arm in a sling.

That's the reverse of tarring everyone with the same brush isn't it. I'm not sure what you call that but is it fluffing everyone because 1 example went OK?

Those of us haters are meant to respect a sport that constantly rewards divers and sooks rather than punishes them and we should also should go easy on the current players because of what one bloke did 50 years ago? Crikey that's a stretch. For every Franz there is 1000 of that little Brazilian clown who's name I can't be bothered looking up.

I have no issue with people loving a game I hate to my core, more power to you as long as I don't have to watch it with you. Enjoy it all you like but let's not pretend the game is in good shape in this regard because of what one guy did half a century ago.

 

[King Huskii]

We get that you dislike the sport and many actual soccer fans do agree there is too much carrying on, but please don't tar all players with the same brush.

Look up the 1970 WC semi-final and Franz Beckenbauer if you want. Old mate had his shoulder dislocated, there were no subs left and he played out the game and extra time with his arm in a sling.

Almost 50 years ago

Wouldn't happen today

 

[Dale147]

Betting scandal

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

That's the reverse of tarring everyone with the same brush isn't it. I'm not sure what you call that but is it fluffing everyone because 1 example went OK?

Those of us haters are meant to respect a sport that constantly rewards divers and sooks rather than punishes them and we should also should go easy on the current players because of what one bloke did 50 years ago? Crikey that's a stretch. For every Franz there is 1000 of that little Brazilian clown who's name I can't be bothered looking up.

I have no issue with people loving a game I hate to my core, more power to you as long as I don't have to watch it with you. Enjoy it all you like but let's not pretend the game is in good shape in this regard because of what one guy did half a century ago.

I hope you apply that same line of thinking when Walters ducks and dives for frees. It's honestly a blight in all sports, where you can win a free kick or foul and it is frustrating for pretty much everyone involved.

With VAR now it is slowly becoming less prominent and players are copping fines for simulation.

Also if you're going to cite a player (it's Neymar by the way) at least look up the name of the guy to back it up...

 

[CakeEater]

Sa doing better in the One dayer than the shield which is surprising.

 

[Wobbly Punt]

I hope you apply that same line of thinking when Walters ducks and dives for frees. It's honestly a blight in all sports, where you can win a free kick or foul and it is frustrating for pretty much everyone involved.

With VAR now it is slowly becoming less prominent and players are copping fines for simulation.

Also if you're going to cite a player (it's Neymar by the way) at least look up the name of the guy to back it up...

I do apply the same logic with Sonny, the mates I sit with at games will attest to this as they hear me bang on about it every time he does it. I hate any of our players over playing for free kicks because the one or 2 times it works doesn't make up for the 5-6 times it doesn't and you've taken yourself out of the contest. It's also different in that Walters will rarely act as though he's had his leg taken clean off him when a stiff breeze blows by him which the soccer boys do way more often than any AFL player ever has (barring Scott Camporeale maybe).

No need for me to look your boy Neymar up, you clearly knew who I meant and I have zero interest in him. I did consider Googling diving Braziilan soccer player but there'd be too many to pick from. I'd also be worried my Google feed would start offering me soccer content which would offend me greatly.

Again, if you like the sport that's fine by me. I get it and I hope you enjoy the hell out of the upcoming Cup. But to deny there is a culture of prima donna serial divers and sooks is a silly thing to argue about. To then use an example from 50yrs ago strengthens the point of the haters you are hating, not yours.

My closest mates love the game as well, they love it despite the diving and the bulldust carry on. Its possible to accept the crap I'm talking about exists and still love the game.

Similarly, I'm a basketball fan, at the same time I hate flopping and despise the existing culture in the NBA of me first and super team stuff embedded in current players. Hate it. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy a game and I certainly won't try to justify the antics of the current guys by saying Oscar Robertson once rejected an offer from the Lakers because he wanted to win it in Milwaukee. I'd fill you in a bit more on Oscar but then I'd deprive you of the joy of looking him up.

 

[King Huskii]

I do apply the same logic with Sonny, the mates I sit with at games will attest to this as they hear me bang on about it every time he does it. I hate any of our players over playing for free kicks because the one or 2 times it works doesn't make up for the 5-6 times it doesn't and you've taken yourself out of the contest. It's also different in that Walters will rarely act as though he's had his leg taken clean off him when a stiff breeze blows by him which the soccer boys do way more often than any AFL player ever has (barring Scott Camporeale maybe).

No need for me to look your boy Neymar up, you clearly knew who I meant and I have zero interest in him. I did consider Googling diving Braziilan soccer player but there'd be too many to pick from. I'd also be worried my Google feed would start offering me soccer content which would offend me greatly.

Again, if you like the sport that's fine by me. I get it and I hope you enjoy the hell out of the upcoming Cup. But to deny there is a culture of prima donna serial divers and sooks is a silly thing to argue about. To then use an example from 50yrs ago strengthens the point of the haters you are hating, not yours.

My closest mates love the game as well, they love it despite the diving and the bulldust carry on. Its possible to accept the crap I'm talking about exists and still love the game.

Similarly, I'm a basketball fan, at the same time I hate flopping and despise the existing culture in the NBA of me first and super team stuff embedded in current players. Hate it. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy a game and I certainly won't try to justify the antics of the current guys by saying Oscar Robertson once rejected an offer from the Lakers because he wanted to win it in Milwaukee. I'd fill you in a bit more on Oscar but then I'd deprive you of the joy of looking him up.

Don't mention soccer diving

 

[The Round House Drunk]

I write this as a lifelong football (round ball) fan, who has recently lost some love for the sport at the elite levels.

Time wasting is a blight on the game and could be eradicated through timekeeping measures to achieve a minimum effective playing time (such as in AFL or basketball).

But IFAB (the body responsible for the Laws of the Game) places high value on universality, meaning that the game is essentially the same in every part of the world and at every level. In theory, how the game is played and refereed should be the same on every football field in the world from the FIFA World Cup final to the smallest village.

Hence we have the situation where the referee is the official timekeeper of the match, using a watch to manage time and without the ability to stop the clock from running when the ball is out of play. Time wasting is often a highly effective course of action. I'm not endorsing it - just trying to explain its prevalence.

As for players feigning injury and diving, I can't stand it in football just as I can't stand watching players in AFL play for free kicks. Football is simply so big in scale - it's been described as the largest and most universal cultural mode in the history of our species. At the elite levels, there are hundreds of millions of pairs of eyeballs across all seven continents (and in space) watching. Egotism has become somewhat enculturated. The feigning of injury and general Cristiano Ronaldo type behaviour is encountered far less in the women's game and in the lower levels of mens football.

As has been pointed out, the issue of diving has been eradicated to a fairly large degree by VAR (which comes with issues of its own).

 

[greatgatsby]

I write this as a lifelong football (round ball) fan, who has recently lost some love for the sport at the elite levels.

Time wasting is a blight on the game and could be eradicated through timekeeping measures to achieve a minimum effective playing time (such as in AFL or basketball).

But IFAB (the body responsible for the Laws of the Game) places high value on universality, meaning that the game is essentially the same in every part of the world and at every level. In theory, how the game is played and refereed should be the same on every football field in the world from the FIFA World Cup final to the smallest village.

Hence we have the situation where the referee is the official timekeeper of the match, using a watch to manage time and without the ability to stop the clock from running when the ball is out of play. Time wasting is often a highly effective course of action. I'm not endorsing it - just trying to explain its prevalence.

As for players feigning injury and diving, I can't stand it in football just as I can't stand watching players in AFL play for free kicks. Football is simply so big in scale - it's been described as the largest and most universal cultural mode in the history of our species. At the elite levels, there are hundreds of millions of pairs of eyeballs across all seven continents (and in space) watching. Egotism has become somewhat enculturated. The feigning of injury and general Cristiano Ronaldo type behaviour is encountered far less in the women's game and in the lower levels of mens football.

As has been pointed out, the issue of diving has been eradicated to a fairly large degree by VAR (which comes with issues of its own).

Nice post. In my lifetime many of the cultural issues with the sport - crowd behaviour, on-field cheating - have improved. The main issue now as I see it is that internationally the game is run and regulated by the most corrupt entity anywhere in organised sport. The culmination of this can be seen in the venue of the showpiece event that is about to start. I don't know what the answer is ... presumably it starts with national organisations working to reform FIFA.

 

[King Huskii]

The next soccer world cup built on corruption and slave labour

 

[ImperialPurple]

Does anyone follow the WBBL? What purpose does Mathilda Carmichael serve in the Scorchers team? Please and thank you.

 

[anchor man]

The next soccer world cup built on corruption and slave labour

Aren't they all?
Soccer and the Olympics have made many people very very rich with under table hand shakes.
But who would have thought that alcohol would be served at the venues!!! A sham to say the least.
FIFA are s**t scared of them and now refusing to let the players wear the One Love arm bands.
I wonder what the next thing will be.
Only day one and a cluster fck.

 

[Wobbly Punt]

Does any other sport treat their fans with such lack of regard or even outright contempt?

I couldn't avoid seeing some of the Iran game last night when at Varsity for a catch-up and they took 10mins to decide to send a bloke off injured where even in boxing they'd have stopped it 8mins earlier. Instead the poor people watching the game had to watch this clown show of him washing his face, having his mates throw water at him, try to stay upright, change his clothes, wash his face again, stuff a kilo of tissue up his bonce and wash his face again for 10 full minutes before he ended up being stretchered off! What theatre!!!

I mean I feel for the poor bloke who got hammered but he was gone, get him off and give the people watching the game the actual game.

Honestly I didn't notice the difference between the lack of action during that spell and a normal game but my Pommy mates watching and those nearby were livid they were sitting there watching all that fuss instead of the game.

While this crapshow of a sport allows 1 guy to wobble around on the field getting utterly useless treatments for 10mins without the ref sending him to the bench some AFL fans/commentators and those of other sports (even cricket FFS) worry or complain about ruining the flow of the game by taking 1-2 mins to check a replay.

Unusually for soccer this injury delay was caused by an actual injury. It was a solid hit that's for sure.

And so ends my coverage of Qatar '22. Thankfully, I won't see another second of it from here.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

Does any other sport treat their fans with such lack of regard or even outright contempt?

I couldn't avoid seeing some of the Iran game last night when at Varsity for a catch-up and they took 10mins to decide to send a bloke off injured where even in boxing they'd have stopped it 8mins earlier. Instead the poor people watching the game had to watch this clown show of him washing his face, having his mates throw water at him, try to stay upright, change his clothes, wash his face again, stuff a kilo of tissue up his bonce and wash his face again for 10 full minutes before he ended up being stretchered off! What theatre!!!

I mean I feel for the poor bloke who got hammered but he was gone, get him off and give the people watching the game the actual game.

Honestly I didn't notice the difference between the lack of action during that spell and a normal game but my Pommy mates watching and those nearby were livid they were sitting there watching all that fuss instead of the game.

While this crapshow of a sport allows 1 guy to wobble around on the field getting utterly useless treatments for 10mins without the ref sending him to the bench some AFL fans/commentators and those of other sports (even cricket FFS) worry or complain about ruining the flow of the game by taking 1-2 mins to check a replay.

Unusually for soccer this injury delay was caused by an actual injury. It was a solid hit that's for sure.

And so ends my coverage of Qatar '22. Thankfully, I won't see another second of it from here.

You can stop commenting on this thread then, mate. All you've surmised there is you hate the game, accompanied by a big "woe is me" for having been subjected to it. Jog on now, lad

Stop derailing the off-season sports thread with hate and either don't say anything or try and actually contribute to it constructively.

 

[King Huskii]

You can stop commenting on this thread then, mate. All you've surmised there is you hate the game, accompanied by a big "woe is me" for having been subjected to it. Jog on now, lad

Stop derailing the off-season sports thread with hate and either don't say anything or try and actually contribute to it constructively.

But its the truth

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

But its the truth

No, mate, it's an opinion of someone who clearly dislikes the sport and an opinion you also agree with. Talk about it with your mates, or on another off-topic thread - hell, take it to the bay for all I care - but keep it out of the off-season sports discussion thread. All it does is polarise both sides.

You can dislike the sport as much as you want, just don't derail this thread with hate for it. This isn't a safe space for all sports per se, however, anyone who wants to discuss another sport should be able to without it getting hijacked by overly negative comments

 

[CakeEater]

Does any other sport treat their fans with such lack of regard or even outright contempt?

I couldn't avoid seeing some of the Iran game last night when at Varsity for a catch-up and they took 10mins to decide to send a bloke off injured where even in boxing they'd have stopped it 8mins earlier. Instead the poor people watching the game had to watch this clown show of him washing his face, having his mates throw water at him, try to stay upright, change his clothes, wash his face again, stuff a kilo of tissue up his bonce and wash his face again for 10 full minutes before he ended up being stretchered off! What theatre!!!

I mean I feel for the poor bloke who got hammered but he was gone, get him off and give the people watching the game the actual game.

Honestly I didn't notice the difference between the lack of action during that spell and a normal game but my Pommy mates watching and those nearby were livid they were sitting there watching all that fuss instead of the game.

While this crapshow of a sport allows 1 guy to wobble around on the field getting utterly useless treatments for 10mins without the ref sending him to the bench some AFL fans/commentators and those of other sports (even cricket FFS) worry or complain about ruining the flow of the game by taking 1-2 mins to check a replay.

Unusually for soccer this injury delay was caused by an actual injury. It was a solid hit that's for sure.

And so ends my coverage of Qatar '22. Thankfully, I won't see another second of it from here.

Tbf, if that was the AFL all of us on here would have been like WTF are the doctors doing letting him stay on.

Its usually a tell tale sign when the smelling salts come out that the keepers bell had been rung.

 

[Bigger]

Soccer is responsible for this freakshow - and thereby is allowed to exist:




Dude looks his main job is as the bassplayer in the world's fourth-best Metallica tribute band but pulls off that audaciousness without looking like he ever once lost sight of where he put his UDL.

 

[King Huskii]

No, mate, it's an opinion of someone who clearly dislikes the sport and an opinion you also agree with. Talk about it with your mates, or on another off-topic thread - hell, take it to the bay for all I care - but keep it out of the off-season sports discussion thread. All it does is polarise both sides.

You can dislike the sport as much as you want, just don't derail this thread with hate for it. This isn't a safe space for all sports per se, however, anyone who wants to discuss another sport should be able to without it getting hijacked by overly negative comments

I don't hate the sport

Its highly skilled

I hate the corruption and theatrics. It ruins a great game

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

I don't hate the sport

Its highly skilled

I hate the corruption and theatrics. It ruins a great game

I can respect that. It's a shame, pretty much every major sport is ruined by corruption and theatrics (except for maybe Union)

 

[Piggy Smalls]

I can respect that. It's a shame, pretty much every major sport is ruined by corruption and theatrics (except for maybe Union)

The process that led to the original decision to cut the Force from Super Rugby instead of the Rebels was about as corrupt as it gets.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

The process that led to the original decision to cut the Force from Super Rugby instead of the Rebels was about as corrupt as it gets.

That wasn't corruption. That was about as blatant as it gets. The comp was heavily compromised as soon as Japan/Argentina got teams - which should never have happened in the first place (maybe one team - but you don't cross hemispheres twice) It was a real shame the way it all went down. Knew quite a few people before, during and after the saga who were very dirty about it all (and rightly so)