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DERedcoat

Listed below are comments made by DERedcoat between Monday, 1st June 2009 and Tuesday, 1st December 2009.

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Young starts to live up to the hype 6:18pm on 01 Dec 2009 Rose Bowl (I think) revisited. Young's college coming out party was a thing of beauty and wonder and one I missed on the night since I was so sick of the camera panning to Matt Leinart's (now there is another tale of potential not really achieved) Dad - who was sooooo ready to celebrate - that I went to bed, just before the 4th and 2 stop and "The Drive". Fortunately I recorded it and watched i the next AM after my stunned look at the paper! I think Young has some way to come back though. The fans have longer memories than players give them credit for and Young burned a few bridges the last year or so.
A glimpse of life after Freddie 00:14am on 22 Aug 2009 Number 15: Drewbarb: "The evening session has (again) showed how fragile the middle order is, and I fear that, if England finish the job, the cracks will be papered over once again." It isn't the middle order that is the real problem. I'm not sure where you reckon the middle order starts but our "top of the card" - with the exception of Strauss - has reliably stunk up the place ALL SERIES, thereby exposing a middle order to a fresh attack. Agree though that a win here will cause a bout of self congratulation and no lessons will be learned. If Australia lose they will do the opposite and retool like they did in 05/06.
A glimpse of life after Freddie 00:00am on 22 Aug 2009 Since the beginning I have been wondering why Broad has been getting the stick while so few of the Old Lads Club that seems to make up the England Dressing room skates.

Exhibit A: Cook. Looks cute, wears a shirt provocatively open to impress the lasses but what is his average for the series? Yes, he is young and has potential but has not impressed as a number 2. Back to the counties for a spell I think.

Exhibit B: Collingwood. Time and again he has wafted in a half baked manner at balls that need leaving alone and precipitated the infamous middle order collapse. His bowling is a non factor too.

What people forget is that Broad has been pigeonholed as a bowler, whereas in fact he is more of an all rounder. He started his career as a batsman at school and when he grew an inch or 4 was converted to bowler. I can't find his batting average for this series but it iI am ready to bet it is in the 20's or 30's and many of his innings have been vital to the result.

Perhaps now we will see him accepted by the lads club and we'll hear him being described as "Broady". We'll know then that his international career is secure, at which point he'll probably go to seed like the rest of the losers on the team.
Semenya left stranded by storm 09:20am on 20 Aug 2009 Given that gender is defined (or at least was) under separate legal codes, how does the IAAF define gender these days? Surely the only "acid test" is chromosomal. If she has a pair of XXs, however butch she looks she is a lady and everyone should a) apologise and b) get over it.

If she has a Y then she's a bloke; simple as. Why the need for a bunch of endocrinologists etc.?
Bloodgate brings Deano down 00:58am on 20 Aug 2009 Like many who watched Dean Richards play "back when the earth was young" I am very saddened by this. I always admired him , feeling he put steel in the spine of any team he played on. He needed a ban as did Williams and possibly the medic but doesn't the IRB response smack a little of "piling on"? Richards can't earn a living in the UK or Europe as a coach. Who in NZ or Oz would hire him? I think he has learned his lesson to put it mildly. Agree with everything about malice aforethought but I feel that by being all "zero tolerance" on the matter the IRB is trying to make up for the shameful decisions made concerning Burger and Botha (whose offence was to my mind clearly designed to alter the game's flow and actually in terms of impact on the injured player far greater) as well as DeVries's "toys from the pram" attitude over the whole thing. Both broader incidents brought the game into disrepute but the penalties have been vastly different.

Anyhow, this whole blood injury thing is getting out of hand. It smacks rather of the faking an injury and expecting the opposition to surrender a promising move by kicking the ball out that we saw in a recent Football World cup. Play the game; if you're injured either get off and get help or be subbed. If it is a blood injury, you shouldn't be replaced by someone who has already left the field. If the team is out of subs tough luck. An attempt to manage player safety has become a cheat's charter
Ghost of Owens inspires Bolt 02:12am on 17 Aug 2009 Again, another "words fail me" performance by one of the greatest athletics performers ever. What continues to raise in my mind is whether he can dosomething truly unique. Rumour had it that prior to the Olympics Bolt was doing 400 m training runs "just to work some variety in". Is there a chance that, getting bored at shattering the lower two distances he may have a stab at the 400 meters? I know, it's a totally different event, legs go to jelly at 300 etc.etc. etc., but look at the way the man runs. He doesn't look like a prototype 100 meter man. He is built more like a one lapper.

Michael Johnson showed that you can go down a distance from 400 and Juantorena back in 76 showed that a 400 meter runner could go up to 800. His coaches too said that the double lap reps he was doing at the time in training were just to increase his endurance. You think it is in the back of Bolt's his coaches minds that this might be a shot at immortality?
Why Kraft's salary cap cure cannot compete 10:43am on 15 Aug 2009 Frogstar: "The Trade" (one of many incidnets at that time in the NFL referred to by the capitlaized "The") was a deal between the COwboys and the Minnesota Vikngs back in the early 90s that set the scene for Dallas dominance for a decade. Walker was an unusual player since he had been a beast at college but had not gone to the NFL, instead signing up for the USFL along with Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Reggie White and others. In his time at the USFL he obliterated all the records (admittedly against sub par defences; but you play what is in front of you). When the USFL folded he was up for draft and - I believe - Dallas had craftily spent a low-down-the-draft pick (where one normally picks up a used sweat sock) gambling that the USFL would end one day, to get his rights. In other words they had first dibs on him. At the time Minnesota was - in their mind - one running back away from the Super Bowl. Walker was such a proven quantity (no fresh out of college back he) that they reckoned it was worth mortgaging the farm to get him. They therefore handed Dallas the bulk of their draft picks for the new two years plus (details I can't remember) in return for the rights to employ Walker. I remember seeing his first touch of the ball in Minnesota; it seemed to vindicate the decision. He took a kick off back something like 90 yards to score. Things didn't stay that way however and Walker and the Vikings split within a year or two (he spent many happy years with the Eagles but never tore the league up the way people thought he would).

Meanwhile Dallas took the draft picks and went to town. Seldom has a team been able to build with so many players the same age and of high round talent at one time. HAving a shrewd management team helped but it is rare to be able to draft the likes of Michael Irvine, Emmitt Smith, mst of their offensive line and a chunk of the defence in one go. Aikman had arrived the year before. The rest is history
Lions left to lick wounds after epic failure 10:00am on 29 Jun 2009 Comment 34 DiSioncati.

Spot on. I was watching this in a bar in Tokyo late at night and someone pointed out the tackle count. Itwas more than twice in our favour until we started kicking away possession in the second half.

The team selection in terms of the bench was mystifying to me. Williams brings nothing as a bench player at the moment. When he recovers his Mojo maybe he'll be able to deal with the intensity of a game like this but wouldn't we have been better bringing Armitage out or one of the young Irishmen?

And O'Gara remains a mystery to me. Some games sublime to watch but put some stick on him and he disappears. Has no business near the stadium.

Another thing re. the video ref.Some consistency in decision making needs to come in or the whole thing will fall into disrepute. For all test matches there need to be a defined set of cameras covernig a defined set of angles, rather than what turns up on the day and at the pleasure of the broadcasters. Then we have to set a pecking order on how the decision is made. Ref's decision first then referrable to the lads upstairs (a bit liek the NFL). The decision we saw on Saturday was a result of nobody really wanting to step up and take it and as a result was lame.
Habana's secret weapon 11:46am on 27 Jun 2009 For all the SCW haters out there this is a reason why many of us wish he were still in charge. He brought in specialists in key areas to make the 1-2% improvements in the performance of people who are already performing at a level in the 99th plus percentile compared with the general population. When you do that good things happen. The days of "Roy of the Rovers" or "Tough of the Track" (there I go dating myself) guts and glory winning through despite the odds are, in general, done.
Mawhinney tackles the big issues 12:00pm on 01 Jun 2009 What a pile of nonsense. We'll turn the premiership and the recently relegated into a quasi US COllege football conference; in other words a cartel. I suspect that all this is going on because the Old Firm wants in to the big money trough and keeps up a whiney PR campaign. As a result we have to change the English game. No thanks.

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DERedcoat