The kings are dead, the princes are charming
All good things must come to an end. Sometime during the third quarter of this semi-final, the last straw alighted on Hawthorn's back, so broad for so long, and broke it.
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Greg Baum
Greg Baum is chief sports columnist and associate editor with The Age
Kangaroos bow out, so do veterans
For two months, North Melbourne were clinging on. For two more hours at the Adelaide Oval, they clung some more. But like a man with his fingernails dug into the ledge of a cliff, they had to let go eventually.
Cats take cream in a thriller
It's September. It's finals. It's that archetypal new season, on elevated terms, before heaving crowds. It's Hawthorn time. It's Geelong time. It's time for Geelong-Hawthorn. If ever there were two teams to awaken one another to their vocations, it is these two.
Gibson has played 107 straight, but it's all about the next game
Sam Gibson has played 107 games in a row since his debut, and says the secret was in the first handful.
Gambling reform? Don't bet on it
When Nick Xenophon and Andrew Wilkie announced their mission to loosen the nexus between gambling and sport in Australia on Thursday, it was not hard to imagine that in the offices of some corporate bookies, the first thing they did was to frame a market on the likelihood of the politicians' success, complete with cash-back options and bonus bets.
Hawks, Federer: two eras, no end
Either Roger Federer is the Hawthorn of tennis, or the Hawks are the Federer of the AFL. As in a quinella, either way round wins.
England and the lose canon
Everyone loves a winner. But what we love even more is a loser, if it is the right loser. There can have been few more ideal losers than England when they crashed against lowly Iceland in the European soccer championships this week. We really, really loved that.
Blues versus Pies: is the deadly enmity dying?
Do great rivalries die, or merely fall dormant from time to time?
A sorry state of affairs
Is there anything quite so insincere as the sporting apology?
Sport: Where reality and make-believe cross paths
One of the best sports movies ever made is Bull Durham, a riff on the machinations of a minor league baseball club, starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. One poignant motif is the moment the manager, Jo Riggins (Trey Wilson) calls a declining player into his office and says with a stagy sigh: "This is the hardest thing a manager has to do." You know what comes next. Eventually, it comes even for the Costner character, Crash Davis.
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