Coaches back rule Super 14 changes
December 4, 2007 - 1:19PM
Super 14 coaches have applauded the experimental rule changes officials hope will produce "super-charged rugby" next year, but Wallaby flankers Phil Waugh and Rocky Elsom sounded cautionary notes.
The three SANZAR nations agreed to implement most of the variations which were trialled in this year's Australian Rugby Championship.
They cover several areas of the game including lineouts, scrums, the breakdown and the awarding of penalties.
Backlines must be five metres back from the scrum, quick lineouts can now go backward as well as straight, and free kicks rather than penalties will be awarded for all offences other than offside and foul play.
However, a number of the more contentious variations, including the pulling down of mauls, unlimited lineout numbers and the allowance of hands in the ruck were not introduced due to "vagueness" over their interpretations.
Multiple Super title-winning Crusaders coach Robbie Deans said he thought it was great that the International Rugby Board had shown some flexibility over the laws.
"There's obviously a little bit of a fear of the unknown, but we believe it's going to be good for the game," Dean said at Tuesday's SANZAR conference in Sydney.
"To that end, while it's a courageous step, we're better to act and do something where there's a need, than do nothing at all and from a coaching perspective we're pretty excited about it."
His enthusiasm for the changes was echoed by two Australian Super coaches, the Force's John Mitchell and the Waratahs' Ewen McKenzie.
While leading players were also generally enthusiastic about the experimental laws, they claimed they wouldn't make that much difference to the game.
"You can try and guide teams with rules, but really they will just try and bend them and change them back to the way they want them, so it'll probably be a while before you really see wholesale changes," Elsom said.
Waugh said the experimental laws were exciting for rugby and represented a fresh start after a "disappointing 2007".
"I think you may see a few more yellow cards rather than penalties, so discipline is still going to be crucial," Waugh said.
Waugh felt the New Zealand and Australian teams might initially be advantaged by the changes because of their traditional preference for playing more expansive rugby.
"It may disadvantage the South Africans a little bit, but I'm sure they will work out game plans to bring their size and power into the new changes," Waugh said.
Australian Rugby Union deputy chief executive Matt Carroll said it had not yet been determined whether the changes would be used in the Tri Nations, but stressed that next year's home Tests against Ireland and France would definitely be played under the existing laws.
Mitchell said he was looking forward to embracing the new variations.
"It's really essential for the game, even more so for us in Australia, where we are competing with the other contact sports and it's important the game is a lot more free flowing," he said.
ARU officials expected the changes to produce a faster game, with the ball in play for up to an extra five minutes.
(c) 2007 AAP
US police still studying Cousins case
US detectives probing Ben Cousins' alleged cocaine binge in Los Angeles are not expected to announce until early next week if the disgraced AFL star will be charged.
Hermosa Beach detectives were expecting to wrap up the case on Thursday, but say it will likely be Tuesday (AEDT) when Cousins' fate is revealed.
If so, Cousins will appear before the AFL Commission in Melbourne on Monday for a hearing which could decide his AFL career, without knowing whether he will be charged with drug offences in the US.
The AFL has charged him with bringing the game into disrepute.
But Sergeant Nancy Cook, head of the Hermosa Beach detectives unit, said: "We haven't completed our investigation."
Sgt Cook told AAP there was no link between Cousins' AFL commission appearance and the delay in announcing whether the 29-year-old will be charged.
"You can't be done until you're done," she added.
Detectives are speaking with potential witnesses and visiting locations where Cousins may have been.
Cousins' female companion in Los Angeles, Susie Ela, is likely one of the people authorities have made contact with, although authorities refuse to divulge names.
"I can tell you we are investigating," Sgt Cook said.
"That would entail going to places and talking to people, but I can't tell you who or where."
Cousins' latest brush with the law came after Ela made an emergency 911 call from her multi-million dollar Hermosa Beach home, located south of Los Angeles, on Halloween morning, October 31.
The official emergency call sheet states Ela told the operator "a 29-year-old male on cocaine was not acting right, but (was) breathing and unconscious".
She then told the operator, according to the log, that he "had been on cocaine for the past five days. He's not being violent. He's just scared".
Cousins has returned to Australia and has been staying in the seaside Sydney suburb of Manly this week.
He told local media he still hopes to play AFL, despite being sacked by the West Coast Eagles.
On Monday in Melbourne he will face the AFL Commission to answer a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.
Cousins' US legal woes came as his Perth legal troubles ended.
A Perth court this week formally dropped the second of two charges laid against Cousins after he was caught driving erratically in Perth last month.
He was charged with drug possession and refusing a driver drug test in Perth, but both have now been dropped.
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
Essendon absentees no concern
Essendon's pre-season campaign continued on Thursday morning with a light hit-out at Princes Park which included a 3.2km time trial.
However, the major talking point from the session was focussed around who was absent with Scott Lucas, Andrew Lovett and Nathan Lovett-Murray heading a sizeable sick list.
Bombers high performance manager John Quinn explained the reasons behind each of the absentees exclusively to Sportal, starting with Lucas.
"Scotty Lucas has just had a little bit of soreness, he had a bit of a setback over the break where he had a little bit of a tidy-up done on an ankle and that got an infection in it," Quinn said.
"He's not actually injured now, but to bring him back in and to ask him to do testing is a bit much, so we'll spend the next three weeks just building him up and he should be fine."
Lovett didn't turn up due to illness and, although Lovett-Murray joined his cousin in absentia, Quinn played down any concerns over the half-back flanker.
"There's nothing too much wrong with Nathan, he's had a groin operation in the break and we've started running him, he got a little bit of foot soreness on both feet and so we've just backed him off," Quinn said.
Big forward Courtney Johns didn't participate either due to a shoulder complaint but Quinn insisted that the prognosis was good for the 22-year-old.
"He's had a bit of a shoulder tidy-up and we're going a bit steady with him and he's probably about three weeks away," Quinn said.
Yet Quinn conceded that he harbours concerns for youngster Jay Neagle who has just recovered from another bout of stress reaction in his foot.
At just 19, Neagle has already developed a history of stress-related injuries in his feet.
"He's had a stress reaction and a fracture on each side now and they're actually in a very strange position - the inside of his feet," Quinn explained.
"We've had him with, who we believe is, the best podiatrist in the country and he thinks a lot of it has to do with his growth phase and where he's at."
Coach Matthew Knights expects to have a fully fit squad by the end of the year.
"We won't have too many post-Christmas that are in any real trouble at all so we're travelling pretty well from that perspective," Knights said.
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
Get real on Cousins return: Demetriou
Suggestions former Eagles star Ben Cousins could resume his AFL career any time soon are fanciful, league boss Andrew Demetriou says.
But AFL Players Association head Brendan Gale said Cousins, who has reportedly failed to enter a Malibu drug rehab clinic as planned, should be given yet another chance.
While Gale continues to back a Cousins return, an AFL Commission meeting later this month may decide to charge him with bringing the game into disrepute.
Demetriou said Cousins' safety was his chief concern after reports he failed to report to the rehab facility.
"All I care about today is Ben Cousins' welfare and that he gets healthy," Demetriou said.
"At the moment he's supposed to go off to rehab and he's not even there allegedly.
"He's got much broader issues than just playing football.
"People talking about him playing football are that far away from what the reality is...
"He should go and get his life in order.
"Insofar as whether he plays football, there are lots of hurdles..." he said.
Gale said the reports of Cousins' failure to arrive at the rehab clinic "comes as some surprise".
"But I'm in no position to verify the reliability or not - I simply don't know," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting in Melbourne.
But he has rejected the general view that the sacked West Coast player's career was at an end after his recent arrest in Perth.
The AFL is understood to be considering charging Cousins with bringing the game into disrepute over his Perth arrest.
The AFL Commission is likely to announce any action after its meeting on November 19-20.
However, Gale said Cousins should be given yet another chance to prove he had recovered from his drug addiction and could resume playing.
"He's got to demonstrate that he is fit and willing and able to perform his duties as a professional footballer," Gale said.
"Should he be able to do that I would expect that he would be given permission to resume playing.
"For the AFL to deny that opportunity would be a very complex decision.
"He'd need to demonstrate that he was up and going and willing and able."
But Demetriou said Cousins' future was not so clear cut.
"He's been sacked by the club so he's no longer a West Coast Eagles player and technically as a result of that he's no longer registered as an AFL footballer," he said.
"He can't nominate for the national draft...the issue then surrounds whether he can nominate for the pre-season draft and the commission will meet shortly to discuss that issue and will have a view on it.
"I can't pre-empt what the commission will determine on this front shortly other than to say obviously there are issues of recent times which do not sit comfortably with anybody who's involved with football and of course the wider community," he said.
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
Dockers dump five players
Veteran defender James Walker is among five players that have been delisted by the Fremantle Dockers.
Walker, who played 151 games for the Dockers, joins Clayton Collard, Calib Mourish, Robert Haddrill and Ryley Dunn in looking for a new home in the AFL.
Rookie listed players Darren Rumble and Benet Copping have also been advised that their contracts have not been renewed.
Meanwhile, the Dockers have appointed former Essendon and West Coast utility Michael Prior to the position of skills coach at the club.
Prior, who played 90 AFL games during his career, has been the coach of the East Perth Colts in Western Australia during the past two year's, winning the premiership with the club in 2006.
Copyright 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
Cloke ready to lift for AFL finals
AAP - Friday September 7, 9:07 PM
Young Collingwood star forward Travis Cloke says some time away from the club has helped rejuvenate him on the eve of his AFL finals debut.
Cloke is one of five Magpies youngsters who will be tasting finals action for the first time in Saturday night's elimination final against Sydney at the MCG.
The tall, mobile 20-year-old has been a key factor in the Magpies' unexpectedly strong season, but admits fatigue has caused his form to tail off late in the year.
But a recent mini-holiday from the club has him confident he is about to recapture his best.
"I was down a bit on form, I hadn't been covering that much ground of late, but I think that was definitely the fatigue," Cloke said.
"Being a young body and young person, it hurt a little bit that way.
"The form the last few weeks hasn't been the greatest.
"But I had a couple of days off a couple of weeks ago and my body's really feeling good now and feeling fresh so I'm looking for a big September."
Cloke's time away from football was spent mixing with family and friends and doing "what pretty much every other 20-year-old does, just sit at home, watch a bit of TV and the Playstation".
The Magpies also have defenders Harry O'Brien and Tyson Goldsack and midfielders Scott Pendlebury and Irishman Martin Clarke making their finals debuts.
It makes for a considerable experience gap between Collingwood and the Swans, who have played in four straight finals series, including the past two grand finals and have only one player, Ed Barlow, who is a September newcomer.
Collingwood veteran Tarkyn Lockyer said the Magpies youngsters had the advantage of having regularly played in front of big crowds, given the club's phenomenal drawing power.
But he said they would find the match a unique experience and it was impossible to predict how they would handle it.
"Nothing compares to finals footy, you can tell them all you like how much the intensity goes up, but until you actually experience it you'll just never know," Lockyer said.
"We think that they're well and truly prepared, they've done all the work, they've played all the games, got the form on the board, so hopefully they can go out there and do the job for us."
Copyright @ 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
Anti-drugs fight a lost cause: Matthews
AAP - Friday August 31, 4:54 PM
AFL legend Leigh Matthews has described the battle against illicit drugs as a "losing fight" following retired rugby league star Andrew Johns' stunning revelations.
The Brisbane Lions coach said the anti-drugs campaign had gone "down the gurgler" after a year in which Johns admitted to recreational drug use and AFL star Ben Cousins went into rehabilitation.
The four-time premiership-winning mentor dismissed Johns' defence that he took drugs to cope with being a high profile footballer, saying the former Test, NSW and Newcastle playmaker was under "make believe pressure" compared to what the rest of society faced.
Matthews also called for more effective drugs testing in the AFL, describing the problem as "worse than alcohol".
"But we've got to say it is a losing fight we are embarking on, and that's all of us - the community, not just the AFL system," Matthews said.
"The whole illicit drug issue is a scourge of society and society can't beat it.
"It seems like as much as everyone wants to stop it, it can't be stopped.
"If there is a demand there will be a supply."
Johns, regarded by many as rugby league's greatest player, has confessed to using recreational drugs throughout the last 10 years of his career.
Johns admitted using illicit drugs, sometimes during the season, as he sought to escape the pressure of high profile football.
But Matthews said: "I know there is pressure about playing your sport well but, gees, it's make believe pressure compared to feeding your family and `how do I survive, how do I pay my rent'.
"I would think people like that would say (to Johns) `that's not pressure'.
"You can understand most of the community saying `I wish I had that kind of pressure'."
Matthews shuddered to think of the message sent to youngsters by both Johns and Cousins - a former Brownlow Medallist and premiership winner.
"It's been a bad, bad year for the industry that is trying to convince young people and young sportsmen not to take drugs, hasn't it?" he said.
"I mean everyone would like to look like Ben Cousins so it's a shocking advertisement to what they (drugs) may do to you.
"And now we've got the best player in the NRL over the last 10 years, it's been shocking.
"The millions and millions that have been spent on `don't use drugs because it is going to do you harm' (campaign) crikey, this year has sent that down the gurgler."
And Matthews believed smarter drug testing was needed in the AFL.
"If you wanted the best chance of finding out, it would be the morning after the game, logic tells you that," he said.
"But how often do the drug people turn up on a Sunday morning session (after a Saturday night game) - rarely if ever."
Matthews admitted illicit drugs would be more tempting for a professional player because it did not effect an athlete's body as much as alcohol.
Meanwhile, Matthews said he supported the AFL players' boycott of Channel Seven after the network broadcast players' medical records last Friday.
"It's like the Empire is fighting back, normally we are just victims," Matthews said.
"There's a lot of bigger issues...but if you are going to publish stolen medical records, don't go thinking you are going to get our co-operation."
Copyright @ 2007 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
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