Ken

No, see you are so fucking wrong. Football actually is the biggest sport in this god forsaken sporting hole. All the others have free to air tv deals, football doesn't but there are over 400,000 registered footballers in Australia, the other sorts don't even come close. And it's the only sport not subsidised by either the sporting body or government so fees are twice the price of other codes. By the way, the last world cup, which was at fuck off 3 and 5 o'clock in the morning kickoff times, actually rated higher than the grand finals of both the league and aerial ping pong grand finals for the same year. Don't believe the mainstream Australian media, their vested interest is in all other sports. This bit is 100% correct. But I must say, participation rates don't equate to popularity as a spectator sport for me, despite the WC final out-rating the rugby league and AFL, the WC comes around once every four years. Frank Lowy is the saviour of football in Australia though, trying to make it mainstream rather than a game for ethnics. But it will take time, a long, long time before it comes even close to rugby league or Aussie Rules. Winning the rights to host a WC may help, but surprise, surprise, who are voicing their discontent over those efforts?

What concerns me about the Aussies is the lack of pace and lack of youth in the squad. Kewell would have to be the quickest yet he may play lone-man striker as there are obvious lack of options there. One things for sure under Pim Verbeek, there won't be many goals scored as much as there won't be many goals conceded by his team. If the Aussies make it out of the group stages it'll be job well done in my opinion. This WC could be one of the dullest in recent memory tbh. England, Switzerland, Italy, France, Greece, NK, SK, South Africa... the list just goes on, not exactly teams that swarm and look for goals, and the Argies under Maradona are an absolute shambles; no tactics and no shape. I know very little of the African sides but at least they'll have a go. It'll all come down to momentum and if the Krauts build up theirs, then I see them taking it out. Spain are a real chance too. To win and in order: Brazil England Spain I don't think England have a hope in hell, but I'll be happy to eat my hat if they come close...

What concerns me about the Aussies is the lack of pace and lack of youth in the squad. Kewell would have to be the quickest yet he may play lone-man striker as there are obvious lack of options there. One things for sure under Pim Verbeek, there won't be many goals scored as much as there won't be many goals conceded by his team. If the Aussies make it out of the group stages it'll be job well done in my opinion. This WC could be one of the dullest in recent memory tbh. England, Switzerland, Italy, France, Greece, NK, SK, South Africa... the list just goes on, not exactly teams that swarm and look for goals, and the Argies under Maradona are an absolute shambles; no tactics and no shape. I know very little of the African sides but at least they'll have a go. It'll all come down to momentum and if the Krauts build up theirs, then I see them taking it out. Spain are a real chance too.

Is he right or are you right? You'll have to be more clear about why we can't both be right. Where have I said anything about German, Israeli or UK Intelligence? What I find hard to fathom is, why you would be so very serious with a dweeb likeflop???? The guy's a fucking gonad. Do you feel disheartened when he responds back to you saying you don't have a clue with and attached to his comments??? For fucks sake.

Absolutely disappointing this result, don't I look a fool now, eh? Merven Hughes and Andrew Hilditch can go to buggary, shit selections all series has led to this result. Not taking away anything from England though, of course they deserved the victory and the Ashes and it was an exciting one to follow. But Stuart Clark being overlooked for the first three tests, Phillip Hughes being dropped for an injury prone one-day allrounder and not having a specialist spinner in this last test is just gobsmacking stupidity. Being born in England doesn't make this loss any less painful, let me tel ya... On a lighter note though, hearing Lily Allen being cheeky on BBC and that see-through little ensemble she was wearing

Fuck off fish. It's only the pompous cunts such as yourself we enjoy beating - the rest of Britain is just an island north of WA!

No, just Ken's your typical wum tbh. Nowhere to be seen when they're doing shit. To be honest Alex, I think this Aussie team is shit, regardless of the last result. The selections, the tactics, the favouritism towards certain players etc. It is just with great fortune that Australia is playing a team who are even shitter than they.

You know, Stuart Law has put his hand up. Ozzie Stuart Law

Last time I checked, Australia weren't ahead in the series, nor have they been at any point. Yet despite this, Engerland need a victory to claim the Ashes.

It would seem no pommy bastard, not even a fat 40 year old who couldn't bend over to touch his toes, wants any part of this English setup. And to think I expected this series to be competitive. Perhaps the unwashed should consider calling up a Pakistani, Indian, South African or an Australian ex-pat on holiday over there to save them. What else have they got to lose?

I'm glad you've not included my name there. Yes, England are struggling. Thank God Stuart Clarke has finally been given a shot to add parity to the game. Reports were that he wasn't in the eleven initially. Straight away I thought Ponting had picked his favourite yet ineffective bowling attack yet again. I think it's only fair the series is tied 1-1 after this game has ended.....

Sorry mate, been missing in action for a few weeks at my holiday house in Davistown on the Central Coast. The fishing is lovely up there but I don't have access to the internet nor do I have pay television which literally puts me out in the wilderness in regards to goings-on around the globe. I haven't intentionally avoided the subject. Looks as though I haven't missed very much anyway (in regards to the cricket and the owner status of the football club).

I thought Hilfenhaus should definitely have had more overs, he was taken out of the attack way too early. I don't understand why Ponting took him off and persisted with Mitchell Johnson. Johnson absolutely wasted an opportunity with the second new ball. Anyway a draw is a decent enough result. I don't blame England for time wasting. They are absolutely outclassed in every facet of the game. Let them send out a fat bastard of a physio to waste time. Seeing him waddle on then off with his boobs jiggling about was probably the highlight of the test match for me, besides the 4 centuries made. I really can't see England winning any of the next 4 matches. They offer nothing. They get their hopes up by beating a bunch of part timers from the Caribbean and think they're in with a chance against Australia. The best they can hope for are 4 draws. Who knows, we may see that fat bastard waddling onto the ground again eh? And England will once again celebrate a draw as if it were a win. Any team would have celebrated a draw under the circumstances, a bit like you lot did in 2005. I'd think anyone with a bit of a clue wouldn't celebrate like it was a win though. Not saying we deserved much out of the game but I think you arrogance is a bit misplaced since Monty Panesar (one of the biggest 'rabbits' in test cricket) looked like he could have batted all day against your average attack. And how is a draw a 'decent enough result' for a team who 'outclassed' us 'in every facet of the game'? Many people celebrated the result as if it were a win. Perhaps this is why England are inferior; they don't expect to win against Australia and rightly so. And Alex, tell me one area that England were better in... England, I believe are second rate, despite Australia's current lack of a game killer. What have they really got to offer in the next 4 games? Onions?!? Who the fuck is Onions... you'll need potatoes, shitakes and rice plus more and more carbs before you get even close. I'm not saying we weren't inferior in every aspect though. The point is it was a great result under the circumstances because of that. And winning / losing has very little to do with fans' expectations as I think a lot of people thought England had a great chance of recapturing the Ashes and still do so I wouldn't say there's much to your argument that we the difference in the teams is down to fans not expecting to win. Also, I think the celebrations were largely short-lived because we were outplayed (I was delighted because we should have lost when you looked at the situation we were in but not kidding myself we were any great shakes). I still think Australia will win because although they aren't the side they were 4 or 2 years ago we're nowhere near the side we were last time we played you lot in England. We've been poor over the last couple of years in particular. We've got a bit of a chance if we up our game though I think because it's in England and the lack of experience against swing might be a factor. I actually think on paper we have at least as good an attack as yours too (especially with Brett Lee out). Trouble is we'll have to perform at nearly 100% in every session of every test and we haven't looked like doing that lately. Both teams are significantly weaker compared to last time they both played in England, Alex, and in all honesty the draw should (rightfully) be seen as a more significant result to England than it was to Australia considering what went on on the final day's play, and for that reason I can totally understand the celebrations that went on after the game ended (despite the banter). Ponting gets a lot of criticism for his captaincy and he has made some really questionable tactical plays in past series against India and South Africa. He won't ever be able to shake off those demons I believe, and he'll be heavily scrutinised over the coming weeks for not being able to kill off games, rightly or wrongly. It's that lack of a game killer which will keep the series interesting in my opinion, and it's a great distraction, as I pointed out earlier, to the sorry state of affairs that are currently being played out at the football club. Can't wait for the second test to begin...

I thought Hilfenhaus should definitely have had more overs, he was taken out of the attack way too early. I don't understand why Ponting took him off and persisted with Mitchell Johnson. Johnson absolutely wasted an opportunity with the second new ball. Anyway a draw is a decent enough result. I don't blame England for time wasting. They are absolutely outclassed in every facet of the game. Let them send out a fat bastard of a physio to waste time. Seeing him waddle on then off with his boobs jiggling about was probably the highlight of the test match for me, besides the 4 centuries made. I really can't see England winning any of the next 4 matches. They offer nothing. They get their hopes up by beating a bunch of part timers from the Caribbean and think they're in with a chance against Australia. The best they can hope for are 4 draws. Who knows, we may see that fat bastard waddling onto the ground again eh? And England will once again celebrate a draw as if it were a win. Any team would have celebrated a draw under the circumstances, a bit like you lot did in 2005. I'd think anyone with a bit of a clue wouldn't celebrate like it was a win though. Not saying we deserved much out of the game but I think you arrogance is a bit misplaced since Monty Panesar (one of the biggest 'rabbits' in test cricket) looked like he could have batted all day against your average attack. And how is a draw a 'decent enough result' for a team who 'outclassed' us 'in every facet of the game'? Many people celebrated the result as if it were a win. Perhaps this is why England are inferior; they don't expect to win against Australia and rightly so. And Alex, tell me one area that England were better in... England, I believe are second rate, despite Australia's current lack of a game killer. What have they really got to offer in the next 4 games? Onions?!? Who the fuck is Onions... you'll need potatoes, shitakes and rice plus more and more carbs before you get even close. Yes, just like you did at Old Trafford in 2005... In fact from what I recall, Lee and McGrath seemed a lot happier with that than the England batsmen. They were only one wicket away from defeat. Stop living in the past, just concentrate on the nows and soons

Ponting chinned by Fletcher. Didn't England lose an Ashes series 5-0 under Fletch???

I view the forum quite frequently, also post comments up time and time again, and most recently when relegation was official. Better concentrating on the bloody cricket than the shower of shite that is Newcastle United Football Club at the moment wouldn't you agree?

Middle name, shortened. It's not some random...

I thought Hilfenhaus should definitely have had more overs, he was taken out of the attack way too early. I don't understand why Ponting took him off and persisted with Mitchell Johnson. Johnson absolutely wasted an opportunity with the second new ball. Anyway a draw is a decent enough result. I don't blame England for time wasting. They are absolutely outclassed in every facet of the game. Let them send out a fat bastard of a physio to waste time. Seeing him waddle on then off with his boobs jiggling about was probably the highlight of the test match for me, besides the 4 centuries made. I really can't see England winning any of the next 4 matches. They offer nothing. They get their hopes up by beating a bunch of part timers from the Caribbean and think they're in with a chance against Australia. The best they can hope for are 4 draws. Who knows, we may see that fat bastard waddling onto the ground again eh? And England will once again celebrate a draw as if it were a win. Any team would have celebrated a draw under the circumstances, a bit like you lot did in 2005. I'd think anyone with a bit of a clue wouldn't celebrate like it was a win though. Not saying we deserved much out of the game but I think you arrogance is a bit misplaced since Monty Panesar (one of the biggest 'rabbits' in test cricket) looked like he could have batted all day against your average attack. And how is a draw a 'decent enough result' for a team who 'outclassed' us 'in every facet of the game'? Many people celebrated the result as if it were a win. Perhaps this is why England are inferior; they don't expect to win against Australia and rightly so. And Alex, tell me one area that England were better in... England, I believe are second rate, despite Australia's current lack of a game killer. What have they really got to offer in the next 4 games? Onions?!? Who the fuck is Onions... you'll need potatoes, shitakes and rice plus more and more carbs before you get even close.

I thought Hilfenhaus should definitely have had more overs, he was taken out of the attack way too early. I don't understand why Ponting took him off and persisted with Mitchell Johnson. Johnson absolutely wasted an opportunity with the second new ball. Anyway a draw is a decent enough result. I don't blame England for time wasting. They are absolutely outclassed in every facet of the game. Let them send out a fat bastard of a physio to waste time. Seeing him waddle on then off with his boobs jiggling about was probably the highlight of the test match for me, besides the 4 centuries made. I really can't see England winning any of the next 4 matches. They offer nothing. They get their hopes up by beating a bunch of part timers from the Caribbean and think they're in with a chance against Australia. The best they can hope for are 4 draws. Who knows, we may see that fat bastard waddling onto the ground again eh? And England will once again celebrate a draw as if it were a win.

Are you taking the piss? North Korea do this all the time; they hold the economic powers to ransom when they start running low on oil, rice or cognac for their dear leader. But of course now they obviously have upped the stakes by acquiring nukes (officially now anyway and albeit only 2 or 3 of them) and have been lobbing missiles over Japan. If Japan eventually do change their war renouncing constitution NK won't have the balls to do that anymore. Japan are even talking about expanding and then exporting their own military hardware (to its allies only), something which was taboo not that long ago, and they have designs for their own next generation stealth fighters. Japan also have enough weapons grade fissile material to have a stockpile of nukes greater than that of America's. Perhaps Japan should convert some of this material into nukes to shut NK up and also to keep China at a distance when they eventually become that region's superpower. But I digress. A lot of the sabre-rattling being done now comes down to the fact South Korea have a very anti-NK government in power. Little Kimmie (NK's dear leader) feels threatened by this which explains all the war rhetoric over the past week. Plus of course he wants his luxury goods. Much will depend on how far China would back NK. Being an economic powerhouse now I doubt they would want to threaten that due to hostilities caused by a little parasitic mad man. The United States have their hands tied (in a manner of speaking) since China basically owns America's very large debt. Personally I am not concerned that this will escalate into anything very serious. Because if Kimmie were to bomb downtown Seoul or fire missiles at Tokyo, as wacko as he is, even he would know that he would be blown off the face of the planet. Negotiations, negotiations, negotiations are what will happen here. Kimmie will get his little goodies, SK will back off a bit and the rhetoric will disappear... until when Kimmie next runs out of goodies.

It'll definitely be hard to shift all these players. In my world I would only keep S.Taylor, Bassong, Beye, Duff, Guthrie, Carroll, Martins and yes the fatty Viduka - who would strictly be on an incentives based contract. Still need some old heads and Beye, Duff and Viduka would provide that. Everyone else in the current squad I would get rid of. I would then try and promote a bit of pace (eg. first team regularity for Lua Lua and Ranger), and scout really hard for some triers on smaller wages. But of course this won't be so easy in the real world, and the likes of Bassong, Martins and Beye will most likely want out, and wasters like Smith, Geremi, Ameobi and Butt will not want to go anywhere. I am looking forward to the new season though. Things need changing at the club and has done for a long while now. Being in the Championship will force that change, even if it means a couple of seasons down there. You never know, Ashley may just walk away and we really could start afresh with Shearer and HIS own staff rebuilding things. That is all we really have to look forward to now anyway.

Whatever you think about Jade Goody as a person, and I am by no means a fan of hers, that bit in bold is absolutely disgraceful. She doesn't deserve to die - particularly at such a young age. While it's sad for the kids, they're young enough that they'll move on with their lives and are setup for life. She may be thick, she may have been the laughing stock of the Big Brother pantomime on two occassions but she played on that and used it to her advantage. Can't blame anyone for doing that but her actions are not deserving of her losing her life so young. It's tragic..... whoever it happens to. Kens just upset hes got no genitals You are a silly, precious and petite fool. Didn't you state in another thread that you had hoped for JK to have suffered a stroke? Now whether you also stated that you wanted him to recover from it or not is totally irrelevant. Wishing ill on someone is one of the lowest acts. It makes your comments on what I think on this topic stupid and they carry no weight whatsoever.

Whatever you think about Jade Goody as a person, and I am by no means a fan of hers, that bit in bold is absolutely disgraceful. She doesn't deserve to die - particularly at such a young age. While it's sad for the kids, they're young enough that they'll move on with their lives and are setup for life. She may be thick, she may have been the laughing stock of the Big Brother pantomime on two occassions but she played on that and used it to her advantage. Can't blame anyone for doing that but her actions are not deserving of her losing her life so young. It's tragic..... whoever it happens to. Am I happy she got cancer Craig?.. no absolutely not, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But she has it, and she's playing it up to the media just like the rest of her life that has been of note. I want it to end, but more importantly I'd like her to die in dignity, but since that's out of the question I'd like her to die and all the attention to go to more important things. I apologise if it sounds callous, and deep down I know it is, but that's my viewpoint on her. As I say karma is a bitch.

The sooner this slag dies the better in my opinion. It peeves me off no end that a low life like her can grab so much media attention. Says a lot about the state of British media as well. Call me a cunt if you like, but karma is a bitch and so is this Jade Goody. The real losers in this are her kids. I do genuinely feel for them.

Glad to hear your loved ones are safe there Steve. It is an absolute tragedy and to think many of the fires were started deliberately, as has been said by the Australian PM it is an act of mass murder. I really can't think of a worse way to go than being trapped in a car or house with fire on all sides. How can you live with yourself knowing you are responsible for such horror?