Our 496th show, and we are inviting suggestions as to how we should celebrate 500. Is there a guest we should aim for? Let us know

It’s great to be back with another guest and more topics to discuss.

Our guest on this show, Fiona Crawford has just had her first book published called “Never Say Die- the 100 Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s History.” That in itself is an achievement, but the achievements of many of the women in Australian football has now been recorded and there are some amazing stories to tell. Over the years they have had to break down barriers simply just to play a game they love. As Fiona states the game has come a long way in eight years, since the 2011 World Cup in Germany, but even further in 100 years.

Prior to our regular discussion we hear the pain of the shoot out as John talks about his debut appearance for Western Australia at the Hockey Masters ending in a silver medal, despite not losing a game and only conceding one goal!

In our points under discussion membership comes under the microscope. What is membership and does it give members a say in the running of the club? With a franchise model, members will never be given a say so are what are being declared as Memberships no more than ticketing packages and is that why “memberships are so low in the A-League?

As the fall out from the Wallabies poor performance at the Rugby World Cup continues and coach Michael Chieka stepped down describing the organisation as “Toxic,” we look at the challenges of being a national coach. The challenges are are far more plentiful than simply selecting a side to play, are these outside influences becoming too great? Are they being allowed to pick the team they want?

Hopefully as always you enjoy the show, and please feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

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Five more shows until the Magical 500.

It’s great to be back with another guest and more topics to discuss.

Our guest on this show has appeared on the show previously and continues to inspire us with his passion and dedication. Andrew Liddawi broke his spine mountain-biking, but has that stopped him? No way! Not only was Andrew the first paraplegic to complete the Cape to Cape Mountain Bike Trail but he has now been focussing all of his energy on creating Australia’s First Adaptive Mountain Biking Trail, here in Western Australia. This will open officially on October 4th and you can get more information via his website www.breaktheboundary.com.au or his Facebook page Break The Boundary.

In our points under discussion Ashley and John look at whether Australian Cricketer Steve Smith no matter what he achieve as a player will always have the word “cheat” attached to his name. Is this now not part of the whole Steve Smith story? Are there not plenty of athletes who have been guilty of breaking the rules across many sports, has that action diminished their reputation as a great player?

Next under the microscope is whether there is a real problem attracting match officials to various sports. Are the rule and law makers in sport too focussed on creating rules for the elite level of the sport and forgetting that enforcing these at the lower level of the game, where players are less skilful is going to be hard? Does the behaviour towards officials at the elite level have an impact on how young adults, parents and the lower grade players treat officials at their matches? Is there a problem? Does it need addressing?

Hopefully as always you enjoy the show, and please feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

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The weekend is upon us so why not grab a glass of red and listen to Not the Footy Show.

We are edging closer to that 500th show and invite you to let us know what or who you would like to hear from us on that show!

Our guest on this show is a man who grew up in the outback of Western Australia and had to head to England to pursue his dreams in his chosen sport due to a lack of opportunity in Australia. He has never looked back and has now opened a dedicated Badminton Arena in Perth. His name is Nick Kidd, and his passion for Badminton is as strong today, if not stronger than it ever was. His new arena is open for business, corporate events and private coaching.

In our points under discussion Ashley and John look at the proposed changes to the A-League being tabled and discuss whether they are big enough changes to pull fans through the turnstiles and revitalised the League.

Do team sports need to have World Rankings? Are they Irrelevant? It would appear that apart from seeding teams at major tournaments and to help with Government funding there is little or no need for them, so why do sports persist with world Rankings? What are your thoughts?

Hopefully as always you enjoy the show, and please feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

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The world of sport never stops and as always there is plenty to discuss.

Welcome to what is our 493rd show, counting the nine years on the radio. We are getting very close to the magic 500. Let us know what or who you would like to hear from us on that show!

The trolling of gay athletes at the recent FIFA Women’s World cup was something that stunned many. Women’s sport has come a long way in the last 20 years, no longer do they have to use sexy images to attract attention, now they are judged by most solely on their athletic prowess. Yet still those who are Gay are subjected to abuse. To try and get an insight into the extra burdens of being a top flight Gay athlete, we caught up with Olympic Gold medal winning hockey player and former Captain of Great Britain, Kate Richardson-Walsh. Richardson-Walsh and her wife Helen both played in Great Britain’s Gold winning team, a unique achievement in itself, but not without its challenges.

The Ashes have started and newly crowned ODI World Champions England were brought crashing down to earth. We look at the performances of Stephen Smith and Nathan Lyon who played key roles in Australia’s opening victory, and ask whether England genuinely has the bowling attack to dismiss Australia twice, and cheaply enough to win?

Also under the microscope is the new format for calculating the World Rankings of the top Hockey nations. Although this has not been announced yet, John and Ashley question the need to fly the competitions Committee to Switzerland at a time when the FIH has said it is in financial difficulty. They also discuss some of the pitfalls of adopting a system from another sport. It is a tricky challenge facing those making the decisions, are the right people being consulted? There is no doubt the system has to change, and it has to be simpler for all to understand. However most important of all the new system has to have been well thought through and it has to be a fair and transparent system that does not favour some.

Hopefully as always you enjoy the show, and please feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

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What a lot there is to talk about in the world of sport at the moment. Once again we discuss some of the pertinent topics.

First up congratulations to the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey side whose captain, Kate Wright whom we featured last show on achieving their goal having qualified for the Olympic Qualifiers.

On this show we catch up again with possibly the World’s greatest dribbler, Andy Halliday. This time Andy is heading to Nepal and plans to dribble the Annapurna Circuit and once again he is doing it all for charity, for Hockey For Heroes and Lewis Little Legs. Joining Andy on this trip called Operation Olympus is a team of schoolboys from Lincolnshire who plan to play the highest game of hockey and book a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

In our points under discussion Ashley and John look at the Cricket World Cup and ask whether the tournament is too long? Why were rained off games not replayed when the schedule allowed? Do ex players really make the best commentators? Who is your favourite commentator these days? Also were ticket prices too high for the average fan? We would love to hear your views.

The FIH Pro League has reached its conclusion and Australia’s Kookaburras won the Men’s edition and the Hockeyroos finished second in theirs. Ashley caught up with both Australian coaches immediately after the finals for their reaction. John and Ashley then look at the teams and how they performed and what changes need to be made for 2020. Most importantly will the players and umpire be paid?

Hopefully you enjoy the show, and please feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

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Here we are with another offering and you are not going to want to miss the story our guest has to tell.

What would you do to keep your Olympic dream alive? The Canada Women’s Field Hockey team lost their funding based on past performances. To many that would have meant the end of the dream, but not this group of young women. As a group they all upped sticks and moved to Europe to play top quality hockey and be close by to have national camps. Some huge sacrifices were made, and the players paid their own way to play, while fund raising to attend the FIH Series Finals about to get under way in Valencia. To tell us all about their journey is the captain of the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey team, Kate Wright.

In our points under discussion John and Ashley discuss the constant tinkering with the rules that seems to be an epidemic in sport today. For years sport’s rules and laws were set in stone and everyone knew them. Today we see minor alterations every season that confuse those playing and those paying to watch. Is this constant tampering with the rules necessary? We would love to hear your views.

We have discussed before the funding of sport today. Have we got this round the wrong way? You medal you receive funding, but surely those who fail to medal are the ones who need the funding in order to compete with those who have won? Is the current Government funding model the best for sport?

Also under the microscope is whether sporting contracts actually mean anything, why is it people no longer want to honour the contract that they have signed?

Hopefully you once again enjoy the show, and feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

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Sorry its been a while between Podcasts but our website was attacked. However we hope the extended wait simply made you hungry for more! Once again we have gone slightly longer show than normal.

Thank you for all the positive feedback on the last show and hopefully Sam Goodwin’s comments were a help to many trying to promote their sport or club.

We are back with another show and once again plenty to discuss.

Our guest on this show is John Nienaber who is the General Manager and Executive Producer for Astro Arena television in Malaysia. He talks about sport’s dependency on Television sponsorship and the issues threatening that and what fans and viewers can expect in the future. He explains how revenue is affected by the sport’s consciousness amongst the public and how the money paid for the Rights of tournaments is dropping rather than increasing. Maybe after listening to what he has to say people will think twice about filming games at live venues and off the television. (We apologise for a few occasions the phone line broke up).

In our points under discussion John and Ashley discuss whether Video referral has achieved what it was intended to achieve, which was to eliminate the obvious bad mistake. Have officials become too dependent on video as a fall back? Are we seeing just as many errors now from the video officials? Should we go back to the way things used to be? Would yo be happy to see Video-referral consigned to the dustbin?

Do you know which country hosted the 20th Olympiad and where? Should the A-League grand final be referred to by the year its played? The perennial question comes up is the Grand Final winner the Champion or the team that tops the League. John feels that if the Grand Final finished 0-0 neither team should be crowned Champion and there should be no penalty shoot-out!

We also give a few minutes to athletes and social media. Would banning them from social media be better than having codes of behaviour? Do Sports Authorities have the right to impose such restrictions?

Hopefully you once again enjoy the show, and feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

Find all our podcasts on iTunes

Yes we are back with another show and once again we have gone slightly over time, but that may be because our guest on this show was talking too much sense.

So who is our guest on this show? Sam Goodwin is the Regional Director for Marketing company CSM based in Sydney. The reason we are catching up with Sam is to try and get an insight into the best ways in today’s World to market, your sport or your club. It is not as simple as it used to be and in fact can be a very complicated area. One of the problems is that there are so many options available. Of course budget will govern where you spend your money, but are you going to get the desired results? Sam offers some great insights and reveals that no longer is it just about marketing a game, there is so much more that has to be built into the promotion of your club or sport.

Following the interview with Sam, John and Ashley discuss some of the points raised, such as creating an experience that makes fans want to come back. As well as the routines that fans like to follow on a match day, that are often being interrupted by the schedules being dictated by television.

Another of our topics under discussion, sees Ashley ask whether a number of sports are running coaching courses purely as a revenue stream and are in fact are producing more coaches than there are jobs. To add to this John asks whether bringing an orthodoxy to coaching is in fact more damaging than the lack of monitoring the performances of these newly qualified coaches.

Hopefully you enjoy the show and feel free to share your thoughts or the Podcast.

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

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Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

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It is great to be back with another Podcast, – albeit a slightly longer show than usual – and we must thank Great Australian Pods for highlighting and promoting the show. Great to get feedback and know that people are enjoying the output.

Our guest on this show, like our previous guest, is a man who has followed his dream, but a slightly different dream to most. South African Craig Sieben realised that he was never going to make it as a player but also knew that it was as a coach he wanted to excel. Yet there were limited opportunities in his home country so he moved to Europe and after many years of hard work, and encounters with some key individuals his move is beginning to play dividends, as his talent is being recognised and work is coming his way.

To recall similar stories visit check out Podcast 24 and Podcast 22 for interviews with other coaches who have had to head overseas to progress their careers

In our topics under discussion, John looks at the International Olympic Committee sanctioning India for refusing to issue visas to Pakistani shooters looking to compete in an Olympic qualifier. Should the IOC have such power? Should a country bow to the wishes of the IOC? Has the IOC and other world sporting bodies stepped beyond their own boundaries?

This conversation evolves as usual and we look at the relevance of Oceania as we see some Australian sports accept an invitation to compete in Asia.

In our second topic Ashley turns his attention to the recently aired Nike advertisement featuring Serena Williams. The advertisement which is named “Dream Crazier” and is featured below has got under the skin of many but has also been praised by many.

Looking at the bigger picture, are women celebrating the true trailblazers and the achievements of women from other eras, or are the Marketers fixated on focussing only on athletes of the modern era who have benefitted from those who have gone before them? Some want to see the word “Woman” dropped when linked to sport, but is it not actually better to have that link?

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

Find all our podcasts on iTunes

It’s great to be back with another show.

Our guest on this show has taken a bit of tracking down as she is a woman on a mission. Kylie Fulmer won the World Boxing Federation Women’s Intercontinental Super Bantamweight World Championship title at the end of 2018, but her path to the top has not been an easy one. As an amateur boxer she did not fulfil her dream of making the Olympics, but realised that the reason she was not obtaining the success she yearned for in the amateur ranks may actually be a strength in the professional ranks. A world title shows that her bold move was worth it. The line does break up at the start of the interview and we apologise for that,but please stick with it as it does improve and it is a remarkable story of determination and never losing sight of your dream.

In our topics under discussion, this week we look at the sacking of Matildas Coach Alen Stajcic and ask whether the Football Federation of Australia is in fact dysfunctional in its management structures and how other key personnel have not been held accountable, if the atmosphere was indeed ‘toxic.’ Also under the microscope are the surveys that allegedly led to the sacking of Stajcic, was an anonymous survey the right approach? There are so many unanswered questions, that the stakeholders, everyone who plays watches, coaches or referees football in this country deserve to have explained.

We then turn our attention to Australian Cricket and has the Big Bash become to big, long and unwieldy? Has the TV deal done by Cricket Australia now caused the game to be lost from public viewing, especially at key times. Why do sporting bodies ask for bids under certain criteria and then move the goalposts for the chosen few? Does this undermine their authority?

As usual a few other topics also get an airing…

Please let us know if there is a topic that you would like to have discussed, or know of a special athlete we should talk to.

Don’t forget that all of our podcasts are available on I-Tunes.

Also make sure you do not miss out on a show by subscribing via the website, this will give you an email update whenever a new post or podcast is posted.

Don’t forget you are able to download previous shows now available on I-tunes.

Find all our podcasts on iTunes