Wednesday 1 June 2016

Check out our News Report

The video is a brief sports update on the most recent news in tennis,basketball,oztag,AFL and soccer. Our various correspondents throughout Sydney; Sarah(tennis), Patrick (basketball), Emily (Oztag), Brendan(AFL) and Zilun (Soccer) covered a particular sport that they were familiar with.

Check out our video below 

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Soccer legends

I believe every sport must have their own legends, especially in soccer since it has a long history.I have listed some of the the greatest players in their position of all time. Most of all they have acted as an inspiration to both fans and professional plays and have inspired millions to follow, learn and play the soccer game.


Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo was signed at 18 by Manchester United after impressing in a pre-season friendly and would go on to inspire the club to three league titles and a European Cup win in 2008. He is also a great free-kick and penalty taker. After moving to Real Madrid he would continue his astonishing goal record, despite mostly starting from wide positions, and he continues to perform with remarkable consistency. Becoming the key player in a great side he lit up La Liga with a personal rivalry with Lionel Messi, leading his club to a tenth European Cup win in 2014.




Zinedine Zidane
One of the greatest midfielders the game has ever known. Zidane played with such elegance, vision and sublime technique that when a film was made consisting solely of slow motion footage of him playing in one game it was taken entirely seriously as piece of art.  In the 1998 World Cup Zidane succeeded where Platini had previously failed, winning the trophy to become a unifying symbol for his country. In 2001 Zidane joined Real Madrid's Galaticos line-up in a 75 million Euro  deal. There he would become arguably the team's most important player, scheming from midfield, passing with incredible vision, setting up assists and scoring exquisite goals.

Ronaldo
Ronaldo is a player with a great story, one that is interwoven with the history of the World Cup. His pace, dribbling and goalscoring ability was incredible, accompanied by a masterful close control gained from his early career as a futsal player. This was the best form of his career and he won the FIFA World Player in 1996 at the age of just 20.  




Lionel Messi
The player playing today and the star of a remarkable Barcelona team for almost ten years. Messi is a creative forward that can play from wide or central positions, drifting from deep, beating players and setting up and scoring goals seemingly out of nowhere. He has shown remarkable consistency in La Liga, scoring 278 goals in 309 games, and scoring more goals than the number of games played in three seasons, including an astonishing  record 73 goals in all competitions 2011/12. He has won the European Footballer of the Year five times, more than anyone else ever.

Pele
Pele is and always will be the greatest footballer ever. It is a role he wears very comfortably. His play, full of joy and exuberance, seems to sum up everything that the world loves about the game and as he travels the globe acting as its greatest ambassador his own legend is reinforced. He remains the only player ever to inspire his country to win the World Cup twice: in 1958 and 1970.

NBA Draft

Today marked the NBA's 2016 draft lottery, and resulted with the Philadelphia 76ers getting their first pick of team members. The 76ers seem to be in the positive spotlight at the moment, things are going their way. Getting to choose the cream of the crop for their team is a massive boost and will likely give the NBA some of the best players to come. Read more here.

76ers coach Brett Brown (Left) 


But for those of you who don't know much of what a draft is you can rest assured because we'll be going through it here.

NBA Draft:

The NBA Draft is an annual event dating back to 1950 in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association (NBA) can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These are typically college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted. College players who have finished their four-year college eligibility are automatically eligible for selection, while the underclassmen have to declare their eligibility and give up their remaining college eligibility. International players who are at least 23 years old are automatically eligible for selection, while the players younger than 22 have to declare their eligibility.
College Basketball

The Draft Lottery:

The NBA draft lottery is an annual event held by the NBA to determine the draft order. The teams who missed the playoffs in the previous season participate in a lottery process to determine the draft order. The lottery winner gets the first selection in the draft. In the current rules, 14 non-playoff teams participate in the draft lottery. The lottery is weighted so that the team with the worst record has the best chance of obtaining higher draft picks. The lottery process determines the first three picks of the draft. The rest of the first-round order of picks is in reverse order of the remaining teams' win-loss record. The lottery does not determine the draft order in the second round of the draft. The term "lottery pick" denotes a draft pick whose position is determined through the lottery, while the non-playoff teams involved in the process are often called "lottery teams". The draft lottery system was first used in the 1985 draft.

What it means for the 76ers:

So what does this mean for the 76ers. The draft lottery winner get's the first choice of players, usually from college, and get the cream of the crop. This gives a distinct advantage, the 76ers can poach the best talent possible. However it takes tremendous talent to distinguish the best, making the choices for the 76ers so very crucial.The first three places went to the Philadelphia 76er, the LA Lakers, and the Boston Celtics.


You can watch the full lottery here:

The growth of the AFL


The AFL is continuously growing, both in Australia and around the world. In the last 5 years, the growth of Australian Rules football has been massive, with two new teams introduced in the AFL in 2011 and 2012 and the aim to play games during the standard season (for Premiership points) away from Australia.

In 2011, the Gold Coast Suns were introduced into the competition making taking it from 16 teams to 17 teams. Their home stadium is located in Carrara, Gold Coast.

The Gold Coast Suns on the day of their team name and jersey reveal


In 2012 (a year after the Gold Coast Suns entered the AFL), the Greater Western Sydney Giants entered into the AFL, taking the number of teams from 17 to 18. Their home stadium located in Homebush, Sydney.

The GWS Giants on the day of their team name and jersey reveal

These teams were introduced in states in which there is a massive fan base with the rival league to the AFL in Australia the NRL (Rugby League). The AFL thought, growing the AFL in these NRL heartlands was the first step in growing the popularity of AFL in areas in which AFL wasn’t liked much. In my opinion, this is working well with the memberships of both teams increasing every year since their establishment. The league is now working to make a team in Tasmania in the future.



The AFL is also trying to increase its attendance and popularity away from Australia. History was made in 2013 when the first AFL game was played during the Premiership season in Wellington, New Zealand on ANZAC Day when St. Kilda played Sydney Swans. These games continued on ANZAC Day until St. Kilda stopped hosting games from 2016.


Though it hasn’t stopped there, with Port Adelaide Power showing interest to play a game during the season in China from 2017 but as an away team. The Gold Coast Suns accepted this and have showed interest to be the home team. This request is still yet to be accepted by the AFL.


There are AFL leagues you can join if you’re interested in playing AFL internationally.  Below are some leagues in Australia and internationally with the links provided for more information for your local country. Click a link and find a team to join.

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUES:

NSW/ACT
VICTORIA
QUEENSLAND
TASMANIA







INTERNATIONAL LEAGUES:

USA
INDIA
EUROPE
SOUTH AFRICA