So I imagine we can discuss it there, and leave this thread for Thom to try and defend football as interesting :)

Awww!!!

I don't find football interesting

And I don't find rugby interesting Kyle. Kinda like the Jerry Collins/Reuben Wiki Fork vs Spoon debate eh?

But they are playing the game; it's just not the game you're trying to see.

Yup, that was my point. I don't find football interesting. If they chopped 30 or 40 metres off the length of the field, and some of the width it would liven up I'm sure.

Also,…

playing football's more fun than getting yer head trampled on by 15 neanderthals.

Unless you're one of the neanderthals. Because that's the thing about rugby (and other contact sports) you can either cry about being tackled or you can get up and smash the bugger who got you last time…

I think I'll take first-hand experience over stats ;)

Oh, I'm just kind of curious.

Andrew Saville's to replace Tony Veitch as One News' sports presenter

I just mentioned this in my new post. So I imagine we can discuss it there, and leave this thread for Thom to try and defend football as interesting :)

However,

He's somewhat workmanlike, but far less obnoxious, braying…

Is there any evidence for this?

Well, I'm not going to offer any data Keir, but I will say that I've coached kids teams in the past, and plenty of parents (especially dads) told me just that – as soon as junior had a bit more beef on the bone,…

That's largely down to the fact that parents don't want their kids exposed to the rough and tumble of rugby at an early age. Once they're older and sturdier, the round ball becomes an oval.

Is there any evidence for this?

I'm quite curious as to why so many people…

well, nobody's going to convince anyone in NZ that footie's better than rugby at any rate).

Er. Have you looked at the youth participation figures?

Yeah Keir, I'm well aware of the impressive participation numbers for wee ones that play the game. That's largely down to the fact that parents…

well, nobody's going to convince anyone in NZ that footie's better than rugby at any rate).

Er. Have you looked at the youth participation figures?

"stop fucking around and play the game"

But they are playing the game; it's just not the game you're trying to see.

Also, football spectators…

When one team's passing the ball around at the back, there's probably a contest going on — how's the attacking midfield finding space, how's the defending team putting pressure/denying space/marking runs?

Meh. It feels to me like it needs the defending striker to come shoulder the guy with the ball…

just to clarify, I said I found teh premiership dull, not football. However, I agree with Kyle. The slow play, the complaining/diving players are as dull as any scrum reset.

Hmm, Premiership is probably the most exciting domestic league – much faster pace of game than on the continent, and…

Now, yeah, you might find that boring, but it's very unlikely there's no contest going on, unless the teams…

Yeah, but you probably don't know what they are trying to do, and how to judge it.

Oh I understand what they're doing. It's just boring to me.

Similarly water polo and handball, where the passing around is around the goal. I think all of the sports field should be…

It seems there's so much passing around at the back and waiting for the opening and oh god.

Yeah, but you probably don't know what they are trying to do, and how to judge it. Watching most sports requires an amount of acculturation before they start to make sense, and…

Each to their own Hadyn...I'd have to say you don't know what the fuck you're on about

Nice. I think you should wait for cricket season, then you can get really angry at me

No no, roll on the cricket season. I just kinda resent the insinuation that football is…

Nice. I think you should wait for cricket season, then you can get really angry at me

Well people keep complaining how the seasons cross over so much, why shouldn't the bitching cross over too?

Rugby has become one of the most mind-numbingly boring ways to pass 80 minutes

And a football match is (at least) 10mins longer

(a game watched by literally billions more people than rugby)

You're dead on there, the stats are impressive.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany had a total…

I don't follow football (soccer). I find the Premiership to be dull and the Champion's League only just bearable. However, Hull beating Arsenal 2-1 is sweet. Arsène Wenger saying after the match that Arsenal "gave too much room to West Brom" is even sweeter.

Dull eh...bugger off mate. Rugby has…

Kimi Raikkonen is brilliant

Yeah he's ok.
I still can't think of a driver I could really get behind though.

but Kimi Raikkonen is brilliant, he is so much faster than massa out there

massa is just very meh, he's great only as long as he has pole and it doesn't rain

Sticking with speed: Haile Gebrselassie broke his own marathon world record on Sunday. He ran 2:03:59 in the Berlin Marathon (where he set the record last year). Maybe choosing to skip the Olympics paid off?

The Warriors lost to the Sea Eagles (the most retro of league teams narrowly pipping…

Richard Loe isn't happy about it though and he wants the head of Steve Tew. I assume he's talking figuratively.

but you're never really sure with Richard Loe.
Makes it a bit more entertaining ....

http://bloggingitreal.blogspot.com/2008/09/your-numbers-up.html

Interestingly though after 23 of the 26 weeks the figure was…

No F1 drivers worth liking? I dunno, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica look like they might be pretty decent in the long run.

Even the crappiest teams (like the Pirates* and the Washington Capitals) win ~60 games.

I believe the baseball team is the Nationals. The Capitals are the ice hockey team, and they're better than average, as of last season anyway – scraped in to win their division.

Do these results imply that MLB games are the most competitive and NFL games the least? Not necessarily!
The length of the season is a significant factor in the variability in the winning fraction. In a scenario where the outcome of a game is completely random, the total number…

Baseball is an interesting one (and this covers Jake and Danielle's comments too). Even the crappiest teams (like the Pirates* and the Washington Capitals) win ~60 games. That's like the worst teams in the Air New Zealand…

Splutter. Baseball naysayers. What are you, Jake, some kind of *communist* or something? ;)

After my discourse on the Marxist vs Whiggish interpretation of history on Friday, I'm pretty sure seven classrooms full of rural Pennsylvanians think so.

I'm not knocking baseball. I don't follow it, don't have a TV…

I found this after all the mathematical gobblegook.

"We then measured the upset frequency q by counting the fraction of times that the team with the worse record on the game date actually won (table I). Games between…

http://cnls.lanl.gov/~ebn/pubs/sports/sports.pdf

"Crunching a century’s worth of more than 300,000 games in the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and the English Football Association, showed that the latter — soccer to Americans — is the most “competitive” sport where…

They didn't do cricket or rugby (or rugby league for that matter) because they aren't closely followed in the US. Should I dare attempt it for this years NRL and NPC? And how did they know if it was an upset? going back 100 years they…

From memory it was the top football leagues in Spain, England and Italy and all of the American professional (male) sports. So not the best study in the world.

Cheers. I might have to do a bit of google research on it later since I'm a sad statto sport sap…

Ah, major league baseball. A hundred and something games a season, and every one of them is exactly the same.

Splutter. Baseball naysayers. What are you, Jake, some kind of *communist* or something? ;)

And you can't really begrudge the Rays can you?

Yeah I can, because they changed their name from the Devil Rays to try and change their team's luck and it worked. I'm surprised that some fundamentalist hasn't mentioned this.
Wait, did they do the name change this season or last?

Though it is hard to hate a team that has a sausage race.

No love for the Pierogi race?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0yzbAygF8c&feature=related

Ah, major league baseball. A hundred and something games a season, and every one of them is exactly the same.

Medieval football (still played in a few places)
Bog snorkelling
Fencing

Even better, Farnarkeling:

In essence, Farnarkeling is engaged in by two teams whose purpose is to arkle, and to prevent the other team from arkeling, using a flukem to propel a gonad through sets of posts situated at random…

They will need to do this to weather the Melbourne Storm.

Just saw that your Mets lost, meaning that for the second straight year they won't make the playoffs after seeming shoo-ins.

But don't feel bad – my Yankees were out of it weeks ago depite having the biggest payroll in the sport. You'd think with all of that money they'd…

Is that upset study done across a large number of top level sport around the world or just 3 different competitions?

From memory it was the top football leagues in Spain, England and Italy and all of the American professional (male) sports. So not the best study in the world.…

I think I'm going to tip the Sea Eagles by a smallish margin. Hopefully the game lives up to what it should be which is a bloody fascinating duel between two teams with dangerous attacks…

If you ignore sports that get covered via excruciating puns you’d run dry pretty quickly.

But don't feel bad – my Yankees were out of it weeks ago depite having the biggest payroll in the sport. You'd think with all of that money they'd…

This is why the Premiership can be so fab. Unpredictable results and crazy foreign managers. What's not to like?

Actually I remember hearing about a study done on which sport had the most "upsets" (odds favourite beaten by underdog). The winner was the Premiership, followed by American football.

And as a local boy, you should be forced to stand on the cnr of Courtney and Tory bearing a placard that says, " Even without my recognition, they will rise from the ashes"

Hadyn reserves the right to ignore the Phoenix (and any other team) when the article on…

Shame the wrong team won

Agreed; it’s hard to warm to a team wearing yellow and …. Brown.

Shame the wrong team won this year's AFL Grand Final. :-/

I don't follow football (soccer). I find the Premiership to be dull and the Champion's League only just bearable. However, Hull beating Arsenal 2-1 is sweet. Arsène Wenger saying after the match that Arsenal "gave too much room to West Brom" is even sweeter.

This is why the Premiership can…

You left out the Phoenix win.

Indeed. And as a local boy, you should be forced to stand on the cnr of Courtney and Tory bearing a placard that says, " Even without my recognition, they will rise from the ashes"*.

*Only to plummet again in short order.

I think you should do more on:
Skiing (for real)

Medieval football (still played in a few places)
Bog snorkelling
Fencing (this sort)

They’ve had a crap week, and even suffered the complete humiliation of being compared to the Kingz / Knightz.

And then came from behind to beat the joint-leaders yesterday.

I'm no fan of Alonzo, but I'm also no fan of Lewis Hamilton (mainly because he drives for McClaren – points off to the first person who calls McClaren a "kiwi team").

I was not a big fan of Alonzo, but he was always one of the league leading defensive…