Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magic. Show all posts

Monday, December 10, 2012

Malthouse not a magic pill: Judd

Updated November 02, 2012 07:10:55

Carlton captain Chris Judd has warned teammates against expecting decorated coach Mick Malthouse to turn the AFL club around on his own.

Judd said he had long been a Malthouse admirer and expected the three-time premiership coach to have a quick impact.

But he cautioned that rebounding from a disappointing season would take club-wide improvement.

"It's really important that we don't view (Malthouse) as a panacea that's going to fix all our problems," Judd said.

"At the end of the day, there's 44 players on that list, there's a staff of 70 or 80 people and it's not up to Mick to come in and solve all the problems at our football club.

"It's up to everyone who's there to work out how they're going to improve on what they've done before, to be accountable and be a part of the solution."

Malthouse guided West Coast to premierships in 1992 and 1994 and Collingwood to the 2010 flag.

But Judd took more from Malthouse's transformation of the Magpies from a wooden-spoon side when he took over ahead of the 2000 season to grand finalists in 2002-03.

"As much as they didn't win a premiership, I think to get to two grand finals in a row with the list he had there, that's almost the most impressive feature of his coaching career," the Blues' skipper said.

Judd is yet to meet Malthouse face-to-face since his appointment so his view of the veteran coach is based mainly on reputation.

He said that was of a coach who ruled from the top and expected players to toe the line.

"He probably doesn't go down the player empowerment model, which a lot of modern-day coaches do," Judd said.

The 29-year-old dual Brownlow Medallist is yet to announce whether he will stay as skipper and plans to consult with Malthouse at the Blues' preseason camp in Arizona, which starts on November 9.

While coy on his plans, he understood the speculation.

"There comes a time in every player's career where it makes sense for him to move on, whether that's move on from the game or move on from a leadership role to open up opportunities for young people," Judd said.

He was speaking at an event to promote this month's Financial Review Corporate Cycling Challenge, backing the Care Connect team who are riding to build support for a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, carlton-3053

First posted November 02, 2012 07:10:55


View the original article here

Saturday, May 21, 2011

56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports

56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in SportsSeventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to leftfield. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee centerfielder kept on hitting-at least one hit in game after game after game.

In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio's astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe's first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive-a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband-as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day.

DiMaggio's achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.


Price: $26.95


Click here to buy from Amazon