There's Nothing Mundane About Mundine

There's Nothing Mundane About Mundine

On the eve of the Mundine v Geal fight let's look back on some of the more interesting quotes from the Mouth, I mean.... The Man.  

"You can put that water through a hairdryer and not get electrocuted"

May 2009 - in reference to a water he was releasing

"They can go eat what they're going to eat because I'm the man, can no one beat me, and I'm already the best athlete in the world, not Australia, in the world," 

March 2007 - in the lead up to his fight with Mikkel Kessler

"If it don't make money, it don't make sense"

May 2008 - in reference to finding a worthy opponent

"I want to be the king of kings. I want all the marbles."

September 2007

"I was blowing kisses to him, I was smiling at him, poking my tongue out, blowing kisses to his missus."

December 2009 - on his fight with Green

"I'm the best and when I'm old enough and my career's finished, that's what you all will be saying."

June 2007 - after his victory over Kessler

''I think it is a bit of 'haterism'"

December 2010 - referring to Greg Inglis signing with Souths

"But when you have people that want to see the downfall, want to wish bad, doubt you, criticise you - what I've done ain't ever been done."

January 2013 - at a press conference promoting his upcoming fight with Geale

The Social Apology

Since when have athletes thought it necessary to apologise to fans for their poor performance?  We all have bad days on the job. I know when I haven't worked to my potential after 8 hours at the desk, I don't say sorry to my boss.  I just up and leave.  

So why this seemingly overnight phenomena of athletes apologising for not winning? Usually in the form of a tweet, and always following a loss, what does the athlete hope to achieve by doing this?  Athletes have post-match conferences where they have to provide a reason as to why they didn't perform.  They also have the days of media scrutiny analysing their performance.  And they have the "man on the street" offering them advice as they take a stroll to get the milk.

Apology from David Warner following Australia's dismal ODI score of 74 again Sri Lanka:

I don't particularly like seeing an apology from an athlete.  It feels very personal, like apologising to your parents for not doing as well on a test as they'd hoped.  

But I wonder how long these apologies will last? Athletes have to remember the more they give of themselve to their fans, the more their fans will want.  

The 'Choke' - It's Uncomfortable to Watch

As a fan of sport, I love to see success.  The grace, grit and grunt required to win are attributes I'll never possess.  So to watch a top class athlete, on the verge of winning, crumble, shake and ultimately choke, can be very uncomfortable to watch.

The most recent example of this was Sam Stosur at the Aussie Open, who went from leading 5-2 in the third set and serving for the match three times, went on to lose 6-5.  

So why do athletes choke?  Stosur has said on numerous occasion's that the public pressure performing at home is too great - it "gets" to her.  She even requested that her second round match at the Aussie Open be played in the afternoon, and not the prime time evening slot, to ensure a smaller TV audience and therefore less pressure.

Neurophysiology suggests choking is triggered when the athlete gets so anxious that they seize conscious control over a task that should be executed automatically.  

Take Rory McIlroy at the US Masters in April 2011.  He went from being within a whisker of winning the green jacket to equalling the worst final round in Masters history.  All because his swing abandoned him.

The battle of the mind is the greatest battle any athlete will face and it is those win that battle that take prize.  As a sports fan, to those athletes who worry about choking - don't.  Your true fans want you to succeed and those that don't, don't matter anyway.

What Is It With Aussie Men's Tennis?

What is it with Australian Men's tennis players??  So often they become the sports stars we love to hate?  As a relatively small country, we produced a steady stream of world class tennis players, holding our own on the world stage.  

Over the years we've had Roswell, Ermerson, Newcombe and Rafter.  All outstanding players and all admired by the public.  We've also had Hewitt, Cash, Phillippousis and now Tomic.  All great players but all at one stage have sat comfortably in the "Love to Hate" category.

For a relatively small number of world class athletes, Australian tennis has a high proportion of it's top male athletes that the public has had a hard time warming too.  Why?  

It's not the sport cause Aussie's love tennis.

It's not the cause they don't win, because Aussie's love a winner and they were good at it.

Quite often it comes down to arrogance, their love of 'celebrity', and a seeming lack of gratitude.

But the public is fickle and are more than willing to come running back into the embracing arms of an athlete, should they seem worthy of their admiration.

Take Bernard Tomic.  On the back of his first tournament win at the Apia Sydney International and his winners speech where he vocalised the qualities Aussie admire in their athletes, the tides seem to be turning. 

Sport Merchandise Fails!

Who doesn't love a good FAIL?   Seeing a mistake so blatently obvious evokes a warm smile from deep within.  The thought that someone associated with the team signed off on merchandise makes it clear why some sport clubs are in the position they are.

Poor NSW Waratahs.  It has been reported today that they sent their members a cap with a "Team NRL" logo as a supposedly "Official Licensed Product".  Clever Waratahs member @christweetsgood spotted the epic FAIL and posted on twitter.

Needless to say there's been numerous merchandise FAILS:

This photo from Walmart mixes the logo's of Kansas City Royals and LA Dodgers. I guess it's easy to get them confused - they're both blue?? FAIL

Not even NBC could get the subject of their email correct when announcing LA Kings as the 2012 Stanley Cup winners. FAIL

There are so many uniform FAILS from MLB, but here are my favourites:

In 1993 Joe Carter wore this jersey for 6 innings which read Torotno

On April 7 2012, Eugenio Velez made his season debut with the Giants.  His jersey read San Francicso

Not even Nike, the leader in sports sponsorship could escape a uniform FAIL in August 2012 when their logo appeared backward on the sleeve of NY Jets players.  Nike suggested that the logo wasn't backward but whatever - we'll still classify this as a FAIL!

Strange Sport Sponsorships

Sport is a business.  And businesses like sport.  But sometimes some businesses don't mix well with sports.

Currently in Australia, KFC is the "Official Restaurant of Cricket Australia".  What?? KFC is not a restaurant - how dare they call themselves that!  KFC is a fast food outlet which in no way invokes the idea of a restaurant.  But enough about that.

The part of this arrangement that irks me, is that Cricket Australia would be associated with a fast food company.  This is nothing to do with KFC - I don't mind a bit of Colonel every now and then, but the association of fast food and sport seems a little tedious

Let's look at some other strange sport sponsorships

Spain
Burger King sponsored Getafe CF a Spanish League club.  The Burger King logo appeared on the outside of the jersey and on the inside was the image of the brand's mascot "The King". The reason for this?  When players scored a goal and pulled their shirt over their head "The King's" image would appear.  The shirts came with instructions for the players

Scotland
Remember 90's band Wet Wet Wet?  Well, they loved their local football team Clydebank so much, they sponsored them from 1990 - 1993

Mexico
Bimbo bank sponsored a Mexican team called America.  Yep, check it...

The mind can only wonder what beautiful delights future strange sport sponsorships will bring!

Special K?

So who's hot in the USA today?  Not Kim, Not Khloe, Not Kimye either... it's Katherine!

Katherine Webb the girlfriend of Alabama's quarterback and former Miss Alabama, received nearly 25 seconds of airtime during ESPN's coverage of her boyfriends game and is now making news around the world.

Why?

Because she's pretty... and the commentators made some reference to how lucky quarterbacks are (presumably because the quarterbacks get the hot chicks).  Hello.... we already new that.  I've watched enough teen movies to know that quarterbacks and hot chicks go together like french fries and tomato sauce.

I haven't seen Katherine complain.  Her Twitter followers have risen from 530 a couple of days ago, to nearly 200,000 and creepy Donald Trump has tweeted her many times today, even offering her a job as a judge at the next Miss USA pageant.

Check the video and make up your own mind on the "sexist" comments.