Sport

As Dan McKellar prepares for his fourth season at the helm of the Brumbies, he has already amassed a well-earned reputation as a future head coach of the Wallabies. Wallabies coach Dave Rennie wanted McKellar to be his assistant, taking charge of the forwards for the 2020 campaign. McKellar says he was keen to take on the dual roles of...

Every year for the past 20 years I reckon I have asked Garry Quinlivan why he returns each season as the Brumbies assistant manager given it's a volunteer role. “It’s the boys,” he says. He loves being around them; he loves the banter. “Nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing the players develop individually and as a team,” says Garry....

Sport in 2020 was a bit of a hit-and-miss affair. Competitions started, stalled and then restarted as COVID-19 took its toll. We saw professional matches without the crowds, grand finals moved interstate, teams in lockdown bubbles and events cancelled or postponed. What didn't change was the passion and commitment of those behind the scenes, and the stories of triumph and...

Following a succession of ducks to launch his first-grade cricket career with Queanbeyan, Peter Solway briefly earned himself the nickname ‘Olympic Rings’. Peter was only 15 years of age at the time and says four or five ducks wasn’t an ideal way to start, but he says he wasn’t overly concerned, nor was captain-coach Garry Samuels. In the ensuing years,...

Five months ago, Glen Turner was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer. To suggest that it has rocked his world is an understatement. It takes a fair bit to unsettle Glen. A tough New Zealand-raised rugby league player, he is as uncompromising as they come. But as he begins to talk about the impact the diagnosis has had on his...

Players from the Canberra Raiders, including captain Jarrod Croker and Sam Williams, paid a special visit to Crookwell on Tuesday, 24 November. A Raiders spokesperson said the visit provided a chance for the rugby league players to visit the town near to where Croker grew up in Goulburn, and where Sam’s wife, Sarah Gilbert, was raised. Sarah’s father, Ashley, is...

Joan Bratton's life changed forever when she met the late Olympic swimming coach Don Talbot around 1953-1954. Don noticed Joan swimming freestyle with her left arm and doggy paddle with her right arm – the only way she knew how to swim with her disability. Not only was Joan born with Poland syndrome – which meant she had short, webbed fingers and...

A few months ago Caroline Buchanan was hurtling down the mountain bike trail at Stromlo at 50 km/h when she crashed. She knocked herself out and woke up alongside a smashed helmet. She also found herself back at Canberra Hospital for a series of tests. They had plenty of records to use for comparison. Caroline had spent two-and-a-half years in...

This has been the craziest season on record, eclipsing even the madhouse that was Super League in 1997, and that's saying something. Both the Super League and the COVID-impacted 2020 seasons were bizarre for different reasons. Super League was destructive and divisive, with the club’s players and supporters often at odds over the direction the Raiders opted to take as...

The Monaro Panthers Football Club has labelled a decision by Capital Football to axe all their women's and girls' teams from the 2021 National Premier League Women's (NPLW) competition "discouraging and extremely short-sighted". The decision was made late last week after all clubs in the league were invited to apply to field teams in all five divisions, from first grade to...

Over the past 30 years or so there have been three perennial issues about Canberra which refuse to die. The top issue that has resonated for as long as I can remember is the cost of petrol in Canberra compared to almost anywhere else in Australia. Various explanations have been given for Canberra’s high comparative petrol price but none really...

Ack Weyman only missed two games of his son, Michael’s, rugby league career in Australia. This was a fair effort considering Michael was a schoolboy prodigy, captaining the Australian schoolboys before playing 141 NRL games for the Raiders and the Dragons. He also played in four Origins and a test for Australia. After a stint with Hull in the UK,...

In the wake of the 30-10 loss to the Melbourne Storm in the preliminary final, there was a certain amount of despair among Raiders fans. They came so close to another grand final appearance. Not that this season was a disappointment. Far from it. With an injury toll that had seven first graders on the sidelines for much of the...