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Six Nations Showdown: England's Resilience Secures Victory Over Wales! 🏉 The clash between England and Wales at Twickenham in the 2024 Six Nations was a rollercoaster of intensity and determination. Despite Wales' strong start and impressive attacking stats, England's resilience and strategic second-half play led them to a narrow 2-point victory, remaining undefeated in the tournament. 🔥 Key stats reveal the pivotal moments of the match, showcasing England's strategic turnaround and Wales' missed opportunities. The fluctuating possession and territory, scrum success, lineout challenges, and defensive efforts paint a compelling picture of the game's dynamic nature. 🌟 It's a testament to the unpredictability and exhilaration of rugby, where every moment can shift the tide of the game. Cheers to both teams for an exhilarating display of skill and sportsmanship! #SixNations #EnglandVsWales #RugbyClash #ResiliencePrevails 🏆

## England's Path to Glory: Dispelling the Myth of an "Easy Draw" As we bask in the glow of England's hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Netherlands, it's time to address the naysayers who claimed our Three Lions had an "easy draw" in Euro 2024. This triumph serves as a powerful reminder that there are no easy matches at this level of international football. Gareth Southgate himself dismissed these notions, stating that such talk shows "a sense of entitlement" that only serves to annoy other nations. He's absolutely right. Every team that reaches the knockout stages of a major tournament is there on merit, and each match presents its own unique challenges. Let's look at the facts: 1. **Formidable opponents**: The Netherlands, ranked 7th in the world, were our toughest challenge . This was no walk in the park. 2. **Historical perspective**: England has never reached a final outside of Wembley, and we've only had two finals in our entire history.This journey is anything but easy. 3. **Player insights**: Marc Guéhi, one of our standout performers, emphasized that "there is no favourable side of the draw" in this competition. 4. **Psychological edge**: Harry Kane highlighted the "aura" our team has developed through consistent performances in recent tournaments. This speaks to the respect we've earned, not an easy path. Our captain, Harry Kane, summed it up perfectly: "Step by step, you grow into the tournament but we still haven't reached the full potential that you've seen for several years now. This is a team that's battling hard, improving with each match, and facing every challenge head-on. As we look forward to the final, let's appreciate the grit, determination, and skill that have brought us this far. Easy draw? Far from it. This is the result of years of hard work, tactical brilliance from Southgate, and the unwavering spirit of our Three Lions. Come on England! Let's bring it home! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🦁⚽️ #Euro2024 #ThreeLions #ItsComingHomeo

If you have access to the BBC Iplayer and are wanting a game of football to watch, do yourself a solid and go watch the SPFL Trust Trophy Final between Airdrieonians FC and The New Saints Football Club. Its a great game, between two well matched teams who play some lovely attacking football. Now the Eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the elephant in the room. What's a Welsh league team doing in the final of a Scottish Cup competition. Great question! The answer? The SPFL Trust Trophy is wild and I love it. Here's the breakdown of teams involved in a round by round basis, all ties are a single game knockout. Round 1 11 Premiership B Teams Top 4 teams from the Highland and lowland leagues respectively from 22/23 Bottom 3 teams from 22/23 League 2 Round 2 11 winners from previous round Remaining 22/23 League 2 teams Bottom 2 22/23 League 1 teams Round 3 10 round 2 winners Remaining 22/23 League 1 teams Clubs 2nd-10th in Championship 22/23 Relegated club from 22/23 Premiership 4 invited clubs - This year TNS, Bala Town F.C., Coleraine Football Club and Cliftonville Football Club Round 4-Final Straight knockouts Just a good mad mix of teams, but it's the invited teams aspect I love the most. Football is always comparisons, who would play well in what league etc. My Father in law is convinced that Northern Irish teams would beat most Scottish teams for example. Well here is a competition that puts it to the test. Long live competitions that do things differently. I know it's probably a pain for most of the Scottish teams involved but for the neutral it's great. #football #soccer #competition #tournament

Read my first article for Football Enquirer below!

Lawrie McKinna: A true survivor: Since 1986, when he first appeared for Heidelberg United in the NSL, Lawrie McKinna, the current Sydney Olympic CEO, has seen it all in Australian football. After playing stints with Apia and Blacktown City, he eventually teamed up with David Mitchell at Sydney United and Parramatta Power in coaching roles, followed by Northern Spirit in his own right. When the A-League commenced in 2005, Mckinna was involved at Central Coast Mariners and eventually became mayor of Gosford. In recent times, he was CEO at the Newcastle Jets until the opportunity arose two years ago to take the helm at Sydney Olympic. It is no coincidence that Lawrie McKinna faces one of the greatest challenges of his career in preparing the club to be ready for the start of the National Second Division in the winter of 2025. Fittingly, on this Saturday, January 13th, a challenge match will be played to commemorate the first NSL  match between Sydney Olympic and South Melbourne which was played on April 2nd, 1977 at the Sydney Sportsground. It was a unique day for football as it was the first code in Australia to form a national competition. Lawrie McKinna is well aware of the famous players who appeared on that day, notably Gary Meier and Joe Senkalski for Sydney Olympic and former Socceroos, Jack Reilly, Billy Rogers, Duncan Cummings, Jimmy Mackay and Peter Ollerton for South Melbourne. In fact, it was Peter Ollerton who scored the two goals for South Melbourne to secure his team’s victory. In this interview with Roger Sleeman, Lawrie McKinna discusses the current state of Australian football, his vision for the success of the National Second Division and the significance of the Sydney Olympic v South Melbourne clash. ROGER SLEEMAN Looking back over all those years you’ve been involved in the Australian game, how do you see its current state? LAWRIE McKINNA When I first played at Heidelberg in the NSL, there were big crowds but we played at poor stadiums like Connor Reserve and Sunshine Reserve in the winter. Furthermore, we played in ankles of mud which was very much like playing in Scotland. The current A-League stadiums are top notch with good surfaces and part of the criteria for the B-League will be for this to be replicated. One of the glaring weaknesses of the A-League is the lack of media as the other codes receive blanket coverage. If the game is trying to entice more support there is no incentive for the general sporting fan to follow it so this must be addressed. However, the success of the Matildas is well known and the Socceroos popularity has never been greater so these strengths have to be built on. R.S. Do you think the right people are running the game? L.M. I don’t even know who is running the game since Danny Townsend left the APL. I’ve never seen Nick Garcia, the new APL CEO, because he’s never… #Football #Soccer #FootballNews

Hot Take: Why You Shouldn’t Want Ipswich Town To Be Promoted This Season – Opinion https://ift.tt/STlh5oR Sure the three-horse Premier League title race between Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City is pretty interesting, but it’s got nothing on the race to be crowned champions of the Championship. With six match days left of the 2023/24 campaign, only two points separate the top three, with Leicester City, who once looked like the runaway leaders, having slipped to third and out of the automatic promotion places. Their game in hand over table-topping Ipswich Town and Leeds United would put them back in the driving seat should they take all three points.  Ipswich Town are the real surprise. I’m sure most of you reading this expected Leicester City and Leeds United to be right up there battling to be Championship champions, but as the pair were suffering their relegations last season, The Tractor Boys were in England’s third tier, entertaining away trips to Forest Green Rovers, Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood Town. To see Ipswich at the summit of the Championship with six/seven games left to play is both a surprise and a real treat for neutrals like myself. Much like Luton Town this season, having fresh faces, new names and different stadiums coming into the Premier League is vital to the neutral’s continued interest and the value of the ‘product’ – otherwise, if it’s just the same eight or so clubs rotating up and down, what real difference is there between the EPL and that pesky ‘Super’ League? Ipswich’s rise and promotion has and would be a joy to see for folks like myself, however, you’ve read the title, this hot take is all about why you shouldn’t want The Tractor Boys to reach the top tier for the 2024/25 campaign. Let me explain why… There has been a trend over recent years that has seen promoted clubs fall to relegation after just one season in the EPL. Excluding the 2022/23 season and making large assumptions about how the 2023/24 campaign will end, nine (ten including Luton) out of the 18 promoted sides in the last six seasons have suffered relegation immediately back to the Championship. These teams were as follows; 2023/24 – Burnley, Sheffield United and maybe Luton Town (as things stand) 2021/22 – Norwich and Watford 2020/21 – West Brom and Fulham 2019/20 – Norwich 2018/19 – Fulham and Cardiff A 50% likelihood of falling back into the second tier the first time of asking. The gap between the Championship and Premier League is only getting bigger too, with the lack of distribution of wealth, the EPL standard is getting higher whilst the typical Championship side isn’t progressing as quickly.  Ipswich Town, it would be fair to suggest, falls into the ‘typical Championship side’ when you look at the playing squad. And that is the major reason why you shouldn’t want their promotion to happen this season, Ipswich’s squad isn’t Premier League ready and due to the tough nature of cracking into and staying in the ...

The new Men's Professional Game Partnership (MPGP), announced today, is a watershed moment for English rugby, for a number of reasons. 🌹 Most notably: 1) It is the first time that the Rugby Players Association has been a signatory to the agreement governing the professional game, recognising the essential role that players have in shaping the future of the sport. 🏉 2) It includes a landmark joint marketing agreement, which should facilitate a more coherent commercial strategy for selling the professional game, which is desperately needed. 📈 There are many other positive talking points in the new deal but, as ever, the proof will be in the pudding. 🍰 However, it is not clear that this amounts to the full "relaunch" of the Premiership that was promised following the demise of Worcester and Wasps. In particular, significant questions remain over promotion/relegation and the status of the Championship. 🤔 The Minimum Standards Criteria have been adapted to make it easier for Championship clubs to get promoted (if they can win a two-legged play-off) but, as the full RFU press release states, "there is currently a major gap in competitiveness and playing budgets between the Gallagher Premiership and Championship clubs and the financial requirements needed to compete in the Premiership". Yet, strikingly, the new MPGP does not appear to tackle this fundamental problem (which results from the lack of funding and commercialisation of the second tier) and the Championship clubs are excluded from the MPGP. It is disappointing that the opportunity has been missed to remedy this chronic issue, which will, no doubt, continue to plague the competition. What do you make of today's announcement? Let me know in the comments. ⬇ #sportslaw #sportbiz #EnglandRugby #rugby #sport https://lnkd.in/gz-Tc_fU

MUST READ: Lawrie McKinna: A true survivor: Since 1986, when he first appeared for Heidelberg United in the NSL, Lawrie McKinna, the current Sydney Olympic CEO, has seen it all in Australian football. After playing stints with Apia and Blacktown City, he eventually teamed up with David Mitchell at Sydney United and Parramatta Power in coaching roles, followed by Northern Spirit in his own right. When the A-League commenced in 2005, Mckinna was involved at Central Coast Mariners and eventually became mayor of Gosford. In recent times, he was CEO at the Newcastle Jets until the opportunity arose two years ago to take the helm at Sydney Olympic. It is no coincidence that Lawrie McKinna faces one of the greatest challenges of his career in preparing the club to be ready for the start of the National Second Division in the winter of 2025. Fittingly, on this Saturday, January 13th, a challenge match will be played to commemorate the first NSL  match between Sydney Olympic and South Melbourne which was played on April 2nd, 1977 at the Sydney Sportsground. It was a unique day for football as it was the first code in Australia to form a national competition. Lawrie McKinna is well aware of the famous players who appeared on that day, notably Gary Meier and Joe Senkalski for Sydney Olympic and former Socceroos, Jack Reilly, Billy Rogers, Duncan Cummings, Jimmy Mackay and Peter Ollerton for South Melbourne. In fact, it was Peter Ollerton who scored the two goals for South Melbourne to secure his team’s victory. In this interview with Roger Sleeman, Lawrie McKinna discusses the current state of Australian football, his vision for the success of the National Second Division and the significance of the Sydney Olympic v South Melbourne clash. ROGER SLEEMAN Looking back over all those years you’ve been involved in the Australian game, how do you see its current state? LAWRIE McKINNA When I first played at Heidelberg in the NSL, there were big crowds but we played at poor stadiums like Connor Reserve and Sunshine Reserve in the winter. Furthermore, we played in ankles of mud which was very much like playing in Scotland. The current A-League stadiums are top notch with good surfaces and part of the criteria for the B-League will be for this to be replicated. One of the glaring weaknesses of the A-League is the lack of media as the other codes receive blanket coverage. If the game is trying to entice more support there is no incentive for the general sporting fan to follow it so this must be addressed. However, the success of the Matildas is well known and the Socceroos popularity has never been greater so these strengths have to be built on. R.S. Do you think the right people are running the game? L.M. I don’t even know who is running the game since Danny Townsend left the APL. I’ve never seen Nick Garcia, the new APL CEO, because he’s… #Football #Soccer #FootballNews

Sometimes calling a spade a spade is what we need more of from our leaders. Andy Farrell, head coach of the #irishrugby team is a masterclass in this in my opinion. Take our defeat (ouch) to England last weekend in the Six Nations Rugby championships. What an enthralling game it was and I really can't begin to imagine how the Irish players must have felt when the whistle blew at fulltime on the pitch that day.... Farrell didn’t offer any excuses, didn’t criticise the referee or complain about the injuries which forced him to rearrange his team writes Andy Bull in The Guardian. So how then do you continue to inspire, coach, lead and motivate a team to look onward when they and you, as their leader, suffer such a setback? Andy Farrell responded magnanimously: - That's life. You dust yourselves down. We’ve been very good at winning and moving on to the next one. We’ve got to be really good at losing as well. (interesting for me this one as you don't often hear from leaders discussing on how to be good at losing....) - We were on the wrong side of that result but there will be absolutely no problem whatsoever getting back to work next week for what is a super important week for Irish rugby. - We’ll congratulate England, we’ll have a beer with them.... we’ve got to dust ourselves down and make sure that we turn up with a smile on our face because we’ve got a championship to win next weekend. - Look, the lads are realists, they’ll learn the lessons quickly. Six Nations (titles) are unbelievably difficult to come by. To win them you tend to have a lot of ups and downs. Ed Elliot breakingnews.ie #leadership #sportspsychology #rugby Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) Daragh Sheridan Ph.D. CPsychol #Ireland #learningfromfailure #movingon #lessonslearned #humancentric #humancentricleadership #sportsleadership #magnanimous #bounceback #setbacks #coaching #lessonsinleadership #inspiringothers

The English national football team is highly star-studded. The team has experienced a period of renewed optimism and notable success since Gareth Southgate took over in 2016. Southgate has since focused on bringing in young talent and creating a positive team spirit under his management. So far, under him, England reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2020. While this feat has given some fans hope, many think he is too cautious and relies too much on defensive tactics in important matches. While they appreciate Southgate’s efforts to improve the team and build a good atmosphere, they are desperate for a major trophy. The last time England won one was the World Cup in 1966. There are high expectations for the upcoming Euro 2024, considering the amount of prospects and skilled veterans the team has. However, Southgate once again caused surprise when he released the provisional 33-man squad for Euro 2024. There were notable names not on the list. Players like Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson were left out. While these players haven’t actually done well in their respective clubs in the current season, there is no denying the quality they possess. It is yet to be known who will be left out when Southgate confirms his final 26-man squad, as he would have to cut out at least seven players. The upcoming days and the team’s performance in Euro 2024 in Germany will be crucial in determining Southgate’s future. While we await this outcome, let’s review the possible list of next England manager odds to know who could take over from Gareth Southgate if there should be a change. https://lnkd.in/dBubpAz3 🔗 #MightyTips #GarethSouthgate #England