Sunday Territorian Sun 22 Aug 2021
Sunday Territorian; NewspaperNT
2021-08-22
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.
News Corp Australia
Darwin
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
News Corp Australia
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/847334
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/847376
SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2021 SPORT 35 V1 - NTNE01Z01MA Ariarne Titmus has called out critics. MANNY Pacquiao has hinted all week that this very well could be his last fight. But his Australian strength trainer Justin Fortune has shattered that notion. Manny Pacquiao is the greatest fighter of this generation he is not going out on Ugas, Fortune told News Corp from Las Vegas. Yordenis Ugas is the littleknown Cuban who suddenly finds himself fighting the legend, Pacquaio. Ive told him to get this Ugas prick out of there early, knock him out inside six rounds, Fortune said. TAKE HIM OUT EARLY OLYMPIC golden girl Ariarne Titmus has called out critics of her coach Dean Boxalls training methods declaring she had to be pushed to her limits every day to achieve greatness in the pool. Titmus stunned the world when she won double gold at the Tokyo Olympics, with her 200m and 400m freestyle victories over American Katie Ledecky creating international headlines for toppling arguably the greatest female swimmer of all-time. But Boxalls methods and character were immediately questioned worldwide because of his exuberant and theatrical post-race celebrations and previous concerns over his military-style training program. In a podcast interview with former Australian swimmer turned US-based coach Brett Hawke, Titmus shut down Boxalls critics and said his approach was needed to take down the GOAT. If people understood what work it takes, I dont think they would comprehend it, Titmus told Hawke. Some part of it may be jealousy, who knows, but this is what high-performance sport is. You have to work hard for it, and if being pushed to the limit and being battered down every day is what I need then that is what I need to get the best out of myself. If you dont like it dont comment on it, youre not the one being pushed. Jealousy: Titmus whacks critics of coachs harsh methods, says I wanted to be pushed to my limit At not one point did I ever tell Dean stop I dont want this. I want to be pushed. I love it. I love feeling the pain of training. I love being pushed to the limit. That is why he is the perfect coach for me. We made a deal going into the Olympics. We knew for me to swim my best he had to push me to my absolute limit. Some days you really copped it but it was just what I needed to get the best out of myself. This is high performance sport. Coming into these Olympics we just werent in an event where you were trying to win Olympic gold, I was in an event trying to take out what we believe is the GOAT in Katie. To do that we had to push ourselves to the absolute limit. TODD BALYM IS LANGERS HARD APPROACH A THING OF PAST ERAS? DARREN Lehmann finished in tears. Mickey Arthur was sacked with his tracksuit on. Tim Nielsen left exhausted by the pressures of following a golden generation. As Justin Langer wobbles towards the end of a four-year contract, the pressure is rising on Australia to ask itself why one of the most cherished jobs in the country has become a poisoned chalice. No matter what happens to Langer, Australia must accept it should split the coaching roles and get a second coach for T20 duties. And it should also realise that four years should be the maximum length any coach should stay in the job, for the coachs sake as much as the team. The deep irony of the situation is that the golden standards set by a team Langer was part of as a player are now holding him to ransom as a coach. The last Australian coach to retire with a smile on his dial was John Buchanan who, in the months before winning the 2007 World Cup, saw Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Langer walk into the sunset together after their last Test win at the SCG, which sealed a series whitewash of England. No one knew it the time but the world was about to change and Australia, not since or probably ever, will have a side with the talent or collective focus to enable them to perform crazy deeds such as winning three World Cups in a row undefeated or winning 16 Tests in a row. Soon after the Australian greats left the Test scene the Indian Premier League started, and there were unproven Australian players who earnt more in two years in the IPL than Allan Border did playing for Australia for 17 years. It subtly tilted Australian crickets focus off its axis. Players were no longer slaves to the Australian system. Teamwork could no longer be taken for granted. Techniques became compromised. Priorities torn and twisted. The result is that Australia gets by on the back of goodish Test teams but the great ones have not been seen since. And may never be again even though they remain the yardstick by which all others are measured. Langers challenges as a coach come through intensity, and the whispers about this part of his nature are true and an obvious worry because tightly wound cricket coaches rarely go the long journey. But he is not the first hard-nosed coach to be whinged about. When I first toured to cover Australian teams in the 1980s you couldnt go to the bar after play without having a player saying the boys have just had enough of Simmo and all of his niggling and whinging about us. But 30 years later, when I spoke to many of the same players for Fox Sports Cricket Legends series, a common line was: I must say, Simmo could niggle for Australia but he could coach and I needed him more than I thought I did. Langers hard-nosed style is similar to Simpson, his first national coach, though Matthew Hayden sees one important difference. Simmo had far more autonomy than Justin, Hayden said. Simmo could do what he liked. Justin is accountable to so many people up the line now. Australia coach Justin Langer looks on during a training session. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images ANALYSIS ROBERT CRADDOCK