Youthful follies not lost on Newk Illustration: John Shakespeare AH, the wisdom of the mature years. Here was the great John Newcombe this week, telling the Herald of the advice he has given to tennis youngsters over the years, including the Poo. I always like to say to young guys: 'Think you are now 35 years of age - are you going to look back and say, 'I could have done this, I could have done that? Or are you going to go out and give it your best shot and get the maximum out of your talent?. When Mark [Philippoussis] was super fit and concentrating 100 per cent on his tennis, he was reaching Wimbledon finals, US Open finals . . . when he didn't do his training, he dropped right off. You see it in all sports: James O'Connor in rugby, who's let his career go. It's crazy. As to Bernard Tomic being a different version of a Toolie at Gold Coast's Sin City nightclub in schoolies week, Newk was also sage: "You can hit nightclubs, it depends when you hit them. If you're in off-season, you're going out it's fine - [but not] if you're in the middle of a tournament or when you should be training hard. All right on the money. Still, I can't help comparing that sagacity with a story the three-time Wimbledon winner told me 20 years ago, of when he was 18 and had just lost a junior tournament to Tony Roche after partying till 3am the previous night. That evening, his father, an amiable fellow, decided it was time to have a quiet word with his son. "Son," he said, "you can either be a great athlete or a great playboy . . . but you can't be both. You're going to have to choose one or the other. In response, Newcombe the Younger looks his father right in the eyes and gives his reply: "I'll tell you what, Dad, I'm going to give both of them a heck of a shot . . ." TFF has received a fair measure of correspondence since my mini-rant last week asserting that Michael Clarke's threat of violence to James Anderson is just not cricket. Most correspondents agreed, but not all of those who didn't were writing in crayon. Shane Warne even called for the Australians to up the ante this Test on the sledging. Really? Is it really the way we'd want to win the Ashes, that we were more vicious sledgers than they were? And, as one correspondent pointed out, if sledging really is a legitimate part of the game, why turn off the stump cams at all? Can't we viewers hear the fun? Just put it on a three-second delay, and have an operator beep out the rude words. Why not, you blokes? Because it would be too embarrassing to hear what you say? Man up, men. If sledging is legitimate, there should be no shame. Another email pointed out that the true place to utter vicious insults is not in the coward's castle of a cricket field, with television cameras everywhere, but at the pub, or out the back of the grandstand, where the person you're going at can actually go you. Another correspondent pointed out how golf has got it exactly right. In golf it is unthinkable that right at the top of the backswing, a golfer's rival would whisper something vicious. Finally, to those who said surely there was a lot of sledging in rugby when I played, the answer is: barely ever. When you're physically confronting each other all the time, a threat of violence, or uttering lame insults, is beside the point. And you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din, if you'd ever tell Wayne Shelford his mother wears army boots. One who agrees is former Test cricketer Bruce Francis, who in a letter said that while he vehemently disagreed with most things I write, he was with me on this one. He noted that despite Ian Chappell's fearsome reputation, Chappell never said a word in any game the two played against each other, with one exception. "In Adelaide," he writes, "the South Australians appealed for a caught-behind from Alan Turner. Alan turned to the slips and indicated it had touched his body. Ian Chappell said: 'You do the batting, we'll do the appealing and the blokes in black trousers with the seeing-eye dog will give you out if he thinks you hit it.' Everyone including the umpire laughed. Finally, on what the new stand at Royal Randwick should be called, I also like the suggestion of one reader who says: "Why not call it the 'Oops, There Goes the Kids Tuition Fees Stand' or simply the 'Mug Punters Stand'? For it is the last, of course, who should really be honoured as the true builders of the whole industry. I dinkum don't spend my time trying to think up bad things to write about rugby league, because . . . it doesn't take much time at all! League is the most consistently spectacular televised sport, but the issue of player behaviour off the field is staggering. In one week, five - count 'em, FIVE - players were charged by police! Knights recruit Russell Packer was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm after allegedly being involved in an incident that resulted in a man being left unconscious with a fractured eye socket. And, as the Tele noted, this goes with South Sydney centre Dylan Walker and Canterbury recruit Tyrone Phillips being charged over their own alleged involvement in a violent brawl, all while Manly's Richie Fa'aoso was "charged on Monday with malicious damage and drink-driving, while Canterbury's Reni Maitua was charged with assault for an alleged incident involving a taxi driver." Seriously, if this is not a problem, Houston, just what is? Australia's women's rugby sevens team. Came back to beat New Zealand 35-27 in the final of the Dubai Sevens. Newport Public School Girls 1st XI. After winning the NSW PSSA State knockout netball competition earlier this year, they have now claimed the NSW PSSA State cricket knockout. They breed them brilliant down Newport way - and they're always superbly coached by dedicated staff. Kangaroos. Won the Rugby League World Cup. Hayden Haitana. Racing Queensland board has lifted the ban on the Fine Cotton trainer almost 30 years after Australia's most infamous trackside scandal. Meanwhile, Damien Oliver bet ten grand in a race on which he was riding the favourite, and was allowed back after just ten months. Nathan Walker. Will become the first Australian to play in the National Hockey League. Wallabies. Ended their spring tour on a good note, with a 30-26 win over Wales. Looked good for 71 holes of the Australian Open, before bogeying the last ... just as former world No.1 Rory McIlroy nailed a long birdie putt. Israel Folau. Scored a record-equalling 10 Test tries in his first year as a Wallaby. Jim Maxwell. The President of the Primary Club of Australia celebrated 40 years on ABC Radio on Tuesday. His first co-commentator on cricket was the great Alan McGilvray. Congratulations to him. Louise Graham. Pushing a stroller with her three kidlets in it, she started last of the 447 runners Sunday's Balmain Fun Run and 28 minutes and 33 seconds later had overtaken 309 of the 447 competitors and 82 per cent of all the female competitors while pushing more than her own body weight. St Augustine's College 1st IV. Won the Sydney University Cup for the best schoolboy rowing IV at the prestigious Riverview Gold Cup on Saturday - only the second win in 30 years by a non-GPS school. Kerry O'Keeffe on the brilliant ABC radio coverage of the Ashes: "If Matt Prior was about to be executed before a firing squad and was asked if he had any last words, he would say, "Yes ... Ironman Kendrick Louis on sex before competing: "Some blokes think having sex one week out of competition affects your performance. I can understand the night before, as we all know how shattered you are after it. Move on. Nothing to see here, folks. Australian golfer Steve Elkington tweets after a helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow, killing eight people: "Helicopter crashes into Scottish pub ... Locals report no beer was spilled. Staggering. David Beckham on who should play him in a movie: "Brad Pitt would be the obvious choice. I'd like Brad to be playing me. Him or Leonardo [Di Caprio]. One of the two ... or Bradley Cooper. They're not bad-looking guys. Len Pascoe on the sledging: "If Thommo or Lillee or Hoggy sledged you, they could back it up. I'm reading all this stuff about sledging and I think, if you can't back it up, you're the mouse that roared. Welshman Steve Richards won £38,970 ($70,300) pounds with Ladbrokes when he picked 12 soccer results last weekend ... before blowing £30,000 on a Welsh win over the Wallabies: "It was a bit of bad luck losing the bet but I'm still almost 9000 pounds better off than I was when I started." And that should get him through this weekend. Billy Slater on returning from injury to help Australia win the World Cup: "I couldn't walk a week ago and even a couple of days ago I was umming and arghing about whether to put my hand up to play or not." You guessed it. He put his hand up! Twelve-year-old twins Luke and Jayden Schofield, who finished equal 12th in the 12-15 year age group of the 5km Balmain fun-run last Sunday, on why they crossed the line together: "We aren't interested in beating each other because we are brothers." Spanish soccer club Real Betis, in last place, announce they have sacked coach Pepe Mel Betis: "Real Betis, due to the delicate sporting situation which the team finds itself in and the necessity to change the dynamic of results, communicates its decision to relieve Pepe Mel of his functions." Frank O'Driscoll, father of the famous Irish centre Brian, on the latest in his son's long series of concussions: "Am I worried how Brian will be in 20 years? Absolutely. You only have to go back to boxing and the dementia that has been caused there. Look at poor Muhammad Ali with his Parkinson's. Can you imagine the damage that was caused to his brain every time he received a punch? The chemical changes that occur after a bang to the head are absolutely frightening. FIFA's head of refereeing Massimo Busacca doesn't like players who dive: "We need fair play. You cannot win the game with simulation, what are you to tell your children when you go home? Will you say, "I won the game by simulation, it was cheating"? It should be an honour to win a game on merit. Twitter @Peter_Fitz