For those of us inclined to kickback on a Monday night in front of the telly, tell your girlfriend to go watch Desperate Housewives in the other room and tune into Four Corners on ABC. They'll be airing their investigation into the politics and machinations within Tennis Australia. Should be interesting viewing for us grassroots Aussie players with an interest in how our sport is run and (mis)managed.

That's right it's on tonight but if you miss it , you can catch a replay on Tuesday night at 11:35 pm.

Just caught the repeat on ABC TV tonight; it reiterated my view of Tennis Australia as an outfit now hellbent on flexing its increasingly-corporatised muscle and authoritarian governing position, to the detriment of the grassroots.
Instead of being the local game's custodian, it uses its power to further the commercial interests of those closely aligned with TA's status quo. Wanna luxury Riverside apartment near Pat Rafter Arena? Sure thing. Mandatory Plexicushion courts to retain TA sanction? Kerr-CHING!!
And to think I thought finding cheap local court hire was a problem - at the governing level, things are even more rotten.

I myself just watched the doco on abc. what is our national surface. how many clubs are changing to this surface. how many clubs cannot afford to pay for this surface. the rebate scheme is a joke. Craig Tiley is a joke. Geoff Pollard and his board are out of date. They are all just money grabbing wankers. We are not going to achieve anything in tennis until tennis australia start looking at more than just a few talented tennis players. tennis australia is worth a billion bucks. we dont have a national state competition. there is not linton cup 18's competition. theres no reid cup 16's competition. Until we bring back these competitions i dont think we can progress again. We should be doing what the footballers do have . A 16's and 18's national competition. A draft camp with over 100 players , and decent coaches to watch over there progress. Tiley said some of the dumbest things last night . The 4 c's . And they are crap ,crapper, crappist and crappalot. This guy is a tool. The ais system is a joke. The last decent player that went to that place was in the 1990's. Our last 5 to 6 best players have not come through this system. THe team that won the davis cup in 2001. Not one of them went to the ais.Where is all the funding going. We have players ranked in the top 200 that need help to improve. Wheres there funding. All the talk at the moment is on Tomic. What about helping the 100 players below him get to where they need to go . fund them. There needs to be a shakeup. I think us as players,coaches, and tennis enthusiates should become the board. we should storm into tennis australia like fiji militants and take control. No voting required . Just throw them out and take full control of Tennis in australia.

Just watching program now, but have watched the uneditted interviews with Craig Tilley and Todd Woodbridge that are on the 4 Corners website.

Am not impressed by either's attitude or the "pathway" that TA advocates. I agree with everything Grant97 said.

Sack em all

For those who missed the show, you can watch it here:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_ ... 01/tennis/

There seemed to be a consistent theme throughout each interview that Tennis Australia like to have it their way and don't like anyone who disagrees with them. I find it hard to believe that they would be so narrow minded. Craig Tiley said that he would love feedback and help from anyone who wants to give it.

I've heard that many of the positive things said about Tennis Australia were not shown. Apparently Sam Stosur was interviewed and had glowing reviews of T.A., yet not a second of footage was shown. The report seemed to have an agenda and I think it succeeded, yet I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is.

Craig Tiley seems like an incredibly intelligent man and I've got no problem with him running the show. I do feel that T.A. seem to have become very business focused though. Unfortunately the grass roots element doesn't seem to be coming through as strongly.

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Is Stosur managed by Tennis Aust ?
One of the questions raised about TA is that they manage players and then take acut of the players earnings.

Also isn't one of the problems raised is TA look after some and not all