p in the worst weather because its leaders refuse to compromis

Manchester Thunder head coach Dan Ryan admitted the better team won, but slammed his sides atrocious first-half performance and called for the need for a fourth umpire as they went down to a narrow 55-53 defeat against Surrey Storm. The Black and Yellows trailed by 13 at the break and despite a sensational Thunder fightback it was Surrey who held on and claim back-to-back titles.We were atrocious in that first quarter and Storm did a great job in shutting us down but we were so hesitant, we didnt let the ball go, everything that we spoke about doing the girls just didnt execute and thats a Grand Final. We addressed a few things at half-time and we took a big deep breath and got on with business. They were sensational in that second half, they really did show their class to fight their way back and we were so close. Perhaps another extra couple of minutes and it could have been a different story. Highlights from the Vitality Netball Superleague as Surrey Storm played Manchester Thunder in the Grand Final Full credit to Storm, they earned that win tonight and deserved to be reigning champions.The players are devastated, were all devastated, we came here with a job to do and that was to win the title and we felt as though we had the players to do it, but it just wasnt our day. Storm retain Superleague crown Surrey Storm beat Manchester Thunder to win Netball Superleague Ryan also spoke about a controversial umpiring decision in the dying seconds, where Storm appeared to incomplete their centre pass through Sophia Candappa.With Thunder just one goal behind, possession for them would have offered Thunder the opportunity to level-up the scores and force extra time. Reaction from both camps after Surrey Storm survived a late onslaught by Manchester Thunder to successfully defend their title And Ryan feels there is now a need for a fourth umpire in Netball due to the changing nature of the game.In the context of the big pictures, its absolutely devastating for us. We had enormous momentum at that stage and a little over 20 seconds to level the match. Its just a little devastating that the game ends on that sour note but it was a big error and big oversight and one we just have to suck up and move on from. Wallace claims netball award Sammy Wallace named netballs Vitality Superleague Player of the Season I just think in such a close game, the things which are getting missed are the things that can really turn a game and thats kind of what happened with us in this instance.The game is getting faster and there is so much happening off ball and away from the umpires vision that its just the way the cookie crumbles at the top level so maybe its time for extra umpires, but who knows, it is what it is. Also See: Storm retain Superleague crown Wallace claims netball award WATCH: Storm win Superleague As it happened Darcy Tucker Maple Leafs Jersey . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Morgan Rielly Jersey . The 27-year-old Scrivens will be joining his third NHL club since signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2010. The move also reunites with him with head coach Dallas Eakins from their time together with the American Hockey Leagues Toronto Marlies. http://www.officialmapleleafsfanstore.com/authentic-garret-sparks-maple-leafs-jersey/ . The Barrie Colts defenceman, who impressed many with his play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, is the top-ranked skater in the February rankings. He has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in 45 games with the Colts this season. Grant Fuhr Maple Leafs Jersey . -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Farmar will be out for roughly four weeks after tearing his left hamstring. Kasperi Kapanen Maple Leafs Jersey .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines September 5 NFL Preview Issue. Subscribe today!IT SOUNDS SO inconceivable, naive, delusional, but it was only a decade ago that Alex Rodriguez was the antidote to a ruinous generation of drugs and greed. He was the choice of the really smart baseball men, such as Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman, both of whom traded for him, and a paralyzed commissioner such as Bud Selig, who tolerated Barry Bonds holding the home run record because soon enough Rodriguez would shatter it and make the game whole again. He would make them clean.Alex Rodriguez only made it worse. The Golden Boy wasnt so golden after all. Following a bizarre week in which the Yankees held a retirement ceremony for him even though hed never announced he was quitting, Rodriguez was discarded without much care. Even the pregame celebration before his final game as a Yankee was curtailed by thunder, lightning and rain, fitting for those who found him less of a True Yankee than the rest. That wasnt thunder, former Yankees player and coach Lee Mazzilli said of the biblical thunderclaps that preceded the downpour. That was George. The Yankees 1996 championship team was being honored the next day, but for Rodriguezs night, only Mariano Rivera joined him on the field. Former teammates Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter were not present. Neither was his old manager, Joe Torre. Thats called a message pitch.Point the blame at Rodriguez, who admitted using PEDs, but no amount of reveling in his inglorious end can undo the enormous collaborative effort that has created baseballs current dystopia. Rodriguez, along with Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire, is part of the Mount Rushmore of discredited legends that represents the true legacy of the steroid era: It isnt that they arent in Cooperstown. Its that nobody cares.The all-time home run list was once led by the most recognizable foursome in sports -- Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson. That leaderboard stood for nearly 30 years, until Bonds, who hit his 500th and 600th home runs just one season apart, passed Robinson in 2002. Sammy Sosa hit 60 home runs three times and won the home run title in exactly none of those years. While baseballl took the money and laughed at warnings that it was undermining itself, the consequences would be felt later, with Rodriguez amassing 3,000 hits, 2,000 runs and 2,000 RBIs -- something only Aaron had done -- but leaving the game utterly uncelebrated, inside baseball and especially out.ddddddddddddThe Rodriguez epitaph will be a one-sided story about the phenom who was part of the top millionth percentile of talent and blew it all. Yet Alex Rodriguez will in the end be no different from the industry in which he performed for the past two decades, a game that has lost its way, seemingly intent on undermining all that made it special.The game, like A-Rod, took the money (it is now close to a $10?billion industry), ignored the spread of steroids and lost out on the good stuff. Its records are now as worthless as those in the league it is so envious of, the NFL. It decides which team will host the most important games of the World Series based on an exhibition game. It plays its championship in the worst weather because its leaders refuse to compromise on money and adjust the schedule. It plays at least one game every day between teams that play under two sets of rules. And because baseball cannot decide whether it wants to be truly modern, the games leadership allows it to stand weakly in the middle, playing a full season of baseball, simultaneously rewarding and penalizing teams for not coming in first place by staging a one-game playoff, as if the baseball season were the NCAA tournament.Baseball wants the world to be proud of its drug-testing program. Meanwhile, it deals with an All-Star team of steroid-tainted players who thus far need a ticket to enter the Hall of Fame -- Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez and most certainly Rodriguez -- by disciplining virtually none of them and hiring nearly all -- laying the weight of accountability on the Baseball Writers Association of America. If not knowing himself was the self-destructive fatal flaw of Alex Rodriguez, it makes perfect sense that he felt so much at home playing major league baseball. ' ' '