Hasta la vista, Huss

I am sorry but Mike Hussey has to be cleared out of the Australian one-day side. I am well aware that, there being two dead rubbers to play, he will now pile up the runs and save his place in the side. But to see the shot he played to go out on last night was to see a man whose technique is no longer up to it. At least he played at it this time: a year ago he would have shouldered arms to it. But the result was the same, off-stump gone.

Retain him in the Test side if you must, although I think he should have forfeited that too after the 2009 Ashes, when we had Ponting coming in as the Hussey-watchman. Hussey has been a great player, but the constant mixing of the formats has undermined his technique and his sense of where his off-stump is too far. It is sad, but as the Romans would say, sic transit gloria mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world.)

If we're going to be getting little contribution from No. 6, I would rather that come from a George Bailey or an Adam Voges or any number of potential long-term players. It's over. Let's face it, Australia has been pretty poor in this NatWest series so far, and at Hussey's age - and Ponting's, too - that becomes less tenable with every trampling.

Don't mention the four

The Socceroos' opening round shocker against Germany now doesn't look that bad, after Joachim Loew's pulsating side put four past England last night. Speaking for myself it helped to lessen the pain to see the mesmeric Germans cutting England to shreds, triangulating their give-and-go passing at breathtaking footspeed.

It made Australia's defensive slackness against them look just that little bit more bearable seeing the cream of the (homegrown) Premier League defenders allow Lukas Podolski and Thomas Müller exactly the same time and space to ghost up to the far post, receive, control, tee off and score.

That the Germans flicked the switch to Brazilian-style flair to turn defeat into a rout against a team opened up even more comprehensively than Australia was a welcome balm to an open wound.

And that it happened to be England, well, that was a bonus: that the Poms go home so comprehensively thrashed by their arch-rivals gave me a warm inner glow, I admit - marred only by the most ridiculous officiating decision since Thierry Henry was practically allowed to carry the ball through the penalty area in Paris in November last year.

You can't hide your lyin' eyes

If ever an organisation had to bite the bullet, it is FIFA. Just as the VFL/AFL twice had to bow to the fact that the speed of the game had passed its traditional adjudication structure by, so must FIFA now. The stakes are simply too high for meaningful internationals to be decided by the kind of way-off-the-pace, gut-feel reactions that have blighted this World Cup.

Players, let alone supporters, simply cannot have confidence in the officiating at this level any longer. Questionable offsides are one thing: a ball bouncing a metre inside the goal-line and the goal being disallowed - as Frank Lampard's shot did, and was - is another. (I would add that a ball being kicked into a player's body at high speed and an involuntary synapse twitch being deemed deliberate is another.)

A ridiculous, cynical dive causing arguably the fairest player in the world (Kaka) to be sent off, when as proven by the BBC, the referee could not have seen the incident and adjudicated solely on the basis of the diver's acting and his Ivory Coast team-mates' protestations, is another. Luis Fabiano's double handball in the same game is another. I could go on.

The 2010 World Cup has been so full of these incidents, FIFA has to come to the only conclusion it can: let's go to the video. It's there, and it should be used, with a second ref in constant radio contact with the one on the pitch. The game is too fast now for the two pairs of eyes officiating in either half to be relied upon.

Bud left un-nipped turns poison

Speaking of umpires and the AFL, however, it does not matter how many there are on the field if they are not prepared to make an obvious call. On Friday night, we were treated to the edifying spectacle of St. Kilda's Steven Baker repeatedly striking Geelong's Steve Johnson - on the hand.

OK, it was not the body or the head - but Baker was punching him: concentrating on the part of Johnson he wanted to hit, and punching it, with the ball the length of the field away. It was clear, calculated, deliberate striking. As we know, Johnson eventually retaliated, caught Baker in the eye with an elbow, and we have a furore on our hands.

But what I want to know is, why didn't one of the umpires nip this in the bud when it first started, by paying a free kick against Baker? And then another? Ross Lyon would have melted down the phone line if Baker's "niggle" - as the approving commentators called it - had resulted in set shots inside 50. But the umpires did not make the call, and potentially we have the age-old scenario of the retaliator being pinged.

Les Roos de Soccer?

The odds seem to be firming that Paul Le Guen will be the Socceroos' next coach. At least the FFA has given up its love of all things Dutch, turning to a Frenchman. So, how to assess Le Guen?

If you are only as good as your last game, the Cameroon coach presided over a team that did not fire a shot at the 2010 World Cup: the Indomitable Lions, although they did well in qualifying, were in fact easily domitable at the Finals, and the body language was very poor. Le Guen did not use his main weapons, Samuel Eto'o and Alex Song, very wisely at all, and did not appear to have a happy team.

He did not have much success in Scotland with Rangers or back home with Paris St Germain (where he played.) But he did turn Olympique Lyon into a European power and was dubbed the "new Arsène Wenger." That would be handy at this point for the Socceroos, given that the old one is not available.

Australia in generational transition will be a challenge for any coach. Le Guen has a reputation as a great tactical brain, but there are lingering doubts on the man-management front. Let's just hope that the stony faces and listless attitude of the Indomitable Lions in South Africa in 2010 is not the face of Le Guen-coached teams.