Well mate, I am actually published (trade journal), and I write fiction as a hobby (unpublished, but with a few unpaid 'credits'). I also get paid to write in my job, so I know a little bit about writing.
I too cringe at plenty of sports writing, even by sports 'journos' in major newspapers. As for this piece, in hindsight a couple of things pop out at me as weak - mostly stylistic bits like 'individual brilliance' to start successive paragraphs, 'impressive' and 'impressed' in the same sentence, and so on. But I was writing to a deadline and didn't do the majority of it until the last minute. You should have seen it before my final edit. Ugly.
Anyway, plenty of laymen think I am a brilliant writer (they're wrong) but you're the first person ever to outright say I have poor writing skills (you're probably wrong too).
As for structure coming 'naturally' to you, this isn't fiction you deadshit. It's a preview, and I was stuck with the format I was given.
Anyway, it's easy to criticise without providing any fixes. You sound like just another jealous loser that wishes he had done more with his life. It's impossible to not sound like a wanker when you're writing about something on which every merkin has an opinion. Just as you'll sound like a wanker when you write next year's preview. androtrop.
