David Leggat: Why some athletes ignore nod-and-wink hint

What is the right time for top athletes to retire?

Who should make that decision and how should it be handled?

Some sports have a nod-and-wink arrangement that long-serving players get a nudge to let them know it's time to go before the axe falls.

Silver Fern Lesley Rumball might well be wondering if a nod-and-wink is coming her way as she comes to terms with the idea of her stellar netball career coming to an end.

Rumball, a world championship winner, former captain, the most capped New Zealand player and a core member of the Silver Ferns for a decade, wants to go to next year's Commonwealth Games. A gold in Melbourne in March would be an ideal full stop.

But the wheeze is about that coach Ruth Aitken has other ideas. The two have met and talked turkey, but midcourter Rumball insists the R word was not raised.

The whisper doing the rounds is that teenager Laura Langman, captain of the world championship-winning under-21 national team and already a member of the Silver Ferns squad, is the coach's preference.

Fair enough. Langman's a fine player and, in Mick Jagger's words, time waits for no one.

But Rumball, taking a leaf out of Wallaby captain George Gregan's book, has no intention of quietly packing up her tent and wants to fight her corner.

Not thinking specifically of Rumball here, but it is a difficult business, coming to a realisation that your time is up. Of not knowing when to walk away.

There is no shortage of athletes who failed to read the signs, or who ignored messages from their bodies crying "enough".

Boxing, of course, is the best example, as it often has a tragic conclusion. We've all seen the battered pugs who took punches long after they should have been counted out.

Gregan will lead the Wallabies to Europe at the end of the year, but he's looking like a band aid measure with the World Cup still over two years away.

If there is mischief-making afoot in the Rumball rumbles, a sort of private/public forcing of her hand, it reflects badly on netball's hierarchy.

If the drums are being interpreted correctly, Rumball deserves the courtesy of a quiet nod-and-wink. And if she then chooses to ignore it and plug on, that's her call and she takes her chance with the rest.

* Time for pats on the back for Andre Agassi, who stood up for world sports oldies in the US Open tennis final, and the bloke who beat him decisively, the incomparable Roger Federer.

Agassi took a set off the Swiss maestro and showed, at 35, there's still life and fight in the old dog. To those who say he should quit now, why? He's ranked sixth in the world. More power to his arm, I say.

There's something slightly otherworldy about Federer, who now has six Grand Slam titles to his credit.

For a start, he does do things with a racquet and ball which defy Pythagoras' more mind-bending angles.

But in a sport populated by self-obsessed, tunnel-visioned, teen or early-20 somethings, cloaked in hangers-on, Federer's entourage consists of his girlfriend-cum-manager, Mirka Vavrinec, and coach, the gnarly old Australian Tony Roche. His website lists a legal adviser, plus mum. That's it.

Perhaps that's one reason Federer is able to converse on a variety of issues, as opposed to those whose brainpower is restricted to within the rectangular white lines.

Consider this from Venus Williams when asked her view on Hurricane Katrina.

"I don't really watch the news. In some ways I'm very unaware of the latest happenings in the world." Duh.

Or her sister Serena, who pledged to donate $100 for every ace she serves for the rest of this year to relief efforts. Big deal. Williams carries her pet poodle in a diamond-encrusted carry bag.

Agassi has duelled with some of the all-time greats; Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras.

"He's the best I've ever played against," Agassi said after being beaten by Federer. And that's good enough for me.