All posts by @packers4

News, Punting, Sports

2015 NRL Punter’s Guide

Leave a comment

tedeschiSportzfan Radio contributor, Nick Tedeschi has once again put pen to paper to provide an anthology of facts and figures for all Rugby League aficionados with his 2015 Punter’s Guide to the NRL Season.

It has been a described as a must for all NRL fans, and, after a sample read, I must agree!

Not only a no holds barred analysis of each team but also a statistical evaluation and betting appraisal. If you can’t win a fantasy competition using the Guide, I give up! It is also recommended for anyone who is going to wager on the NRL this season.

At $9.95, its value should soon return more than the cost of purchase. To obtain a copy of the Guide go to www.makingthenut.com and follow the easy steps. You won’t regret it!

News, Sports

The Professor’s Wednesday rant

Leave a comment

MarkThe AFL will be trialling four field umpires in the NAB challenge. Just what we need, one extra person on the field. If the increase in the decision making fraternity continues, the umpires will eventually outnumber the players.

AFL umpires coach, Hayden Kennedy says the fourth umpire will allow another umpire closer to the play to get a different angle. I thought that was why the third umpire was introduced!

I have said before that the AFL needs to stop playing around with the make up of the game. Although this is just a small alteration, I query whether it is really necessary. I haven’t heard the fans demanding more officials on the field to adjudicate decisions nor has the media suggested it.

Given the worrying downturn in crowds during the 2014 AFL season, I am sure there are other, far more important issues that require time and thought by the AFL for 2015 and beyond.

Gillon McLachlan would be wise to adopt a ‘hasten slowly’ stance on any changes to the game.

News, Sports

The Professor’s Monday thought

Leave a comment

Feb 20 2011 006Ever noticed how people and organisations in difficulty seem to continually make decisions that leave the rest of society baffled. Take two cases in point…..the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott and his Liberal Party and James Hird and the Essendon Football Club.

Just when you think Abbott and Hird are about to see the light and start making some ‘clever’ decisions, they come up trumps and provide further cause for negative comment.

I keep hearing from Tony Abbott that ‘he has learned’. Believe me, he hasn’t! Looking down the barrel at poor polls, for him to then give a knighthood to a foreigner on Australia Day indicates the man has no capacity to understand or learn. I predict it will end in tears for Tony and the Libs! The Libs had a chance to put it all behind them but fell at the first hurdle (for that read spill motion). All the vote in favour of Abbott has done is draw the matter out even longer and affect the polls even further.

Example two – enter James Hird. He has taken a stance that alienates any AFL supporters save for the diehard Essendon faithful. ie. Chris from Barwon Heads. His latest indication of testing the High Court appeal process is a further indication that he hasn’t learned either. James, four out of four Federal Court judges have said you are wrong. Why not leave it there and let the whole matter rest. Essendon FC don’t seem to be able to convince Hird of the folly of proceeding further. They had the chance to put it all behind them, but decided to also prolong the agony. I can’t see this union ending happily either.

News, Sports

Friday musing – Packers, Seahawks, DeflateGate, Super Bowl XLIX….

1 Comment

There’s almost too much to talk about in today’s Friday musing!

First off let’s look at the recently completed Championship games from the NFL. The Green Bay Packers had the Seattle Seahawks on Carroll2toast with about five minutes left in the game. At that time the odds makers had the Seahawks less than a five percent chance of winning. A reported six things had to go wrong for the Packers for them to lose the game….and they all did.

Perhaps the worst blunder during those five minutes was Packer Brandon Bostick trying to catch an onside kick with his helmet….denying Jordy Nelson an easy catch and gifting the ‘fumble’ to the Seahawks. That play will haunt Packer fans for years to come.

Whilst on the Seahawks, I came across a 2012 article from the Bleacher Report that gave Pete Carroll and the Seahawks an ‘F’ for that year’s draft…and I quote ‘Pete Carroll is proving why he didn’t Carrollmake it in the NFL the first time….selecting Russell Wilson…was by far the worst move of the draft’. Shows the so called media experts don’t always get it right!

I never thought deflating footballs would become a pastime in New England. The NFL are investigating and have rounded up the usual suspects. The Patriots coach, Bill Belichick says he has no explanation on how the footballs became deflated. I wonder who belichicktook it on themselves then to make that decision. Surely some simple investigation will locate the culprit? Money is on the NFL not sorting this thing out anytime soon…especially with Super Bowl XLIX only a week away.

My tip for the Super Bowl – Pete Carroll and the Seahawks by 10!

If you thought deflating footballs was a stretch, consider the noble sport of golf. In the last week we have seen Robert Allenby’s dubious allenbyreporting of an incident after a night out in Waikiki that left his face re-arranged. His report has it that he was drugged, abducted, bashed and robbed. Reports are now surfacing that Allenby was drunk and passed out in the street and ‘face planted’ a rock. It was even big enough news to make ESPN’s Keith Olbermann show. Olbermann had much glee in highlighting the inconsistencies in Allenby’s story.

As if that wasn’t enough for golf, we then have Tiger Woods’ missing tooth to contend with. Story is he was hit in the mouth by an errant mounted video camera. Whether it did or it didn’t, you would pay money to be in a three on the golf course with Woods and Allenby just for the inside information on those stories.

Have a great weekend!

News, Sports

Socceroos need to keep winning to earn respect

Leave a comment

kruse“We deserve some respect’….so says Socceroo forward Robbie Kruse. Personally, I think Robbie is getting just a little ahead of himself with that comment. Australia, on the back of some poor results over the last eighteen months has slumped to a lowly ranking of #100 of the 209 teams ranked by FIFA. It will take more than a few wins over fellow strugglers to earn recognition from the fans.

If one looks at the results the Socceroos have turned in (not including the Asian Cup currently underway) in the 15 matches played since September 2013, their record is won 2 drawn 2 and lost 11 – goals scored 12 – goals conceded 37. Not a flattering scoreline at all. In that run of matches we managed to lose to Qatar (ranked 92) and Canada (ranked 112). Sure we played some powerhouse teams like Brazil, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France along the way but that will always be the case in the world game.

After two rounds of the Asian Cup we have beaten up on Oman (ranked 93) and Kuwait (ranked 125). My expectation is that we should beat these teams at home, so I am not getting carried away just yet. Let’s see how we go against the Korean Republic (ranked 69) in our next game and some of the other heavy hitters of the region in the rest of the competition.

If Kruse wants ‘respect’ it needs to be earned on the pitch with the Socceroos performing well against quality opposition!

Sports

Gelding’s red hot tips for 10 January 2015

Leave a comment

sean & geldingThe Gelding’s attention returns to Flemington tomorrow and after a handy day on the punt last Saturday, he is looking to pick more winners than placed horses tomorrow.

As usual, the bets are on an each way and all up basis.

Flemington

Race 2 Horse 2 – Every Faith (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 4 Horse 7 – Relaunch
Race 7 Horse 8 – Aeratus (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 15 – Orujo
Race 9 Horse 7 – Samartested

Good luck and good punting!

The Gelding

Sports

Jarryd Hayne and the NFL – a story

Leave a comment

As an avid fan of the NFL, I am having difficulty following the Jarryd Hayne efforts to sign with an NFL club. Reports today have the former Eels NRL star returning to Australia due to visa problems. Those ‘problems’ meant he could not sign a contract with an undisclosed NFL team.

First thing I would say to that is ‘what a mistake to make’! Next thing I would say is just how would the NFL team sign Hayne? The NFL has eligibility rules and I can’t find any one that would have allowed him to sign now.image

I read with interest on the Sportsbet site that the ‘rumour’ is that he has signed a ‘futures contract’ with Detroit Lions. On the basis of that, Sportsbet has wound in the odds on Hayne participating in the NFL. However, signing that contract wouldn’t let Hayne play this season as such a contract doesn’t take effect until March 2015 and, by the way, that type of contract cannot be signed until AFTER the end of the NFL season. So then what has Hayne signed, if anything?

I discussed the subject of Hayne playing in the NFL with a senior Seattle Seahawks official in November this year and his response was decidedly underwhelming. Almost a Jarryd who?

I wish Hayne all the best in his endeavours to crack the NFL, but, there appears to be a lot of spin and not much substance to this story at the moment.

I figure he is closer to playing in the NRL in 2015 than the NFL!

News, Sports

Friday musing – Golf, Cricket, Spring Carnival…….

Leave a comment

Chris Barwin HillsThe thing that really piqued my interest in the sporting arena this week was the story about Phil Mickelson calling 16 year old US born Australian Ryan Rufflels (the son of former tennis player Ray Ruffels) to try and get him to Arizona State University on a golfing scholarship. Apparently Ryan plays off plus 6 and in a recent monthly medal at the Victoria Club shot rounds of 10, 9, 7 & 9 under. Wow! Golf seems to be producing some real prodigies at the moment and hopefully Ryan can go on and create a name for himself. Which country would have the bragging rights? I think that while he was born in the US, he grew up in Australia and took up golf in Australia, I consider that to be enough to claim him as an Aussie.

It was interesting to see that less than 25,000 people for the International T20 match against South Africa last Friday at the MCG. That is a disappointing crowd and casts a bit of doubt about the overall interest in the cricket coming into a summer where Australia will be hosting the One Day World Cup. Apart from the Ashes that is always well patronised, the cricket does seem to be losing its mojo. I have mentioned this in the past and in my opinion, it has a lot to do with the year round coverage of cricket throughout the world. The football is played over a period of six-seven months and then there is the build up and anticipation for the following season which is all very well staged managed by the AFL. The international cricket season has started with very little sense of anticipation and not helped by the recent test flogging at the hands of the Pakistanis. Time will tell if they can build some momentum into the World Cup.

The major races of the spring have now been completed and there was a number of notable performances, however, I do not think that any horse stamped its authority on the spring. There was not a dominant sprinter, there was not a dominant weight for age performer and there was not a dominant stayer. Having said that the “one off” performances of Terravista, Adelaide and Protectionist (you could also add in Admire Rakti in the Caulfield Cup) where truly great performances.

Have a great weekend!

Sports

Some clubs will never learn

Leave a comment

barbaOne wonders what NRL Clubs thought when confronted with the fact that one of the wisest and most successful coaches going around in Wayne Bennett decides to release Ben Barba from the remaining two years of his contract with the Brisbane Broncos.

Like me, smart clubs would have ignored the fact that Barba was on the market.

Not the Cronulla Sharks though, or a number of other clubs for that matter who all showed an interest in the full back once Bennett gave Barba his marching orders.

Forget for the moment that the club from the Shire will be his third team in three years or that Barba had a really ordinary season for the Broncos in 2014 or that the Broncos were so eager to rid bennettthemselves of Barba that they were prepared to pay half his salary with his new team or that the player has self confessed gambling and alcohol problems or that he failed to complete a rehabilitation course ordered by Canterbury in 2013.

But return if you will to season 2013, when Barba was in a Canterbury jersey. For those with short memories, he was released on compassionate grounds from the balance of his contract at the end of that season and was headed to the Broncos because of their well regarded welfare program. The catalyst for the release on that occasion was an alleged incident where Barba struck a female companion.

One would have thought the lessons of history would have taught Cronulla well given the union with the troubled Todd Carney that ended in tears.

And all this for $800,000.00 per season – As I said ….. some clubs never learn.

Sports

Has cricket reached its nadir?

Leave a comment

imageThe much vaunted ‘international’ cricket season has commenced and if Friday night’s crowd of around 21,000 at the MCG is anything to go by, the bells are tolling for the health of the game as a spectator sport. The bash and crash form of the game usually draws big crowds, especially at Melbourne’s sports Mecca, but not this time!

I have read a number of excuses including that Melbourne sports mad public are tired of the non-stop grind of the annual sports calendar. This may be part of the cause but fails to acknowledge the gradual fall off in interest in the grass roots form of the game. I include Sheffield Shield in this.

Showing my age here, I can recollect watching a Sheffield Shield final involving Victoria at the MCG against Western Australia in 1980 where there were at least 50,000 people in attendance. What would the cricketing hierarchy give for crowds like that in today’s four day domestic fixtures? Regrettably, the last time I was at the MCG to see a shield game circa 2007, there were 15 people present on a Saturday afternoon.

The fortunes of the Australian side haven’t assisted as their recent history in Test matches and the limited form of the game haven’t set the world on fire. Spectators like winners and they fall off very quickly when the form line heads south.

By failing to capture the imagination of the sporting public in the domestic form of the game, Cricket Australia hasn’t generated sufficient interest in the game itself and it would appear only a matter of time until cricket becomes even more marginalised and follows the NBL onto the sporting scrap heap!