Category Archives: Sports

Weekend musing – Cricket, South African tour, Football, Robbie Gray, Racing, Winx….

The much anticipated test series in South Africa started overnight and all the Australian batsman bar Cameron Bancroft got a start and did not go on to get a century. I have always said that 350 runs in the first innings of a test match is par and at the time of writing the Aussies need another 125 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Our bowlers can bat a bit so hopefully one of Mitch Marsh or Tim Paine go on to make a ton and this would place Australia in a good position to win the test match. Cameron Bancroft must be one of the luckiest players in world cricket at the moment, he has had nine innings at the top of the order and if you take out his 82 not out in the second innings of the first Ashes test he is averaging less than 13 runs. Peter Hanscombe had three failures at the start of the Ashes with one of those innings being a 32 in difficult conditions in Adelaide and he lost his place in the team with an average of 47. He must wonder why someone who hasn’t proved themselves gets more chances than he got. I certainly do!

Earlier this week Robbie Gray from Port Adelaide chose to challenge a suspension for a head high hit on Jeremy McGovern. The AFL has changed the process this year and Michael Christian is the sole arbiter on penalties so in my opinion the tribunal was never going to overturn the first challenge to one of his decisions. To my mind this was a complete waste of $10,000 by Port Adelaide.

Winx, the biggest name in Australian horse racing, makes her return to the track this weekend and again it is hard to see her getting beaten. The only real chance could be the VRC Derby winner Prized Icon who may have an edge in fitness.

Have a great weekend!!

Professor’s red hotties for Caulfield races on 24 February 2018

The Professor is looking for an improvement in form today in what looks like a very difficult day to pick winners.

Make sure you back the tips each way!!

Caulfield

Race 3 Horse 1 – Overshare
Race 6 Horse 3 – Brave Smash (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 7 Horse 1 – Long Leaf
Race 8 Horse 8 – Russian Revolution (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 1 – Hartnell

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

Professor’s red hot tips for Flemington on 17 February 2018

The Professor has spent extra time this week looking through the race fields and feels confident that he has picked a few winners at Flemington today.

Make sure you back them each way!

Flemington

Race 4 Horse 7 – Kings Will Dream
Race 5 Horse 13 – Handsome Thief
Race 7 Horse 13 – Peaceful State (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 1 – Redzel (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 16 – Manolo Blahniq

You can hear the Professor discuss how his tips fared with the Judge and Coutta on tomorrow’s Sportzfan Radio from midday on 88.3 Southern FM.

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

Professor’s red hotties for Caulfield races on 10 February 2018

The Professor’s winning record for the ladies at the Tennis club took a bit of a battering last week with only one selection gaining a place. All the more reason to consolidate today at his favourite track at Caulfield.

Make sure you back them each way!!

Caulfield

Race 5 Horse 1 – Shoals (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 6 Horse 6 – Merchant Navy
Race 7 Horse 1 – Levendi
Race 8 Horse 1 – Hartnell (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 1 – Silent Sedition

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

Professor’s red hot tips for Caulfield races on 3 February 2018

After two winners for the ladies at the Tennis club last week, the Professor is on a bit of a winning run. He is looking for a few more winners today with these selections.

Don’t forget to back them each way!

Caulfield

Race 3 Horse 2 – Twitchy Frank (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 5 Horse 12 – Eurack
Race 6 Horse 3 – Snitty Kitty (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 10 – Bravo Tango
Race 9 Horse 5 – Malaise

The Professor will discuss how his tips fared when Sportzfan Radio returns for 2018 tomorrow from midday on Southern FM.

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

The Professor’s red hotties for Caulfield races on 27 January 2018

After a reasonable return last week, the Professor has hit a rare streak of form, especially for the ladies at the Tennis club, where he has bagged five winners from six selections over the last three weeks. He is looking to improve on that today at Caulfield. Punters should note a very early start with the first race at 11.00am.

Make sure you back the tips each way!

Caulfield

Race 3 Horse 4 – Oohood
Race 4 Horse 3 – Smart Coupe
Race 7 Horse 6 – Red White & Blue
Race 8 Horse 2 – Tshahitsi (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 4 – Morton’s Fork (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

Professor’s red hot tips for Flemington races on 20 January 2017

After taking a successful run at Gold Coast races last week (3 winners and a second from 5 selections), the Professor returns to Victoria today and sees Flemington as a likely source of winners.

Make sure you back them each way!

Flemington

Race 3 Horse 1 – Civil Disobedience
Race 4 Horse 2 – Addison
Race 5 Horse 6 – Crusty
Race 7 Horse 4 – Nature Strip (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 10 – Malaise (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)

Good luck and good punting

The Professor

Professor’s musing – Arnold or Van Marwijk for Socceroo’s coach?

I read that Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chief Executive, David Gallop said there had been ‘huge’ amounts of interest in the
Socceroos coaching position from local and overseas candidates. One wouldn’t need to be a Rhodes scholar to understand such a level of interest in the position recently left vacant with the resignation of Ange Postecoglou. After all, the hard work has already been done given that the Socceroos have already qualified for the 2018 World Cup.

With at least fourteen candidates on the list of potential coaches, I note there are only two Australians – Graham Arnold and Tony Popovic. Aside from Postecoglou, the Socceroo’s recent past is littered with International coaches such as Guus Hiddink, Pim Verbeek and Holger Osieck. The difference between Postecoglou and the other three is that Postecoglou cared about the future of Australian soccer, the Socceroos and the A League. To the others is was just a job with one simple task – to qualify for the World Cup with no real interest in much else.

Talk has it that Dutchman, Bert Van Marwijk is a short priced favourite for the job. Van Marwijk’s recent claim to fame is coaching Saudi Arabia to qualification for this year’s World Cup. He is back on the shelf after the Saudi Football Federation couldn’t agree with him on the terms of a new contract.

For Australian soccer’s continued growth, the FFA need to appoint a
local person and Graham Arnold would be the perfect choice. He has the qualifications for the job. For a start he has already been in charge of the National squad back in 2006 and 2007. He has gained more experience in the intervening ten years and is currently the coach of the very successful Sydney FC. Postecoglou proved conclusively that Australian coaches are up to the task of coaching at International level so there should be no impediment to appointing Arnold.

However, I have no confidence that the FFA will get this most important of decisions correct. After all this is an organisation that squandered $45.6 million of Federal assistance in an ill fated (some would say impossible) attempt to convince FIFA to award the 2018 or 2022 World Cup to Australia and we all know how that turned out.

Professor’s red hotties for Gold Coast races on 13 January 2018

The Professor has looked at today’s racing fields and believes the best value for punters is at the Gold Coast, especially with the running of the Magic Millions 2 year old Classic and several other feature races on the card.

Make sure you bet each way!

Gold Coast

Race 4 Horse 4 – Sedanzer
Race 5 Horse 1 – Global Glamour
Race 7 Horse 1 – Pierata (for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 8 Horse 11 – Sunlight (also for the ladies at the Tennis club)
Race 9 Horse 3 – Viddora

Good luck and good punting!

The Professor

The Professor’s Friday musing – White beats Maxwell for Australian ODI squad spot

The Australian selectors aren’t paying due regard to the long term future of the Australian One Day International team with its choice of Cameron White to replace Chris Lynn in the squad for the coming matches against England. White is 34 and whilst he has had a reasonable start to the Sheffield Shield and Big Bash seasons, one wonders what caused a change of heart by Australian Chairman of Selectors, Trevor Hohns. You may recollect Hohns’ comments twelve months ago after White had criticised the selection of Sam Heazlett in the Australian ODI squad. He said “Cameron has had plenty of opportunities … he has had plenty of opportunities in the past and it’s probably fair to say performed okay without being earth shattering”. Not the most flattering of opinions and a fair put down for a pro sportman.

Whether Hohns believes White’s form has improved to the extent to be now included in the squad or White has served his penance for the criticism of the selectors, those selectors feel White is better than anything Glenn Maxwell can produce at this stage of his career. For whatever reason there appears to be a rift between Maxwell, the selectors and Australian captain Steve Smith. One only needs to look at Smith’s recent comments about Maxwell to gain a hint on where the problem might lie. Smith suggested Maxwell should change his training practices. If the skipper makes those observations it a safe bet it will be a while before Maxwell is considered for further ODI duty.

Maxwell has the flair and more importantly, the ability to play the one day game at the highest level and at 29 represents more of the future for Australian cricket than White does at 34. Whatever the reason for the disconnect between Maxwell and the Australian cricket hierarchy, it is up to the selectors and the skipper to resolve it so that the best possible team can be put together for the 2019 World Cup and in my opinion, Maxwell is in that side!