Tag Archives: chris-from-barwon-heads

Friday musing – Alex McKinnon, NRL, Nathan Berry, T-20……

April 4, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

I guess there has been a bit of bad news in the world of sport this week with the confirmation that Alex McKinnon may be a partial quadriplegic and the death of jockey, Nathan Berry.

I don’t profess to be an expert on rugby league and I have no view on the tackle being illegal or not, but it does seem that similar instances occur every week and this looks to be a tragic accident. The NRL had to be seen to be doing something and while the Melbourne Storm may be aggrieved with the penalty, in deference to the injured player I think they should simply accept the penalty. I did think it was interesting that the Newcastle Knights came out and suggested that all three tacklers should have been cited, but if that was the case it may have been more difficult to sustain a charge. Either way it is a true sporting tragedy.

The death of Nathan Berry was also a tragedy, but it does not seem it was in any way linked to his sport, just a diabolical condition that struck him down in his prime. He was due to ride Unencumbered in the Golden Slipper this Saturday and I might just have a small wager on it for sentimental reasons.

Talking about the Golden Slipper, Earthquake looks hard to beat, but it does have a difficult barrier. Perhaps it will have to go into a quinella with Unencumbered.

I note that the T20 World Cup is coming to a conclusion. I don’t know about you, but since the football season started there has been no interest in the cricket or this tournament in particular. This may be linked to the poor performance of Australia and the fact that it is on pay TV, but it is also not getting much coverage in the newspapers either. Does this bode well for the World One Cup in Australia/New Zealand next year? I would have to answer in the negative, but I have already purchased my ticket for the final.

Have a great weekend!

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Friday musing – Premier League, AFL, MLB……..

March 28, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Not much has grabbed me this week on the sporting front although I must say that the Gunners have left me feeling a little flat after a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea and a draw at home with Swansea. With a game coming up against Manchester City I will just have to focus all my attention on the FA Cup.

One thing that has piqued my interest is how the AFL pundits are prepared to make prognostications about various teams seasons on the back of one performance. Some people had North Melbourne finishing in the top four and now they are gone, Carlton’s recruiting is all wrong and they are destined for mediocrity, the Bombers were in for a poor season, but they could finish in the top four. I think the reality is that you cannot make a judgement based on one performance. Essendon had a good win last week, but they get the reality check this week against Hawthorn. The Kangaroos played badly last week, but should bounce back this week against the Bulldogs. Carlton also played well last week and if they had kicked straight should have won the game with a number of their first picked players not available. One game does not define a season and you need to wait until at least half way before you can write someone off.

I didn’t get to watch any of the Major League baseball from Sydney last week, however, the ground looked amazing and as I understand it, the game was a success so it will be interesting to see if more Major League games come to Australia.

Have a great weekend!

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Friday musing – AFL, Tania Hird, Andrew Demetriou…..

March 22, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well it is not very often I am angry on a Friday morning, after all it is the end of the week, however this week is different.

On the day before the Bombers first game of the year Tania Hird decides to give an interview to the ABC about some of the events of last year with regard to Andrew Demetriou and the so called “tip off”. Why bother? I can understand her wanting to support her husband, but save it for a book once he has retired. It does not help the club one iota and certainly doesn’t help her husband who is already suspended, it just rekindles a story that all Essendon supporters and I am sure most football supporters are heartily sick of.

While I am back onto the Supplement Scandal I must say that Demetriou’s comment that he or anyone at the AFL didn’t inject anyone is quite childish. He has said it on a number of occasions and it is not funny, it is not clever and it is not the point.

I am also puzzled about the ASADA findings. A couple of weeks ago we were advised that the final report had been referred to a retired judge to consider if there was enough evidence to issue notices against any players. Subsequent to that we now hear that ASADA are to interview Stephen Dank. Should that not have happened before they finalised their report and sent it to the judge?

Let us not forget that the games have started and what an interesting first weekend of football. The GWS must be one of the longest price winners in AFL history and they didn’t just win, they romped it in. I think they were paying $11.00-$13.00 for the win and the Swans were $1.04- $1.05. I don’t know what it says about either side for the coming season because you would not write off the Swans to still finish in the top four and equally the GWS finishing in the bottom four. Maybe it is a portent for the future of both clubs beyond this year.

The Gold Coast beating Richmond was not a great surprise, although I am sure the Tiger supporters were very buoyant before the game. Freo winning was expected, but the way they disposed of Collingwood after quarter time was very clinical and Ross Lyon could afford to rest Nathan Fyffe before 3/4 time. It never ceases to amaze me how often Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan and Dayne Beams get around 90 possessions between them, win lose or draw. Port beating Carlton was also not a great surprise, Port play Etihad well and Carlton don’t. The Cats have also saluted at home, which was also not a great surprise given that it is over ten years since Adelaide have won at Kardinia Park.

Roll on the rest of round 1 and may the discussion be around the games and not all of the outside rubbish.

Have a great weekend!

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Friday musing – Higgins, Bailey, Smith, AFL…..

March 14, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well it was quite a sad week with the passing of Roy Higgins and Dean Bailey.

Roy Higgins was a jockey everyone knew and it didn’t matter if they followed racing or not. He was one of the first, if not the first jockey to have a media profile. Roy clearly knew his stuff and had a good sense of humour. I heard a recent interview with him replayed last weekend and he indicated that his favourite horse was Light Fingers. This was also reflected in a very good article about him in the Herald Sun written by the doyen of racing writers, Les Carlyon. He said that the only photos of horses in Higgin’s house were of Light Fingers. His post riding aim was to be a little fat man and he was also successful in that regard! He won 108 Group 1 races in a time when
there were less Group 1 races and with a heavy weight jockey, he also had a smaller pool to choose from. One of the greats!

Dean Bailey’s death was probably more tragic given that he was only recently diagnosed with cancer and 47 at the time of his death. I saw him play his first game for the Bombers down at Geelong and he kicked goals with his first two kicks in league football. He wasn’t a great player, but probably got the best out of himself and often these types of players make good coaches. He certainly had a good CV as an assistant coach and his time at Melbourne as a senior coach came to an unfortunate end. I also think he was harshly dealt with in the tanking saga. To his credit he never tried to push the blame onto anyone else and took his lumps. Universally liked and his sacking at Melbourne was not something that came from losing the players.

Taken too soon!

On a brighter note it was great to see Cameron Smith re-sign with the Melbourne Storm. He is not only the club captain, but also the captain of Queensland and Australia, so it would be hard to have a better CV. With him staying with the Storm it will be easier to attract and retain players. A coup of some proportions given the obvious interest from the Brisbane Broncos. He capped it all off last weekend by leading the Storm to a stirring victory with his first drop goal in the NRL.

The AFL starts back tonight and I am looking forward to sitting back with a few cold ones watching Fre(dis)mantle Collingwood. Fremantle are my tip for the premiership and if they are to fulfil my prediction, they have to win tonight.

Have a great weekend.

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Friday musing – cricket, AFL, Sydney Swans……..

March 7, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well I have been concentrating on the cricket in Sth Africa recently and this week is no exception. My observations and reiteration of a few maxims from the last test and the series are as follows:

1) You don’t insert the opposition;
2) You don’t enforce the follow-on;
3) Bowlers win matches, batsmen save them;
4) David Warner says some absolutely stupid things, but he seems to thrive on the pressure he draws to himself and away from his team mates. A rare breed of sportsman;
5) I don’t think you can underestimate the influence of Shane Warne’s presence in Capetown. Clarke finally produces an innings of some magnitude and the team turns around the disappointment from the previous week;
6) Test cricket is a test of mind and body and Morkel certainly tested Clarke’s body, but his mind won the contest;
7) The Sth African batsmen could teach our boys a thing or two about a solid defence;
8) Batting first in modern cricket seems to be too much of an advantage. Clearly Capetown was prepared in the hope that Sth Africa would win the toss again.

On a different tack, the AFL flagged this week that the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) in Sydney would be phased out. Given that Sydney has netted two very big names in Tippett & Franklin in the last two years it is no surprise, but is it fair. It is not my idea, but I agree, that the COLA should be there for the 1st or 2nd year players and rookies, but not for those who are on decent contracts, say greater than $150,000 per annum. Taking it one step further, why wouldn’t the same group of players in other states also be entitled to a COLA. Say you get a rookie from WA coming over to Victoria on basic payments, they are going to struggle financially and will need to get a job to supplement their payments because they do not have the fall back position of living with their parents.

Food for thought.

Have a good weekend!

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Friday musing – Test cricket, Jason Day, Marley Williams……..

February 28, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well Australia well and truly got a touch up in the 2nd Test in Port Elizabeth. Losing ten wickets for about 90 runs when the openers have put on 120 is just not good enough, no matter how good the opposition bowling is. Again there has been discussions about the Decision Review System with players being given out on very flimsy evidence and I remain of the view that the decisions should revert
to the central umpires unless they call for a review.

I would also like to make a comment about the umpires allowing the extra thirty minutes of play at the end of Day 4. Having granted the South African’s the extra thirty minutes, I think the umpires were under extra pressure to see that it was justified. Ryan Harris was given out LBW by umpire Dharmasena, when that umpire had hardly made decision all test and it was such a marginal decision that the commentators thought on first view that it was too high, but the ball tracker showed it just clipping the stumps so he was on his way. They had no say in Rogers poor decision to take a run, but then Lyon was given out when he snicked the ball into his pads. Two LBW decisions that could have gone either way going against the side who didn’t want the extra thirty mins justifies the umpires decision to allow the extra time.

I don’t know if it made any difference as I didn’t hear if the forecast rain arrived the next day. Either way the South Africans deserved to win and whomever wins the toss in Cape Town will probably take the series.

Well another great performance by Jason Day to take the World Matchplay Championship and go to No 4 in the world. He could have wrapped it up a lot earlier, but he got there in the end despite the Frenchman executing tww of the best saves you will see in a long time. It is my prediction that he will win a major this year, more than likely one of the US tournaments.

I lot of discussion this week about Collingwood FC player, Marley Williams and whether he should be playing football given he has been convicted. Given the hysteria surrounding Andrew Lovett and Stephen Milne who weren’t or haven’t been found guilty perhaps the discussion has been rather muted, but I think he should be able to play until he is sentenced. He is a young player who needs the distraction of preparing and playing football, if he gets a custodial sentence he is out of the game anyway, but if
he gets a suspended sentence, then he has missed games that he probably didn’t have to. Any working person in the same position would have the expectation that they could work up until they were sentenced.

It would seem that the wheels of ASADA are now turning and hopefully the conclusion to the Essendon FC supplement scandal is not as drawn out as has been suggested. As stated last week I don’t think I am alone in saying that it has gone on for too long already.

Have a good weekend!

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Friday musing – Test cricket, golf, Karrie Webb, Essendon FC……

February 21, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

I was intrigued to hear the South African captain, Graham Smith’s comments after his side was beaten last week. He tried to play down the impact of Mitchell Johnson and point to the pitch and then allege that Steyn and Morkel were sick. Well he was the one who chose to insert the opposition and rely on his much touted bowling line up. I think the issue here is, he made a mistake sending Australia in to bat. Like enforcing the follow-on, asking the opposition to bat is a very risky proposition.

Australia are in a reasonable position over night in the second Test with South Africa at 5/214, but A.B. De Villiers is still there and he is pretty close to the best batsman in the world at the moment. If the Aussies can get him out early on the second day with the new ball, it will put Australia in a good position to push for another victory.

Getting on to Ladies Golf, how amazing is Karrie Webb. She starts the last day of the Open five strokes off the pace and gets up and wins it. She doesn’t get the accolades the men do, but she would have to be close to the most successful Australian golfer of all time.

I remarked last week that I was disappointed the Essendon supplements scandal reared its head again and Caroline Wilson has continued the onslaught this week. First with Alistair Clarkson and today it is a story about the AFL’s handling of the issue. Is there still that much interest in this story? I think the horse has just about been flogged to death. Obviously as an Essendon supporter, I just want it over with, but since the AFL handed down it’s penalties last year, I get the impression that most other sports fans have also had enough. Clarkson spoke about it hijacking the season last year, well stop talking about it this year then!

Have a great weekend.

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Friday musing – NFL, Super Bowl, NBA, Essendon FC, cricket……

February 14, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Not being a big American sports fan I have not seen a lot of sport in my two and a half weeks in Hawaii, but I was there for the Super Bowl. My daughter and I went to a bar on Maui and watched the game from just before half time. While being seated by the manager I enquired as to whom I should be supporting and I was assured I should be on the Seahawks. The bar seemed to be evenly divided between the Denver fans, who were very quiet and the Seattle fans who were a little more excited with plenty of Sea-Hawk chants. I enjoyed the game, however, the advertisements and the entertainment seemed to go for a lot longer than the actual playing time. My daughter also enjoyed the game and the advertisements! I think the game was an endorsement for the maxim that a good defence will usually defeat a good offence.

My other sporting observation from my time in Hawaii was the saturation coverage of basketball. It did not seem to matter what time of the day it was, if you went into a bar or restaurant and they had sport on the television, it was usually the NBA or college basketball and that included the time leading up to the Super Bowl.

Since being back in Australia I have been disappointed to see the Essendon supplements saga rear its head again. I guess it is not going to go away until such time as ASADA have closed their file. This could go on for years!

A good start to the Test series in South Africa, but I am starting to get a little concerned about Michael Clarke’s ongoing form lapse. Having scored 100’s in the first two Ashes tests he has not passed fifty since. I have been happy with the continued good form of Steve Smith, who in the same period has made three centuries. With Shane Watson missing from the line-up I hope we won’t be found to be a bowler short.

Have a great weekend everyone.

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Friday musing – Essendon FC, the Hangar, Big Bash League……

January 17, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well my sporting highlight for the week had nothing to do with any particular sporting event, but rather a sporting ‘occasion’.

Last September, I entered a fund raising raffle for the Essendon Football Club. The ticket cost me $200 and it was to raise funds for their new high performance centre. I thought I had missed out on any prizes, but in mid November I found out that I had won a tour of the new facility out at Tullamarine, a meeting with the coach, Mark Thompson, a photograph with the player of my choice which was David Zaharakis and a jumper signed by the whole team.

Well on Wednesday I took two of my children and received my prize. The facility is quite amazing with an oval the size of the MCG and another the size of Etihad stadium, but the indoor training area, The Hangar is quite amazing. It has artificial turf and is about 50 x 60 metres so they could undertake drills indoors if required. The place is not complete as they didn’t get all the funding they hoped from the federal government, so no doubt there will be further fund raisers! They also have about eighty administrative staff out there so football clubs these days are big businesses. One of the things that was obvious that they need for the Hangar is air conditioning, it was probably warmer in there than it was outside!

The meeting with ‘Bomber’ and David Zaharakis went well and they were happy to have a chat for 5-10 minutes. Bomber seemed pretty comfortable with the coaches role which was good given his earlier reluctance. The jumper is worth more than the price of the ticket and once I get the photos I will think about getting it mounted and framed.

The entire thing took just over an hour and was over very quickly, but it was a memorable experience and we were certainly made to feel very welcome.

Before I head off to Hawaii next week, I will make one comment about the tennis, thank goodness for the Big Bash League!

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back on 14 Feb!

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Friday musing…..the Ashes, Australian Open, Hewitt, Arsenal…..

January 10, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well the Aussies wrapped up the Ashes in record time and in the end it was great to win and win well, but it was something of an anti-climax given the meek way the English capitulated. Clearly their batting let them down throughout the series and the only ones who could put their hands up would be Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes. Michael Carberry was passable, but he got a lot of starts at the top of the order and only once went on to make a 50. He reminded me a bit of Usman Khwaja, not how he batted, but the fact he continued to get a start and didn’t go on and post a decent score.

One of the quirkiest statistics from the recent series was the batting performance of Nathan Lyon. He batted six times for sixty runs, but was not dismissed in any of those six innings and as a result did not have a series average. I am not sure about the record for the most consecutive number of “not outs” in Test cricket, but it must be right up there.

While the Aussies won the series 5-0, their batting was still brittle at times and the forthcoming series against South Africa will reveal how much progress has been made. It has been widely discussed how well Brad Haddin batted in the series and I think he was the first batsman ever to score greater than fifty in five consecutive first innings of a series. Certainly he was the first to do it in an Ashes series. If Australia need to rely on him and the tail to bale them out in South Africa we will be in for a rude shock. Rogers, Warner, Clarke & Smith all made two centuries in the Ashes series, but to be successful against the Proteas we will need more partnerships. I doubt we can win the series, but it would be good to be competitive.

Moving away from the cricket to the tennis, it was good to see Lleyton Hewitt win a tournament in Australia last weekend. I have never been a particular Hewitt fan, but there is no doubting his competitiveness, his passion for the game and his passion for the Davis Cup. He has battled a lot of injuries over the last five years and most other sportsmen would have given up by now. It is hard to think of too many former Number 1 players who have hung around well after their star has dimmed. Good on him and I hope he does well in the Australian Open.

Bad news about Theo Walcott from last weekend, but one small positive is that at least it happened in January so they can utilise the transfer window if they wish. Better news with Oxlade-Chamberlain fit to resume, Giroud & Ozil likely to play and Ramsay & Gibbs pretty close. It is time to extract revenge on Aston Villa after that poor start to the season.

Have a great weekend.