Tag Archives: robert-allenby

Weekend musing – Sportsmen and alcohol, drawn AFL Grand Finals

Chris Barwin HillsI was thinking about Grant Hackett this week and how he now joins a burgeoning list of sportsmen who should refrain from drinking. I understand the incident itself may have been blown out of hackettproportion and has been sensationalised as seems to happen these days to sell papers. Hackett is in good company with the likes of Brendan Fevola, Robert Allenby, David Warner, Mitchell Pearce and any number of rugby league and union players. Most of these people are reasonable types who just don’t seem to be able to handle their grog. There is no doubt they should find other ways to relax!

I must say I think the move to drop the AFL Grand Final replay in the event of a draw was the correct decision. It may have been OK in the old VFL days when teams were all situated in Victoria but now with the national competition, imagine if Brisbane were playing Fremantle drawin the Grand Final and they had to come back the following week. It would be just too difficult. In addition, it would be unfair if a Melbourne based team were playing an interstate team.

What I do not agree with is the pundits who suggest the same should apply to a draw in the regular season games. A draw is an unusual outcome and I agree it does leave everyone a bit flat, but it is a arsenallegitimate result and history does not need to be changed just because some want a winner and a loser at the end of each game. Soccer is the most popular football game in the world and a draw is a common occurrence. Imagine if the same ‘sensibility’ applied to that game?

Have a great weekend!

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

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!