Tag Archives: us-masters

Friday musing – limited overs cricket a lesser version of the game…..

April 8, 2016 sportzfan Leave a comment

Late last year I lamented the decline of West Indian cricket and the impact on world cricket and now we have the West Indian men’s team, women’s team and the men’s U19 team being the current World T20 champions. While I think that is great for West Indian cricket and it should engender significant more people wanting to play cricket in that region, I hope that first class and test cricket is not overlooked. Whilst it might be my age and what I grew up with, test cricket is still the pinnacle of the sport in my opinion and the limited overs competitions are lesser versions of the game. Do you agree?

I was a little disappointed to see Jason Day drop down the leader board at the Masters on the first day. He got off to a great start, but a triple bogey late in his round brought him back to even with the card. He is still in contention, but it would be good to see Spieth, McIlroy and Day in the final groupings on Monday morning.

I tuned in to watch a little bit of the Footy Show last night to see how Rebecca Maddern fitted in to the format. She was clearly nervous which is understandable and some of her material was obviously rehearsed/scripted to get her into the program, but I think she acquitted herself quite well and should be a welcome addition to the show which now has a very strong Geelong flavour. I don’t think her addition to the show will make me want to watch the show more often, but it is good see a bit of diversification and Rebecca is obviously a big footy fan which is essential.

Have a great weekend!

Sports

Weekend musing – AFL, Sheffield Shield, Peter Moody, Jason Day

April 2, 2016 sportzfan Leave a comment

Well Easter must be one of the most diverse periods for sport in Australia, we had the start of the AFL season, the Stawell Gift, the Bells Beach Surfing Classic, the Sheffield Shield Final and some big horse races from Sydney. We also had soccer World Cup qualifiers either side of Easter.

It was great to have the football back despite Essendon not having much to look forward to. The debut of Patrick Dangerfield for Geelong was clearly the difference that got them over Hawthorn and if he had of kicked straight they would have won by more. Collingwood and Fremantle were very disappointing, but I think both sides will perform a lot better this week. The Bombers first half was probably as expected, but their second half was a bit better. Given the number of new players due to the supplement scandal outcome it might take a while for the team to gel, but the wooden spoon still is theirs for the taking!

Also great to see Victoria win the Sheffield Shield away from home. A couple of weeks ago I was going to comment about the demise of Cameron White as a cricketer and while he has not put himself back in the frame for Australian selection, he has redeemed himself. When he lead Victoria to the Shield win just after David Hookes died I thought he was a future Australian Test Captain and while he did play a couple of test matches, he was mainly a ODI and 20/20 player, but his star had dimmed in recent times to the point where he missed selection for Victoria.

I was sad to see Peter Moody retire from racing and he has now sold off all his gear to resist the temptation to return to the sport, but I think, once his suspension is over, he will come back and establish a smaller boutique stable just to keep his hand in. It is very hard for real horsemen to simply walk away from the sport it is too ingrained in their DNA.

Also good to see Jason Day back to the world number 1 position in golf and I just hope he maintains his form going into the Masters.

Have a great weekend!

Sports

Friday musing – football, AFL umpires, golf, Spieth, soccer…..

April 18, 2015 @packers4 Leave a comment

After watching the first couple of rounds of football I must say I think the umpiring has been okay. However, I have a couple of observations regarding interpretations. Firstly, there are high tackles, usually umpires won’t pay a free kick for a high tackle if the offended player has ducked his head. What is the difference when the player drops his knees to influence the high tackle. Luke Shuey, the Sellwoods and Paul Puopolo seem to be masters of this tactic and it seems the umpires fall for it all the time. It is certainly more difficult to adjudicate than a player dropping his head, but to my mind no different. The other issue is the sling tackle. I thought the sling tackle had been banned and yet two weeks in a row we have Hawthorn players execute the sling tackle. Firstly we had Duryea on Bartel, which resulted in a concussion and then last week McEvoy on Melksham and Baguley in separate incidents. Has this rule been shelved?

Last week I raised the issue of the Scott brothers both losing by big margins in round one. Well North bounced back for Brad, but Geelong suffered their worst defeat for sometime at home and they are still in last position. Geelong have played Hawthorn and Freo, so it is no disgrace to lose to those sides, but the way they have lost would worry the hierarchy at Geelong. I am certainly not ruling Geelong out for the season based on two bad loses, but I doubt they will be good enough to make the top 4-6 this year. Having said that, they will win this week and could easily win the following three.

I must also give myself a pat on the back picking Jordan Speith to win the Masters. Very rarely does a player lead the first round of a major and take out the title, but with a chasing pack of major winners he maintained a four stroke buffer over the last two days and don’t forget he is only 21. Two starts at the Masters have delivered a second and a first. This guy is clearly a special talent who now sits at number two in the world and with the way he has played you wonder how long it will take before he displaces Rory McIlroy as number one. What world golf does have at the moment is a number of quality golfers who can put pressure on each other, rather than a Tiger Woods or a Greg Norman being number 1 for an extended period of time. It has to be good for golf.

In the Champions League I was extremely surprised to see Bayern Munich lose to FC Porto. Bayern are a team absolutely chock full of stars although a few of these were missing and I would expect them to bounce back in the return leg, however, they do have a two goal deficit to overcome.

Have a great weekend!

Sports

Friday musing – AFL is back, the US Masters & Sydney’s Autumn carnival

April 10, 2015 @packers4 Leave a comment

Well the football season is back and everyone has something to talk about. It was strange in an opening round that included five games where the result was two goals or less but with two big blow outs being the Adelaide v Nth Melbourne and Hawthorn v Geelong games. The coaches on the receiving end were the Scott brothers. As usual you cannot get too carried away with the results from the first round of the season and I would not be writing off either North or Geelong. North were belted by the Bombers in round one last year and made the Preliminary Final and Geelong played the best team in the competition who were primed and ready to go.

The Masters started this morning and my tip before it started was Jordan Spieth and he is currently in the lead. Last year I predicted that Jason Day would win a Major, however, his body let him down and he failed to fulfil my prediction. This year he is fit and is also well placed and if Spieth does not win, I would be more than happy to see Day salute. It is always difficult for a golfer to lead a tournament from start to finish, so I will be monitoring the scores over the next three days with interest.

Sydney’s fickle weather again played havoc with their Autumn carnival with day one of the Championships postponed from last Saturday to the following Monday. It is a shame that these good races with good fields are run on wet tracks, so sometimes the best horse does not salute. One horse that could not blame the state of the track was Lankan Rupee. I had been concerned after his run in the Newmarket and my concerns weren’t allayed by hearing Mick Price give a cautious appraisal of his recovery before last weeks T J Smith Stakes. I was not surprised to see him finish out of the places again. He is clearly not right and should be tipped out for a spell.

Have a great weekend!

News, Sports

Friday musing – cricket, golf, Jordan Spieth…..

December 5, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

Last weeks Musing was devoted to Phil Hughes and I must say the despite not knowing the guy, it continued to affect me through the week. Now that we have had the funeral we can move on.

In my opinion the big thing from last weekend was the performance of the 21yo American, Jordan Spieth in the Australian Open. Currently ranked at number 158 in the world, he shot a 63, which was poignant in itself, to win the open easily was an amazing performance. The course was probably at its most difficult when he played and I understand the best score from earlier in the day was 67. So he shot a score to win the tournament that no one else got close to during the day. And he is only 21! This is the guy that almost became the youngest US Masters winner, so he is no slouch and he could be the next world wide super star in golf now that Tiger Woods cannot seem to re-capture his former brilliance.

I know I have made this observation before, but Peter Donegan was one of the commentators doing the golf telecast and he is one of the best all round sports commentators in Australia. He does the golf, he does the horse racing, he does the VFL football, the Olympics, is there any sport he cannot do? I struggle to think of any one better. Tim Lane and Bruce McAvaney have a higher profile, but PD is the ultimate support act.

Have a great weekend!

News, Sports

Friday musing – US Masters, Adam Scott, Arsenal, Patrick Vieira…..

April 11, 2014 sportzfan Leave a comment

With the US Masters now started, I thought it was worth remarking about those two fantastic shots from Matt Jones to qualify him for the Masters. First he drained a 45ft putt to make the play off and then he wins it by chipping in from off the green. Two miracle shots. My original selection for the Masters was Jason Day as I have selected him to win a major this year, however, his first round would indicate that he may not have recovered from his thumb injury so I will have to revert to the reigning champion, Adam Scott.

On a different note, I was thinking about the way Bomber Thompson is coaching at the moment and it brought to mind the change in the Australian Cricket team performance once Darren Lehman took over. Both men take a relaxed approach to their coaching which appears to bring about the best in their teams. One thing I have noticed about the Essendon team this year is that their disposal efficiency has improved immeasurably from previous years. Maintaining that efficiency throughout the season will be the big test as, like my EPL team, Arsenal, they have fallen away at the end of the season recently.

While on the football it is worth commenting on “the bump”. I think everyone who has seen the Nathan Fyffe bump and the Daniel Merrett forearm cannot believe they have been graded the same. Fyffe’s bump was an accidental clash of heads which resulted in a charge under the new AFL rules, whereas Merrett’s was an old fashioned whack which should have gotten four weeks. I think if there are many more incidents akin to the Fyffe suspension, the AFL will need to amend the rules, because in a contact game you cannot or at least should not be suspended for something which was accidental. Australian Rules football is a contact sport and accidents will still happen.

A very disappointing result for Arsenal in the EPL last week losing 3-0 to Everton and now jeopardising their Champions League position. Should they lose the fourth position to Everton and not win the FA Cup, there is every chance that Arsene Wenger will not be asked to continue with the team which would be a shame in my opinion. The owners are finally loosening the purse strings and he may miss out on building the team up again. I also read an interesting article in The Age during the week about Patrick Vieira the last Arsenal captain to raise a trophy. He is working with the Manchester City Under 21 team and enjoying the role. I am not suggesting he is a manager in waiting as it would seem he is a long way off that, but worth keeping an eye on his progress.

Have a great weekend!

Podcast

Sportzfan Radio #197.1

April 17, 2011 @packers4 Leave a comment

10 April 2011 197.1 – Golf returns to the show with Mordiboy (aka Fatman Blues) talking the US Masters in Augusta and how well the Australian golfers are doing. Mordiboy had picked Lee Westwood to win, however he is too far back now. Daniel queries why the Gelding’s segment starts with the James Bond theme. The Professor says it is because Gelding is an ‘International Man of Mystery’. The Gelding reviews the days racing results at Caulfield and Randwick. After being ‘in form’ in recent weeks, he had a bad day and awards three S-Hit rides. He again advises Daniel that ‘You can’t eat odds’. Dr Leslie’s CSA comes along to clean up after the racing segment. Mark Fiorenti comes on to talk soccer and says although Melbourne Victory has a mathematical chance of making the next round of the Asian Champions League…it is unrealistic. Roy Keane has been linked to the Victory coaching position but Mark doubts his coaching credentials. The Gelding asks if the money would be better spent on a marquee player rather than a coach.