Wrap - Raw Score

1. Socceroos. DID NOT win. "Gallant, brave, young team, great achievement, top opposition..." I do not hear the word 'win'. Does a goal of the tournament make you a team of the tournament?

Our goalkeeper, Matt Ryan, was appalling. Let's call it early and loud and clear. Save the excuses. With Schwarzer, we draw with Netherlands.

Columbia look good. Just fearing the first bloke to miss a penalty kick...do you remember Escobar who was gunned down after his 1994 own goal?

2. Waratahs. Do we dare to get excited - or will it be the usual collapse? More steel, but not in the Crusader's class.

3. Souths. They can disappoint too often. Lack of backline awareness. They crunch up the middle behind the markers and get very little enterprise in their play. It is too easy to defend against...yet they have their stars out wide getting cold.

Here is a bold prediction...the team that offloads the most in the semis will win the comp. The rehearsed defences are strong, but so predictable. Enterprise and the unexpected will win. Are Souths the new Storm? They are so similar it is ridiculous.
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4. This Konrad Hurrell is something else for the Warriors. Blowing kisses after tries...he gets a lot of practice.

5. AFL. When will the limit on backwards kicking and marks over 20 metres be the new standard? I must say that if you were watching the Swans v GWS on Saturday night, at the commencement of the fourth quarter, GWS ran the wrong way...yes, no dressing it up as strategic...they fair dinkum did an U/6's and ran the wrong way. Unbelievable. Raw.

6. I'm liking this onslaught of Aussies picking up draft positions in the NFL and NBA. There is something logical about our players being no different to others in other countries - if the coaching and focus is similar. Surely our products in our country of sports obsessed folk puts us on par or above other lands?

7. England losing to Sri Lanka. That characteristic softness is rising again.

8. Need to let you know that the St Michael's U/12 footy team (my son Liam's team) completed a FIVE-peat of successive Parramatta KO wins this week. 2010 - 2014. My coaching career is over. (Hard to see it being beaten just quietly...and humbly).