Wrap - Capabianco Capers

1. Ashes Team. The First Test starts this week. Not sure about Bancroft. His temperament worries me at times. That he is a right hander he is lucky as Harris has been the dominant cricketer in Australia in long form cricket. Why did Harris not go to England to play County cricket in advance? Silliness.


Of course Langer ensured Mitchell Marsh was there...and Mrs Marsh, PJ Marsh and Dan Marsh, Rod, Graham, Geoff...


The English crowds are going to be fierce. Steve Smith's form is not great either. The pitch they played their warm up game on was a dangerous joke. Michael Neser may be the x-factor who moves the Duke ball. If Hazelwood gets more than one wicket an innings we should all do handstands. He needs to lift and get multiple wickets if he is to play. What version of Mitchell Starc is going to show up? They have too many blokes in the squad too - 17? Really. When will some of these other blokes actually play? I hope there are tour games in between like the old days... otherwise there will be a lot of blokes practising their scoring and bowling in the nets.


If you are not in the first Test team you are only looking at the third Test. Honestly, when will Siddle play?


This Chris Woakes is bowling really well. He's sharper than he looks. Jimmy Anderson, Stokes and Broad will be tough on their decks as usual.


2. Rugby League. What a stupid rule it is when two footballs come onto the field...as if we need to worry about the other one. That is a new time delay used by players, runners and even the crowd. Get rid of it.


3. NRL. Des Hasler has made a stunning difference at Manly. Their two props - Fanua Blake and Marty Taupou are tremendous players. Finally the value of the off load is being appreciated by NRL coaches. Moses Sueli has been transformed into a super force. Three clubs couldn't cope with him.


Who is coaching this Gold Coast rabble? They need a complete rebuild.


4. Golden Point - Melbourne v Manly. A great game of footy, but can we agree on something else? When they do the Golden Point toss, one answer is needed... either "WE WANT THE BALL" or "WE DON'T WANT THE BALL". Referees of course try to over complicate it all.  Seven tackles plays with silly kicks kills you. The Jake Trobjevic tackle was bad, but that's despite having made 66 other good tackles. 67 in the game - awesome! The first half of golden point was awesome footy - two drop kicks hitting the post, great finish. Manly's effort away at Melbourne was amazing... it was like a GF win with 38 seconds left. I was worried by the Melbourne response to the loss. They are on edge a bit too early for mine. Big deal...a close loss and they are miles ahead on the table. It happens.


5. AFL. Richmond look the powerhouse now on the run in. Brisbane too fast and slick v Hawks...looking sharp. Great tough wins by the GWS who were so strong at the loose ball. Their game v Port was a cracker, winning by a single point away from home. This Nick Haynes from GWS is superb. I also like the Toby Greene competitiveness. Opposing teams hate him, but his teammates love him. A top four finish looms for GWS. Geelong powered over Sydney too. Is Buddy Franklin still alive?


Brett Ratten doing well with the Carlton team. They are surprising a few now.


6. Wallabies v Pumas. Not since Hugo Porta have the Pumas looked this good. A solid win by the Wallabies. It is tight, but also boring. Even the TV commercials in the game breaks are boring. More crowd at Riverview v Joeys. Great effort by the Springboks v ABs... they may surprise.


7. Global T20 in Canada. The worldwide gypsies of T20...Pollard, Gayle, McCullum, Narine, Bravo, Bailey...the world champions at finding a buck. This stuff is ripe for match fixing. Does anyone really care? I noticed even the recently retired Yuvraj Singh is playing. A shame Indian cricketing administration arrogance continues to get in the way of the world seeing their cricketing talents.


8. Swimming. Can you believe another unknowing Australian drug taking swimmer...a stray tablet perhaps? Not great when Mack Horton is standing off the dias! Maybe she should go to the International Court of Sport Arbitration like Dean Capabianco? Arianne Titmus is a legend. She could be our best ever if she stays fit. Interesting reaction when she found out about Shayna Jack, a stablemate.

Wrap - Perry Perry Hittin'

1. Ellyse Perry. Stunning performance. Rarely misses out with bat or ball. She is a superstar and may end her career with a better bowling average than any male - and a better Test batting average than the great Adam Voges, but shorter than Don Bradman's 99.94.


2. World Cup Final. Jofra Archer was impressive but Ben Stokes can change a game like no other. He will dine out on Nathan Lyon and a few of our other players in the Ashes. He will be the difference, like Botham and Flintoff before him.


I cannot believe that there is talk of Mitchell Marsh joining the Ashes squad. A joke. He is no Stokes. The team will come under enough scrutiny without his brand of mediocrity. We all know Langer loves the Marsh family and tries to get them in the team at every turn. Trent Copeland is a better all rounder. A big Australia v Australia A game this week coming, but not too many spots up for grabs.


Will Tim Paine be the first captain sacked since Kim Hughes? If he doesn't score runs, we will hear the calls for axings! Surely Smith returns as skipper in time. Keen for the young opener Cameron Bancroft to miss out on selection. He has much to learn still.


Likely First Test Ashes Team:
Dave Warner
Marcus Harris
Usman Khawaja
Steve Smith
Travis Head
Kurtis Patterson/ Matthew Wade/ Marnus Labaschagne/ Will Pucovski
Tim Paine
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
James Pattinson/ Josh Hazelwood
Nathan Lyon




2. Gold Coast Suns. What a disgrace! The coach, Stu Dew should know better than to blame the opposition coaches box for their woes. Coach better and all changes for you. Take ownership of the performance of the terrible roster. On the other hand Paul McGregor believes his team can win the comp. A dead set optimist!


3. Gold Coast Titans. They axe their coach and then get the Storm the next week with a whole heap of guys rested (Munster, Kafusi, Addo Carr, Chambers, Welch). Couldn't help but notice that Ashley Taylor has suddenly come good now that Garth Brennan has gone. Interesting. Meninga needs to show some stronger leadership. I get the feeling he has not excelled either in the tricky circumstances. A test for a would be immortal of the game. Can he rescue this dismal lot?


4. British Open Golf. Rory at his home course, Tiger and Jason Day all perish before the cut and get a chance to have a good lie down to think about things. How good is Brooks Koepka? Amazing strength and consistency in majors. Four Major wins and two Runners Up. As many majors (4) as Ernie Els, Ray Floyd, Rory McIlroy and the classic...Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris from the 1860s! However it is Lowry's to lose with a seven shot lead heading into the final round. Local knowledge! An 8 under 63 is a clever round in any Major!


5. Wallabies. What has gone wrong with the game? Our team faced a second string Springbox team and lost. Cheika said he would throw it all away if he does not win the World Cup. Newsflash... keep looking for jobs! The number of Polynesians in the national team is incredible. There seems to be a complete over reliance on these boys. Hopefully they do not all do a Fifita and all bail out to a Pacific Nations team. We need anyone who still likes the game. Sad really after the greatness of the Campese-Ella-Eales-Gregan era.


6. NRL. Something needs to be done in the game re penalties by the defensive team in the red zone. Lying on players and the wrestle needs to be met with fire. A five minute sin bin - sent to a cubicle at the end of the ground behind the deadline is necessary. A penalty in the last five minutes or in extra time should be something more dramatic. Refs need to be more vigilant with time on and off too. The game meanders at times and then there is an almighty desire for precision in the last five minutes.


7. AFL. Swans v Freo. Cracking game between the cellar dwellers. Tight one point losses cost you semi final positions. The Swans know about this in 2019! They had plenty of chances. GWS are up and down. If they can get a home semi they would be a chance. They smash Collingwood but will fall in a heap next week. If the Richmond Tigers get a finals game or two on the MCG they will win it! My calls for a free kick from where the ball is kicked out on the full is getting louder with the intentional stuff creeping in - especially when scores are tight.


7. Netball World Cup. A cracking performance, but do minnows just get in the way? Lots of Aussie wins... 88-24 vs Northern Ireland, 73-37 vs Zimbabwe, 99-24 vs Sri Lanka, 91-22 vs Barbados, 74-24 vs Malawi, 50-49 vs New Zealand. Their semi final v South Africa was harder at 55-53. The GF and championship awaits!

Wrap - Group Hugs and Head Pats

1. Cricket. Talk of drop in pitches at the SCG will certainly not help Test cricket in Australia. The predictability of the MCG Boxing test has ended it as the spectacle it once was, making it a "bat-a-thon" and giving bowlers nothing. Made for five days of advertising revenue for Cricket Australia? When will Lords have a drop in pitch? The same answer should be there for the SCG - never.


Can anyone accept the type of pitches England have dished up for the World Cup semi finals in England? Ordinary really. Rain is inevitable, but they should be smarter than this. England too good regardless and have the final to lose. If NZ bat well, they can win it.


2. World Cup Cricket. Stoinis was the dud of the tournament (the new mid career Shane Watson). Overhyped and one dimensional. Can our all rounder obsession end with the departure of Hohns and Bug Snappell? Maxwell of course was not far away from terrible either - and throw in Handscomb. Complete duds and all from Victoria.


Yet Australia put Handscomb forward for all the media in the lead up to the semi final and made him front and centre. Most unfair when you just come in for a semi final. They did not deliver when it mattered. Cummins was too quiet as well. He needs to lift for us to get near a Ashes victory. Only ticks to Finch, Warner, Smith, Carey, Starc (terrible late in the tournament). I get a bad feeling re the Ashes. We do not have the batting skill on the seaming deck...but who does? As soon as the sun shines we are set...if it doesn't, we are in strife!


No ticker tape parades in Sydney this year. Love a ticker tape parade. What is ticker tape? Maybe shred left over fax paper?




3. State of Origin. Tedesco scores a cracking last minute try and the rest is history. How NSW could almost blow a 12 point lead is staggering. The secret to points is out wide in Origin, but how impressive was the Cook try. He is a star. Fittler triumphs and all the critics can dream on. Even though QLD were short staffed (Ponga, Arrow), so was NSW (Cleary, MItchell, Sims). The NSW kicking game is ordinary. Fittler believes in the high bomb. You win more games in Origin when your kicks hit the grass more often that your opposition.


3A. Player of the Series. Apparently Alf Langer, the QLD trainer, was nominated as player of the series.


4. The Team Group Hug in Sport. Does this guarantee a loss? It is out of control? So many teams do this now... I'd love to see the strike rate. I preferred the Jack Gibson method of the team clapping each other on as they entered the field circa 1980.


5. Wimbledon - Serena. 32 Grand Slam finals for 23 wins/ 9 losses... Federer 31 Grand Slam finals for 20 wins/ 10 losses (1 unresolved). Incredible record when you consider she has made three of the last five Grand Slam finals contested. Thumped nonetheless. Halep is a dynamo and hard to beat. Not many Romanians have succeeded on the international tennis stage.


Incredible women's tennis history of USA-UK-AUS women up until the 1990s giving way to Czech-Germany-Belgium and now to the Russians, Serbs and Romanians. Evolving game. Even two Columbians won the men's doubles!


6. Wimbledon - Men. Federer is a magician - and at his age. How good is he? That semi v Nadal was extraordinary. Not getting the No. 1 seeding at these events hurts you big time when there are only three blokes contesting every tournament. Two of the three sit on one side of the draw. Djokovic has had the best of it lately. It makes a big difference with one final (not two) to win!


7. AFL. Swans lost by 7 to Carlton and Collingwood and 10 to Essendon. These tight ones swing your season one way or another. Interesting that Longmire was sought so powerfully. When does a club need a recharge? The players really did not lift for him. A terrible loss quite frankly. Maybe a group hug was needed pre game? Or maybe they had one?


GWS are done. They are perennial losers at the MCG. If Richmond get there, they will be hard to toss. Brisbane look sharp too, but a bit raw. Western Bulldogs coming home hard. Love the pace of Jason Johannisen.


8. Cameron Smith. 400 NRL games is extraordinary. His long term longevity is exceptional. He looks like he could crack 500! The Storm don't lose a lot, but they rarely if ever lose big milestone games. makes Benji's and Cooper's 300 games seem trivial.


Xerri is supremely talented, but he has terrible hands. No Origin for him any time soon. His drop ball rate is horrendous. Group hug him... or shower him with high fives when making an error. Where did this come from in the game? Get around the bloke that makes a terrible error...? A quiet word of encouragement, no head pats, high fives or back slaps. It is still a stinking error.
By the way, Nick Cotric deserves five weeks for his tackle. The NRL needs to toughen up.


9. Gold Coast. As mentioned last month, the Gold Coast should be shut down as a sporting destination and taken to Brisbane. Garth Brennan apparently had the desk packed last week! Goooone! Stuart Dew in a world of pain too with the useless Suns. Most fans would rather give them a new moniker - the moons - and provide samples.


10. INF - Netball World Cup. Surely the minnows are a time waste. Lovely and all that, but in the end, no spectacle v Zimbabwe or Uganda and these games won't fill the stadiums. This was a good feature of the recent cricket world cup...every nation there was competitive, even Afghanistan who have improved more quickly than most other minnows.

Wrap - Mullets and Mulligrubbers

1. World Cup Cricket. It will be an important test for some of Australia's players' futures this week. England is beatable, but how predictable was a loss to South Africa? For all his heroics, Starc was wasteful and terrible early. I cannot see that Maxwell and Stoinis have earned their positions so far, yet they continue being selected. Talk of Mitch Marsh coming in makes the stomach churn. Steve Smith needs to lift as well. Ponting used to rise up so powerfully on this stage.


Matthew Wade could be the man coming in. I think he is a better bet to fill the void. If he gets a duck however... He deserves his chance. He has been completely prolific.


Handscomb in for Shaun Marsh. Hard to believe we have broken wrists from net sessions...What is that about? Cummins needs to do some damage on the pitch instead. He has been average really. Time to move for him. I am not seeing Ashes glory in his efforts to date. Harsh, but true.



The English conditions are cruel. Sunny skies you look like a champion. Cloudy skies you struggle with the seam. Uncanny how Australia finds the cloud in an Ashes series.


I notice that Marnus Labaschagne has hit over 1,000 County runs this season. Impressive. There is an Ashes showdown match coming up of the current v Aus A players. A score there gets you on the plane!




2. NRL. Would it be that bad if every team had to aim up each week, despite Origin stars being out of action? Blood youngsters and keep the fans happy. The TV is a bit quiet without it of a weekend! Being treated to the Warriors at their worst ill disciplined version of themselves is hard to take, but they won regardless.




How amazing is the 400 games by Cameron Smith for next week..he has peeled off 20 games every year he has played. Indestructible. Tests, origins...300 by Benji too. These are big numbers. The brain testing should include these guys. Concussions are staggeringly common so to get to 300-400 is amazing. Smith may be the best we have ever seen.




The footage of Jordan Periera scoring a try and getting hit is sickening from the weekend. https://www.sportingnews.com/au/league/news/jordan-pereira-injury-st-george-illawarra-canterbury-cup-newtown/u0fksz2au6x11avvowe2fb2v5


2A. Are the Sharks that bereft of goalkickers that for three successive weeks they score more tries than their opponents and lose? Millionaire NRL! They have some underperformers there...Moylan and Johnson - both horrible at times. Sharks have always had good goalkickers... Greg Cox, Dean Carney, Barry Andrews, Dane Sorensen (yes), Eric Archer, Steve Rogers, Phil Hurst, Sean (seen) Watson, Allan Wilson, Mitch Healey, Eoin Crossan, Matt Rogers, Luke Covell, Michael Gordon, Valentine Holmes. They need a fix and quick.




3. Wimbledon. Ash Barty. Fabulous to see if she can move through. If she meets Serena, that will be a test. Serena on grass is a sight. She can be awesome.




Bernard Tomic is a complete disgrace. "Tomic The Tank Engine". He should go away and retire. Kgyrios is also an embarrassment. His immature press conference displays and lack of grace says more than all the racquet abuse, swearing and nonsense put together. The world media love it in a twisted sort of way which makes it hard for us to ignore him. If he never played again, would anyone really notice? His disrespect for a legend like Nadal is him at his absolute worst.


4. AFL. An outbreak of mullets has been detected at the Western Bulldogs. What is going on? Port Adelaide are looking powerful. Still liking Geelong despite their dip in form. West Coast are rocks and diamonds. Collingwood are getting the wobbles, but the best teams are stretching away now... this is the hard part of the comp when you need to lift. Brisbane have made a great resurgence...but how hot and cold are GWS.? They can't win it.




Gold Coast are horrible. They give up 100 points by half time. Terrible. They should be closed down for bringing the game into disrepute.




5. Crusaders. The coach, Scott Robertson has been practising his dancing for weeks. Well placed as they smashed the Jaguares. They were never losing that game. A crushing 19-3 victory.