Wrap - All Hansen Deck

1. Rugby World Cup. England wins v All Blacks. A great effort by the best pack in the game. Their strength coaching is awesome. Their halves and backs look like they eat full grown wallabies. That draw is something else. Wales and South Africa have a hell of a lot of luck riding on it all. Is it just me or is this the world's longest tournament? Is Steve Hansen available to coach Australian rugby and transform its lumbering carcass? Surely Raelene's position comes under heavy scrutiny. She has not had a happy time of it in Australian sport.


2. Idiot Watch. Not sure how the Storm did it, but Vunivalu seemed to escape any punishment - or the player tackling drunk idiots into the Bali pool. They then got Nelson to miss getting hammered by the Kiwis...not a Storm game touched. Genius. Not surprising to see Josh Dugan in the news sadly. I am also fearing that Barry Hall may whack Paul Gallen into another hemisphere. He is a big man.


3. Women's Cricket. This is fast becoming more interesting than the BBL. The concept could well fade under the weight of retired world hopping ex- players... and Chris Lynn gets upset he didn't get a phone call from selectors? Please. No whinging from the girls...Perry, Healey, Blackwell... superstars.


4. Alex De Minaur becomes our highest ranked tennis player with decency for some time. Forget 'No Brains Nick'. Great effort from someone who never gives up. Ash Barty has set a new standard I suspect.


5. EPL. Leicester City have brained them early this season. 9-0 v the hopeless Southampton. That is impressive! ManU are in free fall and need rescuing. Impressed with Chelsea under Lampard.


6. T20 Cricket. Why do we play these useless tournaments? The ICC have no systems and no shape to their world playing schedule. Money, money, money... Some would say it has fallen apart since Richie Benaud and Tony Greig left us. Warner's ton and the other batting was pretty entertaining - especially Maxwell - but Sri Lanka are a shambles whenever they come here.


7. International Rugby League. Great that rugby league has an international stage, but it is a small one really. Lots of good Pacific nations - and a spectacular Tongan try, catch it here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=408247176754899



8. MLB. Amazing World Series of the Washington Nationals v Houston Astros. Teams that lose the first two out of the best of seven games (Astros) and have to claw back to win the whole thing are very, very rare. With the series locked at 2-2, it is exciting times here.


9. Cox Plate. The short straight at Moonee Valley gets them every year! What a great time of racing for the punters. Lys Gracieux won in style. These Japanese horses can run! Chief Ironside at $27 was a cracking overseas player too! Derby Day will be outstanding!


10. A-League. Suddenly the A League has sprung to life with the Sydney derby and a full Bankwest Stadium. Jamie McLaren is in sparkling form too.

Wrap - Cheikmate Everest

1. Cheikmate. "The Rugby world is in shock with the resignation of Michael Cheika who had simply had enough of all the useless players and staff around him and demanded more. Speaking via satellite, Cheika reported feeling betrayed by the media, the back and front office staff and stated he was sick to the back teeth of all the losses they were handing him". Renee Castle may need to watch the locksmith doesn't surprise her when she turns up for work too. They need a complete clean out. Too many coaches and assistant coaches and bag carriers and gear stewards... honestly.


2. Wallabies. Terribly ill disciplined and lacking flair. Excited about the junior Wallabies who beat the All Blacks. Can we turn things on their head a little and actually get some more enterprising halves? Genia...please. We need smarter players with more speed. England were far too good and will go close. Wales no chance...NZ awesome. Barrett, B is simply the best there is in the world.


3. NRL World 9s. How can you have a tournament like this and only play on a Friday and Saturday? Most peculiar indeed.


4. The Everest. That race is the most cracking horse race in the country - if not the world. Yes, Yes, Yes was a superb winner. Great to see old Glen Boss (our age) win too. The Melbourne Cup is still the dux, but the Everest with so many horses known by everyone locally, is a hit. Get rid of the international horses at the Melbourne Cup to rediscover that feel. All Cup runners should have to have a minimum number of appearances in Australian races eg. five runs before competing.


5. Shield Cricket. Regretably, Shaun Marsh is back (214) and will hit another series of pathetic form bubbles across the summer but having him start with a double ton means both he and Mitchell will be back in Australian colours. Justin  Langer could not be happier! Mitchell is meant to be captaincy material so the papers say, but he is out of action because he punched a wall! Give me a break!


5/40 and 4/20 from Starc is much better...Warner two ducks (what is going on there?). No runs from a whole heap - Khawaja (2 and 0), Burns (39 and 22), Wade (20 and 40), Head (0 and 12), Harris (69 and 8)...Labuschagne (32 and 33no) is still showing tenacity, but cannot crack a ton. Pattinson 4 wickets... no Cummins or Hazelwood at present.


6. EPL. Leicester and Jamie Vardy are surging at present. Onto 17 points. Nine points in front of the struggling ManU. Even Crystal Palace are performing better than them in 2019. Liverpool will stretch their competition lead out to 8 points with a win over ManU in their game tonight.


7. A League. The new Western United team are looking pretty good early. Maybe put another team on the Gold Coast!
8. The Storm almost got away with the Nelson Asafa-Solomona issue. Surely these folk cannot play the game for extended periods, but they are painted as victims and we roll over!

Wrap - Spectacular Fails

1. NRL Grand Final. Hard to explain away a loss on the strength of a 'six to go' call that was reversed. Extraordinary though it was... Canberra dropped too much ball out wide and could have used the shorter kick through the line occasionally for mine. Joey does some great things and some dumb things ('dead marine' lying in the play the ball when the try was scored) so he will not really be missed if picked up by another club.


Croker for all he does well, worries me, but he was OK. Taking Charnz off at the end with cramp was not helpful either as he was a star. Ricky's decision to go into the game with Simonssen was curious. Wighton has grown up a lot since Origin too and played hard. He will be an Origin star in years to come with his electrifying pace and toughness. Soliola and Horsborough were two who excelled for them. They toughen the middle well and straighten up the play. The red headed one needs more minutes! Bateman was superb as usual too - so tough and sensible.


For the Roosters, Latrell Mitchell is not getting the accolades he deserves for the pass to Tupou that set up the Tedesco try. Talent. His goalkicking under pressure was pretty amazing too. JWH was powerful. Brett Morris impeccable under pressure. Too strong in the end. Cronk has delivered two premierships. They will certainly miss his lead in years to come. Young Flanagan is talented, but no Cronk. Cronk should be signed immediately as a coach by an NRL team who wants to win. No wonder Melbourne dominated for so long and no wonder Smith was so annoyed he left!


Suddenly Trent Robinson is up there as one of the greatest coaches of the game has seen: 3 wins out of seven seasons. Ricky has one GF win (2002) and three GF losses now (2003, 2004, 2019) as coach.




2. NRL Debacle - Half Time Entertainment. Tuesday's team meeting at NRL head quarters should be interesting.  The honest debacle of the Ryan James Acknowledgement of Country (shades of Mal Meninga's political resignation speech) was added to by the fiasco of the pass the ball competition into the back of a car at halftime. We then got a bloke in his Julius Marlow's kicking for goal only to shank it 10 metres. Then Daryl Braithwaite and Ian Moss were playing 'Horses' and all of a sudden the players returned to the field. Amateur hour.


Our obsession with fireworks continues. At least last year's relay of the club mascots was put to rest - and we were spared a cheating running/ pass the footy relay. I still think there is scope for the "League Olympics" across the semi finals and onto Grand Final Day. Kick for goals from ridiculous angles on the 10 metre line, drop kicks from 30m - 40m and 50m for goal, league's fastest man over 100m, longest punt kick... simple, but the crowd would love it.


Then of course now we hear that there were two Clive Churchill medallists - JWH and Wighton. Two Canberra blokes, Laurie Daley and the horn blower, Mal Meninga were the judges with Lockyer... please. When does Peter Beattie leave and will Greenberg own any of this?


Add this to the trainer impeding the ball (and how did the Roosters get it back - please?) and the 'six to go' controversy... All we needed was a parachutist hitting the roof of the stand or an Optus TV bursting...or a few metal spikes left on the ground from 'Rip Rip Woodchip...'., or Billy Idol.
Do we have an iconic rugby league song? Boys Are Back In Town (Thin Lizzie) or Simply The Best (Tina Turner). Can't beat 'Up There Cazaly'!


3. Rule Changes NRL.
A couple spring to mind:
(i) Trainer lingers on field? Penalty at half way to the non-offending team.
(ii) Ball not handed to the opponent at a turn over - 30 metre penalty against. Like the AFL 50 metre penalty.
(iii) No injury time outs when not near the play. What happened to that rule?


3. Next? So we head into Hardie Ferodo 1000 Territory. Love a bit of Bathurst and a few crazies. The Marsh Cup is over hopefully and maybe some proper cricket will appear soon...


4. Rojit Sharma. Two tons in the South Africa v India Test. Rare days, but South Africa are in some bother now without Amla and Steyn. Du Plessis and de Cock are stars, but not many others.


5. EPL. Very impressed with the work of Liverpool who are already eight points ahead. Is this unbeatable already? Man City (16) and Arsenal (15) sit next and the early efforts of Crystal Palace, Leicester and Burnley pit them well on track for a cracking year. 30 points just about gets you out of relegation problems.


6. AFL Draft. The time of year when the disaffected, dishonest and the turn coats come out to play. Daniher to Sydney is huge, but there is no love this week. Papley is a curious character. Surely you cut them free when they want out. Tomorrow.


7. Rugby Union World Cup. Once again a World Cup of something with minnows wasting everyone's time. Get rid of them and tell them to "get good"! Have a minnows World Cup instead somewhere else and relegate the useless officials to that one. There may not be enough in the main cup from what we are seeing. The advantage rule is killing the game. It was a better game without it.