1. Roosters. Roosters suddenly getting beaten by 60 by Souths a week out from the finals? Please, this is most unusual. Most. Despite all the injuries, they had been winning every week until this one. That needs investigation. Suddenly they locked in fourth position and avoided the Storm in a final who have an awesome record. Staggering good fortune in the Chinese Year of the Rat.
1a. Parramatta. They are bound to go out in straight sets. Beating the Storm is near impossible for them. They have no strength and composure in the tough moments. They lack speed out wide and the defence of Sivo, Blake and Ferguson is poor....the hands are not much better. Getting the five eight back may change it up a little, but speed is lacking.
Look at Gutherson. Kick happy all night v Wigers (ridiculous in many instances) and then with twenty seconds on the clock, he goes to dummy half. He is the skipper. He has just made a superb try saving/ season saving tackle at the other end. He could have kicked the ball out and wasted time...instead he tries to score a heroic try and gives the Wigers two extra tackles... no smarts at the key moments. No premiership. The great first half offloads evaporate when the team is on the chase too. No composure. The elephant ears go off and the hippopotamus ears go on and their play loses structure.
1b. The resting of players en masse could not be seen favourably by the broadcasters. An unusual year in some respects with so many teams not pressing for a semi position in the last moments of the regular season.
When was the last time we had a midweek playoff? Those were the days! A promotion/ relegation fight would be interesting too. Broncos and Bulldogs relegated in 2020. Newtown and North Sydney Bears in!
2. Wigers. Farewell Wests. Goodbye Tigers...it is official... Vossy has announced that Benji Marshall is the best ever Wests Tigers player. Forget about Keith Barnes, Tommy Raudonikis, Keith Holman, Vic Hey, Noel Kelly, Sironen, Elias, Roach, Jack, Les Boyd, Dallas Donnelly..and Mick Neil or the Viking Hardwick.
In the hype of Saturday night, Benji is now officially better than Robbie Farah (great to see him down safely off the Leichhardt scoreboard), Brett Hodgson, Anthony Laffranchi, Todd Paynten, Liam Fulton, Keith Galloway, Dene Halatau, Chris Heighington, Ben Galea and John Skandalis. Auckland Blues via St George and Broncos. Well done Benji.
Michael
Maguire seems to be reinventing himself and clearing the decks. More composure too.
He has worked out that he simply has the wrong players. Nothing wrong with his coaching of course. Get rid of the useless Assistant Coaches instead!
3. AFL. A
week off for the AFL before the semis? Is it 2020? Are we still using a VCR?
Fax machine? They are taking a silly COVID-19 risk. Keep the show rolling
on! Do the players get better or worse with the week off?
4. Mad Monday. No doubt we will see the usual clown costumes, drunkeness, abuse of police and know that the game is back to normal. Why is it restricted to Monday? A Mad Week? Saturday night is always another option. The Super League clubs in England benefit a lot from a terrible mad Monday, so they will be hoping for the usual tomfoolery, malarkey, shennanighans, hanky panky, buffoonery, ratbaggery, highjinks, skylarking, scuttlebutt, claptrap, bunkum, codswallop, hooey and horseplay.
They just send out their eye gougers to play in the NRL.
Park that sort of behaviour in the 1970s and throw away the keys.
5. Racism
in sport. Please, surely we need to crack down on this trash talking too. It is 2020 and we need to accept that if someone calls you out by the colour of your skin, it is the worst of the worst ignorance and stupidity. Tyrone Peachey has every right to get upset. How judgement against
another based on skin colour is ever rational thinking is staggering. It is old
time elitist prejudice which can do serious damage to another. Low grade. We see it too much. Ban them all.
6. Dean Jones. The legend of Madras needs no repetition. However only 52 tests, but a million ODIs...he really did re-invent the one day game in terms of running between the wickets, wearing sunnies and charging fast bowlers. Insisting bowlers took white wrist bands off was another favourite. He never really warmed to the public, but gone too early in life (reminded me of David Hookes who died 16 years ago now!). I think we all will really miss his recent cricket newspaper articles too which were spot on, honest and insightful.
7. Ashley Clown. The ref gets injured and may miss the semis? There may be a few without much sympathy. Although Ashley is always good for a grandstand finish and a binning at the wrong time. The 2020 season needs him back.
8. NBA. LA Lakers win v Denver Nuggets and Le Bron goes to his tenth finals series. Staggering impact as a player. Miami Heat and Boston Celtics (Heat up 3-2) are both going deep
into the best of seven conference finals series. Great use of 'electronic crowd' there.
9. Olympics cut backs? The IOC have finally woken up that if they don’t change...the concept and gravy train dies! They seem suddenly cooperative. Is there a country that still wants to host the Olympics?
10. Tour de France. Richie
Porte. Superb work in the Tour de France. Third overall is an amazing result, especially now that most drug cheats have been sifted out.
11. French
Open Tennis. The French do controversy better than most countries. How? They usually don't really care and cannot stand someone who complains. The rest of the world genuflect to the person offended on behalf of someone else...not the French. They keep rolling on.
12. IPL.
Ricky Ponting’s Delhi Capitals are carving it up. Ricky clearly should be
appointed as our National T20 coach. He has built an imposing record and gets the game more clearly and easily than others. He is a winner. His regrown hair also looks entirely natural. He doesn't get much wrong!
13. Mitch
Marsh. Injures his ankle in the IPL. Honestly, he is up there with Brett
Papworth for injuries.
14. Worst NRL Buy of The Year? Esan Masters, Adam Doueihi, Brodie Croft... Curtis Scott?
15. Best NRL buy of the year? Junior Paulo. A remarkable footballer. Silky hands, a step and offloads the ball like a top shelf basketballer. State of Origin bound.
16. EPL. ManU somehow win late v Brighton. Three losses this side of Christmas and you are gone! Chelsea in grief. It is that close the competition. Really liking Leeds early. Flamboyant, but it could become too loose in time!