The Wrap - Every Dog Has Their Day

1. Moises Henriques. Firming for a Test debut. Hits the ball very well when on song and a sparkling century from all reports. We have a rich tradition of bringing back old hard headed experienced blokes who hold the show together in the middle order - Lehman, Voges, Bevan, Hussey... Travis Head's double century doesn't hurt either. About time we started to see some longer form of the game. The strength of the bowling is not at its best with so many in NZ getting their tails kicked. Aaron Finch is woeful. What is worse, he does not seem that worried - nor do the selectors.

Cameron Green with another Shield ton continues to excel. 168no remains impressive in anyone's books. Even Bancroft hit a ton.

Not sure why we need Pat Cummins bowling in the Shield at present? Next we'll have injuries and more problems than the federal government.

2. India v England Cricket. As predicted, we are definitely looking at a 3-1 defeat by England which will almost certainly deliver a Test Championships decider to NZ v India at Lords. The state of that last pitch is a complete disgrace. This old trick is one Murali benefitted from big time and it is how Ashwin has rocketed to 400 Test wickets so soon. Nullify the opponent's strength (pace, seam bowling with a pink ball) and feather your own strengths. Not good enough. Imagine the outcry if we had a deck like that in Australia? Not surprisingly the Indian officialdom are sitting on their oversized cheques and remaining quiet. Unacceptable, no matter how many straight balls the Poms missed. Jonny Bairstow will be lucky to play again based on his effort in getting a pair. Hitting straight balls needs to be a priority at the top order - not guessing. The England rotation selection policy is a joke too. They were smug after the first test (like Australia were) and now pay the price. 

3. EPL - Man City. 20 wins in a row tells you they are not losing the PL race this year. Tough win against West Ham, but call the engraver.

4. NRL. Is it possible to predict the whole comp after only one weekend of trials? Not much changes.

Melbourne. Dominant again. Souths flashy and skilful. Roosters powerful with brilliant youngsters. Penrith winning, even ugly ones. Parramatta OK, but simply have no pace and not enough points in them. Cowboys tenacious. Canberra and Knights solid, but limited in attack. Bulldogs and Gold Coast improving gradually. Broncos inconsistent. Tigers look a little faster, but will struggle. Manly injury riddled and will be OK if Turbo stops running up the Corso. Cronulla sleepy in defence. Warriors limited. Dragons woeful.

Anthony Griffin is under immense pressure already - as is the whole administration of that place.

5. NRL Incidents. They need to crush some of these disgraceful player behaviour moments and remove more from the game. They could start with domestic violence matters. Great to hear that Penrith stood down the cocaine taking Naden, when the NRL couldn't find the strength. He needs to have a good think about things I suspect. Tom Trobjoevic is another one who may need to reflect on being a goose running up the Corso and pulling a hammy during/ after. What gets into these blokes' heads?

Has Corey Horsburgh from the Raiders set a record? Reported twice in two different trial games on the same day? Channelling Chris Guider type memories.

6. Waratahs. While there have been flashy great moments, inevitably, this team is a poor imitation. Why is it that the Brumbies always seem to be a super competitive rugby team. The Waratahs...what a humiliation: 61-10. Is this the best that this proud state of GPS/ CHS loving rugby types can produce for NSW? Or is state footy a thing of the past? Good luck to the streaming service who picked this code up.

7. AFL Trials and WAFL. The sport starved southern states are all over it! They love the game, but draws in AFL trials could be as bad as it ever gets.

8. Tennis. So Djokovic with his dreadful mid tournament injury, recovered in quick time to give Medvedev an old fashioned towelling. 18 Grand Slam wins is elite. Nice to see Roger Federer back into things as well. These hard headed experienced guys are supreme athletes, the likes of which we will never see again. Serena Williams was not far away either, but will be better for the run. Intriguingly she has been in 33 Grand Slam finals for her 23 wins. She has not won one since 2017 but has made four (losing) finals since then. An absolute legend.

Federer 20 wins out of 31 finals. Nadal 20 wins out of 28 finals and Djokovic 18 wins from 28 finals. Losing about 10 each, generally to each other.

9. Tiger Woods. Tiger unfortunately almost met the premature fate of many superstars, rock stars, child prodogies and sports elite. Thankfully he will recover. Not sure golf is high on the agenda right now. I suspect with his millions, he should be employing a driver. Cars and Tiger have had a chequered history from golf club attacks/ fire hydrants, roadside breath tests and now this. Time to invest.

10. Great News. Great to know Lady Gaga's dogs are safe too. Rest up. Your work is done.

The Wrap - Impossible Petty Logic (IPL)

1. IPL. The auction is an amazing thing with no logic. How can you pay over a million for Riley Meredith, two million for Jhye Richardson and then $400K for Steve Smith. Not sure what Ponting was doing there as the franchise coach. A little disrespectful to Smith to be honest. Not sure Ricky would have coped silently in his day. To then leave Alex Carey with no contract is staggering. Basically, you need to be an all rounder to make money - or have extreme pace. 

THE AUSSIES PURCHASED IN THE IPL AUCTION:

Glenn Maxwell $2.52m (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Jhye Richardson $2.48m (Punjab Kings)
Riley Meredith $1.42m (Punjab Kings)
Nathan Coulter-Nile $885,000 (Mumbai Indians)
Dan Christian $850,000 (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Moises Henriques $743,000 (Punjab Kings)
Steve Smith $390,000 (Delhi Capitals)
Ben Cutting $132,750 (Kolkata Knight Riders)

2. Sheffield Shield. A terrible Shield loss by NSW to Victoria. Paper thin batting again and they had the Test bowling attack. We need new fast bowling stocks. No excuses either. The GOAT did well (10 wickets), but Test bowlers should dominate at this level. They have had a few weeks off. Surprised to see Starc bowling so soon actually. Great win by QLD. Apart from Marnus, not a lot of consistent batsmen. Burns, Khawaja got runs, but I would be looking closely at Jordan Silk.

3. Indigenous All Stars v Maori. Good to see footy back on the screen, Some players looked razor sharp already - David Fifita is an awesome player. James Fisher-Harris, Josh Kerr and Blake Ferguson excelled. Plenty of niggle and push and shove throughout the whole night! Andrew Fifita still runs across field too often. Some big defence. Not sure as a coach I'd like this type of trial. No golden point stumped them too. 10-10 was a fair result. An amped up trial really.

4. Cameron Smith. Please, how ridiculous. Cameron is now moving into that territory where people think less of one who is so talented and revered. Heaven help the club that may land him. It is starting to look like it is all about Cameron. A circus and late in the pre-season.

5.  Naomi Osaka. A crushing semi final victory v Serena and Jennifer Brady was never beating her in the final. Four Grand Slams now edges her up the pole. She is one short of Hingis and Sharapova who both have five Grand Slam wins. Her limitation is the hard court surfaces and needs to play clay and grass as well.

6. Novak Djokovic. A fake injury? No winning a popularity contest. A crushing forehand... on the cusp of yet another title. Interestingly, not a word from Kygrios who may now be 18 Grand Slams behind Novak now. Novak should crush Medvedev eventually. He is right too...there are lots of talented blokes (Zerev, Thiem, et al), but they don't put the work in to be better. Right now with the 'big three' still in operation, you need to work harder than ever before in the history of tennis!

7. Waratahs. It looks like a long and cold winter ahead. Do the fans care or have they given up? No one wants to go searching for a Super Rugby game to watch. The product is on the nose. Interesting to see Andrew Mehrtens praising Coach Rob Penney as a hit worth investing in. Hopefully.

8. Bulldogs. Every year this joint finds controversy. Adam Elliott has some explaining to do. The drink does strange things to people as well all know. Is there a reason why sex addiction is only diagnosed when someone is caught?

9. EPL. It's all over. The chances of Man City being run down are near none. It is a rare day to see West Ham hunting for a top four finish. A great effort. Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal all need a miracle this year... and maybe a new manager is on the horizon for all - as hard as that is to believe for Klopp.

10. A-League. This competition slides on through again, providing the fill for broader sports streaming services. Central Coast sitting pretty and got severely dudded this week. Sadly, for football to takeover in Australia, they need to straighten out a lot of things. There is as much chance of it being a huge success nationally in Australia as Dustin Martin playing for the Swans!

The Wrap - Top Notch

1. Super Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Superbowl glory! They were stunned and had every right to hold their buccan ears on either sides of their buccan heads in victorious hysteria! We have tracked the journey all season and what an outcome for the QB and his team. They can defend too. Fascinating that he gets a couple of mates to come with him too to feast on the glory too - Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski ('The Gronk'). What a legend he is. They were delighted in Tampa Bay (Just quietly, how good is Mahones however?). Superb. Tears in New England who are about to crucify Coach Belichick. This is not what they wanted. New England need a QB and should bring him home. If not, they need to get busy in the recruitment stakes. They seem very quiet at present.

2. Nick Kgyrios. Is anyone upset that we may not see him again? Does anyone care that he was turfed out on his ear? He started well and got run over. Dom Theim is a gun and likes to play long into matches. Sadly Nick's lack of fitness and a coach to get him right, cost him. Retirement might be best for Nick. Listening to tennis on radio is another good tip for a Kgyrios tennis game. Maybe he can go and join Greg Norman on his ranch and walk next to him on that beach in his blue shorts. Sad, but a wasted talent. He also has 17 fewer Grand Slams than Novak Djokovic who he bags all the time - even when he loses in the doubles too. More losses in one tournament than Djokovic has in a long stretch.

3. Rafa Nadal. Can he become the greatest Grand Slam winner ever? If he wins, he will move ahead to 21 Grand Slams of the great Roger Federer (20). Novak Djokovic (17) is right up there too, but he sadly brings a shadow to some of his work at times. He seems to pull a hammy too often when times are tough. Dominic Thiem avoided Kygrios, but was torched by Dimitrov today. The challengers are falling fast.

4. England Victory and Pending Loss v India. Jimmy Anderson still has got the goods. He is lethal if that pitch seams. What a superb performance by England. I suspect in the four test series however that they might follow our example and get run over. Root on fire. Some question marks emerging over the Kohli leadership style too. They need Jadeja back in the team and Siraj. Curious how many changes come when Kohli returns. He has his favourites and dictates to the selectors something fabulous. Not all are happy in that team I suspect.

Surely there needs to be a rule against a pitch like the current one on Day One of a Test? Winning the toss has put India in the box seat. England will struggle to get 100 runs in both innings. 1-1 beckons.

5. Junior Paulo. An impressive boxing display. Nothing like how M4 road rage training can position you well for a boxing career. He has silky hands on the field and can turn them into sledgehammers in the ring. A talent.

6. St George-Illawarra Dragons. What is going on at that place...? Corey Norman involved in off season biff and nonsense (how long before he leaves us?), Israel Folau going to be signed then discarded after sponsors rise up, they offload their only defensive bookend in Cameron McInness to the hated Cronulla, who now has done his knee, they sack Wendell's young bloke and are scratching around for Andrew McCullough who had serious injuries last year. They also have Bird in the centres who can barely stand up. The place is in turmoil. The new coach is a top fellow by all reports (Dean gave him a lift home one night and can confirm), but he inspires no early confidence that they won't get the spoon.

7. What A Great Era. How fortunate we have all been to see some of the all time greats...Kelly Slater, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Stephanie Gilmore, Shane Warne, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and the great Adam Voges in our time. 

8. Manchester City. Skating away with the championship right now. Too far ahead now and 16 wins in a row. Meanwhile Liverpool and Tottenham stumble and bumble. The efforts of the Liverpool keeper are something to behold! Leicester and coach Brendan Rodgers are doing the business as well.

9. Ash Barty. Will she be the one to break our 40 year Australian Open duck? Serena looks switched on after a hiccup today. The traditional Serena determination looks sharp at present.

Wrap - Super Bowl of Medals

 1. Cricket - India v England. Joe Root - first player to score a ton in his 98th, 99th and a double ton in his 100th Test. Super streak of form at present. Rishabh Pant again played a blinder of an innings, attacking his way to get India back into the contest. Out in the nineties yet again, but he doesn't care. He plays to win.

2. Cricket - Pakistan v South Africa. This Rizwan, the Pakistan keeper and Faheem Ashraf seem to be capable of amazing rear guard work down the order. Over 300 for South Africa to win. A tough chase.

3. BBL Final. Cracking game, but great batting from James Vince and Cameron Bancroft it must be said. Steve O'Keefe recovered after a woeful early dropped catch. His bowling bewitches. Mitch Marsh showed a surprising lack of composure in the field and at the crease. His dismissal reminded me of the Damien Martyn effort at the SCG v Fanie de Villiers. Who could ever forget? The Sydney Sixers are a highly successful franchise. The pink colour is daring but gets lots more women to the game and is so identifable as their cricketing stamp!

Scorchers and Sixers have won three times each now (6). Everyone else has won it once (4), except the Hobart Hurricanes and the Melbourne Stars who have never won it!

4. Cameron Smith. Is it time for Cameron to come out from hiding so we can talk normally. Like a kid who keeps playing the game long after it has ended. Very odd. Clearly he will not be with Bellamy as he would not possibly put up with these shennanigans. Tell us you're playing Cameron and we will be happy for you. Tell us you are retiring and we will salute you. Make a move.

5. Israel Folau. Israel has some choice to make quickly. Go back to Catalans Dragons, remove hate posts off your Twitter and reconcile while remaining silent online and in person... play AFL again perhaps?

6. Paige Spiranac. Is it an obligation for Paige to weigh into every golfing controversy and get her headline? She is obviously a great golfing talent. Like a few before her, focus on the game, excel at that and leave the media to do the rest.

7. Merv Hughes - Cricket Australia Hall of Fame Cricketers. Merv was inducted this week, but while we all admired his character and heart, were there more deserving recipients? Allowing for the five years retired rule, let me add some other names for closer consideration: Ian Redpath, Kim Hughes, David Hookes (posthumously), Michael Slater, Justin Langer, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Mitchell Johnson, SCG Macgill, Geoff Lawson... Is Merv better than these names? 

As enjoyable as he was to watch and cheer along, I think not. Ian Chappell once famously said at the Gabba when Ian Botham was teeing off "the problem with Merv Hughes is he thinks he's a fast bowler". Harsh and Merv showed a lot of people he could win games for us - and did. A hattrick too! Hall of Fame...ummm...

8. Allan Border Medal. Has this ridiculous farce reached its end yet? The structure of it is completely weighted to certain cricketers who play all forms of the game - especially Australian captains as highlighted. Dave Warner has done well here. Ponting and Clarke (4) lead the frequency race.

9. Australian Open Tennis. Finally the echoes of whingers are fading and the game begins. Barty won a wombat trophy last week, but the big one awaits. Serena will be charged up and ready to fly. Can someone please save us from St. Nicholas Kgyrios? The lectures, rants and histrionics are very tiring. Maybe he could just win and let everyone else talk.

10. Liverpool v Man City. If Liverpool can't get points tonight, their defence could be done. Man City are rolling on and are in a rick streak of excellent form at present. Matt Ryan at Arsenal struggled early but bounced back. They are in strife.

11. Super Bowl - Kansas City v Tampa Bay. Huge parties in the US tomorrow. Tom Brady could surprise, but anything less than a Kansas City win would be a staggering upset. Love the NFL brutality and strategy. New England Patriots fans will be fuming if Brady wins again! Apparently 11 franchises have made fewer Super Bowl appearances than the great man. He also will be the oldest QB to every win a Super Bowl if they get over the stripe!