The Wrap - Teflon Recruitment Text Messages

1. Parramatta Recruitment. Easy come, easy go. Mahoney built into a champion - out he goes. They have Ray Stone there to replace him anyhow. Jacob Liddle from the Tigers is not a bad option. He has talent. Papali'i on the Warriors scrapheap to a champion. Oh well. Niukore..a liability. Plenty more where they all came from apparently. 

Junior Paulo will be next. What a tremendous loss he will be. So skillful. They are so far away from winning a comp it is ridiculous. They point to a two point loss v the Panthers in the semis... forgetting they fell in a heap in the last month and a half of 2021. What a mess. At least Gutho is there to hold the trophy aloft. If they lose Dylan Brown they need to close the place down and sell the licence to the Rouse Hill Rhinos - or the Brisbane Jets.

Meanwhile the Roosters pick up Brandon Smith. Locked in by all reports. Amazing work.

There are not too many clubs that are waiting longer for a premiership since their last one in world sport than the Eels. It is still a longer wait than when they entered the competition. Most of us were in Year 10 or Year 11 at school! Now we have kids who are older than that!

Apparently, Brad Arthur will just create new players of excellence as half of them walk out the door. The new facilities at Memorial Avenue Kellyville will guarantee that. All a problem because they paid too much for so many blokes - Moses in particular. But they have signed Curtis Scott, Ogden and Bailey Simmonsen. That will win a comp. So there!

2. Test Captain. Thankfully Tim Paine has exited quietly. A worse decision was to keep him near the team, but big money is at stake here for him and his family let alone the mental torment. Pat Cummins... a top guy, but needs to get wickets. .. and to stay healthy. Otherwise Smith is back at first slip and will wave the arms around from there. As mentioned last week, Carey surely comes in. Or John Inglis - from WA of course? Warnie always has plenty to say, but somehow his text messages and behaviours never rate a mention. Teflon that Paine would have dearly liked to have borrowed. 

I wonder whether 'Jarvo69' will be making his way out to Australia for the Test series and a few guest appearances on the ground.

3. India v New Zealand. Ravi Jadeja is still a match winner - bat, ball and field. He gets his teams out of trouble and puts them in a winning spot. No match though for the 7 foot paceman Kyle Jamieson. 50 test wickets after 9 Tests. That is good going! Not quite as good as Vernon Philander (7 tests) and Rodney Hogg/ Terry Alderman (8 tests). but pretty slick. SCG MacGill, Colin Croft and AME Roberts got there in 9 tests as well.

This is rare footage of Colin Croft in full flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOscUoF7ytg 

The spin of Ashwin et al will be too good. NZ in strife.

4. Davis Cup. Hewitt is dead right about the soul and tradition being killed in Davis Cup. No one cares about it any more. However, the bit about how hopeless we are now was overlooked... despite a win over Hungary.

5. Josh Giddey. This Aussie NBA player is something else with his crazy passing and smarts on the court for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Really showing up a lot of others in the best league in the world. He is truly something else. There may be a genius there. He is well ahead of his years.

6. A League. The never ending season is underway again. It all seems to blur into one T20 haze these Australian football seasons! Meanwhile, ManU have gotten rid of Ole. RissOLEd! They could surprise now v Chelsea tonight!

7. The Big Bash. The women's comp is over (Scorchers smashed them) and everyone is questioning whether we can put up with another tired summer of nothing with the men's version. Could we have a few genuine international stars? Maybe just have day night Sheffield Shield games to ramp up the viewer numbers?

9. Glen Boss. Retires after a lifetime of winners. 90 Group One wins is pretty special. He always seemed to win big races at key times. Three consecutive Melbourne Cup wins is up there. There are only two jockeys to ever win four! Elite. Kerrin McEvoy and Damien Oliver are on three wins too!

10. Kambasos v Lopez. A slashing win for the Australian boxer today. A brutal gig, but an amazing win!

The Wrap - A Pane of Glass in the Hall of Mirrors

1. Great win in the T20 World Cup Final. Warner, Marsh the heroes...Zampa too. Yet we never see Zampa in Tests? A week later and no one quite remembers a ball bowled in anger! Langer can breathe again... sort of...

2. Tim Paine. I have always worried about Tim Paine. His batting was never as great as they said, his glovework solid (fastest ever gloveman to 150 dismissals - 33 test innings) yet his comments behind the stumps v Pant and the babysitting were a nonsense - and other sledging. You will recall he first led us to a 5-0 ODI drubbing v England in 2018, lost to Pakistan in the UAE and then there was the Ashes disaster with Ben Stokes beating us (but we retained the Ashes in England with a hollow 2-2 result) and then India trouncing us in Brisbane last summer and he dropped catches off Lyon when we seemingly could not lose! We were unstable. Perhaps Tim Paine may have been too, but to send that stuff right before his international cricket comeback seems most odd. 

A sad and very public end, but can someone explain why Paine is still with the team? So he will be keeper, but not skipper? Surely we learned something from the days with Gatting-Atherton-Stewart-Gooch that if the captain falls... get rid of them. No suspension? This will end poor old Justin Langer as well (like Darren Lehmann with Steve Smith-Dave Warner). 

Alex Carey needs to come in straight away, or the Queensland keeper bat, Jimmy Peirson. He can play too. Move on. Can you imagine the sledging when he comes out to bat? It could derail the whole summer as he drops catches and reacts to the inevitable pressure. You can't promote a new broom and keep the old one in the cupboard.

The tears from Australian captains over the years have been interesting. Graham Yallop, Kim Hughes, Steve Smith... The Border-Taylor-Waugh era set a very high standard! Maybe the need to cut a few more out of Cricket Australia management is required too as the media go after the cover up? The hall of mirrors beckons.

As nice a fellow as he is, I am not sure Pat Cummins is the man. Going back to Steve Smith may be a problem too. What of Nathan Lyon? 

Interestingly Ian Chappell captained Australia 30 times (15 wins, 5 losses and 10 draws - 50% win and 16% loss record) ...Paine captained Australia 23 times (11 wins, 8 losses, 4 draws - 47.82% win and 34.78% loss record). Paine's losing percentage is the worst since Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop. Oh and Shane Watson who has a 100% loss record after one test and one loss in India.

3. Parramatta Recruitment. Gutherson saw the writing on the wall. Sign moderately or be left out in the cold. He has lost pace and is on the decline sadly. Mahoney is worth pursuing and so is Junior Paulo. There seems to be some hard line club stances here, but still no premiership likely until they bring through a crop of youngsters together. That is the key. Build a culture and look after them as a group of talent.

Nikore is no great loss with his ill discipline and I wonder if Papali'i will produce in that notorious footballing graveyard of the Wests Tigers. A good pick up with the Tigers however, who have Luciano and Garner as well on their edges. Josh Hodgson talk has simmered since. Their problem is in their halves and centres. Getting Brooks to Newcastle could assist. The composure of Sheens and Benji will help too. No more Foxtel documentaries either...

4. Bulldogs Kennell Resort. The Bulldogs are writing their own salary cap cheques now. They have bought some players! Clearly they had a lot of overpaid blokes. The Kikau photo was ordinary. Why would you take that photo a year out? Joe the cameraman lives on.

5. Sheffield Shield - NSW. Their bowling stocks are woefully thin. Chris Tremain is past it, but getting wickets again. The batting is not so great either. Where is Moises? No shield for them this year. Kurtis Patterson can hardly hit the ball off the square at present, yet has played for Australia. That is a sad decline. Daniel Hughes remains the only bright hope. 

Is cricket in NSW declining and dying amidst changing expectations from parents, wives, partners, spouses, families? Can the time be justified as it once was in a different era?

6. F1 - Hamilton (Mercedes), Verstaffen (Red Bull). Claim and counter claim... cheating and appeals... After a while this stuff bores everyone to death. Bottom line? Hamilton needs to catch Verstaffen and is behind by 14 points with three races to go. A win is worth 25 points, but second (18), then third..15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2... Pretty hard to peg back once you are behind someone who has talent. Nothing a crash and a DNF can't fix I guess.

7. Socceroos. A draw v lowly China almost spells the end of their World Cup qualification campaign. They are in deep trouble. They have stuttered v the Saudis, Japan and now China. They need bigger guns. Maybe Tim Tszyu and his family play football too? He can beat the best of the Japanese and their iron will.

8. Chinese Tennis. Horrific story re Peng Shuai, but hardly surprising after what has been seen with their swimmer, Sun Yang, as well. Hopefully she is OK, but dodgy emails and fake announcements are hard to cop. Imagine if we had the same in our sports? So many complaints about all sorts of matters and administrators (thinking recently: hockey, football, women's rugby league, etc)...for the understandable serious matters through to the disgruntled player, we'd have nowhere to put them all. 

Peter Nevill (100+ Shield appearances for NSW) was refreshing in not blaming anyone for his axing from the Australian cricket team. Not chirpy enough? Please... maybe he was what we needed all along.

9. Racism - Yorkshire Cricket. A huge story in England at present centres on the alleged comments by cricketers like Gary Ballance, Michael Vaughan, Matthew Hoggard...against English born Pakistani cricketer Azeem Rafiq and other Pakistani cricketers. The racist term 'Paki' is at the heart of it as are other arrogant comments. Parliamentary inquiries, sponsors leaving, denials, counter claims, etc. Vaughan is very outspoken on a number of issues and matters in cricket, but he has gone quieter too. Damage control big time here. Rafiq himself is grappling with his own anti-Semitic comments and comments to others that are surfacing now. A mess. 

Interestingly, the only shining light is Jason Gillespie who it was stated ended the racial comments and tensions in his short reign as coach at the Yorkshire Cricket Club. Bravo to him.

10. ManU. They are in disarray, losing to Watford of all teams overnight. They have to cut their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (and probably have by the time you read this), even though there are no real options out there. He has all the big names, but few big results.

11. Wallabies. A 0-3 European Tour, but to be fair they have looked better under Dave Rennie. What about the refereeing? Incredibly bad. Can anyone explain the deliberate knock down of a pass as foul play? Please. What a joke. But a loss and the pathetic nature of world rugby lives on. Hopeless referees getting in the way of great players. We put up with it annually in all tests in Australia. Interested to see Will Skelton and Slipper back. Like a scene from the Blues Brothers...Beale, Cooper has been there too... maybe there is longer term hope and a bit more spirit that it appeared.

The Wrap - NRL Signing Safaris - Scary But Nobody Cares

1. T20 World Cup Cricket. As exciting as the Auckland Nines, but a great effort to beat Pakistan and make the final. Who else to rescue us, but the most competitive two players on the team - Warner and Wade? Wade was incredible. Usually he is holing out meekly to mid on...this time he was ramping sixes everywhere. Now to play New Zealand. They are a clever team of talent. Their pace bowlers and batting delivers now more than when we tossed them in the 2015 ODI World Cup. It will be a struggle. Finch needs to do something or this is it for him. 

All the while Justin Langer is breathing again. Not a respirator in sight. Interesting his mantra has become 'back yourself' and 'be courageous'. He was always that cricketer himself. Yet he has always been a cranky man however too. 

Conversely, India should be ashamed of their meek exit. The IPL is meant to be the world benchmark, but it has sapped energy and spirit and resulted in a tame exit against the glorious victories v Scotland, Namibia and Afghanistan. A national embarrassment in many ways for their richly talented team. India should be world champions in all formats, every year, every tournament. Shastri to retire with much achieved. Dravid was never a T20 player.

2. Socceroos. We draw with Saudi Arabia and lose to Japan... maybe we are simply not that good? It has almost become a national expectation these days, when once upon a time it was unachievable. There is hope yet, but they need to string a few wins together now. Any slip ups against the lesser teams and we are finished.

3. Celtic - Ange Postocoglou. His wily ways are seeing more victories and successive wins, keeping the ever critical media and club fans at bay. There is no one in world sport with shorter patience than a football fan. Sitting second with a goal differential of +21. Impressive thus far.

4. NRL Signing Safaris. What a wasteful joke the interstate tours by Brandon Smith, Reed Mahoney and Junior Paulo seem to be. The pandering is incredible, but the game playing is interesting too. Like the African Lion Safari at Wallacia..."it's scary, but nobody cares!".

5. Parramatta. Signing Curtis Scott... of course. More baggage than Mascot. More tats than Angry Anderson and a rap sheet the length of a Saturday morning Woolies docket. Beware the one year contract. A nonsense devised by limited thinking, uncertain club executives for a desperate player. Yet they can't land the proper fish they need. Paulo, Mahoney...these guys should be locked in long term. Gutherson should sign soon or he won't have a club. Most clubs have their rosters firmed up now.

6. Tim Tszyu. An immense boxing talent, but we will see on Wednesday night if he can outlast his Japanese opponent, Takeshi Inoue. Tszyu is relentless and fit. Surely he wins.

7. Sheffield Shield. Some great performances thus far, but our batting is pretty dreadful really. Jhye Richardson is stepping up, Head, Green and Khawaja have scored runs...but many are flat. Boland's wickets send a strong message to selectors too, but he lacks a bit against the best batsmen.

8. Wallabies v England. Very occasionally you get to see something great...and it is not the Wallabies sadly. The Irish beating the All Blacks yet again is great news. However, with the Wallabies, what is the reverse of a European Grand Slam? A dud slam? They tried hard, had fun, are enjoying their footy...but lost!

9. Josh Hodgson. Surely the Tigers would be better off with Robbie Farah? They really struggle with their recruitment. Hopefully Sheens and Benji can transform them. Benji will be the coach before too long.

10. The Unvaccinated Sports Players. Personal choice, personal views for sure. Good luck to them. What is hard to believe is that players who refuse will not get a medical contraindication to prove their medical case. I wonder if COVID had a massive physical impairment like polio caused, whether you would have any unvaccinated folk in society at all and whether we would even be talking about it. Those working closely with animals and in the meat industry have been having vaccinations for ever. 

The Wrap - T20 Attitude

1. T20 World Cup. Dave Warner has looked horrible lately, going too square and not hitting down the ground. A common fault with age! His innings v the Windies though was exceptional. Under pressure and dominant. The number of reverse sweeps he can play is amazing. He is so talented, but nearing the end of course. Who will ever forget his ton before lunch at the SCG v Pakistan in 2017? He is a man you want in your corner.

Glenn Maxwell needs to produce something soon under pressure, but it is Aaron Finch who is the concern. Australia need to set a new team in place for the future after this carnival. Finch cannot be part of it. To make the semi finals is a top result really for Australia. Adam Zampa is quite the revelation now. Like a lot of leg spinners (Jim Higgs, Peter Sleep, Bob Holland), they get better with age.

If India make the semis, they will win the whole thing. They have not fired yet, but can.

2. Wallabies v Scotland tonight. The Aussies get themselves in a groove and then multiple team changes make club needs tower over national needs. Incredible. Play club rugby in Japan before the Wallabies? Surely a contract change needs to be made here!

3. EPL. ManU are under the pump. Man City are under the pump, but pumped ManU. They were once feared, but not anymore. The coach needs to go very soon. 

4. NRL. It didn't take long with Brad Arthur sounding our Curtis Scott for an outside back role. Parramatta are club that is hard to love for fans... their recruitment work seems glacial, but a few lads are getting the dollar signs in the eyes, rather than seeing their true value. You can't blame them for that. The Dolphins have unsettled quite a few. Regan Campbell-Gillard was a critical re-signing. As is Junior Paulo. Not so sure about Gutherson and his temperament - or price. Will he win a comp for you with his pace (or lack of it)?

Meanwhile the Roosters keep building and building. Brandon Smith would be a top signing. Without some of the top brass from recent years (Morris brothers, Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend...), they have space and money. Connor Watson could well be the buy of the year.

5. Sheffield Shield. It never ceases to amaze me how ineffective Nathan Lyon can be in the second innings of some games of cricket. The curator in him comes out. Talented and the best ever (although the recent passing of Ashley Mallett brought some interesting comments forward) but highly ineffective at times too. Also striking how weak batting is generally in all states. We could be in for a lean trot as a nation soon.

I wonder whether future generations will have the patience to wait around all day watching and playing cricket. 

Victoria have completely smashed NSW in all forms of cricket in 2021.

6. Verry Ellegant. Top win in the Melbourne Cup. How about James McDonald? 10 wins in the one carnival over two weeks. He may be seen at property auctions in coming weeks. He'll be the bloke with suitcases of cash! A top effort.

7. NFL. Tampa Bay Buccaneers are motoring along nicely again. 6-2 makes them well positioned for playoffs once more. No doubting the Brady effect. How the Patriots (4-4) must rue that one!

8. Formula 1. What about the greatness of Lewis Hamilton? 100 F1 wins! Incredible. A far cry from Andrea de Cesaris in 1981 who crashed 19 times in practice or competition! He led two races and NEVER won!