1. Boris 'Boom Boom' Becker. He won Wimbledon when we were all at high school (most of us!) and when Boris was a name only heard in a spy movie or James Bond. A restaurant cupboard or two... three or four scandals later... imprisoned for bankruptcy and associated crimes. Hard to believe you can waste that much cash. Sad, but true. Into the colonel for a two year soujourn. He may need a bullet proof vest as well based on his outstanding dues. A sad demise.
2. NRL. Manly love a whinge, but the send off of Lawton on Friday night was unfortunate - and dangerous. As soon as a team loses a man, they lose the game these days. Interesting to see the Broncos climb off the canvas to beat the Sharks. A bad loss for the Sharks really and there is talk of Moylan heading to the Broncos... or Munster...or someone else....
2A. When will an NRL Draft come in (to hell with the Dennis Tutty and Terry Hill precedents)? You register to play with the NRL, you have a draft! Otherwise play somewhere else. They seem to be ignoring the emotion and journey of the footballer and the mileage that TV ratings and broadcast deals could bring. This is what builds club culture and dreams of players. Instead in the NRL, mums and dads wait around dusty grounds for a bloke in a jacket with a clipboard and say a few rosaries looking for an opportunity for their child.
3. Clearly Cleary. Cleary is easily the best player in the NRL. Amazing and has really worked on his strength too. He deserves his $1.2M per year because he wins games regularly. The Panthers' record over the past few years has been incredible. They simply don't lose at home either. Take note Brad Arthur.
Ivan Cleary is also leaping up the best winning percentage record of any NRL coach who has coached over 300 games now, despite his shocking start at the Warriors and Tigers. Into the top 10 best ever now. Adam O'Brien at Newcastle could be the first for the chopping block. Two 50 point losses in successive weeks. Terrible.
3. NRL - Parramatta. They are truly the great pretenders. They have some massive issues after being pounded by the Cowboys by 30 points. No top flight premiership contender loses by so many. When did the Storm last put in an effort like this?
The coach is coming under pressure with his 51% success rate. One week good/ one week bad is the history and is reflected in 2022. This is in addition to losing narrow games under pressure (Cronulla and Tigers in 2022 so far). The biggest current problems are:
- Lack of size or height in their wingers. Little small skinny blokes don't cut it anymore and are often bundled into touch effortlessly. Simonsen seems to have problems with his hands too. Sivo is missed here and a few injuries exist, but Sivo is basically big but too slow and will move on to rugby.
- Jacob Arthur needs to go back to NSW Cup, get faster and take the line on aggressively as a key playmaker (his defence has improved, but his kicking game has gone backwards) and the club must prioritise the buying of a useful fast centre. Penisini is outstanding. Dylan Brown and Mitchell Moses were forging a great combination in the halves and now Brown is in the centres in the face of injuries? This may be enough to see Brown leave the club and play at say Melbourne Storm who look like losing Munster. There was a weekend newspaper report that Jake has apparently already been offered to the Melbourne Storm (?).
- How Mahoney was ever lost to the club is unbelievable. He holds the joint together and they will suffer big time in season 2023. Sadly, Canberra's Josh Hodgson is a walking injury time bomb.
- Moses' leadership of the team around the ruck and play under pressure. Everything seems great when piling on the points against lesser teams. Moses is apparently on close to $1 million per year. A tough, but future focused call looms.
- Sign Will Penisini and Dylan Brown to long term deals urgently. Class acts both and tough.
- Ridiculous sets of multiple one off drives, a sweeping backline move left and then right across five tackles and then a towering bomb to end it. This is boring and predictable. Play a team that catches and you are done.
- Brad Arthur lacks imagination to encourage off loads and play more adhoc football. One off passing to Shaun Lane (who last passed the ball in 1990) does not cut it against the modern defensive patterns. Junior Paulo is a ball playing weapon but is currently stifled.
- Hard to believe the team arrived in Darwin on Wednesday and struggled under the heat so much, leaking points. However it was great to see Brad Arthur there with twenty five bottles of water in front of him.
- They have the Panthers (away) and the Sea Eagles and Roosters who are both smarting from recent losses, in coming weeks and may be in a lot of trouble. Their season could be about to slide massively.
4. AFL. West Coast are diabolical. Their effort on Friday night v Richmond was a disgrace, losing by over 100 points. A few injuries of course, but limp and terrible in front of their home crowd.
The form of Carlton is very promising after so many years of misery and the resurgence of Port in recent weeks is striking. St Kilda lost a bad narrow one there. Fremantle look strong in 2022 and even the GWS team suddenly looked like they could play. Impressed with Hawthorn this year. They have a little something extra in their tank after narrow losses to Sydney and Melbourne in recent weeks.
Swans v Brisbane was a cracker, but the Swans were exposed. Lots of inexperience under pressure and rushed decisions. Not enough pace either - still. Chad Warner and no one else pretty much. Buddy Franklin was sparkling!
A little unlucky too with some stupid video ref decisions.Honestly, the video ref is killing sport.
5. EPL. Man City keep doing the business to keep their one point advantage over Liverpool at the top of the table. Incredible tension at this time of the year with the drop zone too. Norwich City have been up and down into the EPL for many years, finally were relegated this weekend, stranded on 21 points (max. possible - 12 points) with 38 games played in the season. Norwich City are now the first team in the EPL to have been relegated SIX times.
Everton fans won't be too thrilled as they play Chelsea, Leicester, Arsenal and Brentford yet. They look doomed. Burnley have fought and struggled and are on an amazing recovery mission at present.
The impact of relegation runs into hundreds of millions of pounds potentially as sponsors fade away, TV revenues slide, match day impacts, attendance issues and fans get edgy with memberships. Players also don't have a wage reduction so they either leave to play top flight football or become a financial millstone in the struggle to return to the top of the league. Enthralling stuff.
6. Best Footballer In The World? Aussie Sam Kerr is it and has won the English sportswriters award for her 18 goals for Chelsea. Stunning and brilliant for Australia too whenever she has represented. Liverpool's Mohamed Saleh was the male footballer of the year. A dominant goal scoring whiz!
7. Waratahs. After plenty of questions, they delivered on Saturday night v a NZ team (when all other Australian teams lost to NZ teams). Playing at Leichhardt Oval they beat the all conquering Crusaders 24-21. Tight, but a win. The only thing more incredible was that there were over 10,000 fans there on the night!
8. Sydney Kings. One hell of a comeback sequence of winning results. League MVP Jaylen Adams has killed them since arriving. Another title does not seem far away.
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