The Wrap - Winners, Winners, Chicken Dinners

1. FIFA World Cup Victory v Tunisia. Tunisia's Game 1 draw v Denmark may have been the pivotal moment for Australia's hopes, but the truth of it is that the Socceroos won a really tough game 1-0 on Saturday night but will struggle v Denmark to make the Round of 16. We have never won two games at the football World Cup before.

It is our first win at the World Cup since way back when we beat Serbia 2-1 in South Africa in the World Cup of June 2010. Glorious to win a game at the World Cup however. It vindicates a lot of hard work and preparation and also gets away from the embarrassment of just an appearance and a straight sets exit - Qatar style.

Graham Arnold is still one of the best coaches in all sports in the country that is for sure. He is so centred and flourishes despite the heat applied by loud mouth ex-players especially. I can confirm that Mark Bosnich never played at a World Cup for Australia. The way he talks you would swear he played five like Ronaldo.

The World Cup of football is the premier World Cup across the world. It brings out the super stars and heavy weights all at once. Very exciting to watch - especially the second half with the run into full time. The game opens up massively.

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2. Wallabies. Finally a victory and an excellent win v Wales. How many tight games has this team either lost or won? Dave Rennie has coached Australia from 2020-2022 (34 Tests). In this time he has had 18 Tests decided by 5 points or less (8 losses and 7 wins). An incredible stat:

• Lost by 2 to France
• Lost by 2 to Scotland
• Lost by 1 to Wales
• Lost by 4 to England
• Lost by 2 to NZ
• Lost by 1 to France
• Lost by 1 to Italy
• Lost by 3 to Ireland
• Won by 2 v NZ
• Won by 2 v France
• Won by 3 v France
• Won by 2 v South Africa
• Won by 2 v England
• Won by 1 v Scotland
• Won by 5 v Wales
• Drew with NZ
• Drew with Argentina
• Drew with Argentina

3. Cricket. Justin Langer needed to remain quiet in the media, but could not. He is an intense fellow, but a winner. He does need to smile more often. Cricket Australia again can't do anything right and always seem to be playing catch up. Finally Ronnie McDonald and the hamburgulars have reason to smile with a mean nothing, do nothing ODI tournament won by them v England 3-0.

There is something not well with the fast bowlers in that team. Starc has been dropped and reinstated, barking back in the media; Hazelwood became captain for a game (please) and Cummins..we know about his world more now as he patches up soiled friendships and ex-player relations and comments on world energy issues.  That Alinta Energy bath did not help any of them. There is a need for renewal there too. 

4. WBBL. The Adelaide Strikers beat the Sydney Sixers in a bit of a canter, heralding the commencement of the BBL on 13 December. Will be interesting to see if the draft they instituted brings a jot of difference to the quality. They need to bring through new talent and should be mandated to play two rookies in every team. The women's version of BBL is more entertaining.

5. Cameron Smith. Killing it at Royal Queensland again (third Australian PGA title), but still not content. That is the sign of a legend in the making. High expectations of self first...then others. Sustaining the highest level of performance over time is the other challenge. Look at Adam Scott, Jason Day...great moments, but unsustainable. A three time winner of the Joe Kirkwood Cup. 

Who was Joe Kirkwood? Our first US PGA winner and a player who it is said hit 29 holes-in-one in his career! He also beat his age in a round of golf (62) at the age of 63. Legend...not a lot of major success - three fourths at the British Open and a third at the US PGA., but handy!

6. Australian Davis Cup Tennis. Into the final for the first time in quite a few years. Not a Kygrios or Tomic in sight which is a great thing. No place for ego in a team tournament. Alex de Minaur is a rising star (24th in the world) and led the team. Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson did the business in the reverse singles, but Purcell made a goose of himself swearing in the post-match interview. He will regret that ill discipline and needs to do better. First time since 2003 into the final. No surprise that Lleyton Hewitt is the captain. He is a winner through and through.

The Wrap - Dead Set Winners

1. NRL - World Cup Final. Kangaroos v Samoa - 30-10. A great game to get up to watch in the dead of the night! Cleary was strong, but Latrell was magnificent. So powerful. Junior Paulo was possibly the best on the ground. Luai and Crichton are talented too. To'o was a bit clumsy and disappointing. I think Australia were lucky not to play England it must be said. However, they got it done.

Imagine the NSW backline in Origin: Tedesco-Addo-Carr-Latrell-Wighton-To'o - Cleary. Throw in Turbo and Sualli... unbeatable if the coach picks the right team.

Mal Meninga is such a successful coach. 53% winning rate at the Raiders (125 games); 67% winning rate with QLD Origin (30 games) and 89% as Australian coach (18 games). Pretty impressive numbers. We will ignore the Titans record as coaching coordinator!

Australia incredibly were sitting at No. 4 in the world prior to this game...they are back at No. 1 fittingly.

2. Jillaroos. How powerful and skillful are these women? Awesome win. They are the All Blacks of the women's rugby league game. 54-4.

3. World Cup Cricket Final and ODIs v England. How good is Ben Stokes? He beat Pakistan on his own last Sunday in the T20 World Cup Final. Stokes will continue to win Ashes games for England. He has more and more in the tank. A dead set winner.

Pat Cummins is a good guy, but how many runs does he give up in T20 and ODIs? Incredible. He must be doing well for himself however resting in the ODI games (Hazelwood the skipper? Please...). Cummins has also bailed out of the IPL too. A few lazy million sacrificed there.

Plenty of other Aussies brushed from the IPL this time around. The BBL is not doing the business.

Australian cricket is on the nose in so many ways. A really poor cricket crowd at the SCG on Saturday too. No one wants to know them. Steve Smith looked much tighter with his technique and a happier man too.

4. FIFA World Cup. Starts this week. France, Denmark and Tunisia will make it a three game effort for the Socceroos. If we go further it will be an absolute miracle.

Get ready for fake injuries, stretchers, scandals and no beer. 

5. Wallabies. Another week and another tight loss. The team are almost getting used to it. Not good enough, no matter how many injuries or how many issues arising... no problem drop another 11 players next week and do it all again. Tick tock...tick tock...

At least Georgia didn't beat us...they beat Wales instead 13-12! NZ-England pa 25-25 draw! Cracker of a game.

6. Celtic v Sydney FC/ Everton. The ground looked a picture, but Celtic have come away with two losses... interesting reality check for the team leading the Scottish Premier League.

7. F1 - Red Bull. Daniel Riccardo comes back to F1 as the fiftieth choice driver at Red Bull. A shame his career has stalled. He is too good to keep quiet. 

Most wins and podium finishes ever by Australian F1 drivers? (Brabham - 14 wins/ 31 podium finishes); then Allan Jones (12 wins and 24 podium finishes), Mark Webber (9 wins 42 podiums) and Daniel Ricciardo (8 wins and 32 podiums). Ricciardo also holds the Australian record for most points won in F1.

The Wrap - Underdog Feeding Frenzy

1. World Cup Rugby League - England v Samoa. Samoa were brilliant underdogs - and so talented. That try where Luai passes to Junior Paulo who then gets it across to Stephen Crichton...awesome. Plenty of dry sunshine razzle dazzle rugby league which is a missing feature of the game these days. 

Not sure about the defence at times, but an exciting result for an island nation that beat the biggest of fish on their own turf. There needs to be more definition to heritage when selecting national teams, but players are petrified that they will not play Origin because of it. Our Origin rules have always been a mess. Thankfully quite a few players opted to represent their country...and to good effect.

This Jerome Luai is not liked by all, but he is such a leader and a winner. Hard not to like that.

2. World Cup Rugby League - NZ v Australia. An awesome standard of league with some great collisions and battles. Jack Wighton was tough. How he and the Fox missed Origin selection this year...please. They are big game players.

Perhaps Fittler himself is finished as coach when his judgement is so lacking. Australia lumbered a little in the game. When you shuffle and shift combinations you invite this. We certainly lack punch up the middle. Strong props are gold these days.

A slow tournament overall, but starting to hot up now. Two super high quality games.

3. Signings. Can Parramatta do a classic Parramatta and lose Dylan Brown to another club now? He should have been re-signed last year when he was a bit flat. He is a ten year signing at his age. Not sure clubs actually get it. He was superb for New Zealand. Letting players test their value on the open market tells you that the club is mismanaging it all - again. Reed Mahoney is a classic example. 

Moses is older and a different story. Where are the half backs with quick feet of the future (Jake Arthur is not that type of player to win you a comp and break open defensive lines)? Development of a half back academy might be a strong investment by an NRL Club. Imagine the premierships in time.

3. Wallabies - Dave Rennie. Time is ticking for Dave Rennie. Losing to Italy (first time ever?) is never good. He seems to panic at the selection table. Every one or two point loss (and haven't there been a million in the past two years), he changes eleven players around... then they lose again. I think his tenure is drawing to a close. He clearly has the worst coaching record in living memory and he has coached for a fair stretch now.

This table below doesn't take into account the Italy loss overnight. That included, allowing for the error in the maths below, his win/ loss % lands at: 37.5%

4. EPL. Great to see Man City knocked over at home by none others than the Brentford Bees. Who? A slashing underdog win. Everton are in a world of pain yet again, scoring less than one goal per game on average. They need to sign some strike players or they are gone.

5. Jeff Fenech. Interested to see the WBC retrospectively award him the world boxing title that he was robbed of in the early 1990s v Azumah Nelson. I wonder what else may follow this precedent in world sport. Parramatta getting a premiership when Melbourne cheated? All East Germans eliminated and legitimate Olympic winners awarded gold medals?

6. World Cups. Can we have any more? We have them in everything at the minute... womens, mens... from lacrosse to luge..basketball..the lot.

7. Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v England. The 1992 ODI World Cup Final and the great Wasim Akram is etched in our minds. I wonder who can step up for them this time? Babar Azam is talented. Watch for Shadab... signed by the Hobart Hurricances for the BBL. He is a superstar of T20 with bat and ball. If they can knock over Hales and Butler cheaply they are a huge chance.

Poor old Glenn Maxwell, tripped on a tennis court and broke his leg while running at night? We are told he was not intoxicated. Understandable. Nothing to see here. Cricket Australia can barely get anything right.

8. The FIFA World Cup - Football. Are Australia the Lebanon of the FIFA World Cup? Playing France, Denmark and Tunisia (they beat Mali to make the World Cup), we will struggle. Three games max. unless we get a miracle. Hopefully the air conditioning works at the stadiums. A great world wide - truly 'world' - cup.

The Matildas looked sharp v Sweden on the weekend. memo to self: a friendly is not a World Cup game.

The Wrap - Hunted and Beaten

1. Australian Cricket. Well that was great. A new softer culture and feathering the Finch nest...all for nil. We even dropped Starc in the final game (and nearly lost to Afghanistan) who can win a game on his own in his first two overs. It won't surprise that Andrew McDonald is a lovely bloke, but a cricket coach? He's a pushover for spoiled brats. No steel in that mob and quite frankly, most Australian cricket fans are (a) not surprised and (b) don't really care. They fell out of love with this team many moons ago. I fear that cricket is on the skids in all forms for Australia. We have too many older blokes and the younger guys are not impressing. 

In case you wondered who the Australian cricket coaches were meant to bring us to glory - Andrew McDonald, Clint McKay, Daniel Vettori, Michael Di Venuto, Sri Sriram and Andre Norovec. No wonder we lost. Honestly. A rabble.

Not as bad as South Africa who lost to Netherlands when a semi final spot was theirs to grab!

2. Wallabies. Has there been a team (since the Titans) who lose more close games than this lot? With every one point loss comes fifteen squad changes. I think Dave Rennie's reign needs to come to an abrupt full stop soon if he can't reverse this. It is a pattern now. A 39% win rate does little for your career too.

3. Celtic. Two wins on the bounce in the Scottish Premier League and they have secured their lead. The pressure is on Rangers who cannot afford a draw or loss.

4. World Series Baseball. The cheating Astros win again (v the Phillies). They are a despised franchise - mainly because they got found out when others had been doing it for years. Doing what? They used cameras in 2017 and 2018 to identify signs and signals from rival players...banging on drums to identify which pitch was coming. Amazing how their batting averages were so much better at home!

5. SBW. Knock out. Stunning hit by the Samoan Storm - Mark Hunt Memo: you should have taken up the Paul Gallen cash!

6. Rugby League World Cup. It is a great tour if you are not playing... a week of touring around before one game a week. New Zealand lucky, but England look very good this time around. I wonder how the Lebanon local league looks these days - or is it just a national team?

7. EPL. Leicester have bounced back. How hard is it for the newly promoted teams. They don't hang around long in the top flight. Money wins. Newcastle the early surprise... and Brighton. 35 points gets you out of the drop zone. Everton needs a rocket. A proud old club on the wane.