1. NRL. Has anyone missed the interview dribble from NRL players in post game coverage? The producers at Channel 9 and Fox simply need to change and when the silly ban is lifted, transform the coverage (ideas: put up regular metres gained and tackles completed, etc... show updates!). League coverage has not changed in a million years. They need to watch the Kentucky Derby for real coverage. Take the fans into the stands and into the rooms and ignore players. Even Rex Mossop used to have the cameras at the rub down tables.
The biggest innovations in recent years since the "Action Replay" have been the camera behind the goal posts, the 'fake field advertising markings' and the corner post cameras. They need to update and minimise player chat. The pictures and data will be much better received.
The video ref is the biggest game change - and often a blight on the game. It has slowed down the game so much, but greater accuracy comes at this price.
2. NRL Table. The Cowboys hit five wins in a row and Newcastle keep looking good for about 60 minutes each week. They are not far away from the top eight. Put the engraver to work on the wooden spoons for the Wests Tigers. Bulldogs marginally better. If Mahoney gets injured, they will leak 50 points every week. The Dragsters are a complete disappointment.
The surge of the Cowboys will squeeze the Roosters out of the eight potentially.
3. AFL. Remarkably, the Swans, Gold Coast Suns and Carlton win in a single weekend. Disappointment for the Western Bulldogs who were pipped...without the troubled superstar, Bailey Smith. The effort of St Kilda was awful. Carlton led by 31 at three quarter time and pushed on to sensationally crush the fifteen game winning streak of Port Adelaide. The table takes on a completely different complexion.
Melbourne beating Brisbane by a point was helpful to a number of teams too.
Carlton could yet make the semi finals which would be a complete surprise and Collingwood may just about have sealed the minor premiership as they keep winning, this time against the hopeless/ hapless Fremantle.
4. The Ashes - Fourth Test. Hopefully our team can actually play cricket and abandon the ridiculous bouncer policy which basically cost them the win in Headingley. Outrageous stupidity and a complete lack of patience in the second innings when they could have won it there and then. Remember this silly tactic. Sometimes Cummins and McDonald stun you with the dopey moments (think sacking Head in India, negative field placings...). It seems as though Bazball has settled down now? A bit like the Y2K bug hysteria.
Dave Warner will be selected. Green is averaging less than Warner. He has hit 84 runs @21 average, taking 3 wickets @57 average. Boland will be rested however...ordinary really (2 wickets @ 115!).
Surely Harris and Renshaw are complete risks. Neither excite any confidence, even if Warner is a complete sacrifice. Dave needs to move his feet! I wonder if the plethora of national coaches have told him this?
Funny line by Kerry O'Keefe re the Bairstow stumping... "I never got out stumped in over 200 first class innings in the hard nose 70's. The popping crease was my safehouse. It was where I felt like Julian Assange in the Equadorian safe house".
5. T20 - MLB. Great to see the Major League T20 Cricket series kick off in the USA this weekend. The usual globetrotting faces and usual results...nothing you can or will ever remember.
6. Coach Justin Langer. He is back, joining the Lucknow Super Giants. They are an impatient newer franchise having come in the last two seasons. Langer will be under a lot of pressure, no risk. They came third in both seasons they have existed and just sacked their coach, Andy Flower!
The Australian Women's cricket team have also let England back into the picture, staring at an Ashes decider soon.
7. Women's Football World Cup. This week sees the Matildas in action in the Women's FIFA World Cup. How good is our team? Better than the men's one is certainly possible!
8. Golf - Scottish Open. Rory McIlroy has a chance to win and make a big statement, leading after three rounds. Will he collapse again? A remarkably consistent golfer however, missing two cuts all year (The Masters and TPC event). In six out of eleven 2023 events he has competed in, he has finished with top 10 finishes! This will be his seventh! On good terms with the bank manager.
9. Wimbledon - Men. As predicted (!) from a lean field really, Alcarez plays Djokovic tonight in the men's final.
Novak Djokovic is amazing. Unpopular, but amazing. His Grand Slam roll will keep going v Alcarez as he hits 24 Grand Slam titles tonight (equalling Federer's 8 Wimbledon wins, 10 Australian Opens, 3 French Opens and 3 US Opens). He moves two clear of the injured Rafa. Extraordinary!
This is already TWICE as many titles as Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver (11 each)!
This will be THREE TIMES as many as Agassi, Lendl, Connors and Rosewall (all on 8 titles) - and Newcombe, Willander and McEnroe (all on 7 titles).
Also, he will have FOUR TIMES as many titles as Edberg and Becker (6 titles).
These are outrageously impressive stats based on how good those other players were in their prime.
10. Wimbledon - Women. In the women's final, the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova (third Czech to win a Grand Slam) won her FIRST Grand Slam against Ons Jabeur in comfortable fashion, 6-4, 6-4. She is the first unseeded and lowest ranked player ever to win a women's Wimbledon final. Jabeur is in a unique club, joining Clijsters and Evert, in losing her first three Grand Slam finals!
The only two unseeded males to win Wimbledon will be remembered by us all... Boris Becker (1985) and Goran Ivanisovic (2001).
11. Harry Kane. If Ange Postocoglou can retain Kane at Tottenham, he will be sending a huge statement to the competition and to fans. The greed of English footballers however, is something else, so the chances are he departs. A pivotal moment in the coach's early progress.
12. Wallabies. I wonder who Eddie Jones will blame this time? Another journalist? His reign has started in the darkest of ways. What a schemozzle. Australia is an international also-ran now. Cheika, the Pumas coach, will be laughing loudly today! Rugby has fallen in a heap. "Come here and say it!".
13. All Blacks. Under Scott Robertson in 2024, the All Blacks will not lose a game. He is a top coach and that team just re-invents itself every year to be bigger and better. They are awesome in 2023 and will win the Rugby Championship again. The Springboks were not in the hunt and they whacked us. We are playing for the spoon. Engraver please...
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