Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Wrap - Vegas Blue Rinse

1. Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. I thought this was for test cricket. Seemingly not... T20 as well. Mitch Marsh continues to hit the ball well. Surely Matthew Short is a better option that Steve Smith. We all love Steve Smith, but T20 is not his go. I hope he realises that soon too. 

For all our narrow losses in world cricket, we always seem to pip New Zealand. This time 3-0. Great cricket from Marsh, David and those fast bowlers. Hazelwood in particular. Zampa gets a lot of wickets - and can bowl tennis balls sometimes too. Warner hit them really well too.

2. Shoaib Bashir. Four wickets on Day 2 from a park bowler from Lindfield Shires - and an eventual 5 for. 31 overs straight. A super effort for England v India. At 2-1 down, England need to win this one. Result cricket in action. Joe Root bounced back when under incredible pressure, to hit his 31st Test ton... an incredible number really. 46 ahead on the first innings will not be enough. 200 looked ominous, but England will need to bat well. A characteristic visitors batting collapse looms.

3. Melbourne Rebels. They have the place in boxes and the curtains have also been taken down. The joint is in ruins. How they were ever allowed to play this year is staggering. TV contracts no doubt. This is a symbol of the game in Australia at present.

4. ODI Marsh Cup. NSW v WA. Typical poor batting from NSW brought them undone. Ollie Davies is a talent but 50 is a max. score for him. He needs to punch out some hundreds or perish. The work of Hilton Cartwright continues to be measured and sensible. He keeps his head well when others do not.

5. NRL - Las Vegas. Great to hear from Colin 'Funky' Miller re tips for staying safe in Las Vegas. Colouring your hair blue was not one of them. However, drugs, the drink and police trouble will not be far away. Leilua continues the off season goose tradition, keeping his DUI charge quiet. Again, a deduction of two points from his club(s) will deter most nonsense and repeat offenders.

6. NRL Trials. Did we learn anything new that we had not seen last week? There is some ordinary play it must be said. There was also some unbearable footy to watch. Bring on the real deal.

How very generous of the NRL offering a $100,000 prize to the preseason 'winners' in the same week they announced another property acquisition and a $130M profit. You can win more prizemoney at an average race at Randwick. V'landys knows this better than anyone.

7. World Club Challenge. Some sort of trial game with St Helens winning on the back of some terrible local English refereeing. The penalty call against Liam Martin for a 1:1 strip was appalling at a critical time. The tries with 'no try' and 'try' calls upstairs were impossible to make in either case. There were some huge hits. Penrith need one more big bopper for mine. Centres were sound with no Stephen Crichton, but they lack a bit of size. Moses Leota is an unbelievable talent.

8. Matildas. A big 3-0 win v Uzbekistan. Some good moments, but one attraction of the women's game is how flawed it is. 'Real' soccer basically that allows for flair and for entertainment.

9. EPL. Fulham beating ManU was a terrible result for the brand new ManU owners. The top four are stretching out now. Ange must win tonight to stay within striking distance. Aston Villa have been outstanding in season 2023-2024.

10. Waratahs... a longer season than even two weeks ago looms.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

The Wrap - Sutherland Till I Die

1. NRL Trials. Lots of fringe players and emerging stars, but let's be honest. Very hot, but Parramatta, Bulldogs, Wigers, Dragons, Cowboys and a few others are not winning it. Unfortunately, it is that clear despite one half game. Broncos will be hard to beat in 2024. How many super stars have they got? Haas, Walsh, Mam, Carrigan... there's a flexi cap somewhere there.

The Cronulla Sutherland Sharks will be there or thereabouts. Enough seen in their depth stakes.

2. NRL Las Vegas. Has it ever been busier at the US VISA and Immigration Centre? It has been hectic down there. The finger print machine has apparently run out of ink. 

3. NRL - Biff. Only last week we mentioned that there had not been any NRL off season tom foolery and then Reynolds and Carrigan wrestle and carry on. Hexed. This is how dumb injuries occur. Always a dreadful look. (Ask the Sydney Swans #14, C. Mills). We have been saying it for some time now, dock them 4 competition points for these types of misdemeanours and these matters stop instantly.

Interesting to see players remarking on Brad Arthur smiling in 2024. He last smiled when Ray Price did.

4. Tottenham. A bad loss to Wolves 2-1. Ange has struggled to effectively deflect the Liverpool coaching rumours. Man City stutter, but Aston Villa and Arsenal power on.

5. New Zealand Cricket - Kane Williamson. What a legend batsman of the game now. A few cheap centuries v South Africa, who were young, inexperienced and improving, but 32 Test centuries is 32 Test centuries in 98 Tests. Alistair Cook is on 33 tons and beating 34 tons is the amazing mark shared by Gavaskar, Jayawardene, Lara, Younis Khan. He is averaging over 55 as well.

6. Indian Cricket - Yashasvi Jaiswal. An incredible start to his Test career by the Indian opener. Talk about taking his opportunities. 13 Test innings for 2 x 50s, 3 x tons and 2 x 200! Peeling them off for fun. He has scored something like 50 centuries in the past two years in all forms. 625 runs in the 2023 IPL as well.

7. Alex De Minaur. Into the final of the Rotterdam Open. He plays Sinner who should wipe him, but Di Minaur still looks top ten material. he is ranked 11th at present.

8. Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs have an amazing recent record with their win this week. They have now made the Super Bowl 6 times. In recent years since 2020, they have won 3 Vince Lombardi trophies and were runners up in another. The last two have been won by three points too!

The New England Patriots head them all on 11 Super Bowl appearances, before the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers (8 appearances).

9. Sheffield Shield. Will Pucovski hits a ton v NSW (with Handscomb and Madinson). Those old NSW bowlers don't like the heat. Lyon picked up five wickets. Renshaw another double failure (8, 14). Caleb Jewell hit a double ton. He's a handy left handed bat who could step up instead!

10. Sutherland Till I Die. Annabel hits a double hundred with five wickets for the Australian Womens Cricket team. Will, her brother made his Australian T20 debut last week and then gets five wickets for Victoria v NSW. Talented family. Father James was a useful seamer and administrator too.

11. Sunderland FC? Back in the Championship (second tier) this 2023-2024 season - coming 10th. A bit of improved fodder for Netflix!

Sunday, February 11, 2024

The Wrap - Enhanced Performers

1. ODI Cricket and T20 Cricket. Good to see a few new names and faces (Matt Short, Spencer Johnson, Ben McDermott, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Xavier Bartlett...) hovering around, but we are still a little soft in the batting department. Too many all rounders can hurt as well. Tim David looks like he is lifting his game while the 'Big Show' was shining brightly tonight! A great batting deck.

The biggest news in cricket this week was the twin centuries by Kane Williamson v South Africa (an embarrassment to all who have gone before them). He gets into the 30+ Test century club now. An awesome achievement.

Looking forward to seeing India v England. True to form, India love dropping the first test of the series before powering home and winning the series. Jadeja looks to be back this test after missing the last one. Ominous. They need sharper bowlers to trouble India - maybe one more batsman and Root bowls more. Jimmy Anderson must be one of them too. Stokes needs to roll the arm over too. He is a match winner.

2. The Enhanced Games. Bring out the needles and drugs and go for it with no drug testing limits. Ben Johnson and others like Marion Jones may make comebacks. Commentators at least. Lance Armstrong will be commentating on the cycling. Can't wait to see Graham Olling open it with Sam Riley carrying our flag once Nathan Baguley delivers it by canoe (customs in tow). Alex Watson will be serving the coffee upon arrival. What could go wrong?

3. Phoenix Open (Scottsdale, Arizona). Those Yanks sure know how to hold their drink. What a spectacle for those spotted by their bosses on TV living it up on the 16th hole! Diving into bunkers, getting their kits off. Messy, but hey, LIV golf took the cake in South Australia of course. preparing for the long awaited PGA-LIV peace accord.

4. Rugby League Trials. Surely these should be banned. The injury tolls will mount soon. The good news though is that the season is not far away now. Barely a player discipline issue in sight.... yet. All trials will be televised too. Penrith will be smarting after losing the World Club Challenge last year. I can't see them losing it this year.

5. NRL - Bulldogs. Surely amidst all the shuffling of the chairs on the Titanic, the matter with the aggrieved player who didn't like the wrestling punishment at training would have been finalised. Honestly, talk about a distraction... and weak leadership by Gus and others. The pressure is firmly on Cameron Ciraldo. Will he meet Trent Barrett's career path?

6. Ange and Tottenham. An exciting end to their tussle with Brighton. A 2-1 win, but they will need to be tighter in defence. Brighton could well have scored 3 goals! The excitement in their crowds this year is unbelievable. So attacking! Son (12 goals) and Richarlison (10 goals) have been dynamite. That man Erling Haaland scored two goals in Man City's win over Everton. He's back on top of the EPL with 16 goals after missing about six weeks! Incredible.

7. Six Nations. Wales bit the dust again in a tight loss to England. A bad start to the tournament.

8. Rugby. The Tahs were down 29-0 at half time v the Reds (who are coached by the legendary Les Kiss), before losing. No shock. The Brumbies did enough to win - as they always do. A long season ahead for the Tahs.

9. U/19 Cricket World Cup Final (India v Australia) 2024. Here are the final two teams. How many legends will emerge in time from here...

Squads

India U19 Squad: Adarsh Singh, Arshin Kulkarni, Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan(c), Priyanshu Moliya, Sachin Dhas, Aravelly Avanish(w), Murugan Abhishek, Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari, Saumy Pandey, Aaradhya Shukla, Ansh Gosai, Dhanush Gowda, Rudra Patel, Prem Devkar, Mohamed Amaan, Innesh Mahajan

Australia U19 Squad: Harry Dixon, Sam Konstas, Hugh Weibgen(c), Harjas Singh, Ryan Hicks(w), Oliver Peake, Tom Campbell, Raf MacMilllan, Tom Straker, Mahli Beardman, Callum Vidler, Lachlan Aitken, Charlie Anderson, Harkirat Bajwa, Corey Wasley, Aidan O Connor

10. Cameron Myers. Sounds like a gun in the making. Beat an Australian 1988 record for 1500m held by the great Pat Scammell. 3:34:55 is good going for a seventeen year old!  

Sunday, February 4, 2024

The Wrap - Rocky Road Ahead

1. Australian Cricket. How great a summer and recent run has it truly been? We win the Test Championship v India (huge win), we draw the Ashes and are lucky with the weather in the final game at Manchester. We beat Pakistan when there were times they could have really pressured us. We draw 1-1 with the Windies. In between a crushing win v India in the ODI World Cup was truly amazing.

The upcoming New Zealand trip will show us where we truly sit. It could be a local carve up, especially if seaming decks are the order of the day.

The constant in it all is that our batting has been extremely dodgy. Marnus has hit rock bottom, Smith musters a good 38 most times these days with his head shaking and amazed looks (except the last test 91no v Windies), our openers are hot (Khawaja) and cold (the rest) and any team with the flair, brilliance and mystifying stupidity of Green - M. Marsh - Carey is going to frustrate the life out of you. Each of these three need to turn into hard nosed Test cricketers and fast. Despite winning a World ICC Test XI gong (shake your head in unison) or massive IPL contracts - or even the AB Medal, they are inconsistent and troubling.

Only the bowlers have stayed steadfast (a long and lonely summer of inaction for Scott Boland and young 'Wild Thing' Morris, it must be said). Starc, Cummins have been superb and Hazelwood rediscovered his wicket taking ability. Lyon takes wickets, but his inability to find pitches in Australia that turn must be frustrating. Ripping through teams in the fourth innings was quite synonymous with a turning SCG deck. How soon we forget. 

At least we are seeing the rise of a few Australian U/19 bats that look promising... Sam Konstas, Harry Dixon and Hugh Weibgen. As silly as it sounds, those who excel here in this tournament have a wonderful world wide track record of excellence in international cricket (in time)... Morgan, Azam...

2. India v England Test Cricket Series. A great story of young Shoaib Bashir, who was selected to play in the current Test after playing Lindfield Shires this time last year. 3/138 off 38 overs was a good start. Better than Warnie in his first Test! He picked up Rohit Sharma, Axar and Kumar - all caught. Took a catch and hit an 8no in his first bat. Solid start.

The Bumrah yorker is as lethal as it ever was! Ollie Pope found out. How often do India lose the first Test of a series and win the series after that. No Kholi is making a difference to their confidence and composure. Another double centurion - Yaiswal. Incredible production lines. Maybe a few of these talented bats may move to Australia to live!

3. Shield Cricket. Jackson Bird (37 years old) and Chris Tremain (32 years old) opening the bowling for the NSW Sheffield Shield team which also has Moises Henriques (37 years old) in it? It could be time for a youth policy, but Moises could actually be our best bat? Olly Davies and Jack Edwards both need to learn how to play four day cricket.

Renshaw did a great job scoring 2 runs for Qld in BOTH innings (4 total) How this guy is in front of Marcus Harris is beyond me. Ben McDermott would be a good inclusion in an Australian team... and our old mates Beau Webster, Aaron Hardie and Spencer Johnson. Jake Fraser-McGurk is a talent, but marching up the pitch in the first over of a 50 over game seems a little extreme. He needs to know he is playing as part of a team.

4. F1 - Ferrari. Huge news that Sir Lewis Hamilton is going to Ferrari from next year (2025). The stocks in Ferrari have gone up massively. His $100M pay packet is dwarfed by this. His record is truly immense. He stands to move to the most successful driver in F1 of all time with one more amazing year. He is currently on the same number of World Drivers Championships wins as Michael Schumacher (7 each).

A huge week for Italy, with Jannik Sinner winning the Australian Open, his first Grand Slam.

5. ODIs. Australia has had a great run post ODI World Cup. The Windies could not aim up with the ball moving off the surface in Game 1. Smith and Green combining for a middle order partnership of substance for an Australian cricket team was a little unique! In Game 2 the usual inconsistency returned on a tricky deck. Green gives his wicket away so often. Can look like a million dollars and then a million rupees.

6. Ange. A bad result this weekend for Tottenham 2-2 to Everton away, but you have to hand it to Everton. Deducted 10 points for financial anomalies, yet they keep hanging in there. Tenacious! They may have more bad news ahead. It is incredible how Ange gets the very best out of his team. Richarlison could barely score a goal...now he has 9 or 10 this season! The Asian Cup should see Son return very soon too. They miss him up front!

7. Socceroos. In the media, "heartbreak" is a common word used with this team. We always seem to be doing OK and then fall in a heap in our tournament, but remembering we are really playing up to or a little beyond our FIFA world ranking. Some careless defending and a fastidious referee. Bad combination. We had our chances!

8. Top Eight - NRL Trials. A month away now. Players are training the house down, never looked better, what not be out of place in an Origin jersey... ya, ya, ya. Local media outlets (formerly local newspapers) will have the photographer out at training sessions getting the new recruits to promise big for their club. 

Hard to see too much change. Likely top eight: Broncos, Panthers, Storm, Roosters, Cronulla, Cowboys, Warriors, Souths and one of the marginal: Raiders, Knights, Dolphins, Eels, Manly, Titans. No hope: Wigers, Dragons, Bulldogs.

9. Waratahs. Lost a trial to the Melbourne Rebels (without a cause?) on the weekend by a fair bit. Another long season ahead in the shadows of North Sydney oval with the other 1,000 remaining NSW Rugby fans. Back to Concord Oval?

10. Six Nations Rugby. Scotland upset Wales and England hang on v Italy. The Irish looked sharp.

11. SuperBowl. The San Francisco 49ers v Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes are red hot favourites. They have the weekend off ahead of the hoopla of this week. A huge event, made bigger by the Taylor Swift romance connection.

12. Rocky. Carl Weathers aka "Apollo Creed" in Rocky passed away this week...