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...
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