1. NRL. Well its official. Benji Marshall is the worst coach this year and if Trent Barrett had coached all year, he would be in the Grand Final with him. Both teams have legions of disappointed fans who can see no way forward. Divided camp, bad injuries, excuses and poor fitness and concentration. It is amazing to see professional sporting teams implode and become incapable of cohesion. They spend all week together and look like strangers for the only 80 minutes that matter. Expensive when they fail so badly too.
The Broncos look shot too. An inexplicable decline really. Katoni Staggs was superb. So was Moses Suli. Manly always look a 10 point better team at Brookvale. Imagine a decent stadium there... they would be unbeatable. The Knights? They have no attack without Gagai-Best-Ponga... a fair few withdrawls.
The NRL competition point pariahs come out in Origin time. St George-Illawarra are one of them, doing great business in season 2024. Lomax and Hunt are big losses.
2. Immortals. A thousand names lining up here... surely Norm Provan and Ron Coote need to be there. Cameron Smith one day, but as Wayne Bennett said, these are younger blokes who have lots of years ahead. The point that not one of the Canterbury or Parramatta legends from the 1980s is there is hard to fathom... Sterling, Price, Kenny... surely Sterlo would not be out of place. Two time Dally M winner as well. (Thurston won four Dally Ms).
3. AFL. Indoor stadiums are surely the way ahead. Melbourne v Essendon was a cracker in the comparatively drier MCG conditions, but not under the roof... Adelaide v St Kilda was awful in the wet. Melbourne looked sharp. They are on the way back. Collingwood (like the Brisbane Broncos) are a complete disappointment this year. The Swans bounced back and especially Logan McDonald. Nice to see his resilience. Carlton stumble inexplicably as the Western Bulldogs look like they are finals ready now...but Bailey Smith would make a huge difference there too. Freo also got the staggers v Hawthorn.
Interesting how consistency is the absolute true measure of high performance.
4. Wallabies v Wales. The ref allowed the play to flow, but do we want to watch box kicks end to end. We probably would prefer the kicking duel return. Some together defence and a more enterprising style - even in the pouring rain. Two wins for the new empire under Joe Schmidt. Schmidt looks like emulating his success with Ireland. The team look different under his leadership.
5. All Blacks v England. Cracking game, but coach Scott Robertson is an absolute gun. His Crusaders record (seven championships and 98 wins/ 115 games with two draws) is unparalleled. He is the best senior coach in any sport worldwide one suspects. And so it was v England again. Two Test victories in his reign already. No losses. Cue breakdancing!
6 .South Africa v Ireland. Another cracking international rugby fixture... back to back rugby of the highest level. 25-24 to the Irish in the last moments of the Test.
7. Wimbledon Finals. The women's Grand Slams are now so open since Serena left. It is a lottery each time. Swiatek would be kicking herself. The seeming no names in this year's Wimbledon women's finals - Krejcikova (adding to the long list of "-ovas" who have won Grand Slams) and Paolini from Italy - still entertain with much skill. The central European rise in tennis has been quite incredible in recent times.
8. Djokovic. Looking to equal Federer's record eight Wimbledon wins and eclipse Margaret Court's 25 Grand Slam wins. He is a legend, but still one of the most villainous and unpopular ones ever. Alcarez has never lost a Grand Slam final and will pick up the Channel Slam (French plus Wimbledon) if he can win. Coached by the great Juan Carlos Ferrero... a name from the past.
9. Euro Final - England v Spain. A chance for England to earn some serious silverware under Gareth Southgate. Southgate has done a good job juggling the egos. Why is it that we all suspect some catastrophe and some sob story that will explain why they lost?
10. Athletics - Jessica Hull. She has the highest pitched voice of any athlete in Paris, but also smashed the world 2000m. Not a common distance run by women in athletics, but 18 seconds faster than the Australian record. That seems simultaneously highly impressive, but incredibly strange. Hopefully just a product of the rarer distance and all legitimate. Beat her own PB in the 1500m earlier this month too. Amazing. A product of University of Oregon.
11. MLB Baseball - Travis Bazzana. An Oregon State University product, he will be announced as one of the top MLB draft picks tomorrow morning. This will net him $10M+ as he becomes one of Australia's top paid sportspeople. Ben Simmons ($60M - how?), Jordan Mailata ($33M) and Josh Green (19M) are ahead! Sam Kerr and Minjee Lee may have something to say about this soon. Ash Barty would have been up there as well.
Most importantly, Travis is a sensible young man whose focus and intensity is incredible... as are his manners and civility.
12. Olympics Fever from 26 July...coming soon! Looking forward to this excitement.
13. The Championships - British Golf Open. All on again next week! Adam Scott and Ludvig in fine form in the Scottish Open this weekend. it has been a time for Adam Scott, but he still looks super fit.
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