The Wrap - Bali Money

1. Cricket Australia. The complete absence of any form or derivative of cricket on Australia Day is a remarkable stuff up in the long history of stuff ups from CA. Hopefully the scheduling disasters, financial crap show and other nonsense will be addressed by Todd Greenberg, the new man in town. Fingers crossed. The European Cricket may be the only option!

2. AO Tennis. More injuries and questions have arisen over whether men should play three set matches to spare their bodies. Like the women’s draw. Madison Keys and Sinner were too good. Sinner now has three titles…both men’s finalists have sketchy integrity questions, but both made it and have some tremendous memories. Sinner looks like a younger leaner Djokovic, but needs to work on the personality. An awesome striker of the ball. Huge motor.

3. Novak Djokovic. An awesome record of 10 Australian Opens and 24 singles titles. Time may be up. Getting a bit cranky now… including media, his ‘poisoning’ and then injuries. A champion, but time may be up. Getting to the semi finals again is an extraordinary feat. 

4. Tottenham. Big month ahead. Their Sunday/ Monday night fixtures often end in misery - as it has overnight v Leicester City, 1-2. Ange is running out of excuses. This is an horrific loss. They have the second most goals in the season, but a dreadful defensive record. The January Transfer window needs to be open and profitable. Surely relegation is not an option! 

 Nottingham Forrest coming fourth but got dusted by Bournemouth 5-0. 

5. Australian Women’s Cricket. Completely dominant v England in their ODI-T20-Test v England for the Ashes. Their fielding and catching is brilliant! They have such a great pipeline of younger talent as well. It has been an impressive showing in this series.

6. Browned Off About Dylan Brown. Dylan Brown must be good at playing Monopoly - or an expert in the Bali rupee as a currency. His player manager is kidding. $1.2 million per season? Impossibly optimistic. Certainly not in the Nathan Cleary or Kaylen Ponga zone. Jason Ryles remains silent. Interesting. 

7. NFL. Bills v Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game and the Eagles v Commanders in the NFC game. Kansas City Chiefs v Eagles again for the Super Bowl? 

Kansas City have three wins in the past five years. 4 titles. The Eagles have one win all time (v Patriots). The business end of the season!

8. India v England T20. India have a completely new and different team and are 2-0 up. Crushing. Many decent English T20 players are with other world wide franchises!

Thunder v Hurricanes tonight will be tight, but the Hobart team are lining up for their first title and will be favourites.

9. Best NRL Club Coaches in Our Era. Are these the most successful (winning %, premierships) at each of the NRL clubs since 1980?

• Storm - Craig Bellamy
• Canberra - Tim Sheens
• Sharks - Shane Flanagan
• St George - Wayne Bennett
• Parramatta - Jack Gibson
• Manly - Bob Fulton
• Penrith - Ivan Cleary
• Brisbane - Wayne Bennett
• Newcastle - Malcolm Reilly
• Souths - Michael Maguire
• North Sydney - Peter Louis
• Canterbury - Warren Ryan
• Gold Coast - John Cartwright
• Warriors - Daniel Anderson
• Roosters - Trent Robinson
• North Queensland- Paul Green
• Wests Magpies - Roy Masters
• Wests Tigers - Tim Sheens. 

10. Neale Daniher. Awesome effort and fight by the former Essendon AFL Bomber against Motor Neurone Disease to become Australian of the Year. Incredible strength and resilience - and $100M+ raised!

The Wrap - Brats and Battlers

1. Our Most Disappointing Athlete Ever?. Talk about media exposure and drama. Injuries, coaches, social media posts, controversies, the lot. Honestly, what about some tennis from Nick Kygrios? He can play. Bundled out in the first round and then an absolute fiasco with his injured partner in the doubles. Then he threatens never to return which I am sure we will all cope with if it happens. Such a shame for one so talented. He is a Round 1-2-3 man in the Australian Open. His AO record is pretty ordinary for one so loud:

Compare this to Alex de Minaur. More class and character. Plenty of grit, steel and determination. A likeable Australian tennis champion. Kane Cornes, the ex AFL player, never holds back, but this was his assessment of Kygrios:

“I just feel we talk about this guy too much, I understand why, but he’s absolutely dominated the headlines in the last two-to-three weeks in the lead-up to the Australian Open. That’s not unusual, that happens, and we’re not going to hear the last of him. And despite him being our most disappointing Australian athlete ever, he will still have a role to play because people are interested in him.”

Who have been some of our most disappointing athletes across all sports was then raised. Supremely talented but never dominated as they should have...Shane Watson, Ben Simmons, Bernard Tomic, Jarryd Hayne, Brett Papworth, Raygun...

2. Tennis - Health. Tennis used to be a sport for the battler. Now it is the preserve of rich kids who at their worse, become spoilt brats. Take Danielle Collins. Retreating to privilege and elevating herself above others in a moment of vulnerability. Then smashed in the next round when a victory would have earned much respect. Now she can have her promised holiday. Sadly there will probably be a medical issue at the end of it with a mental health social media announcement in the next year or so and a sympathy story. The behaviour and choices of tennis players needs careful management. Mental health, physical health...a dangerous sport. They are a temperamental bunch. Djokovic sets the standard.

3. The Tennis Injury Excuse. With so much money involved in the game, it is rare a player simply says that the opponent was better than them and they lost fair and square. More and more bail out before the scheduled end, disrupting all and dudding the fans in the stadium. Has anyone ever bailed out when they were leading? Rather, there are medical timeouts, medical breaks, courtside treatments and medical excuses galore. The doctors and physios are busier than the SES.

4. BBL. The revolving door of T20 players is spinning madly on the eve of finals. No loyalty and no one cares. The player caravan moves on for more cash - and to our Test commitments in Sri Lanka (scheduling?). Who cares about franchise direction and loyalty? The Hobart Hurricanes are looking for a BBL series victory (first ever) but they need to play the Sixers who are surely the favourites again. What a high quality franchise they have been. 

For the Sydney Thunder to make the finals without Daniel Sams, is a minor miracle but the great Dave Warner still has it! The second top run scorer for the BBL season (346 runs) and a lot of it on that goat track at I Dream of Jeannie Stadium. He has such a stunning record in T20 worldwide. Cooper Connolly pipped him impressively for the yellow cap (351 runs).

Glenn Maxwell has been superb for the Stars who make the semis and could do anything from an 0-5 start. Big David from the Hurricanes is also said to be on the move for next season. Ah, loyalty...his team hasn't even played their semi final! So disruptive. The Sixers will crush them.

5. Womens Ashes Team Success. What a great team. Completely dominant. Reminds us of the male team of Ponting, McGrath, Warne, Waughs x 2, Hayden, Hussey, Gilchrist... A plethora of stars in Healy, Litchfield, Perry, Sutherland, Mooney, Gardner, McGrath et al. So talented.

6. Daniel Sanders - Dakar Rally. An awesome win! The second Aussie to win it since 2019. That is a super gruelling contest of skill, luck and hazards!

7. Dylan Brown. Brown is highly talented, but another of those who feels the grass is greener elsewhere. The player manager is a blessing and a curse. Interestingly, Jason Ryles has not made a song and dance about it at all. Pathetic initial contract negotiations and clauses firstly and now a player who has under performed looking elsewhere and not delivering for the club that backed him. Good luck to him but another underperforming sports star on a conveyor belt of such individuals.

8. EPL - Ange Postocoglou. The hearse has pulled up now. He needs EPL wins and fast. It starts with Everton then Leicester City next week. Patience with mid table superstar clubs is short. 

Conversely, Erling Haaland has just signed a 10 year deal for $26M a year... lucrative for the very best of players to stay at Man City for life.

9. NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs power on to another AFC championship game. The Super Bowl winner surely comes out of that side of the draw - Chiefs, Bills or Ravens. The Eagles in the NFC progress to the big decider...surely!

The Wrap - Nick Off

1. Australian Test Team to Sri Lanka. Some good signs that the selectors need new blood (and old). Smith's record as skipper is mightily impressive. Hoping for a more balanced approach from Konstas who can bat sensibly and powerfully and a team where the spin of Lyon leads us to victory. 

Kuhnemann is fortunate he switched to Tassie in the Shield this season and it has drawn benefits (beating Swepson to the airport). Webster is there to balance the team with his composure and Abbott looks a chance of debuting too. 

The great Sri Lankan, Rangana Herath and his left arm orthodox spin gives Cooper Connolly half a chance too. Connolly looks to be a special talent with bat, ball and in the field.

Is it time 'Australia A' played in the BBL as well? Our Australia A team back in 1994-95 was an enthralling team that played in the ODI series as you may recall. Many players then went on to dominate in Australian cricket for the next ten years (Ponting, Hayden, Langer, Lehmann, Merv Hughes). It laid a perfect platform:

2. BBL Warhorses. This past week has seen the great bats step up. Warner is now the leading run scorer with yet another 80+ score carrying his bat for the Thunder. Steve Smith set a mighty standard for the Sixers with 121no and Glenn Maxwell has lifted and has steered the Melbourne Stars to their current ladder position in the top four (at least for now). Amazing eye and hitting power. They have surged back into contention but need a top finish too.

The competition is forming up well for the only two teams who have never won it - the Hobart Hurricanes and the Melbourne Stars. Both are two of the leading teams. The Thunder seem to be imploding with two bad losses in the past week.

3. Australian Open Tennis. Nick Kygrios is hard work. Plenty to say, plenty to add in press conferences where he impersonates NBA players, but as Andy Roddick pointed out he has his own dark demons and worrying police record, so it may be a stretch to have Nick lecturing all the other players on the tour. If only he played, shut up and showed us all what he really has. Clinging to memories of victories over Nadal, Federer and Djokovic in satellite tour games wears a bit thin. One Grand Slam final (walkover v Nadal and a loss to Djokovic), it would be great to celebrate his skill and physical domination, without the mouth.

Did you know Djokovic beat Federer in every Grand Slam final they played bar one?

As always, lots of hype for the local Australian players and great Round 1, 2 or 3 exits await. de Minaur has a chance to shine. Making a semi would be an over achievement there.

Sabalenka looks too good for the women's singles title... even after the first round.

4. Tottenham. Scintillating win v Liverpool in the Carabao Cup this past week 1-0. Ange can beat the big guns and does so regularly. It is the minnows he struggles with and so tonight v Tamworth in the FA Cup will have the critics baying for blood if they do not win and win well.

5. NFL. The Ravens deliver and the Bills look good things as well. The Lions are the faves at this point.

6. A League. The Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers have been the disappointments in 2024-2025. Mid table and losing tight games...the same old story. They both need to start to surge now... or perish.

7. NBL. The South East Melbourne Phoenix have recovered from their disastrous table low start to the season and sit mid table now. The Kings need to tighten up now at 14-10. They can produce better than this!

The Wrap - Wholly Kholi

 1. Test Cricket. Riveting play in the past two tests. Great viewing and a top result. A funny series in that the bowlers kept both teams in the chase.

• 1. Jasprit Bumrah (IND) – 32 wickets
• 2. Pat Cummins (AUS) – 25 wickets
• 3. Scott Boland (AUS) – 21 wickets
• 4. Mohammed Siraj (IND) – 20 wickets
• 5. Mitchell Starc (AUS) – 18 wickets.

The batsmen were much more sparse for Australia...

• 1. Travis Head (AUS) – 448 runs
• 2. Yashasvi Jaiswal (IND) – 391 runs
• 3. Steve Smith (AUS) – 314 runs
• 4. Nitish Kumar Reddy (IND) – 298 runs
• 5. KL Rahul (IND) – 276 runs

2. Beau Webster. A Wrap favourite who we have been pushing for higher honours for three years now, has done us proud. Our man Beau (Repairs, Derek, Desert, Champion, Scott, Duke - and Slug) Webster was superb. He played conventionally and looked the most balanced and sensible on the ground. Top hands and a wicket too. A handy start which may consign Mitchell Marsh to the dustbin of test cricket now with Cameron Green returning soon. Dan Christian is also coming out of retirement. What a great cricketer...like Beau Webster, the latter of whom will prove to be very useful in England too.

3. Kohli. Behaved like a brat in the last two tests and such unnecessary behaviour. His batting has fallen off a cliff and he is Boland's bunny now. He strikes you as the spoiled child who has never had any boundaries and has never had people around him to keep him in line. The Indian press and fans are also to blame. Fancy mimicking Smith re 'sandpapergate' again. What a clown! Kohli will be sadly remembered as a bitter fellow of ability but who played with hate at times, rather than intensity, not poise and no grace.

People talk of the 'tough Australian tour'. Honestly, these players are spoiled to the point of low golf handicaps. It is a great lifestyle for coaches and players in all countries. 

4. Bumrah - Best Ever? In the heat of the moment, we forget some of the great bowlers who have dominated in our summers... Ambrose, Warne, McGrath, Rodney Hogg (41 Ashes wickets)...but the greatest of all was Richard Hadlee. He got 33 wickets in three tests in 1985-1986. 16 in the first test and 11 in the third test. Awesome. Also won the BMW in the International Cricketer of the Year award!

Was Travis Head unlucky not to be Man of the Series in a 3-1 winning team?

5. Records. 

• Steve Smith. Stranded in the nervous 9,990s. 9,999 Test runs.
• Scott Boland's bowling average of 17.67 is the best for any bowler with a minimum of 50 Test wickets to have debuted after World War I. It is also the second-best of any bowler to have debuted after 1900 with the same criteria. 

6. Umpire Joel Wilson. Some strong efforts as umpire to resist the Aussie appeals in Melbourne (over ruled by the third umpire on three occasions), then mysteriously he is appointed as third umpire in the final test. Strange influence exerted by some in the game so it seems. Overuled the Smith catch and then the most ridiculous decision to deny a run to Australia on the final day when an Indian fieldsman's dive clearly saw the ball in hand with ropes touched. 

He should be in the IPL as an umpire soon. He had the worst record of every elite ICC umpire in the world in 2024. One in three decisions are overturned! Unbelievable. ('Popgun' Reiffel needs to sharpen up too).

7. Ange Postocoglou. The Tottenham team has hit rock bottom. Ange is on borrowed time. Sad, but he has to understand he needs to be more brutal around transfer windows and twist owner arms so he is never caught short of personnel as he is now. He is defending his players like never before. The last bastion of support.

8. The Sentry. Season opening event in Hawaii. Hideki Matsuyama is leading in fine style, but a certain Cameron Davis is bearing down on him! Came 12th and picked up $410,000US. Handy, beating Cam Smith's bet ever PGA score of -34, with a -35!