The Wrap - Climbing the Pyramid of Football

1. Socceroos. Is the World Cup the most unifying thing we have seen for a long time in Australian sport (since the last Football World Cup or Sydney Olympics)? You have to admire the passion and commitment of the fans! The funny thing is we know we are ordinary, but knocking over South American and European teams is exciting. Australia v Egypt will be interesting. Mo Saleh will be the difference, so we will need to watch him. Hopefully we can be more attacking! Two goals in three games won't win it! A goal may be enough to conquer the pyramids of Egypt!

2. NRL. The Dolphins are warming up for a sensational semi final appearance. No Wayne Bennett legacy  impact. Classy, speedy and tough. What a lesson in recruitment that club is! Hard nosed forwards and speed. The Cowboys, Roosters and Knights all won tough arm wrestles!

Jason Taumalolo 300 games! Awesome. Not many players in the game at present over 300 games. Only Cherry-Evans (367), Ben Hunt who signed on for an extra season in 2027 (366), Josh Papali'i (334), Dane Gagai (328) and Adam Reynolds (320) are over 300 games. A rare club. Cameron Smith leads on 430 games. When will he be announced as an immortal? An incredible player.

The weekend told us a few things: Api needs to start. Ethan Strange needs to start. To'o may struggle to be picked. Bradman Best is a top shelf Origin player. Tedesco-Edwards is the toss of a coin. Olakau'atu is a must. He crushed the Storm early at Brookvale Oval. How he was dropped is staggering. Latrell will be missed but Crichton is an incredible leader and talent. Murray must start as well... Unfortunately Turbo looked like he needed leg surgery...so slow.

POSSIBLE WINNING NSW ORIGIN III TEAM:

• James Tedesco 
• Mark Nawaqanitawase
• Stephen Crichton
• Bradman Best
• Tolutau Koula
• Ethan Strange
• Nathan Cleary
• Payne Haas
• Api Korisau
• Isaiah Yeo
• Haumole Olakau'atu 
• Hudson Young
• Cameron Murray

It will be interesting to see if Laurie Daley sticks with some less exciting options (Moses, To'o, Staggs, Brailey, Robson...). His coaching career could come to an end very soon otherwise.

3. AFL. The Swans... the Swans...What to make of them? That game v Brisbane reminded us all of that horrible 2024 Grand Final effort. There is a softer underbelly there sometimes, even if the season has been very positive for them so far. Gulden's return was most welcomed! Freo continue to shine... hard, dry tracks help their style. Dominant users of the football. Hawthorn and the Cats are hovering, but it is the Brisbane Lions that impressed most this weekend...and six straight wins for Carlton!

4. England v New Zealand Test Cricket. As soon as that sun comes out in England, the game changes. This pitch is an absolute road, but overcast conditions can change the whole Test. Series locked at 1-1. A top opening stand of 317 by Tom Latham (151) and Devon Conway (157). Ben Duckett (113) scored his first ton for a long time. 7 Test tons, but 16x 50s. Lots of starts, but not many finishes for an opening Test match batsman. New Zealand are zooming in on a 2-1 Test series victory. Lots of tight bowling and loose English batting at key moments. Harry Brook is incredibly talented, but thoughtless and slap dash at bad times.

5.T20 Cricket - Ireland v India. A remarkable T20 victory for Ireland v India. Like a Shakespearean play...arrogance is the fatal flaw. Playing the IPL Orange cap winner (most runs), 15 year old, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, would be a great start. He is a superstar.

6. FI- Austrian GP. Can Piastri upset Antonelli? Probably not from seventh spot on the grid. Lewis Hamilton is the surprise packet for Ferrari. McLaren are eating plenty of humble pie this season, sitting a distant third place so far. The Ferraris look sharpest.

7. Wimbledon. It all starts on Monday. Serena Williams is back in the first round as well (last played in 2022) v Australia's Maya Joint. She has lost so many games this year, Serena is a huge chance in Round 1. In the Wimbledon lead up tournament at Queens, Alex de Minaur gets dumped out in the quarter finals. Top 8 again is his limit.

8. USPGA Golf. At the Travellers, Scottie Scheffler shot 60 to led at16 under after two rounds, but Viktor Hovland  has put pressure on him at -20 after three rounds. Incredible golf. A scintillating final round ahead.

The Wrap - Parra Guy

1. World Cup - Socceroos. The World Cup of Football is the greatest show on earth. A brilliant win v Turkey last week, but a dreadful start v USA for the Socceroos. How good would a goal or two v USA have been? Harry Souttar's air swing in front of goal didn't help. However coach Popovic has a few tricks up his sleeve. Sometimes it seems like he may be outwitting himself! Turkey have been stuffed and basted and Australia needs points v Paraguay on Friday. We need to play with more freedom and attack on Friday! Hopefully we can do the business. Any team with 'parra' in it, is able to be beaten.

2. US Open Golf. Shinnecock Hills is not close to anything much in Long Island. It is a tricky course, but not close to the quality of the Masters either (what is?)! Brutal at times and has so few players hitting under par. In fact only five after three rounds. It is also very hard to get there, so the crowds are not great. The US Open has always struggled. 

Xander Shauffele is always there, so it seems is Morikawa and the Fitzpatricks have made a strong collective name for themselves. Scottie Scheffler is always hovering and sits second after three rounds in pursuit of his golfing major Grand Slam! Wyndham Clark has nailed the course (64 was super impressive in the first round, then 69... awesome golf), but a few slip ups and it is anyone's to win. 

Adam Scott's 100th consecutive Major (incredible) ended badly for him and all the other Australians. Min Woo, Cam Smith and an injured Jason Day did not trouble the leader board and in fact were on a plane home soon after (MTC) - or at the victory parade of the New York Knicks!

It is Wyndham Clark's to lose from here...surely he can't lose from there. Wyndham will be destroying more than locker rooms if he loses from here. His win in the Byron Nelson positions him well for the final round pressure. The 2023 US Open winner stands to equal Greg Norman on two major wins if he can hold on.

3. NRL. State of Origin. Why was it so predictable for NSW? We just seemed so unlikely to win all week. There needs to be changes and Latrell and Stephen Crichton could come in immediately and excel. Crichton is a sensational player. Strange needs to play and Cameron Murray needs more minutes. Has Laurie Daley lost it? Api might think so.

Todd Payten gets two more years as Cowboys coach which is a massive comeback from earlier this year when the critics had the door to the crematorium open for his career.

Manly were horrible in the last few minutes v the Bulldogs and probably deserved to lose. Crichton's boot was better than Garrick's and it was the difference with a field goal as well. He will be welcomed back into the NSW team ASAP! A punish of a game to watch however. 

The Dolphins surge on yet again and the curse of Wayne has been defeated by a team that looks better than when he coached them! Benji's Tigers were sadly at their mediocre best. The Storm are back too! With a bye in hand they are one win outside the eight!

4. Australia v Bangladesh ODI and T20 Series. A thumping for us in the ODI series, but the T20 has seen a few flourish. Cooper Connolly's 149 in the final ODI win was extraordinary. Matt Renshaw in particular - three wickets in two T20s and 89no in the last one!

5. Test Cricket - England v New Zealand. Without Stokes, England look vulnerable. New Zealand conditions are very similar to English conditions and it is an even context. Matt Henry has 146 wickets in 35 tests at 26.92 which is good going! Ravi Rachindra averages 47.68 after 23 tests (5 tons) while Henry Nicholls has 11 Test tons at 40.00 after 59 Tests. A couple of great young stars. Joe Root keeps shining at home especially. He is what stands between victory and a draw for New Zealand.

6. NHL. The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Las Vegas Knights to win the much treasured Stanley Cup. A phenomenal competition. Brutal.

7. Super Rugby Final. In case you were wondering... 357 points scored in the final series and the Hurricanes beat the Chiefs 60-5 in the Grand Final! Embarrassing. The competition needs a reboot. We are further behind now than we were 12 months ago.

8. MLB. Travis Bazzana is stamping his class at the Cleveland Guardians, averaging .260 after 45 games. He hit two home runs this morning v the Astros from a pitcher who had not given up a home run to a left hander all season after 146 plate appearances. Travis hit him out of the park with the first pitch of the game! Sixth and seventh MLB Home Run! He is a terrific talent, possibly in the best clutch of MLB players this season! Keep an eye out for him. Played for Ryde and lives at Turramurra. Awesome story.

The Wrap - Wild Turkey and Choke

1. World Cup - Socceroos. It is the biggest sporting event in the world, edging out the Olympics! Playing Turkey (when did their new pronunciation arrive?), we were rank underdogs and almost to script one of their bigger mouthed players told the world how we were going to be crushed. Oops! Our defence was great. Rock solid and it drew Turkey into a different style of play. We capitalised beautifully on some half chances. 2-0 is pretty spectacular for the first game in the World Cup. The crowd from Australia was immense really! Great support and a wonderful moment in sport. 

The chequebooks will be opening for our goalkeeper, young Patrick Beach. How good?

2. NRL. The bye is really playing havoc with the comp. The Roosters were towelled up with seven players missing. Cronulla v Warriors was a punish to watch, but an exciting end. The superstars make a big difference. A solid win by the Eels too. Inching away from the spoon.

The Dolphins conversely are highly entertaining. Nikorima is such a talent. Pace and intuition. They are reversing the Wayne Bennett curse.

Is it an optical illusion or is the Warriors home ground short of a few lights? So many shadows. Looks like the old WD&HO Wills Craven Mild Cup at Henson Park.

Wade Egan's carry on luggage must be getting expensive after again missing out for Origin. There must be something wrong with the way NSW players train for Origin too. So many injuries in the camp. Moses, Mitchell, now Maclean and others over time. What amateur hour antics are they up to? It sometimes seems like Laurie Daley is out of touch. Bring back Madge. He might need another gig soon. He has a short term player tolerance level only. The Broncos have turned up their toes now. Terrible.

Tigers v Titans was hardly the match of the round either, but entertaining. Three tries for Luai... he is a smart businessman! The Tigers start to regather some ground, but the defence of both teams was hardly premiership material. Leichhardt Oval now retires as the Latcham Robinson Stand gets renovated.

Origin II this week. Can't wait! Hopefully Ashley Klein goes well. Dreadful addiction news for his family. We need to support the guy, unlike many in the media.

3. AFL. If the NRL was not limited enough, the AFL had a bye weekend this weekend too...West Coast v North Melbourne was torturous. A distinct lack of skill and errors galore. Harley Reid is wasted at West Coast. The Swans v Port Adelaide was better, but the Swans seem obsessed with fancy handball play when a smart kick and more marks (!) would be better. Too much finesse and cute stuff as they win their fourth game by less than 10 points this past month. St Kilda looked really good last week v Swans and were equally impressive v the GWS Giants. A great win.

4. ODI Cricket v Bangladesh. It seems to the outsider that no one really cares much anymore about any coloured clothes cricket. World Cup or the Arjuna Ranatunga Cup. We were crushed to be fair. Short, Marnus and Connolly have not furthered their chances. There is no dominant batsman and outside of Steve Smith, we have not had a dominant and consistent batsman in the last ten years. Certainly no one consistently good (eg. Travis Head, Cameron Green).

Ben Stokes is on the brink. He loves the biff. A matchwinner, but he has a huge T20 worldwide circuit ahead of him. The crowds love him, but the drinkers do not.

5. NBA. The New York Knicks have won the NBA after a 4-1 Game 4 v San Antonio. Again a final quarter comeback made it work and they won the first time since 1973. Their 53 year drought makes Parramatta's premiership drought look sick.

6. NHL. The Carolina Hurricanes are up 3-2 as well. Poised for victory coming back from 1-2. Game 4 tomorrow morning our time.

7. PGA Canadian Open. Pre US Open and largely uneventful... a fair distance for many to travel, so not the strongest of fields. Looking to put this tournament behind us and see the real stuff soon at Shinnecock Hills. Interesting to see one key name who MTC: Justin Rose. Must have had an early flight. 

8. The Grass Court Tennis Season. Hopefully a better Wimbledon and lead up than what we saw at the French Open. Nottingham, Queens and Eastbourne.... Time is running out for Alex de Minaur.

9. Matty and Volk at the White House. Incredible they would let Matty Johns near the thing. Must say that a few lads played cricket on the lawn of the Capitol Building in 1990. No fences back then, but photos to prove it. Big 80th celebrations for the USA.

10. Super Rugby. Chiefs beat Crusaders 49-12. Dominant. The Hurricanes whacked the Blues 57-21 too for a Chiefs v Hurricanes final. The defence has got worse and worse. Two semi final wins by almost 50 points! The competition has problems. The sadness is most Australians would not even know about it all. No breakdancing by the Crusaders this year!

11. F1 - The Barcelona GP. Piastri's 2026 struggles continue, but McLaren is improving. Piastri and Norris are 5th and 6th now in the Driver's Championship after last week in Monaco. It certainly is a grind for him this season. Hopefully a Stephen Bradbury pile up gives him a chance.

The Wrap - Pass the Victory Song Lyrics

1. NRL. Newcastle let a massive chance slip v Melbourne. Dynamic play in 2026, but not enough to outsmart Melbourne who are clawing their way back up the table with great resolve. The Dolphins are tremendously entertaining to watch, dazzling their way up the table now too. 

The Roosters bounced back with a crushing win over the Raiders in their backyard. Amazing how the Raiders have slipped in 2026, but they are not alone. The Broncos losing to the Titans on the back of the loss to the Dragons last week puts a few nails in their campaign now. Do the Titans own a victory song?

The performance of the Tigers was appalling. 68-0 is a disgrace. A bright start, fewer 'six agains' and now they are back to the pack. Benji is like Jason Ryles...coaches that are never under the microscope, despite some really poor performances. The Tigers have had two games where they gave up forty points as well!

The teams losing by 50 this year? Parramatta (2 v Melbourne and Gold Coast), Wests Tigers (2 v Cronulla and Penrith)), Titans (1 v Cronulla), Dolphins (1 v Manly), Melbourne (1 v Panthers) and St George (1 v Roosters).

The Panthers go into their second bye on 26 points (soon 28 points)... this is enough to make the semi finals already! Incredible dominance this year... and incredible humility too. They know their victory song well!

2. Best NRL Coaches. Some of the most successful coaches % winning record? Keiran Foran (80% - 10 games), Craig Bellamy (69% - 620 games), Norm Provan (69% - 181 games), Bob Fulton (64% - 405 games), Mal Reilly (63% - 98 games), Trent Robinson (63% - 348 games), Jack Gibson (62% - 394 games), Craig Fitzgibbon (62% - 117 games), Wayne Bennett (61% - 972 games), Phil Gould (59% - 280 games), Peter Louis (59% - 161 games), Geoff Toovey (58% 105 games), Ivan Cleary (58% - 491 games), Chris Anderson (57% - 337 games) and Roy Masters (57% - 250 games), Steve Folkes (56% - 288 games), Terry Fearnley (56% - 210 games) and Warren Ryan (56% - 415 games).

3. AFL. The greatest club game in recent memory with St Kilda really unlucky to lose in the dying seconds to the Swans. A see sawing game with a big crowd (42,000). A superb physical game and some absolute individual brilliance... Liam Ryan was outstanding. There was Wilkie, Wanganeen-Milera, Heeney, Curnow, Warner...all excellent. 104-102 was an incredible outcome for the Swans. Superb to be in the crowd there today! A very happy crowd in the end.

The Western Bulldogs have mastered the tight win and are doing it in great style. Geelong look like April-May-June premiers but lose tight ones too often. Bailey Smith is an incredible player. Outstanding Brownlow candidate with Isaac Heeney.

Fremantle continue to break their own records with their twelfth straight win added to with a crushing club record defeat of North Melbourne. They sit comfortably on top of the comp with 12 wins and one loss. North fold too easily.

4. England v New Zealand. Lords has dished up a terrible result wicket with a million wickets falling too quickly. Jamieson and Smith for New Zealand were superb with the ball. For England the talented Harry Brooks got a half century, so did their new opener, Emilio Gay, but not much else for anyone. When teams are getting sub 200 scores it can be exciting for bowlers, but more balance helps. 

Conversely, India will fill their Test cricket stockings against Afghanistan (less Rashid Khan), who were taught a huge lesson. The Indian team can bat! KL Rahul scored yet another Test century. He is a late bloomer in some respects but now has 12 Test tons (against six different nations).

Shubman Gill has also now hit over 1,000 runs as captain or India. He is second quickest (15 innings) just behind Sunil Gavaskar (14 innings) as captain to hit 1,000 runs. He scored his sixth test hundred as Indian captain (15 innings). 11 Test tons now in 41 Tests. He is a gun.

5. Cricket. If you thought losing the Melbourne Stars this week and losing the ODI series 2-1 to Pakistan this week was bad, things could be worse (noting all have played more tests than all of us!):

Not The Strongest Australian Cricket Test XI since 2010: 

• Ed Cowan
• Joe Burns
• Rob Quiney 
• Callum Ferguson 
• Aaron Finch 
• Nic Maddison
• Andrew McDonald 
• Peter Nevill (wk)
• Michael Beer 
• Xavier Doherty 
• Dan Cullen
• Ben Hilfenhaus 
• John Hastings
• Peter George

6. NBA. New York Knicks. Up 2-0 over the San Antonio Spurs now after a one point thriller in Game Two. The defence was outstanding from both teams. How athletic and what a superb demonstration of intense athleticism!

7. Super Rugby. The Brumbies were belted 66-12 by the Hurricanes. The Reds were also belted by the Chiefs 46-24. The mighty Crusaders won 52-31 over the Blues as well. 

The semi finals: Chiefs v Crusaders and Hurricanes v Blues. All New Zealand teams. Dominant. Australia is getting further and further behind the might of New Zealand rugby. Let's be honest, even when it is hard to admit.

8. NHL. Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights are locked in battle and one goal has divided them in all three games. The Vegas Knights are up 2-1. The Stanley Cup is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. A huge atmosphere.

9. Football World Cup. The biggest sporting show on earth outside of the Olympics starts next weekend, but the fans are saying the seats are too expensive! It will be interesting to see the crowd size, but the intensity will be there. 

10. French Open Tennis. A lacklustre version this year sadly, with so many upsets, but the story is the female qualifier from Poland - Maja Chwalinska. The first woman to make the final of the French Open as a qualifier. An incredible story of success. She played Mirra Andreeva (8th seed) from Russia. The Central Europeans dominate. An easy win by Andreeva in the end... not a household name as yet, but one to watch.

In the men's final, the Italian Flavio Cobolli plays Alexander Zverev tonight. This is the greatest chance Zverev has of ever winning a Grand Slam. As a known hot head, he will need to stay composed to win it. No man either than Sinner or Alcaraz has won a men's final since the end of 2023, when Novak won his 24th!

11. F1 - Piastri. Struggling to make a podium this season. Hard to believe McLaren were so deeply asleep during pre season in their car preparation. Starting from grid position #7 and #8 is not going to please the McLaren investors. The Monaco GP is famous for the car at the front of the grid winning. Nearly nowhere to overtake! Antonelli is all set to expand his lead in the driver's championship.

12. US Open Golf. The Memorial Tournament is the traditional hit out before the US Open, but you only have to be fractionally off your game in a PGA event and you are cooked. Fleetwood, Rose, Fitzpatrick, Burns, McIlroy, Lowry, Scheffler and Shauffele are all there and thereabouts. Not leading, but hovering!