What the F#ck is going on?!?!

I always knew South Africans were cheats at sport and life in general, especially on the rugby field with their dirty eye gouging, biting tactics etc, but this just about takes the cake.

Reports are coming through that this thing was gender tested by SA Officials 8 months ago, and they still decided to race 'her' in the World Champs last month.

Just another chapter in the multi volumed Shame Files of South African history I'm afraid.

Shame shame shame

Most Underrated Ever.

One of the joys of foxtel are some of the old stuff you see and the occasional doco such as ESPNs Legends of Cricket. The episode on AB was on the other day and fuck me if he's not the most underrated cricketer and captain in Australian, or overall, cricket history.
Consider the following-

* Set the record for most runs ever

* Played in over 150 CONSECUTIVE tests. That's over 16 years without missing a single test, anywhere in the world.

* Easily the toughest, hardest bastard in modern cricketing times

This man taught the likes of Warne, Waugh etc how to be tough, how to win and what it means to wear the baggy green. He didn't motivate and worry about touchy feely shit- he batted tough, he tore strips off anyone who played soft and he ONLY cared about winning. Everyone now considers Taylor and Waugh to be better captain because they were more "imaginative and exciting". Bullshit. AB took over in 84 when we were in the shitheap, and style points were the furthest thing from his mind. If he was a cranky prick, and he probably was, it was because he was sick to death of losing and it was completely necessary to lead by example as a hard bastard. Again, it's easy to be imaginative when you are captaining a juggernaut attack with the likes of Waugh and Mcgrath. Not so much when it's Bruce Reid and Tony Dodemaide.

As a batsman, AB was possibly even more underrated than as a captain. He averaged over 50 when for a good part of his career he was the only genuine test calibre batsman in the team. This was when fast bowling attacks around the world were undoubtedly stronger than now- the Windies onslaught, Hadlee, Botham, Imran etc all at their peaks. And time after time, AB would be there when all around him crumbled.

Allan Border is arguably the best captain ever, as he set up the greatest cricketing dynasty of all time. He was also a champion with the bat- yet when the discussion of "greatest since Bradman" is raised, he is never mentioned. Why?

He is the ultimate in substance over style, and the current team could use more blokes like him.

Grub shouldn't win!

Jonathon Thurston, aka "The Grub" should not win the Dally M tonight in what would be a blight on the game. As I have stated previously, he is the GOLDEN BOY of the NRL and gets points a lot of the time unwarranted. I will admit he was very good up until the end of origin. Post origin he has been quite ordinary and should not have polled pretty much any or many points. He should have also been suspended for that dog act kick on Williams in origin game 3 which would have cost him Dally M points aswell. But because the sun shines out of his ass he got off the charge lightly and didnt lose any points. I would very much like anyone else to win tonight, Hayne, Marshall, Gidley, Soward but no doubt they will all be pipped, and we will all scratch our heads when Thurston polls points that he doesnt deserve and wins the medal.

Saints Gone????

Being an avid Saints fan I am shocked at the way the once mighty Dragons have fallen in a heap lately for no apparent reason. 3 weeks ago people (not me) were saying they were unbeatable and were a shoe in for the minor and major premiership. After 3 straight loses, each worse than the last, the Saints look like simply making up the numbers in the finals. Surely this Friday against Parra something positive has to come out in Saints play or their season is all but over. Form is a wonderful thing and Saints simply have lost it at the wrong time!

Let's put this in Perspective

While I agree that the selectors did a very poor job and Ponting is a fairly crappy captain, I submit the following evidence that
a) it can be hard to pick a team when you don't have much to choose from
and
b) it is a shitload harder to captain a team when your players aren't very good.

Lets compare the 2001 Ashes team- arguably the strongest team sent from these shores- to the 2009 Ashes team

2001- Slater, Hayden, Ponting (much better than 2009 by the way), S Waugh, M Waugh, Martyn, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee (roughly 20000 times better than the 2009 version), Gillespie, McGrath.

Some of the players left out of this team included players the calibre of Langer, Law, Bevan, Lehmann, Kasprowicz, Bichel and MacGill. All of whom would've walked into the Ashes teams in 2009.

Now, would that have been a difficult team to pick or captain? I'm pretty confident that my 3 year old daughter couldve captained that team to Ashes glory. The only player from 2009 that may- only may- have cracked the 2009 team was Clarke at the expense of Martyn (I'd stick with Martyn who was in his prime at the time and was awesome in that series). No one else would've even been mentioned at the selection table.

So when everyone bemoans Ponting and yes, even the selectors lets just think about how spoiled we have been for the last 20 years. Sure, they should've played a spinner in the last test but it's not like they left out Warne or MacGill. Sure they could've dropped Johnson or Hussey, but they didn't exactly have options like Kasper or Boof to go to.

I think it's fair to say that it's also slightly easier to toss the ball to the likes of McGrath, Gillespie and Warne as well as setting consistently attacking fields than the average crop we have today.

Ashes summary

I wanted to get on here 1st and given my summary on another diabolical ashes campaign by our Australia cricket side. After losing the 5th test this morning and losing our grip on the Ashes urn once again, questions have to be asked.
1. Why was a part timer like Marcus North bowled for so long in the 1st test in Cardiff? England were 9 down and Ponting bowled North for over an hour at the end with the last 2 England batsmen seeing him off and drawing the test they should have lost easily. Surely any of the spearheads should have been bowling and dishing up chin music with fielders all around the bat. More poor captaincy I am afraid.
2. Why take Hauritz and not play him on a very spin friendly wicket? Even 1 week before the test started there was rumours that this track was to be a bit juicy and conducive to spin, so why not use your apparent best spinner? Another poor selection from our POOR selectors.
3. Why can't Australia bat against good swing bowling? We have had 4 years to learn how to play swing bowling and still have no fucking idea against it! Some of the poor decision making and shot selection sometimes makes the bowling look better than it really is but most of the time we were totally clueless.
Several things need to happen or Australia will continue to fall down the test ranking at a rapid rate.
1.We need to sack the selection panel. For years they have relied on the brilliance of players such as Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and co to get us out of trouble, with them gone their selection mistakes are magnified. Not using Stuart Clark earlier in the series was a huge mistake when our bowlers for most of the part couldn't put any sustained pressure on the poms. Clark might not have taken many wickets but I guarantee he wouldn't have went for 4 1/2 runs per over either.
2. Ponting needs to give up the captaincy to Clarke immediately. Ponting is a very very average captain who makes poor decisions that have let teams off the hook quite a bit in his tenure. Great batsmen, great fielder, not captaincy material.
3. Hussey to be put back to no6 to save his career. Although he scored a ton in the penultimate innings, Hussey was looking like a park cricketer sometimes. Move him back to no6 and get his form and confidence back. If not he will continue to struggle and eventually be dropped.
4. Cut Brett Lee permanently. He was a good bowler in his time but hasn't been uninjured for years. The constant distraction and fuss over Lee from test 4 and 5 couldn't be good for the team and showed with their non results.
5. Make pitches to suit our strengths. Every country rolls out a wicket that will benefit their bowling lineup. India have dry turners, England have green seamers yet Australia has turned out flat boring pitches for years. Make out pitches fast and bouncy and give our pace attack a chance. The days of preparing turning wickets are over until we get a quality spinner so make them like rock and bring on the chin music.

Overall it was a terribly disappointing series which Australia should have romped in against an England side that lost their best batsmen (Pieterson) early in the series and were outplayed for lots of the series.

How good is Rugby League

As the title says, How good is rugby league at the moment? Apart from the continual off field problems the rugby league being played is great to watch. It is especially exciting considering we are getting to the pointy end of the season and there are still many teams that could take out the title. My predictions for the resat of the year are as follows.
Top 8
Dragons
Dogs
Titans
Storm
Eels
Manly
Tigers
Knights

Dally M
Soward

Top Tries
Tuiaki

Points
Hazem el Grub

Grand Final
Dogs Vs Manly-Winner Dogs