Well, State of Origin is tonight and I’m decidedly in “under the radar” mode. Though I have been popping people’s cane toad balloons at work.
I think New South Wales will lose the series, but I like the balance of their squad. Inexperience balanced out by inexperience… at least they’ll all get good together.
It seems odd to me that Matthew Johns could engage in dubious, but legal, conduct and lose his job – and future employability – on that basis. He’ll probably never work in the areas he was, until today, employed in again. Fair? I’m not so sure.
What Johns did wasn’t nice. It was wrong by most definitions of the word, and It will cost the NRL money, it will cost Channel Nine money. But the media witch hunt has been appalling.
It seems particularly hypocritical for the network that brought us “turkey slapping” to stick a turkey with a microphone under John’s nose at an airport demanding an apology on behalf of a girl the reporter doesn’t know and has never met.
It also seems somewhat hypocritical for Australia’s leading newspapers to run such a witch hunt while they have these stories driving their online advertising revenue:
Update: Matthew Johns has now apologised to the woman in question in a pretty contrite interview with ACA (reported here).
“Johns, who was earlier stood down indefinitely from Channel Nine and the Melbourne Storm, said the incident was morally wrong but claimed the woman involved was not acting against her will.
“I did not commit an act of abuse to that woman,” Johns said in the taped interview with A Current Affair. “I am guilty of infidelity to my wife and guilty of absolute stupidity.”
“I would say that on the night when she came back to the room, she was a willing participant in everything that occurred.”
He also said that he was unaware of the effect the incident had caused the woman since the night, which he apologised for.
“Any trauma and embarrassment that she’s gone through as a result of this I’m extremely sorry for.”
On a subject vaguely related to “commentary” – I watched the football tonight.
I can not come to terms with Manly’s reversal of fortune and or ability after last year’s Grand Final.
I refuse to put it all down to Brett Stewart. Instead I blame the following three players, who I would drop immediately were I the coach:
Also, I find Billy Slater intolerably annoying. He’s far too good. And he has a face that makes me want to lash out in violent anger. I’d like him to play for a team that I like – but that is unlikely so he is like, unlikeable.
Oh well, at least Manchester United beat Arsenal.
Ryan Giggs is a legend. I’ve said that before. He’s the most successful Premier League player in history in terms of league titles won. At 34, when he should be winding down and getting ready for retirement and the obligatory testimonial match – instead he’s in the form of his life. And has just been named the Premier League Player of the Year by his colleagues.
If I were a church planting blogger I’d no doubt find some inspirational lesson to draw from this underdog story – but I’m not, so I’ll just appreciate it for the remarkable achievement it is.
One of my favourite EA sports games was the Rugby League 96 game featuring commentary from Channel 9’s commentary team – with no Phil Gould. I hate Phil Gould (except when he’s coaching NSW). One of Paul Vautin’s frequent pieces of commentary advice was for people who did something stupid to “give themselves an uppercut”. This guy took that advice literally…
Like this one? There are heaps more on this page. Is there something wrong with me? I take great pleasure in watching these people hurt themselves.
I’ve mentioned GraphJam before. It’s a fun site. It has funny graphs. Now it has a graph that I made. I’m unsure whether I think it’s funny or not. Making graphs for GraphJam proved to be particularly easy. You can do it here. If you do, and send me a copy, I’ll post it under mine. We’ll have a GraphJam jam. If you made a graph about jam we could have a jam GraphJam jam.
I am annoyed. Here’s a recipe for being annoyed.
Oh well, at least the Raiders are worse.
Channel Ten is launching a new. Free. 24 hour dedicated digital sports channel today. That’s pretty exciting. I’ve been waiting for this for a while – and Craig kindly reminded me with his post.
But. It seems we may not be immediately getting it in the regions…
“Network Ten broadcasts ONE in our markets of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. For viewers outside those areas, our programs are carried by local affiliates.
We understand our affiliates are progressing well towards carrying ONE in their markets but for further information please contact:
– If your station is a Southern Cross station, please call Southern Cross TV on (02) 6242 2400
– If not, please contact WIN’s head office on (02) 4223 4199.”
But not to worry readers – I’ve contacted my contact at Macquarie Southern Cross and will let you know as soon as I find out.
I hope this isn’t one of those examples of regional areas losing out through the tyranny of distance.
Threadless has extended the $5 sale until the end of March.
Three posts ago I hit 1,000 posts. I’ll do some sort of best of those 1,000 posts to celebrate in the next day or so. To me, every one of them is like a wicket for Glenn McGrath – I remember them all. Maybe.
Speaking of Cricket. Australia has an all rounder. A bowling all rounder. Mitchell Johnson. He’s from Townsville you know.
Here’s Roebuck’s view on Johnson’s all round credentials:
“Several of the batsman had fallen foul of Harris’s Disease, the name nowadays given to batsmen who suddenly play boneheaded shots against apparently innocuous spinners. Hereabouts the main topic on spectators’ tongues concerned the tourists’ ability to take the match into a fifth day.
The next hour was startling as the Australian’s launched a two-pronged attack. Johnson’s innings is etched in the memory. After a quite start, he hurried to 50 in 51 balls whereupon he raised the tempo sufficiently to reach three figures in 86 balls. He did not swipe. He did not depend on luck. Instead he produced a stream of swashbuckling strokes all around the wicket, executed with a free and full swing of the bat.
Some of his strokes stirred the cricketing soul. Johnson took the ball on the rise and dispatched it through extra-cover or he stayed still and smote lifters into the 10th row at deep mid-wicket. Without exception his pulls and hooks went forward of square. Some of them dashed past mid-on. Moving in for the kill, the South Africans tossed the ball to Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn. Even Jacques Kallis had a crack and he, too, was swiftly swamped.”
If you’d like to see your son develop a pugilistic bent it’s easy to realise that dream. Just eat his pet dog.
“Manny Pacquiao was driven to become a world champion boxer after his father fried and ate his pet dog, according to trainer Freddie Roach.”
“But it was the horrific act by his drunk dad, Rosalio, which finally pushed him out and on the path to fame and fortune.”Manny saw his dad eat his dog, and that is why he ran away from home and became a boxer,” Roach told the tabloid.”
It’s obviously a pretty difficult time to be a Manly supporter – what with guys who punch fathers of attractive girls who dare to interfere in their advances and alleged sexual assaulters named to turn out for the team on Friday.
The NRL has just suspended Stewart for five rounds.
It makes me feel sick.
I don’t even want to trot out the “innocent until proven guilty” line in their defense. Or mention that the Gold Coast Titans played a player all year who was facing a charge for the same offence.
What’s worse than the media circus surrounding the upcoming court case is the fact that everyone feels compelled to weigh in on the debate. The NRL has forced a club not to play a player (for ruining their ad campaign bringing the game into disrepute, a former test rugby player and SMH columnist wants them to sack him, a group of prominent women associated with the club have come out saying the player is a gentleman, and a former League player from another club is now calling on Manly to drop the player for this weekend. Then all the politicians had to have their say on the issue.
Calling on a player to stand down while the charge is investigated is fair enough – or would be if the investigation took only a matter of weeks – but they often don’t. The Titans player mentioned previously played a whole season before being found not guilty. If he’d been forced to sit out that would have cost him a year’s wages in case where he was found innocent.
The thing is, and I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t watched it yet, he isn’t even celebrating winning the game…
This did remind me of the opening scene from Baseketball. Which I dug up – as a bonus.
Can you spot the problem with the following sentence from this story?
“Rumoured to of signed a four-year $450,000-a-year deal with the Sea Eagles back in 2005, Orford would likely have to take a pay cut to remain on the northern beaches with the club battling to reward last year’s premiers and remain under the salary cap.”
If yes, please apply for a job sub-editing Fox Sports Online. The story was from AAP so if you want to be a journalist go get a job there.