Rugby League
Loyalty is alive! After being linked to the cashed-up Sydney Roosters, promising young fullback Josh Dugan has extended his contract with the struggling Raiders. I said at the start of the year that Canberra have some gifted young players coming through but their challenge would be to keep them. Now that Dugan has repaid the club's faith lets hope some of the other young guns follow suit.
South of the border Greg Inglis has also rejected an offer from the Broncos and expressed his desire to stay at Melbourne.
Refereeing is back in the news for the wrong reasons with legendary whistle blower Greg "Hollywood" Hartley declaring the current batch of refs to be the worst in 50 years. Now I'm not in a position to agree or disagree but there certainly have been plenty of sketchy decisions this season, some at crucial stages in matches.
In an example, big Sam Burgess has every right to be filthy for being penalised for his tackle on Mitchell Pearce at the weekend. What should have been a knock-on and a Bunnies ball became a Roosters penalty. The match review committee later found nothing wrong with the tackle. The Roosters won a game that could very well have a bearing on the final top four placings 18-14, and we will never know what could have been.
Motorsport
Congratulations go to Aussie Mark Webber for his victory at the British Formula One Grand Prix. The victory was especially sweet given that Webber was not only competing against the the other drivers and teams but his own team as well.
Red Bull's treatment of Webber was disgraceful. Team officials swapped his car's front wing with that of teammate Sebastian Vettel in a clear sign of who they saw as higher in their pecking order. Webber's subsequent victory over Vettel was a beautifully raised middle-finger.
Soccer
It's time to pack away the vuvuzelas and stop listening to octopi - World Cup 2010 is officially over. In the end Spain prevailed over the Netherlands in a frustrating game that remained scoreless right up until the death.
But the thing this world cup will be remembered for most are the many refereeing controversies. Everyone involved with soccer except FIFA wants video technology introduced into the game - it's time they listened.
On another note, it will be interesting to see if Australia's world cup fever carries over into the domestic A-League season. I predict it won't - most people didn't give a toss in the four years between this world cup and the last. It's about jumping on a bandwagon. Now I'm not saying I'll be first in line at the next Sydney FC game but I nor did I watch much of the world cup. I'm a "Leaguie" through and through.
Posts
Can't wait for the next Rugby League World Cup!
ReplyDeleteDo you think Fiji or Tonga can take the world title?
So glad the Sokka is over and done with, the A-League isn't Premiership quality after all Everton beat Sydney FC last week proving it's a waste of time being involved with your local competition.
Thanks for the insightful blog, wish the billions of other sokka fans out there would read it and get back in to League!
Anyway, even if the A-League is a summer competition and League is in winter it's obviously a horrendous thing to do to follow both I mean how crazy would that be?
Yours truly,
Clueless Reader.
Hey Clueless Reader, thanks for the comment. The passion with which you've defended soccer shows you obviously are a true lover of that game. Which is great. And if more Australians who watched the world cup felt as you do then I wouldn't be blogging about how none of them are going to watch the A-League. Keep it real mate.
ReplyDelete