Amazing footy

There are three things that amaze me about going to a big footy match, even four that astonish me.

  • The price of food and drinks;
  • the vast amount of advertising squeezed into the stadium;
  • the lameness of pre-match and half-time ‘entertainment’;
  • and the unfettered blind optimism of 4WD owners attempting to park 100m from a 30,000 seat stadium in an illegal and impossible position 30 minutes before game time.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #183]

Losing streak

From the CricInfo commentary team this morning …

A relevant question is: when was the last time that a team other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe lost 3 Tests by an innings in a single series? It must be a pretty rare event. We set our stats guru Madhu to work on this yesterday and the most recent that he could find was New Zealand losing three Tests in a five-match series by an innings against England in 1958.

Ouch. Ouch and double ouch.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2010-11/engine/current/match/428753.html

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #106]

Nerf Gun Cricket

cricketHow to be more actively involved in watching the Ashes this summer – nerf gun cricket.

Update 5 Dec 2010: After seeing this weekend’s performance from the Australian bowlers, I’m thinking Ricky Ponting should issue them with Nerf guns instead of cricket balls.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #92]

Moving forward at five-eighth

“Jury still out on Gillett at five-eighth.”

abcnewsI was browsing the ABC news website and under the NSW stories, my eyes saw “Gillett” but my brain read “Gillard”, which has inspired me.

If I was elected to office, I’d appoint Julia Gillard as five-eighth for the Broncos. I don’t know how much of a Rugby League player she is, but I do know she would move forward. Vote 1. Me

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #67]

The good old days

I’ve finally succumbed in my advancing years to reminiscing about how good things were back in the olden days when I was young. Specifically I remember the days when the rugby league State of Origin was an engaging closely fought contest, instead of the embarrassing mismatch of talent and discipline (aka Qld) vs ineptitude and recklessness (aka NSW) that we saw last night.Bah humbug!

Sam Hilton – huh! those were the days. as far as i can recall there were never good days of NRL

Lachlan Wetherall – No, that’s soccer you’re thinking of – a seemingly endless dismal display of drab and dreary draws… followed by a penalty shootout to decide the result.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #31]

State of Origin woes

I had to go to a meeting last night. Before I left home I carefully set my computer to record State of Origin 1 so that I could watch it when I got home. When I got home I found that 18 minutes into the broadcast, before the kickoff had even happened my computer had inexplicably rebooted. Now some may say that this was a punishment from God for

  1. being more interested in sport than in the season finale of “Lost” (Hi Neil), or
  2. following the ‘wrong’ code of football (helllo Sam), or
  3. having the ‘wrong’ kind of computer (Yo Dave A)

I prefer to think of it as the mercy of God in sparing me the pain of watching NSW get beaten by Queensland yet again.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #24]