akd545
NormTonight's Footy, personified.
July 26th 2008 06:30
It is astounding how much televised sport can be crammed into one night, with tonight (Saturday) being nothing short of a footballing festival. SportingMind sends an earnest and heartfelt apology to all females out there as the collective eyes of all Australian men will be literally glued to the plasma tonight - with the Bledisloe Cup, the Swans v Adelaide, 3 NRL games - followed by that nice little nightcap known as the Tour de France. Best schedule a girls night in, but make sure you hire some DVD's - unless you're content with repeats of "The Bill", or some woeful Adam Sandler comedy that will inevitably be reeled out by Channel Nine.
Tonight's Bledisloe will get me off my proverbial high-horse and back onto the solid turf, as i trade the high-horse for the Bledisloe bandwagon. All cynicism aside, it promises to be an entertaining clash, with dinky-di Deans at the helm of the formidable Wallaby squadron. George Smith has inherited the captaincy from the injured Stirling Mortlock, and the strong NZ side will be without inspirational leader Richie McCaw. Ryan Cross gets his first run-on guernsey in the centres and Timana Tahu claims the vacant bench position, eager to impress coach Deans with his pace and leg drive.
These new laws are intriguing me back into appreciating Rugby Union, a sport that i had actually given up on due its predictable nature and awful commentary team. Rugby Union has alienated me for years, through its boring penalty-driven scorelines and lack of attacking flair, not to mention a propensity to kick possession away. Like a surly man who neglected his wife for years, unable to communicate albeit for a succession of vacant groans and glares, it is almost like Rugby Union went to marriage counselling - got the hot tip to "spice things up" in the marriage, and came out invigorated and refreshed. The ELV's (Experimental Law Variations) effectively have saved the marriage, and Rugby Union appears to be a spectator sport again.
I must admit that it is fun to personify sporting codes and their governing bodies, particularly when parallelling them with human relationships. On Thursday night's NRL Footy Show, Steve (Turvy) Mortimer made the interesting comparison between the NRL and that of a divorced couple. His reference was that of the rocky relationship between the ARL and News Ltd (who both own 50% of the 'game'), thus making for a clever anecdote. Obviously the two parents split up in the mid 90s (ARL and Super League), but have now come back together and are currently in a relationship that, according to Mortimer, "Things aren't being done in a professional manner when we have two divorced parents". Mortimer's solution for the divorced couple is to set up a "Commission", in order to streamline the bureaucracy within the NRL. Clever analogy, but a bit of a backhander at all the divorcees out there in Australia. Certainly there are many divorced parents out there who are working professionally, whilst still finding the time to take good care of their children. However, Mortimer is obviously defining the lack of professionalism as the NRL's failure to compete at an administrative level with the AFL, thus making his analogy reasonably valid.
So how could we define the AFL in terms of a human relationship? Certainly things are rosy, with Mortimer himself pointing to the excellent adminstrative skills of the big-wigs at the AFL. So is the AFL the embodiment of the perfect relationship? As it is celebrating its (the code's) 150th anniversary, it is fair to say that it has had a very happy relationship. It was able to nationally expand without any major dramas, and is even cutting into rugby league "heartland", that being Sydney's West. Compared to the fracticious NRL, who are clearly the argumentative neighbours next door - constantly shouting at each other, swearing and carrying on, yet somehow staying together. Passionate yet fundamentally flawed. The NRL is the less intelligent sibling of the AFL, god - i could go on for days. But i'll stop now.
Back to league now, and the NRL faced perhaps its toughest week in years, with a succession of PR nightmares occuring over the space of a few days. The Raiders take on the Titans tonight without disgraced half-back Todd Carney, which will make things slightly tougher for the Green juggernaut to continue its rollicking form. Look for Todd Carney's name to have the word disgraced placed before it by the print media for the next few months - just as Ben Cousins enjoyed the adjective for the best part of 2 years.
In other games tonight the Penrith Panthers will battle the Wests Tigers, and Newcastle host Souths in what will probably be an unwatchable joke-fest of a game. Yuck.
To round out tonight's match previews, the Swans play Adelaide in an important match for both teams - at the SCG under lights. Barry Hall is back for the Bloods which should bolster the team, due to the fact that they will be playing sans O'Loughlin and Leo Barry. Adelaide have lost a lot on the trot (about 5/6 from memory), but have a decent record against the Swans - so this game could go down to the wire, even if this wasn't already a pre-requisite for Swans games.
So there it is folks - tonight's football, live on your home entertainment theatre. Enjoy the channel surfing, maybe have a beer or two - or just have it on in the background if you are entertaining dinner guests. After the testosterone fuelled mayhem ends at around 9.30 pm, stay up for even more sport; this time artificially enhanced testosterone fuelled mayhem - with Cadel Evans pressing hard against the leaders deep into Week 3 of Le Tour. Like a pelaton collectively muscling its way through the winding Pyrenees, it is time for SportingMind to garner strength and strap himself into the box seat for a night of personal viewing pleasure; for in this decade of global terror and moral panic - sport is all that we have left to count upon. In the spirit of the Tour, i bid you adieu.
-SportingMind
Tonight's Bledisloe will get me off my proverbial high-horse and back onto the solid turf, as i trade the high-horse for the Bledisloe bandwagon. All cynicism aside, it promises to be an entertaining clash, with dinky-di Deans at the helm of the formidable Wallaby squadron. George Smith has inherited the captaincy from the injured Stirling Mortlock, and the strong NZ side will be without inspirational leader Richie McCaw. Ryan Cross gets his first run-on guernsey in the centres and Timana Tahu claims the vacant bench position, eager to impress coach Deans with his pace and leg drive.
These new laws are intriguing me back into appreciating Rugby Union, a sport that i had actually given up on due its predictable nature and awful commentary team. Rugby Union has alienated me for years, through its boring penalty-driven scorelines and lack of attacking flair, not to mention a propensity to kick possession away. Like a surly man who neglected his wife for years, unable to communicate albeit for a succession of vacant groans and glares, it is almost like Rugby Union went to marriage counselling - got the hot tip to "spice things up" in the marriage, and came out invigorated and refreshed. The ELV's (Experimental Law Variations) effectively have saved the marriage, and Rugby Union appears to be a spectator sport again.
I must admit that it is fun to personify sporting codes and their governing bodies, particularly when parallelling them with human relationships. On Thursday night's NRL Footy Show, Steve (Turvy) Mortimer made the interesting comparison between the NRL and that of a divorced couple. His reference was that of the rocky relationship between the ARL and News Ltd (who both own 50% of the 'game'), thus making for a clever anecdote. Obviously the two parents split up in the mid 90s (ARL and Super League), but have now come back together and are currently in a relationship that, according to Mortimer, "Things aren't being done in a professional manner when we have two divorced parents". Mortimer's solution for the divorced couple is to set up a "Commission", in order to streamline the bureaucracy within the NRL. Clever analogy, but a bit of a backhander at all the divorcees out there in Australia. Certainly there are many divorced parents out there who are working professionally, whilst still finding the time to take good care of their children. However, Mortimer is obviously defining the lack of professionalism as the NRL's failure to compete at an administrative level with the AFL, thus making his analogy reasonably valid.
So how could we define the AFL in terms of a human relationship? Certainly things are rosy, with Mortimer himself pointing to the excellent adminstrative skills of the big-wigs at the AFL. So is the AFL the embodiment of the perfect relationship? As it is celebrating its (the code's) 150th anniversary, it is fair to say that it has had a very happy relationship. It was able to nationally expand without any major dramas, and is even cutting into rugby league "heartland", that being Sydney's West. Compared to the fracticious NRL, who are clearly the argumentative neighbours next door - constantly shouting at each other, swearing and carrying on, yet somehow staying together. Passionate yet fundamentally flawed. The NRL is the less intelligent sibling of the AFL, god - i could go on for days. But i'll stop now.
Back to league now, and the NRL faced perhaps its toughest week in years, with a succession of PR nightmares occuring over the space of a few days. The Raiders take on the Titans tonight without disgraced half-back Todd Carney, which will make things slightly tougher for the Green juggernaut to continue its rollicking form. Look for Todd Carney's name to have the word disgraced placed before it by the print media for the next few months - just as Ben Cousins enjoyed the adjective for the best part of 2 years.
In other games tonight the Penrith Panthers will battle the Wests Tigers, and Newcastle host Souths in what will probably be an unwatchable joke-fest of a game. Yuck.
To round out tonight's match previews, the Swans play Adelaide in an important match for both teams - at the SCG under lights. Barry Hall is back for the Bloods which should bolster the team, due to the fact that they will be playing sans O'Loughlin and Leo Barry. Adelaide have lost a lot on the trot (about 5/6 from memory), but have a decent record against the Swans - so this game could go down to the wire, even if this wasn't already a pre-requisite for Swans games.
So there it is folks - tonight's football, live on your home entertainment theatre. Enjoy the channel surfing, maybe have a beer or two - or just have it on in the background if you are entertaining dinner guests. After the testosterone fuelled mayhem ends at around 9.30 pm, stay up for even more sport; this time artificially enhanced testosterone fuelled mayhem - with Cadel Evans pressing hard against the leaders deep into Week 3 of Le Tour. Like a pelaton collectively muscling its way through the winding Pyrenees, it is time for SportingMind to garner strength and strap himself into the box seat for a night of personal viewing pleasure; for in this decade of global terror and moral panic - sport is all that we have left to count upon. In the spirit of the Tour, i bid you adieu.
-SportingMind
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Comment by Mick D
The Bledisloe cup on the otherhand was an open, fast-paced spectacle with numerous tries. For once the trek to Homebush was well worth it.
Looking forward to Sportingmind's comments re SBW. Plenty of analogies there.