Longing for the day ...

Well done the Cowboys!!

One more to go, boys ...

But who should a former Balmain supporter support??

(tremble)

I guess it doesn't matter. Should be a great game of footy, either way!

There's a fisrst time for everything

Well, yesterday I had two wins in sport: the Swans and the Tigers, but it felt really wierd supporting a NSW team ... icky, in fact. Of course, I used to be a Balmain fan, so supporting the Tigers wasn't hard. But supporting the Swans, who are half South Melbourne anyway, was really something else.

Still, no doubts about who I'll support this afternoon: North Qld all the way. If the Tigers could do it, the Cowboys can too.

Incidentally, I'd love to get a video of the Tigers/Dragons game and use it to show youngsters a classic example of a champion team self-destructing under pressure - that's what the Dragons did. They were a little rusty and when they were behind towards the end of the game, they just tried too hard and made too many errors. Not the first and won't be the last.

Go the Cowboys ...

Damn straight, Gus

Interesting comment from Phil "Gus" Gould in today's prescription for the Tigers winning their NRL semi-final against the Dragons:

"Winning is 90 per cent mental."

Of course, that was exactly the Broncos problem towards the end of their season - the youngsters (as Roy Masters points out) did not support the big guys when they made breaks.

Sean Berrigan is a classic case in point: scored 19 tries in as many games to lead the competition, but didn't score any at the end, when the Broncos started to lose. Berrigan is not a line breaker, he scores from speed and support play. What happened to him was symptomatic of the whole team (Shane Webke and Darren Lockyer mostly excepted: they stopped putting in the effort *away* from the ball.

They stopped committing themselves to teh positions where they could score. Many lose balls were dived on by an opponent who just plain wanted it more; the support players didn't come through in a second phase to finish off the breaks Lockyer and Webke, etc, created. They stopped putting pressure on opposing kickers in general play.

Still, it's easy for me to say from here - my touch team forfeited their semi-final because we could only get 4 players to it! Now that's a lack of commitment ...

Promoting songs

Well, last week I got my copies of Australian Music Marketing Abroad's A'n'R magazine. In it (page 40), and on the accompanying CDs is "Heart's With You" (streaming version).

The ad cost me Aus$700 and, given the company it's in, it's hard to see me ever getting that money back. Sill, it will be great if I do - preferably with plenty of interest. I had a listen to it to ensure I'd sent in the right version, since it's listed as "Celtic/folkrock" - but it's the Hillbilly version - and I thought it came up a lot better than I remembered it sounding. Nothing like professional mastering, hey ;-)

It's an interesting phenomenon, the A'n'R magazine. Full of pretty girls and glam-ed up wannabes with (mostly) fairly bland-sounding but professionally recorded offerings. The odd absolute gem. Well worth a listen if you're looking for somthing a bit different to listen to.

Anyway, this exercise in self-promotion has now happened and I'll keep reporting on anything that come of it.

For the good of the game, rub Barry out

I'm struggling to believe the nonsense about Barry Hall's escape from sanction for attacking an opponent during a game.

It's not that I think the opponent didn't milk it - he did - nor that there was much force in the blow - there wasn't. What I have trouble coming to terms with is the finding that the blow was delivered "in play" - it wasn't.

I've said it before: this is a part of the game that the AFL could rub out completely and no-one would be worse off. A physical contest at the ball is fine - I'm all for it - but this nonsense with AFL players pushing, shoving, wrestling and yelling at opponents when the ball is at the other end of the park (often before the first bounce) is just a penis substitute. It's not allowed in any other sport and it shouldn't be allowed in the AFL.

It may be harsh for a player to miss a Grand Final, but that's happened to plenty of players in a lot of codes for many different reasons over the years and if it makes tham reconsider foul play, so much the better. I love to watch the skill of AFL players contesting the ball, but this irrelevant stuff turns my stomach and makes me determined not to be a part of a game with that culture.

For the good of the game, Barry Hall and his off-the-ball antics should be rubbed out!

Vale, Broncos 2005

Oh, how close they came. But the Tigers scrambled, struggled, were more desperate and kept them out - then took every opportunity that came their way.

The Broncos showed that they were almost back to their best, creating 6 opportuniies in the first half, but a combination of Tigers desperation (how good is Benji Marshall?!?!) and their own ineptitude killed them off. Too much dropped ball, too many tries killed through lack of confidence - that's the tale of playing a sudden-death final after 6 losses in a row.

Gus Gould is right when he points out that one of the biggest missing elements in the Broncos performance was support play. I've pointed that out before, and a lack of enthusiasm, eg to get to the spilt ball, was another telling factor. The Tigers' try just on half-time was a classic example of that.

But there was no doubt they were back to their destructive best up the middle, with good use of decoy runners and angled rucks. Their defence was also back to its bruising best up front - in the Tigers' face early and kept them in their own half a couple of times. They created plenty of linbe breaks and opportunities - if they'd taken tham all it would have been 30 - 4 at half time and all the pressure would have been all on the Tigers.

Still, they didn't, and the Tigers broke their hearts with an intercept try and a speculator right on half time. That's another difference between the Broncos of the past few weeks and the Broncos of the past - they haven't handled the adverse decisions and negatives well lately. You saw it yesterday when, after the intercept, they immediately kicked out on the full and then started arguing and looking to the referee for justice instead of just getting on with the game and making the most of the things that do go their way. Trying too hard and looking for "divine" intervention.

I don't agree with Gus, though, that the Broncos need to radically alter their style of play. It got them to a dominant position at the top of the ladder through the regular season and it earned them plenty of opportunities to win the game. It was their lack of finishing power that cost them at the end.

To my mind, that's a matter of enthusiasm, committment and confidence. The Tigers had confidence yesterday and the Broncos didn't. But, if only....

Next year, boys.

Well done, Joel

Just read about Joel Turner winning the world beatboxing championships in Germany. Excellent effort! Of course, I don't actually "get" beatboxing - it does nothing for me musically - but you only have to listen to the guy to hear that he's got something special and I did like that single "These Kids". The one with Mundine left me cold, but there you go ...

Just goes to show that just because you get rejected from Australian Idol or similar doesn't mean you have nothing to offer. Hopefully the Modern Day Poets, or whatever other course the career of Joel Turner takes, can get him the success he deserves.

BTW - I had to laugh at the name of Mark Holden's record label: "Dream Dealers". Very appropriate!

Well done, the poms

They deserved to win back the Ashes. The Aussies were off their game and the Poms played brilliantly, with none of their past hesitancy and lack of confidence. Freddy Flintoff looks like a truly world-class athlete - the kind the poms have missed for a while - and leader.

Now, the questions is: how quickly can the Aussies rebuild their side with younger players of the same ability? They've gone on too long with some of the ageing warriors and it's time for that difficult period of intergenerational change.

We'll seeya in four years, Pommies ...

On ya, Nick

I'm not much of a fan of Nick Cave's music but this story, wherein he threatens to walk out of a gig if he can't take his beer and cigarettes onto the stage, is a classic. It's a win for art over the mundane.

Not that I'm in favour of smoking or drinking on stage - my own long-held philosophy is that all intoxications should wait until after the performance - but there's a point at which the performance of the art is diminished without the right props. Nick Cave's performance required those props and would have been a farce without them. He did the only thing a self-respecting performer could do.

I'm also a fan of using grot to express grotty thoughts and feelings when that's what your art demands. If you don't like it, go find a monastery somewhere and suck in the purity ...

How is that possible

I dunno, some of this media commentary just doesn't make sense. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina,plenty of pundits were forcasting its dire consequences for the US economy. Some even suggested that it might knock the whole thing over.

But, then, they're planning to rebuild the city, aren't they? They're pouring food, clothing, blankets, etc into the place and the people, aren't they? Doesn't that make it a massive economic opportunity?

I mean, for every food parcel or blanket donated, someone has to buy more food and blankets. Every house that's being rebuilt is an employment opportunity for a builder, electrician, plumber, roofer, etc. Not to mention all the other roles that will go with keeping those people supplied ...

Then, following that, there's the marketing of the reborn city ... the possibilities are endless, right?

Can someone correct me here and let me know how this natural disaster is also an economic disaster? (or confirm to me that plenty of media pundits don't really have a clue!)

This space left vacant ...

... for the victims of the Iraqi stampede.

This space left vacant ...

... for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.