Longing for the day ...

Battling Broncos

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and respond to cries of "post-origin slump" about the Broncos before I've even heard them:

The problem the Broncos experienced yesterday had nothing to do with post-origin anything, it had everything to do with the lack of a regular organising halfback. Since Alf retired, Brisbane have not been able to put one guy in the No7 shirt for an entire season, and yesterday they were down to their third-choice halfback, without their first or second-choice hooker or Karmichael Hunt to provide variety. As a result they looked disorganised and one-dimensional - too eay to pick off.

Their first-up hits were as effective as ever but their support play was non-existent and too often the play was easy to pick because it ALL revolved around Darren Lockyer. Champion that Darren is, he can't run the entire show. Shaun Berrigan is another champion with, as Kevvie pointed out, an awesome running game but what Brisbane need is organisation and someone else to take the load off Lockyer. Previous seasons have demonstrated this clearly.

Also, the lack of a specialist hooker makes service slow - Casey McGuire threw some absolute clangers yesterday and was generally not up to it (especially compared to Robbie Farrah).

When they get Karmichael Hunt and a specialist hooker back, especially if they can get one of the two No 7s that served them so well at the start of the season back too, they'll be back on track. Go Broncos!!

**Late update (2/8/06) on the radio this morning is a story that Darren Lockyer set a club record for the most plays in a game last Sunday - proves my point. Alfie Langer was also quoted as saying that Lockyer is in danger of burning out if he continues his workload. Nice to know one of the game's great agrees with me. Thanks, Alf!

BTW - what the hell is Brett Seymour doing?? He should be concentrating on playing his best football ...

Bye, Bye Bledisloe.

Well, they came, they saw, they defended brilliantly, and the All Blacks walked away with the silverware. Well done. The Wallabies threw plenty at them but the All Blacks turned up to stop every advance - especially Ritchie McCaw. How good is he? He had no right to make some of the tackles he made, or even to be in the places he turned up in ... put daylight between him and George Smith, who was only sighted when he gave away penalties.

Speaking of which, I'm wondering whether the hair-pulling thing is one reason why George wasn't more aggressive at the breakdown. The commentators said it over and over, and it's true, the Wallabies lost the game by being too tentative in the front row and at the breakdown. I'd love to see a stat on how many times a Wallabies runner was tackled and Gerry Collins and Ritchie MCaw were at the tackle before ANY Wallabies forward ... I bet it's an unpleasant number. But, confidence can build that they held their own and will get better ...

Gerry should probably be suspended for the hair-pulling, which is totally against the spirit of the game. Infantile, in fact.

But the bottom line is the All Blacks defence was just too good and one brain-snap in defence from Rocky Elsom was enough for them to take away the silverware. Well done, boys. Seeya in Aukland ...

Well done, Matildas

Great to see that, after the success of the Socceroos, the Australian women's soccer team has also qualified for their World cup finals. Excellent stuff!!

Not that I've seen any of their games .. even les so than ther mens' games, but it's still great to see that achievement. Will SBS broadcast the women's World Cup finals?? I'd like to think so ...

Upgraded service

OK, I've now upgraded to Moveable Type 3.31 in the hope that it will help me beat some of the chronic blogspam I have been copping. So far, so good ... :-)

However, the upgrade has taken me all morning and I have still not gotten it right ... playing with the new interface ... interesting.

Will resume normal transmission ASAP. BTW - I apologise to thosepeople looking for my podacast - I tried to me clever with the XML document and have stuffed it completely.

Can anyone tell me how to make it do what I want??

Kerry Stokes, you good thing

Great to hear that Kerry Stokes has bought and donated a Victoria Cross back to the War Memorial. That kind of history belongs to the mythology opf the people and should never be allowed to fall into the hands of people who want to lock it up and claim some kind of vicarious valour ....

I wonder, though, whether the bidding process might have pitted Stokes against the War Memorial ...

Couldn't have said it better ...

Well said, Antony Lowenstein. The problems of he violence in and around Israel are complex and intractable but one glaringly obvious fact is that violent responses from either side have only the effect of prolonging the agony for all concerned.

Having said that, though, that's the easy bit. Once both sides renounce violence, we have to solve the real problems of power, poverty and pride ... much harder to deal with and bigger than I.

I just want the killing and destruction to stop ...

Back on the paddock ...

Played my first full game of touch since breaking my shoulder last night. Went OK. We had a win, but made hard work of it.

The shoulder held up all right ... a bit sore making a few touches at odd angles and throwing some hard balls at tight angles. Quite sore this morning. My passing was quite ordinary - direction and timing.

Fitness was awful - couldn't last more than a few sets before heading off for a rest. Gonna take a lot of work to get back to full match fitness ...

In all, I guess that's a solid return with plenty to work on ... now, if only the music was in the same category.

Who'd have picked that result?

49-0 over the Springboks?? Keeping them scoreless for the first time ever?? I love to watch the Wallabies win, but that's ridiculous ...

The Springboks weren't that bad ... but they dropped some crucial ball and had a guy sent off, which must have shattered their confidence, as it did the Wallabies last week ... Still, the Wallabies were awesome.

The scrum was still a problem but came back well after some early power from the Sprigboks. That's good for the boys' confidence. Lineoutwon a few and lost a few ... that's OK when you're up against Victor Matfield...

Defence was incredible. Outstanding. Unbelievably good. Well done, boys.

Bring on the All Blacks at our place in two weekends' time ... let's do it again.

This space left blank ...

for the victims of the Indian bombings and their families.

When will this madness end?

How sweet it is ...

I've just realised that since this blog began, Queensland has not won the Origin series. Well, now they have.

And what a win. Had to overcome the Blues AND some disgraceful refereeing decisions. It takes great courage and determination to come back in a game like that from 10 points behind but to do it after a heart-breaking intercept and two non-tries is truly reflective of the Queensland spirit. Well done, boys. Awesome!

Readers from overseas and other states may not realise what State of Origin means to Queenslanders. It's the ultimate little brother story. Queensland was created to house the worst convicts from Sydney - the rejects' rejects. Despite being richer in natural resources and larger in area, Queensland has always been belittled by New South Wales' status as Australia's commercial hub.

In sporting terms, this led to Sydney sporting clubs being able to pay talented Queenslanders more money to play in Sydney than they could earn in Brisbane - which meant that in interstate games, Queensland-born talent used to play for NSW and beat the resident Queenslanders, which sucked royally. In 1980, however, we played an "origin" game, where the Queenslanders who'd been playing in Sydney combined with the best of the Qld residents and walloped the Blues. A legend was born ...

Renowned NSW coach Phil "Gus" Gould is absolutely spot on when he says that State of Origin means more to Qlders than to the Blues. In their arrogance, the Blues just don't get it (as the sociologists would say, "power is invisible from above"). Of course, it was this key understanding that made Gus the most successful Origin coach ...

As Willie Mason put it last night: "That's Origin. That's Queensland. It's ridiculous..." :-)

So, winning the Origin is Queensland's way of saying "you can buy our talent, but you can never own our soul!" The ultimate Up Yours!

Get it??

Changing the world?

Quote from Nassim Taleb:

"You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race."

I shall have to remember that one in years to come.