Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Origin II - same mistakes different players

Well here we go with another State of Origin and Queensland have yet again picked a strong side involving a lot of NSW born and bred players and a number of people who should be suspended. What is it with origin if you are likely to be selected you can't be suspended. Clearly Hayne and Slater knew this thats why they spent the game throwing punches, head butts, grapple tackles and biting each other.

Of course not only did Queensland select their full quota of Ref abusers and geographically challenged backs they also quickly went back on their word by picking Israle Falou. Queensland failed to live up to their hype in the most embarassing backdown of all time since Julie Bishop had to confess that Australia forges passports as well...Ah no I'm not suppose to talk about that.

New South Wales on the other hand well what can I say. Same mistakes different players. Jimal was dropped after one game, supposedly for his bad read in defence but I suspect it was because of his uncanny resembelance to the cast of fraggle rock (look carefully at these two shots and see if you can pick 5 differences.)


New South wales is still playing halfback roulette with Mitchell Pearce back into the team, mainly to cover for the fact that Trent Barrett can't kick.

The one constant with all these losses is of course Craig Bellamy. Sure Queensland has a good team (although not for much longer) but we should have won more purely by chance over the last 4 years. Let NSW hire Des Hasler at least his forwards would be worried enough about being injurred by a flying door that they might put in one decent half.

Craig is suppose to be a good coach as he has a well "drilled" team. They control everything from when they sleep to what they eat. And Remember you are what you eat. If thats true (its probably not as the staff at the storm probably do that) then he has been feeding the NSW backs chicken livers. Acctually we had better hope that its not true that you are what you eat, if it is then Ben would be a takeaway ie "Fast, Cheap and Easy"

But back to coaches, And for the benefit of Ricky Stewart who is being touted as next years Origin coach - no we wont be picking Paul Gallen for every game - yes he is a reliable defender and has an offload but he gives away two penalties a game.

Anyway I live in hope but I know what the result will be.

In Other News
The NSW state budget was released with the news that we are back in surprise surplus. The original budget deficit came as something of a surprise as it was originally caused by a young graduate working hard into the night when he failed to carry the one when adding up the revenue column.

This year the problem was solved by a disillusioned 20 year veteran public servant whose solar power calculator ran out of charge halfway through adding up the City Metro Bills.

So what the point well it probably means that there is now more money available for the government to spend on making a third ground for the western Sydney AFL franchise. Why is that good news because it means more maintenance which means it will go broke faster so we can use it for league sooner.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Take the money and run

News out today is that the Greater western Sydney Franchise has signed up Israle Falou for $1.1 Million a year. Please god why. Here at work we all contribute $10 a week towards a loto, syndicate so we can try and win $1m quit work and play and watch sport for the rest of our lives.

How exactly does this work, the Greater Western Sydney team are expecting to recoup this from what exactly. Their own figures say that they are only expecting a maximum of 17,000 people per game even at the relatively cheap entry price of $10 a ticket. The Western Sydney team is only contracted to play 6 games at their new State Government bought blacktown venue, so based on my calculations Israle's salary will exceed the revenue of ticket sales.

And all this for a guy who has never played the game before. I think its about time that the AFL talent scouts had a look for some other players.........like me. I would be perfect, if they want profile and controversy I can fill the blog site with stories on touchy subjects like gay players.

Like Israle I can't kick and have never played the game before.

Like Israle I would prefer to watch repeats of old Japanese cooking shows to live AFL, and of course

Like Israle I was born and bred in Sydney and have only ever been to Queensland on Holidays (Thus making me eligible for the QLD state of Origin team).

Still all in all its a great idea for this geographically confused Mormon man to take the money and run.The faster he does the faster the franchise can go broke, and we can all have a good laugh in the mean time at the struggling Melbourne AFL clubs arching up about the inconsistency of their salary cap.

The only question is - will we see the return of Brett Tate to the Queensland side or are the Queensland selectors staking out the transit lounge of Brisbane airport in a bid to find their next 'Home grown' backline sensation.

Who knows but as Homer would say "Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They're about to announce the lottery numbers"