The View From Down Here #12

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Okay, we’re sort of between seasons here, so with a few ending, a few in the early stages and cricket not yet starting, it’s a little light on. But there is a bonus at the end… and it actually belongs in another part of the site, but I don’t have access over there so here it shall be.

Australian Rules Football
AFL
Trade week has just started. this is when players get dumped by their clubs or used as bait to get “better” players or early draft picks, showing them just how useful they actually are, and if they’re not taken as bait, they are supposed to go back to the club that wanted to get rid of them and act like they’re all one big happy family. And then there’s the draft when over-paid prima donnas, green as grass rookies and people from state leagues try to get a shot at the big time. It’s all very meat market, but this year has special overtones because for the next few years the new teams being forced into areas that don’t even like Aussie Rules will get preference in the draft. I don’t care, and neither should anyone else. Half the coaches hate it, the rest don’t care. The players tend to fear it. And it’s a great big headache all round, but that’s the AFL for you…
SANFL
Grand Final
Central Districts 17.11 (113) def Glenelg 10.11 (71)
Close, hard-hitting game until half time, with the Bulldogs running away in the third quarter before a fightback by the Tigers in the last still left them short. But this match was still batter than 99% of the anodyne gunk the AFL throws up as the national league. More spirit, more fight, harder hitting, better skills. If anyone in the States is interested in Australian Rules Football, the SANFL is the place to look, not the AFL. This, by the way, is Central’s seventh flag in 9 years, appearing in every grand final since 2000.

Rugby League
Grand Final
Manly 40 embarrassed Melbourne 0
The showcase event for the NRL was a fizzer, dull and Melbourne’s famed hard-hitting style seemed tempered. Maybe they had too much on their mind, maybe they went into it thinking they were going to win no matter what, but Manly exploded out of the blocks and were never headed. Shame; I was looking forward to a good game.

Basketball
NBL – Round 3
Perth 105 def. Wollongong 92
South Dragons 107 def. Gold Coast 90
New Zealand 118 def. Adelaide 80
Melbourne 107 def. Cairns 77
Townsville 97 def. Perth 80
South Dragons 114 def. Wollongong 95
WNBL
Townsville 90 def Perth 65
Sydney 72 lost to Adelaide 74
Bendigo 51 def by Canberra 65
Logan 96 def Perth 74
Bulleen 73 lost to Canberra 89

Soccer
A League – Round 7
Melbourne Victory FC 4 slaughtered Perth Glory FC 0
Mundane match with a mundane crowd.
Sydney FC 1 drew Queensland Roar FC 1
Adelaide United FC 3 drew Central Coast Mariners FC 3
Adelaide got arrogant and blew a 3-0 lead to see the Mariners post the biggest comeback in A-League history.
Newcastle Jets FC 2 drew Wellington Phoenix FC 2

Netball
Australia 42 def England 39
A closer match than expected, but with Australia’s younger and newer squad, still a pretty good hit out.

Cricket
I know I said something rather vague about a preview of the domestic season, but it really did stall because there is virtually no difference between Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. New South Wales will be given all the help by Cricket Australia, but still lose a chunk of their team to national duties. Tasmania will struggle. And South Australia, with a prized international recruit, will promise much but deliver little, especially with tenacious batsman Mark Cosgrove bewilderingly left out of the state squad.
            On the national scene, as of writing Australia is struggling against an Indian President’s XI. They have gone in very underdone and also arrogant. This series will be quite a test of their resolve and their mental attitude.

Professional Wrestling
Let’s be serious here, this is what brought me to this site – Inside Pulse – in the first place, and then I got suckered in by the other bits, especially being able to follow the Pats in the NFL here at Tailgate Crashers. But wrestling is what brought me to the party, so to speak. And this weekend I went to see Riot City Wrestling’s Trial By Stone show.
            In a word, this was awesome.
            They consistently put on great, value for money shows, and I heartily recommend getting online (http://www.riotcitywrestling.com) to buy the DVDs of previous shows. And when Trial By Stone is released in a few months, get it. So… here is my review. The first four matches are some of the highlights, the fifth, well, read on:
(1) Adrenaline v Voodoo
Adrenaline is a pink-clad preening wrestler, Voodoo is a psycho good guy. Fast paced opening with some okay chain wrestling and some miscommunication. outside, Adrenaline takes over. Back in a back-breaker stretch leads to some nasty suplexes. Voodoo comes back with a corkscrew senton, then tope onto Adrenaline outside, and a drop toehold into the guard rail. Adrenaline comes back, hits a neckbreaker off the top rope. Voodoo hits a german onto the top turnbuckle. Nasty looking double knee gutbuster onto Adrenaline for 2. Head elbow for 2. Low blow leads to a pump handle piledriver by Adrenaline for the 2. Voodoo hits the Candian destroyer, but Adrenaline gets the feet on the ropes at 2. A second destroyer is reversed to a second pump handle driver for the 3 and Adrenaline wins.
(2) Vixsin v Savannah Summers
Rematch from last month. Test of strength to start with the smaller Savannah arm-dragging and taking down Vixsin. Weak forearms, weak corner run lead to a Vixsin back suplex on Savannah. Vixsin chokes her on the ropes then hits a second rope drop-kick – impressive for the big girl. Savannah manages to get Vixsin into a surfboard submission. Savannah kicks her and slams her face into the mat. Vixsin catches Savannah and throws her into a powerful fallaway slam. Savannah bulldogs Vixsin for 2. Solid hits by Vixsin (finally) into a swinging slide slam for 2. Savannah gets a schoolboy (schoolgirl?) rollup for 2. Savannah goes up for the 10 punches, but Vixsin powerbombs her for the three and the win.
            Former champ Damon Matthews comes out to cut a promo on Savannah and her partner, champ Mimic, but Voodoo comes out to challenge the former champ.
(3) Brad Smyth v GD Grimm
Smyth is the plucky rookie, while Grimm is a former champion and is the monster of RCW. Smyth defends the crowd against Grimm, but Grimm takes him apart. Smyth comes back with a dropkick and drop toe hold. Grimm throws Smyth out, but he comes back with a springboard which misses and Grimm takes him again. Grimm kicks him, throws him around and stands on him. Sidewalk slam leads to an assault on Smyth’s shoulder. Arrogant cover for 2. Backbreaker, neckbreaker, 2. A series of 2 counts leads to Grimm abusing the referee. Smyth comes back with 2 enziguris and a bulldog, then works Grimm’s knee with weak kicks. Head scissor, two clotheslines and Grimm runs into the feet in the corner. Smyth springboard clothesline for 2. Another Smyth 2. Smyth tries to slam Grimm, but he reverses into a shoulder breaker (Smyth bounced two feet up in the air off the knee!). Grimm catches Smyth in a hangman’s sleeper, Smyth appears out, but kicks out at 2. Grimm hits two corner clotheslines, then a chop that sounded like a gunshot. Grimm clotheslines Smyth out, where he catches his foot on the guardrail on the way down. Smyth beats the 10 count back in, DDTs Grimm, then chops him. This wakes Grimm up. Smyth wriggles out of a fireman’s carry to hit a sort of reverse suplex thing. But Grimm catches Smyth, cut-throat driver, curb stomp, and Smyth is dead, bleeding hardway from the nose, three and Grimm wins.
(4) Luke Santamaria v Freddy Fuzion
Fuzion’s gimmick at the moment is that he loves to beat rookies, and has had an ongoing feud with Brad Smyth. Luke is another rookie who has had some good showings recently. Fuzion overpowers Luke, slaps him. Reversal to a Luke Cactus clothesline, Fuzion back in, kicks Luke, slam to pin for 2. A Fuzion suplex trio for 2. Luke fires back, hits a biog boot for a pair of 2s. Luke hits a corner clothesline. Fuzion back with a boot across the face of Luke, 2. Fuzion hiptoss, forearms, clothesline. Luke then hits a clothesline, jumping snapmare into a 2 count. Luke hits forearms and knees and a sunset flip for 2. A Luke DDT for 2. He misses a spear and Fuzion hits an overhead suplex for a pair of 2s. Fuzion forearms, whip into ropes, DDY by Luke. Luke plancha to the outside on Fuzion, who takes over outside until Luke manages to drop a leg onto Fuzion’s throat, which leads to a pair of 2 counts for Luke. Luke then misses the knee and gets hit with a huge spinebuster. But Brad Smyth appears on the ramp to taunt Fuzion, distracting him. Fuzion turns into a spear by Luke and the 3 count, giving Luke the win. Fuzion complains about it, then demands a tag match between himself and a partner of his choosing against Luke and Smyth and the next show.
(5) Mimic (c) v Dienamic
This is for the RCW championship. Now, I didn’t do much note taking during this one because I was marking out like a little kid for the entire 30 minutes of the match… which only felt like 15. It was that good. The stuff was awesome, the kicks and chops hard as, and the action intense. Highlight for me though was when Mimic went to give Dienamic a German suplex, but he grabbed the ref, resulting in a triple German with the ref taking the top man role and taking an awesome bump (props to Dave Morgan for that insane bump!). After non-stop action, Mimic finally retained the title. And then, following on from last month, former champ Damon Matthews and offsider GD Grimm – who had forced Mimic into this match by threatening to curb stomp Savannah – came to the head of the ramp. Savannah got behind Grimm and gave him the mother of all ball shots while Voodoo ran in and took out Matthews.
            Really good show!

Okay, so slightly skewed off to left field, but I had to share my thoughts on a great night of wrestling, and that’s all fine, because that is the view from down here.

Australian. Perpetual student. Married. Kids. Write for Sports and Wrestling and anyone else if they want me. Is there anything else?