We’re about to hit the summer sport period here in Australia. Yacht racing and tennis join all the other sports for a brief, intense period where the majority of Australian males park themselves in front of the television for three weeks, the only way to move them being with a spatula. Beer sales rocket, television ratings spike. That’s life down here! And so let’s get on with the sport results and commentary…
Basketball
NBL – Round 13
Another week, another team in trouble. This time, it’s the Cairns Taipans who have accepted a rescue package from the NBL after going into voluntary receivership on Monday. Players and staff have taken salary cuts, and the two imports have been cut from the roster, placing further strain on the club. And yet they still managed to group together and break a 7-game losing streak b y defeating the Gold Coast. This “new” NBL cannot come soon enough for the sport as it slowly but surely kills itself with poor owners, poor crowds and poor marketing…
Adelaide 100 def Townsville 79
Perth 129 def Adelaide 120
Townsville 104 def Wollongong 99
Gold Coast 88 lost to Cairns 97
Melbourne 98 lost to South Dragons 107
WNBL – Round 10
Sydney 86 def AIS 61
Adelaide 81 lost to Logan 89
Dandenong 60 def by Townsville 72
Sydney 76 def Townsville 67
Canberra 98 def Bendigo 82
Perth 81 def Logan 77
Soccer
A-League Round 15
Melbourne Victory FC v Adelaide United FC
Due to Adelaide’s involvement in the FIFA world club championship, this match has been postponed
Wellington Phoenix FC 1 drew with Perth Glory FC 1
Central Coast Mariners FC 2 def Sydney FC 1
Queensland Roar FC 2 def Newcastle Jets FC 1
FIFA World Club Cup
Poor Adelaide. Thrown to the lions to show just how laughable the standard of our domestic soccer league really is. And Soccer Australia thinks it will get better next year with Central Coast in the firing line!
Adelaide United FC 2 def Waitakere United 1
And it could easily have gone the other way…
Gamba Osaka 1 def Adelaide United FC 0
Much closer than their last 2 encounters, showing Adelaide at least is learning from this international adventure.
W-League Round 6
Melbourne Victory 1 lost to Queensland Roar 3
Sydney FC 0 def by Perth Glory 1
Central Coast Mariners 0 creamed by Canberra United 3
Newcastle Jets 2 def Adelaide United 1
AFL
Just before this week’s pre-season draft, news has come out that embattled football bad boy Ben Cousins looks set to continue his playing career with Richmond after looking like no club was going to risk signing him. Now, look, Ben has done some stupid things – drugs, partying, etc – but he was never caught by the AFL… and the league still says their drug policy is working! Morons. Anyway, he never failed a drug test, and he is a proven match-winner with a premiership under his belt. For clubs not to take at least a one year punt on him is foolish, but the stigma attached to him was probably what pout them off. It is also good for Ben he is in Melbourne playing now instead of one of the other states as he is not going to be under the intense media scrutiny as he was previously. There are 9 clubs in Melbourne plus another in nearby Geelong so he can be a little more anonymous there which can only help his recovery. Now, I’m not saying that what he did was not wrong, because it was and he was damn stupid, and his first steps at recovery were laughable. But he has paid a price for it, and looks determined to come back into the sport. Good on Richmond for taking a punt and the AFL needs to seriously look yet again at its anti-drug policy… but it won’t. Because it is being run by a group of ignorant bureaucrats who really only care about money and not the game or anything else.
Cricket
International Cricket
South Africa 2/185; Western Australia 4/215 – WA won by 7 wickets [one day match]
A slow first match for South Africa, played until the full 50 overs were bowled for both teams, hence the rather bizarre result. But South Africa were happy with their batsmen in this one, losing only 2 wickets in their 50 overs.
South Africa 8/320 (dec); Western Australia 280 – match drawn
A one-day and then a 2-day match as a hit-out for the visiting international team? Seems a little brief, but the South Africans claim to be happy with their first and only serious hit-out on this tour of Australia. Their bowlers look to be in good form and deVilliers hitting a century shows he is in touch with the bat as well. Should be a good series, made all the more interesting with Stuart Clark ruled out of the Australian side with an elbow injury.
Australian Domestic
Sheffield Shield:
Next match starts Monday 17th, our time, giving the players a little break… and strangely coinciding with the start of the South African tour…
One-Day
Tasmania 8/291 (50 overs); New South Wales 7/291 (50 overs) – game a tie!
First, a tie! Rare result. Not a draw, but a legitimate tie! Second, NSW batsman Davis Warner fell just short of scoring the fastest domestic cricket one-day century. He scored 97 runs from 54 balls (15 fours and 2 sixes), and needed just 2 more balls to score the 3 runs needed before falling to an lbw decision.
Tasmania 5/310; South Australia 4/313 (48.4 ov) – SA won by 6 wickets
Queensland 6/238 (50 ov); Tasmania 197 (48 ov) – Qld won by 41 runs
Poor Tasmania! 3 one day matches this week, and none others being played! Maybe Cricket Australia should look at their programming a little more closely… but considering it did not affect NSW, Qld or Vic, what do the powers that be care?
Golf
John Daly was the human headline again. He missed the cut again. He demonstrated absolutely boorish behaviour again. This time he smashed a camera of some-one taking his picture. Now, I understand photography is not illegal at golfing events, so why did he do this? Why does he do anything? But all this does mean that the golfing fraternity in this country got exactly what they wanted – they got media coverage for themselves. Maybe not the type they were hoping for, but any publicity is clearly good publicity in this case.
2008 Australian Open
Tim Clark -9 (won after playoff)
Congratulations to the South African who says he does not feel appreciate din his own home-land. Australian golf fans took to him and he seems like a nice enough guy.
Mathew Goggin -9
Robert Allenby -8
David Smail -8
Stephen Dartnell -8
Steven Conran -7
Andre Stolz -7
Geoff Ogilvy -7
Chris Gaunt -7
Closing Paragraph
My own training is about to go into decline for a few weeks. Our club closed on Saturday and the performance troop I am in (Gymwits – check us out on YouTube!) has done a full weekend of shows, with one more to come. It will be good to sort out those niggling injuries and rest the more chronic ones. So I am about to hit a brief lazy mode for a few weeks (we resume on Jan 18), and I hope it doesn’t result in the same weight gain as last year… Okay, this has been totally irrelevant but just thought I’d share before saying something like:
That’s this week’s view from down here!
