This is an interim view, as I am about to gave 2-3 weeks off and don’t want to start a new format only to disappear. So it’s a mix of old and new. It’s also rushed as life has this cruel way of making itself known when you least want it to.
Australian Rules Football
AFL Round 13
Split round, second half of the matches this week to finish things off.
St Kilda 10.10 (70) def Geelong 6.10 (46)
Great game… until half time. Then… what happened? The most dominant team in the AFL for years – Geelong – did not score a goal after half time; in the entire third quarter they did not score at all! Now, St Kilda have been on a bit of a roll as of late, but even this result seems to be more Geelong’s lack than St Kilda’s amazingness. Strange result, strange game.
Sydney 10.11 (71) def by Collingwood 13.18 (96)
Just a game, really. Sydney don’t seem to be able to defeat Collingwood, and the Magpies in turn played well enough to win.
Adelaide 16.21 (117) def Melbourne 11.7 (73)
Adelaide are back in the winner’s circle and Melbourne are back where we thought they’d be this season,. But this was one game. And don’t let the score fool you – the conditions were not that bad so poor kicking by Adelaide was just that – poor kicking.
SANFL Round 14
Norwood 8.6 (54) def West Adelaide 6.6 (42)
Norwood back in the winner’s list with a strong, hard fought win in rough conditions.
Central District 17.7 (109) def Glenelg 11.6 (72)
Well, I guess that’s it. Centrals are back, ready to dominate the next 10 years…
Sturt 24.11 (155) hammered South Adelaide 5.8 (38)
Knew last week’s bye was a one-off. South looked so inept out there it was depressing.
North Adelaide 8.13 (61) def by Woodville-West Torrens 14.4 (88)
It was only a matter of time before the Eagles regrouped and won again.
Bye: Port Adelaide Magpies
Cricket
One Day International
1st ODI: England v Australia
Australia 7/267; England 6/268 (46 overs) – England won by 4 wickets
The Poms did it easy, taking the game without hardly raising a sweat.
2nd ODI: England v Australia
Australia 7/239; England 6/243 (45.2 overs) – England won by 4 wickets
And in similar fashion they did it again. Australia are looking like a shell of their former selves, and if they want to win the Ashes, had better pull their socks up fast…
3rd ODI: England v Australia
Australia 212 (46 overs); England 9/214 (49.1 overs) – England won by 1 wicket
Closer game but England still won and therefore clinched the best of 5 series in 3, leaving 2 dead rubbers. If the Australians want to gain anything out of this, they need to win those two games…
Netball
ANZ Championships – Semi-finals
Major Semi-Final:
Sydney Swifts 38 def by Adelaide Thunderbirds 52
In what has to be the upset of the season, the Swifts have lost their first match of the season in their first final. This means 2 things – first, Adelaide hosts the Grand final in 2 weeks and gets that vital week off; second, Sydney now have to win two sudden-death finals to take out the championship. As for the game, Adelaide won every quarter except the last and played like they knew they could win. Hard and fast. Sydney, on the other hand, played like they expected to win.
Minor Semi-Final:
Waikato / Bay of Plenty Magic 50 def Southern Steel 42
A close game, but the Magic shone through in the end. The result, I feel, is academic – the winner will now have to face a wounded and angry Swifts in Sydney, a tough task at the best of times.
Rugby League
NRL 2010 – Round 16
St George Illawarra 34 def Wests Tigers 10
This is why St George are on top of the table – they dismantled Wests with ease.
Penrith 40 def Manly 22
This was the Michael Jennings show as he scored three tries and assisted in two others.
Parramatta 6 def by Brisbane 10
As many games of defence are, a somewhat dour affair this one.
North Queensland 19 just def by Cronulla 20
Exciting game! All level after regulation time, and after extra time, so it was down to a golden point, and that was what did it. But North Queensland led by as much as 8 at one point in the game, so it seemed it as theirs to lose…
South Sydney 16 def Melbourne 14
While many are already claiming that Melbourne’s fumbles and an incomplete conversion led to their loss, South Sydney actually did look to be matching the Storm all game and deserved their hard-fought victory.
Sydney Roosters 18 def by Warriors 20
Kevin Locke put himself in hospital (literally) to give the Warriors the win in terrible conditions. The highlight of what was an intense game.
Gold Coast 16 def by Newcastle 24
The Knights led from the start and held the Titans at bay with ease.
Canberra 10 def by Canterbury-Bankstown 18
Rugby Union
International – Test
Australia 22 def Ireland 15
While it was a good win by the Australians, they were far from convincing and after their losses to England further humiliation at the hands of South Africa and New Zealand looks all but assured…
Motorsport
Formula One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V86IC6dYtos
Australian Life
As part of my revamp, I thought I would put forward my views on various aspects of Australian life and news, etc.
And what a week to start, as Australia has herself a new prime Minister. No, we didn’t have an election, no there wasn’t a coup, no the old one didn’t die in a bordello surrounded by twenty naked beauties from all around the world while the soundtrack to Edward Scissorhands played in the background. Nothing so exciting. What happened was the ruling Labor Party decided the current prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was going nowhere fast (and this after being our most popular PM in decades only half a year ago) so they ousted him and installed his deputy instead, thus giving us a new PM in time for the next election.
And she is the first female to be Prime Minister of Australia – Julia Gillard.
This has been quite the astute move by the Labor Party. While there will be some resentment from the ranks, the rest of Australia is already embracing Gillard as a person. Rudd was seen as all talk and no action; Gillard is seen as a worker. And the opposition leader Tony Abbott is already flustered in trying to deal with his new foe; he had Rudd on the back foot over so many issues, but Gillard has come out swinging and is taking the fight right up to him and the Liberal party.
This has already made the next federal election interesting.
What does this mean for the rest of the world? Absolutely nothing; we are still a country that really does not register. But we have a female in charge and so that at least should get people at least acknowledging we exist (and let’s hope they are better than the US Internet show that identified Australia as being in the region of Austria… tools. That mistake went out in the 1970s…) and could make some of the international meetings more interesting.
And that’s the View – June 22 through 28.
I’ll be back in 3 weeks (around July 18), so have a good one and enjoy yourselves and remember – too much sport is only just scraping the surface!
