I'm excited!

The Pies have a tought task this week, Port Adelaide are starting to make some moves towards the 8 and have finally started to get that winning feeleing. Well, it all stops here. They'll leave Telstra Dome with their lightning bolts between their legs. Going to see the game with my Bro and a neighbour of his, we'll be the ones in the black and white gear, I'll make sure I wave to the cameras. Good news is that Eddie (channel 9) had to call Eddie (Collingwood Prez) to ask Eddie (Prez) if they could show the game live. There were hats flying all over the place at Eddie's mansion today. Why Live? So they can show the Tennis live and not miss a c'mon!!!
Round 14 Teams

Little Lleyton is through to the semis and as predicted, will play Roger Fedora. This will be either a classic grass court slam fest over 5 gruelling sets, or just another Roger whitewash. He's had the wood on Hewitt and I'm sure they both know it. Good luck anyway, Aussie Lleyton.

The cricketers are just creeping along, getting better with every game. The are playing the Bangers tonight and last I saw they had them at 5 for 80. Not too interested in that tonight, going to watch the amazing race soon. There may be a break in transmission.
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Still watching the Amazing Race, they are in India, oh boy the Kaos.
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Oh well, the old couple have made it through to the final 4 and the boyfriends have been booted.

So anyway.....

The Aussie girls lost in the netball last night. What the hell happened there? Irene Van Dyk is what happened there. She equalled the world record for test appearances, I'm sure she was a South African at one stage. Anyway, the Silver Ferns won 50-43, the Aussie were inaccurate and basically, stuffed it up.

That Andrew Bogut made Australian basketball history by becoming the first ever number 1 draft pick in the NBA. Great for him, but when he starts playing, the word on the street is that the rest of the players are gonna give him one hell of an introduction to the big leagues. He apparently shot his mouth off and slagged off some great Australian players as well as some yanks. Not the best move in the world, be interested to see how he goes though. He does have game.


Now, this guy is apparently coming to Melbourne Storm. Michael Crocker is his name and he's supposed to be good.
I'll need some Sydney siders input here. League is not my game.








And finally, what the hell is happening at Football Australia? Why sack the coach 5 months before we play some south american team (unknown as yet) for a place in the World Cup finals? Whoever takes on the job is on a hiding to nothing. Get Frank back, sack him if we don't make the finals. Typical of why this game will never get to where the other football codes are at in this country.

Game Over.

Buckley. My Hero.

Well, the great man made his return and short of kicking the winning goal, he played a brilliant captain's game. The scary thing is, that he thinks he can improve. It was another nail biter, with only 30 seconds to go, Didak had the chance to soccer through an unlikely goal, but the bastard of a ball skided away from him and slid through for a point. Let's not dwell on the timekeeping issue, that's been done to death and the offenders have been sacked.

This week we take on the premiers of last year, Port Adelaide. I think we are going to win this and I'm gonna get along and barrack as loudly as I can. GO PIES!!!!

Cricket.

And over in England, the Aussies are finally showing the poms how to play cricket. The press over there will soon have to change their tune as Ponting's boys show them the reason why they are world champions at both forms of the game.

Basketball.

The NBA final was eventually won by the Spurs, in a very entertaining final game, they pretty much seemed to fall over the line by a handful of points. They were behind mid way through the game, but fought back to regain the title.

Soccer.

Brazil v Argentina in the final of the confederations cup.

Tennis.

The Hewitt kiddy looks like he's going to make the semi-final at Wimbledon, where he is expected to play against Federer. I think LH has a mental block when he plays Roger, he just can't seem to get past him. C'mon Lleyton!!!

Buckley is back. Yeah!!!!!

Finally, the captain is back. It's been a wretched year for the skipper and finally he gets his chance to lead the team out since round 1. I for one am glad to see him back and would have loved to have been in the habour city to watch it, but things being things, we couldn't go this year. Maybe next year.

Round 13 team selections


Jim Clement has been in outstanding form this year, he is my favourite player. Leands by example and never gives up. He even thinks we can make the finals. I guess it is still mathematically possible (as the coodabeens would say).

James Clement speaks

The Tennis went as expected last night. When I heard Philapousis say that he was in good form (after round 1) and that he knew what he had to do to win and his attitude was right and blah and bling and so on, I just knew he was going to lose, especially after I found out he was playing the World no 2, Marat Safin. Well he lost, but not real badly, 7/6, 7/6, 6/4 is a pretty good score line. Not as the papers made out, that he was thrashed. It would seem to me that he only lost one service game in the third, how is that a trashing? Anyway, the Hewitt kiddy is still there and the only realistic chance of making the quarter finals.

For the benefit of my little one, here is the current ladder.
West Coast Eagles
Melbourne
Adelaide
Geelong
Kangaroos
Sydney Swans
Richmond
Port Adelaide
St Kilda
Brisbane Lions
Western Bulldogs
Fremantle
Collingwood
Essendon
Hawthorn
Carlton

Well, that's about it for tonight. Keeping an eye on the cricket, see if the Aussies can win a game.

See ya's.

Clokeeeey appears. 1977 style scanlans footy card. 

When too much sport is never enough.

Sports lovers unite. Tis the time of year when multitudes of sports fans gather and marvel at the prowess of many a great sports men and women. And this year is a bit of a leap year when it comes to sports.

We start with the regular fare of Aussie rules and that rugby league thing they play up north.

The yearly trek to Wimbledon to see the worlds finest smack cat gut against a felt covered air conveyance on slippery painted grass.

The US open golf where we wait to see which Aussie hero can almost make a charge to the top of the leader board only to blow out on the final day with a 7 over 79.

There is usually a formula one grand prix being staged somewhere in the world, although that last race was just one massive farce. How can you call a race between 6 cars a “race”? Shame! Bernie, Shame!

There’s a MotoGP race somewhere in the world as well, god knows where, but it will be on Fox Sports 2 on Sunday night, just have to look out for it.

They’ll be garlic, berets, wine and 2 wheelers of the pushy kind as the tour de France gets underway next week. Somehow, watching cyclists racing up and down roads, mountains and cobblestones doesn’t get any better than when it’s in France.

There is also the spectacle of the NBA finals, Spurs v Pistons.

Then on top of all this feasting, there’s a soccer tournament which includes Australia in the final eight against some powerhouse teams (out in straight sets though).

AND, to top it all off, the mother of all conflicts, the battle for the Ashes!!!

What’s a poor boy supposed to do? There must be a good 300 hours worth of sport for the viewing over the next month or so, and only so many long play video tapes to collect it on. Then when do you watch them?

“You could always just read about it in the paper the following day!”

What? Who said that? Hush thy mouth.

The pleasure is in the viewing, catching those defining moments, the great mark, the unbelievable catch, the six over mid-wicket to beat the Poms, the tumble of the guy in the yellow jersey onto the cobblestones, the clutch 3 pointer in double overtime to win the series, the spraying of the champagne by the victor and the sports nut falling asleep on the couch and missing all the good bits. That’s what is important.

Shaw thing.

I thought of this as I was driving home. Why is it that you have all the great thoughts but nowhere to jot them down. oops, I digress.

The other day, mick malthouse made an ill informed comment, ie, he was lead down the garden path by a crap journo and mick swallowed the bait and laid the boots into Tony Shaw. An apology came the following day, but I say, bad luck Shaw(r)y. Since he left the pies (on the bottom of the ladder) he has done very little except try his hardest to be objective, but in doing so has swung the boots into us on many occasions. More so than into any other team, and he's very good at the "I told you so's".

He also make statements that get my blood boiling as he (like a typical shock jock) makes statements without any information or just perpetuates a lie he's heard on the grape vine. I wish 3AW would give him the chop, he adds nothing and I can usually hear the embarrassment in the voices of his colleagues. I think that tree he hit while out jogging did some major damage.

So that's what I thought about on the way home.....

Go Pies.

The Pies.

Well, after a few weeks of pretty good footy, we fell away in the 2nd half against the demons. Starting to hate the demons again, just like the glory days of the late 80's, i'm not old enough to remember the 50's & 60's.

We just looked a bit flat in the last quarter, especially after the injury to Rhyce Shaw. He's impressed most fans this year with his run and even his kicking has improved (although his first kick against the dees went into the crowd). Much improved andcould have won the copeland this year. I'm sure the coach is devastated to see him on the sidelines now.

A week off to rest our weary voices, at least we've had plenty to cheer about and been singing the song out loud.