I can’t remember if I wrote anything about 3AW dropping Rex Hunt from their AFL commentary team. I remember writing that I would not be listening to 3AW if they went ahead with it, but I can’t find any proof that I ever wrote anything after they announced that they would actually be dropping Rex.

At the same time, 3AW and Triple M swapped commentators. Rex will be calling football for Triple M on Saturday afternoons, and Brian Taylor will be going to 3AW (eep, they can keep him). Taylor will be joined by Tim Lane, further cementing my decision to steer clear of 3AW this year.

I was pleased to see Rex sign with Triple M…but I’m even more pleased to see him sign with Crocmedia who, along with 3AW, have the commercial radio relay rights for the AFL. Crocmedia, who will be basing their operation in the studios of 3BA Ballarat, have signed both Rex Hunt and Sandy Roberts.

One of things which disappointed me when Seven regained the TV rights was that they didn’t bring Sandy Roberts back to the commentary box despite Sandy being their prominent sport presenter on Seven News Melbourne and presenter of various highlights programs. This sense of frustration has been increased of late due to the fact that I have enjoyed Sandy’s commentary on the overnight AFL replays on 7Two.

Needless to say, I was therefore absolutely delighted when I found out that Sandy Roberts had signed with Crocmedia along with Rex Hunt. Sandy will call Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches, while Rex will lead the commentary on Sunday afternoons.

Alas, I’m informed that Crocmedia will not be able to stream their coverage online, however they do have a growing network of relay stations which will be taking their coverage. The great news for those of us here in Canberra is that 1053 2CA will be taking the Crocmedia coverage, although I’m not sure at this stage which matches they will be covering. I’m hopeful that they will cover it as much as they did back when they relayed 3AW a few years ago…Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I’ll let you know when I find out more.

(A side note to Capital Radio management: this information was not obtained at the Ray Hadley OB on Friday, which can be confirmed by a quick look back through my Facebook status updates. You will see that I first learned of this mid-last week. I won’t reveal how I came by this information though.)

Image courtesy of Crocmedia

Samuel

4: Master O’Reilly
6: Roman Emperor
17: Spin Around

Maritz provided a lengthy and hard to follow tip, however she has condensed it to:
3: Fiumicino, because of the number 859.

As usual, results will be posted as they come in, including the full list of finishers in their order of finishing.

If you have a gambling problem, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or the relevant support group in your jurisdiction.

Samuel

Firstly:

it’ll be Dogs V Broncos

Wrong! It was Storm V Eels.

Next (from same link):

there will be at least 46 points scored.

Wrong! The full time score was 23 to 16. 23 + 16 = 39

Then:

I reckon the Broncos will be premiers

Wrong! The Broncos didn’t make it to the grand final.

Finally (from the same link):

if it’s Eels V Storm [..] then it’ll be an Eels premiership

Wrong! The Storm defeated the Eels 23 to 16.

Four predictions. No correct predictions. 0% accuracy.

When I’m cold, I’m contributing to the ongoing increase of polar ice levels.

Samuel

G’day Ray, Andrew and the team.

One very happy Dogs supporter down here in Canberra, with the 32-nil win by the Bulls over the Tigers.

Some great up-and-coming talent in that side, including the goalkicker, 300-pointer Brent Crisp who went to my College down here in the ACT!

Thanks for another great year of NRL calling. Enjoy the off-season for those of you who get one.

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

Tokyo was eliminated moments later, leaving Rio and and Madrid in the running.

Update 2:55am: Rio wins! The 2016 Olympics will be in Rio.

Samuel

G’day Andrew,

I’m shattered about last night, but about the Jarryd Hayne incident…even as a die-hard Dogs fan, I don’t see any problem with it, there was no malice, and I’ll be ropeable if he gets suspended.

Have a great night guys. I’m not overly fussed about the season now, but I reckon the Broncos will be premiers, although if it’s Eels V Storm next week then it’ll be an Eels premiership.

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

Footnote: An article about the Jarryd Hayne incident can be found here.

This week and for some of next week, the AFL in partnership with Toyota are sending a bunch of AFL players around Victoria and bits of New South Wales for footy clinics with school kids and I had the opportunity to meet up with them when they came through Deniliquin this afternoon. As part of their show, they get the kids to make as much noise as they can to coax a “mystery guest” out of a box…the mystery guest being the AFL Premiership Cup. The kids are told that this is “the cup which will be won at the Grand Final”.

You can imagine my surprise then, when I saw on Nine News this evening, a story about an announcement by the AFL that performers from the stage show Jersey Boys will be singing the national anthem before the match starts…and they were posing with the Premiership Cup in Melbourne…a cup which I was led to believe was travelling through Cobram, Deniliquin and Echuca throughout the day, and more importantly, the school kids were led to believe was right in front of them.

So, Australian Football League, where is the real cup?

It looks like I have some extra phone calls to make tomorrow.

Samuel

If it weren’t for the fact that the AFL teams are still flying all over the country and games are still being played under lights, I might take it a bit more seriously and continue my boycott…however considering that it’s just a laughable token gesture, I will just write to Andrew Demetriou to express my disgust at his strange “Green Round” instead.

The bottom line on this is, if I can make a profit from some cuckoo bloke’s nuttery, then why wouldn’t I? I’m profiting…the AFL are losing by buying the greatest con of recent times, carbon credits. I win and capitalism wins. I’m much happier now.

Samuel

The issue of climate change affects us all, the game we all know and love is being severely impacted by climate change
[..]
the footy community from grass roots through to the AFL, the clubs, our corporate partners and the stadiums are banding together and calling in the experts to come up with solutions to save our game and ensure its healthy future

What utter drivel. Need I remind Andrew Demetriou, CEO of the AFL, that global temperatures haven’t risen for the better part of the last decade?

On second thoughts, I won’t waste my breath on the bloke playing with a green football in press photos (yep, green footballs this weekend…and green flags, and umpires in green uniforms, and recycling logos everywhere), instead I’ll just boycott the AFL this weekend.

That’s right Andrew. I will not be watching, listening, commenting or otherwise on the matches this weekend. I won’t even be paying attention to the results. And I will repeat this every time you pull this stunt.

AFL Green Round, Round 20 of 2009, is hereby officially boycotted.

Samuel

The board will submit golf and rugby sevens — a faster-paced version of the standard 15-a-side game — for ratification by the full 106-member IOC assembly in Copenhagen in October.

The board also gave final approval to the inclusion of women’s boxing in the 2012 London Olympics. Boxing had been the only summer Olympic sport without women competitors.
[..]
Golf was played at the 1900 Paris Olympics and 1904 St. Louis Games. The sport’s backers say bringing the game back into the Olympics would help it develop worldwide, noting many governments only fund Olympic sports.

Tiger Woods and other top players have indicated they would play in the Olympics if golf gets the nod from the IOC.

“Golf is a truly global sport and it should have been in the Olympics a while ago,” Woods said Tuesday. “If it does get in, it would be great for golf and some of the other small countries that are now emerging in golf.”

Golf proposes a 72-hole stroke-play competition for men and women, with 60 players in each field. The world’s top 15 players would qualify automatically, and all major professional tours would alter tournament schedules to avoid a clash with the Olympics.

Rugby, which was played in four different Olympics between 1900 and 1924 in the full 15-a-side format, proposes the 7-a-side version for both men and women. The International Rugby Board would scrap its Sevens World Cup to ensure the Olympics is the sport’s top event.

Final approval of the two sports will require a simple majority vote by the full IOC in October. It’s unclear whether they will be voted on individually or together.

Rugby I care less about as an Olympic sport, but I do think it should probably be there.

Samuel

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope today announced Royal Canberra Golf Club would host the Women’sAustralian Open as part of the 2013 Centenary of Canberra celebrations.

“I am delighted this hallmark tournament will be played at Royal Canberra during Canberra’s Centenary and have no doubt it will be one of the highlights of the year,” Mr Stanhope said.

“This four day championship, during Canberra’s 100th birthday year, will attract many of the world’s best female golfers and bring strong interstate crowds to Canberra.

“The Women’s Open will also enhance Canberra’s reputation as an international sporting destination while promoting the centenary celebrations to millions of television viewers around Australia, across Asia and the northern hemisphere.

Oh yes, because Slӧrdge, watching the golf on his television in Norway, is really going to ring his travel agent and book a holiday in Canberra when realises that we’re the town of one hundred candles. He might even bring his rugby union team with him to marvel at Canberra Stadium, which doesn’t spent most of the year under snow.

Seriously Jon, that you’ve got a major golf tournament to come to Canberra at a yet-to-be-decided date is great, but don’t expect it to do any more for our international standing than the GMC 400 did.

Samuel

The Seven feed came back within a minute.

Samuel

Would it be so hard to make a little exception for a special event and do what you do during the cricket…delay A Current Affair? Do you not realise that the NRL coverage would kill Today Tonight in the ratings?

Such a shame that I didn’t notice this before 11am, as I would have nominated them for Jerk Of The Week.

Samuel

That could have made the umpire move … but it didn’t

Turn on the ABC Radio coverage only to find them plugging abc.net.au/sport for a good couple of minutes…then they returned to Cardiff, and spend the next five minutes plugging the fact that you can send them emails and text messages, followed by the commentators confusing each other about Twitter.

And I thought Nine’s commentators were bad…

Update: Now that ABC Radio’s commentators (via BBC Radio) have started talking about the cricket again, it is quite clear that they are much better than the commentators on SBS (via Sky TV UK). It’s just a pity that the TV coverage is, as usual for sport covered on TV and radio, behind the radio coverage by a handful of seconds.

Anyhoo, I think I’ll turn the cricket off and watch Godzilla. A good CG monster movie sounds like a good cure for a lack of anything except cricket on television to me.End Update

Further Update: I will, however, give SBS credit for screening the cricket in high definition, and Sky UK credit for having better, and less intrusive, graphics than Nine. End Update

Samuel

I’m tipping a close encounter (although there may be some decent margins at times) with Queensland winning by five points.

Samuel

The result, however, when a large group of them got together (for a scrum, for example) was a fog, through which it was difficult to see all of the players.

I maintain that it is not cold tonight, indeed it is currently 0.9 degrees. It will be cold though if the temperature continues to fall. I think the Bureau’s rounded overnight low of 1 degree was wishful thinking.

Meanwhile Rex Hunt is singing on 3AW. The fat lady sings. Richmond are home…even if Denis Cometti does think they look like Richmond, which is not a compliment.

Samuel

It’s 4.5 degrees outside right now according to the Bureau…I could quite happily go for a walk for an hour or so without a coat right now…but alas I’m inside listening to 3AW’s AFL coverage, and later I will be watching The Bill.

Samuel

Many thanks to 3AW’s Graeme Bond for saving me a bit of work tonight.

Samuel

FORMER Queensland State of Origin star Ben Ikin has stormed out of Channel Nine only hours before he was supposed to be commentating on tonight’s showdown in Melbourne.

A furious Ikin phoned Nine’s director of sport Steve Crawley early this afternoon to resign from all his commentary duties.
[..]
Ikin, who is the son-in-law of super coach Wayne Bennett, is angry that Channel Nine’s A Current Affair is doing an investigation tonight into a business owned by his father on the Gold Coast.
[..]
Steve Crawley confirmed Ikin had quit but refused to comment, other than saying, “”At this stage I’m just concentrating on getting the telecast right for tonight.’’

Ah well, it just makes the already superior coverage on 2GB that little bit better. Best wishes to Ben, I hope he pops up on Foxtel or radio in the near future.

Samuel

I would have loved to be there, but didn’t buy tickets as I knew that I would be too tired to get there in time. As it happened, I was right, and slept until 1:30pm and ended up watching the game on Southern Cross Ten whilst listening to the other match, North Melbourne V Brisbane, on 3AW Football. It’s the first time (as far as I can recall) that Rex Hunt has sent the fat lady around the grounds to sing for a match which they aren’t covering…mid-way through the second quarter, and again near half time.

Now listening to the Friday edition of the The Rush Limbaugh Show (not a typo), and later tonight The Bill is on ABC1.

Samuel