An email to 2GB’s Andrew Moore who is currently calling the match between the Warriors and the Storm

G’day Andrew,

It sounds like the vuvuzelas have found their way to the NRL. Good! They grew on me during the world cup, and I’ve been suffering withdrawal symptoms ever since. When will you be giving Blocky and the Big Marn a vuvuzela each?

Have a great night!

Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

I thought Spain’s performance in extra time was much better than their performance in regular time as they abandoned their “pass the ball around as if we’re in the dying moments of an AFL match” tactic in favour of a more interesting “move the ball forward” tactic. It worked well for them, and combined with the strange Dutch attacking of players, it was enough to give them the win.

In the end, I’d rather see the tournament awarded to Germany who won a much more interesting third-place playoff yesterday, but Spain won today, and are therefore champions. I congratulate them, and hope to never see a soccer game as boring as that ever again.

Samuel

An SMS to SBS Radio 1

:

Thanks SBS for the great coverage. It’s been fantastic to listen to SBS radio while watching SBS TV. Go Holland! Lets prove that octopus wrong! Samuel, Canberra

I can’t help but feel very sorry for the fans of the Melbourne Storm right now. They, of all people, have the most right to be angry, and should be the most upset by the atrocities committed by the club’s management, and it is them that it hurts the most.

The fans are the innocent victims; they are the people who supported their club in what is already hostile territory, and they have now not only lost two premierships and three minor premierships, but have absolutely no good reason to attend a single match for the rest of this year. The Storm can not gain any points this year, can not be lifted off the bottom of the ladder, and quite frankly have no reason to bother putting in any effort on the field. The only reason they might even think about playing well is to try and prevent their hometown supporters from deserting them.

The corruption, fraud and blatant dishonesty of the powers-that-until-today-were at the Melbourne Storm deserve everything that is thrown at them. Whether criminal charges can be laid I do not know, but I have no doubts that, given the nature of the cover-up, and the devastating results of the scandal, News Limited, owners of the Storm, have every right to sue the people responsible for this travesty. And I hope they do. In fact, I hope the NRL as a whole join in.

The damage to the game is immeasurable. The NRL has worked long and hard to stamp out this sort of nonsense after the breaches of the salary cap in 2002 by the Bulldogs, and has now had all of that hard work undone by a bunch opportunistic creeps in suits. It takes a lot to make NRL Chief Executive David Gallop sound disheartened, and today he sounded absolutely shattered. His work over the last eight years has been trashed, and it was obvious that he was distraught when he fronted the press conference this afternoon.

Fans have every right to follow in Gallop’s footsteps here. This is a shock to the Storm fanbase, and to the NRL supporters in general. The entire game has been brought in to disrepute, and I wonder how long it will take the game to recover. I suspect it will take years, and for the Storm, even longer, if they recover at all.

As I said earlier, the Storm are in hostile territory. Melbourne is AFL territory, and given that the team now have the better part of the year to be unable to play a game which means anything, it could be years before the team has a decent supporter-base again, and I really do think it’s going to be struggle for them to survive over the next few years.

As many of you will know, I’m a Bulldogs fan. I was devastated by the Bulldogs’ salary cap breach and its consequences in 2002, but I was lucky in comparison as the season was almost over. The Storm find themselves in a much worse position, and with all the excitement of weekends filled with AFL down there, Storm fans would have to be very loyal indeed to continue supporting their team.

I do hope that the Storm can rebuild and recover in an honest manner, as it would be a shame to lose them from the competition due to the actions of a corrupt few. That, however, is a long-term thing. What is of more importance now is finding out who knew, how much they knew, and taking swift and decisive action against them.

In my view, everyone who is found to have been knowingly involved in this (and if it includes players, then so be it) should be sacked, fined, and banned from any involvement in the NRL for life. There can be no room for this kind of disgusting act. For those that were involved, I can only say “sack them all and sack them now”.

2GB, as one would expect from the nation’s leading NRL broadcaster, were all over this story this afternoon. Jason Morrison’s show crossed live to the press conference and then had the reaction from chief NRL commentator Ray Hadley, followed by that of callers and others. Here, courtesy of 2GB, is the audio of the press conference and Hadley’s reaction as heard on the Jason Morrison Drive Show.

Download MP3

Samuel

My prayers have been answered this afternoon. Rex Hunt and Eddie McGuie are both calling the North Melbourne V West Coast match right now.

In Melbourne on 105.1FM and in the rest of the world online at mms://wm9.streaming.telstra.com/ucs-wh_afl0live3.

This year, with a lack of the annoying Brian Taylor and the addition of Rex Hunt and Eddie McGuire, it’s more than fair to say that Triple M rocks football!

Samuel

Both Edge FM and 2AY are streaming Crocmedia’s AFL Live with chief callers Sandy Roberts and Rex Hunt.
Edge FM: http://live.edgefm.com.au:8003/edgefm.ogg
2AY: http://albury.aceradio.com.au:82/broadwave.asx

The Edge FM webstream is of a higher quality, but won’t play in Windows Media Player, whereas 2AY’s webstream will. Try both, see which one works for you. Other stations may be streaming this but I haven’t checked others at this time.

I must say that seeing as I was assured a while back that 2CA would be taking the AFL coverage and I was then corrected by Capital Radio, I am pleased to be able to find this AFL coverage online. If anybody knows of any other stations which are streaming “AFL Live” online, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Samuel

Well tonight’s the night…the start of Bulldogs Victory 2010 a week late…or if not, hopefully we can kick at least one goal tonight. Last week was humiliating but was all made better by the other Bulldogs winning the NAB Cup Grand Final.

Have a great night, and thanks for your great work filling in for Alan during the week.

Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra

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