AFL: Round 7
NRL: Round 8- Broncos Belted By Bennett’s Bunnies
Souths 38 defeated Broncos 6 @ ANZ Stadium
That feeling you get when you’ve smacked the team that gave you the arse a few months ago.
A vintage Wayne Bennett sight, as his former son Darius Boyd celebrated his 300th game, and just like me, he spent most of the game flat on his back watching the Rabbits run in try after try, as what remains of his dignity flutters by with every defensive slip-up.
GI was farewelled by the Bunnies faithful, and the players celebrated every try with a Goanna.. Again, and again, and again, and again, you get the point.
After a few weeks of ‘winning’, Souths are back to Charlie Sheen ‘WINNING’.
North Queensland 28 defeated Gold Coast 14 @ 1300SMILES Stadium
JT may be gone, but JT also came back and played 5/8th for the Boys, but Thurston’s spirit lives on in another John.
John Asiata.
As you can see on the clock, there was only 13 minutes to go, and that chip onto the green gave the Cowboys the break they needed, and it seemed to break the hearts of the Titans, who eventually allowed Justin O’Neill to walk in for a relatively soft try with 90 seconds left.
Cronulla 20 defeated Melbourne 18 @ Shark Park
I find it funny that on the same night as the Leaders Forum, both of Shorten’s (Collingwood) and Morrison’s (Cronulla) teams ended up winning.
Not that ScoMo cared, since he and Bill were too busy caring about Space Invaders.
Not only did the Sharks manage to pull off this upset without pretty much every big name except Paul Gallen, it was the virtual no-names like
Kyle Flanagan and Braden Hamlin-Uele who upset the Storm, to the point that the last play of the game was a crap run up the middle by Cameron ‘Eddie’ Munster, instead of the usual Storm magical bullcrap, which caused Craig Bellamy to flip his lid.
“I’m not going to sit here and bullshit to you,”
Source: Fox Sports
“At the moment, we aren’t playing games out like Storm teams play them out and that’s what we need to get better at.”
“That’s one thing I think we’ve been pretty strong at over the years, but the last couple of weeks I’m starting to doubt that this group has got that. And we better find that or I’ll be finding some new players.”
I personally would’ve threatened to deport all of them, that usually gets a response.
Canberra 30 defeated Penrith 12 @ McDonalds Park, Wagga
Joey Leilua was all set to play his 200th game… and then he didn’t play at all, thanks a neck issue.
This game was at McDonalds Park, but the Panthers sure weren’t lovin’ it, ba da bup ba ba!
It was a dog day out for the Mountain Men- Isaah Yeo, Viliame Kikau and Malakai Watene-Zelezniak were all injured, with Yeo out for the year and Kikau out for 6 weeks, and captain James Maloney will be joining them for at least a fortnight, thanks to a chicken wing on John Bateman, and dumping Josh Hodgson on his bonce in a tackle, earning him a suspension from the judiciary.
Saving Freddie the trouble of clearing the Blues of Panthers players himself.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, Bateman’s push for his inevitable Dally M crowning has come undone, after copping a nasty fractuted eye socket in a seperate incident, which will put him out for at least six weeks.
A win, but a costly win.
Reuben Garrick 18 defeated Canterbury 10 @ Brookvale
The Doggies warmed up for the Des Deathmatch by sacking most of their front office, which was part of the reason we even had a Des Deathmatch in the first place.
Usually, the Bulldogs wait until after the season ends to humiliate themselves, so they’re improving.
But a lot of good it did the visitors, as in a battle between Manly’s key injuries and the Berries’ inconsistent form, it was the visitors who proved themselves consistently inconsistent, even as Manly lost Addin Fonua-Blake for pretty much the entire game.
An amazing effort by Reuben Garrick to defeat Canterbury by himself, and that no look pass he made to Reuben Garrick in the first half was amazing, followed by his offload to set up Reuben Garrick, and then Reuben managed to defend every Dogs player in the 2nd half, and knocked through the penalty goals to secure a tough 2 points for the Sea Eagles without Reuben Garrick DCE, and leave the Doggies anchored to the bottom.
Reuben Garrick.
Latrell Mitchell 42 defeated Wests Tigers 12 @ The Sydney Cricket Ground
Latrell Mitchell is a fair dinkum freak, to the point that the entire State of Queensland is shuddering at the thought of him setting foot on Lang Park…
Next week of course, because it’s Magic Round at Suncorp!
Not since Siegfried and Roy has someone demonstrated such mastery of Tigers- 202 metres gained, 7/7 off the boot, and a hat-trick on the side to rack up 26 points as the Roosters turned an 18-12 lead with 30 minutes to play into an absolute bloodbath and retain top spot from their centuries old rivals.
Newcastle 36 defeated New Zealand 18 @ Mt Smart Stadium
Now THIS is the Knights team that everyone in the Hunter wanted to show up in 2019, and boy did they back up that Eels win, and it came through the failed arranged marriage halves pairing- Mitchell Pearce and Kailyn Ponga.
Pearce scored a try, set up two others, and produced one of the best field kicking performances this season, blunting his former Roosters teammate Roger Tuivasa-Sheck by kicking for the corners, giving the Knights ample time to cover RTS on his runbacks, although the Dally M Medalist was coming back from a hamstring injury.
It was simple, and it worked.
And then throw in Ponga, who scored a try of his own, knocked through 8/9 shots at goal, and ended up on report for a pretty blatant trip on Chanel Harris-Tavita.
Just highlighting how even it is in the midpack, in the span of a fortnight, the Knights have rocketed from 15th to 10th and are now just a game outside of the Top 8, and have a better PD than the three teams (Cronulla, St George & Wests) above them.
Kodi Nikorima might get a shrine built in his honour in Auckland if he turns this Warriors team around.
Parramatta 32 defeated St George Illawarra 18 @ Bankwest Stadium
For the second week in a row, the Dragons scored a monster try that left us gobsmacked.
And for the second week in a row, the Dragons lost.
After the Red V got going to a 14-nil lead, Reed Mahoney crossed for the Eels to give them a shout going into the break, and the Eels turned it on coming out of the sheds, scoring twice to lead 18-14, although Ravalawa responded and tied the scores at 18 apiece.
And then Blake Ferguson showed up, scored a try and then backflipped just to rub it in, as the Eels romped to a 26-4 2nd half to stay unbeaten in Western Sydney Stadium.
Against his former team, Corey Norman copped the worst of it, suffering a cheek fracture and joining the Dragons’ growing injury list.
A-League: Semi Finals
90% of Australians wouldn’t have been aware that the finals series had begun, which is a nice indicator on how poorly the FFA market the game.
People go on about how football will one day rise up and destroy the traditional sporting codes of Australian Rules and Rugby League… not with the current mob running the game, it won’t.
Melbourne Victory 3 defeated Wellington Phoenix 1 @ AAMI Park
A game that pretty much went exactly to script for the Victory, as the Phoenix had no answer to their well-balanced line-up, led up front by the Swede from Sweden, Ola Toivonen, who was borderline unplayable to the Phoenix defenders, and in between getting hacked at, he finished off the Kiwis, just a few minutes after Roy Krishna had given them a slim chance.
Just like a Volvo XC90, Ola is big, he’s from Sweden, and like a three-point harness, he’ll probably save your life in a major incident.
Manager Mark Rudan already announced he was leaving the Phoenix and now the true battle begins for the Kiwis- KEEP KRISHNA.
GUESS WHAT EVERYBODY- THERE’S ANOTHER BIG BLUE FINAL NEXT SUNDAY!
Adelaide United 1 defeated Melbourne City 0 A.E.T @ Hindmarsh Stadium
Shortly after the Crows and Dockers had slaughtered each other in a bloody war of attrition at the Adelaide Oval, just over three miles to the west, another Adelaide team soon found themselves locked in a sudden death fight against their visitors.
The Reds failed to crack City’s disciplined backline throughout the 90 minutes, although it should be said the visitors actually created the the better chances in the 2nd half, but neither team troubled the scorers, and so, an A-League final went into Extra Time.. as is tradition.
With the dreaded penalty shootout looming, the hero emerged in the form of Ben Halloran, who sent United on a one-way ticket across the Nullarbor in the 119th minute, when he took advantage of an error from Ritchie de Laet to slot home the only goal of the night past former United goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic, giving Adelaide their first finals win since the 2016 Grand Final, and setting up a death match against the Perth Glory for a spot in the decider.
If that is the end of Warren Joyce’s tenure as City coach, it truly was utterly forgettable.
Super Rugby: Round 12
Apparently the Junior Wallabies beat New Zealand 24-nil to win the U20 Oceania Title, so if they could just re-title ‘Oceania U20s’ with ‘Bledisloe Cup’, that’d be greeeaaat.
Reds 32 defeated Sunwolves 26 @ Suncorp Stadium
To say the least, the discipline was somewhat lacking from both teams- The Sunwolves racked up 5 yellow cards and had Semisi Masirewa sent off, reducing the Japanese down to 14 for the final half-hour, and the Reds spent the final five minutes down to 14 men thanks to forward Harry Hockings getting a rude awakening from the TMO, when he decided to stick a boot in Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco’s face to stop him holding his leg, an offence which The Samurai Hyphen ended up finishing the game in the sin bin for.
At various moments, it was 15 against 13, and the game finished up as 14 against 12- It makes you wonder how the Reds didn’t pour at least 20 points on the Sunwolves in that time, instead of defending to save themselves an inglorious defeat and the wrath of Brad Thorn.
Then again, this is Australian rugby.
This is how bad the discipline was- Rugby Australia won’t even show the replays!
Hurricanes 29 defeated Rebels 19 @ Westpac Stadium
The last time the teams played in the ‘Cake Tin’ the Hurricanes won 71-6, and thanks to usual wonder of Beauden Barrett, the ‘Canes smoked the Rebels within the opening 20 minutes, racing out to a 26-nil lead and looking set to open a 10 kilo can of whoopass on the Rebels.
BUT, if you conveniently ignore that opening quarter of the game, the Rebels matched the former champions for almost the entire evening, especially in the scrums, where the ‘Canes were repeatedly penalised for the front row collapsing, and yet despite giving away 12 penalties, there wasn’t a single card from the referee.
Brumbies 26 defeated Blues 21 @ GIO Stadium
Folau Fainga’a would have to be the preferred Folau in Australian sport, especially now that he’s the leading tryscorer in Super Rugby following his hat-trick on Saturday night, which got the Brumbies back in the winners circle, and makes them the only Australian team to defeat multiple New Zealand teams this season.
That’s now 10 tries from 11 games for Fainga’a!
Bulls 28 defeated Waratahs 21 @ Loftus Versfield
A blown chance for the ‘Tahs against the new South African Conference leaders, after they originally overcame a 21-7 deficit to the scores at 21 with 10 minutes to play, but a try to the tighthead prop Simphiwe Matanzima put the Bulls ahead, and despite the ‘Tahs being in a position to tie the scores late on, the hosts won the ball in the scrum and held on to win, although the ‘Tahs did earn a bonus point.
Does any team actually want to win the Aussie Conference?
Super Netball: Round 2
Queensland Firebirds 57 drew with Collingwood 57 @ QSNC
Four quarters played and the race is run, no one’s lost, and no one’s won.
It’s a draw, both the teams are even, and there’s nothing left to sayyyyy!
When the siren ends the game, and the scores are both the same, only netball’s the winner, today!
Sunshine Coast Lightning 80 defeated West Coast Fever 55 @ RAC Arena
A rematch of last year’s Grand Final and it was a first round knockout the way of the back-to-back champions, as they played like the Yin to the Fever’s Yang.
It seems like the Fever don’t have a major second shooting option behind Jhaniele Fowler, who managed 51/55 goals, but after that it was nothing, mainly thanks to the squeeze from the South African duo Karla Pretorius and Phumza Maweni, who shut down Kaylia Stanton.
NSW Swifts 61 defeated Adelaide Thunderbirds 43 @ Quaycentre
After both teams scored upset wins in Round One, it was the New South Welshladies who dominated from start to finish, taking all 8 points on offer in a relatively low scoring game.
It was the 2nd term that did the damage for the Swifts, outscoring the visitors 21-10 to lead 35-21 heading into the half, another top display from
Swifts duo Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner on Sarah Glasgow and Maria Folau.
Melbourne Vixens 61 defeated GWS 45 @ Melbourne Arena
Giants captain Kim Green played her 200th club game, in a career spanning the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, the ANZ Championship and Super Netball, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Giants from losing again, this time to the defensive choker hold from of the Vixens, who racked up 9 intercepts and 8 deflected passes from their defensive trio of Ingles, Mannix and Weston.
The Vixens took home all 8 points to race to the top of the ladder, alongside the Swifts on 15 points
The Horses: D.Oliver 3 Votes, and 2 Group Ones
The first day of the Adelaide Carnival was dominated by the Hall of Fame hoop from WA, who for all we know, raced up somewhere between his 112th and 113th, or his 116th and 117th Group Ones wins, moving him to within striking distance of George Moore’s record of 119.
Although if you count it from when Group One racing ‘began’ in 1979, then Ollie has the record.
The first leg was his win aboard Princess Jenni in the Australasian Oaks, his fourth win in the Classic- He used the filly’s gate and picked through the gaps in the straights, and was too strong for the likes of Mirette and House of Cartier.
Then he pulled off the best ride anywhere on the continent on Saturday, by doing what nobody had done before in the Bob Sangster- Get Spright to win a Group One.
Spright was stone cold last, spotting the favourite Cool Passion a big start, but she demolished her rivals with a superb turn of foot, in the end turning around a some 6L deficit to win by a length.
It was also the maiden Group One victory for Hawkesbury-based trainer Gary Frazer!
ATP Challengers- Max Purcell in Seoul
A good result for 21-year-old Sydneysider Max Purcell, plugging away on the Challenger tour- Reaching his first singles final in three years in the Seoul Challenger, but unfortunately lost two tight sets to local Kwon Soon-woo, before buttering up with his compatriot Luke Saville to win the doubles title!
MOTORSPORT MONDAY COMING UP NEXT!
JT's Sporting Reviews 