First up today, a glowing endorsement of Phil Rothfield, by his long time friend, Phil Gould.

Barely a week into the AFL season return and Eddie Betts gets a case of online racial abuse

Deadset disgusting – And the bloke had the gall to claim he was hacked, which, based on his tweet history, it appears he’s been hacked quite a few times.

On the bright side, it was good to see people call that racist prick out – Blues captain Sam Dochety went in to bat for his beloved teammate, and, given the bloke supposedly described himself as an Essendon supporter, the Bombers seemed to take responsibility and released a statement apologising to Eddie and the Indigenous community, and doing the customary investigation to find out if he is a member.

On another note, with all the crying over spilled milk about players kneeling, Fremantle provided the perfect PR response to a dickhead threatening to cancel his membership if Dockers players kneeled on Saturday – Which they did.

“Here’s your refund, now **** off.”

A story about life in the Gold Coast hub with the WA teams

By Channel 7 Perth’s Ryan Daniels.

The only thing it needed to make it a true Gold Coast experience was the bloke offering Ryan a pill of foreign extraction.

Kevin Roberts knifed by Cricket Australia

He was already widely despised for the job he did leading CA during the 2018 pay negotiations, but the apparent crux of the problem?

Numbers and estimations apparently weren’t his strong point, which caused CA’s “botched” response to cutting the fat during COVID-19.

From the Fox Sports article

“Roberts’ call to stand down 80 per cent of Cricket Australia staff has ultimately cost him his job, with furore growing among staff who have been kept in the dark about cricket’s apparent crisis described by one Test legend as a “premature panic”.

A few paragraphs down…

“The decision to stand staff down created headlines with an apparent saving of just $3 million coming about by working with skeleton staff, as Roberts preached a $20 million saving in expenses during the period.”

Only $17 million bucks off.

A bloody mess.

Well, at least they aren’t Major League Baseball.

Another copyright attack against Robelinda2

For those of you who don’t bother binge watching old cricket videos when you procrastinate, I should explain the situation.

Robelinda, aka Rob Moody, is a remarkable source of every bit of solid gold cricketing footage, from Dizzy’s double hundred, to the glory days of players hitting the ING Sign for $50,000, to a half-hour compilation of Ricky Ponting running people out.

In short, he’s a certified legend.

But, in a situation that has happened dozens of times before (Rob describes his channel as “virtually teetering on the edge of complete obliteration all the time”), he was hit with a Copyright takedown notice for some 2,000 videos on YouTube and Twitter by Cricket Australia.

Considering what happened today, it may have been Kevin Roberts in his last act of revenge as boss, because after dozens of current & former players sprang to his side, Cricket Australia spoke up hours later and confirmed the copyright claims had been an error.

Based on another message that Moody posted, the problem most likely started because of a lawyer in Bangalore acting on behalf of Cricket Australia, who were probably going across the world wide web and making copyright claims willy nilly.

I think this also brings up another point of discussion that I’ve seen for years on /r/cricket.

How useless and stingy cricket’s governing bodies are at giving fans classic pieces of footage.

The ICC, Cricket Australia, the BCCI in India and the ECB in the UK do next to nothing with the classic footage they own, then, when someone like Robelinda comes along and actually generates plenty of interest in the game free of charge, they sic their dogs on to him.

Creating an online archive where fans could pay a small amount per month to access and view pieces of cricketing history would do a rip roaring trade.

What also got lost in today’s news is that once again, the ECB hit Rob with a DMCA takedown of James Anderson blocking out a 2014 Test against Sri Lanka, which ended with England losing the match and the series.

No wonder those jammy wankers wanted it taken down.

I see a simple solution for Cricket Australia, and one where we’d all win.

HIRE ROB.

The first AFL Round with no Bird wins since Round 6, 2004

Apparently that stat is genuine.

Obviously this week it was Magpies = Draw, Hawks = Creamed, Crows = Creamed, Eagles = Creamed, Swans = Narrow loss.

Going back through the record books:

Round 6, 2004:

The Hawks lost to Richmond by a point (In a wooden spoon preview), the Swans (By funny coincidence) lost to Essendon, the Eagles lost the Derby to Fremantle, the Crows were pumped by Geelong, and the Magpies lost to Port Adelaide.

True story – I was one of the half-time Auskickers for that Derby, and I still have the ticket.

Those wooden benches were good fun.

The least controversial Rising Star nomination in living memory

Matt Rowell.

Matt Rowell?

Matt Rowell.

V’Landys considers buying a private jet for the NRL

The long-term reasons do make sense, especially with money as scarce as ever – It saves seven figures on interstate accommodation by flying teams out on game day, then another big brain idea is leasing it to A-League and Super Rugby teams (And other parties) to use in the summer.

A suggestion like that deserves an extra idea:

Channel 9 and News Corp agree.

The Raiders OFFICIALLY put in an application to play in Canberra from July

It makes sense that a team in Canberra would request to play games in Canberra, unless unwashed protesters start a second wave.

In this current situation of playing their games at Campbelltown, it’s like a team called the Brisbane Bears playing home games on the Gold Coast.

The A-League is back next month!

Quite ironic that Fox Sports are celebrating it, given they won’t pay a cent to the FFA until they get a revised deal.

Also, I don’t about you, but I do think Fox are pulling a stereotype with that photo – An Albanian doing an out of context Aryan salute….

Royal Ascot starts tonight

It’s going to be a desolate carnival this year, so here’s what will probably always remain my all-time favourite moment for an Aussie at the famous carnival.

West Aussie Scenic Blast giving the soap dodgers a pasting in the 2009 King’s Stand.

And I can’t forget Miss Andretti setting the 1000m record in the 2007 edition at 57.44 seconds – Which still stands.