I don’t think Mr Roy G Biv will be welcome in half of the Manly dressing room

Straight into it for the last Tuesday of July:

Remember when the referees blatantly ignoring the laws of the game and robbing the Wests Tigers of a victory against North Queensland was the biggest NRL story this week?

Kyle Feldt blatantly running into a Tigers players, giving the Cowboys 30 seconds to make a challenge when teams have to do it within 10 seconds, the fact that they were even allowed to challenge when there was no stoppage in play, the referee called play on, and the final fact that the final siren had gone and by rights the game was over:

It was, until Kevin Proctor filmed himself having a vape in a toilet, which led to him being sacked because he should’ve been snorting coke, which was then gazumped by Manly doing a rendition of Tomboy’s It’s Okay To Be Gay.

This whole Manly Pride jersey saga is a dog’s balls

– Half the team get outed as bigots by claiming they won’t wear the Pride Jersey for religious reasons, when they’re happy enough running around with a betting sponsor on their shirts, playing in a stadium sponsored by a beer, and covering themselves with tattoos, which may or may not be frowned upon by any version of the Holy Bible.

– They’ve boycotted the team at a time when Manly only outside the Top 8 on points differential and this weekend they’re playing the Roosters, who just happen to be directly above them, giving this whole incident the potential to rip the entire club like a dog’s chew toy.

– On the other hand, the club made an absolute killing financially because fans rallied around them and bought every single Pride Jersey available from the Manly store, this coming just a week after they brought back the classic mid-1990s Pepsi Jersey, which is still in stock.

I think there’s a simple solution to the Pride Jersey saga

Tell the 7 players who won’t wear the jersey that they’re free to boycott the game….

On the condition that they have to go 15 rounds in the ring with the great Ian Roberts and explain why they won’t wear it, and they won’t be welcome back to the club until big Robbo has landed a couple on them and accepted their apologies.

In case you didn’t know or simply didn’t care, the Commonwealth Games begin on Friday in Birmingham, and Brummie legends Duran Duran are the closing act for the Opening Ceremony

Because Judas Priest and UB40 were too busy.

I was going to say they couldn’t get Black Sabbath either, on account of Ozzie Osbourne still not having any clue where he is, but at least one part of Black Sabbath will be there, because the band’s co-founder Tony Iommi is scheduled to perform.

It’s understandable to see so many politicians concerned about the spread of foot & mouth…

Because for the last 9 years, we’ve had to deal with repeated outbreaks of Foot In Mouth coming out of Canberra.

Watching the ABC 7:00 News on Monday night and a story about election-related violence in PNG goes to air

And it’s all going well, until out of nowhere…

Wait for it…

RANDOM SOUTHS GUY!

Alongside that appearance in the Tour de France last week, it’s a good time for a Random Souths Guy boom.

A few highlights from Leeds United vs Crystal Palace

A lovely shot of a semi-rainbow over the Matagarup Bridge on the train ride in:

I was glad we all went on the Friday, because the conditions help up quite well, then the weather on Saturday was so foul they were a pitch inspection away from not playing the Manchester United-Aston Villa match, and it kept pissing down during the game and left the grass resembling the Western Front circa 1917.

On to the packed out Camfield where the Yorkshire expats were trying to reignite the spark on the old Leeds Service Crew with the Pablo Hernandez chant and chucking their beers in the air, which got the blood in the nostrils of the security guards.

This wasn’t rain, it was from the pyrotechnics:

To cut a long story short, the match never lived up to any great heights, as Leeds found out it was a friendly in name only as Luis Sinisterra lasted 12 minutes before limping off, Adam Forshaw didn’t even make it to half time, and it would finish 1-1, with most of the action coming in the 10 minutes after Half Time when the Whites got a soft penalty that Rodrigo slotted easily, then Palace equalised on a counter attack a few minutes later thanks to Jordan Ayew’s sweet pass to Jean Philippe-Mateta, and after that both teams had some half chances that amounted to nothing.

It wouldn’t take Albert Einstein to guess that most of the crowd was on the southern side of the ground, because when you look at my photos the north stands are empty as, but the official crowd was up towards 34,000, which was only 2,000 short of West Coast vs St Kilda on Sunday for a comparison, while United-Villa got 58,228.

On this talk about the state of the Optus Stadium grass, I would argue it is possible to play 3 games in one weekend on the same pitch in the height of winter, because it has been done before….

The only thing you need on your side is Mother Nature not chucking 40+ mm of rain in 3 days.

In the midst of the Jack Ginnivan headlock non-free kick, there’s a cracking commentary line from Alastair Nicholson

“I think his reputation cost him there Jack Ginnivan….”

Camera cuts to a disgruntled Collingwood fan with a blonde rinse:

“Where is Jack Ginnivan, in the stands or on the ground!”

The rainfall in Perth from 9am on Saturday to 9am on Sunday would’ve made Richie Benaud proud

Nathan Buckley turns 50 today

Obviously he gets shat on for abandoning the Brisbane Bears and going to Collingwood where he achieved 27 years of Grand Final futility, earned the nickname FIGJAM and won every major award except a Premiership medal, but anyone who’s anyone will know that Nathan Buckley was one of the best kicks of the ball in the history of league football.

And that is an undisputable fact.

And finally, it’s always nice getting a bit of reader feedback

Especially when it’s late on a Thursday night, looking at a miniscule section of something that I wrote a good 3 years ago:

Of all the hills to die on, you’d rather die on Everest, whereas this is like dying on Mt Lawley.

For context, I mentioned this was probably a missed call:

Which somehow turned into that comment.

Hahahahahahahaha.

Anyway, the good thing is with the beauty of IP addresses, we can figure out the alleged source of the message, and it appears it’s either some part of Melbourne, probably from Mr R.Chamberlain or Mr D.Goldspink, or the polished turd that is Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, which would be strange because 95% of them think the AFL is the GayFL, but then again, Queenslanders do like having a crack at me.