It’s the first Tuesday in August, and somewhere on Planet Earth on Sunday, George Jetson was born.

At worst, we are 40 years away from Flying Cars.

Archie Roach, gone but never to be forgotten

Obviously Roach’s greatest work is Took The Children Away, a story about the Stolen Generation which almost tells itself, but one song by Roach that’s pertinent to sport is his song Colour of Your Jumper, which he wrote way back in 1993 after Nicky Winwar’s stand against racial abuse from Collingwood supporters at Victoria Park, and while Roach performed it live in the decades afterwards, it wasn’t until 2013 that he recorded it as a single, appropriately on the 20th anniversary of Winmar’s gesture.

It would be pertinent that Archie released the song for Indigenous Round in 2013, because that would turn out to be the weekend in which Adam Goodes was racially abused, starting a butterfly effect that prematurely ended Goodes’ career and alienated him from the AFL.

Speaking of recent departures, sadly my uncle Russell was promoted to glory overnight

A fortnight ago Mum was notified by my aunty Therese that Russ only had 2-4 months to live after his cancer (He’d been diagnosed with throat cancer back in early 2017) had moved into his bones, which is when you really know someone’s on the bell lap (To use a trotting parlance), but Russ had an incident with coughing up blood last night, went to palliative care in Mona Vale, and sadly as the Salvos would say, he was promoted to glory in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the age of 62.

It wasn’t unsurprising to hear he’d gone after years of cancer, but considering that update from 2 weeks ago the timing was a shock, and I’d never lost an uncle or an aunt in 25 years of life… until now.

Showing the fickle nature of life, Russ’ youngest son (My cousin Nick) turned 22 last Sunday, so in that sense at least Russ lived long enough to have one more birthday with his son, and he got to bow out knowing his beloved Canterbury-Bankstown were in the winners’ circle, and speaking of rugby league, Russ did have a short stint as Chairperson of the Board for the Rugby League Players’ Association.

So a big hello to Therese, Sophie, Tom & Nick, hope you’re holding up, we’ll all be over to pay our respects in a couple of days.

We’re on track to break 100,000 total views this week

After 3 years and 6 months, we’re up to 99,700 total views, and with my averages up around 100 views a day for this year, we’ll get there by this weekend, and what a mild occasion it’ll be.

Also Breaking: Jackson Hastings’ Leg

Commonwealth Games update

Australia is still leading the medal tally, ahead of 800 different British Overseas Territories I couldn’t even find on a map until this passed Saturday…..

Except the Falkland Islands, we definitely know where that is.

Ellen Ryan’s Gold medal in the Women’s Singles in Birmingham breaks the Gold Medal curse for Bowls Australia in Commonwealth Games held in Great Britain

One thing I noted when we held Kristina Krstic’s celebration at Manning last month was that no Australian bowler/team had won a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in Great Britain, with a number of teams & players winning Silver medals over the course of 92 years, while the only Gold Medals an Australian team had won in a Northern Hemisphere Comm Games were Rex Johnson & Cameron Curtis in the Men’s Pairs at the 1994 edition in Victoria, Canada, and Brett Duprez + Mark Jacobsen won the same event in KL four years later.

The Men’s Triples were a bowl away from breaking the Australian UK drought earlier in the afternoon after a massive comeback fell just short, but Ryan came back from 2-10 down to win the Women’s Singles, also grabbing a slice of history as the first Australian to win the event.

Of course, Ellen is backing up with Kristina in the Women’s Pairs, and they did win their first game 20-10 against Brunei this afternoon, with Wales and Canada to come on Wednesday afternoon.

A 42 second summary of the 2022 Newcastle Knights

I think that’s how Kalyn Ponga wound up with repeated concussions.

Sighting of a double rainbow last Thursday

Refraction going to work…

Oscar Piastri seeing Fernando Alonso replacing Sebastian Vettel at the retirement village, I mean Aston Martin

David Mundy’s retirement announcement was so shocking that it caused Ross Lyon to send a Tweet for the first time since March 18, 2020

So that brings Ross The Boss up to 6 Tweets since February 2013, with 2 of them involving the retirements of Nick Riewoldt and David Mundy.

I hope as tribute to Josh Kennedy’s last game, someone makes a compilation of his stutter run-ups to goal and adds the Fred Flintstone twinkle toes bowling sound effect

Like this:

You could smell Seb’s retirement coming

20 years after Bend It Like Beckham was released, England’s women win their first major tournament

It’s probably just a coincidence, but look what’s happening for women’s football in England a generation after Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley randomly decided to take up the round ball for 2 hours of entertainment.

To be honest, it probably did more for Britain’s South Asian population.

In his 57 games, Max King has recorded more games with 5+ behinds than Tom Hawkins has in 321 games

After another wayward day under the roof of Marvel Stadium against Hawthorn, Max now has 3 career games with 5 or more behinds.

Hawkins’ only 2 games with 5 behinds are Round 16, 2018, and the 2020 Qualifying Final.

Here’s the proof:

Max King’s Career Table

Tom Hawkins’ Career Table

How close I got to carding an Eagle from 117 metres on a Par 4….

Of course I’m talking about Mario Golf, 9th hole of the Toad Highlands Course, no breeze whatsoever, and I used an 8 Iron…

I NEEDED ONE MORE ROLL.

But, 7 days later I played the same course, nearly the same distance and look what happened….

Two Eagles on the same card…

Backended by 2 Bogeys to end the day.

Monday was the 30th anniversary of St Kilda’s last game at Moorabbin

Round 20, 1992 against Fitzroy, who became the tenant of the old Junction Oval after the Saints left the ground to go to Moorabbin in 1965, and ironically the last game at the Junction Oval in 1984 also featured the Lions against the Saints.

St Kilda won by 18 points, Tony Lockett kicked 6, and defender Jamie Shanahan, famous for never kicking a goal in his 162 games, was best afield for the only time in his career.

And finally, in memory of Bill Russell, the story of his last game as a player, aka “Those ****ing balloons are staying up there!”

A stone cold killer:

Game 7, NBA Finals, Lakers vs. Celtics, 1969. Bill Russell’s final game as a player. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke orders cases of champagne and spells out postgame celebration plans on a sheet placed in every seat at the Great Western Forum. Thousands of balloons emblazoned with “World Champion Lakers” will fall from the rafters, it says. The USC Marching band will play “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn will interview Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain. The underdog and aging Celtics, at the tail end of a Russell-led dynasty, obtain the script and it is brought to Russell, who reads it to his team before the game.

During warm-ups, Russell snarls at West, “Those ****ing balloons are staying up there.”

The 36-year-old Russell grabs 21 rebounds and the Celtics win, 108-106, giving him his 11th championship in 13 seasons. Later, Russell says, “We knew it was going to be fun seeing them get all those balloons out of there one at a time.” They are later donated to a children’s hospital. Three months later, Russell retires and walks away a champion, the greatest ever.”

From Happy 80th Birthday, Bill Russell

It was the first time in history that the road team had won Game 7 of the NBA Finals.