Tuesday, June 20, 2006

It's ok to abuse the referee..

Well isn’t it? Harry Kewell seems to do it and get away with saying explicates and verbally abusing and intimidating the referee.

NO NO NO! This is wrong, totally unacceptable and we are sending the completely wrong message to our kids.

I particularly can’t stand Australian sport in this regard with an incident like this Harry Kewell abuse fiasco. OK, he was upset, feeling remorseful and regretting the words he may have had to the referee post match.

It didn’t just look like a quiet word but an intimidating yelling match and the referee was visibly retreating. And what does Harry get punished with – nothing!

He might have a clean record, it might be out of character, but if a Brazilian player did this or an opponent of Australia, we would all be kicking and screaming and demanding that player be suspended for at least a match.

You can hear the talkback radio jocks now fielding calls about how unfair this is to Australia and this player acted un-Australian… In Harry’s case we’d hear all the empathy calls and why would FIFA do this, it’s our only chance…

Well FIFA, you got it wrong. You were too lenient and YOU should have made an example out of Harry Kewell.

I don’t care if he is Australian. I don’t care if he has a clean record. Rules are rules, referees are to be respected and not to be ABUSED like this.

Consider yourself very lucky, and consider yourself a hero Harry because now we will see kids emulate this week in and week out and less people will want to referee and those who do will be abused, possibly attacked, because Harry Kewell did it, so why can’t I?

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

World Cup Fever - A Nation Unites

The Socceroos win over Japan yesterday was sensational - one of the greatest Australian sporting moments. The latest Australian code of football which is undertaking a meteoric rise and becoming a love by all Aussie sport fans.

We have never been a soccer nation but now Rugby administrators must be concerned with the threat that soccer both internationally and domestically is posing upon our winter sport choices. With over 1 million children all ready enrolled in soccer, the world cup will only enhance the playing numbers, ala the effect the Ashes had on cricket last summer.

To score three goals in eight minutes is an almighty feat especially against the Asian champions, Japan. Tim Cahill, Josh Kennedy and John Alioisi provided the spark the Australian attack so desperately needed. Not to discredit Marcus Bresciano or Harry Kewell, but these names were unknown to the everyday Aussie, who are now tainting our soccer stars as heroes, emulating the success of League and Union legends such as Wally Lewis or David Campese.

A transition of Australian culture and the embracement of soccer, the international football is encouraging for our presence on the world sporting stage. Showcasing our diversity and talent, these soccer players must give credit to the management behind them.

Guus Hiddik, the mastermind. What a superb coach, and how lucky we are to have him at the helm at the time when Australian soccer was reaching a boom. Guus has turned a mediocre team into a team that needs to be take notice of. His success against Uruguay, The Netherlands and now Japan are Australian soccers greatest claims.

I for one had no interest in soccer until the A-league rolled around, we defeated Uruguay and world cup fever came to town. John O’Neill must be commended for his leadership of the Football Federation of Australia. His success as Australia Rugby Union Chief Executive Officer can now be paralleled for what he has done for soccer in Australia.

The foresight to develop a national A-League competition, employ a renowned world coach and bring the hype and media attention to the game in this country can all be thankful to John and Frank Lowy. Do not discredit the service SBS has also provided to this game.

Les Murray and Simon Hill lead a commendable commentary team and analysts. The coverage has been professional and given soccer much credit.

Australians love to celebrate. They love their sport. They love the victories in sport. They love their heroes. They love to share a beer or two or three with any Tom, Dick and Harry in celebration of feats like this.

The most positive outcome of this world cup and Australia’s success will not be the rise of soccer or the formation of heroes, but the potential power soccer has to combine Australians together as one, under one banner, one nation, arm in arm.

With the Cronulla race riots now dead and buried, soccer can be the vehicle used to combine our ethnic and racial differences, united under one sense of Australian pride and values, one sense of nationalism.

Monday, June 12, 2006

The rebuilding begins...

Sunday night’s test against England at Telstra Stadium was the beginning of a new era for the Wallabies. Under new coach John Connolly the Wallabies struggled to but eventually found their feet and there are signs of hope for our 2007 World Cup campaign.

It was an atrocious first half by both teams, passes not going to hand, drop ball and knock-on made the game scrappy. As well a new, inexperienced front row, desperate to shake of criticism and restore the Australian engine rooms pride started unconvincingly.

The result - a win. Yes, not pretty but there a signs for the new look Wallabies and a new direction under ‘Knuckles’. The Wallabies looked to spread the ball and play an expansive game of rugby. With the amount of dropped ball, these plans were unearthed early on. The English defence held back, allowing Larkham and Rogers to combine to set up the plays they rarely finished off.

Matt Giteau was sorely missed at inside centre, while Rogers did an amicable job, he will find himself warming the bench when Giteau is fit. Lote Tuqiri showed glimpses of skill but was shown lacking in defence on a few occasions by his opposite number Tom Varndell who looked the most promising for the English.

In the forwards, new hooker Tai McIsaac looked well out of his depth and more of a state bench player rather than a starting Wallaby. His line-out throwing and scrummaging undermined the go-forward for the Wallabies. When replaced by seasoned campaigner Jeremy Paul, the Australian lineout was able to settle.

It makes you wonder what Adam Freir has to do to return to the Wallaby mix. He was the best Waratah forward in this year’s Super 14 campaign and with his strong performances seemed a certain Wallaby starter.

Connolly has some work still to do around his front row as Greg Holmes appeared unimpressive and not dangerous enough around ruck and maul.

At half time the game was possibly one of the worst I had seen. The second half, we stepped up. Brushing off the cobwebs and criticism, the Wallabies started to string a few passes together and the individual brilliance of Larkham and Rogers set up Latham for a welcomed try.

A bit of luck for Mark Gerrard but again proved his value for the Wallabies with a strong performance and a brilliant individual try. Not to be outshone, Clyde Rathbone made his presence felt with a 70 metre individual effort off a quality Larkham ball to wrap the ball game up.

One last nail in the coffin was delivered by gigantic number 3, Rodzilla. Rodney Blake on debut ran like an outside centre to burrow his way over for the measure. Not to be overlooked the forwards dominated ruck and maul with a bigger, stronger, rougher and tougher pack of forwards. Don’t discredit this win for the Wallabies but it must be remembered, they were playing an inexperienced English team. Full time Wallabies 34 – 3 winners.

The changes brought about by the new Connolly culture look, in the short term to be correct, although there is still room for improvement and change in personnel. Gregan defensively holds his own but his pass has slowed and makes our attack slow. The team needs to regroup and put on and build, putting on a sharper show next weekend if we are any chance to compete with the All Blacks and Springboks in this years tri nations.

My amended Wallabies Team:

15. Chris Latham
14. Mark Gerrard
13. Stirlring Mortlock
12. Mat Rogers/Matt Giteau
11. Lote Tuqiri
10. Stephen Larkham
9. Sam Cordingley
8. Stephen Hoiles
7. George Smith
6. Wycliff Palu
5. Al Kanar
4. Dan Vickerman
3. Rodney Blake
2. Adam Freir
1. Benn Robinson

Res:
16. George Gregan
17. Clyde Rathbone
18. Cameron Sheppard/Rogers
19. Phil Waugh
20. Jeremy Paul
21. Al Baxter
22. Mark Chisolm

weird eBay

You use to go to garage sales or even council pickups to hound through other peoples junk… now you just head to ebay. Not even St Vincent’s de Paul or The Smith Family would appreciate some of the items people are trying to flog on ebay.

This week alone, a handbag used by Tana Umunga in a drunken nightclub incident fetched almost $20 000 in an online auction on ebay. Not even a Gucci handbag would fetch this much money. For the lone fact it had been touched by Umunga the price escalated and people are willing to pay so much money to brush with fame.

This is just one of the weird things sold on ebay that fetch for auction every single day. From animtated pen stands, to lucky socks, some people try to flog anything. Weirdebay.com is a website designed to highlight some of the odd and peculiar items sellers post for auction.

A man, “davy_parry” attempted to sell a chicken nugget which he claimed on one side you could see Mother Teresa, when you turn the nugget over, Pope John Paul II was staring at the seller. He tried to sell this off as having, “a great spiritual meaning for most faiths. I truly want it to go somewhere that it can be cherished for a long time to come.” Thank goodness no one bid on this weird item.

Debate always surrounds ebay’s use for selling tickets to concerts, sporting matches and the like. ‘Scalping’ cannot be stopped and although ticket distributors claim to be able to cancel tickets, it would actually be almost impossible. Scalping has been done for years and it isn’t about to stop now.

Ebay, the online market place was asking for buyers to spend thousands of dollars to secure tickets to the Ashes. If you’re willing to pay the price and you’re smart enough to buy the ticket’s then profit on your won accord.

In the case of the Ashes ticketing debacle, Cricket Australia have only themselves to blame. Making the option only via phone or internet and a maximum ticket purchase of 10 tickets per person per day… This is ludicrous. It should have been a maximum of 4 tickets per person per day and this would have given other people opportunities to buy tickets to the game they want.

Solution – there is none. People will spend as much money as they want to get what they want, if they can. Why? We are powerless to stop scalping and the selling of weird items on ebay because they can!

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

A Current Affair.. Or A Current Lot of Crap

“You’re a cheat, a liar, a dole bludger, a conman and your ripping off the Australian taxpayers, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“No comment.”

Tonight, Wednesday June 7 2006 we had a very serious, very important agenda on A Current Affair.

Story 1 – IR Laws, sacking of three loyal workers in Gold Coast plastic surgeons office.

Story 2 – Centrelink cancels pregnant 16 year old’s $350 youth allowance because she came home.

Story 3 – Exclusive Parking Rangers have quotas – REVEALED

Story 4 – Life changing liposuction. Hideous women spend up to $20 000 to look better, and change their shape just to get some.

Story 5 – Setting the record straight. Hold the phone, A Current Affair admit mistake, they actually say sorry to wrong identity of woman.

Story 6 – Discrimination  looks decide your entry into nightclubs because of your haircut, ethnic background or gender.

Hello, is this the script for a sketch show, because the stories sound trivial and humorous… I can’t stand these tabloid journalism programs.

They are pointless, the host Tracy Grimshaw looks uninspired and the credibility of you as the journalist might as well be in the bowl. What is our obsession with these current affair programs? They’re not even current or important affairs.

The world has many SERIOUS issues occurring day in and day out but the tabloid programs have a rotation of diet, new medical breakthroughs with con men, dolebludging, government bashing, employer misconduct, criminal landlords and dodgy tradesman. They are planned well in advance, with confrontations and serious issues being expressed by the reporters.

At present, we have instability in Timor, the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Indonesia, a war in Iraq, the defused assassination plot of the Prime Minister in Canada, yet it is still more important to hear about the results of liposuction or the refusal of entry to Middle Eastern males in Sydney nightclubs.

There has been one piece of news this week come from tabloid journalism programs. Channel 9, A Current Affair Reporter Ben Fordham set a new record for the biggest payout for trespassing on a persons property, $310 000. Well well, in the words of Fordham’s colleague Naomi Robson, “I hope you have a great evening, please take care and good night.”

A real sincere, heartwarming departure that from the tabloid journalism program, sincere crap.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

As long as the people watching the news see..

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes reporter Peter Harvey interviewed Mark Ingles a mountaineer who successfully climbed Mt. Everest on stilts. In recent days, the media has been debating the scenario of leaving a fellow mountaineer to die on the mountain in pursuit for the summit. Mark Ingles has copped a lot of flack, when he thought he would become a hero for his feat, he has been overshadowed by societies disbelief that over 40 climbers could leave a fellow climber, helpless to die.

Harvey's line of questioning, accused Ingles of pursuiting the summit, leaving David Sharp, a British mountaineer to die. This horrific act of self obsession and human greed does not surprise me. Ingles is in the wrong, but so are the other 40 mountaineers for stepping over fellow human beings who are obviously struggling just in pursuit of personal satisfaction. I have to question, why would you even climb Everest in the first place?

But don't be complacent news crews. I am supporting the media attention this story is receiving. It is an interesting conundrum and would you forgo your own ambitions, a once in a lifetime dream and opportunity to save someone else’s life? The answer has to simply be, put the shoe on the other foot. If you were the person dying and saw 40 people walk over you, how would you feel?

It's a terrible reflection on what humanity has become but news networks are no different. For the pursuit of that exclusive, ratings-war. I am always dumbfounded when we see vision from a news camera of an incident involving crime, death, warfare or the simplicity of tears and anxiety in someone, while the camera roles no attention is given to the person in strife but hey at least the news got an exclusive.

Media is important to our lives, its important to know the news of the world but this heroic vision of humanity is having its effect on our most precious gift, life.

Monday, June 05, 2006

The OP_inion

What aggrivates me, what annoys me, what shit's me to tears, what I like, what I love will all be discussed on my blog. The issues how important they are, or how trivial they appear, its about what's on my mind is how I will publish in relation to the news and current affairs issues or impacts upon my life, my popular culture and the universe I live in. Enjoy...

Today, rant number one revolves around the crummy weather we had in Sydney. What I find hard is driving in the rain... We haven't had to do it for so long and when we do it's bloody hard. I can't stand ignorant and arrogant drivers who decide, despite the rain they are still going to go 10km over the speed limit when the rest of us have to go 10km under because we can't tell if we're driving in our line or the next lane. Grow up and use some common sense, the RTA don't advise us to slow down in wet weather to make us late to work, uni, appointments or whatever is so important that we must speed in the wet. It's damn right dangerous and stupid and anyone who is caught speeding in the wet should be booked for double demerits. That will teach driver's not too speed in the wet.

Especially when we haven't had wet weather in Sydney for some time. It takes time to adjust to driving in wet conditions. The roads are more difficult to handle. Tyres don't grip to the road as well and visibility can at times be almost impossible. So please, think before you drive, especially in the rain. There are always going to be more cars on the road when it's wet, so leave earlier. Go home later, but for god sake don't hoon around the highway and tale gate me, cause it's damn right dangerous.