Olympic Sevens champion Ellia Green amazing leg workout, Ironman Mick Ennis and the NRL’s summer of love
WHAT’S THE BUZZ with DAVID RICCIO: OLYMPIC Sevens champion Ellia Green amazing leg workout. PLUS, Ironman Ennis and the NRL’s summer of love.
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WHAT’S THE BUZZ with DAVID RICCIO: OLYMPIC Sevens champion Ellia Green amazing leg workout. PLUS, Ironman Ennis and the NRL’s summer of love.
SAINT
OUR WBO world welterweight champion Jeff Horn. Modest, respectful and willing to silence the outspoken Anthony Mundine — three attributes Australian boxing has been unable to boast for some time.
SINNER
THIRD-PARTY agreements. The NRL must scrap the farce of clubs paying players outside a salary cap. With player salaries set to average about $313,000 in 2018, the players will survive without the TPAs.
SHOOSH
WHICH Origin legend is tipped to replace Beau Ryan on the second season of Nine’s Ninja Warrior?
WHAT’S THE BUZZ: Bedsy’s back in Blue
SHOOSH II
WHY did a Sydney NRL club want to sign Matt Moylan before he joined Cronulla despite already boasting one of the game’s premier pivots?
SHOOSH III
THE Raiders are in talks with Test prop Shannon Boyd to extend his deal.
SHOOSH IV
WHICH star league player was ejected from a Byron Bay pub and woke-up on the beach the next morning?
SHOOSH V
WHICH alleged high-flyer text messaged Telegraph and Fox Sports journalist Paul Kent before Wednesday night’s Horn versus Corcoran fight and asked him to say “g’day” to legendary ring announcer Michael Buffer, who replied: “Never heard of him?”
SPOTTED
PARRAMATTA Eels star recruit Jarryd Hayne taking a tour of the holy land in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
SPOTTED II
SEA Eagles coach Trent Barrett winning the Friday night meat raffle at the Harbord Bowlo.
SPOTTED III
DARRY Brohman, Joel Caine, Shannon Noll and Wade Graham at the classy new shire establishment Highfield on Monday.
SPOTTED IV
CANBERRA legend Gary Belcher running an eye over Raiders training on Wednesday.
SPOTTED V
MATTY Johns and his wife, Trish, tossing a few euros into Rome’s Trevi Fountain on Tuesday.
ELLIA DEFINITION OF DEDICATION
OLYMPIC Sevens champion Ellia Green lives in a world where “every day is legs day’’.
History-maker, strong, determined, fun and fierce, Green is everything the Australian Rugby Union is desperate to be.
As we know, that mission began last week with the historic appointment of Raelene Castle as the ARU’s first female CEO and was followed up by the unveiling of a Super W women’s competition next year.
“It can’t get much better than that,’’ Green said.
“As you can see, women’s rugby and rugby in Australia is growing. I’ve had a lot of girls come up to me and say, ‘Ellia, I would love to represent Australia but I’m not sure of the pathway to do it’.
“So this is massive and to know that we’re a part of that change puts a very big smile on my face.’’
Green, who gives herself Thursdays off from the gym, is eight months into a rehabilitation program after a knee reconstruction in April.
As these images show, dedication to recover for a bumper 2018 season, which includes a comeback in the Sydney Sevens next month before the Commonwealth Games and World Cup, is an understatement.
“When we’re not on the field running, my training program is pretty much focused on legs,” Green said.
“My surgeon laughed because my uninjured leg has grown 4cm bigger than what it was before I was injured because of the leg strength we’ve been doing.”
Laughing, Green said: “I might even squat a few leg hams on Christmas Day.’’
IRONMAN ENNIS
A few weeks ago, we spotted Fox Sports commentator and Cronulla Sharks dummy-half coach Michael Ennis in-training for an ironman.
Now we can report that not only did Ennis survive — he thrived in his first torture test.
In stifling Penrith heat, Ennis finished in a time of 4 hrs 46 mins — completing the bike leg in 2hrs 30 mins, the run in 1hr 35 mins and swim in 33 mins.
“All credit to my coach Tim Ahearn and the support of Steve Newberry to help train me — we had a goal to finish under five hours, and somehow I did it,’’ Ennis said.
GOOD RIDDANCE 2017
THERE wouldn’t be a single Bulldogs staffer who isn’t looking forward to the end of 2017.
By every measure, it was a dog of a year.
Yet the irony wasn’t lost on the current board after former boss Raelene Castle was deservingly appointed CEO of the Australian Rugby Union on Tuesday. With Todd Greenberg in charge of the NRL, that’s two former Canterbury chief executives who are now running the nation’s major football codes.
Time will tell if current Bulldogs CEO Andrew Hill is poached to run the AFL.
DOWN THE AISLE
CLEARLY it’s the summer of love.
Fresh from Tara Rushton and Cooper Cronk getting hitched at Whale Beach on Thursday, Knights forward Aiden Guerra and partner Belinda Bartholomew-Walsh tied the knot in front of his former Roosters teammates on Saturday in Byron Bay.
And in relieving news for his many mates who were convinced it would never happen, Brett Finch will marry his beautiful fiancee, Elli Johnston, next month.
WOLFMAN’S ICE-CAPADE
CHARACTERS are few and far between in sport, which is why we’ve desperately missed David “The Wolfman” Williams since he retired in 2015.
However, there’s a chance we could be hearing more of the former Manly and Test winger, who has turned to ice hockey.
Wolfman managed to score a goal during a warm-up game with the Sydney Ice Dogs.
He will continue to ply his trade for the Mighty Drunks.
“I’ve been a strong and active Mighty Drunk supporter my entire adult life. I can’t wait to get chugging,” Wolfman said.
MANLY GRANNY GETS WEIRDER
The granny caught up in the NRL probe into Manly’s alleged third-party infringements lives next door to Sea Eagles owner and chairman Scott Penn.
RIDING ASIA WAVE
It’s not only the Chinese swimming team that pinch our Australian coaches, the Chinese national surfing team has also.
Pro-surfing’s first-ever world champion, Australia’s Peter Townend has been poached to prepare China’s best young surfers ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Townend is bringing the Chinese team to Australia in January for a training camp.