I’m a genius. Here’s how to make the Wallabies and rugby league better

Told yers. After the first round of the season it was clear to me the Panthers and the Storm were the likely grand finalists and the Panthers would probably win the match. If someone with my lack of detailed knowledge could pick that, how obvious must it have been to the cognoscenti?

And therein lies the obvious problem. As impressive as it is that the Panthers now have four on the floor, it really is a problem that only three teams have won the premiership in the past eight years. It reduces the other teams to only going for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, while we all know that it will be the Panthers, Storm and Roosters going for the Gold Oscar for best team in the land. Yes, I agree that the Roosters will likely drop off that roster next year, but there are no signs that either the Storm or the Panthers will fade.

The solution? I am not sure, but it ain’t the draft as has been mooted. Rugby league tried that in the early 90s and the courts rightly threw it out as being contrary to Australian law, for any umbrella body to assert the right to tell employees which organisations they could work for. It has to remain a free market.

The best thing might be if we of the rugby union could take Nathan Cleary off their hands for three years or so, which could give him a taste of a genuine world stage, and put him on the London/Paris/Buenos Aires circuit rather than Cronulla/Campbelltown/Canberra one, as fine as those cities are. That would also make it easier to see his partner Mary Fowler, and give him a break from the brutal physical toll of league.

Get it? The NRL comp is freed up for others to win for a nice change, the Wallabies might suddenly be competitive again, and Cleary gets to show his wares far from the parish pump. What’s not to like?

Young Sam is the man

A cricket nutter friend makes an interesting point regarding Australia’s latest batting sensation, Sam Konstas. The headlines and attention are not just because he reeled off successive centuries in the Sheffield Shield’s season opener for NSW against South Australia, including a 152 in the first innings. It is, firstly, for the way he scored them, the effortless strokes with faultless timing were, I am told, a wonder to behold.

And the second factor is that it looks like he might be that rarest of sporting phenomenons: the long-vaunted Next Big Thing who turns out to be . . . the Next Big Thing! While Boot Hill is filled with the bones of young sporting phenomenons who for whatever reason lost their way and never fulfilled their undoubted potential, the thing about Konstas is that his success has been predicted for yonks.

Sam Konstas’ stroke play is a feature of his game.Credit: Getty Images

I know, I know. It’s still early days, and way too early to unleash too many superlatives. But again, I defer to my learned friends, one of whom is Todd Greenberg, now running the Australian Cricketers’ Association.

“Sam is a special talent. He attended our new player induction camp earlier this year and what struck me was his unique blend of humility, confidence and sheer ability. Very rare for such a young cricketer. It was obvious to us all that he would go far.”

I am further told by others that Konstas is the real deal, so strong he might even be able to withstand every brilliant young cricketer’s curse when it must inevitably come, when he is hailed as “the next Bradman”. So, let’s not. No over-the-top gushing. But he is one to watch, and could indeed be what Australian cricket most needs, a fresh face, born to thrash the willow on opposing leather and rattle picket fences around the world.

From feast to famine

TFF’s friend famed ABC broadcaster Jim Maxwell made a few headlines last week for publicly decrying the fact that his own ABC broadcasts so little sport these days. Long-time ABC producer David Salter agrees, writing to TFF that the lack of sporting coverage on our national public broadcaster is particularly disappointing.

“Back when I was Head of ABC-TV Sport the department was flat out covering all the events to which we had rights, and we were given plenty of prominent air time on the national network. From memory, in 1991 we had:

* The Rugby World Cup (UK).
* Five Nations rugby.
* Club rugby (Sydney).
* The World Swimming Championships (Perth).
* The World Rowing Championships (Tassie).
* The FA Cup (re-edited weekly package from the UK).
* All five local Test cricket matches (for the regions, because Nine only transmitted to the capital cities).
* Four golf tournaments, including the Australian Open and Masters (Melbourne).
* Rugby league every Saturday (Sydney and Brisbane).
* The complete national netball season.
* State-based Australian Rules (SANFL, WAFL, VFA).
* NBA and NFL weekly replays from the US.
* The Super Bowl (live – hosted by Don Lane).
... plus Sports Arena, a two-hour sports magazine show every Sunday afternoon.”

You get the drift. It was a smorgasbord of sport, all freely available, whereas now it seems to be three-fifths of bugger-all, and by next year will be cut back to two-fifths.

Club rugby was once an ABC-TV staple.Credit: Karen Watson for Sydney Rugby Union

Salter says his annual budget to get sport on the mighty ABC was about $12m, more than half of which was generated from external sources such as selling their golf coverage to Japan and the swimming to the US.
Most interestingly, Salter posits an interesting, underlying reason why there is such a dearth, beyond the obvious one that pay television has scooped up most of the plums.

“The most obvious reason,” he says, “is that there are no longer any people of real influence within the ABC who care about sport. Aunty’s first two general managers – Charles Moses and Tal Duckmanton – both began their ABC careers as sports broadcasters. I suspect there would be few current top executives at Ultimo who’d know which end of a tennis racquet is the handle.”

What They Said

Ray Price, 71, on how his legendary Parramatta Eels side of the early 80s would go against the modern Panthers: “Not a hope. They haven’t gone past us. I don’t think this Penrith side would beat my Parramatta side.”

Melbourne Storm’s Ryan Papenhuyzen: “They just suffocated us. It hurts a lot. We tried, just wasn’t good enough.”

Storm’s Jack Howarth on his disallowed grand final try: “I thought I got it down – I don’t know what they see differently. We can’t change it now, but it did hurt when that one was disallowed.”

NY Met Francisco Lindor on his home run that got the team into the play-offs: “I got the pitch that I wanted and you never know if the ball is gonna go out or not. But I feel like I got it 100 per cent and all I kept saying was, ‘Thank you Jesus.’” If only Jesus hadn’t been distracted by the baseball, he might have been able to focus on Florida instead.

New York Mets star Francisco Lindor.Credit: Getty Images

LeBron James after taking the court in a pre-season game with his son Bronny James: “For someone who didn’t have a dad growing up, to be able to have that influence on your kids. Then ultimately, to be able to work with your son, I think it’s one of the greatest things that a father could ever hope for or wish for.”

Bronny James, 20, on turning up to the Lakers every day to train with his father: “I think I’m most looking forward to practice, just going head to head with each other. That’s such a crazy feeling, to be in practice with your dad and competing at a high level. But on the other side of that, having to go against LeBron James is kind of a lot in practice every day. But yeah, I’m looking forward to it as well.”

Rafael Nadal on hanging up the racquet after the Davis Cup: “But, in this life, everything has a beginning and an end. I think it is the appropriate time to put an end to a career that has been long and much more successful than I could have ever imagined.”

Tennis player Frances Tiafoe to the umpire: “F--- you, man! F--- you! Seriously, man. F--- you! You f---ed me out of the f---ing match!” I think he sounded sincere. He later apologised saying, “That just wasn’t me.” Gold!

Nedd Brockmann on trying to break the world record for the shortest time taken to run 1000 miles (while raising money for the homeless): “No one knows what’s going to happen in life and I don’t know what’s going to happen on this run – but I’m going to grab it by the plums, give it everything I’ve got, and raise money for the Aussies who need it most.”

Lachlan Morton on cycling 14,200km around Australia in only 30 days, nine hours and 59 minutes: “I’m pretty smoked, mate. Nice to be done, for sure. I’m definitely feeling it. The last 10 days I’d say I have gone into places, physically and mentally, that I haven’t been before – and spent pretty extended periods in them. I definitely made the pain cave a little bigger. I have never been so relieved to finish something as I was today.”

Brentford manager Thomas Frank.Credit: Getty Images

Brentford manager Thomas Frank: “We’ve been practising winning the coin toss all week, and we lost it.”

Alyssa Healy to Sri Lankan batter Chamari Athapaththu: “Play a shot, Chamari.” Next ball she got out.

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes: “We spoke at half-time about showing patience but having the urgency to move the ball quick. It was a Catch-22.” Was that indeed a Catch-22? Discuss. (I am not convinced.)

World’s best chess player Magnus Carlsen on if he’s the greatest ever: “No, it is still Garry.” He is referring to Garry Kasparov, the world champion from 1985 to 2000.

Team of the Week

Sam Konstas. Scored a Shield century in each innings for NSW. I am told he is The One.

Socceroos. Down against China and with their World Cup hopes dangling by a thread they rebounded to win 3-1. Take on Japan on Tuesday. If they win there, all is back on track.

Penrith Panthers. Best sports team in Australia right now. Period. First team to win four straight since the Dragons were just playing as St George.

Sydney Roosters. Won their second NRLW premiership.

Suzy Batkovic (basketball), Alex Blackwell (cricket), Murray Braund (surf lifesaving), Pattie Dench (sport pistol) and Tim Gavin (rugby union). Were inducted this week into the NSW Hall of Champions. Bravo.

Nedd Brockmann. Looking to break the world record for the shortest time taken to run 1,000 miles with laps of the track at the Olympic Park Athletic Centre in Homebush.

Wallaroos. Won a thriller last week against South Africa and advance to play Scotland later today for the WXV2 title.

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