Early morning? Check. Bad behaviour? Check. Beer? Check. Cops? Check. It must be NRL season

The Latrell Mitchell-Jack Wighton ruckus?

The old rule for footballers used to be, “Nothing good happens after midnight”.

But after 3.30 am? In the public domain? Far from being “not good”, it tends to be catastrophic. Happily, this time it was little more than your usual rugby league fracas: two famous players. Cops. Cells. Headlines. Insistence that it wasn’t true, the police over-reacted. Apologies nevertheless, and resolve to do better. No penalties, as yet.

I think all it means is the NRL season must be close, yes?

Hird but not seen

After the 10-year anniversary this month of the Essendon-Sharks supplements saga, I am reminded of the words of James Hird at the time: “People say things and they’re untrue. And [when] you know you’ve got truth on your side, you go hard. And when you get your opportunity, you tell the whole truth.

James Hird, chatting with Giants captain Stephen Coniglio, was back in the AFL fold last season.Credit: AFL Photos

“And when the truth comes out, I think I’ll be in a very, very good position, and so will this football club.”

A decade on, I am not sure we ever did get to the bottom of the whole thing, are you?

Stadium splurge not done yet ...

Sorry, what?

Look, I get that there’s a state election on, and that the Perrottet government is desperate to hold on to the Penrith electorate held by former Sports Minister Stuart Ayres, the sine qua non of survival.

But at a certain point, surely, the showering of largesse on the area gets out of hand? This column has noted many times the sheer ludicrousness of the state government promising $300 million of our money to build a new football stadium for the Penrith Panthers, when:

1. There is nothing substantially wrong with the current one.
2. The Penrith Panthers already have one of the richest pokie palaces in the southern hemisphere, described by the Reverend Tim Costello to me last week as a “mini-casino.”
3. As I have pointed out, the actual figure is likely to be more to the order of $600-$650m!

I’ve also noted my colleague Nigel Gladstone’s story on how $12 million of community sports grants “ended up building an underground carpark [for the Panthers].”

And now the latest news. That is, another “new multi-sports indoor stadium for Penrith residents worth $106.7million” is to be built.

This kind of splurge isn’t in the same ballpark as the federal government dropping tens of millions of dollars on already obscenely rich private schools which allows them to build Olympic pools and concert halls, while public schools are sometimes sharing textbooks. It’s just that Penrith is already promised so much in the realms of taxpayer sports funding, surely other electorates are more deserving, even those not with a wafer-thin majority for the Libs?

This is not to say there is no need for such a multi-sports stadium. But given how much money the Penny Panthers have taken from both the taxpayer in general and the Penrith community specifically, how ’bout they foot the bill this time?

The Perrottet government was meant to be a break from the naked and unashamed pork-barrelling of the Berejiklian government. This doesn’t look like that.

Golden years

Yonks back in this space, TFF gratuitously asked whether, besides Princess Mary and Prince Whatsit, and Roger Federer and his wife Mirka, did any other happy couples first meet at the Sydney Olympics?

The answer came back that in early 2000 a bloke by the name of Anthony Meaker, just back from backpacking for two years, scored a management job with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and was soon crunching out 20-hour days. It was all made more than tolerable, however, through dealing professionally, and soon personally, with a journalist by the name of Michelle O’Rourke. They were married within a year and went on to live happily ever after, with four kids.

As it happens, their third child, Claudia Meaker, aged just 15 years, recently became the youngest Australian to compete in the World Cross Country Trials, where she finished sixth. At 15! She will next compete at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst on February 18.

No pressure – honest – but there would be a certain symmetry if she went on to represent Australia as an Olympian, and I am reliably informed that is one of her ambitions! Gotta love this city.

Giddey with excitement for LeBron

The week’s major global sporting news, of course, was the Lakers’ LeBron James finally beating the NBA scoring record of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that has stood for just over 38 years, by scoring his 38,338th point at the age of 38, in a match where he scored 38 points overall!

LeBron James and Josh Giddey.Credit: Getty

On court for the occasion was Australia’s Josh Giddey, playing for the Oklahoma Thunder. Giddey shook James’ hand at the end of the match, which was won by the Thunder, seeing as you ask. But ain’t sport grand, when it provides such intersections? When LeBron started his career, Giddey was nowt but a newborn baby. In this match, Giddey, at the age of 20, was good if not great, scoring a useful 20 points. The young Australian has been selected to play in the Rising Stars tournament at the All-Star weekend next week, meaning he’s been selected in his opening two NBA seasons. LeBron will be an All Star for the 19th time, which equals Abdul-Jabbar. Giddey earns about $US7 million ($10.1 million) a year, while LeBron pockets a lazy $US44.5 million with the Lakers.

Giddey has the look of one who will go on to be a great himself, but I suspect one of his boasts will be he was actually on the court when LeBron got the record!

Drop in the ocean for charity

As if you didn’t know, it’s the 15th edition of the Malabar Magic Ocean Swim next Sunday at Malabar Beach. It will raise funds for the Rainbow Club, which provides specialised swimming lessons to children with a disability. It is the most inclusive swim on the circuit, with heaps of Rainbow Club kids participating alongside the likes of aspiring and past Olympians such as Daniel Kowalski. You can participate or donate to the cause at www.malabarmagicoceanswim.com.au.

What they said

Latrell Mitchell. “Anybody who knows me knows who Latrell Mitchell is. That’s all that matters.” Exactly!

ACT Police statement: “About 3.45am today (Sunday, 5 February 2023), ACT Policing responded to reports of a disturbance near a nightclub on Bunda Street in the city.”

Joint statement by Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton: “We wanted to express remorse for putting ourselves in the position to embarrass our clubs and the NRL over the weekend.”

Sir Nick Faldo after St Andrews made some tweaks to the famous Swilcan Bridge: “If you’ve travelled halfway around the world for your bucket list round at St Andrews, would you rather leave with a bit of historic dirt on your shoes or a few cement mix scraps?” Fair enough. But I still prefer his most famous quote of all, after winning the British Open in 1992: “I’d like to thank the press from the heart of my bottom.”

Liam Neeson not a fan of UFC: “UFC, I can’t stand. That to me is like a bar fight. I know the practitioners are like, ‘No, you’re wrong – the months of training we do . . .’ Why don’t you just grab a beer bottle and hit the other guy over the head? That’s the next stage of the UFC. I hate it. That little leprechaun Conor McGregor, he gives Ireland a bad name.”

WACA’s Avril Fahey doesn’t want to host the West Indies next summer: “Pakistan’s coming with the West Indies again, so I’m pretty hopeful we don’t get the West Indies.”

Former Wallaby Jack Dempsey on being picked for Scotland: “I played four Tests in autumn, and made my debut against Australia. When the team got named this week, and I was lucky enough to be in it, you just pinch yourself thinking, ‘How is this Sydney boy, who was lucky enough to live his dream of playing for his state and the Wallabies, then a few years later get to play in the bloody Six Nations’.”

Snooker player Ali Carter on what inspired him to win the German Masters: “The journey of getting through the day, all you can see is getting to 10 [frames] seeming like an absolute mile away. I heard Step by Step by Whitney Houston and it was quite a memorable song, and I just thought ‘Yeah, step by step, day by day,’ and I’ve got there.”

Manchester City in response to being charged with more than 100 breaches of the EPL financial rules:“Manchester City is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with. The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.”

New England rugby coach Steve Borthwick throwing Eddie Jones under the bus after the loss to Scotland: “I’ve been frank from day one in saying there’s a lot of work to do. When I looked at the team in the autumn, when I measured the team and got all the data for the team, we weren’t good at anything. It was as frank as that.”

Ian Chappell, being very Ian-Chappell-esque on Australia’s selectors playing ducks and drakes before the first Test: “This bullshit about, ‘Oh, we’ve got to pick a right-arm and a left-arm spin bowler’ – it’s crap. You pick your best bowlers.”

Email from RLPA executive Deidre Anderson to Peter V’landys after a meeting between NRL CEO Andrew Abdo, RLPA CEO Clint Newton and a group of players: “What then followed is nothing short of illegal which, on its face, seriously calls into question the integrity of the NRL, its executive and its culture. I am instructed that a player (who I will not name), raised concerns with RLPA staff that (the employee) was covertly recording the session on [their] phone. The player raised the concern based on their understanding that attendees were not permitted to record these discussions.”

Parramatta Eel Mitchell Moses capturing Gen Z speech: “Me and Brooksy speak a lot, we’re best mates. We speak all the time about everything. We’ve had a few conversations, me and Brooksy.”

Moses: “Having Hodgo there is massive with his experience and leadership, he’s been big for my game as well.”

Team of the Week

Danielle Scott. The Australian aerial skier claimed her second World Cup win of the season and is the overall leader with two rounds to go.

Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Contesting the Super Bowl on Monday morning (AEDT).

Perth Wildcats. Scraped into the play-offs by the narrowest of margins. Who knew the NBL play-offs were about to happen?

Lauren Jackson. Her WNBL season – and career? – is over after she tore her Achilles.

Australian women’s cricket team. The T20 team, which is looking to make it three World Cups on the trot and five of the past six, plays its opening match early on Sunday morning (AEDT) against New Zealand in South Africa.

Chloe Covell. Won silver at the skateboarding world championships, and just turned 13.

Todd Murphy. Australia’s 465th Test cricketer when he made his debut against India

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

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