“You might have wounds. I don’t have any. You make decisions, you move on with it, people can think what they want. It doesn’t really affect me. I can sit pretty quietly at night and be comfortable with myself.”
Good for you, Eddie. As long as you’re OK.
Jones was back in the ’hood for the first time since walking out on Australia to coach Japan.
He was coaching the under-23s team against his former club, Randwick.
Rugby Australia must have been thrilled for Jones to bob up in the same week as their annual general meeting, especially when the code is starting to dig itself out of the hole in which Jones left it.
A $38m deficit was spun in a positive light because the British and Irish Lions tour and World Cup, as well as the new broadcast deal with Nine Entertainment, will apparently have the sport flying first-class again.
Indeed, there’s every chance the Lions tour will eliminate all of RA’s debt by the end of this year.
And if the Waratahs keep scoring tries like the 102m effort against the Chiefs in the last round, I might even start watching Super Rugby again.
LIV and let lie: give Cam a break
Cameron Smith has been branded as an LIV Golf sellout after failing to make the cut at the US Masters. He’s lost focus. Doesn’t care because he’s backstroking in money.
Good for him. How would you handle someone cutting you a cheque for $220m to play golf, all of it guaranteed no matter how many you shanked or put in the water?
I’d be dead by Christmas.
Since defecting to the Saudi-backed league after winning the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews, Smith has plummeted from No.2 in the world to No.127, although that’s hardly an adequate gauge because LIV events don’t accrue ranking points.
Of greater significance is his record in majors: he’s had just three top-10 finishes in the past three years and missed the cut at last year’s British Open and this week’s US Masters after carding 78 in the second round to finish five over.
The most press Smith received at Augusta was about the blue jacket he wore during a practice round to promote a line of apparel for a sponsor.
The green jacket he seemed destined to win after finishing second in 2020 and third in 2022 is getting further out of reach.
US commentator Brandel Chamblee – one of the rebel tour’s harshest critics – reckons Smith has sabotaged his career by taking the LIV loot.
“It looked to me like he could go on to become one of the true greats in the game of golf,” he told News Corp’s Michael Warner at Augusta. “And to see him go to LIV, it really broke my heart. I understand people make decisions based upon their own economics, but he was on this trajectory to be one of the greats.” He added of all LIV golfers: “They’re all flushed with cash. I’m sure they’re all enjoying their boats and their cars and their houses, but they’re ‘at bottom’ golfers.”
Chamblee’s quote reminds me of an old news story about James Packer: “Embattled billionaire James Packer has been spotted on his $200m superyacht with three Instagram models.”
Oh, to be so “embattled”.
When Smith signed with LIV just weeks after claiming the British Open in 2022, he confessed to Golf Digest he’d done so for the money. It was refreshing: someone had finally said it.
A day later, he was back on-message, declaring he loved the concept of team golf, loud music, and playing in shorts.
The assumption is Smith’s fall from grace in majors is the result of playing tokenistic tournies with no meaning.
Playing 54 holes instead of 72 is also regularly claimed as a factor for the LIV golfers when they have to step up in the majors.
Smith hasn’t played any four-round events this year, which is hardly solid groundwork at the Masters. As the legendary Dan Jenkins wrote half a century ago: “There’s an old saying that the real Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday.”
After witnessing Rory McIlroy’s rollercoaster ride to finally claim his first US Masters victory, it’s still the case.
Smith’s fortunes at Augusta had nothing to do with playing LIV tournaments. His fellow gazillionaires fared pretty well: five of the 12 finished in the top 15. That’s the most in any major since LIV Golf launched in 2022. Patrick Reed finished third while Bryson DeChambeau tied for fifth.
The funky LIV format didn’t stop DeChambeau winning last year’s US Open, nor Brooks Koepka claiming the PGA Championship.
So maybe Smith has lost focus, for reasons only he knows, but let’s hope he finds it again because he’s such a relatable and likeable athlete.
The long-awaited merger between LIV and the PGA Tour appears a long way off, but the divide has renewed interest in the game.
This year’s Masters was one of the most watched in history. According to The Athletic, the final round drew an average of 12.7 million viewers on CBS, up 33 per cent from last year and the most since 2018. Sky Sports in the UK reported it was the most-watched day in network history.
Championship golf featuring a constellation of superstars is the sport’s future. Let’s hope Cameron Smith is one of them, one day wearing green instead of blue.
Life of Brian
“The greatest reality show on TV,” is how departing AFL corporate affairs and communications executive Brian Walsh describes his beloved footy code.
Walsh announced this week he will stand down in late July, having joined the league in 2019.
He previously held the same role from 2006 to 2011 before joining the National Australia Bank. His departure is a blow for chief executive Andrew Dillon, who some believe doesn’t have the strongest executive team around him.
As smotherer-in-chief, Walsh is without peer. While other codes appear to be in perpetual crisis, the AFL is Teflon by comparison; racism and drugs scandals just slide right off.
I’m sure Walsh would say otherwise. They’re complex issues that require a delicate touch. It’s no coincidence he wasn’t around as the AFL botched its response to the racism levelled at Adam Goodes and the Essendon supplement saga.
Some days are longer than others, like February 21 last year when Joel Smith was charged with trafficking cocaine, Angus Brayshaw was forced into retirement because of concussion, and Tarryn Thomas was suspended for 18 matches for inappropriate behaviour towards a woman.
Later that day the tragic news broke that goal umpire Jesse Baird had gone missing.
His body and that of his partner, Luke Davies, was found days later with NSW police officer Beau Lamarre charged with their murders.
On a positive note, Walsh has been on hand for the creation of three teams: the GWS Giants, Gold Coast Suns and the Tasmania Devils.
It was always tough locking horns with Walshy, but he’s a ripper of a human and we wish him well.
Keeping up with Jones
Volk’s a true legend
If Alex Volkanovski competed in any sport other than UFC, we’d be holding tickertape parades for him.
On Sunday, the 36-year-old reclaimed his featherweight title via a unanimous points victory over Brazilian Diego Lopes in Miami.
It was his second world title, having defended those crowns no less than five times.
His previous belts and defences had already established him as a legend in his sport. But to come back at this age, after two knockouts in his previous bouts, to defeat an emerging superstar like Lopes rams home the point like a Ninja choke. I’m not a huge UFC fan – but I’m a huge fan of Volk, a former rugby league front-rower who rebuilt his body and became a mixed martial arts pocket-rocket.
He entered the ring to Men at Work’s Down Under, and after the fight showed great Aussie humility in lavishing praise on his opponent.
“Adversity is a privilege,” he said, prompting interviewer Joe Rogan’s eyes to light up.
Volkanovski is now eyeing a title defence in Sydney under an agreement struck between UFC boss Dana White and NSW Premier Chris Minns.
UFC is a global juggernaut while boxing at the top-end in this country is slipping into a sideshow. The prospect of retired rugby league players Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams dancing around for a few rounds puts me to sleep. But I’ll gladly pay the $60 subscription to watch Volk from my armchair.
For Pete’s sake!
Not for the first time, Media Watch has failed to live up to the journalistic standards of accuracy and balance by which it holds others to account.
The ABC institution on Monday night aired a report about racing and rugby league hacks being firmly under the thumb of Racing NSW chief and ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys.
He might intimidate some reporters, while others ring him daily because they know he’s good for a quote that he’s only too happy to give, but not all of us are so weak.
Last week, we told you V’landys’ strongarm tactics with West Australian Premier Roger Cook had sabotaged the NRL’s desire to set up a franchise in Perth.
I asked V’landys on the Thursday afternoon if he’d reached out to Cook, as per sources.
He denied he had, then backtracked and said he didn’t want to inflame the situation with further public comment.
By lunchtime the next day, he’d told the Courier-Mail he and Cook had spoken.
“Roger and I get on great!” V’landys declared.
“I’m not entering negotiations through the media,” he added.
“Until my commission meets to discuss it, I’m not commenting on the bid itself.
“We have been very dignified in this process.”
Try telling that to those within the West Australian government, who have grown tired of V’landys running the process like it’s an election campaign.
V’landys didn’t attend the NRL double-header at Perth’s Optus Stadium last Saturday – he was too busy schmoozing types in the directors’ room at Royal Randwick for the second day of The Championships.
A crowd of 31,000 fans was in Perth but those on the ground believed the very distinct anti-NRL sentiment in the west meant a further 10,000 didn’t turn up.
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“I don’t have any wounds,” former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones told reporters at Coogee Oval on Tuesday