Copa

His wife may have issues getting a visa as she was convicted very recently in a local Canberra court of running onto a rugby league field and assaulting people, including a 17 year old girl. She’s on a 15 month good behaviour order.

His 4th child arrived yesterday so it will be a lot of them coming over..

I’ve probably watched from in the stadium nearly every home game he’s played in the NRL. While he’s clearly no longer in his prime he still has something to offer at the top level. If he’s paid a sensible wage, and he brings a good mindset, he’ll definitely have something to offer a SL club. A 1 to 2 year contract with a sensible wage would be appropriate.

I have a completely untested theory that if a club actively and publicly promoted itself as an equal playing time club, parents and kids would love it. One of my children had a coach that embraced equal playing time and even took off the best player at critical moments when enforcing it. All the kids understood the rules and so did the parents. Those kids stayed together for years and built great friendships. Everyone also had ample time on field to build their skills. The kids just wanted to have fun and the parents wanted the kids to be involved in the community in a healthy way. Nobody was going to be an NRL star. When kids left the team it wasn’t because of frustration or bitterness with rugby league, they left because their interests changed.

While kids do drop out of junior sports because their interests change I’ve found nasty parents and unequal playing time are the two other significant factors that result in kids drop out of junior sport. These last two factors are also correctable.

When I was a child we went off track exploring and walked many kilometres through untouched wilderness. We came across a rocky overhang and inside against the wall were a few indigenous handprints created by spitting ochre (or ochre type material) at a hand held against a rock. I have no idea how old it was. Since then I’ve always enjoyed looking for indigenous engravings and artworks. My favourite is a huge whale near the beach where I grew up. It’s around 30m off the bush path to the beach and I suspect almost nobody who visits the beach knows about it.

Some parents are crazy..

It was cold out there today. Lots of people not taking their seats and gathering undercover around the stadiums food outlets to avoid the icy rain. The most interesting non match thing was the chief of the Royal Australian Navy’s car out the front of the stadium with a chauffeur standing alert next to the car. I’ve never seen anything like that before at a Raider’s match.

No kickers for NSW tonight!

That ch9 footage of Sam Thaiday speaking live to the studio from Caxton street while a kneeling drunk person pretended to do something to Thaiday was some of the weirdest television I’ve ever seen… the interview just kept going and they pretended the drunk guy wasn’t there..

Well that was really awkward footage of the drunk guy on his knees next to Sam Thaiday!!

After a month off because of injury i returned to parkrun. I’ve started on a different parkrun with roughly 100m in elevation change. The hills are all short, steep and hard to run up… they are fun to run down though.

Bears Perth is getting people asking about memberships. Bears Perth being a club for large hairy men who like large hairy men. https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/a-perth-social-club-for-gay-men-has-been-mistaken-for-the-nrls-new-perth-bears-team/news-story/86b3826ca45bd48d67b05878ee3a535c

The Bulldogs should bring a few. Americans may wonder what’s going on when they see Muslim Australian women wearing hijabs in team colours on the streets of Vegas. I do hope the US’s current reputation doesn’t make them reluctant to attend.

The NRL has had a few watch partners for a while now. Every new partnership with business helps the bottom line. Some examples. 3 different Canberra Raiders watches. https://www.bradford.com.au/mens-raiders-watch.html https://www.dadshop.com.au/canberra-raiders-nrl-legends-series-watch https://www.thatsmyfootyteam.com.au/products/tcbnrlsts03

Nearly 20 years ago I was walking along the beachfront in Perth and some local woman pointed out my kangaroo’s jersey to her son and said something along the lines of “that’s that English sport some people play”. I’m fully willing to accept that she was probably unusually provincial but it was still quite a surprise to hear. You’re correct, these days the online world means legacy media is having less influence.

I’m not sure either. The WA Premier did say something unexpected during the press conference though. He said tradesmen from the east coast should find WA a more attractive place to move to now that WA is getting an NRL team. So I did some googling and found this: https://www.jobsandskills.wa.gov.au/build-a-life

To paraphrase PVL during his press conference in Perth regarding the expansion - “The TV here has the AFL and doesn’t want the NRL here. We’re going to take some of AFL’s lunch and we eat a lot” ”Why would we consult with the AFL? MacDonalds doesn’t consult with KFC when establishing new restaurants” He also said he’d seriously consider allowing Western Force and the Bears to share players and it’s something the NRL and Western Force will have to consider. Additionally he also said some very big companies have approached the NRL regarding sponsorship opportunities for the Bears. Edit: the more the press conference goes on it’s clear a few, but not all, of the journalists are really aggressive and adversarial with their line of questioning. Trying their hardest to manufacture negative publicity.

In an Australian context, calling it “rugby” is a good indicator that the front page is managed by a diehard AFL fan.

Now sold out

Around 1000 tickets left for Raiders v Doggies.

BYDs are increasingly popular on Canberra’s streets. I hear great things about them but EVs aren’t yet suitable for my lifestyle. I enjoy going into regional Australia where distances are great and infrastructure less developed.

PVL and Abdo are seasoned professionals. PVL plays the politics while Abdo applies the hard numbers and his corporate finance background to PVL’s plans. I suspect PVL is making Richardson feel listened to while they check everything out for themselves. Here’s an article about how PVL has increased Racing NSW’s annual revenue from $28 million to over $400 million. He’s seemingly made a lot of enemies while doing this due to his willingness to totally destroy the status quo. https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/inside-the-plot-to-get-rid-of-peter-v-landys-20250422-p5ltej

The Sydney Swans AFL team were originally South Melbourne Football Club (they had a swan emblem). They struggled significantly in the early days in Sydney before becoming sustainable. So it has happened before in Australian sport.

North Sydney oval is entirely unsuited to NRL in Sydney when there are proper stadiums available. It’s from an era when many teams played in dilapidated grounds. The NRL world has moved on since the Bears left. I suspect it’s going to be ridiculous in the Sydney media (the main NRL media) as the time approaches for the Bears return. For some it will be about North Sydney Bears returning instead of Perth getting a team. Players, administrators, training grounds, training camps etc should all be based in Perth.