Copa

I really like the standalone women’s World Cup that will give us a World Cup every 2 years to enjoy.

This bit is interesting. Does it mean that teams that rely on mostly ancestral players will find it harder to qualify over teams that put in the hard yards and play more games? Ancestry teams seem to only get the NRL, SL players during crunch qualification matches.

Interesting https://www.intrl.sport/news/new-look-world-cup-to-be-staged-in-southern-hemisphere-in-2026/ KEY POINTS Rugby League World Cup moved to 2026 in the Southern Hemisphere. RLWC2026 to comprise 10 men’s, eight women’s and eight wheelchair teams. Reducing size of tournaments makes RLWC2026 more elite. Designing of rejuvenated Regional Championships to aid qualifying process, including a new World Series. Full Member Status nations eligible for Men's World Cup qualification. International Rankings to determine qualifiers for future World Cups. Women’s World Cups to be staged as stand-alone tournaments from 2028. Change to World Cup cycle, with the following Men’s World Cup after RLWC 2026 to be staged in 2030.

Teams to be announced this week. https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2023-2024-las-vegas-rugby-league-showcase-peter-vlandys-announcement-broncos-rabbitohs-sea-eagles-panthers-news/news-story/e84b8889cc978818262307af7ea35637

Plenty of non-png players would live in png for the chance to play in the NRL. If someone trained their whole life to get into the nrl and a PNG team made an offer, they’d more than likely take up the offer. Heaps of foreigners live in PNG for career opportunities. The situation may be different for established star players, but if the money is good, they’d be tempted.

I’m often like that. It’s been that way for most of my life though and I’ve never had concussion. I used to write things up my forearm to get me through the day but I had to stop as it didn’t look professional in my workplace. I develop different systems instead. Somehow I still managed to get into university and achieve great results. If I’m in a cafe I often forget the order between getting up from my chair and getting to the counter. I have to write it down, hold my finger on the correct part of the menu or repeat it against again in my head to remember it. My partner generally orders now. I wonder if Wally has always been like that or if there’s need a sudden deterioration? It may also be some other type of brain condition. It’s beneficial that he’s donating his brain to science after his death.

I suspect dropping it down to 11v11 would result in fewer front on tackles and hopefully fewer sudden stops affecting the brain.

It’s a creative and very affordable way to combat Chinese influence in the region. Managing the politics within the Australian electorate of heavily subsidising an NRL team is a separate issue that’d be difficult to resolve.

50629 turned up for the Australia v France warm up match the other day.

My kids did a huge amount of junior sport across a wide range of sports across winter and summer sports. The best I’ve seen at keeping kids engaged, entertained, socially developed, physically active etc all gave similar levels of match time regardless of skill level. This made the kids happy as they could grow up playing sport with their mates and the parents were happy with that too. It kept it feeling like a community event with the focus being on the development of the kids as people. Player retention over the years was strong when this was the case. The worst was a junior soccer coach (UK migrant) who thought he was coaching in the EPL with 12 year olds. So many kids never returned after that and my son quit soccer forever after that. I sometimes think some clubs should openly promote “equal playing time” and hoover up all the kids and parents who just want to play sport for fun. Find a team that fits what you and your child thinks is a good fit and you can’t go wrong.

The commonwealth games has to change. They have to be able to fit into the facilities that are already available and have fewer athletes. The Olympics will go this way too. What’s the point of building huge oval stadiums for athletics when the locals will most likely want to use it for rectangular field sports afterwards? And compelling hosts to build huge white water centres and hockey centres etc when they’d never use them again afterwards…

Just turned on Kayo Sports and it’s New York vs San Francisco (Major League Cricket) played at a proper cricket ground. Slick presentation, cameras everywhere… very professional looking.

There are always outliers such as alcoholic cigar smokers who live until 100 but it still doesn’t change what the researchers advise: if you want to improve your odds of having a long healthy life, you should adopt a healthy lifestyle. Healthy life doesn’t mean boring life either, life can be amazingly fun, rich and fulfilling without lashings of unhealthy stuff.

Earlier this year I cut back to 2 or 3 drinks a week and only on Fri-Sun. One drink can be a pint or a half pint… in my system it’s all one drink regardless of size and I won’t go larger than a pint (ie jug). I’ll also now ensure it’s a quality brew so as to not waste my 2 or 3 drink quota. If I drink a rubbish beer I’m annoyed with the waste. It was hard to start with but I’ve been pretty stubborn and have stuck with it. My health has improved, my weight has dropped, my bank balance has improved and I no longer feel like I need a drink to relax. I’m no spring chicken these days and the path to a healthy older life is starting to narrow. Interestingly, the urge to drink no longer buzzes my mind. It’s now a pleasant treat rather than a necessity. Best of luck with it!

There are always outliers but all the science suggests to improve your odds of a long healthy life you should take care regarding what you eat or drink. My father was also an outlier. He died from smoking related lung cancer in his 30s.

Every premier league game (plus a number of other soccer leagues from around the world) is broadcast in Australia live and on-demand on Optus Sports for around £12 a month.

Here in Canberra if the Raiders didn’t get TV games we’d slowly fade away into insignificance. It advertises and promotes the team and gets people to the game. Televised games also allow people from outside Canberra to follow the team. SL is currently very difficult to follow and support for anyone outside of the SL geographical area. The teams that aren’t televised simply don’t exist in a sports fan’s consciousness.

There are also lots of bodies under the stadium as is was built on top of where Brisbane’s first major cemetery was located. Around 5000 people were buried there and only 150 or so exhumed when officials said they wanted to build over it (well before a stadium was considered). During the renovations that turned it into the present day stadium they unintentionally dug up quite a few of them.

For the non-Aussies, Fox League is a 24/7 rugby league channel.

In rugby league you always play to the whistle, he didn’t “play to the whistle” in a cricket match and was sent back to the pavilion for his troubles.

There’ll definitely be a women’s WC. To not include the women would be appalling and devastating PR for the sport in Australia where women’s sport demands to be taken seriously.

Summer is now on its way! (For us down under)

You guys pay a lot to watch RL. I admire your commitment and I feel really fortunate living in a RL country. Here in Australia I pay $25 (£13.40) a month for Kayo Sports that has a large range of sports and a 24 hour rugby league channel covering a few levels of RL including the NRL.

The NRL has all games broadcast live within Australia and outside of Australia.

15kg (33 pounds) down since the start of the year. It’s harder to lose it now but it’s still coming off slowly. I love the feeling of walking up hills now. It feels so much easier.