Adelaide Tiger

Woohoo! I am enjoying the 6 SL games each week.

Well I am right jealous of you all. Hope the games have great attendances and England win the Ashes. The wife and I are visiting family in the UK later in the year but due to the annual leave situation where my wife works we will be visiting in August/September and not during the Test series. Doh! On the bright side I might be there to see Cas win their second game of the season.

After watching the deluge in Cas yesterday just spare a thought for us poor bu$$ers in South Australia. On Thursday, 20 March, the suburb in which I live had 4.8mm of rainfall. Don’t suppose that is exciting for most people on here. But, that is 1.6mm more than the entire rainfall we have had since 30 December. P.S. On the radio that day - and on most days when rain is predicted - stations run competitions whereby listeners can win a prize if they get nearest the rainfall figure! P.P.S. The wife bought a new car on New Years Eve and Thursday was the first time she had to put the windscreen wipers on due to rainfall. The other couple of occasions when there was some very light rain the car was in the multi storey car park where she works.

Spot on.

Quick comment from me. If IMG stay on board - as it is claimed on here that there is no break clause - then at least the review overseen by Wood plus IMG’s contribution, can offer a long term joined up vision to potential investors to hopefully increase income into the game. BUT, if there is a break clause, and IMG are dispensed off. THEN, can anyone on here please enlighten me how this review led by Wood can increase investment in the game by basically offering the same to SKY as was on the table prior to the last SKY deal. Thanks"

Too true. One response, on the radio, from someone ‘within the game’ - by which I mean the AFL - commented, and I paraphrase ‘The AFL are rattled with the success of the Vegas venture and by the AFL cancelling two AFL games last weekend due to Cyclone Alfred. So, the response could be seen as the AFL not wanting further negativity if another game is postponed should something untoward happen, however unlikely’. On the other hand, by allowing the Sheffield Shield Final to go ahead at Adelaide Oval, the AFL could have been applauded for a tremendous gesture for the people of South Australia.

Stuff the AFL!!!! Let me explain. South Australia have finished top of the Sheffield Shield cricket table this season and therefore qualified for a home Final. SA have not won the Shield for 30 years so it is a big thing for SA. Cricket Australia, State Government and SA Cricket wanted the final to be played at Adelaide Oval but there is an agreement in place that the AFL has rights to the ground from 15 March for their season. The proposal was for a the Final to take place, with a ‘drop in wicket’ between two scheduled AFL games. Earlier this week, in an amazing radio interview the SA State Premier Peter Malinauskas stated publicly that the AFL had asked for the Footy Express - everyone with a ticket to an AFL game gets free travel paid by the AFL - annual fee to be waived and paid for by the State Government. This would amount to several million dollars. The Premier said ‘It was a little bit galling’ and ‘My Government is not giving out cash just so they can get out of the way of something everyone thinks can happen’. Good for him! However, yesterday he did say that the State Government was prepared to provide indemnity if, for whatever reason the AFL game should not take place; or if the AFL game loses money; or a player is injured due to the reinstated playing surface when the ‘drop in wicket’ is taken out. But the AFL have refused to budge citing that the playing surface to be reinstated after the ‘drop in wicket’ has been taken out could compromise the safety of players. So sod the AFL. Especially as it’s only 10 years ago that the SA State Government put up $535million to upgrade the Oval to accomodate both SA AFL teams.

I have seen the odd poster make reference to ‘SL becoming a feeder league’ if the NRL take over SL. But what do they actually mean? Do they mean that NRL clubs will entice the best SL players to join their competition? If so, that means the status quo continues. Or, that NRL clubs just take the best 4 or 5 players from each SL club every season? Or, that the NRL will tell each SL club that they must have, say, 10 under 21 years of age Aussies in their squad? Or, that a Dual Registration system will be brought in? You have 17 - at the moment - NRL clubs and only 12 SL clubs. So 5 NRL clubs would not have such a system in place. So to posters who believe that the SL would become a ‘feeder league’ what do you actually mean?

Some fair comments there Harry and Archie. But IMHO there is no satisfactory answer to all the issues that you raise. Ever since RL - and other sports - introduced multi camera angles it has become a stick upon which to berate officials. Official just cannot win. On one hand do they continually use the technology to make the decision and upset the crowd and viewers or do they make an immediate decision and turn the risk of being wrong. My suggestion - and one that use to be used at A-League games here in Oz, and they possibly still do - is to ban any replay of any incident on the video screen at the ground. This certainly cuts down on the ferocity of abuse aimed at the officials.

Never really been bothered about going to see bands live. Only been probably a dozen times and all of them whilst I lived in Oz. However, on Tuesday I am off to see OMD at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. On the same night, Kylie Minogue is also performing at the same venue ….. hope to God that I get into the right queue!

I was at that game too. And I was also at the Regal Trophy game in 1986 when York beat us 12-10.

Well after Trumps comments about taking over Gaza and rebuilding it, perhaps DB is after the decking contract?

Sorry, but IMHO the current set up is poohey! Let’s take the 2023/24 Premier League. Aston Villa finished a whopping 23 points behind Man City but qualify for the CL! League winners Man City only win 3 out 8 games in the CL monster, monster league and finished 22nd but could win the CL! There are so many safety nets for the big clubs that it becomes a farce! You say that the new format gives an unfashionable teams like FC Brugge a second chance to progress. But, to me this is just a sop to clubs like Brugge in response for further protection of the big clubs. Brugge have as much chance of winning the Champions League as I have playing for Cas at the age of 61 ….. on second thoughts I shouldn’t have thrown my boots away! IMHO, the old European Cup/ECWC and UEFA Cup format with the straight knock out format meant that top clubs could draw each other in early rounds - remember Liverpool as holders drawing Nottingham Forest, league winners, in Round one - giving unfashionable clubs an easier path to the Final like Brugge did in the UEFA Cup in 1976 and the European Cup in 1978. You could also throw in unfashionable clubs like Malmo, Panathinaikos and Steau Bucharest that reached European Cup Finals. P.S. Your comments about the 70’s and 80’s are wrong if you are referring to only 3 English teams qualifying to play in Europe. Yes, the team winning the league went into the European Cup. Let’s say that the team finishing second won the FA Cup and therefore went into the European Cup Winners Cup. It then left teams finishing in third to sixth place to play in the UEFA Cup. This number could be increased by one or two IF English teams won European trophies - as they automatically qualified for the following season’s tournament - meaning teams finishing seventh or even eighth could even qualify for Europe.

Totally agree. Throughout the 70’s, 80’s I use to follow the results of the English and Scottish team in the European Cup. But since the round robin introduction in 97/98 I gradually lost all interest in the tournament. IIRC it was Silvio Berlusconi that proposed the ‘rebrand’ as his AC Milan side missed out on European Cup qualification for a few years. Since then, the Introduction of the co-efficient that guarantees 4 clubs from the top 5 leagues qualification means that the top sides continually eat at the trough. Now, IMHO, this league of god knows how many teams is designed to act as a safety blanket to help a top team - this time Man City - to sneak into the knock out phase whilst losing three games. Absolute tosh!

That would be really interesting as I cannot remember anything about such a move ….. although I would have been 11/12 in the mid 70’s. I can only imagine that such a proposal would have been some land next to Glasshoughton pit.