bbfaz

Well, it wasn't so long ago that Brighton weren't in the top 5 of biggest clubs in Sussex so things can turn around quickly.

Bayern's "fan friends" are Bochum, which is handy because they are rivals with all the Ruhr clubs.

It has been the weirdest season among a bunch of weird ones. The way FIFA are loading up the calendar, I can't see it ever being normal again.

What do they taste like? We eat other birds.

Back in 2016, they had the 60 years of BBC Comedy season. Surprisingly, of all the new specials made, Goodnight Sweetheart was the only thing that held up and they could very easily have made a new series of it.

It is not my opinion that the onfield fortunes of West Coast Eagles and Fremantle should make any difference to whether the AFL put another team in Perth (preferably called Perth). However, a number of articles that I've read about team 20 made light of the fact and used it as an excuse for why you wouldn't put a new team there. Perhaps, they are trying to create a narrative that the AFL shouldn't expand to the most obvious existing market and should instead find somewhere new, be it Northern Territory / Far North Queensland, Hunter Region, Sunshine Coast or wherever. Both sports have their fair share of people who advocate for completely unrealistic things. If it were me, I'd look at Adelaide 3 too.

The problem is you can't start a local club and rise up the ranks according to merit. However, when I get on my promotion and relegation high horse, people think I've gone mental.

Was a great scene. They're not getting the same quantity of Aussies coming to London as they used to and the ones that do come are on longer visas. They also started tinkering with the rules so that you could throw the ball. It's not your father's Aussie Rules anymore. West London, Wandsworth and North London still have numbers but Putney folded and they have a league where 1s and 2s now play together. SE London Giants play in the social league, Sussex and Reading do too now. There's now a women's league and that's the only growth in the game. Outside London, the consolidation of Aussie Rules UK into AFL London has been disastrous. There are only four teams left, playing festivals but they can't get consistent numbers for that. Back when I played in 2009, I said that the skills gap was massive and the only way to develop players was to play a longer season to try to encourage local players to play. I understand that's not viable but there are public Rugby pitches dotted around central London and the inner suburbs (Regent's Park, Shoreditch, Hackney Marshes, Hammersmith, Fulham) which could be used for a 9-a-side league, though I thought the best solution was to play 11-a-side to Footy 9s rules. I imagine that's miles away now, though it was viable in 2009 IMO.

For a lot of people, it's more than just two different games though. As I said, I played the game and so I don't have a hostility but, then again. I'm not living these issues every day. NRL complain that AFL gets disproportionately positive coverage. You might enjoy both but other people see AFL as another establishment weapon to stymie Rugby League. So... I don't necessarily have a dog in the fight but I see the frustration. If I were still back in London and desperate to be back in sports administration, I'd probably be involved with Aussie Rules than Rugby League, simply because I am tired of the headaches of the latter.

IMO, this is more viable than putting a team in Ipswich. Given what V'landys has said in the past, one of the next three expansion teams will be Brisbane 3 so now is as good a time as any. If you want to go back to Perth, there needs to be money spent on expanding the local player base and getting the best players into a development pipeline to feed a club out there. The NRL Perth academy or something, hothouse the sh*t out of the best players.

IMO, the reason they're out of expansion landing spots is because they've been better at this than Rugby League. They were centralised, lower level clubs mainly got in line and they didn't have the damaging split in the game that RL is realistically still recovering from. Also, as has been discussed ad nauseum, poshos in the Eastern States would rather their kids play Aussie Rules than give them over to the demon Rugby League. However, I think now NRL has the momentum and the façade of AFL in the Eastern States is crumbling. There's no realistic talk of expansion in Queensland or NSW anymore. Gold Coast has never really caught on and while Brisbane's attendances are higher than they've been in years, they're still 8,000+ lower than they were 20 years ago. The Giants do better business in Canberra than they do in Sydney, to the point where Gillon McLachlan said Canberra is GWS' territory and not an expansion market. If they could get the ACT government to improve Manuka Oval, I'm pretty sure they'd move there and give up on Sydney. Everywhere else they come up with - Cairns, Sunshine Coast, Newcastle - doesn't have a prayer of getting off the ground. Auckland is even less likely. Team 20 has to come from within their own footprint. Peter V'landys has said repeatedly that he sees more sense in expanding the competition in Queensland than he does in taking it out to Adelaide and Perth because, in his view, the interest just isn't there. AFL needs to get away from this obsession with being "Australia's code" and focus on places where they actually want to watch the sport. Read the room, guys. So, that means either Perth 3, eventhough both their current teams are struggling and that'd put three teams in Optus Stadium. Or Adelaide 3 and they correct the mistake they made 30 years ago and elevate Norwood from SANFL. This is seriously out there and contrary to everything they've done for over 40 years, maybe Port Melbourne. I just look at how Queensland Cup teams and their investors are looking at getting the 18th NRL franchise and wonder that AFL must actually be a little jealous.

The closest thing I've seen in real life was when my mate had three girlfriends. I didn't even have one girlfriend at the time.

Apparently Luton have the 5th smallest and Coventry have the 3rd smallest budget in the Championship. Generally speaking, the teams who spend the most do the best. We've seen an occasional shakeup, Blackpool had a similarly low wage bill under Holloway, but this is very rare.

I was astonished when it clearly was not 10 lines long and written in iambic pentameter. I also stumped ChatGPT by asking it to write a question in the form of an answer, which is the title of the 2000 album by People Under The Stairs.

I asked ChatGPT to write a sonnet about Sam Burgess and the 2014 South Sydney Rabbitohs. In ages past, where legends cast their light, A tale unfolds of warriors strong and true, Of Sam Burgess, whose heart burned fierce and bright, For Rabbitohs, his spirit wore the hue. In Twenty-Fourteen, history did unfold, The South Sydney Rabbitohs took the stage, With Burgess leading, bold and uncontrolled, A team of heroes, bound by passion's gauge. Through trials faced, they forged a path so grand, Their foes defeated, vanquished in their wake, The Red and Green, a symbol proud and grand, The NRL's foundation did they shake. Oh, Sam Burgess, a beacon on the field, A champion, whose glory is revealed. With sweat and blood, they fought upon the field, Through mud and rain, their spirit never waned, In unity, their strength was thus revealed, A brotherhood of warriors unchained. With steely gaze and muscles wrought with might, Sam Burgess charged, his will could not be bent, The Rabbitohs, their victory in sight, Each try and tackle marked a bold intent. No challenge posed would break their resolute, Their triumph's fire blazed with fervent might, And as the whistle blew, their chant acute, The faithful roared, their joy ignited bright. Oh, Sam Burgess, a symbol of the fight, A legend bound to South Sydney's delight. Though years have passed, their legacy endures, The 2014 Rabbitohs, etched in lore, Sam Burgess, captain, heart so true and pure, Their triumphs echoed, celebrated more. So raise a cheer, for those who paved the way, For Sam Burgess and the mighty Rabbitohs, Their triumphs in our hearts forever stay, Their spirit lives, where legends interpose. In Shakespeare's verse, their tale shall never fade, The Red and Green, their banner still displayed.

Cambridge mum sends internet 'crazy' after buttering bread roll with a spoon The focus on going viral has become too much.

There's a book about Coventry moving to the Arena and it's an absolute sh*tshow. The idea was they'd go into partnership with the council. They put no money in but they were going to be 50% owners as partners because they were bringing the main revenue to the stadium. They nearly lost the land, the contractors did decontamination on the site, wanted paying but City didn't own the land yet. Absolute disaster, full of backstabbing and all sorts. It seemed like a good idea but, to quote Joe Kinnear when he was fired by Luton (nice crossover), "champagne dreams but Coca-Cola money". However, if Coventry do get promoted, are they going to be able to buy the CBSArena back? Ashley bought it and he's hardly going to sell for the 17m he bought it from Wasps for. I think it just opens up another can of worms.

Funny ha ha aside, Luton will have to do 10m of urgent work over the summer if they make it into the Premier League. It's not up to the standard and they still don't have a firm date for when they start work on the new stadium. Also, watching this game with this massive atmosphere, I remembered just how annoying Luton are. They're basically Millwall but in Bedfordshire. In a way, seeing Sunderland, Coventry and Luton all in the playoffs was somewhat romantic. The romance has worn off already.

If Sweden won, the Danish entry - which didn't make it to the final - should be a worldwide sensation.

Aussie Rules is nowhere near as rough as it used to be. You can't speccy like you used to, you have to play the ball more than playing the man, you can't get away with deliberately punching arms when you clear the ball like you used to. It was psychopathic back in the 80s, made even weirder by the umpires still wearing the same uniforms as cricket umpires. I played it in London before I was married and it was the most aggressive sport I've ever played/done. More aggressive than MMA, if you can believe that. I was popular because I'd tackle a brick wall and trained like an animal, partly because I was a novice and couldn't sleepwalk through training like some could. Problem is, it's a brutal watch at amateur level. Very boring, lots of fumbling on the floor and nobody can kick it very far. My mate could kick it out 70-80m and he had to come back from midfield to take the kickouts because nobody else got anywhere near that. Conversely, I can watch any game of Rugby League at any level and get something out of it.

Comparatively speaking, they're playing on easy mode. Not everybody is pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and one game strongly benefits from its position as the sport for wannabe British poshos worldwide.

This was Australia's World Cup. They tried to pie it off on the US & Canada and then France. As the biggest and richest NGB, they need to step up and stop shirking responsibility.

Genuine question because I have a fair idea but I'm curious. How much does it cost to stage the tournament? What's the shortfall? Can't we have a whipround?

TBH, in my time in RL, it just sounds like business as usual. We've discussed before that some teams were reliant on money from Sport England and a large chunk of the game collapsed without the money. Also, the RFL encouraged clubs to move beyond their actual level. It's my understanding that certain teams had admins pushing the clubs beyond the player commitment level. I've always felt it's a mistake to not offer players a season similar in length to Rugby Union. Not necessarily a winter season but an 8-9 month season with a break for summer holidays. I tried to help revive one of the clubs you mentioned but it felt like people just couldn't be bothered.

I'm not paying for that.