Is Match Fixing Becoming A Way Of The Sporting Life?

MATCH FIXING MUST BE STOPPED!

Firstly in the NRL, ex Melbourne Storm now Canterbury Bulldogs forward Ryan Tandy, is suspected to have been involved in a fix during the first few minutes of the Bulldogs/Cowboys clash at Dairy Farmers last weekend. Tandy says he has nothing to hide regarding the incident, and that he was not involved at all in the betting plunge. Punters were set to collect a lovely $250000 if the Cowboys kicked a penalty goal as the first scoring play of the match. The reason Tandy is having the finger pointed at him, is that first he knocked the ball on in the opening set of six, and straight after gave the Cowboys a penalty right in front of the sticks. The Cowboys chose not to take the two, instead tapping and scoring in the corner. Therefore, the sting didn't succeed and the punters were left wondering! Do you think Tandy is guilty? Do you believe that other matches in the past or present have been fixed? Gambling on sport is on the rise and it doesn't look like slowing down. There will definitely be more instances of this occurring.

Secondly a more important scandal that is happening right at this moment is the Pakistan Cricket Team bonanza. There have been fresh reports that money was exchanged over the table. You see in the video an unnamed man, declaring that there will be a no ball on certain balls bowled. That is insane! They weren't wrong either. The no-balls that were bowled are hilarious, check them out below. They certainly made sure their foot was over the line. The more I watch these videos the more it makes me cringe. These guys should be banned for life. There is no room for this behaviour in any sport around the world. When the Australians did come back from that test in Sydney, you had to question the tactics of the Pakis.

I really hope that the sporting world isn't rocked to hard by these two stories. However, something must be done about this. This can't be swept under the rug. An example must be set and if it's Ryan Tandy or the Pakistani's, SO BE IT!

NENAD KRISTIC LOSES HIS MIND

 BRING ON THE WORLD CHAMPS

A couple of days ago during a World Cup warm-up, the Serbs and Greeks had an all in brawl. Check the video out below. Some crazy crazy shit goes on. The size of some of the men on both sides is ridiculous. It should be interesting if these two teams are to meet in the World Cup. I say bring it ON!

NBA NEED TO CLEAN THEIR BACKYARD UP!

The NBA Is Losing Control Of Their Players

Carmelo Anthony wants out of Denver for some crazy reason. He wants out fast too. Firstly he wanted to go and partner up with Amare Stoudemire at New York. Now he has come out and said that if the Rockets or the Nets come up with a trade he will sign a multi-year deal with them.

Along comes Chris Paul who supposedly stood up at Anthony's wedding declaring that they were going to make a super team of their own. Paul was talking about himself, Anthony and Stoudemire at the  New York Knicks. Who do these guys think they are trying to run the NBA? What confidence does this give GM's when signing big name players? What about the fans? Players just don't care anymore!

There is no more loyalty in the game. Denver fans just having purchased 'Anthony' jerseys over the off season should receive a refund. New Orleans fans won't know if to cheer or boo Chris Paul if he stays on this season. They all know for a fact that he wants out, why should they cheer for him this year?

I understand  why people think that this is exciting for the game but it really isn't! There will be five or six really good teams and then the rest will be pathetic. Who wants to watch LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh absolutely tear apart the Sacramento Kings? I certainly don't. I want to see a competition where many of the teams have superstars which they can build around. Just as the Lakers have done with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol being surrounded by great role players. That is why they're so successful and fun to watch.

The NBA needs to sit down and put a stop to this. It is ridiculous how three all star players can go to lunch and discuss how they can all play on the same team. If the NBA is going to move forward they need to clean this mess up. I really feel for the fans in this situation and I hope David Stern does too!

BILLY BOY JUST CAN'T KEEP OUT OF THE MEDIA!

 OPSM TO SPONSOR NRL REFS NEXT SEASON

I am sick to death of complaining about NRL Referees but last nights game has to be spoken about. The St George Illawarra vs Manly was shaping up to be a cracker of a match before the man upstairs decided it was to be all about him.

Bill Harrigan who is the head of the referees was the man pressing the button last night. You would think that he would know the rule that you can't lose control of the ball over the try line and than place your hand on it after the ball has hit the ground. Obviously not! Gasnier shimmy shimmy whoosed before crossing over for what looked like a great individual try, but he clearly lost the ball. If you haven't seen it watch the video below, on the slow motion replay you can see clear separation. After the first replay it would have been a red light for me, it was that clear. When the green light came on, I couldn't believe it. The commentators were blowing up. Anything to get in the news Billy Boy! I liked Warren Smith's comment "Here's $10000 Dessie get into them after the game!" Good on you Waz.

This is bad for the game, it's wrong for the players and fans to be punished by these imbeciles. Bill Harrigan after the game defended himself by saying "It was the benefit of the doubt, there was no separation.The ball was put down short of the line than rolled onto it." WOW WAH WEE WAH, he is going bananas! The worst thing is the Dragons claiming that he got it right. Gasnier said "I guess it was one of those 50/50 calls, I guess I got the benefit of the doubt." Are you insane Gaz? What's so 50/50 about it? The ball was clearly out of your hands, I even think that the Manly guy kicked it before Gaz touched it again! Wayne Bennett even denied there was any separation. That's alright the bloke is getting old, he probably is having troubles with his eye sight. 

Bobby Fulton was furious "It was the worst decision by a video referee since the introduction of the video ref in 97. The decision was a joke. Harrigan is a blight on the game and he must be sacked as a video ref." There has been a feud between Harrigan and Fulton for years now. Back in 1987 Fulton told Harrigan "I hope you get run over by a cement truck."

In the second half Brent Kite went to the line and handed the ball to Kieran Foran who was a metre in front of him. Shane Hayne was standing right there and signaled that he flicked it back. I could see it first time, he threw it so far forward it was worthy of a penalty. How do two men in the middle plus two touch judges miss that? Foran was looking at Hayne with a guilty look on his face, praying for him to award the try. If this is the game of the round and we have these monkeys adjudicating, the finals could be ruined!

 

Lets hope they can start to get it right, I think the first step to that is getting rid of the video ref. It will give the refs downstairs more confidence in their decisions and fans will accept that. All this slow motion rubbish is causing to many grey areas in our game.

LBJ HATERS, I LOVE IT!

 LBJ NOBODY'S KING ANYMORE

A couple of things regarding the "King" LeBron James. While I was away in Europe I heard of this nonsense 1 hour special he had on ESPN regarding his move to Miami. I couldn't help but laugh at how much of a wanker he is.

What I do love is how some of the players and comedians are mocking him! Check it out.

Not only has there been videos but there have been some heated words over the last two days between LeBron and Charles Barkley!

Only a few days back James tweeted “Don’t think for one min that I haven’t been taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me this summer. And I mean everyone!” Barkley was quick to respond on 103.3 ESPN Radio in Dallas stating “I heard about LeBron’s little tweet today that he’s remembering everybody that said anything bad about him, and he says everybody. Well, I want him to make sure that he puts my name on that because I thought that his little one-hour special was a punk move, I thought them dancing around on the stage was a punk move, and I thought he should’ve stayed in Cleveland. Him joining Dwyane Wade’s team was very disappointing to me. From a basketball standpoint, I wish he had stayed in Cleveland, and if he takes that as criticism, so be it. He knows where I’ll be, I don’t run. I’m on TV every week, I’m easy to find.”

I love Barkley and can't wait until LeBron chokes all over national television this year! Oh wait, he has done that his whole career, MY BAD!

Fans are in for one hell of a season, it can't come quick enough!

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS MUST BE GOOD

 BASKETBALL'S DO OR DIE!

A highly anticipated NBL season could be heightened even further if the 12 players listed below can put up an almighty performance at the World Championships in Turkey. Is this the right team to carry Australian Basketball back to the glory days? 

I have a really good feeling about this group. The loss of Bogut was huge. If they throw him in this mix than we stand a big chance. Many of the boys chosen have all now had European experience and understand their style of play better than 4 years ago.

Australia is slowly catching up on the world, we are starting to infiltrate the European leagues. I don't know how happy the Europeans are about that but they are going to have to deal with it. With Anderson and Mills gaining NBA experience throughout last season, the Aussies will have a few go to guys when the game is on the line. 

This World Championships is wide open. The Americans haven't fielded a great team at all. I strongly feel that they will not win the competition. The Spaniards will definitely be strong but the loss of Pau Gasol hurts them. If you take them out of the equation the Aussies can make a push for a top 4 spot. In a one off game anything can happen and we all know that Aussies love being the underdogs. 

I just can't see basketball taking off if we don't do well in this tournament. The newspapers will be filled with bad press and that's exactly what the NBL doesn't need only a month from tip off. If the results are good, basketball and non basketball fans will want to catch a game during the NBL season. With ONEHD covering the season, AND1 the new clothing sponsor and Spalding getting back on board, things are looking good for the NBL. 

I really hope the boys do us proud in Turkey, for Basketball Australia and for the NBL's sake. Could 2010 be the year Australian Basketball comes back to life? 

Golden Star Australian Boomers – 2010 FIBA World Championship Team

David ANDERSEN / 212cm / 30 / Centre / Toronto Raptors (NBA) / Frankston Blues (VIC)
David BARLOW / 205cm / 26 / Forward / CAI Zaragoza (Spain) / Sandringham (VIC)
Aron BAYNES / 207cm / 23 / Centre / EWE Baskets Oldenburg (Germany) / Cairns (QLD)
Adam GIBSON / 188cm / 23 / Guard / Gold Coast Blaze / Launceston (TAS)
Joe INGLES / 203cm / 22 / Forward / CB Granada (Spain) / Southern (SA)
Steven MARKOVIC / 190cm / 25 / Guard / KK Crvena Zvezda Beograd (Serbia) / Bankstown (NSW)
Aleks MARIC / 210cm / 25 / Centre / Panathinaikos (Greece) / North Sydney (NSW)
Damian MARTIN / 188cm / 25 / Guard / Perth Wildcats / Gloucester (NSW)
Patrick MILLS / 183cm / 21 / Guard / Portland Trail Blazers (NBA) / Shadows (ACT)
Brad NEWLEY / 198cm / 25 / Guard / Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania) / Forestville (SA)
Matthew NIELSEN / 209cm / 32 / Forward / Olympiacos (Greece) / Penrith (NSW)
Mark WORTHINGTON / 202cm / 27 / Forward / Brose Baskets (Germany) / Bunbury (WA) 

Boomers 2010 International Schedule

28 August            FIBA World Championship           Jordan                  Kayseri, Turkey
29 August            FIBA World Championship           Argentina            Kayseri, Turkey
30 August            FIBA World Championship           Germany             Kayseri, Turkey
1 September       FIBA World Championship           Serbia                   Kayseri, Turkey
2 September       FIBA World Championship           Angola                  Kayseri, Turkey

I'm Back!!

 VACATION OVER!!

Sorry readers, I've been away on my three month Euro Adventure and did not have any time to write about what's going on in sport back home. I actually had no idea what was going on back home.

After a weekend of sport, I'm back. What a weekend it was too! The NRL finals race should be a cracker. The top four is anybody's for the taking. St George showed that they are not done with yet, but that won't be far off. St George fans have four weeks left of celebrating before their team chokes again. Nothing new though, right? Although all the Dragons fans seem to think it's their year, but we have all heard that one before. It should be a great finals series!

Big news which happened last night was that Greg Inglis was released from the Melbourne Storm.  Brisbane weren't sympathetic at all to the Storm, issuing a press release that Inglis had accepted the terms of his new contract only minutes after the news of him being released. I love it! What is that going to do for the Broncos next season? They have some very exciting youngsters coming through the ranks. If Hodges is injury free next season then Brisbane are going to be lethal down the sidelines.

Where does this leave Melbourne? Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith are all that is left to a once all star team. I think it's a great time for the Storm fans, they will get to see the new breed of footballers down South. It will be a struggle over the next few years but you had your taste of glory even if it has all been taken away.

How about that refereeing on Monday Night? What a disgraceful performance by the men in pink. Matthew Elliot has every rite to be furious. I'm surprised he didn't blow up and cop the $10000. That last penalty on Gordon for taking Vidot out in the air was a belter. The referee was standing right there and couldn't see that Gordon contested the ball. Canberra launched a massive attack after the penalty which resulted in the winning try. After 19 first grade games, I think old mate might be heading back to premier league. I must commend Canberra on their comeback, they played some hardarse football from the opening whistle of the second half. Furner must have sent a rocket up their backsides during halftime.

It's still a long way out but I think Manly are going to cause many of the finals teams trouble come September. I also think Penrith have the forward pack to go deep into the finals. I will never be convinced with Jamie Soward running the Dragons around the park, people won't agree with me but there is no better evidence than the last few years. Time will tell, I look forward to the next month and a half.

It's the perfect time to be back home in Australia.