goat water

Dreamers,

Thinking that the Chairman and the Three Wise Men have got it just about right when it comes to the touring party for the West Indies.
Little doubt that the elevation of MJ Clarke to the vice-captaincy was a fait accompli with the graceful departure of the Great Gilly.
Not sure about now, but in the olden days the vice-captaincy would have entitled him to a seat at the touring selection table, the old “well, it’s you and me skip, who do like among the rest?”
Now he has cleared the hurdle of being engaged to be married, he can leave all that for his missus-to-be and his agents to organize, while he gets on with the game.
The selection of The Kat was also a lay down mizere, in fact there would have been calls for a Royal Commission if he had been left out of the squad.
Had to be picked on the sheer weight on runs, and while its easy to dismiss Katich as the spare bat in this party, he can play anywhere between 1 and 6, so should be able to keep the pressure on the top order,
The Beau Casson kiddie is undoubtedly the bolter in the 15, but confesses to his delight in being picked to fulfill the duties of Tour Entertainment Officer for the duration.
Hilfenhaus and Nofke will also be required to do a lot of drinks carrying.
In fact the party has a distinct party flavour to it: Old Haydos on the pans whipping up the odd pot of goat water [www.caribbeanchoice.com/recipes/recipe.asp?recipe=341]
Casson mixing the rum punches, TSC MacGill serving the cheeky Chablis, Roy rolling the scoobs, Mr Cricket doing the musical selections, and MJC responsible for rounding up the girls.
Ahhh…life in the Caribbean.

Test squad Matthew Hayden, Phil Jaques, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Simon Katich, Brad Haddin (wk), Ashley Noffke, Beau Casson, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill, Ben Hilfenhaus.

on song with the slipper

Benchmen,

On that performance you can imagine teams who are scheduled to play in Sydney this year sitting around staring vacantly at a blank whiteboard as the coach scratches his head trying to figure how to get out of Sin City without the benefit/humiliation of a ten goal football lesson.
The cricket ground will be a very difficult assignment for any visitors this season.
Port were perfectly outplayed by a team that knows every blade of grass like the backs of their hand
The two Bolton’s combined to be best on ground in one, for mine, but contributions from all over the park – too many to mention.
Marty Mattner could see himself coming into his own and could be a good buy [played his 100th AFL match in this game and yet no one has ever heard of him], the sort of bloke who will “toil manfully” all day.
Son of Gary certainly has his father’s turn of speed and a kicking boot to match; must’ve realized that he was too small in stature to play the rugby league but could get a go in rules with his pace & accuracy.
He also doesn’t mind a good smack in the head.
Marvellous to witness, even by remote control, Michael O’Loughlin back on song with the slipper.
Fantastic to see the wily veteran [who already has the appearance record in the dilly bag] march past (465 career goals) Plugger (462 career goals),and now only trailing the great Bob Pratt (the forever unattainable 681 Swans goals) on the Swans' all-time goal scorer’s list.
Perhaps it is now time for one of the assistant coaches to approach the AFL’s Equipment Technology Standards sub committee and ask them if it would be alright if Magic wheeled himself out to say, centre-half forward in a sports wheelchair, so he can manoeuver around the forward line like some kind of murder ball player.
The only time that he is allowed to get up and walk, is when he tees off for goal, as if using a seven iron, having taken the mark in the chair.
You are always going to win with BBB Hall kicking five fa’s up front and the likes of Leaping Leo and the Ugliest Man in Football also finding themselves on the score sheet.
There were some classic cutaway shots on the television coverage of SC Roos on the bench, personally running the bench, and at one point BBB appeared to be giving the coach quite a bit of lip before throwing his hands in the air.
A few moments later there was a slo-mo replay of SC Roos, fixing a bead on Hall, as he appeared to be saying “why don’t you just shut the f*uck up, Barry, and let me get on with coaching the team?”
That’ll do.

SYDNEY: 6.2, 10.5, 17.10, 22.14 (146). Hall 5, O'Loughlin 4, McVeigh 2, Kirk 2, Barlow, Jack, Barry, Bolton, Roberts-Thomson, Goodes, Grundy, Bevan.
PORT ADELAIDE: 4.1, 6.7, 7.8, 11.12 (78). Goals: S.Burgoyne 4, Tredrea 2, Motlop 2, Rodan, K.Cornes, Pettigrew
At Sydney Cricket Ground.
Crowd: 20,700.

The Mighty Tigers looked like premiership material for the first 15 minutes for mine, what with the early try; but then, and lets see how many clichés we can employ here - it all went pear shaped, the wheels had fallen off, the game plan had gone agricultural, and after that, it was all downhill from there, before eventually, the floodgates opened. The Tigers cause wasn’t particularly advanced by a terrible kicking game.
You only have to look at the match winning try, when a Morris grubber more or less landed straight in the arms of Sonny Bill Williams, who, after he had completed a legal juggling act, put on a burst of speed and just strolled away the 70 metres to the try line with a couple of slow-moving try-hard Balmain forwards floundering in his wake.
Did the first two games of the season take the stuffing out of them, or are they yet to be truly match fit for a game played in “the heat” [ie about 26 degrees!]?
They are sure to find out the answer to that question this week on the training paddock.
Ran out of legs in the last 15 minutes for sure; the soft tries conceded tell anyone that, and SC Sheens looked to be at his wits end, as he could see the moves that were required from his spot on the bench, almost at ground level, but had already realized that his players had simply run out of ideas, as well as running on empty, and there was not much he could do about it.
Gawd almighty - hate getting beaten by Canterbury.
It becomes even more intolerable after having lived the past 11 years in Bulldogs heartland territory, given as we are, but a hop skip and a jump from their spiritual home, Belmore Sports Ground.
But, you just have to learn to cope, somehow…

CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS 32. Tries: Patten 2, El Masri, SB Williams, Nanai, Ryan. Goals: El Masri 4.
WESTS TIGERS 12. Tries: Ryan, Halatau. Goals: Hodgson 2
At Olympic Stadium, Homebush.
Crowd: 21,057.
Craven.