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Had a Melbourne Cup function at work today, naturally… tables full of snacks, and finger foods, plus beer. Good stuff: little pastries and prawns and sandwiches and breads and dips, that kind of thing.

Most of the entire afternoon went to the party of course… and the race was five minutes. I do love Australian traditions

And while I put some tiny bets on a got nothing, somehow I did win one of the work sweeps! For a measly $2 I picked up $30 since I got Shocking as my random selection. It’s been years since I won one of these things. Good stuff!

Dinner’s on me… or something

My middle son Alex is a car nut… just loves it. Anything with wheels, the movie cars, Top Gear… you name it.

And of course, this weekend is the Bathurst 1000. Australia’s biggest car race.

Observe:

I like to encourage their interests, after all

Another league season is done, and Wests Tigers not only didn’t win, but they didn’t even make the finals… again. At least there’s always 2005 for me, which is more than I can say for Parramatta fans…

So the Melbourne Storm win the comp again, and while I’m tempted to make jokes about how many people in Victoria will actually notice this, they are an impressive team, one that would do well anywhere. They’re really the height of a modern professional sports franchise, and they’d be just as good if they were say, a second Brisbane team or something like that. So congratulations to them.

And despite some misgivings, I really did want Parramatta to win in the grand final. I’m not a Parra fan, but a lot of friends and neighbours are, and I live in the right neighbourhood, so that would have been good to see. But it was not to be, which I kind of suspected would happen. Melbourne were just too good, with too much experience and too much power. Parramatta made a good run of it, and there were even some moments in the 2nd half where it looked like they could have pulled it off, but every time that happened the Storm would pull away again.

Kudos to Billy Slater as the Churchill Medal winner, as well as Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis and all the rest for their performance. Many of them will be in the Australian team, with good reason. Congratulations to my bizarro namesake Steve Turner as well, who didn’t score in the game, but played well all the same. He’s off to Canterbury next year to replace Hazen El Mazri, so I suppose he will continue doing well. And maybe now with Melbourne Storm and Steve Turner in this post, I will start getting Google hits from league fans who think he’s got a blog now

So where to for 2010 andd the NRL? I imagine there will be less controversy next year… I doubt enough players can be that stupid again, and while I expect Greg Inglis will either be found not guilty or have charges dropped, I think there’s a serious chance Brett Stewart will do jail time for his charges. I expect we’ll see Jarryd Hayne and Billy Slater headline the ad campaign heading into the next season, and at this stage at leasat, I doubt they’ll be in any strife… (let’s not speak too soon though!)

And what about Wests Tigers? Well, after a slow start this year, they actually ended up being pretty good. Still missed the eight, by the smallest of margins (they were just a point behind Parramatta in ninth), but they really seemed to get a combination going with Marshall and Moltzen in the halves. Would be fun to see Lote Tiquiri at fullback but that’s still unlikely I guess, but let’s get Tuiaki healthy again on the wing. Robbie Farah is an able leader of the team, the forwards are getting better, and they should be a real top eight contender if they can actually maintain the line-up, avoid major injuries and get some early form (instead of leaving everything to a late season run, again).

So that’s the typical sports fan for you — the eternal optimist. Hope springs eternal that my team will make the finals next year… I mean they have to again eventually, right? And after watching this year, I’m still thankful that they played an equally inexperienced team in 2005 (North Queensland), and that Melbourne took another year to find form.

That’s it, bring on the 2010 season!

Went over to the parents place to watch the football and have dinner… and finally a game result really worth mentioning!

Wests are way down the NRL ladder now, but they played Souths and really hammered them. 54-20 in the end, the highest score by any team all year… 10 tries for Wests… you could almost think it was back to the old days!

It was a better experience watching it with the family, but an odd one still… Wayne and Dad have so little faith and take it way too seriously… like weird seriously… too weird too really explain. But believe me, any time Wests look like losing — even remotely — they’ll let you know. And assume it will happen.

But instead, it was a big victory, and a deserved one. Would be nice to see it happen a few more times this year…

So close and yet so far…

NSW should have had no chance really, and for some of the game it appeared they didn’t… but they came back, kept it close, but still went down 28-18.

Highlights and lowlights were everywhere… NSW dominated the first 10 minutes, leading up to the disallowed try to Jarrad Hayne that they’ll be talkinig about for days. It really should have been a try… how on earth do you watch that replay 20 times and then say no try? What the hell is Benefit of the Doubt for? You can’t say that was no try for sure… it was so ridiculously close I don’t see how the decision could have been anything other than with the attacking team. They should have asked themselves, “would the defense feel hard done by?” and I think the answer is no. Too many of these rulings seem based on obscure definitions from the rule book, and not about “what is best for the fans?”

The next 10 minutes after that were a disaster… with the advantage completely blown, Queensland ran riot and scored three quick tries, which made the game look like it was going to be a disaster. It was looking like a 50-2 whitewash for a while there…

Finally, some sanity prevailed. NSW improved their defense, they got one (slightly lucky, admittedly) try where Hayne definitely knocked the ball back even if it rolled forward afterward. 18-6 at halftime was fair, and surprising honestly, considering how things looked earlier.

So, salvageable for NSW, right? Then the 2nd half opened with an immediate Queensland try, so the half looked like it would be a disaster again. 24-6 and all that. But then things changed again, NSW were on the up, their defense was good and their attack was making enormous yardage. Every set went 70 metres nearly, and they constantly hammered the line. Two great tries off kicks and good ball play, especially the second one where Robbie Farah kicked, regathered then sent Hayne over. Really classy stuff, and for a while it looked like NSW could even pull it off. But alas…

It was not to be. Queensland’s defense held firm, their insane magnitude of experience over NSW held strong, and they even bagged a quick late try to seal things 28-18. About the difference between the two teams really, though I would have liked 24-18 better. Despite NSW’s rookie team, there wasn’t that much between the sides in the end.

Player-wise, NSW’s best would have been Luke O’Donnell, Robbie Farah and Jarrad Hayne. Was very glad to see Farah do so well on debut, this is one Wests player who should have years of Origin in him… even as a future captain I would say. Queensland had the usual top class performers, with Thurston and Inglis the best.

That Greg Inglis… I still don’t understand why he even plays for Queensland… this guy grew up and started playing in NSW (Bowraville), further south than some of our players… yet by some obscure ruling based on a Melbourne Storm feeder team he played for in suburban Brisbane, he’s allowed to play for Queensland. Very weird, and a ruling NSW is clearly going to hate for years to come. I’ve still never seen a good enough explanation as to why this was allowed to happen.

So in the end, NSW weren’t exactly unlucky to lose, but they really showed some class for the future. They were massively outmatched in most positions, but really held strong in the end and only went down narrowly. Hopefully they can use this to win in Sydney for game two, and then game three in Queensland — which will be a mammoth task — well, who knows? This is a strong team for the future, though I’m worried they still might lose this series, even if it’s close and valiant.

Final word: Queensland are all class, we know that, but NSW made a good showing, and it bodes well for the team’s future.

Went to the football today, the first actual live game this year. Wests vs Souths at the SCG, an old school venue for the “Heritage Round”. Back in 1969, Souths played Balmain Tigers in the grand final, and the Tigers won that day, but it was not to be today.

Basically the main reason I went was that Wayne and I managed to score Members Stand tickets from a friend of Dad’s, which certainly made for an interesting experience. Tickets were unreserved, so we ended up right down near the front. An odd view since the field is really far from the fans at the SCG, but it was like being a kid again, really.

The game was a ridiculously up and down affair, with Wests taking early command, the squandering it for a 10-all half time score, then bursting away again in the second half to lead 22-10, then blowing that to have it go 22-22 in the last minuts, which would then get blown when somehow Souths scored a field goal in the last seconds to win 23-22. Hell of an exciting game really, but the result did not go my way.

The injury toll is looking bad for Wests, with Chris Lawrence, Dean Collis and Bryce Gibbs not even starting the game, and Keith Galloway going off injured within 10 minutes. So I wasn’t hopeful with that toll, really. Robbie Farah ran the show and set up most tries as always, but half way through the second half he got knocked unconscious in a fair tackle, and that’s really when Souths started coming back. Unless he’s injured, Farah is a certainty for State of Origin now, but I’m not looking forward to how Wests perform without him.

We hustled out of the ground and headed home really quickly after that sudden loss, skipping the chance to run on the field after, which is really an old-fashioned kids thing anyway. Oh well, can’t win them all, and I try not to let it worry me too much anyway.

Then again, the biggest difficulty would come early the next morning anyway… and it must have been something I ate…

Have resisted writing about this so far, but it’s been a topic hard not to think about in the last week. In some ways, it’s both a difficult and an incredibly easy situation to discuss and think about.

Easy in as much as yes, women are treated poorly by far too many league players (not to mention too many men in general), and the specific situation in the Johns saga, while not apparently criminal, was certainly damaging and degrading and we should all do everything possible to stop these situations from occuring.

But apart from that, it all becomes very difficult. I notice that no one really wants to talk about how some young women behave. It’s not that anything excuses sexual assault of course, but some women are very willing participants in these sorts of sexual escapades, and the latest reports in the Johns thing seem to indicate that this young women involved was keen on everything at first, and even after apparently, only developing second thoughts about what went on a week later. This puts the whole situation in a slightly different light, only in as much as the belief that Johns saw everything as consensual, and if these new reports are true, then at the time it certainly appeared as nothing other than consensual.

The situation does however redefine a bit what consent actually is in these situations, though it also highlights that Johns (one of two players she consented to sex with) is not even primarily at fault here. What started as consensual sex between 2-3 people ended up being a weird orgy when another 10+ players entered the room. While Johns obviously could have stopped it, the fact is that the other players are as much to blame for what went on as Johns is. And we haven’t heard at all who any of them are… which is gutles beyond belief.

But for league in general… what does this all mean? First of all, I think it’s unfair for this incident to tar the whole game — for a start, it happened seven years ago. It sure shows how bad the problem has been for a while, but it doesn’t do anything to show the changes and programs that have been in effect in the last few years. Saying that something that happened seven years ago would change your opinion of league now is a bit dumb, but I’m seeing a lot of that around. That said, you can’t blame anyone for a negative opinion right now.

Though, is this really a “league problem”? I don’t think so. It’s probably difficult to know, but would the rate of sexual assault or misdeed by league players be any worse than general society? I doubt it. This is a problem for society more than it’s a problem for league, though league does need to address it seriously, because of their position in society, and the fame and influence of players. Of course, changing public attitudes by sportsman would help change society in general, which is of course another reason for league to work at this.

Lastly… Matthew Johns would appear to have his whole career in ruin, on every front, and though I utterly condemn the stupidity and thoughtlessness of what he did, I canj’t really shake the idea that he does deserve at least some of his life back. With 50,000+ people apparently agreeing with me on Facebook, I wonder if he might be back next year as a commentator, or more behind the scenes as a coach. You do have to wonder how much and for how long he needs to pay for what he did… bearing in mind he’s become the public face by default, and is thus sharing all of the blame. And you have to remember that he was fired by Nine because of bad PR, not because of his misdeeds.

So… a sad and degrading situation all round really. Let’s hope that the NRL really is moving seriously to stop this from occuring in any regular way ever again. They’ll never stop occasional bad behaviour, but of course this sort of thing has to be out the question in an institutional sense.

Went to the parent’s today for another little celebration for Will’s birthday. A great day, with more presents for Will, and cake and birthday candles and all that wonderful stuff, and a football game too. Wests played Newcastle in the main TV game this afternoon, and damn it was a good game. Seizure inducing, but great.

Wests won 26-24 after storming home in the last 20 minutes when they seemed certain to lose. Benji Marshall ran the show, personal brilliance on display in a commanding role where he set up three tries in that 20 minute period then kicked the winning goal from the sidelines. He’s a freak and a legend, and I’m glad he’s on my team!

The funniest thing of course came when I just got too involved… I spent much of the game very non-committal in my obsessiveness, as Wests looked certain to lose for much of the game , and I was watching happily but trying not to invest too much into it.

But after the ref disallowed a try to us I just lost it… I scream at the TV with the best of them…! I kept the language clean, but when it gets that exciting… at least Will understood now. He laughed at everyone for the whole game, but naturally Alex got a bit upset. He’s at a simillar age Will was back in 2005 when we all screamed Wests to the Grand Final win.

Alex was fine in moments, and it all got more and more exciting until somehow Wests took out the victory. It made for a happier day certainly, and we all let Will know how happy his birthday party was with an extra win. We’re all a bit nuts, but that’s what being a sports fan is

Will went to his first karate lesson today, at a local class at a nearby high school. We had someone over a week ago advertising them, and after some thought we decided it might be a good  idea for him to get involved. Some fun activity, help his coordination and concentration, and so on.

So I took him down there today, with all talk on Kung Fu Panda. Apparently he watched it at kindy recently, and since we convinced him it’s similar, it’s his main frame of reference, which is cute and likely not that far off.

The people running the class were nice, and Will was the smallest kid there by miles. Went an hour and a half, but Will only lasted an hour, and his concentration half that. No matter — he had a great time even though he was only partially following proceedings. He was such a kid… running around, laughing all the time. He looked so … little… compared to everyone else there, which is almost new for me, considering I don’t have the same comparison usually.

But the teacher was encouraging, and Will did get a few moves, and they were understanding because they knew he was so young and they didn’t expect much. Will even got an encouragement award at the end (along with a bunch of other kids), which was cute, and led us to Macca’s later in the day for a free kid’s meal. We hopefully won’t get that too often… but it was a nice reward for him.

What did surprise me was the adults in the class too — I had assumed it was a kids class. It might even be right for me to join up as well and learn the whole thing with Will. Now that’s a father/son activity

A funny thing is watching Alex dance and slide across the wood floor, deciding he has to avoid the vacuum cleaner at all cost when I’m cleaning the room. He was laughing the whole time, and knew it was funny too.

A funny thing is watching Will partially imitate the Haka before the League test (Australia won easily, naturally). He really only clapped and waved his arms around, but I like that he found it interesting.

A funny thing is how Will’s really taken to singing Wiggles songs all the time now. I mean, it’s adorable, but it’s funny too. And he seems to be interested in playing cricket, which is not unexpected, and should mean much fun too…

A funny thing is that I cleaned up heaps of the house today, unpacked most everything in the main rooms, and generally made large parts of the house quite clean, which is odd, and funny, given it’s only been a couple of weeks since we moved in (last house it took months). But I like this place more, I think.

Nice day, hope to see more.