I’m calling it the sports rant thread because I don’t expect that anyone else here is a cricket or rugby league fan and I’m certainly not familiar with grid-iron or baseball [Nah never been interested in basketball though it’s not quite as boring as soccer, lol] so I’ll just treat it as a sports rant thread like shouting at the sky . . .
Others are invited to share their thoughts on any and all sports or sport related stories.
After a very disappointing cricket season here In Oz, where the visiting teams were hopeless, footy has returned. Yay!
Of course I’m referring to the toughest footy code on the planet; Rugby League! [No poofy helmets or pansy pads, just man against man . . . .
For those who’ve not ever seen a game of rugby league, watch a State Of Origin highlights vid, especially the early series where brawls were part of the game before administrators went all airy-fairy, getting in touch with their girly feel-feels]
Although I love the long season, RL is a winter sport.
Playing at the highest level in hot weather is ridiculous.
Though the first two games of the season were night games.
Melbourne Storm [bloody cheats] v Parramatta Eels. Storm won . . . [remarkedly without too much blatant cheating but it was their first game of the season so give them time]
Brisbane Broncos [boo!] v Penrith Panthers [who were last years premiers] Bloody Brisbane won by one point.
My team, the once mighty Wests Tigers, came dead last in the comp last year so we can’t sink any lower.
[A classic case of piss-poor management and contract decisions over more than a decade]
Nonetheless, at least now there’s something on the idiot box that’s worth watching three nights of the week.
Rugby league is a great gladiatorial spectator sport. 
i cannot fucking stand when athletes get way too cocky when they know they are good. the smack talk and all that shit is absolutely childish nonsense. just stfu, do your job. we know you are good! you know you are good. so stop already!! just play the game
That appears to be very much an American thing Attie.
Any sportsman who talks himself up here is viewed as a Class A wanker.
Look at that dickhead tennis player Nick Kyrgios for example.
He’s a loud mouth wanker who regularly throws tanties on the tennis court.
Although he’s talented, he’s inconsistent due to a piss-poor attitude.
He’ll never be as good as he thinks he is.
Most Aussies can’t stand the guy because he’s the opposite of humble.
I’m reminded of the time an American boxer came out to fight Jeff Fenech.
His loud-mouthed manager really talked up his fighter saying “Quite frankly, [Fenech] couldn’t carry his bags” [referring to his fighter]
How we laughed when Fenech smashed the bloke good and proper, knocking him out for the count in the early rounds.
See, talking up your bloke is to be expected but to slag off at ones opponent is seen as extremely uncool here.
Disrespecting ones opposition is not only grubby but it also fuels ones opponents to do better.
my hometown football team always sucks ass! cant stand it. 
My footy team, the once mighty Tigers, lost their second game of the year.
The oppositions best player was taken off the field due to concussion yet we still lost.
The worst thing is that we lost to two teams who are not in the top eight.
Good players don’t want to sign with the Tigers because management are a pack of morons who have made some woeful decisions for more than a decade.
My local teams the reigning premiers but it’s just not the same as the team one grew up with.
I’m a Balmain boy through and through.
same shit happens with tons of teams here el. many teams cant get stars because of terrible management or leadership and they guys are like “fuck that”. really puts a wrench in the operation
So get this for sheer bloody minded stupidity; our coach over a decade ago was a bloke called Tim Sheens, a highly experienced coach who had led several teams, including the mighty West-Tigers, to a premiership.
Then for someone unknown reason, management sacked Sheens and started playing musical chairs with the coaching role that eventually led to them employing a former rugby league player, Jason Taylor, as head coach.
The guy is a sneering whining malcontent who divides clubs.
At the time we had the worlds best hooker in Robbie Farrar [State of Origin and Aussie Test captain no less]
Taylor decided that Farrar did not fit into his game plan and sent Farrar back to reserve grade. [Taylors feel-feels was hurt because the players respected Farrar more than that bitch Taylor]
We fans said at the time that coach Dickhead Taylor needed to go if he could not build a game plan around Farrar, that he was not only a dud but a right proper dickhead [hooker is a key role in any team - the hooker feeds the ball out from rucks and scrums; a ball playing forward who directs the forward pack {forwards are the really big guys up front} The hooker position is part of what we call the ‘spine’ of any team, one of three key players]
Then when he got sacked, management replaced Dickhead Taylor with a guy who was just waiting for the head coach role at his sons team at Penrith [who have since won two premierships] who signed up a heap of 2nd-rate/or chronically injured players on long contracts that hobbled our team for several years to come.
Then he fucked off to Penrith.
Next was Madge Macguire, a top coach who was lumbered with a poor roster of players.
One can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.
Halfway through last season they sacked him. Stupid decision that blew any chance of us reaching the finals.
Now we have come full circle and would you believe that coach Tim Sheens is back?
Why then did management show Sheens the door in the first place? Dickheads.
Anyhoo, that’s my rant for the day.
Hopefully we can attract some decent players for the coming years.
This year we wont get far but the best we can hope for is that we don’t finish dead last like last year.
Yesterday the once mighty West-Tigers went down 28 to 22 to Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Playing in 36*C heat [sheer madness - at the very least they could schedule games for night time during a heat wave] we were total crap in the first half and were down 22 to 6.
The second forty minutes showed glimpses of hope when we put on three tries in ten minutes and our defense held them to one try.
That puts us at 0 for 3 for the start of the season.
After eight rounds, the once mighty West Tigers were 0 - 8. 
Round 9 we faced the reigning premiers, Penrith Panthers.
In pouring rain we finally won our first game of the year 12 to 8.
Today we played the St George Dragons for our 2nd win of the season; 18 to 16.
We would like to see more women’s sports events.
Seek and ye shall find. lol
Lingerie Fighting Championships
Who knew??
World Test Cricket Championship at The Oval England.
Australia v India.
Day two.
Australia lost the toss and were sent in to bat.
1st innings Australia scored 469 all out.
Australia has a strong fast bowling line up.
Fingers crossed. [Indians are poor losers and even worse winners 
the uncivilised little monkeys 
]
End of day two; India 151 for 5 wickets.
World Test Cricket Championship [played by the worlds two top teams]
Australia v India.
1st innings;
Australia 469.
India 296.
2nd innings;
Australia declared on 8 [wickets] 270
India 234.
Australia won by 209 runs 
A good preparation for the coming 5 Test match Ashes series against the old foe England.
1st Test starts play on the 16th of June at Birmingham England.
The Ashes refers to a small terracotta urn that’s reputed to contain the ashes of a bail [A bail is a short piece of turned wood that sits on top of two wicket stumps. Three upright wooden stumps and two bails constitutes a wicket]
Top of the wicket [also called the stumps]
The stumps in context;
[It can be confusing . . . when in situ they are referred to as the stumps]
In 1882, the Aussie Test team beat England for the first time.
Englishmen thought they were vastly superior to we colonials so were real upset when we beat them at their national sport.
One Pommy supporter wrote a satirical obituary for English cricket that he had published in the British newspaper The Sporting Times.
The small urn containing the ashes of a bail actually represented the death of Australian cricket as a joke when England had previously beaten Australia on Aussie soil.
That backfired on the Poms when we beat them for the first time.
Hence the obituary and how the name the Ashes Test series originated.
The Ashes Tests are a big deal in Australia and England.
It’s a fierce rivalry.
It’s Englands turn to host the Ashes. [The last Ashes Tests was played here in Oz and we gave them a right proper flogging ]
Beating them on their home soil will be extra sweet . . . well, we haven’t won yet so I better not start gloating prematurely 
Australia v England 1st Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
England won the toss and elected to bat.
1st Innings;
England 8/393 declared.
Australia 386.
2nd Innings;
England 273.
Australia 8/282
Australia won by two wickets.
That was a close match. Too close for comfort. England played well.
They’re playing an aggressive style of game under new captain Ben Stokes.
It’s much harder to win Test matches on the opponents home grounds [apart from different conditions the groundskeeper tends to prepare the wicket to suit the home sides strengths] so this was a brilliant start.
Four more Test matches to go.
The once mighty Wests Tigers season is disintegrating.
Several weeks ago the Tigers beat North Queensland Cowboys 62 to 14.
Yesterday they got their revenge, thrashing the West Tigers 74 to 0, the worst result in the clubs history. [In fact the 3rd worst result in the leagues history]
Both of the merged clubs [West Magpies and Balmain Tigers] are foundation member clubs, meaning that both helped build the competition to what it is today, the toughest in the world.
Their continued failure to get their act together has prompted calls for the merged club to be moved to Perth [Aussie Rules territory] or kicked out of the comp altogether.
Maybe that at least would put us long suffering Tiger fans out of our misery. 
Now for some more positive news . . . . .
The Ashes 2nd Test. Australia v England at Lords.
England won the toss and sent the Aussies into bat.
1st innings;
Australia 416.
England 325.
2nd innings;
Australia 279.
England 4/114 at stumps on day 4.
On the last day of play, England needs a further 257 runs to win.
Australia needs to take six more wickets for victory.
Just like the Headingly pitch, it’s rather placid, prepared that way to nullify Australias fast-bowling attack.
As a result, both teams have employed short pitched bowling, that basically means that the bowlers are targeting the batsman’s body and heads rather than aiming at the wicket. [Often referred to as ‘bodyline bowling’]
Batsman on both sides have copped quite a few balls to the body. The best [or worst if ones a Pommie supporter] was a blow to Stuart Broads neck.
Although known as a gentlemans sport that’s played by gentleman, cricket can be quite dangerous.
Despite wearing helmets these days, an Aussie Test batsman Phillip Hughes died in 2014 during a domestic game after he copped a bouncer to the neck.
A cricket ball is as hard as a rock. The ball that hit Hughes hit him at 135kph.
The best fast bowlers bowl up to 160kph.
The ball that hit Hughes crushed and split his carotid artery. He did not gain consciousness and died two days later in hospital.
Stuart Broad is rather lucky to have avoided serious injury.
The lesson whenever this occurs boys and girls; never take your eyes off the ball.
Anyhoo; England has been playing positive cricket under new captain Ben Stokes.
This means that they’ll come out swinging going for a win rather than playing for a draw [a tactic that is so freakn boring to watch] as will the Aussies, ensuring an exciting last days play.
Forgot to post the Test series final results . . . basically because I was frustrated with our captains defensive mind set.
England won the last two games drawing the series.
Under the rules of the game, Australia got to keep the ‘Ashes’ as the incumbent holders of the urn.