Weekend Wrap...

Only a few things to comment on over the weekend. I got out to some live football at Brookvale on Friday night to see two teams that I don't have much love for go head to head, with Manly dissecting Parramatta by 28-10. Other than that, work kept me far too busy to catch a lot of sport.

Most of the fallout from that game is related to Parramatta's ineptitude. Much of that is valid. Parramatta present a forward pack that looks done. In fact, it is hard to recall a team where so many marquee names have fallen away in the space of one season. Cayless and Hindmarsh, seen to be the backbone of the pack for almost a decade look done. Riddell as always looks decent on the ball in patches, but the Riddell story has long been one of promise that was undelivered. The notion of a professional athlete being as out of condition as Riddell is disgraceful. His only job is to play sport. It's not like he spends his days filling out TPS reports.










The casualty from Parramatta's shocking run: Joel Reddy. Blaming Joel Reddy for Parramatta's woes is akin to blaming those scheming Swedes for starting WWII. Reddy is a serviceable centre who offers good defence and some solid gains on the ball. Think of him as a poor man's Nathan Grey playing the wrong code 10 years later. Reddy has been about the most reliable option for the Eels all year.




The other story from Friday night's game - and the sadly neglected one - is that Manly are very, very good. Without Orford, they lacked a little bit of creativity and some kicking options were a little bit poor, however superior fitness and a massively underrated group of forwards wore their opposition down. Without doing much during the offseason personnel wise, they look to be a far superior team to last years unit. I am thinking that at $4.50 that they can stick around with the Storm this year.




Anyway, having now visited every NRL stadium in Sydney/Brisbane I think it might be fun to compare them. But that will be for a later post. Brookie at this stage is my second favourite NRL stadium. More to come later.




Tour de France is hotting up. Cadel Evans on fire! $2.20 to win the whole thing... Got in a lot earlier, more out of national pride than anything else. I have watched most of the Tour on SBS. Still don't understand it all, but loving the Gate culinary tour of France and the French scenery.


Enjoy your week, and keep reading the official blog (TM) of the Cadel Evans Tour Tilt!