Hello Sports fans,
After a long hiatus, The Big Red Sports Machine is back, just in time for the start of the EPL, footy finals in Australia, the NFL and more.
AUSTRALIAN RULES
The AFL moves remorselessly toward a super Grand Final between Collingwood and Geelong. These two sides are clearly superior than the other sides in the Top 8. Hawthorn have too many injuries to Key Position players, despite the fact that they have Rioli, Mitchell, Hodge and Franklin. Carlton are close, really close, but lack a genuine full-forward and one more big man in defence. Geelong will be slightly concerned about having to face the Blues in a Prelim Final, as the Blues expose the Cats for sheer speed.
However, it is the West Coast Eagles who could be the surprise packet in September. The Eagles are playing excellent footy right now, very aggressive and desperate, and no-one will want to play them at Subiaco in the finals series. Big men Cox, Naitanui, Lynch and rookie Darling are proving a real handful, whilst the re-emergence of the brilliant Daniel Kerr and veteran Andrew Embley has created an excellent midfield, as good as any in the competition.
The recent run of lopsided results is no guide to September action, unfortunately. Collingwood and Geelong are in Cruise Control at this time, although Collingwood will have a decent test this Friday Night against St Kilda at Docklands. The last round of the Home & Away season pits Collingwood against Geelong; it will be fascinating to see if Malthouse and Scott play ducks & drakes and rest an abundance of players to have them cherry-ripe for the finals.
At this stage, it would somewhat risky to tip anything other than a mega Grand Final between Collingwood and Geelong. If this occurs, I think Collingwood would be 3-4 goal favourites, assuming no major injuries (to Cloke, O’Brien, Jolly or Pendlebury). A Magpies-Cats GF would be an AFL dream, and would rate its head off.
My, my, the GWS Giants have been in the Press a LOT of late. A generally negative vibe from the voracious Melbourne AFL press is driving the focus onto the Giants, stirred along by the legend in his own lunchbox, Collingwood President Eddie McGuire.
I have been to many Giants games in the NEAFL this season, and there are certainly some promising players in the squad. It is realistic to expect that the Giants will follow the Gold Coast Suns form and cop some hidings in 2012. What will be fascinating will be to observe how the Giants brains trust of Sheedy, Williams, Allen & Silvagni set about recruiting off-contract players from other teams. Sheedy has been quoted publicly as saying to Allen “get me a Spine”, and the apparent recruitment of Adelaide’s Phillip Davis is a step in that direction (Davis is a centre-half back). Potential No.1 Draft pick Jonathon Patton from Victoria is a centre-half forward or full-forward, and potential No.2 Steven Coniglio from WA is a left-footed midfielder. Coniglio is a very fine cricketer and the whisper from across the Nullabor is that Coniglio does NOT wish to move to Western Sydney.
One wonders if GWS could use this situation and pull off a blockbuster trade with either Fremantle or West Coast for Coniglio. Names that immediately come to mind are Freo ruckman Zac Clarke, Jack Darling from the Eagles, Fremantle’s Hayden Ballantyne or, dare I say it, Nic Naitinui.
FOOTBALL
After having the appetite for Football whetted by last night’s EPL season review for 2010-11, Football fans will be salivating at the prospect of the EPL commencing this weekend, with Daylight Savings looking favourably upon us for now, with early games on at a very reasonable 9.30pm AEST.
Will Manchester City finally make the big leap into the Top Two? Are they good enough to be phenomenally consistent over 38 rounds, as Chelsea and England’s most successful club, Manchester United, have been over the past decade? Will Arsenal, after so many years of being not quite good enough, part ways with Arsene Wenger when they are 7th at the Christmas Break? Will Tottenham Hotspur become clearly the best team in North London? Will QPR and Swansea City hang on and avoid relegation? And in the Championship, will the two Millwall-West Ham derbies provide us with riveting, brutal, desperate and brilliant football? No surprises, TBRSM tips United to win title XX, harassed all the way by the blue tenth of Manchester, Chelsea and a resurgent Spurs.
NFL
With the Labour dispute FINALLY resolved, we can look forward to a full NFL season of 16 games plus playoffs. This may the year that Philadelphia finishes off all challengers in the NFC (Green Bay, The Big Easy, Hotlanta, Chicago) and make the Big Dance. Michael Vick is ready to explode, and if he really gets going, God help all of the other 31 teams.
The AFC will come down to the usual suspects, they being New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and the improving Kansas City Chiefs.
The evil one, Bill Belichick, has gambled BIG TIME by recruiting Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco to Foxboro. Tom Brady has a full arsenal of attacking weapons, and Haynesworth, if he pulls his head in, will be a menace on the defensive side of the pigskin. With Big Ben hopefully not harassing drunken females anymore, the Steel Curtain will be hard to stop, especially at the cauldron that is Heinz Field.
Cam Newton’s progress in Charlotte will be closely monitored, with experts evenly divided on whether he will make the grade as an NFL QB. Tim Tebow up there at Mile High will also have a thousand cameras watching his every move, as he continues his efforts to prove he has the technical ability to be an effective QB (no-one, and I mean no-one, questions his ticker or commitment. He also would never be found at 4am in the morning at a seedy Denver Strip Club).
No early tips, we’ll leave that for closer to the season. The most interesting Division will probably be the Black & Blue Division, where the Cheeseheads will have their hands full with an improving Detroit, Chicago and my Minnesota Vikings, who have a new head Coach and a new QB, be it Donovan McNabb or first round draft pick Christian Ponder. The Vikings have 2-3 good years left of the dynamic Adrian Peterson, look for him to top the Rushing Yards this year.
That’s all for now, great to be writing once again.
