Nrl News - Carney off the wagon

In breaking NRL news, Roosters playmaker and reformed superstar Todd Carney has fallen off the wagon in the worst possible way.

 

 

Carney: Last seen here

 

In a week of controversy all over the eastern seaboard, with AFL sex scandals and sackings, Carney’s arrest for drink driving takes things to a new level of hilarity. Seriously folks, it may be the morning after the night before but you just have to be on the ball in this day and age. Your old mate has been harping on about it a bit lately (the responsibility of stars in the social media age) and even though this isn’t a twitter / facebook related incident, it just goes to show the lack of awareness that the players have.

 

Apart from being a massive blow to the Chooks just before season kick off, where does it leave the club? Star playmaker with a history of law breaking and hell raising that also carried the club to a grand final appearance in his first season back after being forced into NRL purgatory.

 

So this NRL news will be all over the pages tomorrow and the scandal will blow up. There will be calls for his sacking, you can be assured of that, but I think the Roosters are too silly to let him go. More to come….

 

NRL News - The Friday Fuckwit

Well once again NRL news fans, it’s Friday and the Fuckwits abound. After another week of controversy, disaster and anticipation, your Old Mate from NRL Live has tallied up the votes to reveal the winner of this weeks Friday Fuckwit.

 

And as happens in those weeks where footy and sport barely leave the front pages, the nominations of fuckwittery are both plenty and not even confined to our beloved NRL.

 

But before we get into the nominations proper, your Old Mate feels the need to send out a little message to Mother Nature: Enough Already. For while you are no fuckwit, you’ve gone way too far this year. It’s Ok to show off and let your hair down, give humanity a kick in the nuts for polluting oceans, chopping down rainforests and the like, but surely we’ve had our fill. To all Old Mate’s friends, and indeed everybody, in Christchurch, keep your chins up and the collective thoughts of many are with you.

 

There were so many possible nominations this week that it was very difficult to choose a prestigious winner. The Manly Sea Eagles were stung in an NRL inspired facebook honey trap. The Knights drama remains open ended. But surprisingly the strongest nominations didn’t come from rugby league. Ricky Nixon, Brendan Fevola and St Kilda have been everywhere in the past week and pressed hard for earning the golden ‘up yours’. Righteo Old Mate, I hear you shout, keep on topic you old bastard. This is an NRL blog, not a bloody aerial ping pong one.

 

True, my friends, very true. But Old Mate, while slapping away on the pokies at Melbourne’s Crown Casino has come to ask himself whether or not what’s going on now down in Mexico (South of Sydney) is any different to the numerous scandals that have erupted in the NRL over the past few years?

 

The fact is it isn’t.

 

 

Aussie Sport: Cultured?

 

And that’s why this weeks Friday Fuckwit goes to the whole Australian sporting culture. Yep, sport as a unit (even though in a perverse way it’s entertaining to see how stupid some people can be). Because for all the goodwill and good work sport does (the coaching clinics, the mateship, the fundraising, the emotional connections to fans), the propensity for professional arrogance is always there. In some sports (read high paying, high profile ones) it seems to be endemic. And unfortunately it’s the turds in the sporting community punchbowl that attract the attention. Players come out of school and straight into often well paid careers where male bonding is a mutant form of the managerial term used by CEO’s the world over. The behaviour gets handed down from larrakin to scallywag to superstar

 

Your Old Mate has gone on before in previous NRL news rants about familiarity breeding contempt. About how if you see something often enough you become desensitized to it. It becomes run of the mill, par for the course, normal. 

 

In 2011, and indeed the last few years also, the outlandish behaviour of our sporting stars has been increasingly in the public sphere. This is very important to recognise because like the regimes being overthrown in the Middle East as I write, the harnessing of social media and technology is proving pivotal. Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones are changing the sporting and social landscape very quickly. And like a healthy dose of crabs from unprotected sex, stars are being exposed and left behind.

 

 

Sports Stars: Exposed

 

When will our sporting clubs understand what they are dealing with? In a culture where scholastic achievements and education are only now filtering into the columns ticked “important”, the lack of knowledge and awareness of wider social norms and not sport centric ones are proving to be career killers. And continually clubs, players, managers and now agents are all being caught short. For proof of the power of social media ask Ricky Nixon if he ever thought he would be outplayed by a 17 year old schoolgirl?

 

In years gone by, her escapades would have been easily swept under the carpet and denied. Sex scandals too numerous and crass to mention have regularly been wiped in this way by NRL clubs as little as a few years ago. In some cases hush money has been paid. But phones, twitter and facebook now provide the scorned with an instant, worldwide outlet. Players can no longer treat others in an unfit manner whether arguing in a nightclub, in a sexual situation, in a drunken state or making an outburst online.

 

So where to from here? The NRL has taken the initiative about 5 years too late with it’s social media training but it is better than nothing and may just serve to keep a few players out of the NRL newsheadlines and away from the glory of the Friday Fuckwit award.

 

 

 

NRL RESULTS – ALL STARS, TRIALS AND THE 4 POINT GAME

Another crappy Sunday morning out there folks but poor weather and a hangover has done nothing to dampen the excitement of last nights NRL Results from the All Star Game and the handful of NRL trials that were also played.

It's an exciting time for NRL fans. Clubs are concentrating on getting players match fitness, trying to give playmakers and new team mates enough time together in match situations to let partnerships gel. New players, new positions, new moves, new coaches. It's all about getting ready. Old Mate's old mate, the great Beekeeper, used to say that trials are often 4 point games. Get the win up in the trial and you gain a psychological edge over the other team. Play them again in the early rounds of the comp and you have to believe you have the wood on them. If you get the 2 points there, you'll also be confident of beating them again later in the year. That's the 4 point game.

 The Great Beekeeper: Trials are 4 point games

Last night saw a host of teams in action: Wests Tigers, NQ Cowboys, Manly Sea Eagles, Cronulla, the Sydney Roosters, Canterbury, NZ Warriors, Parramatta, Melbourne, the Broncos and the Titans.

Firstly, up QLD way we had the NRL All Stars game which has once again proved to be a breath of fresh air in the game. It seems the perfect way to kick off a season - the general excitement amongst the NRL community, the prestige for the players in gaining selection by fans vote and the skills on show have created a sensation that your Old Mate thinks needs to be expanded upon. Your Old Mate may have Coke Bottle glasses and hair as grey as an English sky but he knows a good initiative when he sees one. More on that in a future post. But for now back to the match.

Things certainly didn't lack bite for a first hit out, something which says a lot for how serious the game is taken. Some of the defence was bone crunching, the attack was smooth and skillful and the pace of the game was rght up there. The NRL All Stars skipped out to an early lead with Morris crossing in the corner after Thurston chipped for himself on half way, testing the new regather rule. Benji took the chip and the resulting passage led to the try. The Indigineous team were still finding their feet. The first quarter was even, but all of a sudden during the second stanza, and despite a few good attacking raids, the Indigineous team were down 22-0. To be fair, any team in the world would have struggled against the on fire NRL team as their confidence grew with each set of six. Marshall, Smith, Lockyer and the sublime Josh Dugan were carving up. The Indigineous team finally got on the board, pulling it back to 22-4 and then Nathan Merritt's twisting run got it to 22-10, but Man of the Match Josh Dugan scored a super 40 metre try to put it beyond doubt.

In other NRL results, the newly named "Honey Pot" Sea Eagles beat struggling Cronulla 18-0. The highlight of the match was the return to the field of cult hero David "Wolfman" Williams, who picked up two tries after missing the whole 2010 season with a shoulder injury. Joe Galavao and Terence Seu Seu also both performed strongly. 

In Brisbane, the Broncos thrashed the Titans by 40 odd in an ominous warning fo the rest of the comp. The Baby Broncos of last year looked in stellar form and should bounce into the season confident of their abilities. Over in NZ, the Warriors also gave Parramatta a drubbing by 20. The Warriors looked sharp and well drilled and their new recruits, like former eel Inu, played well. For Parramatta, Steve Kearney will not be worried. They were a bit understrength and know that with their disrupted pre season things will take time to gel. Old Mate still thinks they are a top 8 side but will start slowly.

Also up North, the Wests Tigers were too good for the Cowboys. Fielding a young team, the Tigers took the initiative and were never headed. Back in Sydney, the Bulldogs beat the Chooks 24-22 in an evenly matched contest. The main thing to report from this match is that Anthony Cherrington did his knee in the finals few minutes. In a bad case of deja vu, Cherrington did the same thing in a trial last year,missing the entire season. The footy gods are not smiling on the young Kiwi, however players like Ben Ross and Benji Marshall have also come back from long term injuries, so there is hope for the highly rated youngster.

 Season over? Deja vu as Cherringtons ACL goes again

Tonight sees another cracker of a game in the traditionally hostile Souths vs St George Charity Shield. Another one of those matches that has taken on significant importance for both clubs, the Shield has been a fans favourite for the last few years and again promises to be an early season highlight. Old Mate is expecting a bit of biff and a lot of niggle. But for now that is all for NRL Results, Old Mate will be snooping around the training grounds this week, linament and strapping tape in hand, ready to bring readers his take on the latest NRL News.