Wednesday 13 April 2011

NBA playoffs around the corner.

Oklahoma City Thunder at $23 appears as massive overs. Just couldn't get past a strong lakers team last year, but the team has improved and included physical strength in the middle with Kendrick Perkins who has playoff and finals experience.

Lakers have had a scare today with Andrew Bynum going down with a knee injury and with his history that is never a good thing.

Counting down the days until NCAA Football and Basketball season...

Monday 10th April 2011

Round 3 in the history books and the gap between the top and bottom teams is becoming as wide as the Grand Canyon.

However as per usual on Monday morning we awake to the claims of an AFL Footballer failing to live up to the expectations that society has seen fit to force upon these young men.

It has been a tough couple of months for the AFL and its roster of 20 somethings that ply there trade as professional sportsmen. 

I certainly have no sympathy in a sense that they are certainly well off in the grand scheme of things and only one could be so lucky to earning a crust from doing something that you love. 

My issue arises when we put these players up onto pedestals and expect 760 odd players to be perfect human beings who are not allowed to make mistakes. 

Those that have stepped across the line, like those in everyday life are dealt with in accordance with natural justice in a court of law. 

There is bigger news in the world than Jack Riewoldt giving someone the bird, or Andrew Krakour celebrating his goal with a jailhouse salute for his brother.

Surely we have not sunken to the depths of living in our own terrible trashy reality TV show where people are only interested in finding out which AFL star had a couple of beers too many after winning a game of football.  Take a walk through Melbourne's C.B.D after dark and tip toe through the vast number of drunken and drugged hooligans that take over the streets and tell me you feel 100 percent safe.

We live in a cynical and hypocritical world, when we ourselves feel the need to get a daily fix by judging young men and how they live and act in life outside of Football. 

In the end who would want to be a footballer or sportsman/sportswoman with us 'perfect' citizens being born with a given right to pass judgement on how you should act and live every moment of your life.

Certainly appears as a very sad state of affairs. 

Sunday 3rd April 2011

AFL -

Round 2 completed with 4 favourites covering and 4 'dogs' covering the line. Collingwood, Carlton, Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn all doing the business. 

Interesting start to the year.

Collingwood have improved from last year which is saying something. The next bunch looks like Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs. Carlton can show how far they have moved forward in a cracker against the Pies in delayed Friday night footy.

Came out of the weekend going 2 for 4 with Collingwood and Western Bulldogs both easily covering the line. 

Fremantle have started slow, an entire season hinges on the health of Sandilands and that can't be a good thing.

Port Adelaide who I liked head to head lost at home against West Coast and are certainly still the most inconsistent team which equals punters nightmare. 

Brisbane are in a world of hurt. No John Brown = bad times for Vossy. The list is woeful and they will be spending plenty of time down the bottom end of the ladder. Surely the lions pushed the wrong button going after players like Raines, Maguire, Buchanan and Fevola. Few decent kids like Redden, Berwick, Banfield. 

Having Buchanan in the midfield for alot of the game tells the story. Will be laying them week after week and pretty sure I will come out ahead!

Hawthorn looked good, the midfield absolutely destroyed Melbourne. Hawthorn started slow but certainly kicked into gear in the second half.

Really poor by Melbourne after dominating in the 2nd quarter, plenty of run and carry and scoring in bunches. Then with around 5 minutes left they decided to slow the game down and ice the clock...Hawthorn ended up creating a couple of turnovers and getting a couple of cheap goals and helped them wrestle back the momentum going into the halftime break. 

Really poor decision by the Demons. They are at there best when taking the game on with run and carry through the corridor. 

With a relatively healthy list it and arguably the easiest draw in the competition. The time is now for Melbourne to show consistent work rate and execution. Really have glaring holes in the forward pressure inside the attacking 50 with the ball coming back out as quickly as it goes in and consistently not being able to break the opponent zone when kicking in from a behind. 

Could not see many changes in the 3rd quarter when the flood gates opened for Hawthorn and not sure what Dean Bailey tried to help stop the bleeding.

The Demons cannot afford to flat line this year with teams like Carlton, Essendon and Adelaide all on the improve making a push for finals alot harder. 

The gap between the best and worst for Melbourne is too great and urgently requires fixing, a small part of me is starting to wonder if Dean Bailey is the man for the job.....

NCAA

The dream run for the UConn huskies continues as they get over Kentucky and reach the National Championship game where they will face off against the Butler Bulldogs.

UConn and Kemba Walker after winning the Big East tournament have hit form at the right time and go in as a -3.5 favourite.

The Mid-Major Butler remarkably return to the big dance after last year losing in the title game against Duke. Butler got past VCU by 8 points with the Rams leading at various stages in the 2nd half.

Kudos to VCU proving all the critics who thought they shouldn't even have made the field wrong with a tremendous run into the Final 4.

The line for the Championship Game opened at -4 and was bet into -3.5 straight away. 

AFL Round 2 ATS

Team ATS after Round 2

Carlton 2-0
Richmond 1-1
St Kilda 0-2
Geelong 2-0
Collingwood 2-0
Port Adelaide 0-2
Adelaide 1-0
Hawthorn 1-1
Fremantle 0-2
Brisbane 1-1
Essendon 2-0
Western Bulldogs 1-1
Melbourne 0-2
Sydney 2-0
West Coast 1-1
North Melbourne 1-1
Gold Coast 0-1