Tigers in the 8!

More beautiful sights on the AFL ladder!  Richmond above St Kilda, Essendon and Brisbane.  At this stage we are taking it week by week - this week we face the previously undefeated Bulldogs. I think we might run with them.  That would be Phabulous!

I tipped the Bombers, Port and Adelaide. Collingwood were certs to lose but I went with them. Richmond kept me in the tipping comp.  

What's more I'm looking forward to the start of the IPL this week.

"I'll cop it on the chin"

Is anyone sick of hearing this phrase?

Since when has it become acceptable to manouvre the spotlight onto your own magnanimous gesture of accepting your due punishment for a despicable act? Are player's agents, PR gurus -these linguistic contortionists - the ones to blame?

In the few words Barry Hall has uttered it is pretty clear that he feels there were extremely mitigating circumstances for his actions. I'm not sure what they might be, but you can bet his team of legal advisors will track somebody down.

Rugby League's Greatest Shame

Surely the image of the greatest game of all cannot sink any lower. In its spiritual home, at one of its iconic landmarks, rugby league's reputation has been sullied beyond repair. The half-hearted antics of a few shaven down, untapered, budgie smuggling-wearing posers, whose nocturnal fantasies involve working on their "PB", have upstaged and, I fear, inflicted irrepairable damage to rugby league's eminence as "the" academy for social pathology.

Who is this pretender Darcy, stealing column space from the professional operators this city is so proud to have been banning from its drinking establishments since the foundation year in 1908? This boy has no schooling of substance in acts of public indecency. He certainly boasts no substantial rugby league career that would account for his recent behaviour. He is making it up as he goes along and pretty soon will be exposed as a fake.

The fact that swimming teams are usually the refuge of latent homosexuals and others with perverted incliniations, only heightens the greatest game's enbarrassment. Where was Craig Gower patrolling Darling Harbour, ensuring that innocent bystanders were put in headlocks and that young ladies feared for their safety? Where was Willie Carne ensuring tables were duly urinated under? Julian "the Stool" O'Neill thoughtfully filling team mates shoes with faecal reminders of an ill-spent weekend on the turps? The Gaz yelling down the mobile at a bewildered female stranger "Fire up, you sad c***"?

Do we need to recall the tremendous work the Bulldogs have done, voluntarily, to enhance the standing of the game? 

As if the media attention that pretender Wayne Carey has been getting is not enough of an insult to league's proud tradition. Let's just remember for one moment folks, Carey had to temporarily migrate to the U.S.A. to ply his trade (and a pretty uncommitted apprentice he has proven to be). That country is a backwater when it comes to drunken blokes causing mayhem - sports stars there have no comparable record. When was the last time Tiger Woods was arrested for public urination (schoolboy stuff, by the way)? Also, the infrequency of Carey's appearances on charge sheets and in the media is testament to his lack of real commitment to being a social nuisance.

No. There is only one sporting code that has selflessly embraced its role as a school for our best young men, and it appears its time is over. It is likely Australia will never be the same again.  

Hollywood flees country! (To Hollywood!)

Mystery surrounds the reasons why our perennial squad member Hollywood has fled Australia for the United States.  

Here at Partisans! we can reveal the answer.  While the public story is that he is involved in assisting the US labor movement to learn from itself, others have suggested Hollywood's widely acknowledged talent for mimicry has scored him a gig in his eponymous city.

Partisans can reveal the real reason.  The AFL roster this week sees Collingwood line up for the annual upset against Richmond.  Having last night advised Phabulous that Richmond wins over Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon in one year equate to a Premiership how many others can claim their team is 1/3rd of the way to a Premiership already?  The only thing that worries me is it may be too early in the season for an upset to have a real effect on the Pie supporters.  For that reason the boys from Tigerland may opt to help set up Collingwood for a later fall - by tanking this week. It's all part of the 15 year plan.  

Of course the other reason may be that Hollywood doesn't want to have to front up with another bottle of red for me on the morning after the match.

Stay tuned for more travel plans.