They've been doing it all day sir!
Two Englishmen in Australia, talking sports and life in a new country
They've been doing it all day sir!
Lions to League: But What About My Liver?
The sporting world delivered drama across multiple codes this week, highlighted by the Wallabies' stunning victory in the final Lions test. Though the series ended 2-1 to the visitors, local fans left with renewed hope for Australian rugby's future. As one longtime supporter proclaimed from the stands, "This is what world rugby needs - a resurgence of the Wallabies."
Joseph Suaalii's performance on the international stage turned heads, showcasing a playmaking ability that distinguished him from other players. Unlike those who simply seek contact, Suaalii consistently hunted for gaps and offloads, bringing a refreshing dynamism that could entice more code-hoppers to make the switch from league to union.
The NRL delivered its share of surprises, none bigger than the struggling West Tigers knocking over the red-hot Bulldogs. Meanwhile, controversy erupted when a Panthers trainer ran in front of a Titans conversion attempt, resulting in a $50,000 fine that many felt was merely loose change for a competitive advantage. The Storm remain premiership favorites despite some unconvincing performances, while the Sharks have emerged as dark horses after stringing together four consecutive victories.
Cricket fans were treated to a nail-biting conclusion in the England-India test series, with England somehow snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on the final morning. Needing just 36 runs with four wickets in hand, they collapsed in spectacular fashion, setting up what promises to be a fascinating Ashes contest when England heads to Australia later this year.
As one sporting calendar begins to wind down, we look ahead to the Premier League kickoff and the business end of the NRL season. Subscribe now for weekly analysis and banter as we follow all the action across the sporting landscape.
Hello and welcome along to this week's episode. They've been doing it all day, sir. What a busy week it's been for sport. We've got the Lions, we've got the NRL, we've got a thriller in the England-India Test Series. Let's get stuck in.
Speaker 2:How's your week been, mate?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been good. A lot of recovering from the weekend was needed, for sure. We went unexpectedly hard on Saturday night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't too bad. I've had worse.
Speaker 1:Definitely had worse. Do you know what I was expecting? To wake up on Sunday morning feeling a lot worse than I did actually.
Speaker 2:It must have been those crisps that I had in the taxi? That was definitely it, definitely. Just a bag of crisps sorted us out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but good weekend. What about yourself?
Speaker 2:Had a good week, yeah, yeah, not too bad so far. As you said, had a great day out on Saturday. It was a pretty chilled Sunday, so it's been not too bad. Not a bad start to the week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the weather, though, absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2:Oh dreadful. I think it was raining since Thursday.
Speaker 1:Never seen rain like it and the fact on Saturday it got lightning, lightning, 40 minute delay, but it was just bucketing. You couldn't escape it. That was the difficult thing about it. No, and out there at Homebush it's kind of between the station and the stadium, a decent little walk, and it poured it down.
Speaker 2:You can't hide it, hide. You can't hide from it.
Speaker 1:We were fortunate, though we were very fortunate because the seats originally were in row 13. Yeah, and the day before the game I got a text from a mate who works at the Accor and said do you fancy sitting in the members area and knowing the weather? And the weather forecast snapped that up with a heartbeat and we were nice and dry.
Speaker 2:Very dry.
Speaker 1:Very dry up in that top corner. One thing I will say about Sydney actually compared to the other venues, that we went to a lot more Wallabies jerseys this weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely 100%, and it was great chatting away to them as well. The gentleman sat next to us. It was a great laugh.
Speaker 1:As he got more lubricated, we were definitely having a bit of banter.
Speaker 2:His daughter was getting a bit embarrassed by him, which was quite funny because whenever he was chanting lion, he was chanting wallabies and his daughter was like shush, shush. I was like no, that's what it's all about. So I ended up having a good night with him, actually, which was good, and again it was just that wholesomeness of just chatting away to random people much a highlight of the whole tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get stuck into the game. Then We've had a couple of days to settle down from it. But what are your thoughts of how it went?
Speaker 2:It was a poor game of rugby from the line side. I don't really remember much of them attacking. It was all wallabies, and you know what I was saying? It's the bloke who sat next to us the whole time. This is what world rugby needs. The world rugby needs a resurgence of the Wallabies.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To be in that sort of top five and hopefully this is a kickstart because kids would have seen it everywhere. It's funny enough the club I played for, wakehurst their Minion Juniors led out the Wallabies, did they? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. They led out the.
Speaker 2:Socials. But no, it was frustrating in the fact that you couldn't go 3-0 up. But I think, to be fair to the Wallabies, they didn't let the weather affect them, they didn't let the gap affect them and they were fighting like they were a team that needed the win.
Speaker 1:Exactly and I think that sums it up quite well. Like they were, they wanted it more. Um, you can lay excuses down and say were the team on the beach, but there was a mentality that they wanted to win it three nil and it didn't materialize. There's a few things that have been said. I was listening to will greenwood earlier that was saying we've got two data points now. The Lions were 2-0 up against South Africa in 97, lost the third game 2-0 up against Australia, lost the third game, stuck with the same team throughout. Maybe in the third game. It's the opportunity to give the players that didn't experience test rugby a go, because they might be hungrier, they might want to really perform on that big stage. But from the outset we weren't Like.
Speaker 1:Finn Russell was probably the best player, arguably the best player in the first two games. He was up there, certainly with Burn and Curry, but he didn't get going. He was making mistakes that he wouldn't have made, or it felt like he wouldn't have made had it one been a bit drier and two he just been a bit more. I don't know with it. It just seemed like there was a lack of concentration going on. So it was a disappointing result, a few interesting things come out of it as well.
Speaker 2:Dan Sheehan been banned for four weeks I had the TMO miss that I do not know.
Speaker 1:That was not on, to be honest. And then you see Big Will Skelton the impact that he had on both games. It's massive, it's a big shame that they didn't have him for the first test um. The valentino, valentini, sorry. And skelton huge impact, yeah, and that winger as well. What's his name? Peach dylan, dylan, pete, I think that's the one that scored um. I saw a combined 15 earlier and I'd agree that the back three were probably massively all Australian yeah, we couldn't, couldn't agree more there.
Speaker 2:The back three it then looks at. I know he hasn't really been performing at his highest, but you've got the likes of Freddie Stewart, who's who's always been a absolute star at the back three, especially airy, and that's what the lines were missing throughout. All that you saw in game one where, um, I can't remember which which winger got beat in the air. I think might have been Tommy Freeman got beat in the air. They were gonna try and it's, it's, it's every time the ball goes up.
Speaker 1:You, you're nervous of whether, especially in those weather conditions as well but one thing that I thought stood out for me, for the wallabies, was not the emergence, because we kind of knew what he could do, but joseph sueli on the world stage, you can tell he just comes from a different code, because it felt to me whenever other backs, or even our backs, got the ball, it was right run into contact, know that the big boys come in and mull over, uh, ruck over, whereas surly was trying to make plays, he was trying to pierce through gaps, he was trying to step people looking for the offload inside and outside and he just makes a difference to the wallabies and I I believe his inclusion and performance, yeah, might entice a few more, definitely a few more across. But let's talk about the tour as a whole. Like what, what are your thoughts of? Loved it the last five weeks. We started off in perth yep, incredible uh. Then went down to canberra game in sydney and then we did all three tests.
Speaker 2:But yeah, what? What do you think of it? Glad it's over your heart. I've absolutely, I've absolutely loved it. Um, just, I think that the three tests really highlighted what the tour is all about. And just chatting to random people from being up in Brisbane, chatting to people before the game being in the cafe in Melbourne and chatting away to Lions fans.
Speaker 1:It's been pretty, pretty awesome, though, the whole period to be honest, Couldn't agree more the people that we've met along the way it's weird, the similar people that you see as you go around. So the boys that we sat next to in Perth we saw again in Brisbane. When we were in Brisbane we were wearing the full kit, wanker and then we saw well, people recognised us that were sitting next to us in Melbourne which was really strange and I don't know part of me.
Speaker 1:I went to on Wednesday night. I went to on wednesday night. I went to the uh, the stain in manly and saw shane williams, justin harrison and lee halfpenny and those guys I thought I was going to see those guys that we met that we were having beers with outside in brisbane at the stain, but they may have been there, I don't know. But it was just interesting because they said they were staying in manly, weren't they?
Speaker 2:yeah?
Speaker 1:but how much is it, apart from the cost of things, how much does it entice you to try and get to New Zealand?
Speaker 2:in 2019?. Oh, I want to do all three. I'm not afraid of saying it Financially I don't think I could, but I would love to do all three tours.
Speaker 1:One of the geezers I can't remember whether it was I was getting beers or when we went inside and was sitting around that kind of like table. He suggested just doing it fly in, fly out for the test. So try and find accommodation for the Saturday night, fly out Saturday morning, come back Sunday. That could be a way of trying to reduce the cost, because a lot of stuff and I mentioned this to you previously that when I was in New Zealand last time it was a year before a Lions tour and the cost of everything almost it's going to be so much harder to get tickets.
Speaker 1:Multiplied by five. But South Africa, I think, would be a real good one to go to. So in eight years time, got to keep your wits about you, certainly got to keep your wits about you for sure. But a little bit of talk around before that last game, not coming back to Australia, but I think it's proved its worth 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:Don't see why they wouldn't. To be honest, I think it's embedded into the culture of the Lions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been what since 1888 or something like that that I saw.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think you disrupt it, to be honest. I think you keep it, you could add a fourth tour into Argentina.
Speaker 1:Stand every 16 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no, I'm a big fan of it.
Speaker 1:A lot of the positives I've heard come out of it is the amount of money that's pumped into Australian rugby. They'll now be like debt-free. The economy has blown up in a number of the big cities. I heard what was it the other week? 60 million going into Brisbane, 40 million coming into Sydney. But I think it's an opportunity now for Australian rugby to not rebuild, because they've got a solid platform, but to try and get to the grassroots level. Got a World Cup coming up in 2027, which today secured us tickets to most of their games, which will be good to tour around australia again watching rugby. So when the draw comes out for england, we'll be, we'll be booking the tickets for that. We'll see. But yeah, now it's over, glad it's over. The liver's glad it's over, the wallet's glad I glad he's glad it's over. Um, but rinse and repeat see you in new zealand in four years time. Yeah, definitely maybe definitely.
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe. But let's get on to the NRL. Can't say I watched too much of it over the weekend. I tried to watch as much of it as I could. I went to Parramatta on Thursday night with a mate of mine that came over from the UK Storm versus Eels A lot closer than I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm getting ever so closer with Storm. The annoying thing is you look at it on paper and the Storm are churning out the wins as great. You've got that saying of all great teams always find a way to win. But honestly it's not going to bode well. I just don't think it's going to bode well for them in finals. Something about them that just doesn't think it's going to bode well for them in finals something about them that just doesn't feel like it's clicking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or if they get, if they play against a powerhouse or a better team. There's no powerhouses, I don't think in the league this year, but if they play against a better team away from home, are they?
Speaker 2:going to do it.
Speaker 1:I thought your tip of the Eels it's not far off it wasn't far off at all it's just really frustrating.
Speaker 2:And the Eels, like I said, I think they're now a team to watch for next year, if they can just keep building on this squad. I think they're a good team to watch for next year.
Speaker 1:Couldn't agree more, definitely couldn't agree more, and I think a couple of results have not gone their way this year. Early in the season lost Moses, but on the Friday we Was it a surprise Warriors going back to back I did tip it. I'm not going to say we didn't tip it, but last minute Dolphins go over in the corner. Big news from this one though Herbie Farnworth, yeah, gone.
Speaker 2:So that'll just really impact the top eight chase, whereas the Warriors I think I was looking at it the other day they are now a point ahead of the Panthers and the Panthers don't look like they're going to stop and the Warriors could drop out of the four.
Speaker 1:There was talks earlier that I heard that two teams you've got to look out for Panthers and Sharks. Sharks have won four in a row now and they're just sneaking out from nowhere, but Warriors seem to be on the decline and those two moving up. But Warriors looked somewhat secure in this game, though, and then just let it slip at the last.
Speaker 2:But that's what you need, though. In big wins and tight games, you need the team concentrating for the full 80 minutes. You see, we'll talk about it in a minute. The Raiders they've been so heavily reliant on one half of football the last God knows how many weeks that, when it doesn't arrive, you end up losing, and this, for the Warriors, would have been a game of right. Nah, we're actually going to settle in the top four here and we're going to be able to push through, whereas it just didn't happen. Just didn't happen for them, unfortunately. And again, you look at the points dolphins osako lost, left four points out on there, so these could have been like a try, like a six point margin yeah um, when you, when you sort of look at it that way, but and the dolphins went down to to 10 for the last 10, so it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's one of those situations where not only have the warriors conceded in the last minute of it, but they've conceded against 12 men.
Speaker 1:They've also, like we mentioned about the odds last week, they've dropped to $41. So I think they were 30 odd and they've dropped to 41. They're probably the team that's in the worst form out of the top eight so far. So it'd be interesting to see how they go. But a team that can't catch a break at all at the moment is the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Strong showing in the first half, yeah solid, I'll give them credit. I'll be honest with you. I turned off at halftime because I was like this is only going to end in one way. But it was really close up till halftime and then the Broncos just pulled away a bit.
Speaker 1:But it just goes to show how ravished they've been with injuries yeah, they didn't even have an 18th man, and I heard brandon brandon smith say earlier that the 18th man that they did have, or that it was mamazulis that was, and then he got ruled out but came in was in a moon boot, like two weeks ago.
Speaker 2:So sorry state of affairs they just want the season over and done with. But you gotta got to hand it to the Broncos. Broncos smell blood and then absolutely run away with it. That'll do them good, confidence-wise Going into them. I think they're playing the Storm away this week, so that's going to be a big game for both the Storm and Broncos. But I think you would have been talking differently about this Broncos team if they'd been able to hold on sort of last week. They do look good when they're moving forward though. They do look pretty solid, but they've got that slip up in them which, you know, is it going to be their downfall for the finals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're a bit inconsistent. You can never know what you're going to get. Week on week with the Broncos, they obviously absolutely trounce the Rabbit. Yeah, they're a bit inconsistent. You can never know what you're going to get. Week on week with the Broncos, they obviously absolutely trounced the Rabbitohs. But tough game coming up this weekend. And then for the Rabbitohs they've got arguably the biggest game of their season. It's up against the Titans this week. So it's a spoon bowl, I think they do. We'll have a look at team lists in a minute. But they do. We'll have a look at team lists in a minute. But they do get a lot of players back this week, I believe. So they might well be favourites. But on to the Titans. How unlucky were they. A couple of moments of controversy in this game that I think we'll talk about. So the first one I can't remember what order they happened in actually, but Brian Toto, absolutely smashing whoever it was that went over and knocking them out how he didn't get binfitted.
Speaker 1:I don't know but how it's just been ignored with the no try. Yeah, alright, his foot touches the sideline, but you can clearly see that's an impact of Brian Toto smashing he goes limp like he doesn't have control of his feet yeah, and how that's not given a penalty.
Speaker 1:Yep, cleary has to slot an unreal play Like I watched the highlights earlier. In fact, it came up on TikTok, I think, when I was on the bus home. It wasn't a pre-designed play. It's not like they tried to get down to that position. They tried to score Yep, and then Cleary went ah no, this ain't going to happen, I'm going to run back behind the 40.
Speaker 2:Mitch Kenny throws the ball 20 as he barely catches it on the floor and then slots her. I mean it could have gone from 50, but Deezer's a magician that had a lot more extra speed on it, to be fair, it did?
Speaker 1:it did. But the other controversial moment in which the Panthers have been handed a 50 grand fine the trainer running in front of the kick, campbell, as he was lining up on the sideline, or was it, yeah, campbell, brimson, whichever one, so lining up on the sideline? What are your thoughts on it? Shocking.
Speaker 2:Where's the trainer going. When have you ever seen a trainer do that? It is mind. Games are the highest order. Either the referee should have just given the conversion or he should have just put him in front of the highest order, either the referee should have just given the conversion, or he should have just put him in front of the posts. Yeah, like that is. That is disgraceful shithousery, um, and he ended up missing it. So if that goes over, it's it's 28. What 28?
Speaker 1:24 at the time, I think it is yeah um few things as well, like this isn't the first time that the Panthers trainers have come under scrutiny. Like there was the old wet ball scandal. But I mean, look, the ball gets wet in the rain like you. You can't really, no, but they got a $50,000, fine now has he been banned for the rest of the season?
Speaker 1:five games. He's not, or they can contest it, but I don't know whether they're going to. But a big thing was if you're a club in a position like the Panthers, you've just paid $50,000 to get two points. You've got to think of it in that way that they've that's loose change to them they wouldn't care. It's like two points guaranteed for $50,000. That's perfectly fine, but what a performance from the Titans.
Speaker 2:That's perfectly fine, but what a performance from the Titans yeah, they've had this like back end of this like the season they've had this massive resurgence, like I know they it's. I know you said they weren't doing it, weren't going to do it in 501, but they nearly bloody did they nearly bloody, did they very nearly did. They did it in 500 but, and Dez Haslam must be sat there fuming like where the hell has this been all season?
Speaker 1:yeah, who knows like is it a case that the pressure was off, is it? A case that we can go out there and play some free flow and footy. Is it trying to escape the spoon? They realise a bit of pressure's on that. They don't want to finish bottom of the biggest upsets of the weekend and I know there is a bigger upset than this. But dragons beating the raiders 18 12 seems like they love playing down in the down in the down in the down in the gong.
Speaker 2:You know I just can't. Are the Raiders starting to come to a bit of a halt? I know I mentioned it last week. So you want your team being able to play in both halves and absolutely dominating? Is this just a little blip, just a little bit of a shock, like shit, it's not going to happen again. Or is it this a result of everything that's been happening week on week on week on week? They've been getting away with it in in certain, in certain terms, because they've just turned up and been better than any other team in in one half of football and and this, this shows when this, this performance shows what can happen if they don't turn up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got to give credit to some of the Dragons though.
Speaker 1:We have said a few times that they're not far away. They've got the experience, they've got the players and they've been unlucky throughout the season at some points. Maybe the Raiders were a bit of the mindset as well. We funned the Knights last week. Not take it easy because I don easy like not take it easy because I don't think you can take it easy in any game. But if there's a game that we might be able to not have to be at our best, it was this one. They're almost guaranteed the top four as well.
Speaker 1:That might be in the back of their mind that they're kind of not limping their way to the end of the season, but limping their way to the end of the season, but they don't want to. I don't know what I'm trying to say, because you want to win every game you want to finish high up in the ladder, but it's like one of those look the street couldn't go on forever. I don't think the standard of the competition this year and the tightness, yeah, of everything, I don't think their their winning streak could have gone on much, much longer but I agree in that.
Speaker 2:And also you look at how the, the dragons sort of went about their business as well. It's like they're they continuously. In the first half they added that like scoreboard pressure, so they went about it in sort of a business, business sense. I know they scored early and they converted early, but then they were taking their chances with the penalties when they're like, right, let's not try to score here.
Speaker 2:Let's just get the two, let's get the two. And it just changed the mindset when you're constantly chasing the game. And that was half time. It was 10-10 at half time because they just went over just before half time.
Speaker 2:But you know what it's, that additional pressure that can sometimes get to teams, but I think it was very much. It's a massive blip in the Raiders season and with them coming into the finals and wanting to win the minor prem and then going on and winning the whole thing probably should sort that out a little bit, I reckon.
Speaker 1:Well, they've got an easier game this weekend or this week, because on Friday night they're playing the Seagulls down in Canberra, which, talking to the Manly Seagulls, it's so frustrating. We scored eight points in two weeks. Attack, attack, attack. Yeah, like by far our standout player is Tolu Kolo. There's no doubt about it. The try that he scored was so powerful to run through Nwanganitawase, get over was class. But look, can you put it down to the weather? Both teams have had to play in the same weather conditions.
Speaker 2:I was just about to say but then the Roosters were able to put up 20 and Manly only four.
Speaker 1:There's some chat going around about Angus Crichton's try being absolutely phenomenal. I'm on the fence of it. Sam Walker boots it out wide Somewhat a miskick to. Tupou, who's out on the wing, goes forward, and then obviously Manny at sixes and sevens. They're just absolutely chaotic all over the place. Give it to Griton and Overy strolls, but so disappointing from the Seagulls, and I think there's a bit of a controversial point in this game as well, where Hoppawattie gets Fucking cleaned out by Tedesco.
Speaker 1:His head taken off Intentional? Yeah, I reckon Tedesco knows what he's doing. You always know that likely Lehigh hopper white is going to hit the ground when there's pressure on him. I think it's difficult to say whether it's intentional or not, but he's jumping in the air.
Speaker 2:Tedesco was nowhere near it and he jumped. I don't know, yeah, ever since the Stephen Hunt Hunt Petracek incident where he left his knee down.
Speaker 1:True.
Speaker 2:I always think there is a way to avoid it and I'm not convinced.
Speaker 1:The fact he didn't go to the bin as well was absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not convinced it was accidental.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but man, he's seasoned Done. Done Like if by yeah, but manly season Done. If by any chance we win four out of our last five games, scrape into the eight, it's going to be over week one. Interesting to see that Turbo's back at fullback this weekend, but for me I think Seabold's done. Yeah, he's playing his last well, coaching his last few games of the season. Yeah, he'll be gone at the end of the season, but who knows what's going to happen next year? Obviously, DCE. This was his homecoming game for the Roosters.
Speaker 1:Still didn't put in a performance enough to. I know there's so much talk going around and around. Why would the Roosters get rid of Sandon Smith Keery?
Speaker 2:Walker yeah, it's Coutinho isn't it, no, tavale?
Speaker 1:why would they get rid of any of them for DCE? Is it for the coaching aspect? We'll go after him next year when he's getting into coaching. But, yeah, terrible. How random was it actually that I bumped into some geezer that I worked with in Felins before who was going to the Seagulls game, and we were going to the going to the Seagulls game and we're going to to Holmbush. Crazy, the people you bump into when you're, when you're on a night out. But what is the upset of the week? And a lot of heat, a lot of heat coming out of this one, the old hod to the fans, the West Tigers knock over the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs.
Speaker 1:Last week Bulldogs looked like the best team in the comp.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it was against Manly, but you know.
Speaker 1:Still, they stuck 44 on us and absolutely tore us apart in the second half. But where's this, where's this come from? From the Tigers?
Speaker 2:Just them boys. Yeah, I, I think it's that dog mentality. Is it because it is against Bulldogs? Lucky Galvin, they were like all right. Now you're on her turf Putting a hell of a shift to fair play to them.
Speaker 1:Luai just got in Galvin's face as well, absolutely ruffled his feathers. You could tell Stephen Crichton was a bit rattled as well towards the end when he stuck in that high shot.
Speaker 1:I can't remember who it was, it's Taylor May May. He actually slipped, nearly took his head off. Lucky not to go. I think there was mitigating circumstances where he had slipped. But any other day of the week I'm pretty sure that's in the bin. Going for a walk. Going for a walk. Fair play to the West Tigers, though. Significant improvement on last season, because they can't get the spoon. Um, but no one saw this coming. If you put money on the west tigers, fair play yeah, massively fair play, walking away from that one.
Speaker 1:What does it do to the bulldogs? Not much. I don't reckon they're the sort of team that I reckon.
Speaker 2:See, this is a yeah, just a slip up yeah, go into, go into it and sort of rejig and fight for the fight for the rest of the season yeah, but last game of the weekend, the Cronulla Sharks absolutely turned over the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:There was no contest in this. Really, it was what 20-something at halftime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again the Sharks just 26-0 at halftime. Just inconsistent I know we've said it before, but a bit like the Broncos Just getting the win over the Rabbitohs, who were absolutely dismantled by the Broncos this week, and then absolutely running away with it against the Cowboys, who absolutely stuck one on the Dragons last week. So it's so hard to predict.
Speaker 1:If they're looking at their record, so they're 8-2 at home, 4-6 away. If they want to make a charge for the premiership, I reckon they've got to be in the top four um, even if they finish fifth or six and get a home draw for the preliminary, or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Four is tight. Two, two points separate, fourth to seventh, so yeah it's going to be a real interesting one.
Speaker 1:Sharks, now shortened to 19 um storm, are still the favourites, which is interesting. They haven't been really convincing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't understand that. Surely, whoever's doing these odds is a Storms fan, because I've got no other explanation for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who knows? But let's look forward to what we're on Round 23. We're on Indigenous round this week as well, so celebrating First Nations, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. On round 23, we're on indigenous round this week as well, so celebrating first nations, aboriginal and tourist straight islander people. And it kicks off on thursday night with the storm at $1.49 yep against the brisbane broncos $2.63 and I think the storm lost the last time they were at home, didn't they? Um, yeah, they did to manly, yes, 2018. What a game that was.
Speaker 2:Controversy 16-18.
Speaker 1:Oh, 16-18. I knew there was two points in it. Where are you going? Payne Haas is back.
Speaker 2:I've not been convinced by the storm. I'm going to go with the Broncos. I think my choice would have been different if Manly hadn't beaten them.
Speaker 1:The other week I wasn't convinced with them on Thursday night, you know, like the Eels did stick it on them. Addo Carr was causing problems. Lomax alright. Xavier Coates is a freak in the air. Like jumped over the top of Lomax but, it all depends what Broncos turn up, but you know what I'm going to join you. Let's go of it double Broncos on Thursday night to kick the week off yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2:And then the first game on the Friday six o'clock kickoff is the Newcastle Knights at $4.25 against the Penrith Panthers at $1.23 against the.
Speaker 1:Penrith Panthers at $1.23. Just looking at the ins and outs. So Bradman Best is back for the Knights, big inclusion for them. Isaiah Yeo is out for the Panthers Shoulder I think it was. I saw him go down shoulder. But see that result last week has skewed the thinking, thinking it's going to be Panthers all day, but like, is it going to be tighter than what the odds are suggesting? I think so.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to go with Panthers yeah, I'm going to go for the Panthers as well.
Speaker 1:Friday night 8pm we're going down to the nation's capital.
Speaker 2:We've got the Canberra Raiders $1.45 against the Manly Se eagles 2.79 um, I'm gonna go to the sea eagles, um, I think, with the introduction of michael chee cam and the second row, um, and first appearance of the season tommy turbo back at fullback. I think it's going to add a little bit of a fighting edge. The Raiders are going to be on a little bit of a losing streak and Manly are going to win this rather respectively.
Speaker 1:I reckon Manly are going to win this. Usually I tip against them when I think the favourite is going to win, but something tells me that that fighting mentality of right we've only got one shot left. Raiders didn't look too good last week. I reckon the Manly Seagulls get this one done cut to next week, camberway just 37 Seagulls 1.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you can even, you can't even yeah it was just a last minute field goal. Yeah, just for the points difference and then we are up at the Jubilee Stadium, are up at the Jubilee Stadium or down at the Jubilee Stadium or wherever the Jubilee Stadium is. We've got the St George Illawarra Dragons at $2.52 against the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks at $1.52.
Speaker 1:I reckon the Dragons get this one done. You know, because, looking at the table, like I did before when I saw the Sharks were four and six away from home I reckon the Dragons go build off that performance last week and beat in the Raiders. No one's out, so line-up's pretty much exactly the same. So I reckon, yeah, St George Dragons.
Speaker 2:I am going to disagree with you and I am going to go for the Sharks, because old Sammy Stone Street has been named back in the reserves, so that could be a late change at some point, but I think the Sharks are going to run a. They need to keep this momentum going. They've got a chance of making the four, and they need to keep the momentum going for the final. So I reckon that's going to be enough for them to want to get over the line against the Dragons.
Speaker 1:Fair play and then an absolute ball game. I think is taking place next 5.30pm at the Suncorp. We've got the Dolphins $2.07 against the Roosters $1.79,. Eighth versus ninth To be fair, 7 against the Roosters $1.79. 8th versus 9th. To be fair. Farnworth is a big out.
Speaker 2:I just I'm going to go the Dolphins. I think I'm going to go the Dolphins.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go opposite.
Speaker 2:I reckon the Roosters win this one. I reckon that's a 50-50. It is.
Speaker 1:It's a 20 cents difference, but they're pretty tight in the table, both teams playing okay at the moment.
Speaker 2:And then we're over at the core for the Bulldogs at $1.34 against the New Zealand Warriors at $3.29.
Speaker 1:I'm on the fence about this one, but but the Warriors are on the slide and they don't travel too well so. I'm going to go with the Bulldogs, and the Bulldogs have got a bounce back from last week if they want to cement their place in the top four so I'm going to go with the bulldogs yeah, I'm going to agree with you there.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go. The bulldogs they need to, they need to sort it out, they need to need to bounce back then we move on to the sunday.
Speaker 1:At the seabust super stadium we've got the gold coast titans at $1.49 against the south sydney rabbitos at $2.63. This is the spoon bowl of 2025.
Speaker 2:And do you know what? I've seen enough from the Titans to go, even though I've had them as a certainty all season. If they turn up like they ever have the last couple of weeks, they're going to storm this, they're going to run away with this.
Speaker 1:So Brandon Smith's back Jamie Humphrey with this. So Brandon Smith's back, jamie Humphrey's back Latrell Mitchell's back. They're not starting, though Humphrey's is starting. Humphrey's sorry, mitchell isn't starting, he's just been named. If Latrell Mitchell is named on Sunday, I reckon the Rabbitohs win this. If he isn't, it's the Titans. But for the purpose of this, I'm going to back the Gold Coast Titans to win this game.
Speaker 2:And then the last kickoff on the Sunday. We're over at the Combank with the Parramatta Eels at $1.62 against the North Queensland Cowboys at $2.30.
Speaker 1:I saw enough of it from the Eels on Thursday and not enough from the Cowboys on Sunday that I'm going to pick the Parramatta Eels in this one.
Speaker 2:You know what? I'm going to back the New South Wales team and go for the Eels Round it off.
Speaker 1:There we go and the West Tigers, after their great performance against the Bulldogs, have a week to recover well deserved and do you know who they? Have after the bye? Oh, we might have the Dolphins. Actually, does it go? Tigers, dolphins or Dolphins, tigers. Either way doesn't matter, it's not going to make any difference to our season. But on to the cricket. Yeah, finished last night. India against England Went into the final day. England requiring what was it? 36 runs off of four wickets and India needing four wickets.
Speaker 2:England grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.
Speaker 1:How does that happen? Like, first off, let's say, a draw is a deserved result. Oh, massively. It's been a hell of a series, great series, and it went down to the 25th day, the final day, the final morning um, there's been controversy all throughout it, and it finished with wokes coming out arm in a sling one arm and you know what? I thought we were gonna do it when wokes came out, and um was it?
Speaker 2:who was atkinson?
Speaker 1:atkinson was out there just slapping balls all over the place.
Speaker 2:I reckon if Wokes could have ran, if Wokes could have batted, I think that ends in England. Because then Atkinson doesn't have to swing for the fences every single time they could have just nudged it around, but you've got to look at the dismissals of Bethel and Jamie Smith. Stupid, idiotic dismissals in a tight game.
Speaker 1:yeah so you mentioned it last night when we were messaging. I get the thinking behind new balls coming in 3 overs or 3.4 overs or whatever it was let's try and win it before that.
Speaker 2:But the ball was moving so much they were never going to take the new ball and that's another thing is the new ball doesn't really start moving until it's about 5, six overs old. And it would have been a lot quicker along the ground and they'd have been able to smack it a lot harder. It's frustrating. I still think there's massive holes in the England bowling attack. I still don't think it's good enough to get 100 wickets down here.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:But I think our batting it could be enough to get us over, and I don't know how we get 100 wickets against us. I just hope Australia's batting lineup is just as dreadful as it was in the West Indies.
Speaker 1:I do think it's going to be an excellent Ashes. There's going to be collapses, I think, from both teams. I think both batting lineups got a collapse in them, a few. Obviously. Harry Brook great knock at the end. Joe Root doing what. Joe Root does. It's a shame that they couldn't have hung about for 20, 30 runs more.
Speaker 1:It could have been a completely different story, but I just think we miss. A switch up of Ben Stokes is great, but his body again is showing that it's letting him down. Then we haven't really got a spinner that's going to cause any damage. We've got pace, but it's unreliable. What's Wokes going to be like after this shoulder injury? I know it's not, I don't. It's not. It is his bowling arm, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:no left.
Speaker 1:No, it's his left, so it wasn't his bowling arm but even it was yeah, because he's batting left hand, it wasn't so. It's his right arm. So how's that gonna? Yeah affect his bowling action. Is he going to be ready? Probably not to come out here? Um so there's a few concerns with the bowling.
Speaker 2:I think this is the closest Ashes in Australia for a while. I can remember.
Speaker 1:It'll be interesting to see who opens the batting for Australia.
Speaker 2:I think they're sticking with Kawaja, but they need to find someone else.
Speaker 1:Need to find someone else for sure, but looking forward to what we're doing, we're not going to any of the other tests.
Speaker 2:No, just going to Sydney.
Speaker 1:Because the wallet can't handle it. But Formula One. There was Formula One over the weekend, weren't there? Norris won, piastri second. Yeah, Norris McLaren just keep running away with it, keep absolutely dominating. But yeah, anything exciting happening in it? No, not really, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Where was it? It was Hungary.
Speaker 1:Oh, fair enough, but yeah, I think that's it. What have we got to look forward to now? Lions is over.
Speaker 2:Blues start their season on Friday against Ipswich. Oh, we've got the Premier League kicking off and the Football League kicking off as well.
Speaker 1:I think that's about it, though. We've got the rest of the rugby league to look forward to. We've got tickets to the final, which is good, but in terms of major sporting events, am I missing something? I don't want to be sounding like I'm missing something, but it feels like that's it. That's it for the year up until the Ashes, which is what we're in now, august.
Speaker 2:Women's Rugby World Cup. Is that this year? No, yes.
Speaker 1:Maybe not sure. Don't think so. Let me just fact check that. No, it's not because tickets. I don't think tickets have gone on sale yet because when I looked on the website earlier I think it was just the men's ones that were going on sale.
Speaker 2:It is yeah it is this year end of August. I thought it was right Whereabouts.
Speaker 1:England. Oh well, there we go, then, over the other side of the world, probably not the greatest of times we're able to watch that.
Speaker 2:Nah, it's going to be shocking be keeping an eye on it. Come on the roses, come on the roses.
Speaker 1:But on that note, we will finish that one up there. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Be sure to subscribe, follow us along on socials and we'll catch you in the next one. Goodnight.