You’re right, that was a cracking opener for the NRL season, one that could barely have been scripted better. It was a see-sawing game, with the score at 12-12 at the end of regulation time.
The deadlock was only broken in golden point when the Storm hooker Harry Grant scored a barn-burning beauty with a touch of Toutai Kefu’s famous “Inspector Gadget” try two decades ago about it – with, even as three men hit him well out from the line, the impossibly long hand reaching out to plonk it down.
Game over. And the Storm win their opening round match for the 20th time in a row.
Every now and then you see criticism of the golden point finish. This climax showed how wrong-headed that talk is. Imagine that great match had finished with a 12-12 draw, bearing in mind the famous dictum that “a draw is likely kissing your sister.”
Instead, we had this superb sporting theatre, with a fabulous climax.
The Barmy Army and the Cummins’ – a bunch of good eggs
Just when you think most professional sport is corporate soullessness in boots and running shoes, this happens. During the week, no less than the Barmy Army made a moving gesture by putting a wonderful rendition of West Side Story’s signature tune Maria on Twitter, while tagging Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins and noting “‘Maria’ from West Side Story in support of Pat Cummins, who’s mother Maria has entered palliative care.”
The Barmy Army in action.Credit: Jessica Hromas
Cummins graciously replied, writing, “This is amazing @TheBarmyArmy , thankyou. Mum loved watching this and felt very touched.”
Maria Cummins is, as readers might remember, a good egg. I have noted here a couple of times the story of the little boy on summer holidays a few years ago, who was noted by the neighbours to spend hours on end out in the backyard either hitting a ball on the end of a rope hanging from a tree or bowling a tennis ball against the garage door.
The immediate neighbours got his name and address, and shortly after he got home, he received a package in the post from “P. Cummins”, with a nice note from the Australian fast bowler, and two signed match shirts, with some signed posters.
The neighbours were Peter and Maria Cummins.
Vale Syd Fischer: An original Australian
Syd Fischer, who died earlier this week, aged 95? I knew him a very little, and just a few years ago used to run into him at the gym we both frequented, even though he’d already cracked 90. As a businessman in this town, he will be remembered as a singularly tough … fellow.
As a sailor, he was an enormous contributor to Australian excellence, competing in no fewer than 40 Sydney to Hobart races, and his eight iterations of Ragamuffins were ubiquitous in many of them.
Syd Fischer ahead of the 1992 Sydney to Hobart.Credit:Craig Golding
Yachts he skippered won line honours for the Hobart race twice in 1988 and 1990 and the whole shooting match on handicap in 1992. In 2015, he became the oldest competitor in the race when competitor at the age of 87.
As to Americas Cup campaigns, he competed in five, and in an obituary this week, the Australian Sailing website noted “In addition to his own achievements, Fischer was also noted for launching the America’s Cup careers of some of today’s most famous Australian yachtsmen, in particular Jimmy Spithill, lain Murray and Hugh Treharne, who was tactician aboard the 1983 Cup winner, Australia I.”
A quarter-century ago, Fischer built an America’s Cup campaign around Spithill’s skill, making him the youngest skipper in Cup history.
“He’s a 20-year-old with a 40-year-old head,” Fischer said. “He’s cool. I met him when he was still at school. I remember thinking, this is a kid who’s really with it. He’s not some petulant, spoilt brat. He’s just a good ordinary Aussie – a bit like a Kiwi, I guess.”
As near as I can work out, Fischer took much the same approach to sailing as he did in the building business. When asked once about his notoriously tough approach in both he didn’t back down.
“Well, if I meet an arsehole I can be an arsehole, too. It’s as simple as that.”
Vale Syd. Whatever else, an Australian original.
Viewers vote on Shark’s show
No, no, no, I won’t snarl unpleasantly and with unseemly joy over the fact that the first televised ratings of Greg Norman’s LIV Golf series for 2023 were lower than a snake’s belly button, and you can’t make me.
Can I, however, just express a little wonder in tune with the international golf media, that the ratings were that low? In sports-mad America, it is nigh on inconceivable that a televised tournament boasting several world-class golf stars, could pull just two – count ’em, two – households per 1000. That, friends, is just higher than a test pattern.
Greg Norman at the LIV Golf event in Mexico.Credit:Getty Images
What does it mean? I’ll go with the bleeding obvious, please Tony Barber. I say it is a comprehensive rejection of everything that LIV stands for, starting with a tournament financed by the brutal Saudi regime, fronted by Norman, and boasting an entirely different format that the golf community clearly just don’t want.
As this column has noted there was never any complaint in the first place about the way it works at the Masters, the British Open et al, with a staggered start, a cut of the lowest half of the field after two days and the final, wonderful build to the back nine on Sunday. Instead of this tried-and-true traditional format, Norman pioneered golf where there is no halfway cut; everyone gets prize money; players are in made-up “teams”; there are shotgun starts so all 18 holes have golfers ready to tee off when the broadcast begins – and if I’m Arthur, you must be Martha, but no-one is quite sure, so what else is on?
“LIV had a real opportunity to draw in viewers considering the weak field in the PGA Tour over the weekend,” the New York Post commented, “and flopped spectacularly.”
Good!
What They Said
The Storm’s Cameron Munster when asked after Thursday night’s match if the compound fracture of his finger would require surgery: “You’re asking the wrong bloke. I’m a footballer.”
Dan Wolen from USA Today after the first televised round of LIV Golf for 2023 drew ratings just slightly higher than a test pattern: “Can you really call it ‘Golf But Louder’ when you’d need a stethoscope to determine if this tour even has a pulse?”
Eamon Lynch writes in Golfweek: “Norman’s LIV Golf has a solitary anchor that prevents it from being dashed on the rocks of commercial reality, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia …”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson, to a female reporter Tarryn Thomas: “Your time will come.” Called out on it, Clarkson apologised.
The last words of Australian captain Meg Lanning before the World T20 final against South Africa in Cape Town: “Let’s f—ing go!” They did, and beat the South Africans by 19 runs.
Australian surfing star Molly Picklum: “Surfing-wise, I do feel like I can compete with the best in the world. And then competitive-wise, you’ve just got to make that shift when it’s your idols … Beating people like that, who are so intelligent when it comes to competition and strategy, and they’re also the strongest women surfers in the world, that gets me excited.”
Tommy Fury after defeating Jake Paul in the most irrelevant event ever: “Tonight, I make my own legacy. I am Tommy Fury.” Thanks, Scoop.
Lawyer Michel Margalit on the planned concussion class action against the AFL: “The former players have told us heartbreaking stories of the impact that concussion sustained playing in the AFL has had on their personal lives, their families and their career after their footy ended. Players often enter into AFL careers as teenagers, without the life experience or perspective to understand the life-long debilitating impacts of concussion. These players need to be protected and adequately cared for if injured.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy: “I’m pretty sure this is gonna be my last year as a head coach. I’ll still be around the club a bit in a part-time role at the end of this year, but nothing’s really changed. I’m not quite sure when the club wants a definite answer, but I want to give [them] plenty of time to find a new coach … I can’t see anything changing this year as to me not retiring at the end of the year.”
Novak Djokovic on breaking Steffi Graf’s record for most weeks as world No. 1: “It’s surreal to be that many weeks No. 1, to match Graf – one of the all-time greats. Just being amongst these legendary names is flattering. I’m proud of it.” He is at 378 weeks and counting.
Ben Stokes on losing to New Zealand by one run: “That game as a whole, in terms of what Test cricket’s about, was just incredible. Sometimes things don’t happen the way you want them to but it was a good one, wasn’t it?”
Steve Smith on captaining the Test side in the absence of Pat Cummins: “It normally brings the best out of me.” And it did.
Sonny Bill Williams: “I’m a simple guy, my biggest learnings have come from my biggest mistakes. If you look up growth in the dictionary, I’m sure my name is underneath it.”
Team of the Week
Australia. Won the women’s T20 title for the third time in a row and the sixth time in the past seven editions.
Riding the Dolphins … Wayne Bennett.Credit:John Shakespeare
Manchester United. Won the English League Cup, their first trophy since 2017.
Dolphins. First new NRL team since Titans in 2007. Their first match, with Wayne Bennett in charge, is against the Roosters on Sunday.
Waratahs. Back on the horse later on Saturday against the Fijian Drua.
Ange Postecoglou. Won another trophy with Celtic.
New Zealand. Just the fourth side to win a match when following on and also only did so by one run.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
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