The SmartB Sports Update Episode 41

🎙️ Dive into the latest sports buzz with SmartB Podcast Episode 41! 🏆🎾🏏

Tennis fans, get the lowdown on the Australian Open results, including some surprising upsets and thrilling matches. Join Dan for the Aussie results and exciting commentary, and let John guide you through the big names knocked out.

In cricket news, witness Shamar Joseph’s stunning debut as he removes Steve Smith with his first ball in Test cricket and dismisses Labuschagne as well. Discover the latest on David Warner’s BBL commentary and the truth behind the “stolen” baggy greens. Plus, gear up for the BBL Finals fixtures, featuring Brisbane Heat vs Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers vs Adelaide Strikers.

Don’t miss out on the action! Download the SmartB app now for an immersive sports experience. 📱🔥

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[Music] [Applause] the Australian opener started Dan it’s in full swing it’s very exciting we got two demon or uh discussions um a lot has happened yes jovic is still gone crazy um but let’s start with the beginning uh the thing that people care about most how are the Aussies going yeah um so John obviously uh we we last uh convened after day one it’s now we’re now at the end of day four at the start of day five so what I’ll do John I’ll run I’ll take you through the results it might take me a little bit of time but um I’ll start with the men John and I’ll start with Monday’s um results so um Aussie James Duckworth lost to Luca van Ash of France that one was a long five set John fortunate that Duckworth went out um Alexi poin um he beat fellow oie markk pman in the first round in straight sets um we’ll get to his other results uh in in a little bit John um some other Aussie results from Monday Alexander vukic lost to fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson um that one was also a five Setter um rinky hiji Carter unfortunately he went out as well John lost to Yan Leonard stru of Germany um another five Setter a lot of five Setters in this tournament um which is great you want to see good competition um absolutely Omar jasica he went out the qualifier lost to Hubert her carts of Poland the number nine seed that was a straight Setter um Alex demor our favorite Alex deor beat Milos Ric in that round one match that we were a bit iffy about say he beat him yeah I mean yeah he was sort of handed the victory there um early in the third set demon or it was one set all demon are led to love in the third and Ric couldn’t continue um injuries continue to be a huge problem for RIT unfortunately um yeah James MCC but Wild Card Aussie he lost to Alex Michaelson of the USA in four sets um yeah it was four sets that one um max pcel beat Marte valuch I think of Hungary um that was a four set um those last two results I read out were Tuesday results actually joh um and NY ccken arus this was a big result that was very popular with a lot of people beat Sebastian ofner in that epic first round Clash on Tuesday evening um yet another five set of cochan arus winning 108 in that match tiebreaker there John um okay now I’m going to move to the Wednesday results from that we’ve just seen um yesterday so Alex demoner he’s into the third round he beat Mato arnaldi in straight sets was a smashing yeah absolutely obliterated I he was never in it yeah unfortunately Chris o connell’s gone out though Johnny lost to Ben Shelton of the USA in four sets disappointing Connell never looked like he was in that match either Shelton was just way too good of for him yeah disappointing I’ll tell you who was in the match though John Jordan Thompson against Stephan o was watching that last won the first set unfortunately went down in four but sitz pass won two tie break sets so very close match that one so that one I was watching it seemed like anytime there was a rally cpaz couldn’t handle it and so if he was getting the the the points over quickly he would win but if uh Thompson got a few um uh returns and then it started getting Big C pass would do an unforced error it was really exciting match yeah so well done to Jordan Thompson knocked out by Stephan oit pass but he’s the number seven seed so no shame in that at all one of the best players in the world obviously and John our friend Novak jovic unfortunately knocked Alexi popper and the Aussie out in four sets John and I we’ll get to it in a little bit but I in that third set at one set all poam was up um five well was 4 five on jovic has served love 40 so poin had three set points and I thought oh here we go we’re on here he could take a two sets to one lead and then sure enough jovic finds a way to come back and level at five or at that point I turned the TV John I thought I’ve seen this movie before it’s like the tennis version of sh Shank Redemption jovic just coming back and winning from that position his wrist is really troubling him at the moment yes he’s having some problems and I think that’s a combined seven hours on court for two matches that he’s used up a lot of petrol for two matches so um both in matches that he was supposed to win easily um he’s um he has spent a lot of time on the court and yeah like he brought it up before the Australian Open and along with Nick curios the one time they’ve ever agreed with each other the one time Nick curios has ever agreed with anyone um that the balls are going to cause wrist injuries and and jovic from what I understand has been struggling a lot with his wrist and during that match he kept like um you know squeezing it and and rubbing it and massaging it and stuff like that so hopefully he can power through it because you know you want to see the best in the world play um also hopefully he C out through it and has to withdraw injured cuz you don’t want to tell tell us what you really think John you want to see jovic get knocked out so yeah so John those are the um those are the results um the Aussie men thus far um a couple of matches to come today recording Thursday morning these are the Thursday matches so max pel’s got a tough one he takes on Casper Roode of Norway the 11th seed Casper Roode obviously a former French Open finalist I think he lost to Nadal in the French Open final in 2022 let’s see if we can get some odds on that so yeah while you’re looking that up John I’ll just run through a bit more information here so a tough one for tenasi [ __ ] and arus today as well John he takes on 13th seed Bulgarian Gregor dimitrov who’s in fine form so no easy task for tenasi there umn just oh sorry Casper R is paying A14 to Max Cell Max Pell’s $525 there you go um let me see if I can find do you know what time [ __ ] arus is on well it says here John that it is on at 400 p.m. but I guess that’s just indicative because you know they don’t know to me Travis P a111 to Tom karus is $6 so bet with your head not over it free and confidential support contact gambling helponline doom. org. Au yeah so there you go John odds do tell a story in that yeah don’t please don’t take the time of 400 p.m. as gospel for that it’s best to just to to look at the schedule and look at where it is on the schedule because that that start time could certainly change yeah definitely um so John just to summarize the men so the Aussie men left in the draw Alex demor of course he’ll now play Flavio Cabo so you’d think Deon or will get through that one John but we always thought if he got through Ric in the first round that got a pretty cool look look at those odds do six for Alex um and $8 for Flavio yeah there you go yeah so max pcel as I just mentioned he plays um Casper Roode today so obviously he’s still in at the moment John and tenasi konakis the only other Aussie left so three Aussie men left John so um a lot of them have gone out unfortunately but we’ve still got three Aussies in the men flying the flag by the way I’ve just seen this tomorrow um is playing Sebastian Bayers the odds are Center 1.04 04 so he’s paying $1 and A4 of a cent oh wow so if I put $1 on that do I get back one you get back a dollar you get back a dollar cuz it rounds down w wow so yeah I wouldn’t be touching that one um okay John I’m happy to run through the women now um so let’s go back to Monday here with the women so um unfortunately Aussie wildcard Taylor Preston went out to Elena fit alinaa the 19th seed from the Ukraine that was in straight sets um storm Hunter having a good run John uh she beat s Sara arani of Italy I mean straight sets on Monday as well um unfortunately you put this one in the notes too John unfortunately Daria savil went out lost to magdalina Fresh of Poland and yeah so that that as you put on the rundown John that leaves Arena Rodan NOA feeling pretty hard done by given that savil SP well yeah Rodan NOA is ranked 104 savil 152 and that’s only after she went up 43 spots so savil was ranked one when they made that decision so Rody and NOA can feel pretty hard done boy I would have thought there John um yeah um Olivia geki Aussie wildcard lost to um the very good American player Sloan Stevens John that that one was done in straight sets that was on Tuesday Elena osta Peno of Lafia beat Kimberly Burl of Australia in straight sets um and also on Tuesday um Isa tomanovich beat Petra martic of Croatia that was in three that was a great comeback from um Tom nanovic he was down 4-1 in the third in the third set there John won five games in a row to win that third set six4 so well done ISO great effort great comeback there um Sensational so who do you know who she’ll play yeah so I’ll I’ll um I’ll get to that in one second John yes and on Wednesday yesterday storm Hunter beat Laura segement of Germany um in three sets so storm Hunter into the third round great effort from her and yes I was getting to it John so Tom leanovich will tonight play against yena osta Peno and there’s bad blood between these two on it’s a grudge match they’ve got a check at history um so that’s a very very spicy encounter that one um we can very much look forward to that so AA peno’s paying A180 to Tom yanovich is $440 yeah you know Tom yanovich though I wouldn’t worry too much about her ranking she’s certainly capable on her day remembering she did she was the one who ended Serena Williams’s career in 2022 at that US Open so um yeah tomanovic certainly a chance there against ostar Penco John fingers cross she can get through that um so um and storm Hunter will play storm Hunter will play yeah you might just Barbara k kova yeah yeah so that will beor we don’t have the that the scheduling of that locked in but we know who she’s going to play so it’s at 11:00 a.m. that’s like every match is 11 they haven’t set the schedule storm Hunter is paying $4 to they usually schedule I think about 6:00 p.m. the day before so yeah so John in terms of the Aussie women that just leaves Tom yanovich and storm Hunter they’re the only two left so fingers crossed they can keep it going for yeah paying $4 storm Hunters paying $4 to Barbara Ketch over’s $122 um I think no matter what happens the Aussies Aussie women will definitely not be favorites they’ll definitely be the underdogs in every match but I think those odds are close enough to to tell you that possibly both of them could win uh it’ll just depend on what happens on the day um so good luck to all those Australians left in the draw John Alex demon or Max pel tenasi cochan arus Isa tomanovich and storm Hunter fingers crossed that they can keep it going for uh for a while longer push into that week um yeah so that’s that’s it for the Aussies we got a few left but um yeah what I noticed was a lot of big names have have been dropped out and it’s kind of dictating to me that there’s a little bit of a Changing of the Guard um in the tennis world so just in the first two days I put this together yesterday um Francis TFO knocked out by check player Thomas Mach is it Martin sorry Thomas Thomas I don’t know Thomas Martin yeah yeah um that was Andy Murray was gone to Thomas Martin ch um Dominic team beaten by Felix Orga alas in five sets Naomi Haka who of course is like very low on the rankings but she has W four grand slams before she coming back from a pregnancy six months ago little item on that a bit lost in Street says to carolene Garcia um who’s ranked 19th in the world Stan Rinker out gone home lost to 20th seed Adrien manino yep he won this event 10 years ago John won it in 2014 former world number on current world number 252 carolene wasaki out um to Maria Tima um and on Jabba who you know she’s in middle of the road currently ranked 47 but was previously I rank think ranked third in the world absolutely destroyed by 16-year-old Mira Andrea who’s currently ranked six six love 62 absolutely destroyed years old beating a player of on jaur quality that’s that’s very impressive yeah so I think it’s there is like actually you know a real Changing of the Guard now in tennis where a lot of those players that were the big names are no longer the big names um and getting knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open M um and there’s going to be we’re going to have to see what happens now cuz there’s a lot of young super young players like 16 years old coming through and beating these former great um and yeah unfortunately Andy Murray is now basically said he’s going to retire for the second time yeah I mean I would have thought I thought he was retiring 5 years ago John he did retire once before did he retired about 5 years ago and he’s still and he came back happens sometimes with sports stars you know they retire and realize they have nothing in their life um and so I think the only thing they can do is come back which which is never a good idea you know kab kab magedov said it best you don’t Peak twice you know so don’t come back you’ve peaked once and that’s it you know you were the best you were fourth best in the world Andy Murray you know it’s it’s hard to think of you know the only comeback in sport that I can think of that really has worked was Allan Langer coming back in state of origin when he came back from England um there’s a lot of other examples of comebacks that just have worked on Tony Lockett came back for the Sydney Swans a couple of year I think he he retired originally in 1999 came back in 2002 was not the same player Ian Thor retired from swimming at a very young age um in about 2006 came back for the 2012 London Olympics was not the same swimmer so comebacks they rarely worked on that’s why it’s it’s it’s it’s never really a good idea once you’re done you’re pretty much done but like like you said the problem is for these guys and obviously someone like Andy Murray he’s got all the money in the world he does he’ll never need to work another day in his life but you can’t just sit around counting your money all day can you you got to be productive with your time and someone like Andy Murray well he’s not going to know himself without tennis he’s not going to know how to be productive with his time that’s because the when you’re a professional Sportsman the sport becomes your whole life there’s nothing else a lot of them put like lives on hold you know like they don’t get married they don’t have children they don’t you know um and then they finish and they realize like they have actually wasted the their youth um and so they have nothing and then go back try to go back to the sport because that was all they had and it’s never a good idea like honestly it’s it’s never even Alan Langer he came back from England he was at least still playing so he was in a professional sporting environment whereas guys like Andy Murray who disappeared for a few years and then tries to come back he hasn’t been in that professional highlevel intense um like sporting world and then trying to re-enter it at an like you don’t see debuts at 40 years old you know yeah exactly I think it was the great Shane War who and him of all people had a very well-timed retirement retired after Australia won back the ashes in 20607 in a 5 nil whitewash of England and he said you all always go with a bit left you don’t want to go on too long when you’re you know when you passed it and and I think he he was SPO on John yeah it’s 100% you always go out on top go the Seinfield way you know always go out on top yeah like when George says oh yeah um when George has a good line and then he says all right I’m leaving he walks out that’s it like that’s go out on top you know um and then don’t keep trying and it always because it it always it really affects your legacy as well you know in Combat Sports Anderson Silva was the goat he was the greatest of all time you watch Anderson Prime Anderson Silva and it is ridiculous he is literally in the Matrix you know the way he slips punches and stuff like that there’s a a really funny interview he when he fought um Forest Griffin and afterwards like it was for for a title Forest Griffin is on the radio and they ask him what it’s like to fight Anderson Silva and he said um I tried to hit that guy and he looked at me like with a look that said what are you doing here you idiot and then beat the crap out of me you know like that’s what it was like to watch Anderson Silva but then he went on he broke his leg um snapped his leg and then tried to come back and there’s a lot of young people I think his last fight was against isra out of sen or something right like three years ago a lot of people who are just coming to the sport will have seen Anderson Silva lose three or four fights and think he wasn’t he’s not good but you have to go back and watch just the way he moved was ridiculous and so yeah like you want to go out on top because it tarnishes your legacy um unfortunately me for like like you know even the other day I was saying Andy Murray was like the fourth best in the world he never won anything um but he was the fourth best in the world and now what will be remembered by especially new tennis fans is like he was just an old dude who got beat in everything he played in yeah I mean he won three majors and he played in 11 Grand Slam finals John so he didn’t have a good conversion rate did he three from 11 but still he won three Majors but you’re right I mean a lot of recent tennis fans a lot of young people are just not going to know Andy Murray as one of those genuine contenders they’re going to know him as you know a a player sort of ranked about you know between 50 and 100 in the world um so yeah I think he should have just retired 5 years ago when he originally said he would join yeah 100% um so we’re can move along to so yeah but it is like it’s I see a changing of the gard and I hope some some new players can come through that can get to that like transcend the sport kind of um level that we always talk about they need to transcend the sport and be popular amongst people that don’t um watch Tennis that are on the cusp or like only like to watch Roger Federer matches um there’s not a lot of them right now uh because I think there’s like I think alarz has a lot of potential to be that guy he’s very well spoken he’s kind of like a because he’s Spanish as well people compare him to Nadar little bit racist [Laughter] guys we got to be careful but um you know I hope there’s some new guys that come through that can transcend the sport um especially because these older guys older I say older um older guys are kind of like losing that that um that level now and being dropped out like Stan Rinko was another one like people knew who Stan rinka was because he did win that it was Australia Open yeah yeah I mean he’s won he won the Australian in 2014 he also won the French Open one one year and he won um the US Open one year as well see he was another one where everyone was like he’s like the mini Roger federa even though they play nothing alike yeah and when and the problem for him was whenever he played federa federa Just owned him it’s that big brother little brother syndrome being from the same country and yeah they did a lot of training together and stuff and they played doubles and stuff together they played D they actually won the Davis Cup one year those two when they were together and um I actually think they had they had a bit of a falling and then it involved wife so but they the people knew who Stan wrinkle was because of those links to federa like the people who are in the middle of the tennis tennis crew like will kind of watch new who St rink was but I don’t really see a lot of players right now that are like that um and I hope some of these young guys that are destroying the Old Guard can come through and become those those kind of players not even players but like personalities that can um attract non-tennis fans two tennis yeah I mean I know jovic has won this event 10 times John and I know he’s the overwhelming favorite but you saw that there seven hours to get through the first two matches I’m I’m I’m I’m really looking at at three players at the moment John I’m looking at Yanik sner he’s had a good recent record against jokovic Darren Cahill could be the best coach in the game John he’s working with yanx at the moment so watch out for yanx I’m also obviously looking at Al Carz John he was the only one to beat jovic in a major last year and it was in a major final there not many players who can claim to have beaten jovic in a major finally did that at Wimbledon last year so all eyes are on alarz yeah and all and another one denil medev beat jovic in the 2021 US Open final denied him that calendar year Grand Slam that year there three players there who I’d be watching out for here John I think they might be ready to make a a challenge on jovic at this event so it’s just a quick odds on that Novak is obviously playing $220 uh next high says alarz at $420 yeah um and then your next Center is $6 does it have odds for medev there too medv is 10 so I think there’s some value obviously gamble responsibly um but there is some value there um for a CA alz or a medev I think John at the moment and you know Alex demon or is actually sixth favorite at $29 right okay which is a big de jump but I mean look Alex has done well so far John um but yeah the test is going to come in that fourth round when he’s most likely going to play against rublev yeah yeah um where is rublev has no chance to win apparently so they haven’t got rublev anywhere there oh there he is oh God yeah see he’s paying $56 did they actually think Dem demon is looking good man like he’s he’s it’s set tenacity when in that match against um MOS Rik actually the first set I thought the serve was going to get him to be honest and then it was just injury that cuz there was a sering that was like 2 224 or something that looked ridicul but that match sort of went how we thought it didn’t it we thought his serve was going to be an issue it was in the first set round each wanted in a tiebreaker but then we thought well as it wears on you know the fact that demon or played a lot more tennis than Ric who’s had terrible trouble with injuries in recent years John and it just caught up with rage being underdone and he just couldn’t even get through the third set there and like yeah cuz in that first set his serve was just that was iton in trouble here that’s the problem playing against a player like that they take the recet out of your hand there’s only so much you can do you only get a few half chances and you got to take them but thankfully for demon or rage couldn’t get through the match he he got the uh the free pass through that he needed so he’ll get up to round three or round four round four he should he should this yeah I mean he’ll beat that caboi I um but yeah that rublev match assuming it goes ahead assuming they both progress will be interesting yeah um but overnight Novak jovic’s match against po happened and um once again the crowd’s given it to him and he’s not really happy um um unfortunately he’s doing the exact opposite of my advice Our advice stop responding yes yeah he certainly responded John he he was heard yelling at a fan and said and I quote come here and say it to my face a fan seated behind him at Rod L Arena and then jovic yelled again come here come here in a loud voice um and then he was asked what did this spectator say to him in the postmatch press conference and he said and I quote jovic said I mean you don’t want to know what he said so he wouldn’t be drawn on it in the postmatch press conference so it sounds like the guy said something personal and insulting um and my understanding is as soon as jovic turned around and said come here and say it to my face the person who screamed him started apologizing once again a person trying to hide behind anonymity um in the crowd doing personal insults like an absolute coward gets confronted and backs away yeah um I mean jovic needs to obviously needs to ignore the crowd but also the crowd shouldn’t be saying saying things that make joov say I don’t want to repeat what it was you know if you want to yell out if you want to Sledge the a player you don’t have to get personal like that’s the thing yeah a few points to make this person in the crowd obviously is a drop kick yeah 100% but if jovic is reacting well he’s bringing himself down to their level as well and we’ve also got this issue with with jovic again where you go all right you want to react to the crowd and yell at them okay but don’t try and pretend to be the well-liked guy as well if you want to play the villain that’s fine but own it and stop trying to be well-liked all the time so he did another charity thing that I saw on the internet uh last night which was with um uh wheelchair tennis so he he played against the I think number one in the world in wheelchair tennis in a double done that a few times in the past and the internet immediately went you know because it was like laughing there was jokes and stuff like that the internet immediately went on the attack against jovic going on about how like he shouldn’t be making fun of someone in a wheelchair and stuff like that now the intention was to show that actually the wheelchair ten just cuz the world’s best tennis player like basically ever best ever can play tennis doesn’t mean he can convert his game to into wheelchair a very different game and he like sucked and that was what he was joking about please don’t hit it to me I suck um but the internet immediately went the other way and said oh look at this guy typical jovic making fun of people with disabilities like that that’s what he is that’s what’s going to happen and it’s just too bad and and yeah like he should stop trying actually like we said it before we said it the other day just stop trying man like and definitely don’t react to the crowd um it’s it’s these these continued attempts to to improve his image that that continue to backfire on him um he needs to get Roxy jenko jenko on his he needs better PR but John so how much is it fair to say that he is one of the most disliked sports people in Australia um I’d say he’s up there I don’t know who the most disliked um sports Personality in Australia is but he’s in the conversation he’s in the top five if he’s not at number one I yeah I can’t think of anyone who we as a entire country hate more in sport he’s probably the most disliked sporting there are other guys that like so you know the Government tried to get sha Strickland hated when because well not the government but people tried to get sha Strickland hated because he says sexist comments but most people just laughed it off because sha Strickland is a GTA character right yeah so people don’t hate Shan Strickland even though he says sexist and racist comments because he’s just a GTA character um there doovic people hate you know Conor McGregor everybody hates Conor McGregor uh people hate see I can’t even think of very many you know but jovic if you ask anybody on the street who’s your most hated sports player Sports person across all sports I I would I would ha it to Guess that number one would be jovic in Australia and how much of that is to do with the fact that he tries so hard to be liked I think a lot of it is to do with that alone austr they wanting to be likeed people see through it and they go well this guy is just a try hard yeah Australians especially like that you know they they want people who are naturally nice not trying to be nice um Dave Warner is another one that people hate uh but he’ be get nowhere near as much hate as jovic Dave W is mainly hated amongst Cricket fans you know um whereas people who would never have watch the day of tennis in their life would probably dislike Novak jovic I mean he does he does give us something to talk about on a daily basis and Tennis is a year round Sports there’s never a moment Noak at all moving right along um yes uh there’s some issues around Alexander I knew this was going to come up Alexander so Alexander Zev has been accused of domestic violence yes so he’s facing domestic abuse charges from his exgirlfriend which were filed in November of 2023 he’s going to undergo an 8-day trial starting on May 31 this year John so so what’s happened John is um Russian female player dar at Keena um she’s hit back at a fan who said that they would rather watch Alexander’s ver live over non Australian female players this came after um kazak Keena um she’d she’d voiced her displeasure on social media at Channel 9 UM for not showing Elena rearin his match on Rod L Arena the other night and they showed they instead showed um tenasi cochan aras’s first round Clash um and I think Alexander verev was also playing at the same time so they had cocken arus on one channel channel no and they had Zev on another Channel and that’s riled up kazak Keena and so in response to this fan kazak Keen said and I quote on X now known or now known as X under elon’s watch Dr says if you’re a female then I would advise you to make a research obviously maybe her English is not great make a research about the guy you want to watch and think again kazak keina wrote on Twitter known as X now so that’s the situation John she she’s blown up and clearly she’s um I guess not happy that zev’s got this exposure over racher and she’s brought in his domestic violence yeah and he’s charges that are going to be played out he’s also been asked about it in a press conference and an argument with a journalist about it yes he did yes um um there was a it was a bit quite a back and forth where he’s um you know basically said you don’t know what you’re talking about and you know we will always go back to on this podcast we believe in a sental proven guilty I think kazakina has a point not because of the domestic violence allegations but in that Rod La arena is the number one tennis arena in Australia so if the Australian Open thinks that Rod La Arena they should put this PE these people on Rod labor Arena over these people you would think that the coverage would follow that too to be honest this is the most important match of this day at this time at this time this is the biggest match of the time you know cuz there’s a lot of matches going on every every day at the same time so just like whatever time it was 700 p.m. this is the match on rod Arena that is most packed that we think is the most important and CH Li’s gone we’ll show Z instead um there a dis there’s a disconnect there between the Australian Open organizers and the broadcast cochan arus is an Australian so Australian channels are always going to show Australians although the other day they did cut from oconnell to jovic you know again but that’s that’s actually like Counterpoint you know jovic was on Rod l so so you know there’s there’s a disconnect there one other point that I’d make though a bit of a Counterpoint to that John was that what also happened um on Yeah Tuesday night it was um so Isa tomanovic was playing um against Petra Marti in that first round match she had which she did really well to come back and win um and so at that same time Carlos alarz was playing against Richard gas G and that was on Center Court the alcarez gasg match now alcarez won wimon last year um so and alarz is a two-time major winner um so um that match between alarz and gas g To Be Honest John has a tennis and Aid tennis follower I thought that would have been on the main Channel ahead of Tom Lovich but gas and Carz was relegated to n Jim while tomanovich was on the main Channel now I know they were both televised but it is if you’re watching it on fox tail John it’s a bit of a hustle to get over to Jem you got to change it to your digital TV it is a pain to get over to gem so that’s sort of my Counterpoint to what youve said is that well there’s an example there of you know they’re clearly Pro and I like Isa tanovich don’t get me wrong I really do especially after she ended Serena Williams’s career but there’s a bit of a Counterpoint to you an example of well alarz is the Wimbledon champion he couldn’t get on the main Channel and tomovich top that just shows a further disconnect I would think that Rod lab Arena whoever’s on there would be on the main Channel because Rod La arena is the main stadium okay so when the when the Australian Open organizers sit down and go where is everyone playing right they don’t go it’s not random you know it’s not a full random thing they go Rod L Arena biggest match of the time because it’s not of the round or whatever it’s of the time so s we can go 7 P.M biggest match of the time 7 P.M Rod La Arena we go through and we look at who’s playing at 7 p.m. aarz is the biggest match that’s what the ticket people the people who bought tickets and go there want to watch so that goes there so that should then go on the main channel channel 9 right the main Channel then the sub channel is oh there’s an Australian also playing we should play that you know yeah so in that instance Tomy yovic probably should have been on gy G as the Center Court match on the main channel so there’s a disconnect between the organizers and the broadcasters yeah but maybe it’s not gender related as kazak Keno is suggesting because I’ve just given you an in exactly I think it’s just the broadcasters are so not used to tennis actually that they don’t know what they should be doing Channel 9 are new to tennis relatively new they’ve only been doing it for five or six years and a lot of the and it really shows John they a lot of their coverage is it’s just Amateur hour so it’s more of an issue about channel nine than it is about gender and I don’t think it’s a sexist and look Channel 9 and the Australian Open organizers need to worry about ratings and things like that and who they think will get the ratings but the Australian Open organizers or the tennis uh organizers for one channel you know like that’s that’s what it seems like to me I don’t think Channel n of being sexist I mean why would they be they just want to they just want ratings whatever rates the best they’ll put that on they they’re not they’re not look sitting there going oh we’re going to put men on over women they’re sitting there going we’re going to put the match on that we think will rate the best unfortunately a lot of the time the men will rate higher than the women like that’s just a fact of life they also have to take into account length you know like length is a big thing in in tennis right you get broadcasters advertisers are going to want to go I want to be on a man match because it’s going to go longer and I get more ads that way you know you also got to take that into account I think it’s really easy for people in today’s day and age to jump to sexism bigotry racism everything just to to get a sound bite to get podcasts and news media to talk about it and things like that I don’t think that channel 9 like you said they’re going oh we better put some men on because men are better than women in every regard and I don’t think that anybody should be questioning um Alexander Z about his domestic violence allegations yeah it’s still got to be played out in court until after May yeah May that that’s when um his court appearance is um and you know the the tomanovich situation her match being shown ahead of Al Caro’s match well that’s an example of the broadcaster going well we think obviously Channel 9 in that instance felt like Tom yanovich was going to get better ratings than alcarez that’s why that’s why that’s why they put her on I mean I don’t they could be right John but it just shows that it’s not sexist sexism ex and that kind of thing will be ignored by people who want to jump on the bigotry wagon you know they’ll ignore the examples uh that you present um you could go through and find probably dozens of them over the last four days in which a female match was on the main Channel um but I’ll ignore that people will ignore that and just go yeah but it’s sexist cuz alarz and and medv sorry um anyway um um we did touch on Naomi Asaka returning from um having a baby six months ago um but Martina and na is not happy with it um yeah so Martina nav’s had to go at um Naomi Asaka so um yeah it was on um Monday night first round oaka went down in straight sets to French 16th seed um Caroline Garcia as you mentioned earlier John so yeah na Lover’s had a bit of a go at Osaka’s um Fitness levels she says tennis wise it was maybe a B+ performance but overall a c because she couldn’t get to the ball she’s not in shape na said about Asaka now I feel like I’m in that episode of South Park that’s about stem cell research that’s C Cartman’s all involved in the stem cells and all the other kids every time it flashes to them they’re like yeah I’m not touching that I’m not touching that they playing with trucks instead um I I know multiple examples in sports of uh women returning from having a baby and not being good in their first um return actually um but I can’t comment on whether Naomi aaki Asaka aaki Asaka felture was ready what her Fitness levels were and whether it was actually having the baby I wouldn’t have a clue I’ll tell you what though John and neverov can get away with saying that if a male commentator 100% that’s what I mean I feel like commentator would not be allowed to say what Martin and na overa said about Naomi Osaka and if they did they’d be cancelled in um that’s why the UFC is really good because when McKenzie D who was like um so McKenzie D is like a six-time world champion in Jiu-Jitsu transitioned to n MMA won a whole bunch of matches was going to push for the title went and had a baby and came back and she was terrible in her first mat that’s why I can think of some examples she was terrible in her first match back and in the UFC the the male commentators were like yeah she came back too early from having a baby in USC nobody gets canceled you know but you’re right in tennis that’s all it’s hard to comment on because whatever you say you’ll get in trouble we can’t say what my all I know is Naomi aaka wasn’t good she didn’t play well and she got knocked out by but she’s she is ranked 831st in the world because she’s been off for 6 months or more than 6 months long yeah because you know 9 months of pregnancy 6 months since she had the baby and she got smashed by Caroline Garcia who’s ranked 19th in the world you would expect a 19th ranked person in the world to smash an 831st ranked person in the world yeah although yeah she’s not really ranked that is she the ranking doesn’t end it this is a four time major winner um um I would give aaka another year to get back to Fitness it give us some time another point to make John and you might think it’s a bit you know close to the Bone but I think it should be raised here so Naomi Asaka has had issues with with depression and anxiety and I think someone like Martin and aover has got to be very careful with making these sorts of comments about somebody who who suffers from depression and anxiety and you sort of look at it and you go I I look at and I go well I think it’s a bit of a cheap shot from Martina n over given the issues that Naomi Sak has had with depression and anxiety in the past I mean what Martina na all over she didn’t need to say that she didn’t that no one was forcing her to say that she’s gone out of her way to have a crack at Naomi Oak’s shape and um given her issues with depression and anxiety I think I think it’s out al la Jo yeah well that’s like I couldn’t possibly comment on Naomi aaka there’s a lot of things where we have this thing where like oh you don’t have a right to comment and stuff like that um cuz you never played rugby league internet idiots um but in this like if I was a medical doctor was it what’s it OBG YN who or what’s it pastoral care post pregancy care worker then I could make a comment that I have absolutely no idea in my life how long it takes to get over having a baby yeah and I can never know no matter what modern society wants you to believe I can never know and so I know Martina never over had kids does she have kids I don’t know uh I don’t believe so John and did she well she definitely didn’t have kids and then um uh go back and play tennis afterwards um yeah look I I don’t think she’s got kids John I don’t think she does um no no she has never had a baby so she also doesn’t know and she’s not a OBGYN she’s not a post pastal care for she’s got no idea whether noia Saker is fit or not and first return from a 2-year layoff is always going to be bad MH um she’s not the Naomi Saka hasn’t retired like Andy Murray then missed tennis and comes back she’s gone and had like you you can call it an injury you know she’s returning from injury so you got you should Reserve Judgment at least until nmia Saka has got some yeah I think she’s enti I no problem saying that she thought it was a a c grade performance that’s fine but when you say you know um she’s not in shape about somebody who’s had historically had these mental health issues I I think it’s out of line John that’s my opinion yeah me too I think we’ll see I I reserve judgment I I like nomia Saka she’s one of those characters I I I really like Naomi oaka and I thought it was just disgraceful the way that when she won that 2018 US Open and the way Serena Williams just carried on and hijacked that US Open that she had was a pathetic display from Serena Williams that year and um yeah just completely ruined Naomi Oak’s moment and that’s why I really like Isa tomanovich because she ended seren Williams’s career anyway more controversy in tennis with Margaret Court uh ending her fouryear absence from Australian Open I don’t know why this is this is still going on Margaret Court honestly yeah um so John um yeah she’s um she was last aart or she last appeared at the Grand Slam in 2020 and that year she was honored in a ceremony on Center Court to Mark the 50th anniversary of her calendar year Grand Slam she won all four Mages in 1970 um yeah so she’s going to make an appearance uh next week apparently John um um yeah she won this tournament 11 times caught she has won the most grand slam titles in women’s history with 241 ahead of Serena Williams um and equal with Novak jovic I don’t know why we’re talking about Margaret Court being equal with Novak jovic when one’s in the women’s competition and another’s in the men’s competition but any anyway that’s the way it goes these days John um yeah so obviously we’ve had these issues with Margaret Court around her comments her public comments about homosexuality same sex sex marriage and transgender children um there been calls mounting in recent years that you know Margaret C Arena at Melbourne Park should be renamed you might remember John mackenro and naad alover who’s come up again here John um held up a sign on Margaret cter rener in 2019 saying ion gong Arena they want the arena to be renamed ion gulong Arena um tennis Australia warned them about that at that time um and I can see why they did John I I’ve always thought why can’t we be grown up enough and mature enough to go we don’t agree with Margaret Court’s views which I don’t John I’m sure I don’t want to put words in your mouth but I’m sure you don’t agree with them yeah I think she’s a bit of a whack job yes I think she is too John but why can’t people just go all right these are her views but this has got nothing to do with her Legacy as a tennis player and has nothing to do with um an arena being named after her at Melbourne Park I completely separate it it’s two completely different things the wor some of the worst people in the world can be amazing uh athletes and it’s it’s there those two things are irrelevant except in cases where awards are given for being a good person you know there’s a rugby league awards that are to do with Community engagement um uh you know at the delm or whatever like latr Mitchell won the one that’s to do with Computing engagement and charity charitable works and stuff like that if latr Mitchell went out and did some terrible things as a human which I don’t think he ever has um yes his community engagement award should be taken away but his rugby league achievements it doesn’t detract from his rugby league achievements if Margaret Cena was called Margaret Court Arena because uh Margaret Court was some kind of Saint and now she now she’s not um then her it should be taken away but it’s called Margaret C Arena because she won 24 Grand Slams she’s the only woman to ever do it this is a woman she’s won more Grand Slam more women’s Grand Slam titles than anyone in history yeah she’s won4 she’s won more than Serena Williams who is the female goat you know so yeah I mean no matter what someone with that record is going to have a tennis Arena named after them um yeah like I just I hate that she continues to be in the news and it’s cuz she’s famous and she’s detracts from her tennis achievements but I don’t think anybody should care if she’s going to her views are ridiculous but you can say her views are ridiculous and you can also say that well she deserves to have a tennis Arena named after her because she’s clearly one of if not the greatest female player of all time yeah exactly I mean going by Grand Slam titles one she’s the greatest yeah yeah no one’s it’s 24 that was the one that was like uh Roger Federal was the first person to win 20 grand slams jovic has won 24 yes yeah Andy Murray said first um male you know like Margaret C Margaret cor played a million years ago man and nobody has Serena Williams came close Serena Williams tried so hard she played on so long but eventually she realized look I just I just can’t do and that should tell you how hard it is to do what an amazing achievement it is you know there’s three three tennis male tennis players who won over 20 is three right yes um three jovic 24 Nadal 22 federa 20 yeah yeah like that’s how hard it is and the Margaret Court played in the 70s and nobody’s been able to win 24 even with all of the advances in sports science and all the advances in rackets and all the advances in blah blah blah blah blah no one’s being able to do it and you have to give credit where credit is due I give zero credit to her opinions on same-sex marriage transgenderism and all that like zero credit to it but I give 100% credit to the fact that she won 24 grand slams and a calend how many people have won calendar year Grand stes men or women not very many not many rod rod Le did it twice even Novak jovic novovic has never done it done it he’s come very close a couple of times but he’s never done it even no V jovic hasn’t done it you know um so yeah I just I hate that she’s always a story though and it always has to do with her like she’s that she’s a pastor of her church and she doesn’t believe in samesex marriage I did put it down a bit a tennis thing my thing is always believe what you want to believe even if you’re wrong like I accept the flat earthers yeah it just needs to be a bit more maturity uh and not getting someone’s personal views crossed over with their achievements in that sport um moving on to so have you seen this new rule okay they’ve they’ve loosened the rules around players fans entering the arena between games it’s causing massive delays between games it’s been slammed by Novak jovic Den MV and Jordan Thompson Jordan Thompson actually blamed his loss on it um yeah there’s a bit to unpack with this John so I don’t know how often you’ve been to the tennis over the years but I’ve been there many times I’ve been to the Australian Open many times in other tennis events I went to Wimbledon um so what you what happens Johnny is if you’re a fan and you leave the arena to go to the toilet or go to get something to eat or something to drink you’re not allowed to come back in until the players sit down at a change over um because they don’t want you just coming in whenever and distracting the players it’s it’s but the issue is John that you might that so at the start of sets they don’t sit down after one game they just change ends they don’t have a sit down because they have a sit down at the end of the set they don’t want to give them two um sit Downs very close together so what happens is if you leave the arena after a set which often you do that’s the time when most fans would leave at the end of a set to go get something to eat or drink you’ve got to wait three games to be able to come back into the arena because it’s three games in where they have their first sit down you could have a situation where you got three long games and you’re waiting half an hour to get back in as a fan who’s paid money for your ticket so that’s an issue John but a counter to that is when the players are returning the serve and the Ball Toss goes up and there Spectators walking around behind the server’s arm can be very difficult for the the returning player to pick up yeah the serve having said that it should not have any impact on the fans at the sides of the Arena only the fans at the back behind the players so there’s a bit to unpack the on fans they make the game they pay their money and if they’re locked out for potentially half an hour in what other sport would fans be locked out of the arena for that amount of time just for going and getting something to eat or something to drink or going to the toilet there got to be a solution because if players are saying it’s it’s causing them issues then you have to pay attention to the fact that it’s causing them issues like I said John Thompson actually blamed his loss on it or some like lost sets and stuff like on it he really like he went crazy about it um you know in in cricket when you go watch the cricket if you’re behind the you know allow to move yeah that’s the it’s the same thing they can actually like call no balls and stuff like that if you if you move yeah there’s fast Bowlers bowling at 140 plus K an hour and in tennis you got in the men’s you got people serving at over 200ks an hour Nick Kiros serves it 220 K an hour um and so like you would think they would have staging area if they were going to have this rule they would have staging areas where you could come in on the side and like watch or whatever it seems like they’ve gone too hard too quickly with this yeah the better option might have been to just try it on the on the sides of the Arena yeah and that that shouldn’t be a problem for the players that’s not in their line of vision the fans on the sides of the Arena so they probably should have just started with that John see how that goes first rather than just introducing this rule Willie nearly and now the players have got their noses out of J well they’re going to they’re either going to get used to it or they’re not and the tennis is going to have to change it you know players either going to get used to it or tennis is going to have to change it but it is a big thing in the Australian Open um yeah I’ve never been to the tennis I’ve been to the cricket and I’ve seen people get in trouble for moving and actually like a a ball called back uh because people were moving too many people were moving behind the bowler like there was It was kind of annoying actually that were being idiots um and and you know depending on the when when you give when you give crowd and fans like a little bit more rain they’ll tend to be idiots a lot of the time so they might start doing things like purposely moving and things like that and you know in tennis they’ve had stuff where like fans have done laser pointers into players eyes and that stuff so if there is a chance think of it with Novak right if there was a chance for an Australian fan to to distract Novak jovic they would take it and that that that would cause problems and they have to have a solution for it if players are complaining about it and they have to have a solution for it for the fans because the only reason they would have changed is cuz fans complained if no one was complaining about it they wouldn’t have changed it and it is like you said it’s a bit annoying to be locked out of the arena for 30 minutes yeah potentially yeah yeah um so you know if they had staging areas or something where it was just like oh you’re coming back in come and stand here you can stand here and watch you can’t move just stand here all right now you can go back to your seat you know so you don’t have to miss out on watching or or just or another um option is to have a sit down after the first game of the set to allow the fans to come back in all right it’s it’s two straight sit downs but I think if you did that you’d keep the fans and the players happy because the players aren’t going to complain about having an extra sit down they love having an extra break and the fans are going to like the fact that you’ve given them an extra opportunity to get back in the stadium so maybe that’s an option John having that sit down after one game not going to happen till next year now um yeah so um now I don’t know if you you looked this up I this on there so Rafael Nadal has been announced for the Ambassador for Saudi Arabian tennis Association or whatever and John mackenro is not happy about it um John mcro is a a very vocal person yeah he is really good commentator though know a lot of people have been bagging him for his commentary I don’t agree with them John I think he’s really good he does doesn’t say too much he’s on point with his commentary so you know s Saudi Arabia is right now throwing big dollars at a lot of things we’ve talked about it on this podcast golf the good money at golf big money at boxing uh they they won the World Cup rights in the most roted way possible the soccer World Cup rights in the most roted way possible but they also are not well looked upon by modern Society because of the a lot of things in their their country actually like John mackenro brought up a lot about the way they treat women um which you know again it’s hard to comment on because there’s a religion-based element to it and it’s not our place it’s also not John macro’s place to be honest but there are other things about Saudi Arabia that you can comment on like the murder of Jamal kasogi you know that they never faced any sanctions for yeah yeah um um yeah John there was a journalist who had a go at Nadal about this too um journalist Neil mcmah tweeted this is incredibly disappointing from Rafa inexcusable if they get Roger to I’m done he says obviously referencing Roger Federer there um but one point Mack androe did make John was that um you know he said something like um sorry it’s just somewhere yeah Ma this was Mack Andro quote let’s put it this way Money Talks oh no I wouldn’t do that how much was I offered on second thoughts maybe I will that’s the thing like Saudi Arabia has so much money and they can they can convert anything and put like a lot they Saudi Arabia has for years been looking for like a national sport yeah and they’re willing to throw heaps of money at rich people Sports so the three biggest most most like Rich Sports on an individual level in the world are um golf boxing and Tennis you know those those are the thing you you have billionaire golfers billionaire boxers like Floyd Mayweather and on the way to billionaire tennis players and it’s it’s no surprise that Saudi Arabia will put money into them yeah um so John it’s easy for journalist Neil mcmah to say that about Nadal but when you actually made a money off a like that maybe all of a sudden maybe you’re not so moral about some certain things it’s easy for him to say that God knows how much they gave him but there’s so much money in Saudi Arabia people just don’t understand and it is a lot to do it is because like in Western Society we talk about the richest people in the world and it’s Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and stuff like that but you listen to people who are like experts in World politics and they apparently Saudi Arabia makes fun of like the money that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos has because it’s so small oh they only have $150 billion that’s pocket change to me so you know they’re they’re willing then you know the oil obviously is on the way out Saudi Arabia is mainly an oil uh based country they’re looking for other things to engage their um country to for their country to have as an export and stuff like that I suspect whatever Saudi Arabia wants from the ATP Tour where whether it’s and I know the WTA finals are going to be in Saudi Arabia and Mack androe was saying that that it was laughable to him that that’s happening given Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women um but I suspect whatever Saudi Arabia wants out of tennis and when I say the ATP I mean the WTA as well um so that they’ll give them what they want out of fear of them starting a live golf type re League it’ll be like okay if you don’t want us fine then we’ll just pay um novakovic a billion dollars so so the ATP and WTA need to tread very carefully with this they’re going to need to bow down to the the demands really of Saudi Arabia here in fear of them starting a rebel type live golf style Tennis League look at boxing right people wouldn’t um give Francis and GH and Tyson Fury a look in Saudi Arabia did gave Tyson Fury $50 million you know and now they’ve got um Anthony Joshua this is their second or third biggest name in boxing to fight Francis andu in like a month and a half’s time for $50 million they have the money to do whatever they want and they will just and it’s that kind of thing where it’s like I give $50 million no 60 no 200 they jump up in massive increments and you can see like yeah if people don’t follow along they’ll just do that they’ll just go and make their own tennis organization and like the Saudi Arabian Sheiks um are pretty spiteful as well I think you can tell from from the murder of um yeah like they will just go all right if you say no fine then we’ll just make our own if they’re doing that John I don’t think they care too much about what the ATP and WTA are going to think about a rebel Tennis League exactly so yes um just finishing up with tennis now um I had to turn the commentary off like I totally see exactly what you’re talking about Todd Woodridge and I have seen now lots of comments on the internet about how people are watching the tennis muted it is you know what I was doing yesterday unmuting when Leon hu was on screen yes and then muting again yeah so John the I think what’s happening is because hu’s very keen to watch the Australian play players in the crowd they just have they’re just using him as a Courtside commentator at the moment while these early rounds are playing out and while there’s still Australians in the tournament so what I suspect will happen What I really hope to God will happen John is that once these Australians go out which traditionally John by about the end of the first week they all go out let’s hope it doesn’t happen but it usually does can’t demon all so I’m hoping that once that happens that hu will move into the box with Cora and Mack androe and then you’ve got your commentary Dream Team there and and hopefully that’ll push Woodbridge out of the commentary box because he talks too much John he’s a gibra um what he says makes no sense a lot of the time um and every every five minutes or so they keep flashing up these promos for this new game show he’s on it’s just it’s too much John that’ll continue he’s of course it will he’s too he’s too Overexposed on it’s just too much just stop talking Todd let you don’t have to say something all the time he talks too much he’s got an annoying voice he’s like a yapping dog in the comment yeah nobody is happy with it like all over the internet on um Reddit Instagram Tik Tok everything people are commenting on it and everybody agrees like I I you know always give him the benefit of the doubt I tried to watch Tennis yesterday and as soon as he started talking like oh this is so annoying just mute and Tennis you can watch um without sound on actually you know you can because there it’s not like there’s commentary during the points but it is hard to watch and I do like like you said I hope next week uh Leon hood is moving into the main commentary because his commentary is awesome yeah like everything he says I’m just like I’m hanging on every word he says yeah um the way he reads the game is is amazing so um just to clarify John I didn’t call Woodbridge a dog I just said he’s common I just said he’s like a yapping dog in the producer John’s over there giggling yeah there’s there’s a difference he’s like a yapping dog not wor you’re C flu for that it’s fine um we didn’t get any flx so far for Taylor Swift comments last week on Monday so they’ll come soon I hope um did we criticize Taylor Swift did we well we said I said they are actually flashing too much to her I agree now after watching Woodbridge you know he’s just he’s just got to learn to to to pull back here and there he’s been a commentator for a while though and ads on the screen all the time it’s well yeah that never they need to sell their their TV show um that’s why whatever the other day when you mentioned that I said is it Gladiators cuz man whatever Channel Gladiators is on as just every single thing has been Gladiators no matter what Gladiators Gladiators Gladiators they’re pushing Gladiators so much and that’s what it’s like I guess with um Todd woodbridge’s Tipping Point that was his his game show I I remember it from yesterday normally we looked it up on Monday I wouldn’t have remembered it but I cuz as I was watching the tennis yesterday I remember it because I’ve heard the words Tipping Point at least 177,000 times yesterday across a 3 hour match it going to make your watch Tipping Point no not at all I’m never going to watch sort it’s sort of it’s so overdone that you sort of resent the shows that they’re promoting so it’s sort of it’s Overkill with the publicity and then you go oh I’d never watched that show in a million years I don’t even know Mar at First Sight promos you go well I’m not watching that I don’t even know who watches free to Air television game shows anymore anyway but um anyway that’s tennis for the week um we’ll see on Monday how Alex demor and the of our Aussies is still going um but we can move on to Cricket and the West Indies test has now started it’s about to start again for the second day yes um Steve Smith Steve Smith as an opener uh didn’t go very well didn’t go well John out for 12 um in his first test as an opener um Shamar Joseph the West Indian uh tear away quick got Steve Smith out with his first ball in test Cricket so it sort of brings back memories of Shane War getting Mike gading out with his first ball in England in a test but Shamar Joseph’s got Steve Smith with his first ball in test Cricket on test a what an extraordinary story he can tell his grandkids one day exactly um so he’s the first West sorry he’s just the second West Indian debutant to take a wicket with his first ball in test Cricket since Terrell Johnson in 1939 so there you go um so I I don’t think Terrell Johnson would have got out um I’m not sure who he got out back in 1939 John but if it wasn’t Don Bradman then uh I don’t think that the player he got out would have been as good as Steve Smith that’s it uh so out for 12 Steve Smith John um and as you said the other day got out for a duck in that big bash game the other night um in Australia Pakistan in the Australia Pakistan test series Smith averaged just 38.8 scored just 150 across the six innings in the three tests he had the worst strike rate in the team as well which included the tail Enders if you can believe that of just 40 and he averaged just you know Australia is is batting right now um I think they what were they 76 for3 they Tri like they got West Indies all out in for 188 um and then they’re 76 for3 with Usman Kaja on 35 not out um you you’ve got to give him more give him more time Steve Smith is the open of course yeah but honestly um it’s not that didn’t look good he did hit two fours in his 26 balls he faced but still that’s not good out for 12 yeah it’s a failure um yeah obviously they’ll give him the series there John and see how he goes you’d hope I mean you’d hope he can um see his um number four replacement uh was out for 14 Cameron green yeah camer green out for 14 as well so he didn’t even anchor the Innings yeah I mean Shar Joseph got labber Shan out as well so what a star getting SM and labber Shan in your your first test he also got green he also got green oh sorry hang on so he’s gotten Smith Laine and green just looking on Smart B for the oh so I think what’s happened John is they were two down at stump so I think he’s got green today this morning as we speak cuz I think play just started start 11:00 a.m. so play only started half an hour ago yeah we got live got green out for 14 so Green’s actually been dismissed this morning head to smart.com to follow your live updates yeah you’re on you’re on the button there with the live so Travis head is now in for for one off eight balls but yeah not out um there’s two the problem is there’s two Josephs in the um West Indies team a Joseph and S Joseph yeah so shamar’s got the shamar’s got all three yeah and he’s currently bowling currently bowling to Green so um yeah it’s we’ll see they’ve got another match um you know they they currently Tri by 113 runs they so West Indies didn’t exactly have the best opening day and I would expect this match to be over on day late day three or day four because it is the West Indies um and we’ll see if Steve Smith can do better next time but it is kind of bad that he got out for 12 you know that’s terrible as the as our Dave Warner replacement uh speaking of Dave Warner he was commentating in the the BBL oh God yeah commentated on Fox John and yeah there were some people um on social media who got into him of course John um but I mean they said you know that they don’t think that he he had the voice for the commentary and I had a bit of a I did check it out John curiosity got me I uh I wanted to see how he went as a commentator and look I I tend to agree John I don’t know if he’s got the voice for it and and what I what i’ would say um just in general about David War is I just think people just they just need a bit of a break from him I mean he’s he’s just retired from the test Arena and he’s just what only you know a matter of what a week or two later he’s jumping in the commentary box I would have thought just just just chill out for the rest of the summer just play the rest of the big bash and just just have a bit of a break I can’t understand why they would think it would be a good idea to have David Warner that most people hate in as a commentator I can’t understand it what what thought process they not done market research on him he’s just he’s unpopular John he’s not popular with the viewing public it was the same with it’s a similar situation with with Michael Clark remember Michael Clark became a commentator with Channel 9 and then when Channel 7 and fox took over they didn’t want to borrow him as a commentator they just cuz people didn’t like him they took over and they I think 7 n fox went why a channel n have him as a commentator he’s unpopular and neither of them touched him so that’s bizarre they they really they haven’t done their homework on on on how David Warner is lo by I can’t imagine that meeting either this somebody’s weirdly in charge of what David Warner does I have no idea first they let him helicopter now they let him commentate like what what thought process is this that they would think that they adding Dave Warner to the commentary would anyone would like that doesn’t matter if you like you know some people do like Dave Warner but most people don’t and most people won’t want to hear him um so if you’re hiring commentators you need to hire commentators who are loed exactly um and then it was revealed what happened with his stolen baggy greens again another weird story um they just left it at the hotel right it was it was no yeah it was no big deal um yeah so um just having a quick look at this John yeah um they reappeared just after the test started um yeah so it was revealed um by the Sydney Morning Herald the bag containing the Caps never left its spot with the rest of the baggage in the team’s room at the Intercontinental Hotel in double Bay but it’s just weird how you know his his wife Candice was asked about it and she said it’s a question for Security Management and that they were not really sort of upfront and honest about that joh and and that sort of looks worse doesn’t it if they had to come out and just said look you know it’s it’s the funny the funniest thing happened you know he just left it there the funniest thing happened it turned out it was where it was funny if they were just honest about that people would have just gone oh okay but it’s the fact that they’re not honest about it and then it had to be re re revealed by a newspaper what happened like imagine that you put your your your crack investigative reporter on the job to find out what happened with da Dave Warner’s baggy greens it’s a real investigative there by the city morning Harold jum um and you know I I saw the quotes from from Pat cumins and cumins was quoted on this and said it’s probably not my story to tell maybe talk to Davey I don’t know John I’d look at a quote like that and I I get the feeling that that there’s an underlying annoyance from Pat cumin there that everything seems to be all about David Warner all the time and I know he hasn’t said come out and said that explicitly but you can read between the lines sometimes and I just feel like Pat cumins and there was another quote I read from him about the David Warner farewell he said something along the lines of oh um apparently it’s David’s last test match or something and he was only joking I just get this feeling Pat cumins is not too thrilled with all the attention David Warner’s been getting John I’m sure he would think like isn’t this over like isn’t it over isn’t he gone isn’t he done um yeah it’s like I said like we said the other day you just got to find out how the news will continue to make it all about Dave Warner and they just do we give it give it a year maybe Dave Warner will fade into OB Into Obscurity but if he’s in commentary probably not but if thought like if I was advising David Warner if I was his management I would have said to him like after the whole you know this whole farewell and these baggy greens and everything and the helicopter to the Big B I would have just said look Dave we’re going to just take the rest of the summer off just from a PR perspective the summer off maybe if you’re going to start doing commentary maybe start next summer yeah just cool your heels finish up the BBL season at the Thunder you got one more game um that was it so cuz the bbl’s almost over the finals are determined it’ll be brisan Heat versus Sydney 6ers tomorrow obviously Steve Smith won’t play now yeah tomorrow Friday and then P scorches versus Adelaide Strikers on Saturday um so yeah like he could have just gone and played out the BBL in the last game and then all right go back your day have a have a holiday bro take a break take your family for a holiday um it is currently school holidays yeah they could he could have gone away for a couple of weeks until the 30th when everyone returns and then that would have been it but no we’ve got to say about Dave War every time just wanted to I read this this morning it got sent to me um Maza ashad I don’t know who that is has tweeted a thing about Nathan lion right cuz he’s hit his 500 00 um it was actually in December last year when he hit the 500 500 test wickets yeah um it’s a great achievement but what about doing it without overstepping ever in your test career Nathan L has 501 wickets bowled 31,6 balls and never bowled a line no ball little little known stat that just popped up on my feet this morning I was like Wow never amazing yeah um yeah full full credit to Nathan L well done he’s had a great care John um only the third Australian bowler behind the great Shane War and the great Glenn mcgr take 500 test wickets and three out of eight as well so once again Australia proving we’re the best Cricket nation in terms of David Warner John I think his PR team and Novak jovic’s PR team need to get together and have a a big brainstorming session um yeah okay so yeah make sure if you’re interested watch the BBL finals hopefully Sydney Sixers will win um on rugby league and continuing out honestly guys it’s just our opinion theme for the next couple of weeks it’s time for our Bulldogs preview just quickly yes you had the Tigers at 17th I had the dragons at sorry you had the Tigers at 17th I had them at 15th you had the dragons at 14th very nicely I have them at 17th and today’s preview is the Bulldog yes they your team um they they’re the most player movement in the league yes um so um John what I did was um I know you’ve you’ve taken some very detailed notes there on the Bulldogs I’ve actually gone through and done a predicted round um predicted round one team for the Bulldogs I’ll just read it out and then I might get your thoughts on what I’ve put together so John I’ve got Steven kryon at fullback y I’ve got Josh adocar and Jacob Carz on the wings I’ve got Matt Burton and Connor Tracy in the centers in my halves I’ve got Drew Hutcherson and Toby seon um mainly because I couldn’t find any other options John not really cuz I want them to be there but you can only work with what you got right in the front row um max king um he averaged 107 run meters and 36 tackles a game last season John so I’ve got him in the front row I’ve got Josh Karan as my other front rower obviously Reed man at Hooker the back row I’ve got Jacob Preston V army kickout and Kurt man hopefully we get a lot more of V army kick this season after injury just plagued him last season John on the bench Blake Taff Samuel Hughes jam sammon and Liam Knight so that’s six new recruits um in their 1 man squad that I’ve got there they were seven wins 17 losses last year so yeah I got Burton in the centers John he played two games for New South Wales at Center in 2022 scored a and also scored a try in the 2021 Grand Final in that position that was when he was playing for p against South in that Grand Final so do you have anything to sort of quiz me on there John that’s the thing right you read out the forward pack um with uh Max King in the front row okay so that their F pack is is super inexperienced yes okay so the most you have did you have Sutton in there um I didn’t find a spot for and so you know Ryan Sutton is their most cap front row forward with 88 games right now so they’ve got a massively inexperienced forward pack they’ had massive play you’ve got six new players in their squad like it’s that’s that’s probably their best team um they’ve gone they’ve gone very heavy on the utilities haven’t um but you know I don’t know like the people are putting crenate fullback and there’s a lot of people putting tough on the bench I’m not really sure he could be a bench utility um I know he’s played like he can play apparently play fullback six and seven um I don’t know if that’s that’s the best so would you do you sort of think maybe they should put Sutton in ahead of tough on the bench there possibly yeah because that’s s like bitun surely they like they bought Steven kryon he’s their big signing right and so they’re going to people are going to want him playing at full back because he’s their big signing right um it’s it’s reminiscent to me of when Darius Boyd came to the dragons actually you know the dragons had previously sucked Wayne Bennett came on board he bought his son Darius Boyd with him Darius Boyd traditionally a centeral Winger for origin and all of the dragons fans were like he’s come on big money he needs to play fullback right it was really good at fullback and I think he was he but he only scored one try all year his first year something like that and so Steven kryon is the big money signing that the Bulldogs have so people are going to want him to play a very important role of fullback and then you know a lot of people are moving Burton back to the centers because that’s his Junior position but that leure halves it does I I take your point on that John but I I just think I just think Burton’s going to offer them a lot more in the centers John I I really do I don’t I don’t I mean he hasn’t to be honest and he hasn’t really worked for them at 58 he hasn’t but he’s kicking is is so important I mean he can still use his kicking even though he’s he can still come in and do the bombs and act as a third sort of kicking option there um John I thought I’d just run through the key in um comings and going there’s a sort of got it down to the key ones here John so the key ones are as we talked about their big money signing is Steven Kon from the Panthers Conor Tracy Blake tff Jamon salmon Josh curan Drew Hutcherson Kurt man and Jake Turpin they’re the key ins for the Bulldogs the key outs Jake avillo G to the dolphin that’s one that surprised me John that’s a huge loss um he was one of the their best apart from adoc car I think he’s their best TriCore in the last couple of years so T pangar Jr as we know retired to take up boxing John Paul alamot and Cory woodell also have departed a couple of injuries to worry about Corner Tracy we’re hoping that he gets back for round one he’s still back in that injury John and Carl olaru that gun young half has a neck injury that’s keeping him out indefinitely John so hopefully he’s okay so could Conor Tracy P play in the halves uh I don’t believe so John I think he’s more of an outside back but I think that that back five is looking pretty good for them John isn’t it cryon adoc car if Burton does play um in the centers Burton Tracy and Carz that’s very sharp if they that’s a a good yes good back five but the forwards are really going to like erience so it’s a good back five and they got a lot of utilties okay okay okay but they are lacking in the halves John and as you say they are lacking in the engine room is it when he was at um konala I thought his best position was 5/8 actually okay well that gives them another that gives them another option then doesn’t it yeah um he should be back in in but so look I also think Hutchinson’s best position is at six right uh he was at the he come over from the r right and he’s roosters have got uh one of our commenters mentioned it last time that um you know the roosters scapegoat their halves a lot Mitchel Pierce was a scapegoat for uh they tend to do it it doesn’t matter who the coach is or anything Mitchell Pierce was a scapegoat for a lot of their problems with their their form there were other guys uh since then as well now Luke Kiri who was their wonderkind um is now a scapegoat for them as well and Hutcherson was was the big one the big blame this year so he was let go um and I reckon his best position is six but he’s he’s probably the most senior player you have in the halves there and he’s only played0 games and he’s 28 years old so he’s played 110 games in like a lot of time um actually um so John we talk about the Bulldogs being weak in the halves and this has been all too common for the Bulldogs this has been their main weakness for a long time John now they the Bulldogs haven’t had a genuine creative half back since Brett camoy retired in 2010 and before him Brent Shan who um LED them to that Premiership in 2004 even the years they made the Grand Final since then John Chris keading was their halfback in the 2012 Grand Final they didn’t need a halfback that Year John if you remember their forwards were the ball play Sam casano were basically the halves um as prop forwards that year for the Bulldogs and obviously Ben Barber and Josh Morris was so hot at that time that they got to the Grand Final without really needing a halfback and then 2014 they had Trent hodkinson as halfback and co- captain in that 2014 Grand Final but he wasn’t really a creative halfback John he was more of a game managing sort of overseeing half excuse me he was a state of origin winner if you can believe it him and Josh Reynolds LED New South Wales to that 1 out of 12 origin win in 2014 look I’m not I’m not I like a big go him but he was he was more the cooperon style yeah yeah he wasn’t he wasn’t your Brett CLE or Brent Sherin creative he was your game manager overseeing making sure the team you know ran the right lines composure sort of half and that everybody’s got different styles you know he had kind want one of those and then you want the creative guy like that’s that’s but I think we’re at a point where we need this creative halfback to come back in for the Bulldogs it’s been been a long time 2010 that’s 14 years ago now John Toby seon doesn’t appear to be the long-term solution there John and you’ve talked about that you’ve heard that there’s this mystery halfback that they’re chasing I really like they need to go to market to find this half back you’re talking could be Conor Tracy he can play half I mean I like Conor Tracy John but I really hope it’s another candidate that you’ve got in mind um so this is the thing right they they they have a back five Bulldogs have a back five that is is pretty good okay and there’s there’s players in it that you talk about like Steven kryon they also have players like Bron and Sherry that you don’t know how good they’re going to go he can play Wing yeah Wing but you know they have Josh I mean he’s probably not going to be in the top 17 assuming everybody’s fit but he’ll be someone who you know will come into consideration um and then they’ve got inexperienced halves and like I said the senior half in that group is Hutchinson who’s played 20 110 games in like 10 years he’s been around for I think 8 years uh I just looked it up but it was yes since 2015 he made his debut at St George Del Laur um so what’s that that’s eight years he’s he’s played 110 games um he’s not exactly ever set the W on fire and that’s your senior half that’s your senior spine actually um you’re not going to see a lot of creativity and then the forwards are so young like young forwards can go either way as well like this the thing when you have a youthful inexperienced for pack they can be super creative and do they can become those guys that run the lines and get the tries they can also be like really aggressive in defense and and aim up really well or they can get monstered by you know them coming up against like a senior forward pack they could they could very well get monstered or they could try and put on a show and Bash the the guys like you know you go back to um Josh papali bashing Paul gallon once you know like that as a young upand cominging front row forward trying to prove he’s the new kid on the Block that could dominate the you know top prop they also one of the things about the Bulldogs is they have the worst SE second worst run uh draw after the Rabbid o I know I sound like a complaining support on but it’s it seems because they get big TV ratings they seem to always be put up against the best sides yeah well they have 13 matches against the 2023 top eight teams happens every year join five matches against top four plays the teams they’re playing twice though look taking off 2023 teams is not the best thing you can do because you don’t know what’s going to happen next year but the teams they’re playing twice are Raiders sharks Knights Cowboys eels dragons roosters Warriors now in that that that lot the ones I see as really big dangers are Ro’s Warriors and Eels okay um I’m actually expecting a big drop by the Raiders and possibly the Knight so that that changes the whole draw like 2023 finalist playing twice but then yeah I’m still worried about the Dolphins too just quietly but anyway um they have the the good thing is though the benefits they have is they have no five-day turnarounds the whole year M which is that’s an amazing thing like that’s really good that will help and they also only play the panther storm and Broncos once which is really good their opening six rounds is going to tell you everything about their Club okay their things they’ve got eels and sharks away then their first home game with the Titans then rabido away roosters at home and storm away so they have to play The rabitos Who are meant to go really good expected to go really good this year with a fit Latrell roosters who are The Roosters the storm who are the storm last year top eight sharks and the eels who are meant to be a Powerhouse Team all in the opening six rounds and they have four away games as well so the opening six rounds is really going to actually tell you whether those forwards can aim up and whether their halves can actually like get the forwards moving forward in the back to score because they’ve got a lot of points in the back that’s the thing they got a lot yeah it’s going to come down to whether their forwards can aim up in defense and whether the halves can create yes that’s really cliche and but it has been a huge issue for them it’s not like I’m going to go when we get to the roosters it’s going to come down to whether their forwards can aim up because the roosters forward pack is and whether they can create but but we’re saying it’s an issue because it’s an issue it’s an you can’t fit Ryan Sutton in your 17 he didn’t and he is the most experienced front row forward in the whole Squad with just 88 games yeah there’s always injuries John I’m sure he’ll play his part like I’m sure Bronson Cherry will get an opportunity at some stage how many games is Max King played um oh yeah so I’ve got I had his stats 107 run meters and 36 six tackles a game last season yeah but I don’t have how many games he’s played in front of me uh he has played 97 97 full games but not always in the front row for it so yeah um so that’s the thing Ryan Sutton’s played the most games in the front row um I think Max King was 81 in the front row so it’s it is going to it is going to be difficult for them to come anywhere and I think it’s really going to come down to those first six games they do well in that first six rounds we like they don’t have necessarily have to win the hard ones like the Storm and The Roosters but again I can hearken you back to the dragons uh I think it was in 2009 they opened up against Melbourne and the dragons had sucked for years 2009 they opened up against Melbourne got beat and I think it was 1716 was the score and Greg englas manhandled Jamie s it was embarrassing but they put it to Melbourne they lost but they put it to Melbourne and every single dragons fan at that stage went oh this is going to be a good year you know and that’s what you see when they open up against the eels if they do really well cool but when they hit those roosters and storm games that’s when you’re going to actually see what the Bulldogs are made of this year okay John do you mind if I turn this discussion to the Head hon shows at the club uh Phil good so Phil good MH joined the Bulldogs as general manager of football in July 2021 the club won the spoon that year but we’re not going to be unfair and hold that against him John that would be ridiculous so we’re going to regard that 2022 that’s his first full season at the club they finished 12th 2023 they finished 15th mhm so if we say 2022 was year 1 for him 2024 is year three mhm he can keep talking about the lower grade success all he wants at some stage the first grade team needs to get results John if they bomb out this year will gold be sucked will he be facing the a I mean I mean I think it depends on how they bomb out actually the because like like if they if there’s no improvement if it’s a repeat if it’s a third they a team because you know they scored a lot of points at the back end of the season this year but they also LED in a lot of points and I think the stats were things like you know they’ let in the most points and stuff like that they were they had really terrible stats if they bomb out and have those kind of stats again then yeah it could very well be you know the end of Phil G’s general manager football you’ve talked about in the past people in those positions year three is a big year yeah yeah um I just really like I think their recruitment is if they recruitment lets them down Curious it’s strange I know K sadoo is in a lot of charger but obviously Phil gold is is involved a lot and their recruitment is strange and they haven’t recruited any like experience like so kiow is obviously their forward leader didn’t play last year very much because of injury he’s going to you’re going to hope that he brings the guys up around and guys like Max King you know um uh what’s the guy Toby ston um yeah he’s the halfback y yeah um what’s the blonde guy mullet guy I can remember Jacob Preston yeah that’s him Jacob Preston he seon Preston he you know bringing Prest cuz Preston was impressive all year you know he won all the awards at the Bulldogs award night um and if if Kika can bring that the forward pack up it’ll be it’ll all prove to be a master stroke but yeah and recuitment is so weird and Cameron Calo John third last in his first season if he has another bomb out year like that could be under some serious pressure yeah I hope not I think they should give him an extra year I think they should count this year as his first year um like from the management standpoint obviously statistically you can’t but from a management standpoint that he’s recruited his team that he wants with all the weird recruitment he’s had his off season he’s let go of like a lot of players like it’s three four five six 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 players let go um you know he’s foolishly let go of KL Flanagan who’s going to be the star signing for the dragons um but you know I think they should count this year is his first year and then next year is whatever if he does super well this year and then collapses next year then it it all starts again but I think they should totally discount Cameron sados this year totally discounted at some stage for and Caldo the discounting will stop yeah and exactly they will bealo Cameron’s got two more years I think Phil good this is Phil gos last year um because no matter how like you said no matter how much they do well in the bottom the fans accepted for a while you can talk about the lower grades all you want and that’s great but at some stage you need to see results in first grade because in in reality John most people only care about first grade exactly exactly um so I guess if we’re looking at where they will finish so to summarize John they got a bunch of hardworking honest recruits along with of course the superstar that is Steven Kon yep um so on paper they got a good back five lacking in the halves as we’ve mentioned um and they’re light on in the engine room as we’ve talked about I think these new recruits will bring a good attitude and it will have an impact there’s a lot of talk about the poor culture at the club it won’t be enough to get them in the eight though John in my view I’ve got them moving up from number 15 to number 12 on the ladder in 2024 I’m going to note that down um so mine I feel basically the same way like I said I think the first six rounds will tell us a lot but my finish for the Bulldogs next year is 11th yeah um so one spot I think they’re no longer going to be fighting for The Wooden Spoon out of those Tigers dragons and Bulldogs I know I said like the tigers look like they’ve got the best chance but I honestly think just based on you know Cameron Sero versus Benji Marshall I think Bulldogs actually have more of a chance of avoiding that fighting for the wooden spring than the Tigers do so so if they finish 11th in a s in team comp John that’s probably you’re probably looking at a team that wins about maybe nine or 10 games as opposed to a team that won seven games this year so I think if they can do that if they can win N9 or 10 and move up to about 11 or 12 like we’re talking about that’s probably enough for G and Caldo to survive without one more year but if it’s 15th again John or worse than 15th bottom three there’s massive Red Alert signs for those two at the end of the season so yeah 11th oh so 11th and 12th actually were Cowboys and sea eagles this year and it was 12 and 11 wins so man you get 12 or 11 wins yeah oh yeah they do that Bulldogs fans are going to have a party that’ll be that’ll be a huge Improvement and that’s what we need to see at this point um so that’s it for the Bulldogs uh that’s it for honestly guys it’s just our opinion next week we’ll be hammering the Titans well discussing the Titans um the team that’s cared about least in the NRL sorry Titans fans but the ladder is taking shape um onto the Rugby League news dragons have found a replacement for Ronald vulgan that we discussed the other day they signed um Sydney Bears half Jesse North Sydney Bears yeah North sydne Jesse I don’t even know how to say yeah something like that to their top 30 so now they do have a another half replacement he can play 5’8 end halfback I just wanted to touch on that Ronald vman discussion so he actually has no club for 2025 I’ve done a little bit of a little bit of research on this Dragons Were informed that he had some shoulder discomfort before they signed him before all the signatures were done and everything they announced his signing on social media before doing his medical before even the contracts were signed and based on that his agents submitted his Warriors release to the Warriors like signed and everything and hadn’t confirmed the dragon’s signature for a contract then the dragons did their medical found that his shoulder needed surgery and he was going to be off for a year and say ah sorry you don’t have a agreement then so he is now left with with nothing for a year and he’s not it’s not like he’s a superstar that can take a year off and come back the fact that the dragons announced his signing before doing his medical publicly on their social media I believe you know just to reiterate I’m a dragons fan I believe the NRL should step in and make them pay his salary it sounds like um Ronald vulin has been very hard done by here sounds like very unfair treatment and um the you’re right the NRL need to step in and sort that out yeah like he left with nothing you think Ronald what’s he supposed to do yeah he can do nothing and that’s they’re supposed to be say they say they’re going to take care of everyone and they’ve implemented all these things to take care of players and things like that he’s 21 years old 21 he’s played five games for the Warriors and he played for Samoa in the um 2023 Pacific whatever the thingy was all right and then yeah they’ve just they’ve just cut him Le you think this guy is going to be this 21y old is going to be able to go for a year with with nothing he’s got no salary no Club no nothing and then come back in 2025 to a club um um it’s just such a terrible situation for a young upand cominging International representative yeah and for players sort of On The Fringe like that a year a long time out of the game the game can pass you by very quickly that’s why I think Bronson Cherry’s done really well to sort of get into the position he’s in with the Bulldogs you know get Landing after a fouryear suspension Landing a contract with them he’s done extremely well to get back yeah and I guess for someone like Ronald vogan you know obviously I’m not saying he’s done what you know Bronson Cherry did um but um Ronald vogan would need to have a look at someone like Bronson Cherry as a bit of inspiration you can get back but it is hard for these players with a year out um and in Bronson Cherry’s case four years out you can really lose touch with the the standard and um and you know it’s but it this this situation needs to be cleared up by the NL you they should look at his agent as well who signed and submitted the releasee to the Warriors just based on the dragons posting a social media that they had signed him you know they did the whole like Photoshop him in the jersey and stuff like that like he is now a a dragons player so the agent went okay cool it’s announced I can get him get his release all sorted he can move over from New Zealand to Australia and then he arrives and they go ah no you need a year out you only have a one-year agreement look we’re not even going to sign you this year tell you what if the NRL don’t sort that out there’s going to be some journalists interested to talk to Ronald fulman to get his story I think so and isn’t that what the Players Association is for as well shouldn’t um they be stepping in and going hey hey hey you’re not allowed to do that that’s a terrible thing to do to a young 21 yearold kid isn’t that what that’s basically a union isn’t that what a union is for yeah but yeah I know I’m I’m a dragon fan but I do not like the way they’ve they’ve behaved in this situation um I’m glad they found someone to sign but I don’t like the way they’ve behaved all the Warriors all Ronald vman’s agents the only person I support in this situation is Ronald vman yeah hopefully he gets some clarity on that John hopefully that gets sorted out by the NRL yep now that’s it for the NRL um onto the AFL Ben Cousins has appeared at what’s he doing at Richmond yeah look he’s just he’s just sort of gone back there and just greeted some of the players including um Dustin Martin the three-time Premiership winner and Norm Smith metal medalist um yeah you know that they were just there sort of you know glad to see that Ben Cousins seems to be in a better place Johnny seems to be you know he’s overcome a drug addiction John he’s in a better place and he’s doing well with his life now um your cousins finished his career with Richmond in in 2009 and 2010 John yeah so he’s sort of just gone back there um you know bit of a meet and greet and you know Richmond was sort of happy to have him so um you know good signs for Ben Cousins that’s a feel-good story for the AFL this one amid some some bad publicity with some other stories I actually saw this news article the other day as well that I forgot to add in um but you reminded me because you you put Ben Cousins in there um K KS AFL analyst said that they should reconsider Ben Cousins being inducted into the Hall of Fame because he wasn’t inducted to the Hall of Fame when he became eligible um and he was U he’s been eligible for the Hall of Fame induction since 200 13 M um and you know you just look at his his starts 270 games uh 2006 Premiership 2005 Brown L medal and six all Australian mhm um he was going to be in the Hall of Fame everyone thought he would but then he had those World publicized issues with drug addiction and stuff like that and the AFL didn’t want to have that publicity so they didn’t induct him now that he’s turned his life around there’s no reason to not basically yeah I mean it just it all just depends on what’s their criteria for the of fame um is the criteria you know off Field track record indiscretions does that come into it or not if it doesn’t if it’s not supposed to come into it well and you look at his playing record certainly on playing record alone he’d be one of the first players in the hall of fame um yeah it all depends on that criteria doesn’t it but I guess at some point you do have to forgive and forget and especially if somebody overcomes their addiction and Ben Cousins could that there could be a real role for him at the AFL he could help young players um through these issues um and you know I know the AFL don’t want you know play it publicized when players I think it’s their first two strikes they’re not made public and only made public on their third strike for illicit drugs for AFL players so Ben Cousins could really play a role for the AFL with players who have one and two strikes he could you know sit down with these players and work through and help them out um and even after they have their third strike obviously and it gets made public he could help them out at that point as well could be a real role for Ben Cousins here um and you know um it’s great to see that he’s turned his life around John yeah definitely um yeah well I hope he they look at that Hall of Fame thing um yeah so this week that’s it for the AFL this week There’s Sean Strickland versus drus dupy in Canada um UFC 297 is on Sunday it is a late one so it starts at 2 p.m. I believe because it’s in Canada and the time zones um Sean strick and dri dupy have made up there’s some footage floating around on the internet right now of dr’s dupy arriving to some hotel and Sean Strickland’s actually sitting there of course everyone’s like oh there’s going to be another fight but um apparently they’ve spoken to each other via message um and come to some agreements about what they’re going to talk about in the press conference which is tomorrow um Sean Strickland said on his podcast he such a GTA character he did say if drus brings up his uh childhood abuse again then Sean Strickland would stab him um and then there was some footage on the internet of Sean strick in Canada buying a knife W oh that’s not what they want um but they have messaged each other and made up uh that’ll be a cracker of a fight a lot of people have got dupc winning just cuz he’s a superior Grappler um but every Sean stricken gets underestimated every single fight he’s in he’s just a legit Striker absolutely amazing and I I reckon Sean Strickland’s going to get it I hope he does cuz I actually kind of like the guy not very much else on the card um but yeah starts at 2: p.m. I’m going to the pub to watch and I’m not buying that pay-per-view it’s that bad yeah I think I might be watching too John so there should be some bangers on there but it’s just like the names aren’t big because next month is UFC 298 with Shaun oy and sha oy the UFC is trying to build him up as a big even though he’s not like a lot of people know who he is but he doesn’t get a lot of views and so they’ve made a banger of a card for his his one like his card is like wow I can’t miss this um and then UFC 300 is the next month in April and that’s like the um really big one that’s coming up so this card is a little bit tame but yeah it’s a pub watch not a personal have boys over to watch it at my house yes um on to other sports news um Leon hu’s son is playing oh man I feel so old yeah yeah it does make us feel old John so Leon H’s 15-year-old son Cruz um is set for his biggest stage yet he’s been given a wild card to the Australian Open Junior Championships John so there you go it does make us feel very long in the tooth doesn’t that Leon hu’s son is now emerging on the scene I feel so old man now I watched two generations of hitts play and it’s oh god there you be interesting to see how he goes yeah maybe he can duplicate his dad’s rise to the top yeah hopefully John hopefully um we did forget this NRL rule change that came out so we can just touch on that um just this morning the NRL as announced a rules change in other sports news um so it breaks down as if a team kicks the ball out on the full over the touchline or the ball fails to travel at least 10 meters forward in an attempt to contest a restart from the goal line 20 M line or halfway line play will now start restart with the play the ball 10 m out from the line of the kick and 10 m in from touch rather than with a penalty kick so basically all of the kicking penalties are now um instead of kicking for touch you get to play the ball so or or even a shot at goal John if you’re close enough you get no penalty right so play the ball instead of a penalty so yeah yeah that’s right so you don’t get a shot so gr anle said with relative while relatively minor this change will add to the unpredictability of the game teams will no longer risk conceding significant territory as well as a penalty for attempting to regain possession from restart to play I I don’t know I heard mg talking about it this morning and he doesn’t like it like it just seems like a rule change for the sake of a rule change to me and John I would have thought if you’re stupid enough to kick the ball out out on the full off a kickoff well you know you deserve to be penalized I mean they’re sort of lessening the penalty for kicking the ball out on the fo here in a way yeah we we’ve discussed it during last year in the rounds that we we had um this constant short kick uh Dropout that had crept into the game and that’s what they’re actually incentivizing that’s what they’re trying to do the minor change will incentivize short kickoffs and dropouts as a fan I actually don’t want to see short kickoffs and dropouts to be honest I actually don’t don’t like them and and there’re supposed to be um there’s sort of supposed to be a it’s a highrisk play the short Dropout and it’s supposed to be I mean it’s a line Dropout you you’re not supposed to get the ball back from that and and if you risk it with a short kickoff then you part of the risk is you could give a penalty away 10 m out right in front yeah and lose two play so so they’re sort of lessening the penalty for getting a short kickoff wrong yeah and should that really be be happening I actually I don’t personally like anecdotally I don’t know I haven’t looked on the internet and you know this came out just before we we came into this record so moment before you know maybe we’ll be able to get some feedback let check the internet for feedback on it but I don’t personally know any rugby league fan who likes the increase in short dropouts you know like we like we like the occasional one you know it’s cool when like I remember Bret kle doing a like along the ground kick off it was it was cool one like one it was like cool to see and they go Bulldogs recovered the ball and it was like really cool right but if there’s like very little penalty you’ll see it more and more and it becomes not not a cool thing we’re seeing it more and more even with that the you know the risk of conceding how much more are we going to see it now like every time basically there’s not going to be any yeah because that because um they’re not they’re not scared of giving you know of giving the the team they’re kicking to the ball 10 m out back their defense from um 10 m out to hold up because you go well what’s the alternative the alternative is kick long and they probably get their first tackle 40 m out or something so the only difference is all right you might have another couple of plays where they’re getting back to the line but you know you’re willing to take that risk of the short kick off to to get the ball back um you you you’re happy to roll the dice on that if the only difference is will they start their set 10 m out compared to 40 m out yeah and that’s exactly right a set started from 40 m out again anecdotally I don’t know haven’t looked at Stats seems to have more chance of scoring than a set started from 10 readers out to be honest because the goal line defense is so exceptional so well drilled these days and so I really don’t like this change mg this morning was complaining about it um that’s when I got we got to the office I had to look it up and see what the hell it was um but I think yeah we’ll have a look at at it more on Monday when we have more time it’s just it just seems like another silly NRL no need to change it last year the 2023 had most ratings most crowd attendances blah blah blah blah blah blah blah everyone loved it there was not very many complaints on the internet about the NL season and we’re going to make a change anyway couldn’t go a year without changing for every action there’s a reaction John it’ll create some problem that they haven’t foreseen yet yeah it’s just going to create that thing where anyway um on our social media blower operas uh Scott Maxim on the most overrated player video asked what episode was this wanting to know which episode so it was episode 29 where we discussed it at length actually I had to go look it up yeah episode 29 you can also watch the full just that portion on the you on YouTube on the on the playlist um it’s honestly guys it’s just our opinion playlist Christian Toano on the most over playg G said two clown Emojis with zero experience jibbering out poo Emoji yeah very constructive Christian thanks for your feedback got nothing to say you’re an idiot uh dirty hurry on the west Tigers preview said no prep don’t know what they’re talking about yeah and didn’t go into any specifics John so just another just SWAT without going into specific so um I hope you’re happy with yourself Dirty Harry Grady VF 4kx responded he tended to tends to agree it’s po form to not know carosa is an origin player and to suggest he won’t be picked when he’s the incumbent New South ball number N9 had a great season particular in the back in the back I guess he’s saying back end of the season with the Tigers now cor is not the incumbent new southw number nine he played game one we knew he played origin yes so can I just clear up so you asked me if corus Was An Origin player and when we were having the discussion we were talking about how the Tigers sort of went last year so I interpreted your question as asking me if corus had played origin last year you asked me that on the spot and off the top of my head without having any notes in front of me I couldn’t remember that he played in game one we later went back and checked that and confirmed that I inter I think you did ask me that with that intention you didn’t ask me has he ever played or if your question had it been has he ever played origin I would said well yes he has because I knew I was surprised he played Four when he only played in yeah if your question was has he ever played origin in his career I would have said well yes he has but I interpreted your question it seems like I rightly interpreted as did he play last year and it turns out he only played one game so forgive me for forgetting that he only played one game if he had have played all three I think I would have remembered it but Damen cook is the incumbent he played games two and three um and nobody denied that carusel had a good season because that was why it was like he’s An Origin player right yeah like you know he played origin this year right you know that’s the kind of thing like cuz he had a good season Damen cook is the incumbent Damen cook historically with Brad fitler has been the Preferred Choice um if if Brad fit was still the state of origin coach this year you would have to say that carusa is not likely to be picked in the Opening match and Damen cook was because that was what the discussion was about whether Tigers would have a lot of players missing for origin appy carusa is their main player that would be missing for origin if bradf was still the origin coach unlikely because Damen cook will probably get the nod Michael Maguire is now the coach who knows what’s going to happen Michael Maguire has said No One Is Safe yeah and then and then he said and to suggest he won’t be picked when he’s the incumbent new southw number n as you’ve said he got that wrong he’s not had a great season particular I think he means particularly in the back in of the season end of the season as he said with the Tigers we never said that corus won’t be picked for we were rapping cor we said how good he is we said that their season’s going to hinge on him and so I don’t know what podcast he was listening to it wasn’t ours he might be getting us confused with some other um a lot of people just want to spark up um then Grundy tiger on the west same video said the boys are a bit confused it was I think it was in response to Brett Grady bit confused talking about the car sou thing but good seeing having crap a crack tigers are building a good team could easily make the eight looks like a great competition this year the rabitos could be in for a disappointing year they’re a bit overrated Grady responded to this turn it up I put money on the tigers not making the eight no chance and be very surprised if rabid rabitos don’t win with the addition of repti Jack whon and then test 8959 in response said rabitos will make the eight provider troll stays fit now it’s good you guys are having a conversation on the one video I love it um yeah I think that’s a fair point from test 8959 I think he’s right if rabbit o will make the eight if the trail stays fit and focused on on the job at hand and my brother in Christ Gundy tiger it’s clear you’re a West Tigers fan remove your bias a little bit but um yeah like unfortunately we don’t see neither of us see them making the eight but two th like we keep saying 2025 all tigers fans should be thinking 2025 that’s all that matters um the general our number one fan you’re a legend keep watching brother um reped to our response to his comment Fair Point from the about the score line flattering the dogs in the 2012 Grand Final thanks General always welcome your feedback you are one of if not our most constructive comment always welcome your feedback and thanks for your support General as always Y and I really want to hear the I think the general is a dogs supporter I want to hear your comments on our dogs breakdown yes um so Riley o commented a couple of times on the most overrated coach cam Caldo question mark again I’m reserving Cameron Caldo for this year I know I don’t think you can say that a coach who’s coached for one season is the most overrated coach that’s not F especially because as we’ve discussed before and it was publicized some people said he shouldn’t go this year he should wait shouldn’t have gone last year he should wait till this year he is very highly rated as the junior coach and he was before he went there he was the most sought after new coach so riio also commented on how he loves the show and to keep it up so I love you Rio thanks Rio um keep comments coming and we’ll discuss them um all you n people like Christian tuano and silly guys like that whatever man like I don’t care we got we we managed to get reactions out of these P so we’ve done something wrough um so that wraps up our social media blower operas for the week uh just another quick shout out to Rio and general 92 our number one fans Keep It Coming happy to have engaging conversations don’t forget to sign up to Smart B for the tip of the day the coer Box competition expires on the 25th of January so get in there just remember it’s you and 17 mates so if you enter go and tell all your mates to enter as well because then you’ve all got more chance to win sign up for the subversion competition to win two tickets to subversion um and the smart V racing update will start end of the month hopefully uh and don’t forget to follow smart B app at SMB app on all social medias and engage with our social media manager um that’s it for the week and we’ll see you all on Monday thanks John go the Aussie at the Aussie open definitely have a good weekend man bye producer [Applause] [Music] John