Normally the World Cup opens with a fancy opening ceremony that allows governing body and the local arts community to pat themselves on the back followed by a reasonably interesting opening followed by tentative opening round games.
Not this time, a mere 37 goals in the first 11 games going at better than 3 a game highlights the quality that has been on offer after the first weekend of the big show.
You could possibly have guess that thus far Brazil and Argentina would have won, Australia and England lost and there’d be a red card or two. Results however will show that not all is what it seems on paper. Brazil and Argentina weren’t quite as impressive as one would have hoped for despite wins, and England and Australia were brave in defeat. Especially Australia who went toe to toe with Chile and looked every chance of snatching a result.
Predictable is also Wayne Rooney wearing the brunt of the English scorn after their defeat, with the 300K a week man looking increasing unlikely to get a start next stoush.
Also predictable is that no one misses the noise machines from last World Cup. What a refreshing change to hear the cheering and chanting of the various countries instead of the plastic trumpet which made watching last year’s World Cup impossible late at night in Australia without the mute button.
Of course the first weekend threw up some upsets, and none bigger than Holland thrashing Spain. Although Costa Rica beating Uruguay was a pretty big upset also. Both results have thrown the already difficult groups into a lottery.
For the casual Football fan, Mexico won which will hopefully have them on track to finish second in group. Their foe Portugal play tonight/this morning against Germany and win in that group would has them both on track to finally determine once and for all which nation is the greatest on earth.
Anyways, here’s our expert panel’s tips for overnight games. After a full first round we’ll tally up the scors to see which ones you should follow or ignore. My money’s on ignoring at least 4 of us.
GERMANY v PORTUGAL – 2am
Theydon Bois – Portugal 2-1
Hatton Cross – Germany 2-0
Kiddd Erminster – Germany 3-2
Harland Bulwer – Draw 2-2
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it’s a pretty pissweak daily. Hey it’s tough to keep up with it all. We’ll give a better round up tomorrow, but have to add overnight’s tips in case any of them are correct.
FRANCE v HONDURAS – 5am Monday
THEYDON BOIS – France 3-1
HATTON CROSS – France 4-1
KIDD ERMINSTER – France 4-0
HARLAND BULWER – France 4-0
ARGENTINA v BOSNIA & HERZ – 8am Monday
THEYDON BOIS – Argentina 3-0
HATTON CROSS – Argentina 4-0
KIDD ERMINSTER – Argentina 4-0
HARLAND BULWER – Argentina 3-1
The second major is here – playing across the opening World Cup weekend. Good luck to you golf. You’ll need more than another Woods scandal and Adam Scott victory to grab the attention this time.
Normally all we would do is tip Miguel Angel Jiminez and move on, but this time we might live a little and delve a little further than The Mechanic.
We could talk more about it, but giving it the World Cup cold shoulder unless an Australian or certain Spanish Gentleman looks like winning.
GURGLER’S TIP to win
MIGUEL ANGEL JIMINEZ – $151
JASON DAY – $41
IAN POULTER – $81
And a little Pampering to Rod for making the field – ROD PAMPLING – $501.
GROUPS TO WATCH FIRST TWO DAYS
Ian Poulter, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Thongchai Jaidee
Smylie Kaufman, Maverick McNealy, McIvor
Els, Oosthuizen, Darren Clarke
Sergio Garcia, Jason Day, Brandt Snedeker
Well, it’s finally here. By the time anyone other than me reads this, it’s likely that the opening game of the World Cup has been run and won.
We’ll attempt to go through what has happened and what will happen sort of daily depending on how much sleep one gets.
This weekend is the ultimate for the sleep deprived football fan. 3 games from early Saturday morning and 4 from early Sunday morning. Plus the final tomorrow morning.
We’ve provided the best tipsters that no money couldn’t buy. So aside from the usual tips from The Gurgler’s own Theydon Bois, we’ve assembled an international panel. i.e. two guys from England to join us for the big shindig. So welcome to Mr Hatton Cross and Mr Kidd Erminster for the World Cup.
Anyway, here’s the winners for the weekend’s first bout of games.
Fri 6am – BRAZIL v CROATIA
HATTON CROSS: Brazil 3-0
THEYDON BOIS: Brazil 3-1
KIDD ERMINSTER: Brazil 3-1
The biggest sporting tournament is finally here, and just a few days off the first $170 Brazuca kicked in anger. Some will say the Olympics is bigger blah blah blah, but it’s a collection of sports not one sport, and a lot of those are rubbish. Years of qualification, months of preparation, endless press conferences with endless clichés, and millions of dollars of alleged bribing have passed and you can taste the first own goal.
A lot of questions loom and these have been answered by many, many experienced and well learned football journalists. Who will win? How will Australia go? Who will score the most goals? Who will surprise/disappoint? Which round will England lose on penalties? Can The Gurgler answer them? Of course we can. Will they be correct? Judging on our site’s previous season of tipping, most likely not.
So let us go through the groups giving our tips and rundown for the upcoming tournwa with less detail than a News Corp paper but more than a Quest paper.
Alongside who will win groups we’ll have some other tips for your consideration. Also included is our group ranking average to determine the real group of death. We’ve taken the latest Fifa ranking and averaged them out amongst the groups to get a feeling about whose group is hardest or easiest.
GROUP A – Ranking Average 24.25 Gurgler Tips – BRAZIL, CROATIA, Mexico, Cameroon.
Despite the overbearing expectation to deliver, Brazil looks the safest bet to top any group.
Some worries about whether hosting the tournament would affect the Brazilians were dispelled n last year’s Confederations Cup where they beat current holders Spain no less.
They’re up against two team that required a playoff to make this finals after indifferent qualification form. Croatia had the equal fewest points of any qualified European team, and both them and Mexico required playoff victories against powerhouse footballing nations of Iceland and New Zealand.
Then there’s Cameroon who are the lowest ranked African team in the Cup, and being an African team you just never know which team will turn up. As we know nothing, we’ll show our ignorance and say they will finish last with no authority.
GROUP B – Ranking Average 23 Gurgler Tips – SPAIN, CHILE, Australia, Holland
So, we come to Australia’s group. Dubbed a group of death for Australia, and it does look unlikely that Australia will progress, but whilst there’s sport, there’s hope. With the reduced expectations maybe the Socceroos will be one of the surprise packets.
Every World Cup there’s a big name that performs well below expectations, France in South Africa 2010 is a fine example. This year The Gurgler is plumping for the Dutch to be the dunces of Rio. Despite excellent qualifying for the tournament, we’re guessing the Van Gaal to Man Utd saga may prove a distraction and cause performance to drop and Robin van Persie won’t score. It will then be blamed on David Moyes for going so badly that the Dutch coach was required to fix things and Moyes can add a country to the red half of Manchester who aren’t his biggest fans.
Holders Spain looked a good thing to top the group, having conceded only 3 goals in qualifying, and looking no less of a side who has sampled Euro and World Cup victory the last 4 years.
So then it’s out of 15th ranked Chile and 63rd ranked Australia. Australia, who have a squad only the most studious football fans can tell you without looking who they are and where the y come from, and the lowest ranked team at the World Cup. Or Chile who have beaten England in a friendly alongside finishing third in South American qualifying. Heart says Australia, wallet and head says Chile.
GROUP C- Ranking Average 22.25 Gurgler Tips – COLUMBIA, JAPAN, Ivory Coast, Greece.
On paper, this is one of the least interesting groups. A middle of the range ranking average. No big name countries. And Greece whose game featured just 16 goals in 10 games in qualifying.
In the vein of not being very interesting, we’ll breeze through this group.
Columbia looked a dark horse before Falcao was ruled out. Although still a good chance with some excellent players, and our tip to top the group, it’s a matter of what could have been.
Best performed Asian qualifiers and Asian champions Japan should finish second, and could spring a surprise in the latter stages with their quality.
Ivory Coast have some big names, but big names sometimes clash and implode and given the bottom lip work of Yaya Toure after his birthday in post season celebrations we can’t see Ivory Coast going past the first round unless they find a good bakery in Rio.
GROUP D – Ranking Average 13.50 Gurgler Tips – ENGLAND, URUGUAY, Italy, Costa Rica
By our averaging of the rankings, this is group gets the dreaded Group of Death tag. It will give England an excuse in advance if they don’t make It through.
The Gurglers thinks it won’t be a problem and have tipped them to top the group no less. But we don’t think it will be by much. Possibly on goal difference with one or two other teams.
Both England and Uruguay seems to have the most goals in them so, so on that basis we’ll plump for England and Uruguay to make it through at the expense of previous winners in 2006 Italy and Costa Rica despite their 2ns CONCACAF qualifying finish.
GROUP E – Ranking Average 20.5
Gurgler Tips – FRANCE, ECUADOR, Switzerland, Honduras.
This group features a lot of unknowns. Who knew that Switzerland were ranked so highly and how do they do it? Who knows what French side will turn up to this cup after the shambles of last time’s last place exit led by player rebellion? How will the lowest ranked South American and North/Central American team fare?
Well, without going into it too much we think France will turn last tournament’s effort around and top the group just as they turned around the 2-0 loss against Ukraine in the playoffs to make the World Cup finals.
Behind the French Ecuador is our pick based purely on the fact that being a South American nation should help. We’re staying neutral on Switzerland and calling it third for them and someone will be hiding in Honduras after they finish last looking for lawyers guns and money.
GROUP F – Ranking Average 28.25 Gurgler Tips – ARGENTINA, NIGERIA, Bosnia & H, Iran
This group has the biggest average of any group despite Argentina occupying the group meaning it is the easiest group according to world ranking. Although some of the teams in this group won their qualifying pool, they were done in the weakest pools of their qualifying, and expect no trouble for Argentina.
Nigeria are an African Nations Cup winner in 2013, and are our tip for best of the rest. Bosnia to enjoy their first world cup in third, and Iran be lucky last.
GROUP G – Ranking Average 14 Gurgler Tips – GERMANY, PORTUGAL, Ghana, USA
The other “Group of Death” according to us. Claims can be made for any side to make it through to the knockout stages.
Germany with their quality team and previous record appear the safe bet for first in the group, but may not get everything their way. They currently win 2 of every three games under manager Leow, and we think that will be the casd in this group.
The other spot is open to teams that have very strong claims. USA topped their qualifying region, Ghana who have fared well at previous World Cups and breezed through the final stages of qualifying in Africa, and Portugal have the current best player in the world. Although they needed a battle of the super-egos against Zlatan’s Sweden to make it through.
We’ve gone for Portugal in second, who we think can beat Germany in the first game of the group. Ghana and USA to follow.
GROUP H – Ranking Average 27.25 Gurgler Tips – BELGIUM, SOUTH KOREA, Russia, Algeria
Another of the easier group according to the ranking average, and certainly a hard one to pick outside of Belgium.
Belgium are the dark horses, the hipsters favourite to do well and possibly win the tournament. It’s hard to argue about doing well after an excellent qualifying and a side full of young stars. They should make easy work of this group and top it.
Behind them it gets a lot harder. Russia appears the obvious choice given they topped their group ahead of Prtugal and have ex-England manager Capello at the helm. But The Gurgler doesn’t do obvious, and doesn’t trust the Russian. It all harps back to the movie Ronin.
Instead we’ve gone for South Korea to finish second despite barely outqualifying Uzbekistan in the lead up. Algeria appear to be the whipping boys, someone’s gotta be, and a team who can barely get past Burkina Faso will more than likely struggle against bigger nation.
GURGLER TIPS
Multi with our Group winners – $70
Multi for our tips to finish last – $273
Multi for our second placed picks to qualify out of group – $183
Leading Goal Scorer – Neymar – $12 or Benzema $26
Upset Multi – $88
Australia to beat Chile
Ecuador to beat Switzerland
Portugal to beat Germany
Our Favourite Draws Multi – $1388
Croatia v Cameroon
Spain v Chile
Japan v Columbia
Uruguay v England
Ecuador v France
Portugal v Ghana
Welcome to the best Grand Prix of the year. Races on the island circuit in Montreal historically produce the season’s best races, and here’s hoping that the 4am kick off will be worth the lack of sleep on a Monday. It usually is.
Maybe it’s the location, the close proximity of the walls unlike most other circuits, the wall of champions, or things like the one year a large section of grass caused a safety car, it always adds up for the best race of the year.
It appears from qualifying that it’s a flip of the coin between which Mercedes driver you like best for the win. Or the brave can take the $1.01 for any Mercedes to win. But what fun is it tipping the most obvious and therefore most likely outcome. The Gurgler always looks for a better (if not more profitable) way.
If we’re wrong it doesn’t matter as most people will wake up well after the result. Come to think of it, most people will probably be asleep before they read it. Oh well their loss.
So here’s the value for punters.
At least one Safety Car – $1.52
Mercedes Removed Top Finisher – Vettel $2.50 or Alonso $7.50
Top 6 Finish – Vergne $5.50 or Grosjean $17.00
Ist Retirement – Kimi $34.00 or Perez $21.00
Winning Margin 0 – 5.999 secs – $1.88
And…The Gurglers favourite bet…
Winning Time to thousandth of a second
HH:MM:SS:XX3 – $9.50
So what a week. Two of the blue ribbon events have passed the past week and boy they sure didn’t disappoint. The results might not have been to everyone’s taste but you can’t win everything. Unlike Queensland the last eight years.
MONACO GP.
MERCEDES – Nothing better than seeing a team so utterly dominant descending into intra team war. At least if they are a year ahead of the others you can be guaranteed a fight to the death.
With obvious comparison to Prost v Senna, both drivers want to play the part of Senna because noone wants to be Prost. Not to be forgotten is it ended up 1-1 at McLaren for the two. Although claims after qualifying that Rosberg was like another former multiple champion Schumacher in qualifying have stoked the fire within the team. Ham claiming it was on purpose after he saw telemetry, and if true was certainly more subtle than Schumacher’s effort of 2006.
The Gurgler has since learned it was true as Rosberg’s steering and braking graph spelt Fuck you ham in morse code. As we can say is we wanna see the hate.
MARUSSIA & BIANCHI
Hearty well done to theMarussia team who have come a long way to score points for the first time. Nice to see such genuine joy in sport instead of the usual hamming up for the camera and radio messages.
Some progress by the team, who have been consistently at the back of the grid since their inception. Even as far as designing a car without a big enough fuel tank to last a Grand Prix.
Yes, it was an attrition assisted finish, but at least Bianchi did unlike our long priced tip Sutil whose conclusion looked a formality during the race.
DAN RICCIARDO
Another podium, another out-qualification of Vettel who seems to have commandeered Mark Webber’s car from last year. Would have to be the surprise of the season thus far.
ORIGIN I
A cracker of a game, and justice in the end that a couple of lucky calls for Qld didn’t provide more fodder for Blues cries of inequality. Justice possibly not served as Josh Reynolds can help himself to Origin II for cartwheeling Tate.
But those bits aside it was a fantastic see-sawing game.
A good start was the pre-game extravaganza which was excellent. Certainly a far cry from some pathetic two song performance from whatever Channel 9 affiliated song judge or washed up dufus or anyone with the last name Madden. On the subject of singing – a gripe as usual – why the need for a national anthem before every origin game. Further still if you are lucky enough to sing it, do it properly without the extras. It is a national anthem not yours song to added the Christina extras. Refer Julie Anthony.
One can only hope that injuries to each side doesn’t blunt the next games, as two more of those would be great no matter the result.
ADAM SCOTT – No.1
Ended US Masters drought – Tick. Aussie number one in the world – Tick. Needs to make cut to maintain top spot – Tick. With a victory no less. Comparisons to The Shark have always hovered over Scott’s career, and up until last year it was more the unfavourable choking similarities than success. Now with a major that cruelly eluded Norman in his back pocket, maybe that confidence will lead into a dynasty at number 1 like The Shark.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Classic underdog v Goliath battle. The poorer cousin of Madrid looked set to claim one of the most unlikely double in Football this century until the combined power of Real with their world record signing (just a cool 100 million Euros) and other worth nearly as much including the best player in the world dashed their hopes with a minute or so left. The extra time win looked inevitable.
ENGLISH FOOTBALL PLAYOFF WINNERS
QPR won the richest game in football, and are heading back to the EPL at first bounce. The reported 140 million pound windfall will be reduced when QPR are fined anywhere up to 60 million for breaching Football League loss restrictions.
Rotherham have graduated into the Championship for the first time in over a decade after some time in the fourth division.
And Fleetwood have moved up to League One, adding another promotion notch on a lengthy belt that began when they played on a Tuesday night in a North Western Tesco carpark.
Ah yes, Monaco, the jewel in the crown they will all say heading into the weekend. It does deserve the hype though. It’s the GP all the celebrities want to go to, and even a lowly F1 blogger like this author.
With all the celebrities, million dollar yachts, glamour it’s hard not to soak it all up. Although for those who don’t feature in a Who Weekly mag or two it’s a different experience.
For instance, a grandstand seat involves getting to a crowded hill and sit with a tree stump up your arse for four hours too scared to have a drink or eat so you don’t have to send your waste down the 1:4 gradient hill.
Drinks? No fancy champagne or energy drinks or Johnnie Walker or cocktails at the Casino. Try a 10% super-maxi at room (outside 26 degree) temperature. Or how about some Red Beer from f*** knows which European country.
Catering? Any chance of some caviar, truffles infused with a cumquat and mint reduction, or roast pigeon. Not likely. How about some sandwiches that were “being given away”. Closer to the truth is a friend finding premade sandwiches in a bin on their way back from the toilet and eating them on Tabac corner in front of the richest F1 fans on the calendar.
But you wouldn’t have it any other way.
Once you get to tour around the track you soon have even more respect for the men who bravely tour around a circuit not much bigger or wider than a standard inner city back street.
One also doesn’t need to have been there to enjoy the race. Just the fact that in this day of nanny state, safety conscious, Gluten Free that we live in, is a reason to marvel and respect.
So join us at 10pm Australian time Sunday night for all the fun. Anyomne who gets to watch it in daylight around the world – good luck.
Racing wise it looks that this may be the only chance in a while that someone can stop Mercedes and more so Hamilton.
Pole here being the most important pole of the year, it may lead to a surprise in qualifying backed up by a stellar drive to hold off the silver arrows.
Although it’s unlikely as Mercs seems much quicker than all, refer the gap from the last race, we will still tip some roughies for your consideration. As P2 proved there’s rain about. And in a dominant season – where there’s rain there’s hope.
Further below we’ve included our favourite Monaco GPs.
And don’t forget to learn those corner names to impress your friends, work colleagues and ghosts. They also substitute as great pseudonyms.
ADRIAN SUTIL – Top 6 ($200.00) Top 10 ($9) A man who excels here and will have to really outperform the car. Watch out for random Kimis up the rear end. NICO HULKENBURG – Win/Pole ($126) or Podium ($12) A Gurgler favourite, and perhaps a win here may land him a top seat he deserves. BOTTAS – Pole $101 Some dreadful Williams cars have done well at Monaco in the past (2006 Williams with MW) and Bottas proved last year he’s capable of qualifying gold. SEBASTIAN VETTEL – Fastest Lap $10 Why not. 1st RETIRMENT – depends on Grid.
GURGLER’s BEST MONACO GPs.
Monaco GP 1996 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKDmKJnDal8
Monaco GP 1982 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mARa0LofoHA
Monaco GP 1984 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL7S_-FasPI
Monaco GP 1997 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-M9cBybLk
Monaco GP 1989 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpaFhNc5GrQ
What do you get the man playing professional football and earning 200,000 punds a week for his birthday? Well, F*** all if you’re Manchester City, and it hurts. Poor old Yaya Toure is on the blub despite his extraordinary wages and privilege earning a living being a tremendous footballer, and is crying foul and his agent even threatening to leave. Like there’s someone who could pay more. Or maybe they have a better birthday programme for their staff. Maybe it’s some kind of monkey that springs out of a cake every month on the monthly anniversary of your birthday whilst being circled by a bunch of can can dancers and Benny Hill tribute troupe.
Talking about better conditions for staff, Newcastle will be glad that Nathan Tinkler won’t be their sugar daddy for much longer. With staff allegedly not getting paid and receiving threatening text messages, Newcastle are trying to catch up to English Football for eccentric owners.
Worse than the above troubles is the start of the dreaded split rounds with added origin exclusions. Why bother with 5 games with multiple players missing. The Gurgler has already supplied its thoughts – refer to our new NRL draw article.but stand alone Origin would be the best option.
FA CUP FINAL
The English complain about the FA Cup final being moved to 5pm, try 2am the next day to attempt to watch what was the biggest game of the year. So, for once this was a game worth watching and missing out on the sleep.
As a neutral who didn’t really care who won, it was the most enjoyable final that’s been seen since Steven Gerrard cost this writer several hundred dollars against West Ham.
It helped that underdogs Hull took a quick and surprise 2-0 early lead, but even though the Arsenal win looked inevitable, it was still good viewing waiting for it to happen.
FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
The sides are decided for the big playoffs to move up a division. The biggest one is the Championship playoff between QPR and Derby County for the game which some claim is worth 100 million pounds and more. Those team would have to get a few birthday cakes ready, but could probably still only afford one Yaya Toure.
ATLETICO MADRID
As boldly predicted by the Gurgler in our Tipstradamus 100 challenge, Atletico held on to their surprise La Liga lead and won the title. Probably the least likely win in any major European league for a decade and more. The many, many millions spent by the big two weren’t enough this time. Although more than likely some of the good players will be sold, hats off for taking the chance whilst it’s offered.
MOTO GP WIZARDS
Marquez and Jack Miller do it again in France. Maybe by the time Jack Miller makes it to MotoGP someone has won a race/championship.
ADAM SCOTT – NUMBER 1 Not content with stealing the longed for US Masters, he becomes the world’s number 1. He’ll keep it this week if he makes the cut.
ORIGIN HYPE
The biggest game outside Grand finals is coming. One can only hope that pre-match entertainment will be provided by a rematch of Gyngell v Packer as a taster to the big stoush. Hopefully Qld’s arrogance regarding wanting Pearce in the NSW side doesn’t bite them. We have our fair share of rubbish too. One golden rule should be that anyone who was played second string Queensland Cup this year should be an automatic non selection. Not that we don’t love the Qld Cup, but seriously if you can’t make the bench of your club side how could you be amongst the Top 17 for your state.
GAELIC FOOTBALL ON 7MATE
Yes it’s still on and two Games this week. So grab your late night sport fix with something different. For the record – this week we get Derry v Donegal and Cork v Waterford.
NRL Multi $10
NZ to beat Gold Coast
TIGERS to beat Brisbane
COWBOYS +6.5 start Canberra
SOUTHS to beat Sharks
AFL Multi $21
COLLINGWOOD -19.5 start v West Coast
HAWTHORN to beat Port Adel
GOLD COAST -26.5 start v Bulldogs
CARLTON to beat Adelaide
FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS + CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – Multi $31
QPR v Derby +2.5 goals
LEYTON ORIENT to beat Rotherham
FLEETWOOD to beat Burton
REAL MADRID to beat Atletico Madrid
INDY 500
Graham Rahal ($51) or Ryan Hunter-Reay ($12) for the win.
Alex Tagliani ($34) for a podium.
This week we’ve seen a cat fighting off a dog, a Bird fighting off the judiciary, and a rooster crowing at a chicken in a Kings Cross nightclub and given the chicken wing treatment by the boys in blue.
Not a bad effort from the cat. Showing a lot more fight than a lot of sportspeople on the ground this year. Looking at you Mundine.
Brought to you this week by Leon Bott.
NSW ORIGIN – Also showing fight is the NSW origin team, fighting suspensions, injuries, and Ray Hadley fighting one of the assistant coaches to put a nice polish on the preparation. Thankfully for Qld Mitchell Pearce appears eligible for selection.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Continues to show up his illustrious no less 4 time World Champ teammate. Add to that he gets to keep this podium after being robbed in Australia. We won’t worry with the minor details of the Mercedes drivers in the dressing gowns before he crossed the line.
MERCEDES F1 – Kudos to their dominance, there hasn’t been a pulled pants down margin like that for some time, even in the Red Bull era. Also to the team letting them race. No politics like Schu-Ferrari like moving Barrichello aside 5 races into season in 2002 to let Schumacher win in a season they wrapped up the championship in July. GAELIC FOOTBALL ON AUSTRALIAN TV – A round of applause to 7Mate for deciding to show plenty of Gaelic Football this year. At least one live game it equals the amount of live Rugby League shown by Channel 9. The Gurgler supports County Meath for the record.
ORIGIN BOLTERS – A term to get used to the next few weeks.
IPL – What? You didn’t realise it’s on/still on. Who does. But it thankfully provides Kevin Petersen one last piece of misery for the cricket season after the Ashes and taking the blame for the Ashes and being dropped forever. His 1.6 million certainly leading to buyers remorse.
AUSTRALIA V ZIMBABWE ODI – As above – it’s coming up apparently. David Warner’s out. Room for Hogg?
LEYTON ORIENT – Who? You may ask. But the little battlers from Leyton are one off being one step off the EPL in the second division Championship next year.They take on Rotherham for the honour to play Ipswich Town, Huddersfield Town and Watford next year. Why does the Gurgler like them, great name, home ground is Brisbane Road, underdog. Reason enough.
FA CUP FINAL – can Arsenal produce their best ever choke. We will see if Wenger is indeed the specialist in failure that Jose claims he is.
How did we go last week? Can’t remember and can’t bothered checking. Ignorance is bliss. In that spirit – here’s this week’s “best”.
NRL – Multi $13
PARRAMATTA to beat Dragons
SHARKS to beat Tigers
NORTH QLD +12.5 start v Roosters
CANBERRA to beat Penrith
NEW ZEALAND +12.5 start v Bulldogs
MANLY to beat Newcastle
QRL Multi $33
IPSWICH to beat Easts
CENTRAL to beat Tweed
REDCLIFFE -28.5 start v Sunshine Coast
MACKAY to beat Souths Logan
PNG to beat Norths
AFL Multi $15
MELBOURNE +24.5 start v Richmond
BRISBANE +52.5 start v North Melb
GEELONG to beat Fremantle
ST KILDA +26.5 start v Gold Coast
ENGLISH FOOTBALL Multi $223
CONFERENCE FINAL
Draw after 90 minutes
FA CUP FINAL
Under 2.5 Goals
SCOTTISH CUP FINAL
Dundee Utd to win
LEAGUE TWO PLAYOFF Part I
York to beat Fleetwood
LEAGUE TWO PLAYOFF Part II
Burton Albion to beat Southend
V8 SUPERCARS PERTH
Race 1 – Jason Birght to win – $13.00
Race 2 – Garth Tander Podium $10.50
