THE world of sports and punting can often be a fun and adrenaline fueled lifestyle. It’s hard to keep a track of what is going on. But here we are, from the outer, looking in. Trying to keep track of the heroes, villains, geniuses and swindlers.
This week has a very Australian tinge because Aussie athletes just offer up so much cannon fodder. They seem to be moody and constantly need sensitivity training to tell them what is stupid behavior.
Sensitivity Training
In Australia our athletes are often subjected to “sensitivity training” sessions. These sorts of sessions spring to life when an athlete does something stupid. Something so stupid that the rest of us don’t need special training sessions to know it’s stupid.
Normal things the rest of us wouldn’t consider doing in a pink fit like urinating in your own mouth, simulating sexual acts with a canine, leading police on a high speed pursuit, setting someone else’s pants on fire, telling someone to go kill themselves on social media or even sexually assaulting random women in a club.
Up until now it has usually been male athletes getting up to these weird and disturbing hijinx and keeping the people running sensitivity training sessions gainfully employed.
That was until Australian female basketballer Alice Kuneke got excited about dressing up as her idol, Kanye West, for her end-of-season party. To make her outfit look a little more authentic, Kuneke donned the blackface make-up. A major no-no.
Even worse than that, she posted photo’s of herself, blackface make-up and all, to Instagram, drawing outrage from her Australian Opals teammate, Liz Cambage.
Now the entire Opals team has to undergo race and religion sensitivity training as a consequence.
Thank God for Australian athletes, keeping sensitivity training co-coordinators off the unemployment line since 1808.
Super Rugby 2016
The Super Rugby competition gets underway tonight.
This year sees the Super Rugby competition expand a little more to include the Southern Kings, another South African team, the Jaguares from Argentina and the Sunwolves from Japan.
Even before one scrum has been packed down, Queensland Reds coach Richard Graham has been told his tenure is already under scrutiny: his third last chance. So how does he react? By benching the Reds new recruit, Japan’s fully fit cult hero fullback, Ayumu Goromaru, in favor of cocaine cowboy Karmichael Hunt at fullback. All this against one of the strongest teams in the competition, the NSW Waratahs.
Graham claims to want to continue coaching, but every move he makes as coach of the Reds seems to fly in the face of that fact.
Only time will tell if Graham is actually a tactical genius or someone who forged their resume to swindle their way into the Reds top job.
WilliamHill.com has the Reds at $5 underdogs with the Waratahs at $1.18 favorite.
WilliamHill.com is offering futures and head-to-head odds on every game of the Super Rugby season as well as up to 85 markets on each game of the competition. Log on to check out their great odds.
Crazy Kyrgios’ unbelievable act of sportsmanship
Nick Kyrgios, the Aussie tennis player with attitude, swagger and a hair cut from Stevie Wonder, has proved that he is truly an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
Since smashing tennis racquets, abusing umpires and telling Stan Wawrinka that Thanasi Kokkinakis banged his missus, the world has been looking down their noses at poor Kyrgios. The fact he has a hair cut that looks as though he lost a battle to a lawn mower doesn’t help his cause either.
During his quarter final match with Tomas Berdych, Kyrgios left the gathered audience gobsmacked when a Berdych serve was called out by the umpire. Kyrgios encouraged Berdych to challenge the call, which was revealed by hawkeye to actually be in, earning Berdych an ace against the Aussie.
This was an almost unprecedented act of sportsmanship.
Kyrgios miraculously went on to win the match despite battling a back complaint too.
That win has lined Kyrgios up against his old foe Stan Wawrinka in their first match up since the infamous “girlfriend” sledge.
SportsBet.com.au has Kyrgios at $2.07 and Wawrinka with his nose slightly in front at $1.76 as well as another 29 markets available on the match.
700 wins and a loss
Novak Djokovic celebrated 700 wins this week while on a run of 17 straight wins. All of these victories had everyone asking, “what does it take for this bloke to actually lose?”
Being blinded, is apparently the only way to stop Djokovic.
The Djoker had to retire hurt with an eye infection during his quarter final match against Feliciano Lopez in Dubai.
It’s scary to think the only way to beat the best in international tennis is to blind the guy….
