IT’S been a rocky week in the sports world.
We have a look at why fans around this great brown land are losing faith in the NRL, as well as who the most relieved person in the world is at the moment.
Grub’s standard baffles the NRL
The NRL’s reputation has copped an absolute flogging this year.
Every facet of the game has been cheapened.
First, the Eels were revealed to have an accountant as creative as Dr. Seus and Parramatta were exposed to be hundreds of thousands of dollars over the salary cap.
Then an investigation was launched into allegations of current and former Manly Sea Eagles players participating in match-fixing.
Then Corey Norman was let off his leash. Norman was photographed with known criminals, busted with and convicted of possession of drugs at the casino, cautioned by the police for consorting with known criminals and filmed pouring a beer on a woman during a sex act in a room with evidence of drug use.
The highly-lauded video bunker keeps producing clanger after clanger: millions of dollars down the drain.
Recently we’ve had to suffer through a very public hissy fit between West’s Tigers coach, Jason Taylor, and State of Origin hooker, Robbie Farah. It’s like watching a break up: awkward and embarrassing.
Now the match review committee has lost their marbles completely, leaving those of us still clutching to a sliver of sanity in the NRL, to completely abandon all hope. Serial psychotic, Josh “Grub” Reynolds, was at it again during the Bulldogs narrow win over the Dragons last week. Reynolds again stuck out his leg, tripping a rampaging Joel Thompson.
Reynolds’ rap sheet is ugly. This is his fourth incident of tripping. That’s not to mention the late hits, kicking, head highs and spear tackles.
Despite his long history of dangerous antics on the field, the NRL match review committee, in their infinite wisdom, has given Reynolds a pass: he will not miss a single game for his fourth tripping violation.
On the other hand, in the very same game the Dragons’ gentle giant, Tyson Frizell, was hit with a contrary conduct charge after touching a referee as he walked past him. Frizell faces a week on the sideline if found guilty at the NRL tribunal.
There’s a lot an NRL fan can deal with: corrupt teams, drug-addled players, pointless contracts, the lot. But when a stark raving lunatic like Reynolds isn’t penalised for tripping but one of the genuine good guys of the game, Frizell, is hit with a charge for touching a ref, then this game of ours has completely gone sideways.
For those who aren’t completely disenchanted by the NRL, SportsBet.com.au has the race for the Grand Final looking like this:
Storm $3.50
Cowboys $4.50
Sharks $4.50
Bulldogs $8
Raiders $11
Broncos $11
The most nervous person in the world
The most nervous person in the world, Aparecida Schunck, was liberated by Sao Paolo police after she was kidnapped almost two weeks ago.
Schunck is the mother-in-law of Formula 1 supremo, Bernie Eccleston.
The kidnappers laid out a rather optimistic ransom of close to $50 million for Schunck’s release.
It must have been a nervous couple of weeks for Schunck, knowing her fate rest in the hands of her son-in-law. Personally, I have mates who would be willing to put up $50 million to have their in-laws kidnapped. Lucky for Schunck, the Sao Paolo police intervened or we may have never seen her again.
CrownBet.com.au has Formula 1 Driver’s Champion outright betting looking like this:
Lewis Hamilton $1.22
Nico Rosberg $4.50
Daniel Ricciardo $201
