I was finished for the year. Kaput, done, happy to watch the Four Nations with a beer in hand and slowly drift into semi-consciousness in front of the television as Mitchell Johnson demolished the timid Indians through December and January.
Maybe even consider opening up the laptop in the afternoon sun and write the first paragraph of the novel, seven years in the making, before crawling back to Johnson and the cricket.
There was no more writing for me. No more 600 words for $25, no more whoring my freshly published opinion pieces on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, and Bebo for a few more ‘likes’ and the best bit of all, no more VB NSW Cup radio at the prehistoric Leichhardt Oval or Belmore Sportsground on a Saturday.
As the legendary character Michael Corleone once said, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”.
So here we are, on Christmas Day, lamenting just where to go with this article.
Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty to talk about, yet I just don’t know where to start.
Perhaps we can marvel at the bravery of Mr. Jarryd Hayne who tossed away his Australian, New South Wales and Parramatta jerseys to chase a dream on the other side of the world. All reports out of the United States suggest Hayne has made the practice squad for one of the NFL’s elite franchises.
Consider what Hayne is attempting. In the NRL, Hayne was one of the elite. An undisputed heavyweight superstar with anything and everything an Aussie sportsman could want. This dream he is chasing all started from a thought but to actually make that thought into something tangible and drop everything to make it in America is something to truly respect.
The two-time Dally M winner has returned home to Sydney for Christmas.
“The biggest hurdle was the visa and they can’t get it sorted out until just after Christmas,” Hayne told the Daily Telegraph.
“That’s the main reason I have come home, because there is no point if I can’t be with the team.
“You can’t even be in the facility for longer than 24 hours if you haven’t signed a contract and I couldn’t sign a contract without a VISA.
“So we’ll have that sorted after Christmas and then in the New Year I’ll have a team.
“But I was meant to start with a team two weeks ago.
Apparently this is the off-season but consider this. There is only 44 days until the annual Charity Shield between South Sydney and St George Illawarra, 57 days until the World Club Series and we’re only 65 days away from the Auckland Nines.
We could talk about expansion and the fact that we’re still the ‘Eastern Seaboard (and Auckland)’ Rugby League rather than a truly national game, something we actually had 20-odd years ago when the Western Reds and Adelaide Rams were running about.
What about the lack of a transfer period that continues to embarrass our game? Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, Melbourne fans are hit with the news that silky outside back Justin O’Neill is on his way to North Queensland after the Storm picked up prop forward Dale Finucane from Canterbury-Bankstown.
If trades were legal in the NRL, O’Neill would have been traded for Finucane and the Cowboys would have had to enter a trade with another club. It’s cleaner and makes sense, there’s no arguing that point.
Then there’s the fullback-less Brisbane Broncos (rather ironic), Cronulla trying to bounce back from the year from hell, Parramatta without Hayne, Souths without Sammy Burgess, St George Rose’s Dragons, the nomadic Wests Tigers and the glitz and glamour of Bondi’s Roosters.
Maybe we can have a crack at the lowly mX newspaper who a few weeks back splashed their ‘Year in Review’ front page with the biggest stars on the planet. There they were. Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Todd Carney, wait, what?
Yes Carney was on the front cover with these megastars all because a photo of him inside a bathroom at Northies went viral.
The fact that he made the cover shows just how powerful the AFL propaganda machine truly is and how far behind the NRL are at covering up their dirty laundry.
Does Stephen Milne or Majak Daw ring a bell?
There’s just so much to talk about that I really don’t know what to write about.
I might go back to the lounge and wait for the cricket, when I think of something I’ll let you know.
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Not what you want to see as a Rabbitohs fan straight after points...
The Roosters won 60-18 with this incredible sequence capping off the performance.
It might have been that simple all along. As much as the structures, coaching and roster come under pressure at the Roosters, the solution…
Zac Lomax, Ben Hunt and Jack Bird collided in a horror moment for the Dragons. Joey Manu scored off the back of it untouched.
The Roosters half was having a blinder and after a crucial tackle on Tyrell Sloan, sprayed the touchie it happened in front of. Sloan…
This just about summed up the first half for the Dragons as they trailed 30-6 at the break.
