It would be a toss-up between the Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions, but I am leaning towards Melbourne. Brisbane Lions record at the MCG was very poor and they have only won just 15 out of 55 matches at the venue. Cam Rayner is poised to return after a week suspension. I am worried that Melbourne will slaughter the Lions (like what they did in the past two meetings – the MCG and at the Gabba.)

Seven and Fox Sports have had a joint broadcast since late 2011. I know that the point is that there has been a lot of money being pumped into the AFL rights deal. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the highest bidder. Nine and 10/Paramount couldn’t bid very high, instead they were beaten by 7/Fox. Now we had to suffer through the same product over and over again. The same commentary team, the same Intro VO guy, the same count-down timers, the same set, but nevertheless, the change of graphics. Good news that fans can watch the game live on the 7+ streaming app or on replay. THe time for live streaming is well overdue.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the highest bidder. In 2011, the AFL announced a $1.25 billion broadcasting deal for Seven/Fox (This was the steart of the end for Network 10’s AFL coverage – Lachie Murdoch and the board did catastrophic damage to Network TEn – by axing ONE HD as sports channel, axing many programs and newsreaders). After 10 exited the AFL, they simply never recovered.
In late 2011, Seven announced a new commentary team. For years the callers continued on their inappropriate banter where they comment on player’s haircuts, and other clothing as well as talkign about some reflection with their grandparents back in the days. The worst bunch was BT – he simply mouths off with his inane pronunciation of words and phrases and constantly having some ludicrous banter towards the other guys. I wathced an AFL match betwen the Hawks and Crows in preliminary final 2012 and he mentioned some weird phrase of ‘sucking off’. This made it really hard for me to understand what he is saying. His ego is as big as his arrogance. Throw in JB and he has been insufferable for more than 10 years now. Even when he was back on Channel 9, his cricket commentary and the 2012 Olympics was just dreadful and his voice was too excruciating to listen to. James Brayshaw calls surnames as the nicknames and this made it hard for me to listen to what he is saying.
Seven need to have a colossal overhaul in the coverage – add in countup timers. This will make it more exciting to watch. They need to have extra tweaks to the coverage, otherwise it will be the same old, same product over and over again.

Definitely will happen: Channel 7’s coverage will be unbearable.

Same. Channel 7’s AFL coverage hasn’t got any better in the past 12 years – Oh please. Seven’s AFL coverage has become very stale and we had to suffer through Hamish McLachlan (who is the brother of Gill McLachlan) as host. Hamish McLachlan is the main problem for Seven’s AFL coverage – not liked by other fans.

RIP Paul Green. When I heard on the news about the passing of Paul Green, I felt inexplicably sad. I thought in my head that how could this happen? Paul Green was able to turn things around for the Cowboys where he transformed into a powerhouse including winning the 2015 Premiership. He is survived by his wife Amanda and two children.
Goodbye Paul Green and you will forever be missed.

Noticed that Brisbane Lions have two milestones – Joe Daniher (150th game) and Oscar McInerney (100th game). However, their record against the Richmond Tigers, were very poor, losing the last 21 out of 26 games (including a Draw back in 2007). But Richmond will get over the line by 50 points and will play in the semifinal. Nevertheless, Richmond have found form in the past 4 matches with wins over the Lions, the Power, the Hawks and the Dons.

This will be a tantalising end to the home and away season. I do want to see Melbourne secure a top 4 finish with a win over the Lions at the Gabba.
Again here is my predictions for the Wk 1 Finals:
1st Elimination Final: Fremantle v Western Bulldogs (Optus Stadium) – Thursday 1/9/22 at 6:10PM (AWST)
2nd Elimination Final: Brisbane Lions v Richmond (Gabba) – Friday 2/9/22 at 7:25PM
2nd Qualifying Final: Sydney Swans v Melbourne (SCG) – saturday 3/9/22 at 3:20PM
1st Qualifying Final: Geelong v Collingwood (MCG) – Saturday 3/9/22 at 7:25PM

I think NSW viewers will have the Saturday’s Sydney-Melbourne game beamed on the primary channel, while QLD viewers will probably be given the green light to show the Brisbane-Richmond on the main channel in HD.
On the other hand, the Fremantle-Western Bulldogs will have to be beamed on 7mate as they don’t want to clash with the 7News

This is a good choice.
I think that the GWS Commonwealth Games will have to be held in middle of spring (as they don’t want to clash with the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup). The Winter Olympics are traditionally held in February, while the FIFA World Cup will be scheduled in June-July timeframe.

R22 Tips
Melbourne Storm by 2 points
Bulldogs
Rabbitohs
Roosters
Sharks
Broncos
Dragons
Sea Eagles

Collingwood haven’t made the top 2 since 2011 but I think they are a golden chance to make the Top 2. This year, Collingwood have been great under new coach Craig McRae and was able to turn things around after a disastrous season last year (where they slipped down to 17th). The Pies need to win at least one matches if they want to secure a top 2 chance.

Tonight’s match will be a Top 4 or a Top 2 showdown. At the end of the day, it will all come down to percentage. Craig McRae has managed to turn things around for the club after a dismal last year (with the departure of coach Nathan Buckley). I am thinking that Collingwood will win tonight and they are playing good footy. Melbourne started off well winning the first 10 matches, but losses to Fremantle, Sydney and Collingwood, Geelong and the Bulldogs have dented their Top 2 hopes.

Mat Thompson and Peter Psaltis have both replaced Ray Warren as Nine’s NRL PBP commentators. Mat Thompson is very likely to call Game 1 of next week’s Origin match.

I personally think that Ray Warren should have retired back in 2012. I know that Ray Warren would have retained a better legacy at the Nine Network until the late 2000s, however, he has lost it. We had to suffer through Ray Warren where he couldnt’ call players names correctly and mispronounces the names. To make matters worse, Ray Warren gets sidetracked and goes on tangents. I have watched some matches and sometimes Ray Warren and Gus Gould argue and waffles on and on. (When I watch the State of Origin Rugby League, I have to use alternate cameras so I don’t have to listen to the commentators)
I watched the swimming in the 2012 Summer Olympics and he couldn’t pronounce ‘Shanghai’ correctly. Instead, he pronounced the Chinese city as ‘Sheng-i’.
I watched the 2016 GF and he mentioned that ‘Melbourne haven’t played at ANZ Stadium (which ANZ previously had the sponsor to Stadium Australia) since Round 10, 214.’ The mistakes he made really infuriates me. Fast forward to State of Origin G1 2017 and he made a mistake on the TV – ‘Welcome to ANZ Stadium, ah Suncorp Stadium, I should say’.
Before Christmas last year, Erin Molan has moved to Sky News Australia, while Peter Sterling has departed the Nine Network after spending more than 2.5 decades at the network.

This will give the Hawks some opportunity to play in humid conditions in Darwin. Hawks have never played in Darwin, but this will test them some chance to play up in the top end. Since 2004, they have hosted an AFL match up in the top end. Gold Coast, Melbourne, Richmond, Bulldogs have hosted games up at the top end.

Same. I would have thoguht that Ray has retained a strong legacy back in the 60s to the early 2000s, but his increasing mistakes and irrelevant calls has deteriorated his commentary style in the late 2000s. Sadly, I cannot listen to Ray anymore. He should have given up commentary 10 years ago. The time for a new play-by-play commentator for the State of Origin is long overdue. Cahnnel 9 need a succession plan for Ray Warren.
Gus Gould – his calls have been deteriorated and he was hardly constructive in his commentary. I watched the 2020 GF and he made false claims about the Penrith Panthers being on top. This commentary has hit rock bottom and Gus rambles on and on with other things.
They need a cleanout.

The last time Australia hosted the Rugby World Cup was back in 2003. Back in 2003, the tournament was held from 10 October to 23 November. But with Australia securing the rights to the 2027 Rugby World Cup, I think that the tournament might start after the Conclusion of the NrL season.

I get the feeling that Channel 9 Melbourne has given the green light to have Saturday Night’s NRL match to be shown on Channel 90 in HD. Normally, VIC is an AFL state but with the Storm playing during that night, GTV9 (and regional VIC) are given the right to have the Rugby League match shown on the main channel. Looks as though there might be an increase in ratings for Saturday’s match in the Melbourne market. I wonder if Tasmania gets the Rugby League shown on the main channel given that AFL dominates the south. (This was similar to Channel Seven Sydney where they sometimes show the AFL on the primary channel in HD, when the Sydney Swans are playing).
Normally, on a Saturday, Foxtel has the exclusive rights to the Saturday Arvo and Saturday Night Rugby League, but with Nine coming onboard, they are given the green light. I think Channel Nine are getting more Saturday night Rugby League matches during the home-and-away season (since 2016-ish).

Ten’s AFL coverage was great – Since Channel 10 gained the rights to the AFL in early 2002, ten revitalised the coverage with new innovations – new graphics, the 5-minute warning, the short disco music intro to Ten’s AFL coverage (2002-06), the Holy Grail for the Ten’s AFL theme. As well, Network 10 also introduced a post-game TV program – The Fifth Quarter. The Fifth Quarter is a great footy program where two hosts discussed the AFL matches played up to them and discussing some topics that has arisen during the week. I also liked it when Channel 10 covered Saturday Specials where they took some footage of the outstanding marks, goals or other efforts that had taken place on the day just finished.
In addition to this – Channel 10 launched a comedy Footy Program, Before the Game which started from early 2003 and went through to end of 2013 (even though 10 don’t have the AFL rights anymore). Each week, panel members took turns at reading funny newspaper headlines from different news outlets. As well TEN also launched new locally footy programs – Perth’s The Western Front (hosted by Tim Gossage and Lachie Reid), Adelaide’s Simply Footy (hosted by Corey Wingard) and Melbourne’s Totally Footy (hosted by Belinda Russell). The Western Front was great and this helps to promote local grassroots footy in WA.

Not to mention that 109 points was the biggest margin at Optus Stadium (since it opened its doors in early 2018). This surpassed the Preliminary Final last year where Melbourne demolished Geelong by 83 points at this venue. West COast have recorded 100+ point losses at home – Round 13 2008 (losing to Geelong Cats by 135 points) and Round 7 2022 (losing to Richmond by 109 points).
This was Richmond’s first 100+point win since Round 22 2017 (where Richmond smashed Freo by 104 points at Subiaco Oval).

Channel 10 has a history of televising the AFL. Since Ten started televising the AFL back in early 2002, Ten revitalised its coverage and had new innovations including the 5-minute warning, the Holy Grail for intro telecasts and used their own graphics. Ten partnered with Nine from 2002 through to 2006. (Nine had Friday Night Footy, Sunday Afternoon Footy, while Ten had the Saturday afternoon and Saturday Night + Finals Footy and the Grand Final).
Nine won’t bid for the AFL as the Nine Network would focus on NRL (as their own sport) and other sports – Rugby Union, tennis.

Parramatta haven’t won a premiership since 1986 (which was used to be called the NSWRL).
In 1998 Preliminary Final, Parra lead the Doggies 18-2 with less than 10 minutes of play remaining and the match went into extra time. The Doggies went on to win the Prelim Final.
In 1999 Preliminary Final, Parra lead the storm 16-0 at half time and went on to lose the match with no points scored.
In the 2001 NRL GF, the Parra tried to fight back during the 2nd half, but fell short to the Newcastle Knights (who would then went on to win its 2nd premiership)
In the 2009 NRL GF, the Parra played against the Storm. Melbourne won the match 23-16 (in which their 2009 Premiership would be stripped due to salary cap breaches).
I think that the Eels will have the chance to break a 36-year drought.

When his daughter, Summer started speaking, tears started to flow. It was very hard for her daughter and the family to grieve the loss of Shane.
Some songs started playing including Yellow from Chris Martin, Angels from Robbie Williams and this nearly brought tears in my eyes.

I thought that Optus Stadium for R 1 is 50% capacity according to WA premier Mark McGowan. In WA, there are rising cases of COVID19.

RIP Shane Warne. An Australian cricketing legend taken too soon. We will miss his larrikin sense of humour and his bowling tactics.
May he Rest In Peace

I watched Seven’s coverage and their coverage hasn’t been any good than this. Seven’s coverage has gone downhill where they show constant repeats and not enough live action. Hamish McLachlan has been insufferably annoying and he lacks a lot of knowledge.
And the Summer Chill segment — cringeworthy. Some segments don’t appeal to me at all. They focus on other channel 7 shows like DwTS, the voice, SAS Australia.