Monday, March 26, 2018

Sporting shorts - No.3 2018

NRL

  • Are St George the real deal - three pretty impressive wins sees them on top of the table along with the surprising Warriors. The Warriors have their first ever 3-0 start. I think its probably fair to say we stole it on the night, and equally fair to say that they would have lost that game last year. 
  • Surprised to see Parramatta winless - there is a long way to go but alarm bells are ringing. 
  • I know I've said this before, but here are a few changes I'd make to the Golden Point arrangement (if we have to have it)
    • Each team gets one point for the draw, and the ultimate winner gets a second point.  
    • I'd make it ten minutes, but only a try ends the game. A penalty or field goal doesn't end the game just gets added to the score, and they play out the ten.
AFL
  • Congrats to the Western Bulldogs, winners of the second Women's AFL Premiership. Disappointed to read that they're again thinking about tinkering the rules for the Women's Competition. To me, the standard of footy is great and they don't need to change the rules. I hope that the players are getting a say it this. It will be incredibly disappointing if they are not. 
  • Hard to read to much into round one, but it does look like it might be a long year for Collingwood, Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs.
  • Luke Parker might just have kicked the goal of the year (in Round One), just a wonderful overhead scissor kick, and right when the team needed it.  Nice to start the year off with a win. 
Rugby
  • Awesome win by the Jaguares over the Lions, the Rebels return to the top of the Australian Conference.  The Hurricanes had a good win over the Highlanders, though the Crusaders still head the NZ conference. 
Others
  • I'll mention NZ's impressive win over England in the First Cricket test. Really impressive performance - Williamson scored his 18th Test Century (a New Zealand record), and Nicholls also made an excellent 145. The bowlers were also brilliant.  Looking forward to the second test.
  • Thanasi Kokkinakis had a very impressive win over Roger Federer in the First Round of the Miami Open. 

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Sporting shorts, #2 2018

So another weekend over and alot to think about. 

AFL

  • What a great weekend of football.  The standard of football this year has been a great deal higher than last year - aside from one game that sent experts and pundits into meltdown. I'm hopeful that next year there will be Preliminary finals. The Grand Final will be played between the Western Bulldogs, one of the clubs who has done so much for Women's Footy and last year's runners-up the Brisbane Lions.  Should be a cracking game. 
  • Can't wait for the Men's competition to start on Thursday. So much excitement and anticipation for the Swans who will hopefully start better than last year..  
NRL
  • Round two, and it feels like the ladder is upside down or something. I certainly didn't predict Parramatta would be 0-2 and the Tigers would be 2-0. 
  • The Warriors have won their first two games of a season, for the first time in 9 years. I'm certainly not getting excited yet. We will know more about them after their next few games. But it is a promising start. 
  • Newcastle's come from behind win today was impressive too, Pearce is making a big difference.
  • My two highlights of the round were the tackle from Brisbane's Tevita Pangai Junior who essentially tackled Bolton into the upright to prevent the Cowboys taking the lead with about 90 secs left. The second was Benji Marshall's act of sportsmanship ensuring the Tigers acknowledge Billy Slater as he left the field after their game against Melbourne. Slater is one of the best full-backs I've seen play the game. For him to play 300 games for a single club is an amazing achievement. 
Super Rugby
  • Five weeks in and it seems the Lions will again be the best ranked South African team.  The Australian and New Zealand conferences will be a little harder to pick. I still like the Waratahs to finish at the top of the Australian conference. 
Other
  • Congratulations to Ireland, winners of the Six Nations with their third Grand Slam. They certainly are my dark horse to win next years World Cup. 

Monday, March 12, 2018

Sporting shorts - Round 1, 2018


Rugby League
  • The NRL started this weekend - and surprise surprise there are a few upsets with the Tigers and Warriors both getting up for wins. Melbourne started off well, and it was great to see the Knights get up too.  I do feel their the team most likely to surprise everyone this season.
  • The Warriors managed to win their first game in Perth (from nine attempts).

AFL
  • While we are still waiting for AFLM to start, the women's competition has been great. Five teams are in the running to qualify for the Grand Final. The five teams are Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Brisbane, Adelaide, and GWS. The two key games are the Bulldogs v Melbourne and the Lions and Giants. I suspect the Bulldogs will play Adelaide in the final. But we'll see, it has come down to three live games. Here's what each team needs to do to make the final
  • I won't read too much into the form of teams during the trails, so yes we won two games, but I'll wait and see how they go in their season opener against West Coast.
  • Have to say I'm really enjoying the 'Don't Believe in Never' campaign tied to the season launch. Some really wonderful stories in the campaign.

Super Rugby
  • The Hurricanes and the Blues both had really good wins. I've been enjoying see the form of the (Melbourne) Rebels too.  


Thursday, March 08, 2018

Ponderings from illness


Most of you already know, but way of background, almost two years ago, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, had a tumour removed and a stoma created for urine. Since June 2016, I have been having Chemotherapy almost every forthnight. In December, 2016, new tumours were discovered in my lungs and pelvis.

I thought I'd write a little reflecting on my time being 'sick' and offer a few thoughts on what has helped me.

I feel very blessed that those I'm walking through life with, have been wonderfully supportive to me, and my family, and their support has often taken the form of some of the things listed below.  

(1)  Most important to me is continuing relationships as they were. I have really valued the conversations I've had with friends and family, and how these conversations have not only been about me, and how I'm travelling, but also feature how the local sports teams are going, the latest news in politics, music and cinema, I love hearing your hopes and fears, what's really going on for you. Yes, I may have an illness, but in many ways it isn't different to the cross you bear. Another way to put this is, while I have cancer, I am not only cancer. I retain all of the interests I've always had, and one of them is you, the person I'm speaking too.

(2) Time is so wonderful and a precious gift to give. I really enjoy spending it with you, doing what we always did. Sure, I do need to be more conscious of whether there are bathrooms, and if there are, are they easy to get to, but I'm otherwise the same. The hard thing here is I might sometimes need to say no, or cancel. Trust me, I hate doing it. My energy is so varied sometimes, each cycle is different. Know that it is not personal.

(3) Among the best gifts I have been given, aside from you and your time, was a box of DVDs, a hard drive with movies and a netflix voucher. At various points I've spent a lot of time sitting on the coach. I'm trying to, hoping to, do that less - but it is always great to have something to watch when I do. For my birthday last year, I was given vouchers or contributions towards nights or meals out. Fiona and I really cherish that.

(4) Another great thing is to bring home cooked meals. It is a wonderful feeling to know you don't need to cook, you can just throw something in the microwave at there's dinner. At the moment, I'm enjoying cooking, so we're okay.

(5) Another great thing you can do, is ask my family how they are - ask Fiona how she's doing and how the kids are going. They are experiencing it all too, in a different way, with different concerns, so it is great for them to know they're not alone. Get to know them for who they are. Please talk to us, before you talk with them.

++

The next few are things I'm learning or trying to learn (it is a slow process, two steps forward, one step back).

(5) The first is some thoughts about prayer. It certainly hasn't been easy to be faithful in prayer. It is a struggle sometimes. How do you prayer to 'The One Who Hears' when it seems He hasn't heard you. How do you pray for the same thing week in, week out. What should you be praying for, total healing, because if you have faith mountains will move, because God will give you the desires of your heart; for His will to be done remembering His will took Christ to Gethsemane, and beyond, for His Glory, and for our salvation.

It's a little of all of those right. I pray for healing, because I believe God's powerful, I pray for God's will to be done because that's salvation and redemption, ultimate healing and restoration.
I think what I'm learning about prayer is its communion with God, our Father. In whom is love and mercy. So I talk to him, and tell him all of that, I'm honest, I tell him I wonder where He is, but I love and trust Him completely.

What I'm learning, is to try and pray whether I feel I want to or not. God knows and loves me intimately, and He knows my longings, and what is ultimately best for me. Death and sickness are not natural, they will be done away with. Until then, we wait.

You won't find an answer to the question of 'Why'. I think it's better to think, how can I make the most of the life I have now been given, in other words 'Why Not Me?'. God, can and will use the experience to bring some good. Good, perhaps meaning changes in me, and others.  If in walking this road, I've helped another traveller find their way , I can take comfort from that.

(6) I have also been thinking on how to help myself in the low times, when I just want to curl up into a ball. One of the ways I've learn to pick myself up is reminding myself of what I have been blessed with, or can be thankful for.
  • The top of my list is my family, it is so very grounding looking a photos of my wife and our kids.  The joy they bring is indescribable. It's the little and big things, wrestling the kids, listening to them giggle, sing, seeing the cheeky looks on their faces, building random vehicles  or putting the Sylvanian families to bed, enjoying fish and chips at Balmoral, looking at the animals at the Zoo, reading and praying together. 
  • I'm so very thankful for my family, their support and prayerrs. I am so grateful that my brother and sister have come and sat through Chemo with me.
  • Throw time with friends in next. One of my big highlights of the past few months was being able to spend quality time with my friends and their kids too.
  • It is also great to make a list of things you can do, or remember doing that can build you up.  For me so much of it is about music. Listening to music at home or while I'm out and about. I still love buying a brand new CD, opening to packaging, and reading the booklet while hearing the album for the first time. There's just something amazing about using all of the senses to hear a new album. In the modern age, I just download from itunes and listen through earphones, lying in the dark. I still think that is the best way to hear new music or discover old favourites. I also really enjoy putting CDs together for people too. so if you want some music let me know - and I'll put something together for you.
  • I'm really thankful for books - I enjoy getting lost in a good story and I still really enjoying a bunch of non-fiction too. I haven't read too much about cancer, truth be told. 
  • I love a good film, with great characters and dialogue. Something to take me into another world, another time, and other lives. 
  • I just love looking at the world after a storm or rain shower - everything looks and smells fresh.
  • Walks in the sun and just after a rain shower.
  • Time spent on the beach, I'm not a big swimmer, but I love looking out onto the ocean, listening to the waves, building sandcastles.
  • Seeing the sunrise - there's something special watching the light spread through the sky, and light up everything.
  • I love watching people, seeing friends chat, parents interact with their children, kids running around playing together - creating elaborate worlds or stories.
  • Coffee shared with friends or family. Conversations about anything and everything.  I know I especially shouldn't drink so much, but life is short and coffee is great.
  • Another is looking back on the memories I have. Memories of places I've been, people I have spent time with, and experiences I have had. All of them are positive energy and provide fuel for the fight.