Sporting shorts..

• I thought that it might be difficult to come up with a sporting shorts for this week, but it is not really; apparently there’s a game of Football (called the SuperBowl) in the US on Monday week between the Patriots and the Rams. The New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has played in this game nine times, which is more than some franchises have. I think both teams weren’t favoured to win their ‘Semi-Final’, and I’m not sure who are favourites so I might just try and watch it. I find NFL an interesting sport, it seems built for TV with so many breaks in play. I learned today that Brady was born in 1977 making him 41. I don’t know many sports where many players are still playing at 40, Brady isn’t just playing he’s among the best active quarterbacks.
• January is also the Australian Open, and Tennis. It has been a really great tournament on the court for Australia (we could do without the Davis Cup Feud). Barty is Australia’s last remaining player in the Men’s and Women’s draws, she plays Petra Kvitova in a Quarter Final tonight. The Men’s Quarter Finalists are Stefanos Tsitsipas (who just beat Roberto Bautista Agut to make the Semi-Final); Novak Djokovic (playing Kei Nishakori); Milos Raonic (playing Lucas Pouille) and tonight Rafa Nadal plays Frances Tiafoe. Given both my picks for the tournament are out in Federer and Kerber, I’ll quietly cheer for Barty and Nishakori.
• Onto Cricket, Cricinfo have just posted their nominees for the best performances in men’s test cricket for the year. Batting Nominees; Bowling Nominees. 
• I think my pick for the batting is Khawaja for his innings of 141 which helped saved the test match against Pakistan. An honourable mention would go to Mendis, who batted through the fourth day with Angelo Matthews to help Sri Lanka avoid defeat against New Zealand. Onto the best bowling performance, it’s hard to go past Yasir Shah who took 8/41 against New Zealand. Shah’s figures are the best since Stuart Broad’s 8/15 against Australia in 2015. While ultimately Pakistan didn’t win the test the figures helped Shah become the fastest man to 200 test wickets. An honourable mention would be Jasprit Bumrah (6/33) whose spell helped India win the Melbourne test and ultimately become the first team from the sub-continent to win a Test Series in Australia.
• The Socceroos won their round of 16 clash with Uzbekistan in a penalty shootout. Matt Ryan made two incredible saves. Will be interesting to see how they go in their next game.
• The Women’s AFL Season starts in a few weeks I’ll be hoping the competition is given air to breathe this season, especially with two new teams in the competition.