Played Hard, Done Good!: The Week That Was

Played Hard, Done Good! certainly picked a top week of athletic performance to make its much hyped debut.

Rugby League All Stars

Indigenous All Stars 16 def. NRL All Stars 12

The week began with the hugely hyped Rugby league All stars encounter. It had been billed as a new annual 'blockbuster', akin to a mini state of origin and pitted the best players of indigenous descent against the best players from the rest of the NRL . From where i sat, smack bang in the middle of my reasonably comfortable (and priced) ikea sofa, the match played out as less of a blockbuster and more as a glorified pre season trial. It was full of big out of breath footballers dropping balls and making sure they didn't get injured before the season actually begins; i.e. i thought the match boring. But after reading the post game reports you would think that we witnessed the single greatest sporting contest since David felled Goliath (another controversial concept). Is it just me or as a game of football was it seriously uninspiring?*

Having said that i must admit that i was swept up in the spectacle and good will of the moment. It is genuinely great to see the contribution that indigenous players make to the game of Rugby League being recognised in such a public way. For this point alone the concept should be applauded and probably kept. In particular i enjoyed the pre match performance of a group of indigenous warriors. They pointed rather large spears in the faces of the NRL All Stars while performing a traditional war dance. I tried to not smile at the thought of a spear crashing into Anthony Watmough, but i couldn't. It was just too lovely.

There was one cracking moment that came in game time (although not strictly during the game). It was Wendell Sailor's last ever try and more importantly its celebration. It was, in a word, Dell-iciuos! Farewell big Dell, Played Hard, Done Good!

*I have 'just' been informed that it was 'just' me.

NBA

For those that do not follow this fabulously elongated sporting season, each team plays roughly 7,000 games a year. This means every week there are more basketball games happening in America than time itself can handle, thus sending followers such as me into a warped abyss of game tracking and boxscore watching. It confuses and disorientates me and i love it.

So due to this impracticality i am not going to get too in depth with my weekly NBA wrap, i will leave that up to the very healthy amount of expert blogs on the intermenet. Instead i will focus on a few intersting tid bits from the preceding weeks procedings.

Most NBA ballers know a thing or two about talking themselves up. It is part of the game. You rebound, you score, you block then you tell any one who will listen how well you rebounded, scored and blocked. Of course, like the game itself, some players are better at it than others. Here is this weeks nomination for the Allen Iverson 'humble pie? Never tasted it' quote of the year.

Shaq:

"I don't really consider it manning up unless you play me straight up. When I was coming up it was Patrick Ewing and Hakeem. I never doubled anybody. You tell me who the real Superman is."

(On matching up with Dwight 'Superman' Howard) source: NBA.COM