Well, the Election is over and done with and from the point of view of 75% of the rest of the world, the right man won. Look, McCain seemed like a nice enough guy, he was just too much like George W. for anyone’s liking and Palin came across as that weird aunt who dresses in the latest fashions and hangs with the 16 yr olds at your sister’s 18th birthday party. But this is not about politics, this is about sport. Australian sport. And so here are this weeks’ results…

Basketball
Basketball in Australia is about to live or die by a decision. A very important decision. You see, in this country, Basketball Australia controls the grass-roots basketball and the national team. Meanwhile, the National Basketball League controls the professional teams. Well, FoxSports is putting $35 million (or thereabouts) over 5 years on the table for sponsorship and broadcast rights (currently NBL gets one hour of highlights while WNBL gets broadcast free-to-air on ABC2)… but basketball has to merge into one entity. This sponsorship will result in most games being broadcast on Fox and pay-TV. Without this money, the NBL will fold as it is currently on its way to a slow death. And so a special vote was needed.
            A majority was needed to pass this. Some sources say 2/3, some say 75%, but a distinct majority was needed. And, get this, some state associations and some NBL clubs indicated in no uncertain terms that they were going to vote against this last lifeline for the sport… Self-serving, self-centred interests were apparently trying desperately to kill a sport all for a bit of perceived power and hyperactive ego. Having said all that, things eventually went the right way for the sport, with all 27 stakeholders voting unanimously to merge into one all-encompassing body. Now we shall see how those fragile egos cope with such a development.
            But at least they did the right thing this time…
NBL - Round 8
Gold Coast 115 def Townsville 106
New Zealand 86 lost to Adelaide 96
            New Zealand lost at home to Adelaide? They must have taken the game too easy, thinking they had it won; that’s the only thing I can see causing this…
Sydney Spirit 80 lost to Melbourne 98
Adelaide 70 just done by Cairns 71
Perth 115 def Townsville 78
South Dragons 95 def Gold Coast 83
Melbourne 84 just lost to New Zealand 86
WNBL - Round 6
Canberra 71 def Townsville 61
Sydney 54 lost to Townsville 62
Dandenong 76 def AIS 44
Perth 83 done by Adelaide 117
Bendigo 60 lost to Bulleen 72
Logan 65 lost to Canberra 67
Bulleen 81 def AIS 68

Soccer
Asian Champions League
Gamba Osaka 3 def Adelaide United FC 0
            Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, but Adelaide were just outplayed by the best of Japan. They now need a 4-0 win at the home leg to win, a next-to-impossible task. Still, Adelaide exceeded all expectations even getting this far, and so credit and pride is extended to them.
A-League Round 11
News in this week that next season the A-League will most likely expand with two Queensland teams - one from the north, one from the Gold Coast - and the following season they are hoping for 2 more again from… wherever. This will take it to 14 teams. The real issue here is whether this will severely stretch a depleted talent pool. Our biggest and brightest are chasing the big money in Japan, Europe and, to a lesser extent, the USA, leaving the relatively low pay of the A-League for what amount to second-stringers. To expand in this direction is going to take a lot of financial clout to make it attractive for players to stay in Australia.
Perth Glory FC 2 drew with Newcastle Jets FC 2
Queensland Roar FC 0 lost to Melbourne Victory FC 1
Sydney FC 1 lost to Wellington Phoenix FC 2
(Because of the ACL game, Adelaide v Central Coast has been postponed.)
W-League Round 3
W-League? Also known as the Westfield W-League (sponsored by a major chain of shopping centres… go figure), this is Australia’s premier women’s soccer league. It is getting a bit of mainstream attention - which is great for women’s sport - and their style of play is actually faster and more fun to watch than the men.
Melbourne 3 def Perth 0
Newcastle 0 lost to Queensland 2
Adelaide 3 def Sydney 2
Canberra 1 def by Central Coast 2

Cricket
Australia v India - Fourth Test
Well, thank goodness this is over. Dull cricket played by two teams who were more out for petty point scoring than any advancement of the sport or to entertain the people who, you know, pay their salaries. I have grown to think very poorly of the Indians and almost cringe every time I see an Australian player near a microphone. Now bring on New Zealand and let some decent cricket start without the tactics of third-graders.
India - 441 & 295; Australia 355 & 209 - India won by 173 runs.
            So India won the series 2-0 and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Good on them, but they did not play in the spirit of the game and the wins will be tainted by their behaviour as spoilt brats and school-boy bullies. Not that the Australians were angels, nor that they deserved to win (they didn’t), and their own behaviour was deplorable, with Ricky Ponting more worried about repercussions for bowling his team like a turtle with a limp. His captaincy was again put in sharp relief when he did not bowl the front-line bowlers because he can’t seem to be able to get the game going at a pace required for modern cricket. India were the better team at the game; in every other aspect both teams were appalling.
Australian Domestic
Sheffield Shield:
Tasmania 252 & 7/184; South Australia 232 & 200 - Tasmania won by 3 wickets (Tas - 6 pts)
NSW 261 & 8/340; Victoria 440 - match drawn (Vic - 2 pts)
Twenty-20:
Western Australia 5/157; Queensland 7/140 - WA won by 17 runs

Rugby Union
Italy 20 done by Australia 30
The first leg of a European jaunt (the Spring Tour) by a few teams. Not a brilliant match, and the Aussies had to work damn hard all match against a skilled opponent, but it should help get Australia into the swing of things for more challenging opponents later on.

Horse Racing
Melbourne Cup
Every state in Australia has its own capital city cup, and that state gets a public holiday so horses can run around in circles for a week-day. Somehow, over the course of the past century-plus, the Melbourne Cup has taken on an almost mythical aura, and is classified the richest race and the best race. Well, the Cox Plate is probably a better race, but the Melbourne Cup has now developed its own sense of itself, and the national does seem to stop while people with no interest for 364 other days of the year pay attention to silk-clad midgets whipping the hell out of animals. Why doesn’t PETA do something about horse-racing? Probably the same reason they use drugs developed from animal experimentation - they’re hypocrites, and they’re afraid of the big money involved. Putting fear and self-interest above their principles, like that’s going to make the rest of us believe in them. I’m not going to pretend I like the idea of horse-racing, or indeed any sport that involves animals, but I like the idea of PETA even less. But many do, and the Melbourne Cup was run, so here are the results.
1st Viewed (This was Bart Cummings’ 12th Cup victory as a trainer, which is quite an achievement, especially with a horse no-one seriously had pegged beforehand.)
2nd Bauer
3rd C’est La Guerre

Rugby League
World Cup
Ireland 34 def Samoa 16
Scotland 18 def Fiji 16
France 10 lost to Samoa 42 (semi-final)
Fiji 30 beat Ireland 14 (semi-final)
Papua New Guinea 6 lost to Australia 46
            Despite the score-line, it was a hard hit-out and a fine match. Australia had to work hard for the well-deserved win against an opponent that looked formidable, if not on the score board.
England 24 lost to New Zealand 36
            This match entertained the hell out of me. Catch a replay of it if you can.
Scotland 0 absolutely creamed by Tonga 48 (semi-final)

Closing Comment
Nope, nothing about the US Election; I mean, how much more Internet space can be wasted on what is effectively the decision by less than half of a nation to decide their new leader, and, by extension, the so-called leader of the free world? And not a rant about horse-racing and other forms of animal abuse. No, this is something different. I had the misfortune of catching the US version of Australian sitcom ‘Kath And Kim’. In Australia, the original was a huge success, being about the most stereotypical Australians you could imagine ramped up and put into actually realistic situations. The US version was watered down and lost a lot of the appeal of the original because the United States is very different to Australia. It just did not work, and I don’t think the comedy translated well across to the US. Australians have a definitely different sense of humour. Our jokes do not have to be obvious (although they can be), and we probably share a lot of our humour with the UK. The only sitcom I’ve seen translate even vaguely well to the US from another country has been ‘The Office’, even thought the US version is not a patch on the British original. Why don’t they just show the original and let it go at that? And why don’t the networks, if they are so keen on a show, just plug the money into the original to keep it running? Surely this would also make economic sense and they would be guaranteed of at least one overseas market. Okay, rant over…

And that’s the televised view from down here.