All decided by a sticky nut

What a great weekend for the sportaholic. Traditionally held on the last Saturday in September is the AFL grand final. This year it was held between the West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans in front of nearly 100,000 people at the magnificent MCG. As a West Coast fan it was a perfect result with the Eagles winning by just 1 point. West Coast captain Chris Judd was inspirational particularly after he dislocated his shoulder! Apparently he just popped it back in and just carried on running and tackling as hard as possible. The picture you see here is one I took of Chris taking a great mark in the goal square during an Eagles – Hawthorn game at York Park last season with just a little pocket camera.

After the saturation TV coverage of this event we come to the absolute debacle that is the television coverage of Formula 1 in Australia. We finally get a Grand Prix that is on during a similar time zone as us and for some bizarre reason it gets delayed until nearly 1.00am. Obviously Australian Idol gets higher ratings and more advertising dollars because of it’s demographic of teenage girls and grandmothers but I did not realise that there were so many affluent gay men with a sailor fetish out there. I say this because why else would Southern Cross follow up Idol with an episode of NCIS and then JAG. How many US Navy detective shows are there on TV and just how many criminal investigation departments does a Navy really need in real life anyway?? I had given up way before this and decided to tape the race and get up at 5.00am and watch it. The Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai lived up to all expectations, apart from the Tasmanian TV schedulers obviously, and we had yet another titanic battle between Michael & Fernando as well as tyre manufacturers Michelin & Bridgestone.

The race was all decided by a sticky nut during a pit stop, with Alonso losing vital seconds that cost him the race. Schumacher came home first followed by a very close Alonso. So with 2 races to go they share the lead of the world championship with identical points. Next Sunday is the Japanese Grand Prix and I have no doubt that despite the similar timezone it will be on at some ridiculous hour again. However we will have the ultimate in taxi racing all day to entertain us because it’s Bathurst time. A 1000kms up, around and back down Mount Panorama in fire breathing V8 supercars makes for a great TV spectacle. Aaaahhh I love my new HD plasma !