WILLIE Mason is a big man . . . all of 196cm and 115kg.
The problem is he has a mouth to match.
Mason used his first media conference as a North Queensland Cowboy to shoot his mouth off about board members of Sydney NRL clubs and the media.
He labelled club board members “fat businessmen” and accused the Sydney media of “assassinating his character”.
Good start to your new life in Townsville, Willie. I thought you were supposed to be trying to keep a low profile up there.
Shooting the messenger, be it NRL boards or the media, never helped anyone.

WHO else out there is counting the days until the three winter football codes start?
If you are like me, you get a bit tired of football by October every year but by December or January you’re chomping at the bit for some league, AFL or rugby union action.
And it’s all because our summer sports are so bloody boring.
Look what we’ve been served up in the football off-seasons:
An A-League diddlywinks season which has been more like a C-League. Pathetic crowds, players swapping clubs in the same week, coaches sacked, star players walking out on clubs and a standard of football that is so far behind overseas competitions it’s unrecognisable.
The most lop-sided international cricket season anyone can remember. At least the Windies had Chris Gayle to make it interesting but Pakistan would be flat out matching it with Sandgate-Redcliffe. And the Channel Nine commentators were pitiful in trying to talk up the one-day “contests”. Fellas, we’re not stupid; we can see for ourselves the Pakistanis are a hopeless rabble who couldn’t beat the Brisbane Grammar School Seconds.
Tennis. Spare me. I’ve tried to watch some of it, I really have, but if I heard one more female player grunting and squealing on every point, I was going to scream myself. My missus heard it the other and came into the room the other night and accused me of watching porno! And will the Australian media please stop talking up Lil’ Lleyton and Sammy Stosur so much. Erm, they’re second rung on the world scale. Accept it.
So what’s the winter hold in store for us?
League: Will be the best State of Origin series in years. The Blues are firing up; Bellyache is desperate to get on the board; Locky WILL play and the Maroons will win 2-1.
AFL: The Fev and Brownie show will pack ‘em in at the Gabba; the Lions will finish top four and will play the Magpies in the GF.
Rugby: The push for the Reds to go home to Ballymore will gather momentum and it will be fascinating to watch the game in Australia tear itself to pieces by spreading the thin talent even further because of the ill-conceived inclusion of a Melbourne team.
Diddlywinks: The world cup in South Africa. Can’t wait. The best sporting event this year by the proverbial country mile.

AM I missing something here? A 17-year-old said something a little bit silly - and he’s copping more heat than Andy Roddick generates on a first serve.

Continue reading 'Bernard Tomic deserves a break'

CARLOS Tevez tore his old club Manchester United apart in the League Cup earlier this week - and now he’s ripped into one of the Red Devils’ finest sons.

The Argentine energiser bunny scored twice - and generally ran rampant - in his Manchester City side’s 2-1 win over their fierce rivals ... and he also let United skipper Gary Neville have it, on and off the pitch.

Continue reading 'Best rant ever? Carlos Tevez slams ‘boot-licking’ Gary Neville'

The World Cup in South Africa is less than five months away.

Excited? Hope so. And, if you’re fortunate enough to be attending the greatest sporting event on the planet, I also hope you have your Socceroos-themed stab vest.

Continue reading 'World Cup-bound? Don’t forget your stab vest'

SEPP Blatter is nothing if not consistent.

The FIFA boss is standing firm and ignoring calls for the world game to catch up with most other major sports and introduce video technology.

This, despite the Hand of Gaul fiasco that erupted when France striker Thierry Henry forgot he was playing FOOTball in a World Cup qualifier against Ireland last month.

Continue reading 'Does football need TV replays?'

THERE is no rest for the wicked. Or should that be Wolves?

It seems Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Mick McCarthy has caused a bit of a fuss in England for making a few changes to his team - all right he swapped his ENTIRE outfield side - for yesterday’s clash with Manchester United.

Continue reading 'Give it a rest, Wolves'

APPARENTLY, one-day cricket is still alive.

Well, India and Sri Lanka are doing their best to keep it kicking along anyway, having played out an astonshing 50-over clash which saw more than 800 runs plundered - and went down to the wire.

But was it the best game ever?

Continue reading 'India v Sri Lanka - the best game ever?'

NO, we’re not talking about Tiger Woods - it says noughties, not naughties.

World Soccer magazine has named Brazilian star Ronaldinho as its best player of the decade, ahead of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Aregentine whiz Lionel Messi.

Continue reading 'Who’s your player of the noughties?'

IT seems Football Federation Australia is getting offside with a rival code or two as it ramps up its bid to win hosting rights to the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup.

But let’s not get carried away here - there’s a solution to every problem, surely.

Here’s a couple that should satisfy the boffins of the AFL and NRL. Maybe.

Continue reading 'How to solve the AFL/NRL v soccer World Cup bid war'

THE fallout from le Hand of Gaul shows no signs of abating.

Continue reading 'Is a replay the answer for Hand of Gaul fiasco?'

LET the wailing begin.
When and if the Federal Government adopts the recommendations in the Crawford review of sports funding and slashes funding of many Olympic sports whining itself will become an Olympic sport in this country.
From what I’ve read, the Crawford Report is spot on in its assessment of where and how our taxpayer dollars are spent in sport and absolutely right in its assessment that where Australia finishes on an Olympic medal tally isn’t all that important any more, if it ever was.
Predictably Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates led the whining within minutes of the report being released. That’s called looking after No.1 in my books.
The bottom line is federal funding of sport should be based on participation not on the whim(s) of Olympic officials who get some sort of personal pleasure out of seeing obscure people win medals in obscure sports each four years at an international sports event which is at best an anachronism and at worst a monumental waste of time and money.

Continue reading 'Funding report hits the mark'

ANNA Bligh is kidding if she thinks she can steal the NRL grand final from Sydney.
Whatever way you look at it, the GF should stay where it is . . . or maybe at a better venue in Sydney.
Playing it in Brissie would be like running the Melbourne Cup in Hobart. 

THERE’S one certainty you can bet your house on in sport and it’s called hypocrisy.
Right now, we are being told the Brisbane Lions’ decision to chase AFL grub Brendan Fevola is a “coup” and a “win-win” for the club.
But just for a minute, imagine the reaction if the Brisbane Broncos announced they were signing Willie Mason.
The outcry and moral indignation would be a endless.
The media would ruthlessly hammer the Broncos for weeks and Mason, whose antics over the years are not a lot different to Fevola’s drunken escapades, would be hounded out of town.
Instead, the Fevola-Lions deal is a “win-win”.
Sickening.

JOHN Howard to be the boss of Australian rugby league? Why not go the whole hog and get his good old buddy George W instead.
They can’t be serious, can they? A politician, former or not, would have to be the last person the game (any game) needs.
Howard was a divisive politician and the last thing rugby league needs is to be more divided than it is now.
But it’s pretty easy to say who shouldn’t get the gig as chairman of rugby league’s proposed independent commission, it’s a little harder to come up with a list of who should.
Working on the basis that I’m not available and that Wayne Bennett and Phil Gould are unsuitable because they are even more divisive than Howard, here’s a shortlist.
Katie Page. Very clever businesswoman. Loves her rugby league and has served on NRL board.
James Strong. Former Qantas boss. Loves his sport.
Michael Searle. Hasn’t been around the NRL long enough to make a lot of enemies. Smart bloke who is the one behind the independent commission.
John Lang.  No enemies in the game _ and no agendas.
Ken Talbot. Shrewd man, good bloke.
John Ribot. OK, that one’s a joke, folks.