For those that fear coming to Australia!

[monkeysarefun]

So this weekend the National Rugba League  heads off to spread the word overseas  like Mormons, if Mormons  liked  punching each other. 

 

 

Here  are the worlds most experienced sports commentators, Roy and HG, with a rundown on the Las Vegas sting  and its ultimate goal to bring Peace To The World.

 

 

Edited March 1 by monkeysarefun

[kevinlms]

10 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

So this weekend the National Rugba League  heads off to spread the word overseas  like Mormons, if Mormons  liked  punching each other. 

 

 

Here  are the worlds most experienced sports commentators, Roy and HG, with a rundown on the Las Vegas sting  and its ultimate goal to bring Peace To The World.

 

 

Rugby, it will never catch on, in Australia even!

[monkeysarefun]

11 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Rugby, it will never catch on, in Australia even!

 

 

Loses instant credibility by calling it Rugby!   

[kevinlms]

3 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Loses instant credibility by calling it Rugby!   

2 formats and neither will catch on throughout Australia!

[monkeysarefun]

4 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

2 formats and neither will catch on throughout Australia!

 

The NRL isn't limiting its sights to Australia, its packed its bags and is off to conquer the rest of the world!!

[kevinlms]

54 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

The NRL isn't limiting its sights to Australia, its packed its bags and is off to conquer the rest of the world!!

And it will just an unsuccessful as the AFL, which ended up as a compromise sport with Ireland - the International Series Football

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series

 

I say unsuccessful, because the last competition was in 2017, so Covid can't be blamed for the lack of a competition for 3 years pre-Covid.

[monkeysarefun]

57 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

And it will just an unsuccessful as the AFL, which ended up as a compromise sport with Ireland - the International Series Football

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series

 

I say unsuccessful, because the last competition was in 2017, so Covid can't be blamed for the lack of a competition for 3 years pre-Covid.

 

 

There is a fairly small but  committed AFL comp in the US,  and I can  confirm that any US guys we've had visiting  my various places of work who,  depending on the season,  we've taken to a GWS or Swannies game - it  has changed their outlook on sports.

 

There must be enough material for a PHD in "winter sports in Australia". I mean, we embraced cricket, assumedly due to our English ties, but then on the other hand we totally rejected soccer. Growing up in the 70's, soccer was nicknamed w*gball and was only considered fit to be  played by "New Australians",  usually of Eastern European origin,  or by those who were too delicate for RL.

 

Personally I think that as a game to actually play,  Australian Rules is the best  by far -  its just madcap mayhem running around and around trying to grab  the ball and then try to get rid of it before someone either turns you upside down and plants you head first into the ground or   grabs your shirt and spins you around and around so you fly off into the scenery

 

. If a committee of  10 year old boys and a couple of Border Collies  were tasked with coming up with the perfect sport, it'd be AFL.

Edited March 1 by monkeysarefun

[SHMD]

Closest thing, I can think of, for AFL is - "murderball"!

 

 

Kev.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

There is a fairly small but  committed AFL comp in the US,  and I can  confirm that any US guys we've had visiting  my various places of work who,  depending on the season,  we've taken to a GWS or Swannies game - it  has changed their outlook on sports.

 

There must be enough material for a PHD in "winter sports in Australia". I mean, we embraced cricket, assumedly due to our English ties, but then on the other hand we totally rejected soccer. Growing up in the 70's, soccer was nicknamed w*gball and was only considered fit to be  played by "New Australians",  usually of Eastern European origin,  or by those who were too delicate for RL.

 

Personally I think that as a game to actually play,  Australian Rules is the best  by far -  its just madcap mayhem running around and around trying to grab  the ball and then try to get rid of it before someone either turns you upside down and plants you head first into the ground or   grabs your shirt and spins you around and around so you fly off into the scenery

 

. If a committee of  10 year old boys and a couple of Border Collies  were tasked with coming up with the perfect sport, it'd be AFL.

There is always going to be 'someone' interested in any sport. I'm talking of mainstream sports reaching a reasonable percentage.

 

And of course Football is not a 'New Australians' or Eastern European sport, but invented (meaning current rules) as Association Football hence name of 'Soccer', so a UK sport, if you don't mind.

 

Various forms of Rugby aren't just played in Britain, Australia and NZ, but a fair following in Europe, parts of South America and around the Pacific Basin, seems to have some great players.

 

On the world arena in terms of following of football codes, it's football (by a huge margin), rugby (variants), probably Gridiron & then AFL and then Gaelic.

 

As for AFL being the perfect sport - RATFLMAO! I can't stand it, but I admit that it's better than Gridiron!

[JZ]

1 hour ago, SHMD said:

Closest thing, I can think of, for AFL is - "murderball"!

 

 

Kev.

I watched the Grand Final back in 2018 in a hotel in Sydney. I couldn't grasp the rules bit of Aussie Rules.

[SHMD]

14 minutes ago, JZ said:

I watched the Grand Final back in 2018 in a hotel in Sydney. I couldn't grasp the rules bit of Aussie Rules.

 

I must admit, it's a lot "tamer" now.

There were really no (well hardly any) rules back a few decades ago!

 

 

Kev.

 

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, kevinlms said:

And of course Football is not a 'New Australians' or Eastern European sport,

But that was  the state of it here  up until the A league kicked off a few years ago, especially in the 60's and 70's and way into the '80's when I was playing school sport.

 

The teams in the local comp  were based and recrjuited along ethnic lines and had names like Croatia (Croatians)  Marconi (Italians)  Hakoah (Jewish Europeans) etc etc  and the  games were infamous for just being an excuse for the Croatians  fans to attack the Serbs and so on.  They definitely weren't matches you'd want to take the kids to and just gave soccer an unwholesome  air  generally and kept it from gaining much local popularity. The only soccer player I can recall from those days was Craig Johnson who only became known here because of his success overseas, then later Harry Kewel for the same reason.

 

It wasn't shown on telly except for "Match Of The Day" which was on  the ABC Saturday lunchtimes and showed some English game assumedly from the weekend before but I never watched it so I can't be sure. 

 

It wasn't played in any competitive school comp in NSW at least that I am aware of .  At  both my primary and high school it   was only offered as an "in-house" sport which meant the kiddies "too delicate" for Rugby League, and the girls  could choose to play it amongst themselves on sports afternoons  but it definitely wasn't a mainstream option back then.

 

Edited March 1 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, kevinlms said:

As for AFL being the perfect sport - RATFLMAO! I

 

It wasn't much known about in NSW back in the day - it was a strange Victorian game we called "aerial pingpong" but when I was 14 or so the local school area introduced an inter-school competition so I signed up out of interest. We had half an hour learning the rules from the one kid who knew them then it was off for our first game,  (against Hoxton Park High as I recall....)  and I was instantly hooked! 

 

Its 90 minutes of running around like mad on a cricket oval, perfect for getting the angries out, its basically like Pass the Parcel combined with British Bulldog!

Huge fun when you are young and full of beans.

 

And theres  no continual  "peeep - Offside!"  "peeep - touched him slightly on the ankle!",  "peeeep - Rolling around in fake agony like a big sheila!" etc etc, to get in the way.

 

And as for popularity being any indication of worthiness, 75,000,000  voted for an orange clown in 2020 and its looking  like just as many will again in November  despite him promising to turn their Home Of The Free into his personal fiefdom complete with its very own  Uday  and Qusay!

 

Edited March 2 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

[soccer] wasn't played in any competitive school comp in NSW at least that I am aware of .

Routinely played in inter-school competition by me - all through high-school.

 

We had Aussie Rules in PE. Utterly hated it. Far too much running around - exhausting. I have never once in my life enjoyed running. I played soccer, in part because I wasn't that keen on getting hurt, but mostly because I wasn't athletic enough to make the first XIII (or the reserves).

 

Except for practice where pointless running around and around the pitch was part of the drill, soccer was the perfect sport for me. We needed a goalkeeper. My hand shot up. No more running around for me. Some moments of terror and embarrassment when the ball inevitably found the back of the net, but my defenders were pretty good about owning up to it being 'on them'.

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Routinely played in inter-school competition by me - all through high-school.

 

We had Aussie Rules in PE. Utterly hated it. Far too much running around - exhausting. I have never once in my life enjoyed running. I played soccer, in part because I wasn't that keen on getting hurt, but mostly because I wasn't athletic enough to make the first XIII (or the reserves).

 

Except for practice where pointless running around and around the pitch was part of the drill, soccer was the perfect sport for me. We needed a goalkeeper. My hand shot up. No more running around for me. Some moments of terror and embarrassment when the ball inevitably found the back of the net, but my defenders were pretty good about owning up to it being 'on them'.

 

 

That all backfires though  when you get so good at standing around doing hardly anything that you get selected for the national team and then you get to the world cup which after about 1000 games   at 3 in the morning or whatever  invariably ends up with the final match being decided by the usual  bloody penalty  shootout and the entire cup result is down to you. 

 

 

Edited March 2 by monkeysarefun

[faulcon1]

On 23/02/2024 at 18:00, St Enodoc said:

I can read maps too and enjoy doing so but they aren't much use when I'm driving, especially alone, and my car's GPS is usually quite good at picking up traffic delays and suggesting alterative routes.

I was driving on the far north coast of NSW on a new section of road and the road construction people had put out mobile LED signs reading "ignore Sat Nav directions". My Sat Nav kept saying "in 300 meters turn right" and on reaching the point to turn right there was no right turn to take. Then it started with the constant "turn round turn round etc".

[St Enodoc]

19 hours ago, SHMD said:

 

I must admit, it's a lot "tamer" now.

There were really no (well hardly any) rules back a few decades ago!

 

 

Kev.

 

Which is why I've never quite grasped why players are penalised for "rough play". I thought that was the whole idea.

[monkeysarefun]

29 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Which is why I've never quite grasped why players are penalised for "rough play". I thought that was the whole idea.

 

"Rough Conduct" I think it is quaintly termed. Basically you can get away with murder as long as it is above the knees.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Which is why I've never quite grasped why players are penalised for "rough play". I thought that was the whole idea.

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

"Rough Conduct" I think it is quaintly termed. Basically you can get away with murder as long as it is above the knees.

"Unnecessary Roughness" is a penalty in the NFL. Suggestive of course of permissible "necessary roughness".

 

Different from "Roughing" (the kicker/holder/passer).

 

[Gwiwer]

In other news.

 

Some years ago the Dragon-in-Law and late Father-in-Law decided it was time to "go bush" and moved out of Melbourne to run the Nullawil General Store in the middle of nowhere.  

 

He suffered a major medical episode within a year and was air-lifted back to Melbourne leaving her out there with a business to run which was relied upon by a number of extremely rural locals across a wide area of bushland.  

 

She eventually had to sell up and return to Melbourne to oversee his care and, eventually, a temporary return home.  He was moved on to a care home as she couldn't cope with his 24/7 medical needs. It was about this time that I was first introduced to them as the future husband of their daughter who had brought me back as a souvenir from her backpacking travels to the UK.  

 

That never really sat well.  FiL was a totally changed man and was OK with me but she never was.  And to this day holds me responsible for her not having a daughter at home.  

 

A couple of days ago the Nullawil General Store burned down.  The area is left without any of the services offered; postal, general store, community meeting-point and all.  The nearest now is in Wycherproof some distance away.  No-one was hurt.  

 

Dragon-in-Law is again distraught that a part of her history has been taken from her.  I make no apology for having as much empathy.  It was she who drove the move out bush.  FiL never wanted to be there.  No-one would wish the return to be under the circumstances that played out but had they not gone FiL would have been hours closer to specialist medical help when it was needed and which, had it been accessed faster, might have altered the long-term outcome for him.  He passed away some years ago now as a result of the serious brain trauma he sustained.  

 

Dragon-in-Law will almost certainly renew her pressure upon Dr. SWMBO to now "come home" and keep her company.  In other words act as her carer without any sort of career option and without any decent income.  A tough call.  Because there is no way I am going into that situation and they both know it.  

[kevinlms]

13 hours ago, faulcon1 said:

I was driving on the far north coast of NSW on a new section of road and the road construction people had put out mobile LED signs reading "ignore Sat Nav directions". My Sat Nav kept saying "in 300 meters turn right" and on reaching the point to turn right there was no right turn to take. Then it started with the constant "turn round turn round etc".

What I do find weird with Google Maps, is if you miss a direction (perhaps intentionally!) and if you are on a divided road, it wants you to turn right and go around a block, rather than just do a 'U' turn (assuming doing so isn't banned at the particular location).

I know of a car park that has 2 exits onto the same section of divided road. If I take the first one, I can legally cross over into the right hand lane and do a 'U' turn.

If I take the 2nd exit (only 100 metres up the road), I can't legally access the right turn lane (doubtless many do) and need to travel 500 metres up the road before I can access the next right turn lane.

 

I guess I'm writing as a Victorian where generally 'U' turns are allowed, unless specifically banned, unlike NSW for instance, where 'U' turns at traffic lights are banned, unless specially allowed, if you follow the difference.

 

Thus my opinion is that Google Maps is written, assuming that we're all following NSW road laws.

[Ozexpatriate]

36 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Thus my opinion is that Google Maps is written, assuming that we're all following NSW road laws.

I expect that Google Maps is written in California. I don't know how/where it is validated.

 

That it functions at all with all the complexities of highway codes in every place it is available is nothing short of amazing - particularly with something as localized as "U" turns. They are mostly not legal in Oregon - unless posted.

 

Generally speaking it is far safer to turn off the road to change direction, rather than attempt a U turn - pretty much anywhere (unless posted with traffic lights protecting the turn, or there is zero traffic approaching an intersection from either direction that the U turn would cross).

 

Google maps is very accurate here. Allegedly people follow 'satnav' instructions onto seasonal forestry roads and get stranded in snow, but I don't know how people make this happen with Google Maps. The default is to follow state highways.

 

It can of course get tricked up by temporary rerouting due to rearrangement of the traffic flow for construction, floods, landslides, etc but even then road closures are updated pretty quickly.

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Some years ago the Dragon-in-Law and late Father-in-Law decided it was time to "go bush" and moved out of Melbourne to run the Nullawil General Store in the middle of nowhere.  

 

My ex brother-in-law and sister-in law did a similar move, they sold the management rights that they'd held on  a block of serviced apartments on the beach at Coolum and bought a general store half way across Queensland, in a tiny dot on the map near Roma.

 

My flabber was gasted when I heard because I'd worked out there doing oil exploration around Surat in the '80's and there is absolutely NOTHING except scrubbiness, red bulldust, emus and roos.  Its apparently  sheep country but the land is so poor that they  count the yield in number of sqkm it takes per sheep, rather than the other way around.

 

Anyway what they didn't realise is that a small general shop in the middle of nowhere   on the main road west  is never actually truly shut because they used to get people banging on their door (the residence was attached) at all hours wanting fuel, or  to "borrow the phone" because they had no coverage,  or needed nappies or water, or were wondering if it was too late to get a hamburger cooked.

 

It ran them ragged and then when they decided they'd had enough it took them almost 5 years to get a buyer, and they had to take a loss on it which vastly  diminished their retirement plans.

Edited March 3 by monkeysarefun

[kevinlms]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I expect that Google Maps is written in California. I don't know how/where it is validated.

 

That it functions at all with all the complexities of highway codes in every place it is available is nothing short of amazing - particularly with something as localized as "U" turns. They are mostly not legal in Oregon - unless posted.

 

Generally speaking it is far safer to turn off the road to change direction, rather than attempt a U turn - pretty much anywhere (unless posted with traffic lights protecting the turn, or there is zero traffic approaching an intersection from either direction that the U turn would cross).

 

Google maps is very accurate here. Allegedly people follow 'satnav' instructions onto seasonal forestry roads and get stranded in snow, but I don't know how people make this happen with Google Maps. The default is to follow state highways.

 

It can of course get tricked up by temporary rerouting due to rearrangement of the traffic flow for construction, floods, landslides, etc but even then road closures are updated pretty quickly.

Oh I agree it is generally very accurate, especially in estimating times when there is congestion and finding best routes, just very occasionally gets tripped up.

U turns should always be done with extreme care.

Google maps has to be localised, otherwise it would think that we were all driving in the US, which is clearly not so.

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Google maps has to be localised, otherwise it would think that we were all driving in the US, which is clearly not so.

I took my telephone with the Google Maps application installed and regularly used in the US to Queensland. It was flawless - except for two things:

1. It lost contact with the satellite in a tunnel and I hadn't remembered my exit
2. It struggled with local pronunciations - "Hwy" was pronounced "whee" and "O'Reilly" was pronounced just like Manuel did in "The Builders" episode of Fawlty Towers - as 'orrelly' which was pretty funny.

I suspect there are local 'language' overlays, but the core software was unchanged.