Macca

Man City score first - after 13 seconds!! Fastest ever I'm Cup history (apparently)

The FA Cup between United & City is being broadcast on SEN Radio from midnight tonight Not on free-to-air TV which is a real shame The Champions League Final will be broadcast live on 9Gem (Next Sunday morning (11th June) from 4.30am ... Man City vs Inter Milan

van Rooyen 16 possessions ... he's coming on nicely

Great goal from the skipper!

Comedy of errors

9GemHD are showing the Europa League Final tomorrow morning from 4.30am (Sevilla/Roma) Jose Mourinho aiming for his 27th trophy!

We didn't play very well with way too many below their best. Skills below par and not nearly enough corridor football. Forward line pressure again not up to standard In other areas of the ground they offloaded the ball very quickly to good effect and subsequently, we weren't able to pressure them The good news is that we can play a lot better, hopefully beginning next Friday evening

'Silo' is excellent ... didn't think I'd like it but it's won me over. Good sci-fi 5 episodes of season 1 are out

Gotta love the banjo in the Swans song Smacka!!

Blues don't have an extra gear in crunch time

Ok so that's feasible as 2 draws is on the cards for the Everton & Leicester games Big Sam has done a few Mr Fixit's over time but as you said earlier, a lot has to happen for Leeds to stay up I'm old enough to remember when Leeds were a powerhouse under Don Revie. Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer & Gordon McQueen were 3 of the stars back then but you had a lot of good players

Yeah going to be tough ... of the 3 possible upsets, I can see Leeds winning as Tottenham are not in good form (also, avoiding the conference league qualifying might appeal for a bigger club like the Spurs) My Hammers are playing well but Leicester at home will be desperate to win. Same for Everton vs Bournemouth But you never know

I mentioned Essendon because he played there previously You know, favourite son and all that But landing there is not probable unless the Bombers cut short Scott's contract Remembering that 6 months severance is all clubs are up for these days if they dispense with a coach And with that short payout we might start to see more contracts cut short if KPI's aren't met People are the same all over so sacking coaches could become more prevalent in the AFL like it is overseas Whether we like that or not is often irrelevant

The bigger issue is where does it all stop? And the class actions have a real connection

If Hunter is guilty then the Essendon player who braced for Spargo's head first action needed to be found guilty as well But that player wasn't even cited (not that he should have been, the contact was on Spargo) The inconsistent citing and outcomes from the MRO & Tribunal is astonishing

As for supply & demand If Hardwick is the supplied commodity, there will be a high demand And with a sacked coach now only receiving 6 months severance, an even bigger demand is prevalent In effect, it's possible (but not probable) that Hardwick could end up at Essendon By the way, that practice of not having to pay out a full contract for a sacked coach is often standard practice in sports overseas ... KPI related For instance, David Moyes was given a 6 year contract with Man Utd a few years ago but after only one year was sacked* and only given a one year payout ... mind you, it was in the vicinity of $6Million for that one year so go figure *Missing a Champions League spot was a KPI apparently

They're not going to play hardball with such a successful coach (after being a such a basket-case) 3 flags speaks for itself so I'd be surprised if he doesn't get paid out for the rest of the year Handshake agreement is my take The Tigers probably knew they needed a fresh voice with fresh ideas So an ideal parting off the ways. Hardwick looked rather pleased with the finish as well

Not sure that Hardwick is out of pocket either ... gets paid out for this year you'd imagine and then gets to walk into another job next season at $1Million per season Remembering that a sacked coach only gets paid out 6 months severance So he effectively gets at least 4 months paid leave (about $350k) and walks into more millions down the track

We should appeal

The issue was always going to be that all the different sporting comps would be broken up between any number of different streaming or cable services And now that scenario has been ramped up especially if one is a soccer fan

They are going to lose a number of subscribers Footy & League are their strongholds though so they may not be too concerned

So more importantly, what soccer will Foxtel & Kayo cover looking ahead? I don't have either but do have Optus Sports

There's a bit of a tradition of clubs holding to integrity in the last few games I've even heard Jose talk about playing out the year in a proper manner But with a big final coming up we might still rest a few

It seems we've left our best to last ... watched our game against Leeds and we looked mighty dangerous on the counter attack Up against Fiorentina in the Conference league final so a chance for some silverware at long last. Won't be easy Thursday June 8th 5.00am

I'm a week ahead! Last weekend of EPL games next weekend the FA Cup 4th June & CL Final 11th June