Macca

They'll find a way for the Sydney teams to hub in Victoria & keep playing. They have to otherwise the season will be derailed But my fear is the disease getting out of control in NSW. The footy could end up being of secondary concern if the delta varient escapes into the other States As someone else here commented, NSW could end up being isolated like an island State

It's 'Cambage' But this is a thread about the wonderful achievement of Ash Barty isn't it?

The families of the 2 Sydney teams will almost certainly only have until midnight today and after that permits and14 days isolation/quarantine? The AFL have often been ahead of the stringent government rulings (of late) so a plan might be in place already Could be at least a few more weeks (months?) with the high Covid numbers up there so the Swans & Giants will be staying put in Victoria for now

NSW border about to be closed and up there they are expecting over 100 Covid positive cases tomorrow (78 today) The whole of NSW has been declared a red zone by Victoria Giants & Swans won't be heading home anytime soon. Still, Victorian clubs hubbed for long periods of time

Yeah it's tricky because Japan would have spent hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) to set the whole thing up so even if they could walk away, the cost would be enormous for next to zero return And the contract with the IOC is water tight anyway so the financial penalties for breaking the contract are enormous It's become an unfortunate situation whichever way you look at it ... although the broadcast rights money will soften the blow (and we're talking tens of $Billions of dollars of broadcast rights money) As always, follow the money trail! Thousands of soccer games in Europe still go on without crowds but because of the broadcast rights money, there's no talk of cancelling As for holding the games where Covid is under control there aren't many choices apart from Australia & NZ. And I doubt whether either Country would take on such a major exercise at short notice So the games must go on! No crowds lessens the while thing as a spectacle but most professional sports have got by despite playing thousands of times in front of empty stadiums in the last 18 months The lack of crowds won't bother me personally as my concentration is on the athletes and the contest The important thing that needs to be remembered are the athletes themselves ... they've given up everything to be able to compete and they've earnt that right to compete in my view Most of the opposition here comes from those who are not invested in the Olympics anyway ... and they are often hypocritical as they are not at the same time calling for other sports to be cancelled because of Covid

8 point swingaround ... we lose and Lions win and they'd be ahead of us Instead of that we are now 2 games clear of them (and 4th place) ... we're now staring at an MCG qualifying final (if we're good enough) Better to have the destiny in your own hands *Mozz factor deactivated

Yeah no good ... I'm off to the UK tonight again after another ordinary day Will probably switch to the exotics next Saturday. Tough work finding winners! That's racing!

I reckon something might have gone wrong with the horse ... might even need a spell and bring it back in the late Spring/early Summer

100 up for Jamie Kah! Fantastic achievement!

Forward line defensive pressure is the key ... apart from this year, when have we ever consistently displayed that feature of the modern game? Structurally we're ok up forward but not great. But we don't have to be great Pound for pound our forward line personell isn't A grade but as long as our talls are involved in the game deep forward, around the arc and up around the attacking wing, we give ourselves a chance But the real pressure comes from the small forwards combined with our midfield pushing & pressing up Often leads to the rushed kick from the opposition landing in the hands of our 3rd line of defence (Salem, Brayshaw, Rivers, Hunt etc) Then May, Lever, Petty & Hibberd as the back 4 We are going to be hard to beat as long as we can maintain the disciplines that we've put in place ... shy away from all that and even the lesser lights can knock us off

ANB got better as the game went on ... he fumbled once or twice earlier in the game but after that, he lifted his game Started using his elite endurance getting to contest after contest Along with a few others in the forward line, our defensive pressure was great to see. In the end, the opposition started making errors because of our pressure. They had no answers Given the circumstances of the 8 point game, it could be our best win although the wins against all the other contenders have all been very good

As I love Viney's tenacity and fierce attack on the ball I don't see him as an A grade player from an overall perspective (although, it must be said that he is capable of A grade games) Wines on the other hand I see as an out and out star of the game But he was no star last night thanks to Jack

Reckon we won the Viney vs Wines match up too So, good player (Viney) takes on elite player (Wines) and reduces Ollie to a good game only. Most of Wines' 33 disposals were non dynamic and often inconsequential. For instance, he had 19 handballs but were any of them creative? A number of scrubbed kicks too. Crouch Bros. style stats Viney got it 18 times so as a tagger/stopper he's done a bit better than expected with regards to disposal numbers End result was Viney played a good game as he was able to subdue Wines whilst Wines was nowhere near his match winning self (currently 3rd overall with regards the coaches votes) So it wasn't necessarily head to head, it was tagger vs star and we came out on top in that vital battle

Bookies finding another way to increase their own percentage. Crooks! Already on it with a win bet Gorg ... Ollie has stuck with this horse throughout and it'll be flying home I've included my pick (Red Santa) in a 2/3 parlay bet with 2 others

Best Bet Saturday (Caulfield) R6 No.7 Red Santa (J Kah) $4.50 (Win)

38 new cases in NSW today is not good news for the rest of the country ... the delta varient could easily escape across their border as there are any number of exemptions being handed out to those returning to other States And we know this disease can show up days later after people have previously tested negative Of course, if NSW moves away from the elimination strategy of the virus and moves towards containment then all hell could break loose FWIW I believe they'll stay on the elimination strategy but that will probably mean stricter lockdown methods and they could be in lockdown for quite some time But there shouldn't be any point scoring or finger pointing as we're only 1 case away from the outbreak happening again in any of the other States ... then more lockdowns

No winners for Jamie today! Nevertheless, Saturday awaits where she sits on no fewer than 6 favourites. Gotta be at least 1 winner there but perhaps 3 or 4 Dipped out on the Jamie double but managed to snag a place double at decent odds. Back to Saturday's only though ... midweek racing is a raffle!

Now down to one for the champion jockey (Jamie Kah) ... on a number of chances tomorrow so much so that I've taken out a one-out Jamie double! Quietly confident too! The best bit when doing the form is finding a horse that you like and then seeing that J Kah is on board. Some of the best Jockeys ride well into their 40's but Jamie is still only a 25yo In Melbourne it's Kah, Oliver & Williams whilst in Sydney it's McDonald, Bowman, Berry & McEvoy. Elite company

A better way to describe it is you use any of the 3 picks in any sort of multi ... but not as single win bets. Thus, it gets called a 2/3 parlay And there are a maximum of 4 multi combinations using the 3 picks But I generally only use races where I don't want to have a win bet because the thing I like is too short in the market and my outlay is too big for a not big enough return $3 or $4 chances as a general rule

3 races with 3 set picks in each race You then take the 3 doubles within the 3 picks (A & B, A & C along with B & C) as well as the treble (A, B & C) Any 2 get up and you get 1 x Double ... if all 3 salute then you win the Treble & 3 x Doubles So 4 bets in all ... I usually split up $25 or $30 in the total outlay (often 8, 8, 7 & 7) But I carefully pick out the 3 races, not just any old race. So our best bets can be used in that fashion. A 2nd chance if you like If you outlay a total of $30 and if one of the doubles gets up at $8 @ $3 x $4 ($12) then you'll get back $96 (well in front!) If all 3 salute it's happy days!

Reckon I'll start using our 2 tips with 1 other to form a 2/3 parlay bet I picked up another 3 doubles using the 2/3 parlay method in the UK (over the last 2 nights) to end up in front for the weekend. All 3 of the other picks all ran 2nd so I could have been swimming in it!

To be honest I needed to peruse a few web sites to find a lot of the medal chances (or top 8 chances) so there's likely to be other chances such as the 4 x 200 Womens Freestyle that you pointed out TD Drawn to the team sports as well but as we saw in Rio, medals in the team sports are hard to come by ... but the matches themselves are always riveting viewing Even the Sharks in the Mens Water Polo can be an enthralling watch although the Eastern European nations tend to dominate Interesting changes in the basketball but we should be good enough to reach the quarter finals (at least) with both the Boomers & Opals And the Hockeyroos will do well to compete well after reading that article ... you often have to wonder how these things get so out of control. Not good I just hope that Ch7 are able to co-ordinate it all so that we don't miss the big moments. It's an onerous task but they've had plenty of time to get it all organised Apparently Hamish is hosting the 6.30pm - 10.30pm stint every day. Good move as he's a thorough pro. Not everyone's cup of tea but I like his style. As always, Bruce will cover the track & field and he's the best in the business The swimming kicks off day 1 but ... all the finals will be in the morning (11am - 1.30pm approx) Catering for the big USA TV networks wins out. Money talks So Sunday morning in the first week is where we can start winning some medals in the swimming. Thankfully, nearly all the track & field finals will be held in the evenings (8.00pm - 11.00pm approx) I'll post up a link to the official site soon enough but it's a really easy site to use and navigate (especially with the scheduling)

Team events involving Australia (in the first week) ... all times are AEST but please double check any of the scheduled times listed. Channel 7 along with 7Two, 7Plus & 7mate are covering the Olympics Wed 21/7 Softball Aust vs Japan 10.00am Wed 21/7 Football (Womens) Matilda's vs NZ 9.30pm Thurs 22/7 Softball Aust vs Italy 3.00pm Thurs 22/7 Football (Mens) Olyroos vs Argentina 8.00pm Sat 24/7 Hockey (Mens) Kookaburra's vs Japan 10.30am Sat 24/7 Softball Aust vs Canada 11.00am Sat 24/7 Water Polo (Womens) Stingrays vs Canada 4.15pm Sat 24/7 Football (Womens) Matilda's vs Sweden 6.30pm Sun 25/7 Softball Aust vs USA 11.00am Sun 25/7 Hockey (Womens) Hockeyroos vs Spain 8.00pm Sun 25/7 Water Polo (Mens) Sharks vs Montenegro 4.30pm Sun 25/7 Basketball (Mens) Boomers vs Nigeria 6.20pm Sun 25/7 Hockey (Mens) Kookaburra's vs India 7.30pm Sun 25/7 Football (Mens) Olyroos vs Spain 8.00pm

Great to see that the Olympics are going ahead despite the Covid world we live in Just about every other sport (or sporting event) has managed to get by despite Covid so those calling for the Olympics to not go ahead might want to imagine how they'd feel if we didn't have any sport at all. For instance, the footy These athletes should be admired in the sense that they dedicate their lives to a particular sport and often only get one shot at glory. I welcome the new sports too. It's a changing world and sports are no different in that regard The Aussies could end up with up to 40 medals with a gold medal tally of about 8-10. All things considered, that would be a great result but the tally could be even better if we do really well in the pool If I get a chance I'll post up the upcoming events to look out for but the resident Demonland guru on all things Olympics @MadAsHell may well be able to help out in that regard In the meantime, here are some of the Aussie chances ... Ariarne Titmus: 200 Freestyle, 400 Freestyle Jessica Fox: Canoeing C1 & K1 Rohan Dennis: Individual Time Trial (Cycling) Laylee McKeown: 100 Back, 200 Back, 200 IM Field Hockey: Kookaburra's, Hockeyroos Sally Fitzgibbons: Surfing Stewart McSweyn: Athletics - Middle Distance Soccer: Matilda's Basketball: Opals & Boomers Rohan Browning: 100m Sprint Rowing: Mens Fours & Womens Fours Tennis: Ash Barty Sailing: Mens 470, Mens Laser Swimming: 4 x 100 Freestyle womens, Mixed 4 x 100 Medley Relay Triathlon: Mixed Team Relay Kurtis Marschall: Pole Vault Brandon Starc: High Jump Kersey-Lee Barber: Javelin Equestrian: 3 Day Event Rugby 7's: Mens & Womens Softball: Womens (Aussie Spirit) Water Polo: Stingrays & Sharks Kyle Chalmers: 100 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle Jack McLoughlin: 800 Freestyle, 1500 Freestyle Of course, we have a number of other chances as I'm not across all our prospects (and there are always surprise results, especially in the lesser known sports)

Nice one I had it going in 2 doubles and missed on both! Still, that's my strategy on these best bets Get one up and it pays for itself for close on 6 months. And the small outlay doesn't hit the pocket