Macca

Sometimes one or 2 of the cricket journalists might get the inside word but Malcolm Conn has definitely got this one wrong. However, I believe he was the journalist who broke the news that Alex Doolan was on standby for the Sydney Test against England. Looking back, the original squad selections of Warner, Cummins and Pattinson (at different times) has first come to light through the media. Of course, cricket journalists do get their speculative squads wrong - more often than they'd like to admit. They're far more likely to get it right with "certain" individuals within those squads. ... anyway, Hughes needs to have a sustained run at Shield level and I wouldn't have taken him to South Africa regardless - too early for a recall IMO (although I thought the selectors might pick him because of his Shield form) In the past, Hughes' technical issues have been shown up against quality test bowling (both pace and spin) However, I wouldn't write him off as he's still young enough to improve. I just wonder how he's going to be tested properly (to iron out his deficiencies) Shield attacks don't have too many Dale Steyn or Ravi Ashwin types. There are other young players like Silk, Maddinson and Burns who might get their chance before Hughes is possibly recalled. The Marsh selection is a bit of a left field one. There seems to be a bit of a policy towards picking more seasoned players (specifically batsmen, although our 3 current quicks are also very experienced) Marsh went off the boil after originally looking to be a decent prospect. He's got some talent and technically, he's not too bad - his temperament might be the issue. I'd like to see him do well. Nice to see Bird get picked as well as Pattinson. All 3 tests in South Africa are back to back (played over 22 days) so we'll need our back-up quicks to be able to step up to the plate. Here's the "actual" squad ... Australian squad for tour of South Africa: David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke ©, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Alex Doolan, Brad Haddin (vc), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, James Faulkner, Jackson Bird, James Pattinson.

10-3 the 49ers way at half time. That's a good result for the niners - so far. San Francisco also get the ball at the start of the 2nd half. Seattle need to get their offense working but like Denver in the preceding game, the 49ers defense has been very good. Kaepernick's run to set up the niners TD was amazing. The game is up for grabs though as there's so many variables that can happen - Lynch, Gore, Wilson, Kaepernick and all the WR's can all influence this result in a big way. That's apart from both defenses. Been a really good game to watch.

Kudos to Denver - far too accomplished. Terrific defense from Denver but Peyton's performance was also first rate. 400 yards with 2 x TD's and no interceptions. The Broncos time in possession in the first half was also telling. Brady and the Pats offense just couldn't get going but that had more to do with Denver's defense. So, it's off to New Jersey for Peyton and the Broncos. If Denver "bring it" like they did today, they'll be hard to beat - no matter who they're up against.

Not looking good for the Patriots - they're now down 20-3, half way through the 3rd quarter. 24.48 to 12.20 "time of possession" advantage to Denver as well.

Phil Hughes in line for another recall to Test squad for tour of South Africa According to Malcolm Conn ...

Here's Bill Simmons' latest column from 'Grantland' - this week Bill answers various emails ... ... That Championship Mailbag

Monday ... 7.00am New England at Denver (ESPN & OneHD) Forecast - a top of 15 celsius with 15 km winds (with a 0% chance of rain) 10.30am San Francisco at Seattle (ESPN & OneHD) Forecast - a top of 10 celcius with 10 km winds (with a 20% chance of rain) The Pats/Broncos game can go either way but I'll go with the team that played better last week - New England. This game has a big chance of going down to the wire. If the Pats can get their running game going again, they'll be right in it at the finish. I'd like Peyton to get to another Super Bowl but Bill Belichick might prove the difference in the end. New England 33 Denver 31 Reckon the 49ers have a decent chance but they'll need to get a couple of scores before half time in order to win the game ... with at least one of those scores being a TD. Kaepernick and Gore have to have good games and I think both of them can do it. Overcoming the noise factor is probably San Francisco's biggest obstacle - they may just have the right plan, this time around. San Francisco 24 Seattle 22 The BS Report

Reckon we ended up getting 2 ideal matchups in the 2 Championship games. Both games promise a lot Next Monday ... 7.00am New England at Denver (ESPN & OneHD) 10.30am San Francisco at Seattle (ESPN & OneHD) Points tally in the Playoff comp ... 5 - titan_uranus, DemonDave, Macca 2 - cowboy from hell, Gorgoroth, pantaloons, Strafford, the master, Looks like a race in 3 although there are 3 points up for grabs for picking the Super Bowl winner.

The AFC Championship game will be played at 7.00am next Monday (AEDT) ... so it's New England @ Denver or San Diego @ New England. The NFC Championship game will follow that game at 10.30am (AEDT) Carolina or San Francisco @ Seattle. Here are the highlights and recaps from both of today's games ... Saints @ Seattle and Colts @ Patriots (the highlights may take a little while to load) Edit: Caught the last bit of "NFL Primetime" - Troy Wingo highlighted how quite a few teams have been running the ball a lot during the playoffs. Especially from some teams who have traditionally thrown the ball a lot.

Blount ran for 189 yards with 24 carries for 2 TD's in week 17 too - against the Bills. I guess we're just so accustomed to seeing Brady throw it a lot more.

43-22 in the Pats favour now. 11.12 minutes left in the game. New England have run the ball for 184 yards - it's doubtful that the Colts would have prepared for that amount of running. Great bit of coaching by Belichick.

Indi pick up a safety in bizarre circumstances ... 21-12 now

14 - zip already. That drive by the Pats was very impressive Edit : ... and the Colts get one back - now 14-7

Strange finish - that forward pass was way forward as well. The first play also had to be a throw to the sidelines - 26 seconds isn't a long time to play with. Saints did well to get back into it but Seattle too good all the same.

That's a catch but it wouldn't surprise if the call is reversed.

Seattle should have run that 1st play.

Saints score a TD! (and get a 2 point conversion) Maybe we have got a game after all? They'll need to stop the Seahawks scoring on this drive.

This is looking ominous. Saints need some of score - and quickly

Breakdown of the Rams salary cap - year by year There's a drop down box provided where you can look at the breakdown of the salaries of any other team. Covers all the other sports as well. Handy site.

That's another remarkable stat. I reckon that's the great thing about the NFL - any given game can go either way. Unlike a few other big time sports, the salary cap in the NFL really can even things out. Players nearing veteran status or even certain players coming out of their first contract have no issue with regards to leaving their team for more money. Coupled with this, teams are often forced to pay their franchise players (often the QB) a large chunk of their salary cap. Wilson, RG3, Luck, Kaepernick and maybe Tannehill are all going to command big dollars in the foreseable future. When that happens, those teams overall depth will therefore be tested. Baltimore with Flacco and Atlanta with Ryan are good examples of that theory (both teams lost a bit of talent in the last off season) The Bears with Cutler and Dallas with Romo might incur the same type of effect going forward. ... anyway, here is the game schedule again ... Sunday 8.35am New Orleans at Seattle (OneHD & ESPN) 12.15pm Indianapolis at New England (OneHD & ESPN) Monday 5.05am San Francisco at Carolina (OneHD & ESPN) 8.40am San Diego at Denver (OneHD & ESPN)

I reckon if the Lions had of scraped in and won the NFC North, it might have been a completely different story with regards to a team maybe not being fully deserving of their spot. The Packers might have made the playoffs by default but we didn't underperform this season IMO. On the contrary, we did about as well as could be expected, all things considered. Also reckon the Bengals season was impacted greatly because of all the players they lost. Cinci kept winning though - which is an even more remarkable story. Ok, they lost badly last week but there was a back story to their season. A better example is San Diego if we're looking at an underforming team that just scraped into the playoffs this season. At one stage they were 5/7 and seemingly out of it. But at their best, the Chargers are a very capable team - especially when Rivers plays well. Indy are another team that have been a little inconsistent this season (they also qualified from an extremely poor division - they went 6/0 within their division and 5/5 outside their division) They had some great wins but they also dropped games that they should have won. The Colts fall behind in so many games yet find a way to win. Despite all that, if they can get past the Pats, they might just go all the way to the Super Bowl. We might find out who the "hot" team is after this weekend's games. There's nearly always at least one big upset in the 2nd week of the playoffs. I can't see Seattle losing and the 49ers/Panthers game is line ball. So it's the Chargers or the Colts to cause the upset IMO. Colts for mine in a close one.

If the 49ers can get past Carolina, I'd give them a genuine chance against Seattle or New Orleans. That NFC Championship game is shaping up as the best matchup of the playoffs. The winner could well end up being the Super Bowl favourites. ... and if San Francisco go on and win the Super Bowl, their hardest game might be the NFC Championship game. Of course, they'll need to win on Monday first! In the last 8 years, no fewer than 6 teams have won the Super Bowl after starting out on wild-card weekend. Green Bay, Baltimore, Indianapolis, the Giants (twice) and Pittsburgh have all won the Super Bowl from the wild-card weekend in the last 8 seasons. 3 times in the last 8 years the eventual Super Bowl winner has been an actual wild-card - Pittsburgh 2005. New York Giants 2007 and the Packers in 2010 (the year is based on when the regular season is played) As a Packers fan, 2010 was a wild ride - we only just made it into the playoffs.

Aussie open starts on Monday - here are the matchups if all the top 8 seeds in both the Mens and the Ladies advance to the quarter finals (you can click on any of players listed below if you want to visit their Wikipedia page) ... Mens ... (1) Rafael Nadal vs (5) Juan Martín del Potro (4) Andy Murray vs (6) Roger Federer (3) David Ferrer vs (7) Tomáš Berdych (2) Novak Djokovic vs (8) Stanislas Wawrinka ... and if the 4 top seeds advance to the semi-finals, here are the matchups ... (1) Rafael Nadal vs (4) Andy Murray (2) Novak Djokovic vs (3) David Ferrer Ladies ... (1) Serena Williams vs (7) Sara Errani (4) Li Na vs (6) Petra Kvitová (3) Maria Sharapova vs (8) Jelena Janković (2) Victoria Azarenka vs (5) Agnieszka Radwańska Again, if the 4 top seeds advance to the semi finals, here are the matchups ... (1) Serena Williams vs (4) Li Na (2) Victoria Azarenka vs (3) Maria Sharapova All the seedings for the Open As for the notable Aussies, Sam Stosur is in Serena Williams' quarter of the draw, Ashleigh Barty is up against Serena in the first round whilst Casey Dellacqua is in Sara Errani's quarter of the draw ... Bernard Tomic plays Rafael Nadal first up whilst Lleyton Hewitt is also in Nadal's quarter of the draw. For what it's worth, here are my tips for both finals (winners in dark italics) Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic Victoria Azarenka vs Li Na .

Both sides of the argument has merit. At a guess, I'd say the fans would be mostly against such a change but many might change their mind later on down the track. I've always felt that the team finishing on top of the standings/ladder/table should be rewarded somehow and by bringing in 2 extra playoff teams, that can be achieved. Edit: Just came across this ESPN story (which includes a few polls on the subject) ... Can the NFL handle more wild cards?

Yep, it's certainly about the money all right, 'cfh' I guess if we accept that part of it, then we can speculate and discuss the relative merits of the proposed changes. I've given my views in some previous posts but my view is partly based on the inevitibility of the proposed changes. The NFL may also decide to change the order of the seeds based on the qualified team's W/L record. This can have the effect of "certain" division winners ending up having wild-card status only (i.e - on the road, first up) I wouldn't like to see that but I can understand why they'd do it. From what I can gather, this "other" proposed change has a lot less chance of happening than the change involving the 2 extra teams qualifying for the playoffs. They certainly like long and lengthy playoff systems in the States don't they? The NBA and the NHL playoffs go for nearly 2 months! It's like having a whole other season with those 2 sports!