Opinion
Why there’ll be no Olympic rings for Sydney
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and authorTFF interviewed Premier Chris Minns on Friday on the occasion of celebrating his first year in office, with the full piece being published in The Sun-Herald this weekend. Wait until you hear what he said on his options if nuclear energy gets up! Meanwhile, though, here is what he said on matters sporting:
Fitz: There was a brilliant piece written in the Herald last year – and as a matter of fact, I wrote it – noting that if you could put an infrared camera on top of Centrepoint Tower, looking out across the state for areas of terrible need for the state’s finances to flow to, it was very unlikely that it would spot a whole bunch of stadiums glowing red, where we absolutely need to put $600 million into Penrith Stadium and hundreds of millions into other boutique NRL stadia and so forth. Do you agree with that analysis, or do you think the infrared camera would pick up the terrible need for more stadia?
CM: No, I think the infrared camera would pick up that homelessness is increasingly a major issue in Sydney in particular, but also all over the state. So I would agree with you that in terms of the order of needs, there are other things that are far more important.
Fitz: We chat in a week when your Queensland counterpart, Steven Miles, has announced a cut-rate 2032 Olympic Games and there have been reports, which were denied, they’ve looked at pulling out of the Olympics altogether. If they pulled out, your treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, has hinted that as NSW already has the Olympic infrastructure built, we’d be glad to have them here. Do you agree?
CM: No. We’ve got major obligations in health and education and public transport and we’ve got $180 billion worth of debt. So I just can’t, with a straight face, say to you or your readers on a Sunday morning, “By the way, in addition to all that, we’ll be a failsafe for the Olympic Games.”
Credit:
Interesting, yes? We in Sydney, Australia’s largest and wealthiest city, have the Olympics infrastructure already built, but even if the 2032 Olympics was handed to us on a plate, our elected leader has no interest. If the numbers don’t stack up for Sydney, with all we’ve got, how can they ever stack up for Brissie?
Good riddance, ScoMo
“Dear TFF, As usual I was at Shark Park for the Cronulla game [last Friday]. The ground announcer told us all Scott Morrison had relinquished his No.1 ticket-holder status and then rambled on about what a great job he did in that role.
“Interesting, as you may recall when it became public that Morrison appointed himself to five ministries, I forwarded you an email from the Sharks that claimed the club didn’t have a No.1 ticket holder.
“I reckon I emailed the club about 10 times in the last 12 months requesting a new No.1 ticket holder be appointed. My persistence has paid off!
“By the way, the announcement was met with a louder boo than the bunker received when they disallowed a Nicho Hynes try last year.”
Regards, Ray Bernasconi.
Gotta love the true Sharks fans!
The more things change ...
All these years on, I can’t remember whose sage comment it was, but following the Super League fiasco, someone said: “While rugby league was going after Beijing and Berlin, the AFL was going after Sydney and Brisbane.”
Two decades later, here we are. While the NRL was going after Las Vegas, the AFL has been consolidating back here. In Sydney, AFL has never been stronger with both the Swans and Giants flying high.
As of the start of this round, those two teams sit first and second on the ladder and the crowd of 78,933 for the Collingwood v Sydney match last weekend was both the largest-ever crowd for a home-and-away match involving the Swans and Collingwood’s largest home crowd for a home-and-away match against a non-Victorian club.
Yes, I am likely jumping the gun but the two Sydney sides could be playing off in the grand final and wouldn’t that be something! Look to a huge crowd when the Swans take on Essendon on Saturday night.
Oh, and set your watches.
(3 … 2 ... 1 ...)
How dare you!? What about rugby union, you bastard!? It’s dying in the arse!
Mad Dog’s mega riches
Bloody hell. You will remember Adam “Mad Dog” MacDougall, the fiery Knights, NSW Origin and Kangaroos winger. Steve Mascord used to delight in the story of the doctor once pulling MacDougall from the field and insisting he stay off with a dislocated thumb, at which point MacDougall roared “Cut it off!” Anyhoo, The Oz this week published The List – Australia’s Richest 250, and there, in the red corner was MacDougall, weighing in at an estimated $635m! After retiring at the end of the 2011 season, he launched his dietary business, The Man Shake a couple of years later. It has gone well!
Gould piece of advice for Latrell
It is not often your humble correspondent quotes the prickly Phil Gould at length, and his frequent excoriation of “the media”, always reminds me of the time Tonto and the Lone Ranger came over the rise to find themselves confronted by 10,000 Apache, if you remember the gag? Gasping, the Lone Ranger said “Looks like we’re in deep shit here, Tonto,” to which, Tonto replied, “Whaddya mean we, pale-face?”
That is, Gould disassociating himself from the media, when he has been a denizen of it himself for well over 30 years, is as absurd as it is disingenuous. But his remarks this week on the Latrell Mitchell issue – where the Souths fullback dropped more F-bombs in a live interview on MMM than you’d hear on the wharves at midnight – indeed bespoke the wisdom of one who’s been around the block himself many times.
“For Latrell,” Gould said on 100% Footy this week, “the only advice I would have at the moment is that if he wants to be outspoken, if he wants to be heard – and he does want to be heard, he demands respect from everybody on all sorts of fronts, he speaks out openly on a number of issues, demanding respect – you also have to show respect.”
Bingo. The carry-on, on MMM was yet one more Mitchell own-goal, rather than the tries Souths are not only paying him for, but desperately need from him.
Latrell Mitchell would do well to listen to Phil Gould’s advice.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“If he stops showing respect for people,” Gould went on, “people will have less respect for what he has to say. The media go running to him a lot on a lot of issues because they know he will comment. They are going to use him up and he will be found out if he keeps allowing them to do that. He will be found out because people won’t listen to him any more unless he starts to show respect for the game and people within the game, his teammates and everyone else trying to make a living out of the game.”
And here was Gould’s final bit of wisdom, right on the money.
“I said very early in his career, if you don’t pull him into line now you’re never going to be able to and I think that Latrell Mitchell has become bigger than some of the people that are trying to control him.”
What They Said
Warriors coach Andrew Webster after the Storm won with a last-second miracle try to Xavier Coates: “When you’ve got a winger who can jump over a skyscraper and then put the ball down in the corner, it’s pretty amazing. It’s hard to cheer them when you feel this way.”
Storm winger Xavier Coates scores the stunning match-winner against the Warriors.Credit: Getty
Ricky Stuart wants a new stadium in the capital: “I feel sorry for [the fans], with the stench. I know people laugh at it, but we are the capital of Australia . . . The people here are wonderful people, they accommodate us so well. They, and Canberra, deserve a new stadium. I’m all for education, I’m all for hospitals, but we have to have some common sense.”
Latrell Mitchell after the loss to the Broncos: “Honestly f---, it was s---, the first bit, it was a hard game, f---. Honestly [the Broncos] are big boys, they’re competitors, you wonder why they came runners-up last year, so f---, we can build on that. I don’t care if I’m swearing, boys, honestly.”
Senator Jacqui Lambie at a rally in Hobart: “Tasmanians have had a gutful of your bloody stadium, and you can stick it up your bum!” Up Queensland way, Premier Steven Miles said much the same thing regarding new Olympic stadiums.
John Coates on Brissie pulling back on Olympic commitments: “If we don’t honour those arrangements there’s plenty of other countries that can say why did you give it to Brisbane when they didn’t have all the venues?” Not quite right, John. There were no other cities standing behind Brissie in the bid, remember? The Olympics had to go home with the only global city who turned up to the dance.
MCC president Bruce Carnegie-Brown has announced he will not seek re-election after a difficult relationship with MCC members, including being captured on a live microphone talking about why they were taking so long to return to a meeting after a short break: “I expect they are taking an age to empty their colostomy bags.” And you always wondered what happened to Will Carling’s “57 old farts” who ran English rugby? I think this is what they graduated to. The new president will likely be former Channel Nine cricket commentator Mark Nicholas.
Lachlan Galvin, 18, on making his NRL debut last weekend for Wests Tigers: “I’ve been working towards this moment pretty much for 18 years of my life.”
Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth on the players in his team: “You might like strawberry ice-cream, I might like mint chocolate chip but the guys we have are fantastic in what their roles are and they’re quite talented.” Don’t look at me – I have no clue.
Wayne Bennett after the Dolphins turned things around: “I wasn’t disappointed with their effort and it was a tremendous turnaround. There’s always room for improvement. It’s the biggest room in the house. Well, I don’t know why [Tabuai-Fidow] played like he did last week and I don’t know why he played like he did this week. You’ll have to ask him.”
Southside Flyers’ Bec Cole after teammate Lauren Jackson inspired them to the title: “Before the game, we were in the change room, and she was like: ‘Coley, let’s just bloody win, so I can go to basketball heaven’.”
Lauren Jackson on winning the WNBL 25 years after first doing so: “I know, it’s crazy.”
Britain’s next prime minister, you heard me, Sir Keir Starmer, is not happy that Nike has released a multicoloured St George’s Cross on the back of the England soccer team’s national strip: “I’m a big football fan, I go to England games, men and women’s games, and the flag is used by everybody. It is a unifier. It doesn’t need to be changed. We just need to be proud of it. So, I think they should just reconsider this and change it back. I’m not even sure they can properly explain why they thought they needed to change it in the first place.”
Collingwood coach Craig McRae after his defending champion team crashed to 0-3 to start the season: “At the end of the day, if you have too much cheese on your lasagne, it doesn’t matter, it won’t affect the result. You have to get busy and do the things right. The fundamentals of the game are really important and that’s where we’ll put our energy.”
Team of the week
Socceroos. Defeated Lebanon in World Cup qualifying and play them again on Tuesday in Canberra.
Waratahs. Season on the line against the Drua on Saturday.
Swans. Expect a packed house on Saturday night against Essendon.
Swans fans will be in full voice again on Saturday night.Credit: Getty
Matildas. Speaking of packed houses, Australia to host the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and it should be chockers!
Cameron Ciraldo. Big raps on him as coach but he’s won only seven of 26 at the Bulldogs and is winless in 2024, despite a decent roster.
Ellyse Perry. Inspired the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the Women’s Premier League title in India.
Ireland. Have now won back-to-back Six Nations titles, without being able to win a Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
Xavier Coates. Scored the try of the century. Somewhere in the NRL there is the genius who thought of changing the rules to make that kind of try legal.
Collingwood and Brisbane. First time in VFL/AFL history both reigning grand finalists are winless after two matches (and they meet each other next week).
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
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