Sports Central

Hello @Mustang67

@Eve7 @Emelia8 @Snowie @Shaz51 @Chasingsunsets @tyme and all sports lovers here. Thanks for joining in!

I’d like to apologise for my absence over the past few days. Dramas in my life, not to mention a day of wondering whatever happened to Melbourne Storm on Sunday night! I watched the match and was offended by the 2nd half when the Broncos came back along with the star Reece Walsh. Add to this, the Bronco women also won the NRLW grand final a few hours earlier so the Broncos got the double win!

As for other sports news, the Paralympic athletic team have done us proud in India in their world championships along with the Paralympic dolphins in the swimming championships.

Roll on cricket and tennis season! I’m ready to watch the Hobart Hurricanes win the big bash cricket and for the AFLW Brisbane Lions to hopefully play finals again.

Enjoy your sports! May the best team and athletes win!

Judi9877

@Judi9877 surprisingly I found myself barracking for the Storm as I wanted my partner to get the feeling of what winning the grand finals was like. The Broncos did what they did to the Panthers and came out firering after half time. A few of the ref's decisions were a bit iffy and he certainly didn't help the storm.

So yes, on to the cricket and I am hoping the Adelaide Strikers play well this season. I see we have Chris Lynn back this year and I am hoping Rashid Khan will play for the Strikers as well.

Hi @Mustang67 @Chasingsunsets @Eve7 @Emelia8 @Snowie and others here tonight. I hope you’ve had fun cheering on your favourite sports stars and teams over the past week.

@Mustang67 . Thanks for your response. The Broncos were too good unfortunately in the end against the Storm. Better luck next year, I guess! All we need now is for the Brisbane Heat men’s and women’s cricket big bash teams to win their competitions and Brisbane have won practically everything this year in regards to sports. Anything is possible! Chris Lynn’s a great player for the Adelaide Strikers and so is Rashid. I also like when Alex Carey plays as he’s also a great player for the team. Hopefully Hobart get the win and go back to back!

I did watch the Bathurst 1000 on and off today and some of the other races yesterday as I used to be a Holden fan back in the day. I met several drivers including Larry Perkins many years ago and now his son Jack is also a race car driver who competed today. The new cars are totally different to the old ford falcons and Holden commodores and I’m not really into the new cars anymore. The race was interesting especially when the weather turned from dry to rain which made the race more exciting for me to watch.

May the best teams and players/athletes win!

Judi9877

@Judi9877 I definitely prefer the good old days with the Falcons and Commodores. The muscle car era. I watched it on and off as well while trying to research if some of the Bullion Coin groups that I joined on Facebook are legitimate or not. So far I have come across 3 fake pages. I don't think I will risk buying any Bullion on Facebook. Not worth the risk.

@Judi9877 Have just found this wonderful thread! Growing up in Melbourne I'm a bit of an AFL tragic, getting on board with the GC Suns back in 2014. Used to go to all the games, but got a bit sick of losing. But I've upgraded my membership this year and plan on going to games again now that they're so exciting to watch!

Don't mind the cricket in the off season. I really like the WBBL although my poor Heat girls didn't have the best summer.

I used to watch a lot of tennis but haven't followed it for a while. I did watch a couple of upset matches the other day though so that was good

Hi @Chantarelle and others here. Long time, no post - sorry!

There’s been lots of things happening in the world of sports with the tennis and cricket being the main summer sports at the moment! The Hobart Hurricanes women won the WBBL with the men’s final being tonight - Perth Scorchers vs Sydney Sixers. I’m cheering on the Scorchers despite being a Hurricanes fan. The Aussies also won the Ashes 4-1 which was a great thing. Poland won the United Cup with in the tennis after defeating Switzerland. The Australian Open is currently on at the moment with Alex Di Minaur and Maddison Inglis through to the 4th round. I have been watching this and enjoying it.

Enjoy your sports!

Judi9877

Good morning @Shaz51 @Chantarelle

@Glisten @Emelia8 @Eve7

@Glisten @Emelia8 @tyme @TAB @Ru-bee @AuntGlow

@Chasingsunsets , @TAB , @Till23 , @Jacques , @Ainjoule , @rav3n

@TAB @Ru-bee @AuntGlow

@Chasingsunsets , @TAB , @Till23 , @Jacques , @Ainjoule , @rav3n @Jynx @Ru-bee and all sports lovers here. Welcome back to a new year of sports and cheering on your favourite teams, players and athletes! I’ve been absent for a bit due to life dramas - now a uni student and had a major house move - but I’m back to discuss all things sports so let’s get the chat started.

Today starts off the 2026 NRL premiership season after Parramatta Eels won the preseason cup. The 2 games - Cowboys vs Knights and Bulldogs vs Dragons are being played in Las Vegas this afternoon with my tips being Cowboys and the Bulldogs although I would like the dragons to win. I’m a Melbourne Storm supporter - heartbreak after last years grand final loss to the Brisbane Broncos- and I’m a little concerned about how they’ll go this season after losing so many players for various reasons. We play Parramatta on Thursday night in Melbourne which I’ll watch on my iPad - tv doesn’t work in my student accommodation unfortunately- so I’ll be curious to see how the team plays after not having a great preseason. The Broncos have the Penrith Panthers on Friday night which I plan to also watch - Go Broncos! - so it should be an interesting match, especially to see how Reece Walsh goes against Nathan Cleary who got cleared for a suspension last week on a technicality by his father producing evidence to support him getting cleared. I’ll post my tips later in the week regarding the rest of the round as see how many I get correct. It could be an interesting season ahead!

The AFL premiership season gets underway on Thursday night as well with my Brisbane Lions playing the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night. I’m hoping Brisbane repeat the team of the early 2000s and go for a three peat with another grand final win this year as the old team won in 2001- 2003 with the fourth loss being to Port Adelaide in 2004. I’ll post my tips and the matches here in the following days for all forum members interested in the AFL.

In terms of other sports, in netball news, Australia defeated Jamaica in the 3 match games here in Australia and the Sunshine Coast Lightning also won the preseason Spirit Cup - Melbourne Storms affiliated netball team in the super netball series and my team along with West Coast Fever- not a great preseason for them unfortunately! The Australian Open saw Carlos Alcaraz and Arena Sabalenka win the tournament with me being quite proud to see the Stan Wawrinka matches on tv - he’s since retired from tennis this year. I did watch some of the Winter Olympics which I enjoyed as well. In regards to athletics, there’s been lots of meets around the country with Gout Gout going really well in his running and several records being made in other forms of athletics. I think the athletes should go well in their preparation for the Commonwealth Games coming up later in the year.

Have a great time supporting your teams and players. May they all win!

Take care.

Judi9877

It’s good to see you back @Judi9877 What are you studying at Uni?

A great year of sport for all of us 😊

Hi @Eve7 . Thanks for replying!

I’m in my first year of a Bachelor of Social Work - a 4 year degree. I’m choosing education as my specialty as I’d like to possibly work in student wellbeing. I initially wanted to work in a hospital/community mental health unit due to my housemate having recent MH issues and dealings with the MH Act and a social worker who put her under the Act here in Victoria and being able to help them and make changes as I didn’t like how she was treated but after speaking to a uni lecturer on uni orientation and his experience on placement, I’m now not so sure as they didn’t really enjoy it. I also have a large hecs debt which is why I chose 4 education units instead of psychology units - Ed is so much cheaper compared to psychology units and besides, psychology units are hard and very competitive to get high marks which explains my reasoning for education units. I did try a teaching degree 22 years ago but quit halfway through it due to my own MH issues and my attitude towards teaching in the end and did an arts degree in the end majoring in Sociology and Public Policy. I do admire teachers and the work they do, especially now with all of the new student behaviours and associated issues, but teaching isn’t for me unfortunately. I also have a strong interest in child/ youth mental health so that’s why I’m looking to gain work in a school or education setting. I’d still like to look at adult mental health but I’ll discuss that further with my uni lecturers once I get to placement in 3rd and 4th years. One of my lecturers is a social worker in a school part time which they mentioned last week at orientation so I’d like to discuss that further with them when I get a chance.

Have a great afternoon!

Judi9877

Good afternoon

@Shaz51 @Chantarelle

@Glisten @Emelia8 @Eve7

@Glisten @Emelia8 @tyme @TAB @Ru-bee @AuntGlow

@Chasingsunsets , @TAB , @Till23 , @Jacques , @Ainjoule , @rav3n

@TAB @Ru-bee @AuntGlow

@Chasingsunsets , @TAB , @Till23 , @Jacques , @Ainjoule , @rav3n @Jynx @Ru-bee and welcome back all sports lovers to Week 1 - Opening Round of the AFL and NRL. I hope you’ve had a great few days cheering on you teams, players, athletes and other sports stars.

In NRL news, in Las Vegas on Sunday, the Knights defeated the Cowboys and the Bulldogs defeated the Dragons in a tight match going to 2 versions of the golden point to decide the overall winner which was the Bulldogs with me losing in both tips.

My NRL tips for the round are;

Melbourne Storm

Warriors

Broncos

Sharks

Canberra Raiders

Dolphins

The Tigers have the bye this round.

I’ll be watching both the Storm match - my team- but I’m concerned about them winning after their bad preseason on tv tonight and I’ll also watch the Broncos vs Penrith match tomorrow night. I’ll look at the Sunday arvo match as well in between study sessions.

As for the AFL, my tips are as follows:

Sydney

Geelong

Giants

Brisbane

Collingwood

Essendon, Port Adelaide, North Melbourne, Melbourne, Richmond, Adelaide, Fremantle, West Coast have the bye for this round. I’m planning on looking at the Collingwood vs St Kilda match on Sunday night which should be a close match and could go either way, especially since St Kilda defeated Collingwood last weekend by 1 point in a practice match as well as the fact that Collingwood are missing several key players to injury. I’m hoping my Brisbane Lions win against the Western Bulldogs at home at the Gabba but as it’s not on tv, I’ll have to eagerly await the news via the internet on Saturday night. An interesting round of AFL ahead starting tonight with Sydney playing Carlton in Sydney. May the best teams win!

May the best teams and players win!

Take care!

Judi9877