Not Australia Day Basketball in the Sunshine State

Tonight was the National Basketball League game between the hosts, Brisbane Bullets and the top of the table visitors Melbourne United in what should be a celebration of basketball and Australia; instead was anything but sadly. Look, can I say this as yes it is highly political, but without our hard work and all that we have provided towards being productive people; this country would not be where it is today. We learn from our pasts, we evolve, grow and change over time. Australia is no different, but to try and omit and erase days of national celebration to acknowledge that yeah we are not perfect, we made mistakes, but have made sure that these will not be repeated should be something that combines with our national pride; to be proud of being Australians. 

Deciding to ignore this national day and to simply target a small group of people, about 0.12 percent of the national population is strange. That percentage combined with the rest of their community making up only 8 percent of the national population is just absurd. Yes I am talking about the gay community that is the 7.82 percent and the 0.12 percent being the trans community. I will further add that these communities are not, and should not be mistakenly lumped into one monolithic political group. They are unique individuals like you and me who have differing tastes and opinions. 

To say they are one monolithic bloc is rather insulting to them and to people like us who value our uniqueness and what makes us as individuals. Now I must apologise for the perhaps very first time in 11 years that this blog has had to delve deeply into a political issue, well as deep as appropriately as it should as this blog is about sport, food and beverages at said venues. Unfortunately such events have now hijacked events and turned what should be a degree of escapism from the drudgery of our lives into something pleasant and entertaining. Now let us get on with the blog and hopefully with all that said It wasn't my intention to hurt or offend, just to stop blurring the lines and making sport 'unfun' and the saying "taking work home with you". Not everything has to be political.

So the Brisbane Bullets hosted the top of the table Melbourne United, in a name that I still do not understand as they simply should still be called the Melbourne Tigers as this team feels and looks too close to the A-League team Melbourne Victory. While I am actually all for european style sporting clubs that have teams in many sports; creating a new name with similar colours and uniforms to another team isnt going to be 'unifying'. Ok now that I have that second gripe out of the way I will try and push on with this blog, certainly will not be the last time that I will be complaining about the name of their name, that is for sure.

The prematch enteratinment was from a man used to watching Perth Wildcats and then going to see NBA games rather spoilt. So what this was had me rather disappointed but I guess this is what is on offer and I just have to go with the flow as they say. But because of the absence of celebrating our national day, the whole matchday experience was severely lacking. It simply had no heart and was rather shallow. But I think that best reflected how Brisbane played as Melbourne were in complete control from start to finish with the visitors from the south leading at every interval and running home to finish the match 77 to 93. There was a slight spirited fightback from Brisbane in the last quarter. But it was too little and too late as Melbourne by that stage had the upper hand and would never feel threatened by any challenge mounted by the Bullets. 

As it was a public holiday of some description that the hosts cannot describe what for or why, there was a 15% surcharge on all things food and beverages at the venue. Oh and Nissan Arena is essentially a local council recreation centre that hosts basketball and netball games, or other things but a bit bigger to host these NBL games. Effectively a big gymnasium in the middle of suburban Brisbane. It was stinking hot so food was not on the menu for myself personally, but drink and an icecream certainly were. 

  

 

A chocolate drumstick was 6.50 with coke being 6 dollars and water also coming in at 6 dollars. A Bundaberg and Cola was 11 dollars. While they were hitting the spot on such a warm and humid evening, even inside the Basketball hall in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan, it was just so energy-sapping and I honestly needed more but with my good friend doubling up the amount of fluids, it still wasn't enough to satisfy the thirst and after the game we would have to stop in the city to grab something more to drink.

Despite the lack of celebrations over the national holiday, it wasn't a bad night to head out to watch some basketball. While it is a bit of a trek to get there on the Busways. It wasn't too bad and despite the rickety nature of the temperary grandstands for the game. I didn't mind it so much and perhaps one day I will be returning. But it made me see an area of Brisbane I normally wouldn't have gone out of my way to see.

Warm and Humid Arm-Wrestle Test Cricket in the Sunshine State

Australia played host again for the second test match with the West Indies in the two test match series. This is the second of the two test series and part of the World Test Championship with points up for grabs for the final in 2025. This game was played in trying conditions as it was very warm, sunny, bright and quite humid at the Gabba Cricket Ground. There was virtually no breeze to speak of throughout the day and it was a rather difficult time to watch the day's play in these trying conditions. I could imagine just how difficult it would be to play or even umpire in conditions such as this. I was lucky enough to be sitting in the member's section of the Gabba and picked my seat to make sure that my friend and I would not have any sunlight s I did not want to have to endure getting baked or roasted in the searing Brisbane humid heat.

With that all out of the way with me describing just how hot and humid the day was in many sentences, I should talk about what I saw and what was happening during the day's play of the test match. Had Australia kept going the way they did at the start of the day's play, this section would have been very short and very brief with not much to say about the West Indies. Only just how dominant and comprehensive the Australians were. While this was true up to the lunch interval, the visitors managed to put their heads down and show some resilience by showing the hosts that to take their wickets they would have to earn them.

The Australians had raced away into the West Indian batting card with 5 rather quick wickets for 64 runs. It was not looking likely that the West Indies would even reach the 200 mark and pose a challenge for the Australians who have come into this game from their impressive win against them in Adelaide and a strong 3-0 win against the Pakistanis earlier in the summer. Batting from Kavem Hodge and Joshua Da Silva gave the West Indies something to be proud of and start to think that they could mount a serious threat to the WTC defending champions as they posted a 149 run partnership lifting their total from 64 to 213. Da Silva was the first to fall after a very determined, gutsy and at times scratchy 79. But he was not going to let the quality bowling attack of teh Australians intimidate him or push him around, despite the many occasions where he almost coughed up his wicket with close chances put to ground by the Australian fielding or just not quite hitting the stumps on close deliveries that he missed.

Hodge was still there and the West Indies kep pushing along as best as they could with Hoidge making 71 and not long after they were then 7 for 225. It looked like there would be a rapid collapse like a sudden and violent decompression in an airplane. It looked like the Australians had broken the will and resolve of the Caribbean visitors and thinking that they might not even make it to 250. While not a strong total to defend on the first innings, it was better than what they were on course for earlier on in the day. There was a spirited fight back from the tail with Kevin Sinclair making a short, but sweet 50. That effectively concluded the West Indian total and they were eventually all out for 311.

As this was a day-night test match I think that the cooler, well more cooler than during the day, weather and the slight dip in humidity made more comfortable for playing and watching. I think that these fixtures would be far more appealing for places such as India, Australia, Africa or the UAE where conditions can get very hot and stifling. This would mean that play can still continue, but playing the game in twilight and then early evening can take the sting out of the conditions and make it easier on players. Who knows, there could possibly be test cricket or shorter form of cricket played entirely at night time. Where no play takes place during the day to avoid such difficult hot conditions.

 

Now I should get on with the food and drink. It was just so warm, I was prioritising drinks and staying hydrated, however, i did have some food just to tick me over and to keep the energy levels up during the day. I had chips with crumbed chilli chicken strips. There were three of them and they were a decent size, not massive but of a reasonable portion. They were delicious actually I must confess as there was a hint of spices and a bit of a tickle, but not too spicy where it would make the person averse to spice coil in horror and displeasure. I would have preferred the chilli to be more spicier, but I think that my taste buds are somewhat unusual, not unique, but bit out there and willing to up the spice to more stormy seas. Yes some reason I am using nautical terminology for spice, I have no idea why but I am just rolling with that.

 

The chips were rather bland and I needed to add salt onto them to give them some fighting chance of being consumed and enjoyed. My friend wanted not so much salt, next to none, where I wanted to have a bit more as I wanted more flavour and taste to it than just the carboard feeling and taste of the rather soggy potato chips. That and some chicken salt never goes astray with chips, so it rescued what would have been in my mind a rather bland component to an otherwise tasty 'flagship'. The chicken just tasted so nice with the nice soft crunch of the crumbed batter and the flavours of teh chilli with the not too dry or overcooked chicken. Was just an enjoyable taste while watching the arm-wrestle take place as I was sticking to the vinyl Gabba seats sweating profusely along with my good friend.

The next thing I had was a 'supadog', which in all honesty and fairness is just a hotdog by Don, just a bit bigger. Don is a smallgoods company in Australia and a very popular and well known brand in the country with their slogan, Is Don, Is Good. Playing up on their Eastern European smallgoods heritage, a part of Australian history that largely goes unnoticed and unsung. Yet played an instrumental role in developing the modern Australian cuisine pallet we enjoy today. But enough of the divergance into Australian food and immigrant history, we are talking about a supadog at the Gabba.

It was just like any other hotdog that you encounter at any sporting even in Australia, possibly around the world. It was a longer and bigger dog, that is more akin to a subway footlong sub. The sausage itself wasnt anything gargantuan or oversized. It was a bit bigger and therefore, proportionate with the bread. It was more bread than dog making it a difficult chew, specially on a much smaller stomach these days. But I eventually muched my way long the entire foot I can only assume and it certainly filled a gap. Clogged it with bread and processed sausage meat for many hours in a crowded stomach already processing 3 delicious chicken strips and some chips. I needed to add sauce with the supadog and did cost a little extra, as is the case with Australian sporting events nowadays. But the bread was rather soft and fresh and the sausage wasnt offensive and was simply an edible processed bit of meat as you would expect that satisfied that need for food.

 

Onto the pricing of the food and the drinks I had bought. Powerade's were 7.25 and that is legitimately highway robbery. Water wasnt anything better being more expensive at 7.50. Coke was 6.55 and the chips and chicken chilli strips being 13.40 and the supadog being 6.50. Now I get the cost of the coke, while I am not happy about that price in itself. You understand why something like that could be set at that price. But for water and powerade being almost 8 dollars? That is completely insane and ridiculous when people want to stay hydrated and not pass out in the humid heat. When alcohol and cool drink is cheaper than water and electolyte drinks, then you have a problem there. The supadog and chicken is somewhat on par with other Australian venues, the drinks is where I was shocked and insulted. But this situation is not going to change and I find that aspect thoroughly disappointing.

Besides the highway robbery of food and drinks, we ducked out to the nearby 7eleven to buy a dollar slurpee. I mean to be honest we should have done that instead of buying any drinks within the ground. Perhaps I should suggest that to any regular visitors to the Gabba to do this. However, it was a nice day to watch some cricket and interesting first time experience to watch cricket in Brisbane.

Perth With Plenty of Guts, But Victory Take the Glory

Perth Glory played host to one of the A-League's power houses of Melbourne Victory on a (I sound like I am a broken record but I have to set the scene for each game here!) warm and beautiful Perth evening that would not be an uneventful game and was definitely worth making it to and watching. With Perth Glory going through some very rough, turbulent, ridiculous and uncertain times ahead regarding their ownership, license and their liquidation being all over the place; it is such a shame that the once mighty club of the National Soccer League has been on the downward slide for almost two decades. I am simply glad that Tony Sage has had his tight grip on the team loosen and his disingenuous and two-faced actions over the years has finally culminated in his removal. That is all I will comment on that matter but I think it is the much needed first step to give Perth Glory, or whatever franchise in Perth that would be its successor for an improvement in fortunes on and off the pitch for football in Western Australia and Perth.

Melbourne is headed by the former Perth Glory premiership winning coach in Tony Popovic and his in-form Melbourne Victory do consist of many former Perth Glory players who were part of Popovic's campaign that topped the table, winning the premiership but falling short to that elusive Championship trophy. Melbourne looked intent on playing hard, determined and unfazed with what the hosts would try to throw at them. Melbourne was wanting to walk away with an easy three points but found out that Perth was not going to roll over and give up the full set of points that easily.

Perth opened the lead in the 21st minute with a beautiful Taggart strike outside of the box and had thrown a spanner in the works for the visitors and looked rather rattled and were struggling to regroup. Melbourne had found their feet and were looking very threatening as Perth were getting stretched and were at times looking to be over-run by the pressing Melbourne attacks. The Perth goalkeeper definitely kept the men in purple in the hunt for either a share of the points or possibly full spoils as the defence were constantly under pressure and were constantly leaving him exposed to potent Victory strikes.

Melbourne levelled the scores at the 42nd mark with a Machach goal that really punched a hole in the Glory's sails that really had rattled them and began to allow Melbourne to simply play to their strengths and to begin to dictate terms to Perth and have them on the run leading into half time. The scores at half time were 1-1. Perth was at times looking threatening but they were a flawed collective as their ball movement was slow, they were not able to transition quick enough and there were not options when they were trying to venture forward to try and score. Melbourne was able to get back, chase them down quickly and apply uncomfortable pressure upon Perth's defence at times breaking them open and missing many golden opportunities.

Melbourne finally found that breakthrough in the 82nd minute with Adams stabbing the ball home into the back of the net as Perth were just once again caught all at sea and were broken open, leaving the keeper isolated and facing a difficult save. Perth was stunned and rattled for a bit but Perth was throwing everything they could to venture up forward and it was in the 89th minute that Perth was able to salvage a goal and once again bring the scores level at 2-2 with a brilliant Majekodunmi strike. Perth had their tails up from that strike and it looked like that they would be heading to the final whistle with sharing the spoils. However, this is Perth Glory that we are talking about and they were just oddly deciding to 'turtle' up and trying to soak as much pressure as possible from Melbourne. While this can be successful for other better equipped teams, Perth is certainly not one of those. Victory was all over them and were shelling the goals like a World War I artillery barrage hoping to pound the defending trenches into oblivion to gain the ground. It was just like that and Perth were holding on by the skin of their teeth.

It all finally came unravelling with Melbourne's Folami scoring the winner in the 96th minute after Perth's desperate defending for 7 minutes of stoppage time finally collapsed. Melbourne would head back home with full points and on top of the league as 2-3 winners in front of a 6,400 crowd. Now time to talk about the food and drink.

This time round I did not eat any of the food that was on offer except for some crisps or chips but it was a rather warmish, balmy evening so I was rather thirsty. Pepsi was 6.50 and mid-strength Johnnie Walker was 14 dollars. Bit rough for mid-strength and I understand it is to curtail the excessive drinking but I have always thought that this is rather excessive. these drinks should be around the 10-dollar mark, maybe 11 tops. The queues were long for hot food and I was not in the mood to try some and feel yet again disappointed, so we only had packets of cheese Twisties and honey soy and chicken Red Rock Deli chips. While these are classic chip (crisp) flavours in the land down under, yes, the dollar amount for these is too much for what you get; both packs coming in. These each were 5.50 but I would have preferred something hot but I just was not prepared to wait in line.

Despite Perth playing poorly, which is nothing new as I am very accustomed to this, it is always nice to get out of the house and to enjoy watching some football with the city as a beautiful backdrop. Hopefully Perth turns it around on the park, but I think that it will be a tough task.