Posts Tagged game
Eels look to NFL as hope for Hopoate
Posted by Metro in Uncategorized on October 23, 2011
AAP
Parramatta are confident will Hopoate can emulate the success of NFL stars who have completed Mormon missions when he joins the NRL club at the conclusion of his religious sabbatical from the game.
The Eels announced on Thursday that the 19-year-old NSW winger will link-up with them in 2014, less than a week after helping Manly to the premiership.
Hopoate signed a lucrative two-year deal starting at the end of his mission in Queensland, believed to be in the region of $500,0000 a year.
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However, doubts have been expressed about whether he can return to the game at the same level as when he left, with little evidence of success from other players who have followed a similar path.
His uncle, Albert Hopoate, left Sydney Roosters for a mission in 2008 but failed to recapture his best form upon his return and now plays NSW Shute Shield rugby for perennial strugglers Penrith Emus.
Exciting Gold Coast winger Jordan Rapana also shelved his burgeoning career to take up a missionary role in the UK in 2008 but failed to pick up an NRL club, before agreeing to a deal with the Western Force Super Rugby team for next year.
Parramatta chief executive Paul Osborne said plans have been devised by the club’s physical performance staff to ensure Hopoate returns in the best possible shape, and believes staying in Australia works in his favour.
“He doesn’t need to adapt to another country’s food, his access to training facilities is a lot simpler, and the climate is similar,” Osborne told AAP.
“So in that respect it’s a very manageable task from a physical performance point of view.”
Osborne believes the signing is a calculated risk and revealed the club’s coaching staff researched athletes in the United States before completing the deal.
“We looked at quite a few different sports and particularly in the NFL and there were plenty of examples of young players coming out of college and embarking on their mission, before entering the draft,” he said.
“There was no hesitation from some of the top franchises in the NFL in snapping them up, and a lot of them went on to complete long and successful careers.”
Among those include offensive lineman Edwin Mulitalo, who embarked on a two-year mission in Idaho before joining Baltimore Ravens in 1999 and won a Super Bowl that year.
Washington Redskins’ current back-up quarterback Paul Kruger spent two years in Portugal from 2004 ahead of being drafted in the second round in 2009.
A similar path was taken by St Louis Rams linebacker Brady Poppinga, who was part of the Green Bay team that won the 2010 Super Bowl having spent two years in Uruguay from 1999.
Osborne said the Eels earmarked Hopoate as a possible signing at the start of the season with only three first grade appearances under his belt.
“It’s great for us to attract a player from a premiership-winning club as strong as Manly, but I think he just wanted to be part of what we are building here and get the chance to work under Steve Kearney,” he said.
Hopoate will be joined at the Eels by two of his younger brothers, who follow him from Manly, but Osborne denied that the trio’s father, the controversial John Hopoate, would be given a role on the club’s coaching team.
Eels look to NFL as hope for Hopoate
A dropkick’s guide to rugby
Posted by Metro in Uncategorized on September 15, 2011
Definition a game played with an oval ball for 80 minutes, by 15 players on each side. The aim To hold on to the ball and score as many points as possible by carrying, passing, kicking and grounding the ball over the tryline. the team in possession of the ball runs towards the tryline, passing the ball from one player to another. the opposing team tries to stop them by whatever means necessary. This highly organised violence consists mainly of “tackling” – knocking over or dragging down an opposing player who is carrying the ball. Common terminology:* Conversion: Not a league player who has switched to rugby. a conversion refers to kicking the ball between the posts and over the crossbar after a try is scored. (Two points.) *Penalty kick: if a side commits a bad enough infringement, the opposition can kick at goal from where the infringement occurred. a kick over the crossbar earns three points. England and South Africa very good at these. *Try: Curiously named (wouldn’t a “get” be more accurate?). Scored when a player touches the ball on the ground in the in-goal area (Five points.) * Drop goal: Scored when a player kicks the ball from hand over the opposition’s goal, but the ball must touch the ground between being dropped and kicked. new Zealand no good at these (Three points.) *Breakdown: the period immediately after a tackle and the ensuing melee. also what the head coach has after the cameras have been switched off. *Dummy pass:a trick when the ball carrier moves as if to pass the ball to a teammate, but then continues to run with it himself, leaving the opposing player looking like a dummy. . . or a dropkick. * Hospital pass: a pass to a teammate a nanosecond before he is buried under an avalanche of bodies, causing him to require hospital treatment.
* Lineout: When the ball goes out of play, it is thrown back between two opposing groups of players. the biggest players normally get the ball and dominate the game. ?Scrum:the forwards from each team bind together and push against each other until they fall over. a time for players to catch their breath. Kind of a grotesque cross between ballroom dancing and all-in wrestling. *Cauliflower ears: Caused by sticking your head too many times into a scrum. if you want to really impress your friends, try it in French: “Oreilles en choux-fleur”. Key rules *When the ball-carrier is tackled the player must pass or release the ball, even if he is lying under a pile of bodies with his arms pinned. * the ball can only be passed laterally or backwards, never forward. This is known as a forward pass or a throw forward. Without this rule the game would be like netball. With an egg shaped ball. And full body contact. * Knock-on: This is when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, resulting in a scrum to the opposition. *Substitution: Each team can use seven substitute players to replace injured players. Some players feign injury to get fresh people on the field. *Offside: This rule prohibits players from gaining an advantage from being too far forward. But it’s so complex that even the players scarcely understand it. you are offside when the referee says you are. * a yellow card: Shown to a player who has been cautioned for bad behaviour. the player is sent to the sin bin for at least 10 minutes. This is similar to “time out” for children. * a red card: really badly behaved players are shown a red card and ordered from the field, without being replaced. This has to be for a very grave offence, such as attempted murder. Player positionsForwards Front row: 1. Loosehead prop; 2. Hooker; 3. Tighthead prop. Big burly guys who push hard in scrums and like the physical stuff. No 2 throws the ball in from lineouts. Strong silent types. Middle row: 4 and 5. Locks.the tallest players, bred to jump and catch the ball at lineouts and kickoffs. In the scrum behind the fatties. often have weird ears (see cauliflower ears). Usually dour, with the exception of Ali Williams. Loose forwards: 6. Blindside flanker; 7.Openside flanker; 8. No. 8. These fellows lift locks in lineouts. they are quick players who get to the tackle early and try to win loose ball. Glory boys in the forwards.
Backs9. Halfback: Lurks behind the scrum to get the ball out to the pretty boy backs and maintain movement. 10. first five-eighths: Five-eighths of what? who knows? the little general and tactician, he decides whether to kick or pass or run. Controls the game. why isn’t he captain? 12. second five-eighths: Fills the gap between the first-five and the centre. Runs hard, tackles hard. useful if he can kick well. 13.Centre: Passes the ball to the wingers. Might score himself if he doesn’t. 11. and 14. Wings: Sprinters, try-scorers and general show-offs. good at sidestepping, except for Jonah Lomu who preferred to run over the top of people. 15. Fullback: the last line of defence. has to wait for ages to catch high balls as the opposing team rushes towards him with the aim of burying him. Nerves of steel, slight suicidal tendency. Captain:any position. Leads by example. Must be okay at making speeches. * Coach: Selects the team and should not grimace too much when the cameras are on him. *Referee: needs to be able to dominate big groups of very large men and be used to being unpopular. is helped by two assistant referees, one on each of the sidelines.* Television Match Official (TMO): Sits in the stand and checks the ref’s dodgy decisions by video replays. Should take as long as humanly possible to come to his decision.
Who to watch
* Dan Carter, All Blacks Nothing seems to stick to him, including mud. a favourite with female fans after his exploits modelling undies made him a pin-up. Add to that the pre-tournament publicity round when he was filmed playing with toddlers in a sandpit. Awww… * Sonny Bill Williams, All Blacks He’s got the name and definitely looks the part with his 1.91m frame and tattoos. Bit of a wild card and desperate to prove himself to his detractors. will try hard. * Mike Tindall, England Tindall’s wedding to the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips came close on the heels of that other royal couple-Kate and William. Tindall chewed gum outside the chapel, William didn’t. Watch for signs of Zara in the grandstands. only she could love the captain’s eight-times-busted hooter. *Quade Cooper, Australia new Zealand-born Cooper needs to watch his back after kneeing our Richie McCaw in the head during the Wallabies’ Tri-Nations final victory. No more underhand Aussie tactics, Quade. * James O’Connor, AustraliaBaby-faced Wallaby winger O’Connor looks like Justin Bieber but he’s built like a brick one. he loves to party, so much so that he failed to turn up for the World Cup squad announcement after a night on the town in Sydney. Dropped for the Tri-Nations decider against the All Blacks, he’s been penitent since and will be eager to make up lost ground. * Brian O’Driscoll, Ireland Swashbuckling Irish captain O’Driscoll is no leprechaun. This could be the last chance for one of the best players in the world to star on the World Cup stage, so he’ll be leading from the front. He’s another one who’s had past run-ins with Richie McCaw.will he shout Richie a Guinness when it’s all over? * Alexis Palisson, France Drew the wrath of Maori by posing for a glossy magazine with his face covered in a fake moko. Other photos for gay magazine Tetu showed him dancing, another fake tattoo on his back, brandishing a Maori spear. Palisson will celebrate his 24th birthday in new Zealand on Friday.* Sergio Parisse, Andrea Masi and Gonzale Canale, Italy Three of five hunky Italian rugby players chosen by Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana to model tight undies in 2008. There’s even an accompanying dressing room video. go online and have a look.
Reading about the Darker Side of Life. Difficult Themes in Books for Children and Young Adults
Posted by Metro in Uncategorized on September 9, 2011
A few years ago we spent our family holiday on a beach in Florida. my daughter, two years old at the time, wanted to remove her swimsuit when she came out of the water, it was bothering her. Very soon a certain agitation started gathering among the other holiday makers who were sending us embarrassed looks. a few minutes later a sturdy sheriff appeared, armed to the teeth with an arsenal big enough to destroy a whole city, and barked at us that we would have to pay a fine if some clothes weren’t put on the little girl right away. She however took this for a game and started running. We ran after her and the sheriff after us. We managed to catch her in a fit of laughter but the uniformed colossus was not amused. In the land of Uncle Sam, nudity is prohibited on the beach, even for toddlers. America obviously has a problem with sex that stems from its protestant heritage, but it also wants to teach the world a lesson. It’s not enough, though, to describe the country as puritanical because what governs here is a twisted puritanism which, after the sexual revolution, talks the language of free love and coexists with a flourishing porn industry. What we have here is lubricious puritanism: what, after all, was the point of the Clinton or Strauss-Kahn affair? To condemn eroticism all the better to talk about it, savouring the saucy details over weeks and months to evoke fellatio, sperm and genitals with false indignation. the obscene jubilation with which Kenneth Thomson called forth the bruised vagina of his client Nafissatou Diallo, speaks volumes. People say that in the case of Bill Clinton he was punished more for his lies than the affair with the White House intern. This is obviously not the case because George Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, an infinitely more serious deceit, for which he was never prosecuted. Had he had an affair with his assistant he would have been condemned to the galleys, tied to the wheel and whipped. But blood crimes, it seems, weigh less than adultery. the media establishment across the Atlantic, which is so keen to condemn France through one of its representatives, seems to have already forgotten the torture in Abu Ghraib: clusters of naked men piled on top of one another or forced to masturbate on the orders of Sergeant Lynndie England and a string of her subordinates (women in power are no better than men, we know this since the Nazi era). Torture exists everywhere, even in democratic countries, but only a country so afflicted by its own sexuality could dream up such abuse. Astonishing too that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who were suspected of corruption and inciting violent interrogation, were never pursued after 2008 by a justice system which is now so eager to punish even the most trifling amorous crimes.To punish France for Iraq, for Roman Polanski, for the laws against the veil and the niqab, this recalcitrant nation which clings to its dissolute mores, to bring it back into line
Michigan State’s Jerel Worthy has new tattoo on display at football media day
Posted by Metro in Uncategorized on August 28, 2011
That’s one heck of a defense U of M suddenly got there. For a team that gave up 35 points on average last year, holding one of the better offenses in the conference to 14 points is quite an improvement. that was a team that last year had the ball for 11:30 seconds of the last quarter agaisnt you too.
If that is your prediction for the MSU game, (a team that last year scored about what U of M per game) you are basically making the argument that U of M is going to only allow 14 points on average this year to all oppenents. So instead of being grouped with teams like Duke and Indiana, your defense is magically going to jump up to be grouped with the likes of Alabama and TCU.
So is Brady Hoke strapping up to go out an play? Because unless he is, you are coming with the same guys as last year. Those are the same guys that couldn’t get off the field against MSU in the 4th. the same guys that Wisconsin didn’t even throw a pass agaisnt in the second half. Those are the same guys that got pushed around by the bigger, stronger teams in the conference. still have yet to hear one person tell me how the U of M defense is going to have the epic revolution. Did everyone on that defense hit the weights and put on 20-30 lbs of muscle?
(And before anyone tells me about the greatness of Troy Woolfolk not only is that a guy who has never had over 50 tackles and only had one pass defensed in 2009 but U of M lost Jonus Mouton a guy that had over 100 tackles and 2 picks last year)
Michigan State’s Jerel Worthy has new tattoo on display at football media day
How many Redskins games this year have seen (Fat) Albert Haynesworth leave the game injured and then return?
Posted by Metro in Uncategorized on July 29, 2011
Every game it seems he's on the ground writhing in pain, fans are hoping it's not a career-threatening injury, then a few plays later he's back in the game.
lmao, at least three
