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    October 30

    HAS the totem pole fallen down???

    Maybe I need a new goal...is the Tote no more???!!! Have a look at this!
    If a rock pillar falls in the ocean and nobody hears, does it make a splash??? BUT on closer inspection, you can see the photoshop marks, and it seems this is a hoax!!!! the tote still stands!!!!
    8:04 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it
    October 24

    just to say I haven't forgotten this blog thing...

    Off to Melbourne this morning...not much else to say...summer is on its way...garden is at an impasse...did the APLS...did a first draft of the Main Rottnest paper...thats about all for now...will try and take some pics soon, maybe in Melbs, and put them up...seeya soon...
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    October 14

    Freycinet Challenge Take Two

    So I missed the Freycinet Challenge this year, but Gill went up and retained her third place for a thousand dollars...better than two double shifts at work!!! Really wished I could have been there to eb her support crew again...this means I have been in Tassie a year!!!! (and I love it more the longer I am here...)
    10:04 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it
    October 07

    World Cup

    So...Ireland, Australia, Wales and New Zealand all sent packing!!! What is the world coming to? It would be a travesty if England win - I have to say, go the Argies! South Africa must be feeling pretty happy with who is left in the comp...but I reckon the Argies could be a dark horse...
    9:47 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it
    October 04

    Of Princesses and pees

    Just felt the need to mention a few things...I, a lowly commoner, have worn the very wetsuit, THE VERY WETSUIT previously worn by Prince Frederik of Denmark when he and the missus (Princess Mary of Denmark, AKA Mary from Tassie) were over here last visiting the rellies. I urinated in the very same neoprene that he did...hows that for headline grabbing stuff? Sounds like a story for "A Current Affair" if ever I heard one.
     
    The abalone we snaffled were pretty good too. Thanks Stuart and Danika (and the boys at the Fudge factory (HIBA - Tassie fudge, hand made on Bruny Island, yum!)
     
    Been gardening a bit - strimming weed forests and killing stuff so we can start afresh. Getting fired up about building deck too.
     
    Federation peak ascent planned for early November. Melbourne trip for Festival etc coming up soon, then Arapiles in late November. Climbing Mount Aspiring in NZ in February. Start my Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine job in January, and will be heading off somewhere in tropical Oz for a course during that.
     
    First Rottnest Swim paper finally in print in the Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal - abstract here
     
    Thats all for now...busy few months ahead!!!
    11:51 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it
    October 01

    Ireland's World Cup "Campaign"

    Was ultimately a complete disappointment. Trying to work out why...my reasons are a few-fold:
    • Recent 6-nations near successes gave us a false sense of where we are - other nations (eg France) stepped up a notch, we rested on our laurels
    • We relied way too much on flinging it out to the backs even when under huge pressure and without going through the phases - there is only so much Brian O'Driscoll can do going backwards with no space and in-your-face defences, and that brings me to:
    • We rely too much on our over-vaunted midfield - what happened to the powerful lineout and open play of a couple of seasons back?
    • We never matched the ferocity in defence that the teams that are doing well in this world cup are showing (such as Argentina and obviously the All Blacks [not to mention the rising Islanders - go FIJI!])
    • We don't support the ball carrier quickly enough to the breakdown
    • We have become obsessed with offloading in the tackle - once again, this doesn't work when you are being overrun on your own ten metre line going backwards with no support - moments need to be chosen! I think defences, offloads in the tackle, and quick powerful support will win this world cup - ie New Zealand
    • Our set-pieces were woeful. Lineout, once an O'Connell and O'Kelly dominated fortress for us, was a shambles. No accuracy, no ideas. Scrum - always on the back foot against any half-decent team
    • Some said we were over-coached - how does this explain the LACK of structure in everything we did?
    • What the hell was Ronan O'Gara up to? He kicked like he had a broken foot (actually my mate Rhys has a broken foot, and he kicks better) He needs to go, but what are our options? We should have fielded David Humphreys for one last World Cup - he may not have changed our overall chances, but I think we would have beaten Argentina with him - he was a far superior kicker in tight high-pressure games. He was forced to retire one World Cup too early by Eddie O'Sullivan's obsession with Munster players, and the ROG/Stringer combo - speaking of which, what does the unexciting Eoin Reddan add? At least Stringer can tackle like a terrier even if he is tiny 
    • Where was the Munster factor? Don't they put themselves on the line for Ireland?
    • And lastly, we just weren't good enough. We would have been crushed by the All Blacks in Paris anyway
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