Greetings all from sunny Paris, where it's a balmy 7 degrees Celsius. Am over here checking out the set up at Racing Metro for a certain international coach who has his employer by the short and curlies. Stay tuned for more.
Looking forward to the Shute Shield kicking off this weekend. For me, of particular interest will be seeing if Cohen Mason can in fact fill the boots of that great Eastwood stalwart Hugh Perrett. How will the back to back premiers go now head coach John Manenti wont be there "fulltime" with Woody and Hodgie taking the reins on the day to day basis.
The comment below interests me.
Perry for Easts and Iona for Warringah will be of interest. As the Coach says, a lot of new faces in all teams.
My snouts tell me that the Rats also got Iona's great mate and ex Brumbie number 8 colossus Fotu Auelua and that he'll take the field for them this week but they're keeping it all hush hush. Apparently GM/Captain over there Luke Holmes has had to sell a kidney to pay for the both of them but the scar has healed up nicely and Holmesy is fired up and ready to go on a reduced 4 cylinders! Should make for some compelling viewing.
There's not too many familiar names there at the foot of the mountains but I do hope JP and his assistant Dan (dunno his last name) can get them all pointing in the right direction at least. One things for certain, atleast there'll be PLENTY of amber nectar flowing post much with those 2 around. They'll certainly have a great year off the field, which, might be just what they need.
Dave Beat will keep us all informed of the news Manly want us to know, and every now and then some of the news they don't want us to know.
Be interesting to see how Neil Tunnah goes now he has the keys to the city at Concord, from all reports he's a good forwards coach and a genuine bloke.
Hugh Jarse will keep us all informed with the stats, The Coach and Inside Shoulder will give us their technical expertise again and the messiah (as I think someone else called him) BellyTwoBlues will.....................well he'll just tell us how it is. Or has he learned the art of sugarcoating in the offseason?
As an old journo who's been covering this competition for a long long time, I still look forward to the new season every year. For me, sadly I wont be getting to too many games this year as the re-structure at work means I'll be reporting on other sports and not just the rah rahs.
Can't wait.
A bientot everyone!