The Return of Football

It was a good weekend for lovers of the egg-ball game with all three codes making a return down under.

Rugby League has the All Stars Game which was a great way to start off the season. The Indigenous side won 16-12 in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 26,000. The good feeling of the game could mean that it is going to become a permanent fixture on the rugby league calendar.

The first half of the first round of the 2010 NAB Cup took part. There were good wins for the West Coast Eagles, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Western Bulldogs.

This sets up two of the quarter-finals where the Eagles will take on the Power and the Hawks will battle the Bulldogs.

The four remaining first round matches throw up some interesting games. St Kilda meet Collingwood in what should be a great tussle between two of the bigger Victorian clubs. The Saints will obviously want to bounce back from their Grand Final loss while the Magpies will want to do well after making the final last year.

The Swans have never won a NAB Cup match under coach Paul Roos and this will be their last chance when they take on Carlton in Blacktown. The two will be keen to impress as will be Melbourne who take on Fremantle in Subiaco. The final first round match is defending champion Geelong up against North Melbourne. It will be interesting to see where most of the live bets end up. You would think they woulud begin with the Cats.

This will be a tough ask for the Kangaroos and will be a gruelling first-up assignment for new coach Brad Scott.

Then there is the Super 14 which had its first round. There were good wins to the Hurricanes, Brumbies, Bulls, Crusaders, Waratahs, Stormers and Chiefs. It was particularly good for the Chiefs to be able to win in South Africa.

All matches were fiercely contested but none as much as the heated Queensland-NSW derby. The two old foes locked horns in a game which went down to the wire. What wouldn’t please the Reds is that the Waratahs won with the last passage of play. New Reds coach Ewen McKenzie will be scratching his head and wondering what went wrong when for all money, it looked like the hosts were going to get the points.

Week 2 throws up some more fascinating games. The Reds host the Crusaders in a tricky match which could see them already in a 0-2 hole.

Darren Albert writes for this blog. He also writes about betting online.