I have played a lot of sport in my life. Being competitive by nature, I only ever knew one way to go and that was HARD. Win or loose, I was red in the face and completely buggered by the bell. The idea of match fixing was just a fairy tale.
But today, when the betting sponsors the bloody sports' coverage and a great deal of cash is on the line, as well as the seemingly less important geographical pride, well wouldn't you hope that the games are above board and honestly contested.
Reality TV might well have tainted me forever, cos I expect 'the fix and the fiddle', and I play guess the outcome which will bring about the highest ratings, and rarely am I wrong. But the result of last night's middle round of the "STAGE of ORANGES' as Zig calls it was all too predictable.
Queensland won the first game and the only way to make the ratings big for the third game was to have NSW win the second game. So now all the interest is on the final game as apposed to it being a 'dead rubber' - delightful expression that!
The fellas played hard and there were the usual ref oopsies and there didn't seem to be too much left in the players' tanks, but I still am left with that rather unpalatable taste of 'FIXED'
I would love to believe that I am wrong, that there is still honour in sport, however agnostic leanings are constant. There is too much money and too much sponsorship and too many egos and too much 'ratings drive' for it too be automatically beyond reproach.
It would shock me not at all to wake tomorrow, to proof positive of a fixing scandal. The strange thing is though even considering all this, I am up for the third and final game, and perhaps it has not already been decided.
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