Brazilian striker Neymar has become a global joke, a somersaulting clown, a diver and a prima donna.
In a sport where being in the vertical should be a distinct advantage, Neymar, sometimes Neymar Junior (full name, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior), has accumulated a reported 14 minutes in the World Cup competition thus far, writhing about on the deck in horrible pain, before getting lightly to his feet, sprinting off and scoring yet another goal.
Certainly, if Neymar, was an AFL player, he’d be dragged, forced to sit on the pine and think about what he did. In rugby, he’d be stomped mercilessly at the breakdown. In NRL, he’d almost certainly be killed. In soccer, or football at the insistence of my editor, he’s a gun and may one day become the greatest of all time.
SBS commentator, Craig Foster, declared him “a genius”, albeit a flawed one. Mozart was a genius. Michelangelo, too. No doubt. Unless Neymar is scribbling down a piano concerto in A Major or resolving the intrinsic paradox of transcendental bijection in the spacetime continuum before banging the ball into the back of the net, I suspect he comes up short in the genius stakes.
Full column here.
Lou oTOD – congrats on reaching the ton in the tips, Lou. I’m hot on your heels and have the no.1 spot in my sights. I’ll just cruise past Tracy in the next week or 2 first!
Thanks mate, but always one week away from the dustbin. If you remember I was top of the wazza last year before the finals, and got burned in the end.
I still recon four central umpires is one of the biggest mistakes the AFL have ever made. They all think they have to control the game.
Still waiting Milt………
What shit week for moi! Meanwhile, keep waiting…
Go the red and white!
Been gone since Friday, and they’re already sending me contracts to sign. They’re like a stalker ex-girlfriend!
Just a small observation, Mr. Insider, your astute Australian Newspaper Journalist, Peter van Onselen, bears some striking similarities to the US’s Chuck Todd, who does “Meet The Press”. Cheers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4z5p5sggyE
Humans should rightly be in the end days when a lardgut slob like this can murder such a magnificent animal. There is some creepy analogy between the human species and their environment happening here.
Everything is out of kilter folks, with AGW the whole of humanity will collectively garner the ultimate Darwin Award.
http://adventuresinlimboland.blogspot.com/2015/05/fat-man-with-dead-lion.html#.W0Wd9vZuJ-Q
Behind you 100 %, Mr. Baptiste, that is disgraceful. Let’s pray disgusting persons like that wake up to themselves before its too late. Cheers
One hopes he goes for a swim and the well meaning Greenies keep pushing him back into the water until he drowns Henry.
Trophy hunting is nothing more than a violent form of recreation that the majority do not need for subsistence. I’m always sick with disgust when I see these psycho cowards posing with endangered animals they’ve just killed to entertain themselves.
No human being can justify this bullshit to me JB.
For many species who mate for life & live in close knit family units, hunting can devastate entire communities.
This is interesting to say the least.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/13/heatwave-sees-record-high-temperatures-set-around-world-this-week
Applause for Dr Richard Harris for declining all requests for interviews.
After achieving what he and the rest of the rescue team did, there would be nothing much worse than fielding the stupid inane questions that get thrown at them.
Bella says:
JULY 10, 2018 AT 8:49 AM
Great to hear U had Labor parents-me no. As a young kid there was venom across the tea table as my Tory parents did everything in their power to try and indoctrinate me but I was always an independent thinker’from a very young age which totally aggravated them.” WHY?” was my questioning and they did not like it or show me any evidence to back up their unsubstantiated claims about the other side of politics. I guess it was wonderful preparation for dealing with with extreme right wingers in later life. How anybody on wages could vote for this lot just baffles me. Trickle down from the rich to the poor has never worked and never will. A right wing mate keeps raving to me about the USA strong economy but have the wage earners benefited.? Pigz Arse they have. Just like the tax cuts Reagan The Bush’s and Thatcher gave-only the rich have done well under Trumper.
Oh and PS:- somehow your name and email address came up in my reply.
Thanks for letting me know about my details Bassy. 😉
Re this dodgy government’s never-ending spin and incompetence; when people on wages know what they stand for & who they stand up for, how do they ever get votes? Beats the hell out of me.
Maybe this time with Turncoat’s massive tax handout to corporates and rewarding the banking sector’s corrupt practices all whilst slashing funding to every basic service like hospitals, public schools, then axing penalty rates, apprenticeship training programs, etc, etc.
The list is bloody disgraceful mate and they want to force older workers to stay in their jobs until 70 years dead! I heard today they’re about to grab back billions from the everyday worker’s previous tax deductions.
I say kick them so far out they’ll never know what hit them til it’s over.
I had a post rejected last night as I was a suspected Bot. This has never happened to me before although there have been occasions when people have suspected I was German. I don’t associate with any Bots and don’t look anything like them. I have never visited Botstan or any of its neighbouring republics that were previously part of the Soviet Union. But I see no reason to discriminate against any Bot that wishes to make a comment here.
My daughter watches no sport other than the World Cup. Normally difficult to wake at 11am she bounced out of bed at 3:15 this morning. Benjamin Pavard is a particular attraction and she’s happy that France are through to the final.
It was nothing personal, mate. Rather a glitch with a plug in on the site. I am happy you are back. Your daughter is wise.
Just quietly I don’t mind a bit of er umtiti
Botulism perhaps? From Botswana?
“New investment data shows US equipment investment fell in the first quarter of the year compared to the final quarter of 2017. How about wages, which are supposed to increase due to company tax cuts (at least according to Mathias Cormann)? In June, monthly wage growth in the US fell to 0.2% from 0.3% in March, lower than expected and leaving wage growth at 2.7% for the 2017-18 year. Inflation in the US was 2.8% for the year to May, suggesting US workers are actually going backwards after inflation.”
“It’s now clear that the Trump company tax cuts haven’t delivered any of the benefits claimed by spruikers — both in the US, and here, at the Business Council, in the government or at the Financial Review. But could it be that Trump and the GOP are so incompetent that they’re going to blow nearly $2 trillion on stimulating an already heated economy and manage not merely not to increase investment or wages, but not increase growth at all, and leave share prices underperforming? That would be some achievement.”
JB @ July 6th 6.37pm
Possibly close to your best ever old bean! Brilliant! Pissing the pants brilliant in fact!
And Razor Mr. Baptiste is going to do a similar one on POTUS Trump too yes he is. I take Mr Baptiste as a very serious young fella who would never take the mickey nooooo. Cheers
Why thank you old chap. Mainly lost on the peasants of course with their focus on irrelevant aspects like the score and macho standards.
I am still deeply moved and inspired by the poetry of the immortal Hungarian superstar footballer Hemil Puskass.
“The net is the womb of the world,
The goalkeeper, is a jealous husband,
The rest of that extraordinary work is far too avant garde, sensuous and confronting for this venue I’m afraid.
Bless you for your appreciation of refinement and beauty.
And give ’em heaps.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/redeye/redeye-most-elegant-soccer-players-ever-20150728-htmlstory.html
Would the striker be the young lover who arrogantly tries to propel the seed past the husband and into the womb?
Oh yes , football is a metaphor for the human biological imperative. It is said that men have a difficult time coming from that place and spend the rest of their lives trying to or dreaming of getting back in there. It’s why fans are so depressed when their team doesn’t “score.”
It is true of Neymar of course but he takes it to the highest spiritual plane. I tried to, , well I mean , I propositioned a nun once.
As long as it was only once old bean. I’d hate to see you get into the habit!
Noice, Razor!
If you can, Jack, a distillation of the “thought of Boris” would be much appreciated, to fill a vacant spot on the small shelf in the little room, alongside the volume of Lord Lex’s wisdom.
We may be already well & truly routed, but wait until Trump sticks his oar into NATO.
Will there be fisticuffs at NATO next week? We can only hope so.