Monthly Archives: August 2014

Poetry: “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman

August 7, 2014 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , Leave a comment

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack,
the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for
you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths- for you the shores
a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Super Rugby 2014: Winners and Losers

August 6, 2014 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , 1 Comment

The Super Rugby competition for 2014 is now over and the Waratahs have been crowned champions. It has been a long season and as with any season there are always winners and losers. Here are my winners and losers from the 2014 Super Rugby season:

Winners:

New South Wales Waratahs:

What a season it has been for Michael Cheika and his Waratahs. Coming into this season they had not won in Super Rugby competition and were desperate to get that monkey off their backs. Simply put: they were the best team in the competition in 2014 and its biggest winner.

Highlanders:

2013 was the worst season the Highlanders have had in Super Rugby competition, particularly with the squad listing they had. 2014, after a clear out of playing stocks that saw many consider that they would be in the fight for the wooden spoon again. They over-performed with the line up they had and were in the running for a finals spot right up to the final weeks of the competition.

Western Force:

The Western Force have long been the perennial strugglers of the Australian conference in this competition whilst also being one of its off field success stories, particularly when you consider the excellent crowds the franchise garners to its games. Those die hard fans were treated this year to the best season on record for the Force. If they keep up their improvement from this season a finals birth can not been out of the question in future seasons.

Biggest Winner: Israel Folau

This is tough for me to say but after only two seasons Folau is fast becoming, if he is not there already, one of the best players in the game. Yet again this season he dominated opposition whenever had ball in hand and was the cornerstone of the Waratahs first championship victory.

Losers:

Cheetahs:

The Cheetahs came into the 2014 season off the back of a 2013 season in which they were finalists and, in my view, the biggest winner of 2013. What a difference 12 months can make. The Cheetahs were nothing short of ordinary this season and have lost any of the impetuous they had gained from the 2013 season.

SANZAR Referees:

It has not been a happy season for refereeing in the Super Rugby competition. 2014 has seen everything from the referees from inconsistent interpretations, incorrect decisions, over use of technology and suggestions of bias. There is no doubt that refereeing is a thankless task but this season has not been a good one for the whistleblowers.

SANZAR:

SANZAR this season has trumpeted its expansion plans with the addition of two more teams on the agenda. For all of the expansion talk I, for one, don’t believe we have seen a season where the gap between the best and worst teams in the competition has been more obvious. Frankly, I will never be convinced that the Australian and South African conferences do not have one team too many in them and the results again showed this season. Add that fact to another end of season exodus of players from the competition and I wonder if SANZAR is reconsidering its position on expansion.

Biggest Loser: Queensland Reds

I am a passionate Reds fan and have written earlier about my views on the Reds season. There can be no doubt that the Reds were hamstrung by injuries during the season. That said, the fact is that the Reds have gone from a team that was one of the bunch marks for discipline in the competition to the worst disciplined team in it. Add to that the fact that the skills of the Reds looked to evaporated the longer the season went on makes the Reds the biggest loser for 2014.

Super Rugby 2015 starts in seven months time: I am already counting down the days!

Canberra Raiders: We deserve the wooden spoon and heads must roll

August 5, 2014 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , 1 Comment

I have written previously this year about the position of Ricky Stuart at the Canberra Raiders. I am not going to rehash all of that: the fact is that I do not believe Ricky Stuart is the right man to be coaching Canberra and I will never be convinced otherwise. He is a team destroyer rather than a team builder and until he is no longer in charge of the team I expect no success for the green machine.

That rant about the coach had, I have to say that I had, until Sunday’s game, had hope that from the player group the Raiders possess at the moment the team could at least be competitive this season and avoid the dreaded wooden spoon having never been a recipient of that “prize” in 33 years in the competition.

Nothing I saw though in another Raider’s capitulation, this time against the Warriors, has done anything to suggest any other conclusion than that the Raiders really do not deserve any other result than to receive the wooden spoon. Unlike the Sharks, who have had significant disruption this year through the drugs saga, there is no real cogent excuse that can be made for just how bad the Raiders are in 2014.

Change is needed at the Raiders. That is plain. Ricky Stuart going is just the tip of the iceberg though. On the management side of the business Don Furner has presided over calamitous and embarrassing season in which the results on the field have been coupled with an inability to attract players to the club. He must be replaced.

On the player side, it is hard to see ornaments to the club come to the end of their careers but it is time for some such players including Campese and Tilse to be moved along or quietly retired. When those players go then the Raiders must trust in the U20s coming through rather than seek to replace like with like as Furner has done in previous years.

I have never supported a team other the Canberra Raiders and I never will. It hurts me to see my proud club at such a low ebb. Regardless of the end result of this season changes just have to be made in Canberra. If you need another reason for this, and I will leave this post at this, then have a look at the plethora of empty seats in the ground on Sunday. The fans are not coming to the games and for the fans to come back change must be made. It is the simple.

Postscript: I originally wrote this blog on Sunday afternoon after the Raiders terrible performance against the Warriors. My original draft was much more forceful in my condemnation: this is the calmer draft!