Hello everyone, welcome back to another blog piece, we’ve had almost every element of weather since we last spoke on here, and I’m hoping that we can get another warm spell before the summer is out and we’re sent back in to the colder winter months again.
The weather might’ve been slightly disappointing recently, but there’s been plenty of sport going on where the temperatures have only been going in one direction, and that’s rising.
At the moment the main focus is on the cricket, and with England losing the second test against Australia, meaning they now need to win the remaining three games to lift the Ashes, things don’t look too good for Ben Stokes and his team.
However, the big talking point of all the games so far happened at the weekend when Jonny Bairstow was controversially given out, so I wanted to dissect the incident as best as I possibly could.
Firstly, I would like to openly say that I did play cricket for a period of time during my childhood, but that doesn’t make me an expert on this incident, and like I mentioned on Twitter the other day, there is two sides to this story.
So the talking point itself then, let me set the scene in case people don’t know, England are fighting hard to try and chase down what seemingly looks like an impossible target which has been set by Australia to level the test series, while the Aussies are looking to make it 2-0.
Despite it being a large target to try and reach, England are slowly eating into the deficit and beginning to get the Australians feeling slightly uncomfortable.
Stokes as always is keeping cool under the pressure, and Jonny Bairstow is set to make sure that he can help his skipper heap even more worry into the minds of Australia, we seem to have a finely poised finish coming up to this match.
But then the incident, Cameron Green bowls to Bairstow, who leaves the delivery which lands just outside his off-stump, before the ball bounces and ends up in the gloves of wicket-keeper Alex Carey, who without hesitation launches the ball at the stumps.
Bairstow has already made his way down the wicket by this point as he thinks the over is essentially over, but the umpire hadn’t called it yet, and the ball which Carey has thrown ends up hitting the stumps, que the controversy.
Australia appeal, as anyone surely would when the ball hits the stumps, I think that’s just standard in the sport, and Bairstow is given run out, because he has been by what has happened.
So by the letter of the law, the decision is correct, but in the spirit of the game, it’s not at all.
England believe that Aussie captain Pat Cummins should’ve come to his senses and withdrawn the appeal, as Bairstow clearly believed that the ball was already dead, and would obviously never just wander out of his crease like that in any other circumstance.
This was then met with backlash from the Australians who claimed that Bairstow had tried to do the same thing to batsman Marnus Labuschagne when he was out of his crease, and has tried it in other test matches as well, which is true, but the thing is with those cases though is that the ball doesn’t hit the stumps so we didn’t end up in a situation like this.
Stokes has said that if the incident had happened the other way around he would’ve not let the wicket stand, because he didn’t want to bring the spirit of the game into dispute, while Cummins is standing his ground and backing Carey as he believes he still had every right to do what he did, and that once it happened it was all down to the umpires.
Now another bit to this part of the argument is that Bairstow was quite clearly way more relaxed than Labuschagne was, and Bairstow also did momentarily go back and put his foot back in the crease to almost signal that it was the end of the over, which I think should’ve been enough evidence for Australia to look back and see that it wasn’t fair to stick the appeal.
It just didn’t feel right to me to stick with the decision, yes both teams are competing in the Ashes, which obviously has so much history and emotion involved in it, but what has happened to sportsmanship?
You can say that it has taught Bairstow a lesson, but what lesson does it give to all those younger people who look up to these sporting stars? That you just have to win at all costs, and the spirit of the game doesn’t matter?
The fact that it has brought the spirit of the game into dispute is the biggest issue here, like I said, this could’ve just passed as a warning to Bairstow, set it up and say to him that if you do that again we will appeal, and we will be sticking with it, that would seem fairer.
That can’t be changed now though, and the reality is England are staring an Ashes defeat right in the face, even if Stuart Broad believes that Alex Carey will only ever be remembered for what he did in this test, nothing can be changed about it now.
It’s really important to see both sides to the story as always, and the Australian press has painted the picture that the English are cry-babies, which depending how you take it either adds light humour to it all or rubs salt into the wound.
Australia might regret the decision to keep the appeal, they also might not, the fact is that it cannot be changed, and we can sit and talk about it as much as we want but, we just all have to get on with it now.
That’s exactly what we’re going to do with the blog piece anyways, otherwise we’re just going to have a full one of cricket and one incident, which is easily doable but, we want to also talk about some more positive things.
To rugby union it is then, and it’s great to see Fylde getting preparations underway ahead of the new season, which feels as though it’s not a million miles away now.
Joint coaches Alex Loney and Chris Briers have signed a contract which will see them remain at the club until the end of the 2024/25 season which is excellent, as it will continue to provide stability right at the top, and hopefully keep the side progressing towards that promotion bid to National League One.
Flanker Tane Bentley has also decided to re-join the club after a stint at promotion winning Sedgley last season, and he enjoyed an excellent time there, making my team of the season for The Rugby Paper as well.
His pace and elusiveness that he can bring to the pack could be essential, and he always has that ability to cause defence problems in all conditions.
Alongside him backrower Ethan Hall-Lyon has joined from Blaydon ahead of the new campaign, and Sam Carleton, younger brother of Tom, who has already enjoyed a highly successful career at the club, has also signed on after deciding to take a year out from university.
Rugby is installed in the Carleton blood, with father John playing at the highest level and representing the British and Irish Lions in his playing days, and Sam can hopefully continue making the progress he has seemingly made in the last 12 months and follow in his footsteps.
Of course though there is some outgoings in the side, flanker Henry Higginson joining Hinckley, and centre Connor Wilkinson linking up with Championship club Caldy on loan ahead of the new season.
From the very first game that I watched down at Fylde, I highlighted Connor as a key player, but unfortunately that season he suffered a serious ACL injury and missed the entire campaign.
He returned at the start of the 2022/23 season, and picked up where he left off, his speed combined with his power causing opposition defences all types of problems, and he was also included in my team of the season.
Connor will be a big miss at the club, but it’s great to see him get the chance to prove his worth at a higher level, and hopefully he can do just that.
It’s also been great to see Tristan Woodman playing so well for England this summer, as he was also a stand-out in a Fylde shirt last season.
Tristan is a player who has a solid all-round game, and going forward there’s no reason why he can’t go on to do big things, shown already by his involvement in the England set-up.
It’ll be strange not being in the press box this season though, I’ll be keeping an eye on all the action but all the focus at this moment in time is applying for jobs and making the next steps into the industry.
You could technically say that it’s time to become a proper adult now, I’ve been saying it anyways, but it’s definitely a time to be excited that’s for sure.
There’s another topic that I also wanted to cover in this blog, and that’s back into the football area.
The transfer window has really got rolling in the last few days with Mason Mount in the process of making his move to Manchester United and Declan Rice on his way to Arsenal.
One piece in particular springs to mind about the Rice move though, and that’s the claims that Eni Aluko made on TalkSport that Manchester City were never actually interested in Rice but were just bidding for him so that Mikel Arteta could get him in the end.
To say she has done similar business where she has had no intention of buying a player but has been told by the club the player is at to bid for them or show interest so that it can create a bidding war or get them a better deal is very interesting, and from my perspective, and from a lot of you that are reading this, we have absolutely no idea whether that is true or not.
Manchester City were interested in Rice I think personally, and they were bidding because they wanted him, not to try and raise the price or make sure that Arteta could get the move done faster.
Ultimately I didn’t think the move to City would’ve suited him though, and he can make more of an impact on that Arsenal team and try and push them towards that Premier League title that ended up evading them last season.
On Twitter the other day I also spoke about the transfer activity at Wolves, where the club has seen Nathan Collins and Conor Coady both leave in recent days and reports flying around that Napoli have had a £35 million bid rejected for Max Kilman.
This summer was always going to have to be one that saw players leave to help balance up the books and release the pressure that had been put on through Financial Fair Play, and I think that if all this means the club can bring in signings that the manager wants then it is good business.
You add that in alongside the Neves deal, as I mentioned in the last piece, it creates some funds that weren’t available before all this, and at the end of the day, the players leaving were either already going such as Neves, fell out of favour like Coady, or failed to make the impact that the club thought they would have like Collins.
For me, I don’t think letting Kilman leave would be the right choice though, he has really come of age in recent years and I think moving forward he still has such a big part to play in this team, so hopefully the club agree on that one.
The areas I think the club will focus on in terms of bringing in players will be the striker position for sure, because last season and you could even argue the season before, we struggled with putting the ball in the back of the net.
Jimenez hasn’t returned from his injury the same player unfortunately, but I will also argue that losing Diogo Jota to Liverpool has had an impact on his goal threat since coming back.
Pedro Neto is a very talented player and I hope he can make more of an impact moving forward this campaign, and the same with Matheus Cunha, who showed all signs of being a decent enough striker when joining from Atletico Madrid but failed to hit the back of the net enough.
Pablo Sarabia should still get involved, but I’m not convinced that Daniel Podence is really included in the plans, and Adama is obviously looking to head off elsewhere after not signing a contract.
In the midfield it’s a chance for Matheus Nunes to step forward and show why the club paid all that money for him last summer now that Neves is gone, and alongside Lemina they provide solid options, but there still needs to be a few additions in this area just to provide a few more options.
Defensively and especially in the full-back area Wolves seem covered, with Nelson Semedo on the right, and Bueno, Nouri, Jonny and Toti Gomes all able to provide cover on the left, although I think you could still see either Jonny or Nouri leave to go elsewhere.
Centre-half wise Dawson and Kilman worked well when they were paired together last season, but it would also be good to see the club bring in one or two more players in this position, and goalkeeper wise it’ll be interesting to see if anyone comes in for Sa.
It feels almost like the foundations of a good squad are already there, and making sure the manager stayed on was the biggest thing, because he can now adapt this team to suit how he wants the club to play football, and that provides excitement for the fans, because I felt under Lage everything went boring and predictable.
Lage from day one never looked like the person to take this club forward and build on what Nuno created, and towards the end of his first season in charge the warning signs were there for me.
Under Nuno you could expect the side to have periods in the game where they were dangerous but also comfortable enough defensively, whereas Lage hardly ever had any threat in the way the team played, hence the lack of goals.
His treatment of Coady last summer in pre-season was very poor, although you could argue that Conor should’ve tried to stick around and fight for his place, I don’t think Lage would’ve even given him that opportunity.
A fresh start is what it feels like really, back to the drawing board after safety was secure, and hopefully back to something like we were producing in those years under Nuno, he says with his fingers crossed.
That’s about everything covered though for this blog piece, plenty of topics to talk about as always, and it wasn’t even that long ago since we last spoke!
The cricket one in particular could rumble on for a while I feel, and I’ve seen so many comments and opinions on social media these last few days that I’ve almost not been able to read about anything else.
On a side note as well for those who don’t follow me on Twitter or have the app, I got the great news on Monday evening that I had passed the final bit of my NCTJ qualification, which now means that alongside my First Class Degree I also have an NCTJ Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism.
All sorted as well in advance of graduation next Tuesday, now I just need to sort out what I’m going to wear for the day beneath the cap and gown, que wardrobe chaos…
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