Hail the Storm

It's really wild outside. So much for spring. Even wilder in Sydney right now, as the Rugby League press desultorily hail the Melbourne Storm, NRL champions, who have been in the Grand Final of New South Wales' game for four years running and taken it twice.
Time to implement the "El Broncos Solution": introduce another Victorian team, split their support base.

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The Black Caps have made the final of the Champions Trophy in South Africa. A huge improvement from their last international tournament, the Twenty/20 World Cup, where they talked big then only beat minnows. Here they have under-promised and over-performed. Good luck to them against Australia tomorrow. Get Ponting for less than 50, and I think they'll take it.

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The Tua fight on Saturday was of course the weekend's biggest sporting news. The Former Number One Heavy-weight Contender in the World blew out Shane Cameron's lights 7 seconds into the second round.

It was a lesson in class. And it was a reminder that those with class don't always succeed. After his defeat to Lennox Lewis, David Tua "fell in with a bad crowd" and hasn't been able to carry on to his potential. The impression of peace and self-belief he has shown in the weeks leading up were very impressive. Maybe he can still do it. Like Rocky Balboa, I think he's "got a bit still in there."

The Boxing Ring is one of the many "widely admired" sports and pursuits I care less than nothing for, but Tua's story still gives us a good look at a man.

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That puts me in mind of the book I am reading, "The Winner's Bible", by NZ psychologist Dr Kerry Spackman. My god, he sets out a convincing template for improving yourself. There came a point in the book where I thought, "The types of people who will read this and seek him out, he is going to make some already powerful people very dangerous."

The next page, however, he gave a short lucid commentary of the harm of the excesses of power - specifically of the excesses of capitalism, since we live in a globalising capitalist economy - both to ourselves and the people around us. It was nice to see, albeit a bit "lite" and tentative, with the balance of the book playing quite overtly towards the target market of those hungering for business and sporting success.

But that's not Spackman. A key to "winning" for him is balance and moderation. That really needs to be emphasised more in our society, which is growing ever more extremist in the search for "growth" and profits.