Race to Album '09 Heats Up

2009 has been a slow year for new music. U2 got the ball rolling early on with their 12th studio album 'No Line on the Horizon', which was following in June by Dream Theater's 'Black Clouds and Silver Linings'. Since then we have looked to a trio of bands releasing their albums at this time of the year to stake a big claim for TC Ink album of the year. We have heard Jet's Shaka Rock and Pearl Jam's Backspacer but there is still no clear leader. Will Wolfmother surprise us with a ripper second album in a months time? Queens of the Stone Age were meant to record another album this year, but that now looks unlikely.

So what has been the stand out so far this year? It is heard to tell.

U2 - No Line on the Horizon

U2's early '09 release probably stands as an unlikely favourite at the moment. The first single of the album 'Get on Your Boots' was a bit of a disappointment, but the remainder of the album delivered some good tunes. While it has some low, boring points it is made up for with great songs like Magnificent, Stand Up Comedy and Breathe. If U2 were to pull of TC Ink album of the year it would be a notable achievement considering TC Ink's focus on heavier styles of rock.

Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings

2009 has been the year of Dream Theater on TC Ink and if one award is pretty much for certain its these guys taking out Best New Addition, they are also definitely in the running for artist of the year. This years released featured only 6 songs with a few long epics. 'A Rite of Passage' was the first single and rightfully so. With a while still to decide, 'Black Clouds and Silver Linings' could easily end up at No. 1 for album of the year.

Jet - Shaka Rock

Aussie rock always goes down well at TC Ink. We weren't exactly on the edge of our seat for this new Jet album, but it was entertaining when it came and provided us with some catchy songs. The first single 'She's a Genius' set a good platform, and the lead track 'KIA' sends the album off to a flying start. From there the album is typical Jet and the lack of imagination in the album is what could be its downfall.

Pearl Jam - Backspacer

Pre-release, 'Backspacer' was clear favourite to snatch album of the year. 'The Fixer' was released early and immediately became a hit. It stands as favourite for Song of the Year and it created immense anticipation towards the album. Unfortunately, it is nothing special. Yes it is a decent Pearl Jam record, but it doesn't deliver on the hype that surrounded it. There are few memorable songs, 'Got Some' and 'Johnny Guitar' stood out. 'Backspacer' is now unlikely to take Album of the Year.

So there is our current take on the contenders so far. We know for sure that Wolfmother will have a go with 'Cosmic Egg', but other than that its a pretty quiet list for '09 compared to '08 which saw a heavyweight battle between The Living End, Metallica and Kings of Leon and that's not even mentioning Coldplay and the Offspring, who would have definitely been at the fore front had they released this year.

Wednesday Snapshot

NRL: Eels to win Premiership. That would make 9 seasons without a repeat Premier. Seriously though, it could be anyone. Well, except Brisbane that is. A bit of unease in the camp with Wallace out and Melbourne running out fresh, the Storm should win well. Bulldogs vs Eels on Friday will be an absolute cracker, more than 55k tickets have been sold already, that is massive.

All stars game announced to kick off 2010 season. On February 13 an all Indigenous team will play a rest of the NRL team. The NRL team will contain a player from every club.

Weather (Sydney): Swine flu paranoids rejoice as they are given another use for their white masks.

England Should Consider Trotting Into Form

It has been a walkover. An Australian side furious over losing the Ashes has unleashed hell in the ODI series to get as much revenge as possible and England's sub standard side has been demolished.

What is baffling is that there is talent sitting on the sideline... Wait a minute, not on the sideline, he isn't even in the squad!

Jonathan Trott hit the English test team with a bang debuting with a 41 then following it up with a glorious 119 in England's ashes winning test at The Oval. Scores are one thing, how convincing you look when you get them is another. And I can tell you Trott has the goods. After only a couple of overs of watching his debut innings I could tell he was quality. Compared to some of the English bunnies he looked confident, solid, classy -- like an Australian? (Well... He is South African. I suppose that explains it.) I said straight away - he is going to get a score. 41 proved me right - and his mode of dismissal was unlucky. Then we all know what happened in the second innings.

This bloke, who averages 42 in List A (Domestic One Dayers) matches, who replaced a hopeless Bopara in the test team, now sits behind him again in the ODI squad. For the record, Bopara averages 34 in List A games. And what about some of the other mugs in the English batting line up? Denly's List A average is 32. Shah 35. Morgan 35. Fair dinkum not only do these guys' stats not stand up, but they just look hopeless! Dead set bunnies! What are the selectors thinking, what are they on?

With their current team, England are going to Trott on towards a 7-0 embarrasment (which I won't complain about at all considering the 11.50 odds I got for that result!). Trott has a huge future and why they are delaying him is a mystery.

Wednesday Snapshot

Cricket: Tune in tonight to watch Australia make it 3-0. Team likely to remain the same, England a shambles. 11.50 for 7-0 worth a couple of bob? All odds favouring Callum Ferguson look good.

NRL: Hayne wins Dally M, but fans on edge of their seat to begin voting for Covell Award. We still have a finals series to go yet! Reports have been released that 14 punters died of laughter after seeing Fitzgibbon nominated for lock of the year. Souths fans begin naming next coach possibilities.
Thursday Update: Jason Taylor looks like surviving and staying on as Souths coach.

V8 Supercars: Castrol to leave FPR at seasons end. DJR a good outsiders shot for Enduros.

NASCAR: Ambrose 23rd (Monday morning), drops out of 'the bubble'... Whatever that is.

NRL State of the Game Document 2009

The NRL have released their annual State of the Game document for 2009. The document contains information on crowds, ratings, refereeing and much more for the 09 season. Why it is released before the end of the regular season is beyond me, but I'm sure they have their reasons...

For those who would like the read the whole think, click here.

For those who don't, I will pick out the interesting parts and report.

The summary page picks out the best bits. An impressive stat is that this years comp will set the highest attendance record except for when there were 20 teams. This along with the fact that average crowds are up by 2.12% on last year are a testament to the work clubs and the NRL has done in driving membership numbers (which rose by a massive 27% to about 110 000), promoting games as well as special events for certain days for example family fun day. This is all a step in the right direction.

Overall, channel 9 ratings have increased. It is a bit hard to take any facts out of this as the accuracy of ratings are questionable, but I suppose the increase in viewers is a good sign.

Similar to last year, NRL has 60 of the top 100 rating shows on Pay TV.

One of the most encouraging points for me, was that club player registrations rose by 6.8% from last year to take it to an all time high. A new junior participation record of 124 319 was set. This is great news for the future of the game as it shows that grassroots are stable.

The NRL donated nearly $2 million to charity this season.

The top 3 clubs with the greatest increase in average crowds were the Bulldogs, up 45%, the Warriors, up 36%, and the Panthers, up 26%. The Bulldogs are in fact sitting 2nd behind the Broncos is average crowds, which is a great effort. I imagine that they are the first Sydney team to finish with an average of over 20 000 for a long time. The Tigers broke their home ground record against the Eels at the SFS (34 272) and so did the Bulldogs against the Warriors last weekend (41 835), which was also the highest crowd for a stand alone regular season game in Sydney in 35 years.

The is a 'research' section, which displays some strange figures. I don't know how they got these figures, I suppose a survey went around at some point. But apparently supporter's passion has increased from 5.9 out of 1o to 6.5. Seems like a bit of a gimmick to me. It also says that 36% of people interested in League attended a game, up from 27% last year. That is a positive sign and one that needs to keep increasing. The Toyota Cup is also growing in popularity. Also in this section is says that fans seem to think that:
-Game play is improving.
-Off field behaviour has gotten worse (Surprise, surprise).
-They are more likely to attend games.

Here are some stats that I found quite interesting. In '08 340 tries were scored from kicks. This is down to 272 in '09 (with 1 round remaining). Dummy half runs have also dropped. This could be due to the 2 ref system, it is good never the less. Total penalties have also slightly dropped, video ref decision have also had a significant decrease.

So there you have it, some interesting information there from the 2009 State of the Game document. It seems as though the game is strengthening and I can only see things improving once again next season.

Wednesday Snapshot

V8 Supercars: V8SCA announce that 8 V8s will feature in the upcoming Xbox 360 game Forza Motorsport 3. This will be the first time V8s have featured in an official game for nearly 4 years, but it is not welcome news for fans who will have to stick to V8 Supercars 3 if they want to race against a larger field of cars on Aussie tracks.

Cricket: Weather can only delay an imminent flogging of England for so long...

Rugby League: Bookies unfortunately predict a turnaround in form for the Dragons, installing them as favourites for this Fridays clash with the Eels. Unfortunate because TC Ink also predicts this and expected better odds. The Sharks have also been listed as surprise favourites against Souths. I would steer clear of this game, it would be typical for Souths to lose a game like this after a big win and the Sharks will be fired up after last weeks events (and they have a spoon to avoid!).

Rugby League: The NRL have released the 2009 State of the Game document. TC Ink will review shortly.

Weather: Still no Spring spike in temperature predicted. TC's pool to remain dirty. There is also a bad drought developing, there have been no Covell award nominees in weeks.