Search

Just another WordPress site

Why devil horns

AFL Round-Up: Pre-season promises lead to round one delight in gripping AFL opener

by www.abc.net.au Leave a Comment

After an AFL pre-season of bold proclamations and lofty promises, some teams leave round one with their prospects emboldened while others search for answers.

Welcome to the AFL Round-Up, where we digest the week that was.

Let Collingwood entertain you

It takes a brave coach to put entertainment high on the list of priorities for their team. Most AFL coaches spend their careers in a perpetual cycle of figuring out how to close the game down whenever attacking footy threatens to break out, governed by the win-loss column far more than the affection of neutral supporters.

Craig McRae says to hell with your conventional wisdom. He has been clear all off-season that he wants his team to be “fun to watch”; to enthral Pies fans and more casual observers alike.

The Collingwood players made good on McRae’s promise against Geelong, as they did almost every week in 2022. Say what you will about all those close games last year, the Magpies are a better side in 2023 and should be considered among the most serious of premiership contenders.

Among the best teams, the game has been trending towards a “forwards at all costs” attitude since Richmond first swept the field in 2017. But Collingwood’s version is laced with genuine beauty, the ball flowing through hands and around the ground as if controlled by a wizard’s wand.

Overhead handballs, deft taps and touches, creative angles run and provocative kicks hit. You’d have to be the absolute staunchest Collingwood-hater alive to watch them play and not marvel — and if you are, then you’re truly missing out.

This could come across as your standard round-one overreaction if not for the fact they’ve been doing it for more than 12 months now.

Last year’s finals series should have removed any doubts remaining about McRae’s entertainers, and Friday night’s showing should scare the daylights out of 17 other clubs.

Horne-Francis takes control of his own story

Jason Horne-Francis wants to be the best player in the AFL. We know this because he told us.

It was one of a million things he was criticised for in the latter stages of 2022 when he made clear his desire to leave North Melbourne and return home to Port Adelaide. A lot of pretty silly things have been said about 19-year-old Horne-Francis, but doubting his ability on the field tops the list.

In his Port Adelaide debut against Brisbane, Horne-Francis produced the sort of insatiable, dominant, second-coming-of-Dangerfield performance that was always only a matter of time.

His third quarter alone was worth the trade outlay. Horne-Francis took a tight game against one of the premiership favourites and bent it to his will, sending Adelaide Oval into raptures with a combination of power and skill.

He wasn’t alone, and the standard set by Horne-Francis after half-time was matched by Connor Rozee, Zac Butters and many more besides.

The importance of this game had been exaggerated but was still not lost on Port Adelaide, and watching them rise to the occasion after the long break was to reassess what they might be capable of.

With Todd Marshall lifting the burden off Charlie Dixon, Aliir Aliir looking much more like himself, and Junior Rioli providing an immediate spark of creativity, Port’s insertion into an already crowded field of front-runners does not seem improbable.

But as has been the case his whole career, the headlines belong to Horne-Francis. His once-derided ambitions may one day prove prophetic.

Big Dogs brought down to size

Could the first outing of the Very Tall Bulldogs be the last?

One of the great points of intrigue coming into this season was Luke Beveridge’s plan to load up his forward line with Aaron Naughton, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Sam Darcy and Rory Lobb, and first impressions were not great.

Individually, Naughton and Ugle-Hagan played to about their usual standards, Darcy looked expectedly raw and Lobb was completely anonymous. But it was the collective structure that will have concerned Beveridge most.

The worry coming in was a forward line of such lankitude would be unable to prevent Melbourne’s rapid counter-attack from half-back, and so it proved.

Loading Twitter content

The Dees kicked goal after goal from their own defence, and largely negated the threat of the Very Tall Bulldogs by simply placing their own Very Tall Demon Max Gawn in the hole behind the play.

In the end, the decision may be taken out of Beveridge’s hands, as an injury to Liam Jones may well force Darcy back into defence.

But despite some good signs around the contest, the Bulldogs’ season will be defined by their ability to score efficiently from the plentiful opportunities they create without sacrificing their defensive solidity.

Around the grounds

A draw to start the season! How fun. There’s every chance that may be both Carlton and Richmond’s worst showing of the year , so two points each and on to round two might be a fair result.

Questions about how the Swans would react to that grand final defeat were answered pretty swiftly. Their young players are getting better, and their veterans remain more than solid. Another big year beckons.

After a sleepy start, the Giants and Crows played out a little off-Broadway classic, which was won rather inspirationally by GWS. Both teams looked to have raised their ceilings in 2023, but both also suffered some alarming dips.

It’s been a while since the smiles were this wide at North Melbourne. It was only one win against admittedly poor opposition, but with the mastercoach in charge and a growing list of future All Australians, hope abounds.

Hawthorn fans will have braced themselves for some tough weeks, but I don’t think they anticipated it getting quite so ugly this early. By the time Tippa hit the scoreboard in the last it was a Bombers bonanza — in other words, a Hawks’ worst nightmare.

St Kilda won the unwinnable game . This performance had Ross Lyon’s fingerprints absolutely all over it, and was an incredible proof of concept so early in his tenure. Fremantle? Sheesh.

In the clubhouse

Here we take stock of who is leading the race for the season’s individual awards.

The kids were unleashed up and down the league, setting the scene for a Rising Star race that could be closer than some have predicted.

Finn Callaghan was influential for the Giants, as was Matteas Phillipou for the Saints, but the week belongs to the Big Sheeze.

A lazy 34 disposals and 631 metres gained for Harry Sheezel in North’s win over West Coast, but the best news for Roos fans is we’ve only scratched the surface with this guy.

Loading Twitter content

Sheezel’s natural ball-winning ability was on show from half-back, but wait until he starts venturing further forward and his incredible goal sense and creativity come to the fore.

In other news, there’s every chance we saw both the mark and the goal of the year in the opening round.

Harry Himmelberg had a picnic on Reilly O’Brien’s head…

Loading Twitter content

And Chad Wingard put half the Bombers’ defence into a mixer…

Loading Twitter content

If either of those are beaten this year, we’re in for a treat.

Posted

Rocky Hollywood Road Leads Directors Back to Sundance

by www.nytimes.com Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES — Spike Lee is on the spot. Next week Mr. Lee, the celebrated director of movies like “She’s Gotta Have It” and “Inside Man,” will find himself in a situation he has never been in before: at the Sundance Film Festival, crossing his fingers along with more than 100 other directors hoping for a bite from a distributor.

For sale: “Red Hook Summer,” a look at Brooklyn gentrification and a follow-up of sorts to Mr. Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” Mr. Lee financed it himself, at a price he declined to disclose. “It had been too long since I’d done a film, and I couldn’t wait on Hollywood anymore,” he said in an interview. “Too many meetings, too many false starts, too many stuck projects.”

Marquee filmmakers from time to time use Sundance as a showcase for artier projects or as a way to apply jumper cables to their careers (or both). But it’s rare for a director as prominent as Mr. Lee to arrive with an unsold film, and he’s not alone: Stephen Frears, who hasn’t been to Sundance in 20 years, will be shopping a dramatic comedy about a stripper turned sports bettor titled “Lay the Favorite.”

Just a coincidence? Or does their presence offer broader clues about the festival and the independent film scene in general?

To some in the industry, “Lay the Favorite” and “Red Hook Summer” simply underscore the degree to which the mainstream movie business, focused on churning out big-budget sequels, has turned its back on smaller films aimed at audiences with more sophisticated tastes. Just a few years ago, before Paramount, Warner Brothers and Disney pared their specialty divisions, and Fox Searchlight and Focus Features cut back on big acquisitions, it would have been unlikely for Mr. Lee and Mr. Frears to choose to go it alone.

“It’s very simple,” said Mr. Frears, an Oscar nominee for “The Grifters” and “The Queen,” when asked why he was taking an unsold film to Sundance at this point in his career. “What you’re trying to do is survive.”

He added: “The whole thing, Hollywood, is geared to films with gigantic production budgets and gigantic advertising campaigns. If you’re not that, you have almost no options. Our budget went down and down, and we made the film with what I could get.” “Lay the Favorite” cost an estimated $15 million.

But others — in particular Creative Artists Agency, in charge of selling both films next week — see it differently. Could “Lay the Favorite,” which features Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bruce Willis in its cast, and “Red Hook Summer,” which recalls one of the seminal films of the indie movement, have found North American distribution privately? Most likely, this contingent argues. Instead, playing Sundance signals these directors’ confidence in the festival marketplace.

Nobody expects Sundance to return any time soon to the freewheeling days of sales for $10 million ( paid by Focus Features for “Hamlet 2” in 2008 ), and no film bought at last year’s festival was a break-out box office hit. But the emergence over the last two years of video-on-demand services and Internet streaming as outlets for art films has eased distributors’ concerns about dwindling DVD sales. More than 40 films found buyers at Sundance last year , possibly setting a record, and those selections were notably quirkier than this year’s batch, longtime attendees say, leading to optimism about the prices distributors will be willing to pay this time around.

“The market is generally healthier than it has ever been,” said Micah Green, a head of Creative Artists Agency’s film finance and sales group, speaking of art film broadly. He cited the emergence of new buyers, strengthening interest from investors and recent hits like Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” which has taken in $145.3 million worldwide. More recently, “The Devil Inside,” acquired by Paramount for $1 million even before it hit the festival circuit, earned almost $34 million on its opening weekend.

“Red Hook Summer,” written by Mr. Lee and James McBride (“Miracle at St. Anna”), and “Lay the Favorite,” adapted by D. V. DeVincentis (“High Fidelity”) from a memoir by Beth Raymer, join 13 other films in Sundance’s noncompetition “premieres” section, none of which yet have North American distribution. Mr. Lee, 54, and Mr. Frears, 70, may bring a bigger spotlight to their films because of their record, but they face considerable competition from rookies for buzz.

Indeed, two of the most talked- about films heading into Sundance, which starts on Thursday, are from first-time narrative directors: “Bachelorette,” a “Bridesmaids”-esque comedy starring Kirsten Dunst, and “Arbitrage,” a financial thriller starring Richard Gere as a hedge-fund magnate in over his head. “Bachelorette” was directed by Leslye Headland; Nicholas Jarecki (of the Jarecki filmmaking clan) directed “Arbitrage.”

How do Mr. Lee and Mr. Frears feel about heading to Park City, Utah, to play with the youngsters? Mr. Frears, speaking by telephone from his home in London, seemed amused. “I think I was much more confused as a person the last time I was at Sundance — or the complete opposite,” he said with a throaty laugh. Mr. Frears has had two films play the festival before, “The Hit” in 1985 and “The Grifters” in 1991.

“It’s a cheerful film for a young audience,” Mr. Frears said of “Lay the Favorite,” which stars Rebecca Hall (“The Town”) in the central role.

Mr. Lee, whose only previous Sundance visit was in 2009 with his filmed take on the Broadway musical “Passing Strange,” was more introspective. “I’m nervous; it’s my money on the line,” he said. In “Red Hook Summer” Mr. Lee reprises his role of Mookie from “Do the Right Thing.” The film also stars Clarke Peters (“The Wire”) as a firebrand preacher whose grandson, accustomed to a cushy life in Atlanta, spends the summer with him in a Brooklyn housing project.

Sundance films are now prescreened on the quiet in Hollywood, but Mr. Lee has kept “Red Hook Summer” under wraps. Those who have seen it say the story line takes an abrupt turn midway that will shock audiences. (Asked about this during a recent interview in Los Angeles, Mr. Lee just smiled and kept snacking on his ridged potato chips.) The Sundance program describes his “playfully ironic, heightened” film as one that “returns him to his roots.”

That makes Mr. Lee nervous as well.

“I’m trying to watch how this trip to Sundance is positioned,” he said. “It’s going to be easy for people to say, ‘Spike can’t get a big-budget film like “Inside Man,” so he has to come back on a shoestring.’ That’s not really the case. I never took this movie to studios, and I wanted complete freedom to make the movie I wanted to make.”

He munched on another chip before adding: “At the same time, it’s true to say that the difficulty in the film business today dictated that I finance this film myself. The reality is that in this environment very few directors get to make movies that aren’t sequels, or 3-D or have Transformers flying through the air.”

2023 NCAA Tournament bracket: Sweet 16 predictions, March Madness round-by-round picks, upsets from top model

by www.cbssports.com Leave a Comment

USATSI

The 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket is down to 16 teams as the Sweet 16 tips off Thursday. There have already been stunning 2023 March Madness upsets like No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson taking down top-seeded Purdue and No. 15 seed Princeton rolling through No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 7 seed Missouri. The 2023 Sweet 16 bracket includes teams that many expected such as Alabama, Houston and Texas, but there are plenty of 2023 NCAA Tournament Cinderella teams still dancing like Princeton and No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic.

With an intriguing mix of college basketball powers and upstart programs comprising the 2023 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 bracket, which teams should you back in your second-chance bracket contests and college basketball picks? Before locking in any March Madness predictions, be sure to check out the 2023 NCAA bracket picks from the advanced computer model at SportsLine .

The SportsLine Projection Model simulated the entire 2023 NCAA Tournament 10,000 times. It has absolutely crushed its March Madness picks, beating over 92% of all CBS Sports brackets two of the last four tournaments. The model also nailed three teams in the West and South Region Sweet 16 last year, including No. 5 seed Houston. It went a sizzling 23-9 straight up in the first round in 2023 and still has six of its eight Sweet 16 teams in the West and Midwest, as well as both teams in the championship matchup.

It knows how to spot an upset as well. The same model has produced brackets that have nailed 20 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds, including calling No. 13 seed Furman over No. 4 seed Virginia and No. 10 seed Penn State over No. 7 seed Texas A&M this season.

There’s simply no reason to rely on luck when there’s proven technology to help you dominate your 2023 March Madness picks. Now, the model has simulated every possible matchup for the remainder of the 2023 NCAA Tournament and revealed its updated bracket. You can only see it over at SportsLine .

Top 2023 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 picks

One team to back in 2023 March Madness brackets: No. 4 seed Tennessee advances past the FAU Owls in a East Region Sweet 16 matchup that will be played at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. The Vols limped into the NCAA Tournament 2023 without point guard Zakai Zeigler (ACL) and they were just 5-7 in their prior 12 games.

After a shaky 58-55 win over Louisiana in the first round, Tennessee surprised many by upsetting a red-hot Duke squad. Forward Olivier Nkamhoua exploded for 27 points against the Blue Devils as the Vols leaned on their physical defense and timely shooting to advance. SportsLine’s model gives the Vols the edge against an FAU squad that beat Memphis on a late-game winner and then battled its way past Fairleigh Dickinson in the second round. Get more NCAA Tournament bracket picks here .

Another team to back in your 2023 NCAA Tournament picks: No. 7 seed Michigan State advances past No. 3 seed Kansas State in the other Sweet 16 matchup in the East. The Spartans handled No. 10 seed USC and No. 2 seed Marquette without too much difficulty in the first two rounds.

Tom Izzo has now set an all-time record with 16 NCAA Tournament wins as the lower seed. The Spartans are extremely balanced, ranking in the top 40 nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency, per KenPom. SportsLine’s model calls for the Spartans to pick up yet another win over a higher-seeded team as they advance in nearly 60% of simulations. Get more bracket picks here .

How to make 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket predictions

SportsLine’s model also has identified a shocker in the Final Four you need to see. With the model’s proven track record of calling bracket-busting upsets, you’ll want to see which stunners it is calling this year before locking in any 2023 March Madness bracket picks .

So what’s the optimal NCAA Tournament 2023 bracket? And which underdogs shock college basketball? Visit SportsLine now to see which teams you can back with confidence, all from the model that beat over 92% of bracket players two of the last four years and has called 20 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds .

Carolina Panthers sign veteran QB Andy Dalton, per report

by 247sports.com Leave a Comment

The Carolina Panthers signed veteran quarterback Andy Dalton , according to a report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. According to the report , Dalton’s deal with the Panthers is for one year and $10 million with $8 million guaranteed and a maximum potential of $17 million after incentives.

The Panthers have been busy in the quarterback market over the past few months. They parted ways with Baker Mayfield during the 2022 season and let go of Sam Darnold on Tuesday. After last week’s blockbuster trade with the Chicago Bears, it appears Carolina is positioning itself to take a quarterback at the No. 1 spot in the NFL Draft in April. Most speculate the team will grab either Bryce Young , CJ Stroud or Anthony Richardson with the top pick.

Carolina traded the No. 9 and No. 61 picks in this draft, a future first-rounder in 2024, a second-rounder in 2025 and star wide receiver DJ Moore to make the deal happen.

Dalton has three Pro Bowl appearances in his career and finished 2022 with 2,871 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. In his career, Dalton has passed for 38,150 yards, 244 touchdowns and 144 interceptions. He likely comes to Carolina to serve as a mentor to the team’s future franchise quarterback.

The 35-year-old signal-caller played collegiately at TCU from 2007-10 before going as a first-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2011. He remained in Cincinnati through 2019, a stretch in which he was a four-time Pro Bowl selection. The Saints are his third team in as many years since leaving the Bengals. He joined the Dallas Cowboys for the 2020 season before spending 2021 with the Chicago Bears.

Dalton recently spoke about his alma mater’s trip to the College Football Playoff and the national title game.

“I feel like it would have been fun to get a chance to play in (the national championship) and see what would have happened,” Dalton told FOX Sports . “It’s hard to complain because if you get a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, that’s something that somebody in the Mountain West never would have been able to do during that time. To end the year undefeated, we’re not going to be the self-proclaimed national champs like some schools out there, but we feel like we had a really good team.”

Get the fastest scores, stats, news, LIVE videos, and more. CLICK HERE to download the CBS Sports Mobile App and get the latest on your team today .

Cameron Salerno and Dean Straka contributed to this report.

Southee lauds team’s efforts after clinical innings win

by www.cricbuzz.com Leave a Comment

SL IN NZ, 2023
by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on
Southee and Co. were clinical in the finish

Southee and Co. were clinical in the finish © AFP

“Having a day left, we’d like to think we’d have got the job done. It’s nice to have it finished off tonight,” said Tim Southee in a typically succinct manner. Actions louder than words, and the whole charade.

On the greenest of wickets, New Zealand lost the toss and were thrown into a top so green that if it weren’t for the stumps, it might have been difficult to tell the outfield apart from the pitch. Four days later, the Kiwis had sealed an empathic innings win, after finding a way to take 20 wickets when conditions became easier for batting, after giving away only four wickets when the pitch was well and truly alive. And then they had to fight against the fickle weather, and the unrelenting clock.

“It was getting a little dark, and with the forecast not looking great, it was one of the reasons for enforcing the follow-on. It’s one thing you can’t control. Tomorrow’s forecast wasn’t looking great so it was nice to get the last one tonight and not have to come back tomorrow,” said Southee who picked the last wicket after play had been extended.

Southee was quick to praise the heart shown by the New Zealand side in testing conditions throughout the season, both home and away.

“There was a lot of character shown in the home summer and Pakistan as well. We got ourselves in positions to win there – a couple of familiar faces stepping up, and we’ve shown character to bounce back after losses. It’s nice that Test cricket is ticking along.”

The Kiwi captain acknowledged the testing conditions in Wellington but maintained that Test cricket was all about fighting it out against adversity.

“That can happen in Wellington. I can’t remember the camera being taken down too many times. Very trying conditions. Some heavy legs, and some horrible conditions at times, but the guys managed to find a way to get the job done.”

Furthermore, he acknowledged that the boldness to enforce the follow-on was not just his decision, but a testament to the team’s keenness to win and to stay on the field for another innings to fight it out, with particular emphasis on Doug Bracewell fitting into Neil Wagner’s “workhorse” role.

“We’ve had a few follow-ons in our time, and you’re preparing yourself to possibly be out on the field for a long period of time and it was great for the guys to keep coming in, bowl into the wind and get the two guys early was massive to set up the day. Doug Bracewell put his hand up to bowl into the wind and it’s characteristic of our side to put our hand up in tough times.”

Despite the tendency for recency bias, the Kiwi captain did not forget the contributions of the opening pair, Devon Conway and Tom Latham, who fought off devils on a green surface, to set up the match for the middle-order and the bowlers.

“The two guys at the top, Tom and Devon, denying the opposition wickets after we lost the toss on a greentop, was a major contributing factor to our win.

“It was a pretty slow surface. The ball was 40-odd overs old and bowling more traditional lengths was our best chance to get some early wickets and it came off tonight.”

Nevertheless, despite New Zealand’s modest charisma, their showstopping doggedness, Sri Lanka did more than just participate. Despite their inexperience, the side has shown clear signs of growth and have added invaluable gems of experience from this tour. The visiting captain, Dimuth Karunaratne, sympathised with the three fast bowlers who were on their first tour to New Zealand, and implored them to take lessons from his counterpart Southee, and his consistent lengths.

“The three fast bowlers are coming here for the first time, and they were a bit surprised by the wind. It wasn’t easy. But it was a good lesson for us, so that when they come to New Zealand again, they’ll know how to bowl against the wind.”

The Sri Lankan skipper had some strong words too, insisting that the bowling performance was simply not good enough to make a comeback.

“We bowled well in Christchurch, so I was expecting more of the same here. But the way we bowled, we didn’t deserve to win. There were too many loose balls. We saw how Southee was coming in, even in the last over he was hitting the same lengths, so that’s what our bowlers need to learn about bowling in overseas conditions.”

The Lankan skipper was critical of the first-innings performance, but lauded the comeback his side made in the second innings, particularly Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, as one of the positives that could be taken out of this game.

“Even our batters, we had to get a big one in the first innings, and 160-odd was not enough. We lost our grip in the first two days, but the guys bounced back with the bat, I’m really proud of them, but we need to improve. Dhananjaya batted really well, even though he couldn’t get the hundred. He’s the reason we got past 350.”

© Cricbuzz
Share Tweet

RELATED STORIES