Hello Wren Maree Geyer
A LOT has happened in the 5 weeks since I penned my last column here for the Nepean News.
The Ashes has been run and won, convincingly by the Aussies. After lots of bravado leading into this series, the Pom’s huff and puff and “Bazball” chat was merely just that, all talk.
Mitchell Starc and Travis Head in particular were epic for the Aussies with both men being instrumental in a 4-1 drubbing from our Australian cricket team.
Christmas Day and Boxing Day at the Geyer’s was like always, an amazing time. Christmas day my Mum and Dad as well as my two sisters joined us for the first time in 6 years at our South Penrith ‘compound’ with 20+ family members all enjoying Christmas Day together.
Boxing Day was my wife Meagan’s turn (like always) for her family to celebrate a belated Chrissy Day a day later on Boxing Day, which saw even more gather at ours. We had over 30 for the get-together and as always we all ate and drank too much. “Anyone for another piece of ham” but we had an epic day.
We then saw the NRL (cheeky buggers) introduce some potential rule changes for the 2026 season. You know that time of the year where you fair dinkum don’t know what day it is between Christmas day and New Years day? Well its commonly known as “Twixmas” I suppose because you are betwixt or between any semblance of day to day normality. Well that’s when the NRL dropped the 2026 expected rule changes.
Two that stood out were the introduction of an increase of 19 from 17 to game day squads. Allowing teams to choose their 4 interchange players from a 6 man bench; which for me is a no-brainer. The other rule which is being mooted that has caused the most angst is a change to the kick-off rule. Under the new proposal instead of the team conceding points being required to kick-off to restart play, that team would be given a choice on whether to do that, or receive the ball by a kick-off from the scoring team.
My initial thought was ‘no way’ too many rule changes to our game and if we’re not careful we’ll start looking like Rugby Union, with all due respect.
But when you look at the figures, well they don’t lie. In 2019 our sport had 137 million viewers across all platforms. Last year we had 224 million! One of the reasons is the 6 to go, which has sped up the game. Again I wasn’t an early fan, but with attention spans shrinking, the longer social media grips us it’s all about entertainment. And I think the team who has conceded a try, then deciding what to do next will be fantastic theatre and great to watch. But we’ll see.
Oh, and I also became a “Papaa” for the second time on the 15th of Jan, when my young bloke Logan and his fiancee Page welcomed a little girl called Wren into our world. I am smitten. xxxxx
And another thing…
On the 31st of January we are walking for our great mate Toby Hughes “Walk For Tobes” who we lost last July suddenly. We are walking to raise awareness and funds for the heart Foundation and if you’d like to join us all the information is on the link provided. We’ll be walking 20kms around Jamison Park and will kick off at 7am on that Saturday morning. www.cognitoforms.com/MGActiv/walkForTobes
MG (random Westie) OAM
