willedoo

The big thing with women's rugby league these days is trying to grow the game, ie: bigger crowds resulting in more sponsorship bringing more money into the game. When that happens, a lot of the players can go fully professional. It's frustrating for them at the moment. Most of them have to have a day job and juggle that with playing while they see their male counterparts on big annual salaries to play football full time.

Yes, Jesse Southwell, our star new recruit for the Brisbane Broncos did all the kicking. She missed number 14 out of the 21 kicks. I'm not sure why she didn't play in the match against England. The girl doing the kicking in that match missed a lot and Jesse rarely misses. She's not only a great kicker but a playmaker as well; she's one of the top women players in the game and only 21 so plenty of career time ahead of her.

Albo stepping back:

The Jillaroos have beaten Wales 124 to 6 in the Women's Rugby League World Cup. It's a world record for total number of points scored in any Rugby League match ever, men's or women's. The Welsh seemed to be a happy lot. They were down 100-0 with ten minutes to go when they scored their only try. The reaction from the crowd of supporters and the players was as if they'd won the world cup. Good training for the Welsh team to be able to play a top tier team like Australia. They'll be reviewing that match many times over in training for sure.

Albo might be able to have a break from stepping on rakes regarding his golf course problems as it's all going to higher levels of scrutiny. He's been referred to the parliamentry privileges committee to investigate whether he's mislead parliament and a Senate inquiry starts in a couple of weeks time. The Australian National Audit Office, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Marrickville Golf Club officials will be attending the inquiry.

Two months, that's bizarre for something that size. Like a third world country. What's going on down there, is the council bankrupt or something?

It's interesting how different people view things. A bloke on marketplace not too far from me has two Howard Juniors for sale. They are almost runners, just need a clean out as they've sat for a while, but otherwise complete, near running machines. One is a MK1 and the other is a MK2 which has the reverse gearbox. Also he has a non-running Howard Terrier he's throwing in for free. The Terrier has the 300cc side valve engine the same as the old Kelpie engine I have. I was just a little bit too late messaging the seller. He said he has a prospective buyer coming tomorrow afternoon to look at them and will let me know if he doesn't commit to buying them. So here's the thing. The seller wants $150 for the three hoes, roughly equivalent to half a trolly of groceries if you're just buying cheap food. Forgetting about the rotary hoe part of it and breaking it down into parts, for $150 you get two 670cc single cylinder side valve engines with the motorcycle style round crankcase, one 300cc single side valve engine, heaps of solid steel shafts, bearings, pulleys, gearboxes, clutches, fuel and oil tanks and other various handy components. You could sell the carburettor off one of the Juniors and get your $150 back. So why someone would be a tyre kicker and not seal the deal stright away is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is that the bloke is solely looking for a viable rotary hoe to dig a veggie garden and doesn't see the other value in it. I'll see what eventuates tomorrow regarding whether they get sold or not. The message I got back from the seller gives me the impression I'm second cab off the rank if the other bloke doesn't buy them. Attached is a photo of a Junior engine. It shares the exact same top end as the front cylinder on the 80 cu.inch Howard Eight V-twin in previous posts.

Fairly close, those numbers. If you take a net figure of promises kept (kept minus broken) it's 26 to 21 in Morrison's favour, so not much in it. I can remember John Howard copping flak on a lot of broken promises in his first budget after defeating the Keating government. The term core or non core promises was invented around then if my memory is correct.

Got a better pic of the old Richardson drill today. It's a heavy old thing, a lot of cast iron and heavy steel plate where the mount has been modified. This is the way I'll mount it as a horizontal drive if the gearbox lube works out.

I love old industrial machinery. Today I picked up this old J.S. Richardson drill on marketplace and couldn't resist it for $50. There's way more value than that in the steel, electric motor and other components. Good old drills, made in Sydney in the days when we manufactured stuff and employed Australians. At some stage in it's career it's been converted from a pedestal drill to a wall mount. I already have a big industrial grade pedestal drill, so my first thought with this is to mount it like the second photo I've edited with a flip-around and a cutout. In other words, use the wall mounting plate as a base stand and do a bit of sideways stuff with it. I'll have a good look in the morning and check how that will fit with the gearbox oil level/ fill and drain plugs etc. in that orientation.

That's a tricky one. Often the leader of a party gets the job because he or she is the best performer on the floor of Parliament. That ability can sometimes also make them the best to sell their stuff to the media. Some ministers are ok at their jobs but are prone to embarrassing gaffs in front of the media so they get sidelined/insulated/firewalled, pick whichever term suits. Often the PM is left with the job of dealing with the media. At least they have their mandatory flanking noddies to keep them company. It puts a big workload on a PM, particularly if those under him/her are bigger idiots than he/she is. It's probably a fine line between overworking the PM and delegating too much freedom to ministers. You see the worst effect of the latter in some developing countries with the amount of corruption that free hand can result in.

Times are changing. I was listening to a researcher on the ABC radio and he was talking about the younger generations getting their political information via social media. My brain sieve can't quote the figure he gave regarding those getting info solely from social media, but I was surprised how high it was. That's why Albo and other pollies are doing these social media gigs, to chase the younger vote. We boomers and those a bit younger are used to getting ours from traditional media.

Always pays to dig deep into Google AI references. I've seen a lot over time that just quote what some bloke said on Facebook or some other public forum.

From Google AI using Wikipedia as a source: 'Yes, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was registered and born with the surname Ellery (as Anthony Norman Ellery) on 2 March 1963, taking his mother Maryanne Ellery's maiden name.' Just as an edit - the plot thickens. The Google AI references Wikipedia + 1. Hovering the mouse over the reference link show the +1 as a link to a Facebook article where the above was stated. The Wikipedia article doesn't say who he was registered as at birth. So there you go Jerry.

Albo's still copping flak over his golf club grant. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-27/pm-claim-marrickville-golf-grant-sewage-fix-rejected/107313346

I have a first cousin who was adopted out at birth. It was kept fairly secret and his siblings were never told of it. By the time he was able to trace his birth parents unfortunately his father and sister had passed. On the bright side, he got to meet his mother before she passed and he and his brother now have a strong brother relationship. His brother was in his 50's when he first knew about it and met up. I met the formerley unknown cousin a few years ago and he's a really nice bloke. The genetic resemblance to his brother I've known for life is very strong; you'd never miss picking them as brothers despite the age gap. Same parents. It was an unplanned pregnacy and adoption, later marrying and going on to have two more children.

It's hard to figure team loyalties sometimes. A mate of mine I grew up with here in Queensland is a Manly supporter. I've never asked him why, but his father was originally from Sydney so maybe his dad played for Manly or was connected to the club.

Certainly not the first time a probably well meaning parent has lied to their child in the belief they are protecting them. Unfortunately it can sometimes cause a lot of harm to the person when they eventually find out. It brings up a difficult question for adopted parents in that at what stage do you tell the child they are adopted. Leaving it too late can cause a lot of trouble. I know one bloke who was about 16 when who he called dad gave him the guess what, I'm not your dad after all talk. He's in his early 40's and still hasn't got over it. It totally spun him out at the time. He wasn't adopted, but was about three years old when his single mum married.

An unfortunate childhood he had. Not only no father present but he grew up being told by his mother that she had married his father and that he had been killed in a car accident. He was in his mid teens before she told him the truth. At least in 2009 he did get to actually meet his father in Italy before he died, so that would have given him some measure of closure on a sad affair.

Just as a postscript, there is no perspective alongside other political leaders in Australia applying here. It was a standalone act done by him and him only and should be viewed as such in my opinion. So you can yeah but what about ... (insert whoever here) all you like, you'll be talking to a post in my case.

Well Marty, in my opinion it's nothing to do with parties or one side or the other. I look at it purely from the point of view of the position of prime minister and the certain amount of decorum and basic manners the holder of that office should have. What he did has nothing to do with what party he's from. My concern about what happened is that any prime minister of Australia would behave like that. I'd be pounding on him exactly the same if he was a Liberal prime minister or from any other party. Sure, a lot of them have done some crazy things over the years, like Gorton falling asleep pissed on a plane, waking up and spewing on the floor. And like that other time he was full as a boot at a function and made some very crude remarks about an African diplomat's wife when he was introduced to her. The point is, Albo, through his job position shamed the office of prime minister of Australia. When he (or anyone else in the position) does something like that, I couldn't give two hoots what party they're from. Just because other PM's have done bad stuff doesn't lessen what he's done. I can't see how whataboutism should apply here. No amount of yeah but's will lessen it

I've heard the term pothole used as a nickname for someone who's always in the road.

That is interesting. One of the Aboriginal blokes I worked with in the oilfields was the captain of the Dubbo A grade Rugby League team, and the other Aboriginal people I worked with were all League supporters and some were players.

ome, I guess it's a similar story in NSW where you live. In Queensland, and I guess NSW, Union is the private school code. It's also the predominant football code played in rural areas. The reason behind that is that a lot of kids in rural areas go to boarding school due to the lack of nearby public schools. Some kids in the bush would have to travel for hours each day to get to a public school, so boarding school is often the only viable option. They play Union at boarding school and bring it home with them when they leave school. Country Rugby Union is a fairly casual affair. Most of them do it just for the social life. It's often the only social life for young people in some places. In some country towns if you're not a player or supporter or somehow involved with the football scene, you're right out of the loop.

You're on the right track Jerry. Union is played in 135 countries, League about 70.