Please choose carefully as weekends cannot be refunded or exchanged.

Last weekend I was going to watch the Australian Netball Team on telly. On Saturday I was going to watch their final pool match against Jamaica and their quater final match against Barbados. On Sunday I was going to watch their semifinal match against England and on Monday I was going to watch their grand final match against New Zealand. Instead, on Saturday I set the video recorder to tape the games and drove Jimbo, Linda and Simon to the computer fair at Woden CIT before we went to a new LAN gaming shop to play Rise of Nations and Warcraft III for five hours.

On Saturday night I discovered the video recorder had not taped anything. On Sunday morning I discovered the video had trouble playing the video cassette and it's default response was to shut down without ejecting the tape. On Monday the video recorder taped the grand final with no sound.

This weekend I have made no plans.

Australia lost by two goals and I think it was down to coaching decisions. New Zealand had been blitzing their opposition throughout the competition (99-11 against Nuie and twice scoring over 100 goals) by focussing their attack around their 190cm tall goal shooter, Irene van Dyk. However Australia occasionally lead the scoring and in the end had more attempts at goal than New Zealand. Van Dyk took 86% of the Silver Fern's attempts at 95% accuracy. This isn't new to Australia, it is exactly the same tactic Sydney University Sandpipers employ with Jo Morgan in the national league and they are usually struggling mid-table. The Australian player's were not outclassed and the team should not have been outplayed. The starting seven was not adjusted soon enough to counter the Silver Fern's tactics (and it's not as if the coaches didn't know what to expect) so the team that could have won never made it onto the court.  ¶ 09:38