Drama in Australia's Next Top Model

Last night's Ozzie tv announced the wrong winner in a live show ... good entertainment at last for a trash tv show!

Cardiff now 7th after their non-playing Saturday

With City preparing for the visit of Ipswich to South Wales tomorrow - the game moved back a day so it didn't clash with Wales egg chasers getting booed and outclassed at home to the Aussies, bless'em - fans were left to wonder how destructive Saturday results would be. The answer is, they weren't bad at all.

On the downside, Cardiff now find themelves outside the play-off spots as QPR and Nottingham Forest overtook Cardiff in the table while Newcastle and West Brom in the automatic spots are currently threatening to run away with those places.

However it could have been much worse. A draw tomorrow will return City to 5th (and back above Swansea albeit on goal difference, a win will bring up 30 points and see Cardiff in 4th spot).

Leaders Newcastle made mince meat of The Swans beating them 3-0 with all the goals coming in the opening 25 minutes before they declared. West Brom in 2nd went goal crazy winning 4-0 at Sheffield Wednesday (Current on loan Bluebird Warren Feeney was a non-playing sub for The Owls while skipper and former City man Darren Purse is out of their squad). Leicester who started and finished the day in third will have been disappointed to have been held 1-1 at Scunthrope, the home equaklising in added time.

Although QPR leap-frogged Cardiff, they won't have been plased to have been held 2-2 at home by Coventry but Nottingham Forest, now 4th, pummelled Doncaster 4-1 at home.

My Day at The Ashes

I was one of the privileged 16,000 watching the first ever Test Cricket match in Wales as England and Australia started the 2009 Ashes series at the SWALEC Stadium in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff and how magical it was.

The cricket was frantic and exciting with England 332/7 at close - an 'even stevens' affair with England players guilty of throwing away a couple of wickets far too easily.

The occasion was outstanding and such a success that even the most hardened critics of Test Matches in Cardiff and opening the Ashes here was forced to concede it was a superb experience.

The weather was great, the atmosphere even better, the effort put it it by the hosts simply superb.

I was lucky enough to be in the main stand under the England players balcony and loved it from start to finish. Feel free to watch my photoset.

Robbie Fowler Fatter Than Pauline Fowler

Blobby Fowler

For all those of us who continually pointed out he carried almost as many pounds on his body in weight as he did in his bank with money and remarked as how unfit and slow he was with Cardiff City, just take a look at Robbie Fowler now he's arrived in Australia. They say the camera never lies, it's pretty clear that Fowler's body doesn't either.


This is the guy Dave Jones was retain for Cardiff's Premiership assault this season and whom he believed would score 20 goals. Even though he was a guy who treated his time at Ninian Park with little more than contempt in my eyes and completely ruined my previously favourable view of him for his exploits down the years ... even if I thought he had prematurely lost it and been in decline for 6 years before arriving at Ninian Park.


Five months in the Premiership with Blackburn Rovers followed by 5 more months seemingly as a couch potato (or should thta be couch chips?) at home means Fowler has a major battle to get himself into any sort of shape even to compete in Australian football. It surely underlines how Dave Jones and Cardiff City had a very lucky escape.

This Report Comes from the Australian Daily Telegraph

"Robbie Fowler a 'God' in weighting"

By John Taylor - The Daily Telegraph - April 30 - 2009

ROBBIE Fowler, one of the biggest-name footballers to sign for an Australian club, already has tongues wagging - not about his exploits for Liverpool but his body shape.

The man they still call 'God' in Merseyside has three months to go to get himself in good physical condition before he makes his debut as North Queensland Fury's marquee player in the A-League.

As our picture shows, Fowler could be mistaken for one of the characters in the SBS TV series Nerds FC. But he is actually training with the Fury.

Fury coach Ian Ferguson insists his prized capture is not overweight. "He's fine. He's got no problem with his weight," he said yesterday.

Since his second spell with the Reds came to an end against Charlton on May 13, 2007, Fowler has played limited football with Cardiff City and Blackburn.

Despite Fowler's magnificent goalscoring feats in the English Premier League, Ferguson has made it clear to him that playing in the A-League certainly won't be a stroll in the park.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25404514-5006068,00.html

Game Over for Fowler ... he's off to Oz!

Robbie Fowler the player who ungratefully walked out on Cardiff City last summer causing a curious reaction of anger amongst Bluebirds fans combined with extreme relief that we had rid ourselves of him will now cause more Fury ... as he's joining new Australian A-League side North Queensland Fury.

(Fowler and his XXL City shirt - right)

Fowler's time with City was jinxed with injury and a lack of fitness, clearly a considerable investment had gone wrong. Even so, Dave Jones wished to retain the player for this season and he had verbally agreed to stay but then bailed out on the eve of the season to join Blackburn on a trial basis for a last fling with the Premiership.

He managed a couple of appearences but showed that he wasn't up to the demands at that level, no surprise when he hadn't operated successfully in the Championship either, and was shown the exit door there in December. He was faced with the choice of lower league football or an up and coming foreign league and has opted for Oz although by the time their season starts in late summer, he'll have barely played for 2 years.

North Queensland Fury are a new team who will join the A-League as it expands from eight to ten teams as a so-called Marquee player whose salary is exempt from the salary cap in that league, glad he's someone else's problem then.

Fowler came up with the sort of football-speak that we had also when he joined Cardiff, "I had nothing but good things to tell my family about the football side of things and the lifestyle opportunities North Queensland can offer us. From a football perspective, everything Fury coach Ian Ferguson put on the table and showed me was first class and the enthusiasm and drive of everyone at the club is fantastic. It's a huge decision for my family but it's also an opportunity to continue my football career in a truly wonderful part of the world,"

Good Luck to him ... and them!