I am sick and bloody tired of fans, players and management wearing rose coloured glasses!

If you saw the Greg Bay hit on Daniel Szalinski during last weekends Blue Tongues @ Ice game you probably had a moment of “WOW”.  It was a huge hit, that even the media got excited about.  But it was more than just a huge hit.  When you take off those cheaply made rose coloured glasses you see that it was a terrible play in a number of ways.

• It was a blatant charging penalty
• Szalinski did not have the puck, so it was a blatant interference penalty

Video: The hit is at the 40 second mark.

Yet, all over the net I see people defending the hit saying it was a good hit.  Bullshit it was a good hit!  It was an unnecessary, cheap penalty to take!

You people out there in cyberland need to learn to call a spade a spade.  Don’t defend a player just because he wears your teams jersey… if it’s a cheap hit, call it a cheap hit and move on!

This isn’t just a Blue Tongues issue (although, this seems to be a major issue up here) either.  Right now there are Ice fans defending Vinnie Hughes’ attack the other week.  It happens the league over, in every team.

Please, ban the rose coloured glasses!

Related posts:

1. Refs, Rule Books and Fans
2. Stupidity Cost Us The Game

The Blue Tongues looked good at times over the weekend, but unfortunately there were simply not enough of the good times, and quite a few of the not so good ones.

Dropping a 2-1 game on Saturday the home boys were pumped on Sunday and were doing incredibly good thanks to the netminding of Anthony Kimlin, who has been a monster in net.  But due to an injury he got pulled and Giauque replaced him.  4 soft goals and an incredible goal scoreres goal later and the Blue Tongues walked away with a painful, and slightly embarrassing 8-4 loss.

Mike “Macca” McRae was solid during both games, and his goal from the red line will be forever remembered as one of the best.

Next weekend the boys are on the road to Melbourne where the face the Ice and Mustangs, games they really must win.

No related posts.

So had this interesting situation at the Blue Tongues game today. A woman sitting down from us apparently took offense when one of us questioned the referee, Mark O’Brian (yes, HIM). Apparently doing so made us “one sided fans”. Well, whatever, it’s called questioning a call and has nothing to do with being one sided.  And anyway, when you’re supporting a team aren’t you supposed to be a little biased?  It’s not like you want the other team to win now, does it?  What a seriously idiotic comment to make!

That aside, anybody who knows us would know that I am anything but one sided, and often am critical of my own team.  I’m like that with every team i follow, not just the Blue Tongues.  The Dallas Stars, Newcastle United, Canberra Raiders and All Blacks all get exactly the same “you screw up, i’ll call you out” attitude.

Anyway, to add a bit of hypocrisy, I get allegedly called out for dissing my own team.

WTF???

I’m one-sided one minute, and too unbiased the next?

Lady, if you don’t like the fans where you’re sitting, go sit somewhere else!  Don’t sit there and get all bitchy at us.

I will call a spade a spade and if my team plays like crap, I will call them on it! One sided my ass!

Related posts:

1. Refs, Rule Books and Fans
2. Message To Visiting Fans, Players & Coaches
3. Fans Express Dismay: Pull The ***** Goalie!

The Blue Tongues hosted the Newcastle North Stars in todays home opener at the Lizard Pit.  The 2 teams battled hard in the opening period both vying for the advantage, but it was the North Stars who struck first.  Bad passes and lackadaisical plays saw the Tongues down 2-0 heading into the third with a seemingly big hill to climb.  The Tongues though would not be outdone and Andreas Camerinzind put the home boys on the board and then Jack Conner tapped in a mid-air rebound just moments later to bring the game even at 2 a piece.  Mike McRae sealed the win when he added a third for the Blue Tongues less than a few minutes later.  The North Stars, a goal down with just 3 minutes to play could not muster enough to tie the game, and the home team picked up all 3 points and the win.

The Tongues are now 2-1 in their first 3 games, and face the Adelaide Adrenaline in back-to-back games next weekend on the Gold Coast.

No related posts.

The Blue Tongues have completed their series of back-to-back games for the weekend with a solid 7-2 victory over the Sydney Bears this evening.  Goal scorers and game data is currently unknown, but by all accounts the Tongues played a complete game and routed the Bears, who did their best to stay in the game.

The Blue Tongues open their home games next Saturday when they host the Newcastle North Stars.

No related posts.

You would think that with all the latest technology it would be pretty straight forward for someone to post regular updates on Twitter during AIHL matches.  Between wireless internet and smartphones Twitter is pretty much available to almost every single person, so finding at least someone to post updates should be expected of every team!  A goal is scored, post an update.  Period starts or ends, post an update.  It’s not rocket science!

And while i’m on the note of updates.  The AIHL list hashtags to use for games, yet nobody ever bothers to use them.  In fact, some teams use their own hashtags instead, which shows they either don’t care or are too arrogant to bother supporting the league.

No related posts.

It looked like lack of training and low chemistry were going to be an issue in the opening period of todays 2012 AIHL opener for the Blue Tongues.  Down 3-0 to the Newcastle North Stars at the end of the first period the Tongues looked to be outplayed in all aspects of the game.  A solid second period however saw a refreshed Blue Tongues begin to find their stride and, as the North Stars took numerous trips to the penalty box the Blue Tongues bought the game back even 3-3.  A sold out home crowd inspired the North Stars however and a goal late in the third proved to be enough to hold off the Blue Tongues.  The game ended with the North Stars winning 4-3.

Based upon the audio stream alone, it sounds like Ben Spillane had a great game and both Mike McRae and Adam Geric were impressive up front.

Hopefully the boys will rest up tonight and prepare for their game against the Bears tomorrow afternoon.

No related posts.

As posted by Daniel Eade on Twitter the other day, next seasons AIHL season will have a new twist; conferences.  Eade’s broke the news by tweeting “The @AIHL will have two conferences next season, Eastern & Western”.

The move comes after the inclusion of the Perth Thunder in next seasons schedule.

Eade also gave an indication of the scheduling in his tweet, “Teams will play Teams from ‘other’ conference twice (H&A). East will play each other 4 times. West will play each other 4+ times for balance”.

The conferences will be comprised of:

East: Sydney bears, Sydney Ice Dogs, Newcastle North Stars, Caberra Knights and Gold Coast Blue Tongues

West: Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs, Adelaide Adrenaline and newcomers, Perth Thunder.

For more details, be sure to read the full post on The Other Hewitt.

No related posts.

The Melbourne Ice have “broken the curse” and are the first team to be both minor premiers and AIHL Champions, taking home the Goodall Cup on Sunday afternoon after defeating the Newcastle North Stars.

Image courtesy of The Age

Congratulations Melbourne Ice, 2011 AIHL Champions.

Related posts:

1. Congratulations Melbourne Ice: 2010 AIHL Champions
2. Congratulations Dave Upton, Hockey Roo in 2011
3. Staring Down The Barrel At The 2011 AIHL Finals

Of course, we all know that Matt Amado is in fact NOT Dave Upton, but apparently the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) don’t.

Today during the online stream of the AIHL semi-finals when the AIHL announced the league MVP runner ups, they showed an image of Dave Upton when announcing Matt Amado.  There is quite simply no excuse for such a simple mistake to be made.

This error was not the only problem today though, as the entire live stream itself was unusable for the entire first period of semi-final 1 between the Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Adrenaline.  To their credit the stream was fixed as soon as possible and provided great quality video and audio of the games.

Hopefully they will have corrected the Matt Amado image by tomorrows stream of the AIHL Final game between the Newcastle North Stars and Melbourne Ice.

Related posts:

1. Make Or Break Weekend and Matt Amado Interview
2. Matt Amado interview
3. Dave Upton: A Farewell Tribute to #96