Sports Today Midweek: Silver Ferns v Proteas Game 2 | NFL | Premier League

Sports Today – Bringing you here a special mid-week weekly recap edition of sport where the Silver Ferns travelled to Napier for the first time since 2017: Game 2 v South Africa in Netball.

We will also bring you some Soccer/Football as it’s been a while with the UEFA European Club Competitions are already underway and some more Football too but the NFL for some Monday Night Football: Ravens v Lions in Detroit.

Game 2 Silver Ferns v South Africa: Netball 

That Silver Ferns front two became more destructive than ever before since Martina Salmon came on in the 2nd Quarter who her best game once again at Goal Attack while Grace Nweke achieved her personal best at International level of 60 goals.

We thought Martina was going to start that game following her outstanding Test debut from Game 1 the other day when Yvette McCausland-Durie decided to stick with Georgia Heffernan because of the team’s good start there in Auckland.

But fortunately from New Zealand’s part, they knew the time was come for Yvette to unleash Martina once again for Georgia following a poor 1st 15 min hit-out, and she did not disappoint at all as a tag team shooting combo if you like with Grace.

The risk was worth the reward for Martina to step up in a position she’s barely played in the past which is Goal Attack, even though she’s always been Goal Shoot. 

Sometimes playing someone with the added height at goal attack had no doubt put the Ferns in a formidable position as said earlier, especially with Ameliaranne Ekenasio unavailable right now due to a break. We saw that coming when Martina will also team up with Amelia Walmsley for the Stars next year & Amelia right now is helping out the Silver Ferns U21s team over in Gibraltar for the Youth World Cup.

Now that the Taini Jamison Trophy series has been wrapped up with one to go, Ferns gotta keep on going where they got everything to play for and nothing to lose.

Sure they can go into the Constellation Cup well prepared along with a future proof front two shooting combo to defend their crown should Martina keep the good work this time as the Silver Ferns starting GA.

Peta Toeava also supported the Ferns front two well to stabilise their lead in the 2nd half at Wing Attack where she’s not just an astute passer of the ball, she can win physical battles herself as if we put her out within the tight five in rugby.

Love seeing Toeava reunite with her former Mystics team-mate in Grace having won ANZ Premiership titles together in 2023 and 2024 where both have the physicality and camaraderie to that flows into goals like it has always been & it’s still going strong at Test level.

Elmere Van Der Berg at Goal Shoot never looked out of sight following the Proteas fast start but just couldn’t maintain their rhythm, especially when NZ’s long game tactics with the subs were miles better.

The way they play wasn’t bad and how the Proteas were able to get off the mark by building a solid foundation to try and make New Zealand difficult to close in ahead of the long-run momentum. 

You can also say that Elmere got the better of the Ferns seasoned Goal Keep Kelly Jackson at times who couldn’t mark her at times away from the net; although Kelly’s natural game was class as always once New Zealand settled themselves with the lead.

No doubt Elmere will continue to shoot more feel good buckets following a season in the UK with a Super Netball opportunity for the Adelaide Thunderbirds next year and NZ’s own Kate Heffernan will also be onboard in the pink dress. Gutted she was unable to play in this one due to sickness as get well soon.

What the whole Proteas unit couldn’t get the best out of though was keeping out those subs at bay. No doubt this has ruined their good work off-guard from a small lead into another hard-fought loss with poor decision making every lost goal count through the final whistle by 70-58.

NFL: Monday Night Football, Detroit Lions v Baltimore Ravens

It was a pretty close game of ESPN’s Monday Night Football the other day where Detroit manage to pull off on what has been an amazing last quarter madness.

Things were tight for the most part actually following a physical battle of tackle busts, with both teams able to register their first set of touchdowns and field goals without an early favourite.

Both teams went into the break with 14-14 apiece from 7-7 in the 1st followed by 21-21 all again after three quarter time – setting up a grandstand finish either way.

What changed though from the Lions is that they’ve injected some explosive running football that changed everything when it comes to dominating possession.

Now that approach may have taken some time as seen with running back No.5 David Montgomery who threatened the Ravens defensive line 1-2 times before he eventually registered one TD himself.

He deserves the man of the match award by the looks of it with alarm bells ringing at the Ravens own territory before he caused damaged control in the process.

So coherent isn’t it? With the added numbers and decoy runners Detroit has executed right there.

The Lions went on to convert the most gained territory into touchdowns and look where they’ve end up, clear victors by eight points over the Ravens, 38-30. 

Also good to see Detroit utilise with a bit of space of their short side every time – something Baltimore couldn’t do so often that made the Lions run wild.

That doesn’t mean Baltimore played poorly when they’ve answered well with a few touchdowns at the right time, especially not far from close range through key landing spots into space.

The tackles were there defensively for a start that gave the Lions a tough time to score touchdowns including some good attacking opportunities up front like Derrick Henry’s opening counter run TRY past peak traffic towards the end zone.

But they also made a couple of handling errors, being touch isolated, mis-timed/held passes and knock-ons unfortunately. 

These mistakes at crucial moments showed the Ravens lacked numbers and the right decision making needed to answer back Detroit’s successful last quarter surge with the loss. 

They also missed the chance to take the lead and build some stability either before the away team walked away empty handed.

Next week’s edition of Monday Night Football on early Tuesday AM will see two matches play at the same time. It’s New York Giants travelling to Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium while ABC’s headline feature will be the Cincinnati Bengals v Broncos in Denver.

Soccer: The latest on the Premier League

It’s been a while talking about Soccer/Football since the new Premier League kicked off last month with the first three weeks already showcased on Saturday nights like the 9.30pm match (12.30 UK time) on the Nine Network/Channel 9 by Mark Bosnich’s terminology.

All live PL games going forward were Stan Sport exclusives along with still free-to-air weekend replays (twice a week) on 9Go while sacking season came into play.

Plus, Stan has also made big changes with their new weekly Football show called Added Time instead of regular live studio coverage like it was last few years plus on-site hosts with the Champions League. 

They have everything Football here all on the one place now – except the A-League, FIFA World Cup & Socceroos matches.

A bit unrelated, Sheffield United sacked Ruben Selles after five straight losses. They realised he wasn’t the right man for the job after all by bringing back Chris Wilder for a third spell once again.

We also saw Nuno Espirito Santo being sacked by Nottingham Forest despite signing a new deal in the summer following a 7th placed finish from the previous PL campaign of 2024/25.

They thought they would play Conference League but then it’s Europa League due to Crystal Palace being tied up with multi-club ownership at the time just before John Textor decided to leave Palace and focus solely on Olympique Lyonnais.

This time he and the owner unfortunately didn’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to the team’s transfer strategy and therefore, Nottingham brought back Australia’s Ange Postecoglou – just months after he gifted Tottenham a Europa League title amid a poor PL season just outside the bottom three relegation places in 17th.

Didn’t see much of Ange when I had the chance to see the Arsenal v Forest Saturday arvo replay on 9Go but not bad the next against Burnley by 1-1. There’s a chance he can thrive judging by his usual coaching ritual that he always win a trophy in his second season.

But things will take time and sure he has a big opportunity ahead of him including yet another Europa run albeit with Forest and not the Champions League for Spurs.

Also West Ham looking set to change coaches soon considering their poor summer transfer performance that creeps onto the pitch currently sitting 18th. 

Now these fans can hate at their owners all they want who always complain everyday for over 15 years.

But do agree with that one particular part that David Sullivan and Karren Brady should at least step aside from day-to-day operations to someone who is more used to the modern setup of Football than the 90s.

While no owners are perfect which is part of the Football business, better than nothing for GSB to take it than leave it.