Last week I correctly picked the winner in 10 out of 14 games. Here are my picks for round 4.

24 vs 20	This one could go either way. David Carr currently has the highest QB rating in the NFL, but the Dolphins need to kick into gear sooner or later.
17 vs 24	It’s going to be tough for the Saints to recover from their emotional victory on Monday night and the Panthers will be looking to continue their winning form. Steve Smith WILL have a big game.
20 vs 24	The Bills and Vikings have been surprisingly good this year. The only reason I’m picking the Bills is because they are playing at home and Willis McGahee will score some TDs sooner or later (my fantasy team needs it!).
27 vs 13	The Ravens have a great defence, but the Chargers have LT and I think he will come up big after having last week off. The Chargers defence is nothing to sneeze at either and the fact that the Ravens almost lost to the Browns last week is why I like the Chargers.
27 vs 24	This is how I see it going down. In the first quarter Kurt Warner fumbles once and throws 2 INTs. Second quarter, Matt Leinart starts his NFL career throws 3 TDs and leads the Cardinals to victory over Michael Vick and the Falcons.
31 vs 17	Vince Young is making his first start tomorrow, but even though he will throw one TD and rush for another, the Cowboys will win this one comfortably.
41 vs 10	The Jets have been good this year, but the Colts have been even better. The Colts will establish the run against the Jets and open up the passing game for Peyton Manning who will throw 4 TDs.
20 vs 21	The 49ers have been impressive so far this year and Alex Smith has been very reliable. The Chiefs have not been impressive and without Trent Green they will struggle. However, the Chiefs still have Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez and playing at Arrowhead will help them get the victory.
24 vs 27	The Lions will put up a little up some offence this weekend because Mike Martz will want to prove something to his old team, but the Rams will have something to prove too and because the Lions suck so much the Rams will get the W.
13 vs 20	The Jags are coming off a tough loss to the Colts and will struggle against the rejuvenated Redskins. Clinton Portis is in great form and will help the Redskins defeat Jacksonville.
17 vs 9	Two of the worst teams in the League face each other and someone will get their first win. It won’t be the Raiders.
20 vs 31	This one had the potential to be a great showdown between two of the leagues best QBs. Even though Tom Brady has no weapons to work with, he will make this game interesting even though the Patriots will go down to the Bengals.
31 vs 17	The two best teams in the NFC face off in Chicago. Chicago has a great defence, but so does Seattle. The difference is that Seattle also has a great offence while the Bears don’t. The 4 WR sets that the Seahawks used last week against the Giants worked wonders – expect more of that this week.
21 vs 31	It’s a shame that Brett Favre is on such a bad team because he can still throw the football with the best of them. The Eagles have the advantage of playing at home and having Donovan McNabb. The Eagles win this one on Monday night.
Bye week:

The West Coast Eagles got revenge over the Sydney Swans from last years Grand Final by defeating the Swans by 1 point. The Swans looked all but out of the running at halftime, down by 25 points. However, the Swans fought back and during the final period the score fluctuated from the Eagles being up by 7 points and being up by 1 point. Unfortunately for the Swans, they were never able to get their noses ahead in the final period, but they put up a spirited effort in what was a thrilling end to the AFL season.

Congratulations go out to the Eagles, who have won their first premiership since the 1994 season.

The Eagles celebrate their Grand Final victory

Last year while I was back in Australia, I departed the homeland on the weekend of the both the AFL and NRL Grand Finals. Why I planned my departure for the biggest sporting weekend in the country, I still don’t know, but next time I will be sure to look at a calendar before purchasing my tickets. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was having a great time with all my friends and family back home, but it has been a year and it’s Grand Final time yet again!

In the AFL Grand Final, it’s a rematch of last year’s closely fought battle between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans in a match where the Swans ended up winning their first premiership (since moving to Sydney) by 4 points. This year the teams have played two extremely tight games, with the Eagles winning their round 15 match by two points and the Swans winning in the first round of the finals by one point. The Swans will be fired up after Adam Goodes won his second Brownlow Medal, and the last time the two same teams played in consecutive Grand Finals (2002 & 2003), the team that won the first Grand Final also won the rematch. I think this trend will continue and Sydney will win back-to-back Grand Finals.

The AFL trophy

In the NRL Grand Final, the Melbourne Storm play the Brisbane Broncos. Melbourne ran away with the Minor Premiership, winning 6 more games than Brisbane did during the regular season, and in their only meeting this year, the Storm beat the Broncos 10-4. Melbourne have easily been the most impressive team during the course of the season and should win Sunday’s match, but Brisbane can never be underestimated and have a knack of rising to the occassion - especially on the biggest stage. However, Melbourne will win their match and their second premiership.

The Provan-Summons trophy

As much as I hate to admire anything that a player for Liverpool does, this video is incredible. What is even more amazing is that Xabi Alonso has scored a goal from even further out than this. Stay tuned for that video next week.

The best goal since David Beckham’s effort from a similar distance

Week 1 Top 16:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0) - Defending Super Bowl champs lose starting quarterback, but still come out and dismantle the supposed Super Bowl contender, Miami Dolphins.
2. Indianapolis Colts (1-0) - Peyton outlasts little brother, Eli. They’ll need a better running game to be a serious contender this year.
3. Baltimore Ravens (1-0) - Whoa. Look out for their defence this year. Shut-out Tampa Bay (a playoff team last year) at Tampa Bay - impressive.
4. Chicago Bears (1-0) - Most hyped defence in the league, prevents Green Bay from scoring a point for the first time in 15 years.
5. Atlanta Falcons (1-0) - Made every critics NFC pick to make the Super Bowl, Carolina Panthers, look like a high school team.
6. Cincinatti Bengals (1-0) - Looked good against a potent Kansas City offence.
7. Philadelphia Eagles (1-0) - T.O. who? Stallworth will fill the void without the drama.
8. Seattle Seahawks (1-0) - Either Detroits defence is superb or the Seahawks are going to be ordinary this year. The signing of Deion Branch will boost a sub-par receiving corp.
9. New York Giants (0-1) - If Eli Manning can maintain the level of play he displayed against the Colts, it will be a very good year for New York
10. San Diego Chargers (1-0) - Will LaDainian Tomlinson be able to handle the workload this year? My fantasy football team sure hopes so!
11. New England Patriots (1-0) - Bad start against Buffalo, first play from scrimage resulted in a Buffalo defensive touchdown, but you can never write off a team that has Tom Brady as their quarterback. However, the loss of Deion Branch will hurt the Pats this year.
12. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) - Came from behind to defeat the more fancied Dallas team. A sign of things to come or a flash in the pan?
13. Dallas Cowboys (0-1) - Allowed 17 unanswered points against Jacksonville. After one week and there are already calls for quaterback, Drew Bledsoe’s head. When will T.O. join the chorus?
14. Miami Dolphins (0-1) - Daunte Culpepper looked rusty in the opener, but there is still hope that this team will win the AFC East.
15. Minnesota Vikings (1-0) - Quarterback Brad Johnson did what he needed to do to earn the victory, but he has an inexperienced receiving corp which could prove troublesome as the season progresses.
16. Arizona Cardinals (1-0) - Their offence was never going to be an issue, but if you give up 27 points to San Francisco, you won’t be able to score enough points against a good team in order to win.

The rest:

17. Washington Redskins (0-1)
18. New Orleans Saints (1-0)
19. St Louis Rams (1-0)
20. Detroit Lions (0-1)
21. Buffalo Bills (0-1)
22. New York Jets (1-0)
23. Carolina Panthers (0-1)
24. Kansas City Chiefs (0-1)
25. Tampa Bay Bucaneers (0-1)
26. Denver Broncos (0-1)
27. San Francisco 49ers (0-1)
28. Houston Texans (0-1)
29. Cleveland Browns (0-1)
30. Tennessee Titans (0-1)
31. Oakland Raiders (0-1)
32. Green Bay Packers (0-1)

It seems Fernando Alonso is still upset at a penalty that he received after qualifying in this past weekend’s Grand Prix at Monza. The stewards believed that Alonso had blocked Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Implying that Massa’s teammate, Michael Schumacher, was the reason that the stewards imposed the penalty (in order to benefit him in his quest for an 8th World Championship title), Alonso forgets that his engine blew and it wouldn’t have mattered if no penalty had been imposed because his engine wouldn’t have lasted the race anyway. Let’s not forget that Schumacher was penalised earlier in the year at the Monte Carlo grand prix, but Schumacher’s penalty was to be moved from pole position to the last position on the grid - Alonso was only penalised 5 grid positions, moving from 5th to 10th.

Alonso after his engine blew at the Monza Grand Prix

Once Schumacher retires at the end of this season, there will be an obvious replacement for the most arrogant driver in the championship and it will be Alonso.

In reference to Schumacher’s retirement, Alonso provided the media with this little gem: “Michael is the most unsporting driver with the largest number of sanctions in the history of Formula One.”

Nice.