The Newcastle Knights take on the Dolphins in a must-win final round NRL clash on Sunday.
I expect it will be a penalty-athon, a six-again-athon and a ruck infringement-athon this Sunday.
The Knights will no doubt have to battle many adverse conditions, as they have always done over the years.
God bless the Newcastle Knights.
Mark Bird, Newcastle
Candidates and complexity as election looms
LOCAL council elections are upon us. We have to go to the polls and vote for people who are just names on the ballot paper.
A couple of flyers in the letter box and Facebook advertising is all we have received which gives us a face and a name.
Not good enough.
How about a little bit of the old-fashioned door knocking?
Then, we could ask the candidate questions about roads, rates and rubbish or about local controversial issues. And most importantly, who are they preferencing?
The electoral system is complicated. It is not "first past the post" but runs on quotas that can appear to be unfair - particularly if you vote above the line rather than below the line in the order you wish to elect a candidate.
The mayoral vote is the most influential because his/her ward votes go to the next candidate on the ticket.
This thwarts the voter's wishes as the number two candidate can have just a handful of votes and it almost guarantees two seats on council.
The only way you can truly express your wishes is to vote below the line and thus be selective.
Hilary Oliver, New Lambton
Keep parties out of local politics
I THINK it's a real pity that council elections have become such bun fights.
Back in the day councillors, or aldermen as they were known, were for the most part highly respected, community minded citizens who were happy to accept a token payment payment for their services who sought election to look after the interests of the general public.
In my opinion that's unlike so many modern day councillors and mayors who are only in it for what they can get out of it, doing apprenticeships before getting into state or federal politics where the big money is.
In my opinion there should be no room for party politics in local government.
Independence should be the keyword where councillors are not bound by political party solidarity and rules.
The whole purpose of local government seems to have changed for the worse, much is the pity.
Ian King, Warners Bay
Home for courts have advantages
GLEN Wilson ("Problems with gasworks idea", Letters, 31/8), cites the problems with the gas works site being used as a dedicated stadium for basketball.
Yet to build it at the Lambton site would wipe out all groups that use this for football, cricket, soccer and other multi recreational users.
It just seems selfish for one establishment to dismiss other users.
The cost may be higher to develop the gas site but in the end it would be purpose built and avoids disrupting Lambton residents.
A third option would be to redevelop the existing site with a new stadium instead of housing.
The ball is in their court.
Greg Lowe, New Lambton
Either stadium site comes at cost
GLEN Wilson ("Problems with gasworks idea", Letters, 31/8), it is clear you didn't read my earlier letter.
I thought it quite prophetic given five days later it was reported in the Herald that Newcastle council was now considering the gasworks site.
I made the point that Blackley and Wallarah ovals are adjacent to Lambton Creek and subject to flooding.
By my rough estimate about 100,000 cubic metres of fill would be required to raise the site before construction could even start on a basketball stadium.
The gasworks site is much larger than the Lambton site and has already been remediated and filled well above flood level.
I consider myself to be a retired metallurgical engineer of some repute, but I am not a geotechnical engineer, quantity surveyor or construction project manager so I can't pretend to answer Mr Wilson's questions.
However, I am a pragmatic and level-headed citizen who wants to see the best outcome for the basketball stadium without losing two playing fields immediately behind Lambton High School.
Either location will require significant upgrades to roads, pedestrian access and traffic controls.
All of this will be considered and budgeted at the design stage of the project.
It's not my role to calculate this, but that does not detract from the common sense concept of rebirthing the former derelict gasworks site.
Glenn Sullivan, New Lambton
Education and immigration linked
RICHARD Ryan believes that overseas students have nothing to do with the housing crisis ("Don't blame foreign students", Letters, 2/9), but it's hard to imagine how an influx of 700,000 students would not create a greater demand for housing.
However, the housing crisis is just one adverse issue because the policy to rely on overseas students is just an immigration policy dressed up as a full fee-funded higher education policy which saves governments money.
Since 1995 university funding has dropped from 0.9 to 0.6 per cent of GDP, and bolsters immigration.
My understanding is this trick commenced decades ago when overseas students were allowed to gain residency, a process that led to lowering of education standards and the establishment of dodgy vocational trainers who educated little while universities scrambled to take as many students as possible.
In some cases students had almost no English language and tutors found it difficult to fail them because they were full fee students.
Don Owers, Dudley
If only their voice were louder
"Enough is enough. It's time for Anthony Albanese to start listening to the voices of traditional owners," claimed Jacinta Price last week. The irony is palpable. And to think there are those who believe this politician has the talents to be a prime minister.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
Votes can't be taken for granted
I believe the soap opera that is Newcastle City Council should serve as a warning, to those of us in better run council areas, never to allow those who ask us to trust them to represent us to take our votes for granted.
In next week's election I'll be looking for someone who will say no to the madness that will see 20,000 new units built in the Booragul, Teralba, Cardiff area until we get the infrastructure first.
Dave McTaggart, Edgeworth
Trump was no man of peace
MICK Porter ("Short Memory", Letters, 31/8), no wars when 'Don' was in office?
Perhaps you missed the war in Afghanistan, Hamas and Hezbollah attacking Israel and vice-versa, US troops in Iraq, the war in Syria.
I could name a few other warlike actions by China and Russia, but I believe I have made my point.
Mike Sargent, Cootamundra
Gender spruik runs one way
I RECENTLY noted a real estate agency in their advertisement that all 12 staff are women; nothing wrong at all with that. I just wonder what the blowback would be if another agency advertised the same theme, but had male only staff.
