G'Day From Downunder

Get the Champers out we have things to talk about!

Dubliner and Australian football legend Jim Stynes stepped down from his presidency of the Melbourne football club to spend more time with his family and attend to his failing health.

Jim has almost reached sainthood status Downunder due to his public battle with cancer.

He was diagnosed with melanoma and has had a long battle with the disease.

On the subject of Australian Rules football, the dynamic County Down man Marty Clarke, who returned to Ireland after playing some magic football here with top side Collingwood has done a flipside and returned Downunder to renew his career with Collingwood.

If Marty has lost none of his flare, the Aussies fans are in for another treat of football brilliance from the County Down wizard.

Corkman, Satanta O Hailpin, who was delisted, last year from Carlton, has signed with the Greater Western Sydney Giants who will be playing in the league for the first time.

The 2012 Tennis Grand Slam here in Melbourne created the longest game in history going for nearly a six hour epic between Djokovic and Nadal.

This year there were no millions in prize money going back to the USA to help boost your economy and the already wealthy Williams sisters.

While still on sport the Australian soccer A league is going from strength to strength with the crowds growing each year.

It adds a nice flavour to see the Irish infiltrating the game with ex-Cork City, Manchester United and Celtic man Liam Miller now playing with Perth Glory and fellow Irishman Terry Flynn as captain of the Sydney City side.

Just when we thought, we were coming to the end of umpteen back pages of sports, the Australian Rules night football starts in a few weeks and then it's full on again.

Even the front pages of the papers are awash with football and God help those who don't like it for there is no escape, well maybe death or migration?

I would like to slip in a little comment in here for Grahame Curtis our esteemed editor: Australia beat India four nil in the cricket test this year and are looking a threat to the English for the Ashes series.

I had a few lovely surprises over the last few weeks.

First, I came across a fellow Corkman Edward O Connor who recently migrated to this great country with his wife Canice and his two lovely children Maisie and Luke.

Like me, Edward is a huge Munster rugby fan and one hell of a nice fellow.

On a lighter note, while talking with him I mentioned if he was a plastic surgeon I would have a lot of work for him to improve my looks.

He swiftly replied that I definitely needed a new pair of glasses and lucky for me he just happens to own a Specsavers optometrist store and so I now wear a sparkling new pair of classy Specsavers that have taken about ten years off my age, well that's according to Edward anyway.

The other surprise was from long time friends Karl and Shelia Bullman from Tralee who came to visit their son James in Sydney and surprisingly dropped in to spend a few days with us here in Melbourne.

I had not known that James had migrated to Australia some years ago.

Back in 1991 when I brought the Australian band The Travelling Wallabies to Ireland to open The Rose of Tralee festival my wife and I stayed with Karl, Shelia and the band members stayed with Sheila's brother's families.

I'm sure you know what it would have been like trying to get hotel accommodation on an occasion like that.

As it turned out the Bellman's were the perfect hosts and we have remained friends ever since.

Twenty-one years ago, I gave a then nine-year-old James his first guitar lesson sitting on his doorstep in Oak Park.

So when he and his proud mom and dad came to spend a few days with us, I was rewarded with listening to the fine musician that he has now become; he also has a beautiful, sensitive singing voice that he could charm the birds off the trees with.

As you would expect we had a few late nights, talking of old times and we had a lot of singing to catch up on.

It really is lovely when we have old friends from so far away visit.

After all, we here in the land of Oz are almost at the bottom of the world, and we just might just drop off it one day.

Note the name Brett Osborne a 16-year-old Melbourne-born lad who is about to take on the might of Irish dancing in Belfast in March.

He will be competing in the national championship and will no doubt be returning home with lots of awards under his belt.

This young lad was no sooner out of nappies when his mom Janet took him to his first dancing lesson at the Christine Ayres school of Irish Dancing.

Brett already holds fifteen National Titles, seven state solo titles and twenty state team titles.

This new whiz kid of Irish dancing is going to burn the floor in Belfast and no doubt is going to be the one to watch for the locals and the American contingent of hopefuls.

This will be Brett's first visit to Ireland and he will be with his two most faithful fans his mom Janet and dad Peter who by the way are not of Irish decent but love Irish dancing.

How about that? Here we have a young Aussie lad taking on the Irish at their own game on their own stage?

Talk about taking coal to Newcastle and trying to sell it to the locals.

Remember when American born Michael Flatly took the Irish on at their own game in Riverdance and as the old saying goes the rest is history?

While the Australian dollar is glowing in comparison to the US dollar, hovering around the $1.07 mark and 81 Euros, back home here in its homeland the greedy banks are at it again this week, raising their interest rates when the rest of the world is struggling along on low rates.

The four major banks here each expect to make seven billion in profits this year. I did say BILLION and not million.

Here we are with some of the most secure banks in the world and again the greed oozes out of them; obviously enough profit is still not enough.

Homebuyers are already on high interest variable rates: Westpac Bank charges 7.46% ANZ 7.36% CBA 7.31% and the NAB 7.22%.

To make matters worse Westpac Bank has decided to shed 500 jobs while the ANZ has decided to shed another 1,000, in spite of record profits and higher interest rates and this is making the homebuyers very angry indeed.

We here have not had anything like the USA's subprime mortgage debacle, yet Australian homebuyers are paying a price in outrageous rates compared to the rest of the world.

Add to that housing values have dropped as much as 20%, do the banks expect their customers to be happy with rising interest rates and housing dropping in values? Not rocket science really is it?

I had better get off my soapbox before I start ranting on again about the finance industry and politicians.

Until I talk to you again soon be good to those who love you and Slainte from Downunder.

You can write to Mike at mike@globefins.com.au