What a great sporting weekend with three impressive events taking place in the space of 24 hours.

First off congratulations cliveeb@xtra.co.nz. You are the winner of the 300 dollar Lone Star voucher. A highly commendable effort given you picked the correct Grand Final scoreline so early on.

The obvious trend amongst the dozens of entries was that the Storm were seen as the heavyweights but the Eels were definitely the sentimental favourites.

The same appeared to apply to that boxing mismatch at Mystery Creek but as both the Eels and Shane Cameron had reinforced upon them, sentiment invariably counts for nothing.

The Storm brought every ounce of their recent Finals experience to bear from the get-go. They quickly rendered the Sydney side to the similar status of a rabbit with poor eyesight in the glare of headlights on full beam.

This inexperience and incompetence produced a first-half display of dumb option-taking by the Eels that ruined the chances they created.

Similar chances to those that they so ruthlessly exploited in their tremendous run up to the Final.

The Storm to me are a direct parallel to another great Aussie outfit of a few years back, namely their national cricket team.

For Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, read Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk.

True-blue stars supported by other highly capable team members with an overall, massive self-belief permeating everything they do.

The Eels of 2010 will undoubtedly benefit from this Finals exposure, however indigestible the loss inevitably was.

In fact, this experience may well prove to be the missing link that coach Daniel Anderson needs to guide the Eels to become NRL champions next year.

Do you agree with the assertion that Tua/Cameron bout was indeed a mismatch of considerable proportions?

There were good reasons to believe it would become more than a straight-out annihilation.

David Tua's absence from the ring, his ordinary performances and fitness when he did last fight; in comparison to Shane Cameron's proven stamina led most of us to believe that an even contest of sorts was probable.

But how devilishly quickly did that fanciful perception turn to hard-core reality!

A trim, cut, sprightly David Tua with his inherent punching power so obviously intact rapidly demonstrated why his boxing prowess is still of world-class quality and why Shane Cameron has no more going for him than a raft of many other mediocre heavyweights around the world.

Before I end, it would be remiss not to express a hearty well-done to the Black Caps.

They have done both themselves and their fans proud by reaching the ICC Champions Trophy Final.

You only have to look at the calibre of the teams that have been eliminated to give such deserved praise.

And hopefully, Grant Elliott will now become a permanent swap for Jake "the Fake" Oram.

To this fan, that outcome would be just about as satisfying as winning the tournament itself.

Your thoughts please on any or all of the above are most welcome.

PS. cliveeb@xtra.co.nz, could you please contact camt@lonestar.co.nz and provide your address and phone number?