On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished the week in a disappointing fashion. The benchmark index fell 0.5% to 7,032.5 points.
Will the market be able to bounce back from this on Monday? Here are five things to watch:
ASX 200 expected to return
The Australian share market looks set to rebound on Monday following a very strong night on Wall Street on Friday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 39 points or 0.55% this morning. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 1.3%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.7%, and the NASDAQ jumped 2.1%.
Oil prices fall
energy producers Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) could start the week in the red after oil prices tumbled on Friday. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price dropped 2.4% to US$92.09 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price fell 1.45% to US$98.15 a barrel. Oil prices came under pressure on speculation that US Gulf supply disruption will ease.
Westpac Q3 update
the Westpac Banking Corp. (ASX: WBC) share price will be one to watch on Monday when the banking giant releases its third quarter update. The market is likely to be looking for an update on how Australia’s oldest bank’s cost cutting program is progressing and how its margins have fared since rates started to rise.
Gold price rises
gold miners Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could have a decent start to the week after the gold price pushed higher on Friday night. According to CNBC, the spot gold price was up 0.45% to US$1,815.50 an ounce. The precious metal recorded its fourth straight weekly gain after the US dollar softened.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank results
Westpac isn’t the only bank releasing an update today. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN) shares will be on watch when the regional bank releases its full year results. According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, its analysts expect the bank to report a cash profit of $502 million and pay a full year dividend of 123 cents per share.
For many of us, the sight of waking up to a 911 sitting in our driveway is the stuff of dreams. A beautifully designed, meticulously engineered, driver-focused package that has arguably become the most recognizable silhouette in the history of sports cars. There is, however, a small subset of individuals whose days are spent in fire-retardant clothing that requires a far more ludicrous iteration of that gorgeous profile – a track-only, performance-focused monster, more commonly known as the Porsche 911 GT3 R .
The GT3 R is the first customer racing car based on Porsche’s exceptional 992 platform, which will be officially unveiled at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and ready to race at the start of the 2023 GT3 season. Development of the car began in 2019 with a focus on driveability for gentleman drivers and reducing the running costs for teams, though make no mistakes about it; this is a professional piece of kit.
911 GT3 R Project Manager, Sebastian Golz was adamant about blending performance with usability: “For us, it was primarily about our customers being able to drive the racing car fast for longer. This requires durability and that’s why we focused predominantly on improved driveability. This is reflected in the new 4.2-liter engine’s broader usable rev band, more stable and constant aerodynamics and lower loads on the rear tires, which allow their potential to last longer.”
RELATED: Jeremy Clarkson’s Story About Why He Loves The Porsche 928 Will Make Grown Men Cry
The most apparent internal improvement to 911 GT3 R is the increase in capacity from 3,997 to 4,194 cc, resulting in a power output of around 416 kW (565 PS). The flat-six is still normally-aspirated and will sound symphonic all the way up to its ludicrous rev limiter, while a sequential six-speed contest-mesh gearbox (pulled from the 911 GT3 Cup) should produce shifts as fast as they are reliable .
In terms of exterior, the aerodynamic upgrades are noticeable. An elevated underbody combines a smooth undertray and a rear diffuser, increasing downforce without much drag increase. The polarizing “swan-neck” mount has also found its way onto the GT3 R, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the clean air under the wing improves the aerodynamic efficiency and, therefore, shaves a bit of time off those precious laps.
Porsche Motorsport now offers the new 911 GT3 R for €511,000 ($750,000) plus country-specific charges and optional extras.
2023 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Technical Data
Weight/Dimensions
Basis weight: ca. 1,250 kg (depending on BoP classification); wheelbase: 2,507mm
Water-cooled six-cylinder boxer, rear-mounted; capacity 4,194 cc, stroke 81.5 mm, bore 104.5 mm; max rpm 9,250/min; power: ca. 416 kW (565 PS); four-valve technology; single throttle butterfly system; direct fuel injection; engine control unit Bosch MS 6.6; dry sump lubrication with oil-water heat exchanger; single mass flywheel; race exhaust system with twin tailpipes and DMSB certified catalytic converter; fuel quality: Superplus unleaded to E20 (min. 98 octane)
Transmission
Porsche six-speed sequential constant-mesh gearbox; shift paddles on the steering wheel with electronic shift actuator; mechanical limited slip differential with adjustable preload system unit; three-plate carbon race clutch
Suspension
Forged aluminum control arms and top mounts, stiffness optimized; high-duty spherical bearings with dust protection; wheel hubs with central locking; five-way adjustable racing shock absorbers, motorsport-specific valve design and blow-off function; suspension adjustment via shims; sword-type anti-roll bars adjustable on both sides; spring travel potentiometer; tire pressure monitoring system
front-axle
Double wishbone front axle, adjustable ride height, camber and toe
Electro-hydraulic power steering
Single-piece alloy rims, 12.5J x 18, tire size 30/68-18
rear-axle
Multilink rear suspension, adjustable ride height, camber and toe
Racing driveshaft with tripod flanges
Single-piece alloy rims, 13.5J x 18, tire size 31/71-18
A woman has shared her heartbreak after discovering that her husband of 25 years and the father of her children has a whole other life.
The devastated lady, who shares three children with the man she thought was the love of her life, said she’d been left “broken” by his deceit and lies.
Taking to Reddit in an anonymous post, she opened up about his betrayal and how she has coped since being delivered the blow, The Sun reports.
She explained: “My husband has a second family. The ultimate cliche has happened in my life and I’m absolutely broken.
“My husband, my rock, has been having an affair for over 17 years. We have been married for 25 years.
“We have three beautiful children, two in college and one who still lives at home – but turns out he’s had another set this whole time.”
The woman then shared further details, as she revealed that her other half is an insurance broker and therefore often travels with work, spending one week on and one week off at home.
However, now it has emerged that on his “week off”, he’s been playing happy families with his fiancee and their two teenage children.
She then shared how social media helped her to discover his infidelity after she decided to set up a Facebook account.
She explained: “When I searched my husband’s first name, another profile with another last name popped up, through that profile were the links to his fiancee and other kids.
“My husband is currently with said family and I know it’s him because his most recent post is a photo of him and that other family eating dinner.
“Among those photos were photos of him kissing the girl and him being fatherly with the kids who look nearly identical to my husband.”
The anonymous woman then said she is unsure how she will confront him, but “almost every part” of her “wants to scream in his face and reprimand him for ruining” her life.
Yet, she also admitted that as “her heart is in shambles” and that a different part of her wants to pretend she never saw so as not to disturb their “peaceful” family life.
She concluded: “I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t be in the home where we’ve raised our kids, where we’ve spent every Christmas for the last 26 years.“ And where I’ve been alone on New Years’, taking care of our babies while he “ works”. I just can’t.
“I want to leave a note for him too, to hurt him like he’s hurt me, but I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t know how I’ll ever face him again.”
This article originally appeared on the US Sun and was reproduced with permission
German racing legend Ralf Schumacher has pleaded for Alpine not to block Oscar Piastri’s path to Formula 1, arguing the team only has itself to blame for losing the prodigy driver.
Australian star Daniel Ricciardo became embroiled in F1’s mid-year silly season following reports he will be replaced by young compatriot Piastri at McLaren next year.
Watch Every Practice, Qualifying & Race of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship™ Live on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
The messy contract situation erupted after two-time world champion Fernando Alonso blindsided the F1 world and jumped into Sebastian Vettel’s vacated seat at Aston Martin.
Alpine then announced Piastri would replace Alonso in 2023, only for the 21-year-old Melburnian to reject the seat — a bold move for someone who is yet to drive in F1.
The Enstone team asserts that Piastri, Alpine’s reserve driver for 2022, should respect the contract, but the Victorian believes the commitment is not valid because an option clause expired.
The matter could be settled to the courtroom – Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer threatened to file a civil lawsuit to recover the millions of dollars spent on training Piastri this season.
“I expected more loyalty from Oscar than he is showing,” Szafnauer told Spanish publication The confidential.
“I started in 1989 in Formula 1 and I’ve never seen anything like this. And it’s not about Formula 1, it’s about integrity as a human being.
“For me, the way I grew up, I don’t need to sign a piece of paper and then have someone say, ‘You’re lying, because you signed this’.”
According to French publication Auto Hebdothe FIA’s Driver Contract Recognition Board has found that both Piastri’s Alpine and McLaren contracts are valid.
speaking to Sky F1 in GermanySchumacher argued Alpine’s contract woes were self-inflicted, calling on the F1 team to respect Piastri’s wishes.
“Piastri has done everything right,” he started.
“Now we can only hope that the sore loser – in this case Alpine – doesn’t put obstacles in the boy’s path. Piastri was with them, they had everything in hand, all they had to do was give him a contract.
“I’m sorry. I like Otmar, but he will be disappointed in his own performance, that he did not see it coming with Alonso and that he does not have a plan B. That’s the embarrassing thing about the whole saga.
“Accordingly, he has to blame himself. Oscar did nothing wrong. At the end of the day, Alpine could have questioned Alonso earlier and made it clear to Piastri that they would be relying on him in the future.
“He won Formula 3 in his first year, and Formula 2 as well. What should he be waiting for? I would have done the same if I had been offered a job.
“One thing was clear; Alpine wasn’t interested in putting Piastri in the car next year at the beginning because they saw that young drivers need a certain amount of time (until they arrive in Formula 1).
“They wanted to put him somewhere else for one or two years. There was an option from Alpine to (put Piastri in the cockpit), but it wasn’t taken because they didn’t expect Fernando Alonso to leave.
“When you have such a jewel, it’s criminal to let him go. If you’re then unable to get the contracts right yourself, you can’t blame the young man.
“You also have to remember one thing; Piastri’s manager Mark Webber has a very, very close relationship with McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl.”
On Friday, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem claimed the contract issue would be solved through their own means instead of in the courtroom.
“The FIA’s Driver Contract Recognition Board (CRB) was set up to deal with contract priority issues between drivers and F1 teams,” he tweeted.
“That’s why we rely on their decision to resolve any conflict.”
Meanwhile, Ricciardo is reportedly seeking a whopping $21 million payout to walk away from his contract with McLaren.
The 33-year-old is reportedly only party who can break his contract with the team, which expires at the end of 2023.
A payout would clear the way for McLaren to officially sign Piastri.
Former NSW detective Peter Moroney has agreed with NSW Police Superintendent Danny Doherty that the police force has never seen an attack of the kind before Saturday.
I have told Today the manner of the shooting was completely “unprecedented”.
Former NSW Detective Peter Moroney has spoken after two women were shot dead. (Nine)
Police believe the shooter was targeting 48-year-old mother Lametta Fadlallah, who was sitting in a car with 39-year-old Amy Al-Hazzouri when their car was sprayed with bullets near a Panania home about 10pm on Saturday night.
Police have described the death of Al-Hazzouri as collateral damage.
A 20-year-old man and 16-year-old girl were also in the car at the time of the shooting.
Moroney has told Today “the manner, the calculation and the brutality” of the murders would be worrying police, highlighting the planning and preparation that went into the killings.
“If you are unpacking what actually happened, for someone to know where she was, they obviously would have had to survey her for a point of time,” he said.
“They have sat and waited for her to sit within that vehicle before they came and then opened fire at close range.”
After watching footage recorded of the shooting, the former detective said he had counted 16 to 17 shots fired very quickly.
“That’s someone with clear intent to certainly leave those people deceased.
“Someone clearly wanted (Fadlallah) dead. They shot her in a manner in which they did. They didn’t care who was with her.”
Lametta Fadlallah (left) and Amneh Al-Hazzouri were shot dead in Sydney. (composite)
He said that “in most simple Aussie terms” he would describe the shooter as “an absolute grub”.
Speaking on the fears of retaliation attacks following the murders, Moroney said a risk of future attacks could be expected if the shooting was connected to current gang warfare in Sydney.
“What comes next? Sit down and hold on,” he said.
“It’s not known if it’s linked to the current stream of violence we have at the moment. If it is, the retaliation will come thick and it will come fast.”
“That really forced us to focus on developing a product that people wanted to use, rather than papering over it with a bull market and incentives and crazy token prices. That focus, I think, on building a product that people actually wanted to use was imperative for us developing anything good.”
In fact, he reckons that if the company had raised the $280 million that it did in March at the early stages of its development it wouldn’t have been good.
A lot of ground to claw back
“We had no idea how to spend that money. When we raised $2.5 million (in 2018) you have to think incredibly efficiently. What is the priority today?
“I actually think having too much money can be harmful to the psyche of building something because you tend to view it as, I have to spend this rather than what I need to build. Or who do I need to hire in order to accomplish what I want?”
The Ferguson brothers debuted on the Financial Review Rich List in May with wealth estimated at a combined $1.01 billion.
Since then, crypto markets have tumbled before a rebound last month. But there’s a lot of ground to claw back. Ether, the currency tied to ethereum, which Immutable builds its businesses upon, is down about 50 per cent.
Ferguson concedes the downturn is hurting crypto companies. Even Immutable has let some people go within its gaming operations. Ferguson wouldn’t comment on the cuts.
But he is busily hiring to build the broader business, confident Immutable is building products, including its Immutable X platform, that will find demand as more of the world shifts to owning and trading digital assets, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson is doubling down on crypto. Louie Douvis
“Our thesis is that all forms of unique value in the world will eventually be tokenized,” he says.
“And they will be tokenized via the data structure of an NFT. So, in 10 years, we expect the vast majority of industries with unique value, whether it is real estate and trading houses, or whether it is the trillion dollars’ worth of T-bills or term deposits that are outstanding liabilities today, to be tokenised and transformed into NFTs.
“The technology in the platform that we’re building for games is precisely what is needed to allow hundreds of millions of homes to be tokenised, or pieces of real property and IP, like music royalties.”
The company’s genesis was in video games called Etherbots and Gods Unchained, where players could buy and sell items within the game.
Obsessed with fantasy
But as demand for their games, and to own items within them, surged, so too did the fees to keep building it on the blockchain.
So, they set about building a platform that would allow gamers and other businesses wanting to market NFTs to operate without incurring huge costs, called gas fees.
Ferguson confesses he was a massive nerd who was obsessed with fantasy fiction as a kid.
He was dux of his year at Knox Grammar, but even though he was punching above his weight academically, he and James would frustrate their parents by spending a lot of time playing video games.
Gods Unchained trading cards, of which there are more than 25 million in existence. The Ferguson brothers developed the popular game in 2018.
“We would play a tonne of video games,” Ferguson recalls. “I think I have a few thousand hours in League of Legendsa few thousand hours in runescape from when we were a bit younger. Anything with an in-game economy, I loved. I wasn’t particularly good at these games, by the way,” he tells the podcast.
“I do remember Mum being very frustrated with those, but I think that formed the basis of a lot of what we ended up building later on and understanding that these digital goods are actually really meaningful for kids.”
By the time he was in year 9, he was working with his brother on side projects. They became obsessed with developing digital products.
It was during his summer holidays at the end of 2017, after his second year studying law and computer science at University of Sydney, when one of their ideas was really paying off.
A game they’d built, Etherbots, went viral. It was making millions. Ferguson didn’t go back to university. They set up Immutable instead. For a time they worked all night from a co-working space.
“I remember the other half of the building was this photo box start-up that was building photo boxes for events. And they thought we were nuts. They came in on a Monday, and we were just sleeping under the desks, and we hadn’t left all weekend.”
If you love to get free games on Steam, a new Steam update has just made the process of claiming free-to-play games and free DLC add-ons a little easier. The new addition may not sound like much at first, but it makes building up that backlog pile in your Steam library much smoother, meaning you can commit to even more games that you know, in your heart of hearts, that you probably don’t have time to get around to.
The new update adds a blue “Add to Library” button to free games and DLC next to the usual green “Install Game,” “Play Game,” or “Download” buttons that appeared previously. This means that you can now quickly add the free content to your Steam library without having to kick off the installation process. Previously, the method to claim free games required you to start the installation process – you could cancel the installation afterwards and the game would remain on your account, but it was nevertheless a hassle, so this is a welcome quality of life change.
Similarly, this makes picking up free DLC and add-ons for your games smoother – ordinarily, many games automatically launch when you attempt to claim free DLC. This is perhaps an even more useful change in this case, because many games such as Dying Light 2 and Monster Hunter: World that have offered numerous free add-ons split up into separate Steam store listings would launch the game every time you wanted to add one of them to your account.
PC gaming data coordinator Alejandro LL (who goes by Morwull on Twitter) highlighted the new feature, which was quickly picked up by users on the Steam subreddit. Many were quick to celebrate the announcement, while some joked about how it’s taken almost twenty years of Steam to add this feature. That’s not much of an exaggeration – the platform first launched in September 2003, with the first game to require it (Half-Life 2) arriving in November 2004.
Other users expressed bemusement at the positivity of the reactions, given that you could always cancel out of the installation process – but anything that makes filling up your library with those juicy free games a little easier is bound to be welcome, and the ability to quickly toss all the free add-on content for a game into your account without having to boot the game up is very welcome.
Personally, I hadn’t claimed half of the free cosmetic add-ons for Monster Hunter: World, despite spending hundreds of hours in-game, because the process was so clunky. Previously, every time you clicked “download” the game would boot up, whether you wanted it to or not. Now, with just a few clicks, all of those extra hairstyles that I’ll likely never use are mine forever. After all, clogging up your Steam backlog with cheap and free goodies has been a long-standing tradition ever since the service first launched all those years ago.
If you’re looking for the best way to play all your new freebies, Valve has implemented official Steam Joy-Con support for the Nintendo Switch controllers. If you prefer the PlayStation or Xbox pads, you can take advantage of the Steam controller lighting options. Meanwhile, you might have noticed a recent change to Valve’s storefront as new rules come in enforcing a ban on reviews and awards in Steam game art – although when you’re grabbing free games, you don’t have much to lose anyway.
When Tania O’Donnell was dating, she met a man online and went back to his place … where he proudly showed off his book collection.
“It was about 20 books on Nazi Germany and 10 Andy McNab novels,” says O’Donnell, an author. “I could feel my vulva constructing its own chastity belt.”
A more edifying tale: Hannah Love, senior publicity manager at the children’s book publishers Scholastic, met a man online. He asked her about her de ella favorite book de ella (The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle) and read it before their first real-life date, to which he brought his favorite book to lend to her (from the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce), thus securing at least a second date for her to return the book.
Reader, she married him.
Reading taste can make or break a relationship for the bookish-minded, and literary preferences are highly subjective. But a new app in development is aiming to remove the uncertainty about literary tastes when meeting new people. Klerb has already been dubbed Tinder for bookworms because it matches you with people in your area according to your shared interests in books.
For those looking for love, a prospect’s bookshelves can be a minefield. What if they just read the wrong books? “I generally don’t care, but I did once go back to a guy’s house post-date, and the only book I could see was Fifty Shades of Gray,” says Alice Furse, publicity manager at a publisher.
“To be clear, I was more concerned about his taste than the possibility of kinks.”
Or even worse, what if they don’t have any books at all? The film-maker John Waters famously said: “If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em.”
With Klerb, you don’t even have to date them. You can just meet up with people who like the same books as you, or form a book club.
“It’s not a hook-up app,” insists Abe Winter, the New Yorker who is developing Klerb, which is still being tested. “Or a dating app of any kind. But Tinder, which is not without its problems, delivers real value to communities by connecting strangers in geographical proximity. I’m trying to bring that model to reading.
“Readers are hungry for discussion, and introverts are hungry for social outlets. It’s easy to socialize if you like partying or sports; it’s harder if you have academic interests.
“From an informal survey, around 10% of age 30-plus dating app profiles talk about books or reading. This is a neglected category for socialisation. Goodreads is great at the book side of this, but it is not a geo-radius social tool, and I’m guessing doesn’t want to be.”
Winter says he’s a solo founder with “low expenses and no investment”, and is trying to make this work without the criticisms leveled at advertising-based apps that harvest users’ data.
He has a waiting list, and plans to roll out the app when he reaches enough interested users in enough geographical locations to make the algorithms work.
For people like Abbey Heffer, a PhD candidate in Germany with a penchant for dystopian fiction, Klerb could be a godsend. “I wouldn’t use the app to look for a romantic relationship – I’m happily married! – but I love the idea of vetting potential friends based on their taste in books,” she says.
“It would make the hunt for literary friends so much easier for people like me: immigrants who read in other languages, mums looking to talk about something other than babies, or just introverts who want to socialize… but gently.”
Last month, Justin Longmuir was asked an interesting question about his spearhead Matt Taberner and provided an interesting answer.
On whether Taberner could become a liability at some point given his ongoing injury issues, Longmuir responded: “Maybe at some point, but we’re definitely not there yet.”
Six weeks on, the management of not just one, but three injury-affected forwards is looming as the defining issue of Fremantle’s finals campaign.
If they’re available, Taberner, leading goal kicker Rory Lobb and captain Nat Fyfe all appear automatic selections in an individual sense.
But it will be fascinating to see whether the cumulative risk is something the Dockers might baulk at.
If Fremantle take Taberner, Lobb and Fyfe into their first final, it would mean having three players in their forward line who have each broken down during their previous two games.
Throw in Sam Switkowski off a long-term back injury, and that’s four forwards with compromised preparations.
Since first hurting his shoulder against Sydney in round 18, Lobb has played a starring role against the Western Bulldogs, with four goals under the Marvel Stadium roof in round 21, to go with two goalless games in the wet.
Fremantle’s leading goalkicker Rory Lobb injured his shoulder in the second half of this season. Credit: Jackson Flindell/The West Australian
Regardless of whether he is physically comfortable with rucking in the finals, Lobb has been Fremantle’s most viable forward target this season.
He’s kicked a career-high 34 goals in 19 games to be the leading goal kicker for a team that will enter September as the lowest-scoring finalist.
In other words, he’s pretty indispensable.
Approaching 31 and with more than 20 operations behind him, Fyfe is no longer the dual Brownlow Medal-winning midfield wrecking ball he once was.
His return from a double shoulder reconstruction followed by serious back surgery was always likely to be a rocky road, and when he had just one kick, to go with 14 handballs, in the loss to Sydney in round 18 it was a pothole.
A week earlier, Fyfe kicked three goals to go with 21 touches in the win over St Kilda. He also took four marks inside 50 and had 10 score involvements that night in a hybrid forward-midfield role.
It was the kind of performance that showed even the 2022 version of Fyfe is capable of having a fair say in the club’s final fortunes.
Nat Fyfe has been battling injuries for a number of seasons. Credit: Iain Gillespie/The West Australian
Mick Malthouse infamously left John Worsfold out of a final in 1998, but the captain being told he’s not wanted is not a scenario that will be repeating here.
Which leaves Taberner.
When the key forward booted seven goals against Essendon in round five, it was the biggest bag kicked by a Docker since Matthew Pavlich a decade ago.
As Longmuir recently noted, Freo aren’t exactly overflowing with players who are capable of kicking bags.
Since then, Taberner has kicked 12 majors in 10 games and been subbed out with injury three times.
Should the Dockers take care of business against 16th-placed Greater Western Sydney in the final round, they will enter their first final off three straight wins but with Taberner having played just 67 minutes of those three games.
An injured Matt Taberner passes on advice to Fremantle teammate Jye Amiss and Peel’s Blair Bell at the weekend. Credit: daniel wilkins/The West Australian
Complicating the equation is the fact Taberner impressed with eight marks and two goals in those 67 minutes before getting injured in round 21 against the Bulldogs, a team Fremantle could end up facing in an elimination final.
And muddying the waters further still is that a Taberner recall for the first final could require a brutal selection call on somebody else.
If you want to play Taberner, Lobb, Fyfe and Griffin Logue forward, with regular smalls Michael Walters, Michael Frederick, Lachie Schultz and Sam Switkowski, then eight into the normal seven places allotted won’t go.
The Dockers might feel more comfortable about bringing Taberner in for their first final if he got through a WAFL game on the pre-finals bye weekend.
Nat Fyfe and Matt Taberner are not certain to be fit for finals. Credit: JOEL CARRETT/AAPIMAGE
But if pushing for that contributed to any sort of setback, his final series would be over before it began.
The old adage about not taking injured players into finals is pretty hollow. Important players bravely play through injury all year to get their side into the finals in the first place.
Brisbane famously won the 2003 flag after using 18 vials of painkillers on players.
And the medical sub rule might provide the Dockers with an added layer of comfort about rolling the dice with their forwards.
There’s plenty of water to go under the bridge and a fresh injury to somebody against the Giants might mean all of the pieces fall into place.
Regardless, Fremantle’s selection meeting leading into their first final is shaping as their biggest of the year.
Wake up, eat, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, repeat.
Living the dream, huh?
“Personally, I believe I’m not meant to work. I’m meant to do this all day,” says an audio track on TikTok that went viral for its candid message: working a 9-to-5 job is no longer the ideal lifestyle for many.
loading
One video that uses this audio shows a woman sitting at a cafe, enjoying a coffee and croissant. Ella’s phone camera pans around, revealing a dozen others leisurely doing the same.
It has over three million views.
The video-based app has become a hub for Gen Zs and Millennials to create apathetic and pessimistic commentary about their disillusionment towards work.
What’s fueling this? Toxic workplace culture, minimal flexibility, no work life balance and of course, the pandemic.
Deloitte’s Global 2022 Gen Z & Millennial Survey revealed four in 10 Gen Zs and nearly a quarter of Millennials would like to leave their jobs in two years.
Roughly a third would do so without another job lined upthe report found.
However, if you love what you do, is it true that you’ll never work a day in your life?
Engineer-turned-career-development practitioner Naishadh Gadani said the dream job is “an overly simplistic and misused term”.
“Rather than thinking of it as a dream job, we should be questioning whether it’s a fulfilling job,” Mr Gadani told ABC News.
“Questions like: What fulfills me? What brings me happiness? What kind of workplace or organization do I like? – [these] can help us.”
Juliette had ‘golden ticket’ job but quit and now works casually in hospitality
Juliette, 22, from Victoria, landed her first white-collar job from her sister’s roommate at the time, who worked in the public service.
After hearing that she was looking for trainees who required no qualifications, Juliette applied and was offered the job.
“It was a golden ticket because I was 20, had no qualifications past a mediocre ATAR, and was now working full-time and getting paid a decent wage.
“I received a lot of praise from friends and family. It was a job that my family could gloat about,” she said.
After nine months into the job, Juliette quit. She said she felt like a failure.
Juliette on her first day of her public service job. (Supplied: Juliette Melody Grace)
“I had spent months toying with the idea of whether money or my mental health was more important,” she said.
Four months after she quit, Juliette traded full-time work for a casual job in hospitality and she has never been happier.
“My job isn’t who I am. I don’t base my worth on my productivity within capitalism.”
Despite her reduced working hours, coupled with a rising cost of living, Juliette remains “optimistic” about the future.
“As bad as things are economically, it’s just a cycle. There are bigger problems than my wallet.”
Alex’s dream was to play in a band. I realized it was not as glamorous as it sounded
Alex, 32, was in his first year of university when a friend asked what he wanted to do for a career.
“She said to ignore the money and say the first thing that came to mind. I blurted out: ‘I want to play in a band.’
“That’s the moment I decided playing in a band was my ‘dream job’,” he said.
While it’s not his “dream job”, Alex’s day job is in the aerospace industry.(Supplied: Alex Carrette)
However, as Alex became more involved in Brisbane’s music scene, he saw how the life of a band member wasn’t as glamorous as their fans might suspect.
“Playing shows to hundreds of fans sounds incredible, but this is only a small part of a touring musician’s life,” he said.
Over the years, Alex decided he wouldn’t let a job consume his identity, so he allowed himself to simply “have a job.”
His current “day job” is working in the aerospace sector. But he hasn’t given up on ditching the 9-to-5 routine.
“I’ve recently gotten into making my own YouTube videos as well as editing them for clients. So, that’s another possibility,” he explained.
Alex said his ideal situation would be to play local shows in small venues, as opposed to touring nationally or internationally.
“I don’t see that as a failure. So long as I’m enjoying playing music, that’s a success in my mind,” he said.
Owning a home is ‘unachievable’ for Ishara, but she believes this is no longer the dream for young people
During primary school, Ishara Sahama, 23, dreamed of becoming a vet.
It wasn’t until her final years of high school — when she gravitated towards the humanities and social sciences field.
After graduating university with a major in geography in 2019, Ms Sahama spent a few years volunteering and gaining work experience.
She now works part-time in the social enterprise and entrepreneurship space.
“Ever since I started working, I’ve seen people who are either in their mid-20s-30s, or in their 40-50s, resign from the public sector and move to private, or vice-versa,” Ms Sahama said.
Ishara Sahama says “the Australian dream” is a luxury that doesn’t reflect the realities of young people. (Supplied: Ishara Sahama)
“Pushing young people to pick a dream job — or will it into existence — can be detrimental to their personal growth.”
“The past two years have changed the way work is conducted. A 9-to-5 job, five days a week can be condensed to four days,” she said.
“And, yet, people who do or don’t have this work structure may still struggle to keep up with Australia’s rising cost of living.”
Ms Sahama saves on certain costs by living with her family, paying for petrol and groceries, costs that have only increased over time.
While these costs are manageable for her, Ishara feels indifferent when it comes to buying a home.
“The idea of owning, or leasing, a property in the future is now unachievable for me, considering current economic circumstances,” she said.
“The ‘Australian Dream’ is a luxury and a privilege. It doesn’t reflect everyday realities of young people who must change and adapt to the workforce in a post-COVID world.”
