It's a great time to be alive

If you're an Australian sports fan with a love for American sports this time of year is always awesome. It's probably my favourite.

Here at home we have the NRL & AFL finals starting up, the Tri-Nations rugby is still on, the Spring Racing Carnival is not far off and the A-League is gathering some momentum.

Across the Pacific it's even more packed with the US Open Tennis, the start of the College Football season (ouch Oklahoma!!!), NFL, MLB pennant races happening and playoffs approaching, and NBA and NHL on the horizon. How good!!

The only pain in the ass is the time difference, but then again, if the time zones were all the same there wouldn't be enough time to take it all in.

So who is going to win??

That is something I am asked often by my sports loving brethren so I thought I'd have a crack - as much to get your thoughts and as much to see how stupid I might look down the track when everything is decided for another year. Although, I probably don't need to stick my neck out there too look stupid!

So here goes (with personal bias firmly in place):

Tri-Nations - The Springboks (pretty much already lifted the trophy)

NRL - Manly

AFL - Geelong

Cox Plate - Maldivian

Melbourne Cup - Profound Beauty

A-League - Sydney FC

MLB - Yankees

NCAA Football - Florida

NFL - New Orleans

NBA - Cleveland

NHL - Flyers

All this is without bringing into play the end of the various motor racing seasons, the Premier League in the UK and the myriad of exciting European football competitions. Damn work, can't someone just pay me to watch all of this stuff!

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

International sport bucket list

Last week I wrote about my Australian sport bucket list and I was surprised by how many of my friends and associates discussed their lists with me in the days that followed.

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised as it is an interesting topic that i think for most people could change on an almost daily basis.

I wish those people had shared their lists with everyone else via this site because it would have made for spirited reading and debate!

Anyway, the Aussie list is done and now it is time for my overseas list.

I will preface this list by admitting i am obsessed with US sport and also that this task was near impossible to narrow to just five so i went for six! Here goes, again in no particular order:

AMERICAN COLLEGE FOOTBALL - Texas v Oklahoma. The Red River Rivalry or Shootout -I don't care what you call it these days. And I think my preference would be to watch this in Austin too. Or maybe Norman?? Something about Longhorn cheerleaders though!

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FOOTBALL FINAL - Give me Man Utd away against just about anyone on the continent. AC Milan, Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid, Galatasaray - I don't mind.

WORLD SERIES GAME 7 - If you know me there are probably no surprises that this would be in the new Yankee Stadium. I don't even care who it is against. And I wouldn't even care if it was in Game 4, 5 or 6 as long as it was a ring clincher. Second best (or maybe even better) would be to see the Yanks knock off the evil Red Sox in the ALCS the week or so before.

THE GRAND NATIONAL - All that pomp and flesh. I mean horseflesh. And I love to punt on things I know little about.

NCAA MEN'S SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS - Some say this is as good as watching the Olympic swimming program. Enormous pressure. As a swim fan I have to see this once.

SUPER BOWL - Preferably in New Orleans but I am not too picky on this one. And I wanna be greedy and be there for the whole week. I'll start with the Maxim and Victoria's Secret parties.

There - that's not asking for much. What do you think? Let us all see your list.