While we are all transfixed on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls in The Last Dance on Netflix at the moment, there’s plenty of other excellent sporting content to re-live or check out for the first time.
We’ve picked out the best in this edition of Nedflix and Chill.
TUESDAY MAY 5th
TIGER WEEK
Fox Sports 503/ Kayo (24/7 All Week Long)
While Neds blog readers who reside in the state of Victoria (Sam Newman in particular) can’t play the game of Golf at the moment, they can at least stay at home and leave their TV locked on 503 this week.
FOX Sports are dedicating the 503 channel to nothing but Tiger Woods with a week-long celebration re-living 70 of his victories which kicked off last night.
From Tiger’s amateur days, his first professional win and all the venues he dominated in (on the course) this marathon of the GOAT of Golf is set to really satisfy links lovers everywhere.
From 7 pm on tonight (Tuesday), FOX Sports 503 will show Tiger’s four-in-a-row at Arnie’s Bay Hall Club with the great man doing what he does best.
So, while you can’t get out on the course in every state in Australia, you can at least spend your lockdown with the GOAT doing what he does best.
TENNIS: AUSTRALIAN OPEN CLASSICS
ESPN 509 5pm – 7pm
ESPN has been doing a phenomenal job pumping out the classics from their rich archives over this period and Tennis fans are in for a treat with some classics from the Australian Open.
While you may think that watching Australian Open tennis highlights in May is a bit weird, nothing is normal right now – especially when it comes to watching sport.
Tonight ESPN is showing highlights from the Kooyong days with the 1982 Women’s singles final between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (5 pm) and the 1969 semi-final between Rod Laver and Tony Roche played in the 40-degree heat (6:30 pm)
While the game between Roche and Laver went for four plus hours and the players resorted to putting wet cabbage leaves in their hats to keep cool, ESPN has condensed it down to half an hour.
Along with the vintage Kooyong games, some more modern matchups are in the mix.
The 2003 semi-final between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters (5:30 pm) and the 2005 final between Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt (6 pm) make up for two hours of some of the best Grand Slam tennis you will ever see.
WEDNESDAY 6th MAY
30 for 30: Four Days In October
ESPN 509 4 pm
One of the most famous of the 30 for 30 documentaries, Four Days in October focuses in on the Boston Red Sox drought-breaking World Series win over the New York Yankees in 2004.
The film brilliantly gives an insight to what life was like for the then long-suffering Red Sox fans between October 17-20 of that year.
How the Red Sox broke 86 years of curses, frustration and near misses is beyond a Hollywood script – although, that has been attempted in the aftermath.
If you haven’t yet seen it, or figure it’s worth another watch Four Days in October is one of the best hours of sports content you’ll ever come across.
THURSDAY 7th MAY
BIG BAG WEEK
FOX Footy 7 pm
In modern AFL football, a player kicking four or five goals is seen as a big day, but this weekend FOX Footy is paying tribute to the full-forward with big day week.
We’re talking minimum 10+ goals in a game.
We’re talking players kicking 95% of their score.
We’re talking proper attacking, high scoring football – the way it should be played.
Big Bag Week kicks off with one of the most iconic games of all time – Round 6, 1993 – Essendon v Geelong at the MCG.
This was the game that saw Gary Ablett kicked 14 on one end for Geelong and Paul Salmon kicked 10 on the other.
Ablett kicked 14 goals in a side that lost by 24 points.
After that famous Ablett/Salmon shootout, Magpie fans are in for an absolute treat with a replay of the Macedonian Marvel Peter Diacos kicking a lazy 13 goals in Collingwood’s 101 point win against the Brisbane Bears at Carara in Round 20, 1991.
FOX is set to show big bags from the likes of Tony Lockett, Jason Dunstall, Wayne Carey, Buddy Frankin, Tony Modra and even Allen Jackovich over the coming days and as a fan of old-school footy, I simply can’t wait.