Peter Fitzsimons: Fitz Files Go you Sydney girl. The world is now starting to learn what TFF and all Sydney boys understand intuitively from toddlerdom onwards, just as it has been understood from the very days of the Dreamtime. Sydney girls are strong. Sydney girls can strike like lightning, and frighten like thunder. You never take on Sydney girls, for even when you think you have the upper hand ... ah, boys, those Sydney girls will get you in the end. And all of the above goes double when Sydney girls have something sharp in their hands! So all the javelin competitors at the World Youth Championships held in Donetsk, Ukraine, learnt last week. For look there. With one throw to go, Mackenzie Little, the young student from Pymble Ladies College, needs to throw a personal best to win, something made all the more difficult by the breeze and the crowd being against her. But she is a Sydney girl! It is in her blood and in her birthright - Sydney girls strike like lightning and frighten like thunder! She hurtles forward, pushes her arm waaaay back - oh yes, back even into the Dreamtime itself - swings it forward and releases! The javelin traces a perfect arc like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, first soaring high into the crisp stadium air, and even as it slowly descends keeps flying, past her previous throws, past the throws of her competitors, past the point of belief ... and comes to ground ... with a personal best and Australian record of 61.47 metres! Say it loud, say it proud: Mackenzie Little - World Youth Javelin champion. Congratulations to her. And let the word go forth from this place and this time, out into the world at large - you never mess with Sydney girls, particularly when they're holding something sharp. Sigh. Sydney boys could have told the world that for nuffink. Meanwhile? Meanwhile the whole ASADA saga rolls on, and this week the news emerged that some kind of deal appears to have been done with the Essendon club, to protect their players from suspension. But here is the question that remains to be answered, through all the obfuscation. If AOD-9604 is not a performance- enhancing drug as Essendon bosses and James Hird maintain, then what the hell is it, and why was Jobe Watson injected with it? In the words of a reader, Mark Diamond, "Had Jobe put on a touch of weight in the off season? Had Jobe left a trail of McDonald's cartons in his car at training? Was Jobe failing skin fold tests down there at Windy Hill? Surely the truth is that AOD-9604 helps you put on lean muscle mass at an artificially heightened rate. Does it really take six months and '10,000 documents (the figure given us by various media outlets) for ASADA and the AFL to figure that out? I found it on the net on an American website that was clearly published in ignorance of what is happening at Essendon. It took me five minutes. Over to you, ASADA. No point has been properly made until I have made it 15 times. But at the behest of readers who just can't stand it any more, let me make it a 16th time. It's about the Socceroos. (Oh, here we go. That bastard is going to have a go at the beautiful game. Where is my poison pen?) Although champions to a MAN, I tell you, many of them persist in the pseudo-American practice of putting their hands over their hearts as they sing the national anthem. As a letter to the editor pointed out this week, they are mistaken if they think that to be a patriotic look. In fact, the practice started in the military, where on ceremonial occasions, soldiers would cover their medals in respect to fallen comrades. It is to say that whatever they wear is as nothing to the valour of the fallen. What's more humiliating - the Australian cricketers' performance at Lord's, or Melbourne Victory v Liverpool at the MCG with 94,990 out of 95,000 people in red and screaming for Liverpool? Are we really just a bunch of arse-licking colonials after all? John Campbell I am not sure if this is a fair point or not, but suspect that Craig Foster will advise us shortly! In a tragic week for rugby, when a young man in New Zealand died, after collapsing with a heavy head knock at the end of a match - although that is not yet confirmed as the cause of death - the IRB has been reviewing the working of its "PSCA test," which in the third Test disgracefully allowed Wallabies flanker George Smith to return to the field. TFF has continued to have a lot of official correspondence about the issue, and one meeting, and my pound to your peanut says that there will soon be an IRB announcement on the subject. One screamingly obvious reform is to rule that if a player has to be assisted from the field after a head clash, there is no return. In The Guardian, the Spin comes to the point, re the lack of the Pontings and Husseys of this world: "Clarke must feel a little like Paul McCartney did when he woke up one day and realised that Linda and Denny Laine were filling the spots where John, George and Ringo used to be." Darren Lehmann, as Australia prepared to chase 600-odd runs in the second innings, following Australia's dismissal for SFA in the first. I've seen big totals chased down, and it's certainly a good wicket. It used to be a funny game, Boof. Now it's getting more tragic by the day. Mystery tweet from Cricket Australia, for which it quickly apologised: "That decision sucked ass #bullshit." A point of order, Mr Chairman! In Australia, it is spelt "a-r-s-e" An "ass" is what the chief Australian cricket selector would likely turn up with, if he were competing at Ascot. Brendan Fevola tweets: "Shane Watson has been out LBW more times than I've been pissed." Jimmy Dolan, the sports guy on Jonesy & Amanda WSFM's Breakfast show, deadpan: "Australian fast bowler James Pattinson has a lower-back stress fracture, probably from carrying the Australian batsmen ..." Allan Border: "Our major concern right now is the performance of the top six. I could honestly say the nine, 10 and jack looked more competent than our one, two and three. If that was me in the top three I'd be embarrassed. If that was you in the top three, Allan, we wouldn't be in this predicament. Simon Katich would answer the call if it came: "I never retired from international cricket. I was told by Andrew Hilditch I was never going to be picked again for Australia in 2010 - although he did say the same thing to me in April 2007. Dwight "All Night" Yorke, interviewed on the sideline after Manchester United's match against the A-League All Stars: "Sydney is one of the greatest countries in the world ..." English sportswriter Martin Samuel on the Chris Rogers dismissal in the first innings of the second Ashes Test. This may well be the most consistently incompetent sequence of events in the history of Test cricket, in that not a single action was performed efficiently. The ball was atrocious, the shot worse, the appeal was unwarranted, the decision erroneous and refusing to review was a mistake. Veteran NRL coach Brian Smith, on what ailed Mitchell Pearce at Origin level: "More importantly, Pearce struggles with situational decision-making for strategy changes within the match requirements." My freaking head hurts! Or, as Brian might say, "The manifestation of a spheroid atop my articulatio humeri, is experiencing symptoms of discomfit." ABC Grandstand's Tim Gavel in the Raiders v Parra game. ..." as the rain starts to fire up again here at Canberra Stadium ..." Cronulla Sharks. I think they had a big win or a big loss this week, but I am just not sure. It might be just me, but the NRL always seems a little dull after the excitement of Origin is over, and the finals series is so large that every half-decent team makes it anyway. England. Are bloody well winning everything lately. I pine for the days when they lost everything bar the will to live, and that was only just. Michael Di Venuto. He is the Australian cricket team's batting coach. Me? I'm glad he's there and working hard. It's frightening to think how grim things might be without him! Phil Mickelson. Rebounded from sixth second place in the US Open to win the British Open - his fifth major. He prevented the Brits from having a clean sweep of every prize going. Brumbies. Take on the Bulls in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Jesse Mogg will win it for them, in a stunning upset. You heard it here first! Don Riddington. The 68-year-old grandfather and oldest Australian to swim the English Channel. He did it in 19 hours and 45 minutes. Golden oldies rugby. In the first weekend of October in Armidale. See more at 2013rugbyreunion.com. James Corbett. Won the Queen's Prize, one of the most coveted titles in shooting and only the fifth Australian to do so in its 153-year history. RIP Sue Basten. The much-loved North Shore netball coach and mentor, a pioneer of the Lindem team of Lindfield and life member of the Ku-ring-gai Netball Association, passed away this week after a brief illness. She gave much. Vale. RIP Ewart Robson OAM. The beloved rugby identity with Combined High Schools over many years died earlier this month. Well done, oh good and faithful servant of the game. Willie Halaifonua, 27. The Takapuna rugby club player and father of two died on Tuesday after collapsing at the end of a match last Saturday. There is speculation that he took two heavy hits to his head in the game.