You have to spare a thought for those hard-working people who were running the sweeps on the Cup this year. You know the drill - it's the office or the less serious end of a betting venue and somebody gets the sweep together. Sweeps are very popular - buy one for each of the kids etc.

They're also very simple. You pay your money and draw a horse. Those in charge put the prizemoney into four envelopes and label them - first, second, third and one for last. The race is run and the envelopes are given out to the corresponding winning ticket holders.

What could go wrong?

Well, somebody might lodge a protest on behalf of fourth finishing Il Paradiso. The stewards might uphold the protest, meaning that second finishing Master of Reality is now relegated to fourth place. The envelopes have all been given out but now they are not necessarily in the correct hands ...

There have been numerous stories from those trying to wrangle the money back from those that had been incorrectly, prematurely paid.

'I've already spent it,' one guy apparently said.

It's an interesting indication as to the state of things when you consider the amount of sports engaged in various types of 'review' as the year wraps up and we head towards the new one. It all reminds me of one of Jack Gibson's replies to a question regarding an error by a player.

'The athlete,' said Gibson, 'did not have time to hold a committee meeting.'

But it's all about committee meetings these days and I find myself wondering, how necessary are they all?

Blind Freddy could tell you what went wrong with the Matildas. Straight up debacle with the coaching situation. The sacked coach, Alen Stajcic has since been showing the management what mugs they were by doing good things in his new role coaching last year's wooden spooners, The Mariners. The Mariners last week beat previous competition finalists the Perth Glory 2-1 in Perth.

The Rugby Union review? They could perhaps just save their money and combine their review with the women's soccer. Just file under yet another coaching calamity.

Cricket? We were bundled out of the World Cup. And then Steve Smith pretty much single-handedly retained the ashes for us. You'd think that'd have to be a fairly straight forward committee resolution - let's keep selecting Steve Smith.

Rugby League? Basket case. There's not a committee in existence that could sort that lot out, and if there were such an extraordinary bunch of people you wouldn't waste them on Rugby League. You'd send them to fix the Middle East or Brexit or something.

New league boss sure is talking a good game

And these are just the overall reviews for the sports themselves. Along with these will come all the reviews by the individual clubs. I'm thinking that, 'we lost because the other teams scored more points than us,' will be, for the most part, an unstated simple truth lost in the more general blizzards of blame and recrimination.

The point seemingly too often overlooked is that everybody can't win all the time. Why think otherwise?

And speaking of not winning - from a Rugby League perspective anyway - the latest Ausplay survey by Sport Australia has shown, unequivocally, that soccer is now the number one club-based participation sport in Australia, with serious growth figures being demonstrated across the genders and in all age groups.

As I've asked before: What is the future for Rugby League when all the predictions are for the virtual eradication of contact sport within the span of the next generation?

Maybe one of the 'reviews' might have some ideas ...