Before sitting down to write this column, I was struggling to pinpoint one sporting issue to sink my teeth into.

The thing is, the past three weeks I’ve been on holidays and so many things in the sporting world have annoyed me.

So, rather than focus on just one, I decided to put together a “What Grinds My Gears” column.

What Grinds My Gears #1: Stephanie Rice and Eamon Sullivan broke three world records between them at last week’s Olympic selection trials and fully deserve the truckload of sponsorship opportunities expected to come their way.

But don’t try and tell me that their newfound riches isn’t also due largely to their looks, not just their swimming exploits, as one coach had the audacity to claim.

Just ask Jessicah Schipper, the 200m butterfly world record holder. She has dominated that stroke in recent years, yet she can’t attract any column inches to save herself because, as Borat would put it, she doesn’t look “very niiicce” like Rice.

While Rice and Sullivan will be busy promoting Weet Bix, Uncle Toby’s, Revlon, etc, Schipper probably struggles to get a promo gig at her local fish and chip shop. It shows what a superficial world we live in.

What Grinds My Gears #2: In my opinion, the NRL’s golden point rule needs to be changed so both teams get some reward for 80 minutes of toil.

It had been mooted, following Parramatta’s extra time win over Newcastle on Friday night, that each side could be awarded one premiership point each at fulltime, with a second point up for grabs during the golden point period.

Newcastle, despised by punters and critics (myself included) before this season, performed admirably to hold their own against one of the premiership favourites and didn’t deserve to come away empty-handed. In my opinion it’s a great idea.

What Grinds My Gears #3: Ben Ikin.

What Grinds My Gears #4: It’s official. NRL coach and player contracts are a bigger waste of paper than those election leaflets shoved into our letterboxes every few years that no one reads.

What is supposed to be a legally binding document is easier to break than swimming world records these days.

Canberra coach Neil Henry is the latest to pull the pin after the Raiders granted his wish to leave the club at the end of this season, despite being contracted for 2009.

As a Raiders fan I can understand the club’s decision. If a coach isn’t happy at a club, they are less likely to perform the job at 100% capacity and the players’ morale will surely dip as a result.

But it begs the question: why have contracts at all? Give them a handshake, tell them the job is theirs until we’re unhappy with your performance, or you simply don’t feel like doing it any more.

What Grinds My Gears #5: Our cricketers have been complaining of overscheduling and burnout for years now, but as soon as the IPL started throwing piles of money at them, Haydos, Punter, Roy and co couldn’t sign on the dotted line quick enough.

A little bit hypocritical, I would say.