BEER – check. Burger – check. No, this isn’t an audition for the perfect son.

It’s one dad’s push to change what kids take from a day watching cricket on the box. The Game Changer campaign, pointed out to us by Newcastle anti-binge drinking advocate Tony Brown, aims to rid the sport of booze and junk food ads.

It was started by Hobart dad Aaron Schultz, who has watched in dismay as his sons, aged nine and 12, have absorbed messages he says promote unhealthy living.

So Mr Schultz is rolling out his billboards.

‘‘I [want to] do my bit to correct the poor direction we are heading with the future health and well-being of our nation,’’ he says.

For its part, Cricket Australia has responded: ‘‘It is better to engage with the reality that many fans enjoy a responsible drink than it is to turn them off with a prohibition message they don’t believe.’’

Topics is split on this one, but may we suggest a role model for kids watching the Ashes? Stuart Broad. No, hear us out.

He’s fit and active, relishes (and usually shows) the haters, cops the umpire’s call – right or wrong – and eats well, if England’s pre-series demands of ‘‘piri-piri tofu’’ and ‘‘lamb and pea kofta’’ are anything to go by.

Compare his CV to that of beloved Aussie coach Darren Lehmann, who sucks down durries and pies and netted a tactical own goal before these Ashes by telling crowds to send Broad home ‘‘crying’’.

At worst, the viewing public has a new villain, and we need those as much as heroes.

Homing instincts 

 ARE Novocastrians subconsciously drawn to each other?

It’s a question for sharper minds than Topics; perhaps the Newcastle University team who revived that extinct frog could look into it. 

But the evidence is compelling. In this week’s episode of Beauty and the Geek on Prime7, geek Matthew, 24, was randomly set up on a date with a lass holidaying in the show’s setting of Fiji. 

Her name was Casey, and she chose to date Matthew because she liked the look of him.

Fast forward to the dinner date. 

Matthew: ‘‘So, whereabouts are you from?’’

Casey: ‘‘I’m from Newcastle, in Australia.’’

Matthew: ‘‘Oh really? I lived there for two years.’’

Life’s a beach

YOU have to feel for NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson. First, he’s not in government. That bit’s obvious.

Then he courts controversy over a $3million bribe he knocked back from murdered businessman Michael McGurk, but didn’t report. But worst of all, he can’t even go to the beach in Newcastle.

‘‘Every time I come up here for a media event it rains,’’ he moaned yesterday at a Nobbys press conference.  

Worst of all, he was up here to talk about protecting Nobbys.

Poor bugger. Perhaps next time he should try Bar Beach, or at least let the SES know he’s on the M1.

Best foot forward 

SOME good came from our look at the footpath outside Waratah’s Mater Hospital (Topics, November 22), where a trail for the vision-impaired twisted 90 degrees on a manhole cover. The first good thing: a Hunter Water spokesman told us yesterday morning that the errant manhole was their responsibility, and workers fixed it around midday.

Second good thing: our footpaths are relatively problem-free compared with the ones in Seminyak, Bali, photographed by readers Ruth and Keith Morris.