cricket, rugby ,rugby league, NRL, Warriors - NZ’s sports blog

Well the Indian Premier League (IPL) started over the weekend, and aside from seeing Brendan McCullum carving up big time, the highlight was discovering the names of the teams.

One in particular stood out - The Super Kings which I reckon is the best team name ever. They are not just Kings, they are Super Kings. And Super Kings are clearly better than plain old Kings.

There are a few other great team names in the IPL

• The Kings 11 (totally un super)
• The Royal Challengers (my 2nd favourite)
• The Delhi Daredevils
• The Deccan Chargers
• The Knight Riders (Does David Hasslehoff own this team?)
• The Mumbai Indians
• The Rajasthan Royals

Compare these names to the teams in the new Trans Tasman netball comp, and the netballers seem rather boring.

• The Firebirds
• The Swifts
• The Thunderbirds
• The Vixens
• The Mystics
• The Magic
• The Pulse
• The Tactix
• The Steel

I’m not yet convinced the IPL tournament has a long term future, but they are off to good start based on their team names.

From the ‘how to divert attention from that Tibet thing’ file comes news that New Zealand athetes will be wearing Crocs at the Bejing Olympics as part of their official uniform.

It’s weird and f**ked up. Just about everyone I know hates Crocs, yet there are actually people out there who are buying them. What gives?

I even saw a dude wearing socks and crocs a while back. At the same time!

It’s safe to say we will be the laughing stock of the atheletes village at the Olympic games. Can you imagine how it will look if a kiwi is collecting a medal and wearing Crocs???

Please god, let us wake from this nightmare.

Manu Vatuvei has been copping flak across the Tasman because of his error rate, and general issues fielding kicks (high and low)

Now, I’m not too worried about our players getting criticised by Australians, that’s par for the course.

What interested me, was that the Warriors saw fit to defend Vatuvei with an article on their website that points out the mistakes of Manu’s peers (other wingers)

The article uses statistics to show that other wingers made more handling errors this season and last.

But it sets an interesting precedent - are the Warriors going to now defend their players that cop criticism in the media? And if they don’t, does that mean they accept the criticism?

Case in point. A week earlier, former Warrior and Kiwi Matthew Ridge was highly critical of Ruben Wiki yet there was no response from the Warriors. Does this mean they believed it?

I’d suggest that when their players cop criticism, they forget defending them in this manner. The best PR for Manu Vatuvei, Ruben Wiki and any other Warrior could ever get is just to go out and play well.

There’s something inherently beautiful about a rookie before he’s taken the field at the top level for the first time. It’s a purity borne of hopes for the future and excitement about the present. These are players who still hold their senior teammates in awe, much like a fan might.

I first encountered this phenomenon during a Warriors open day in the build up to the 2005 season. My wife and I spotted a relatively unknown junior player who we caught completely off guard by requesting his autograph. This stunned teenager, Simon Mannering, has since become a regular fixture of both Warriors and Kiwis teams. For some inexplicable reason, something deep within me insists ours was his first autograph opportunity.

I saw a similar innocence in another rookie during the first round of 2008, when the Warriors played away to the Storm. The club had put on an away match function – a chance to mingle with non-playing team members and then watch the game at a movie theatre – and I found myself talking with Herman Retzlaff, our most recent signing. He asked me my name, and we conversed briefly before going our separate ways.

The half time break saw a stampede of bodies as people rushed to take personal pit stops before the second stanza. As I waited outside the toilets for my wife to accommodate nature’s requests, Herman came by, headed for the men’s.

“Dave!” he called to me. “What did you think of the first half?”

“Nail biting stuff, mate,” I grinned back, surprised that he’d even remembered my name.

“How do you think we’re going to go in the second half?” he asked as he passed by.

“It’s only going to get better,” I replied, revealing in a single sentence just how poor a tipster I am.

It was such a simple and brief exchange, and yet it provided powerful evidence of a positive club culture, something which hasn’t gone unnoticed by recent signing Brent Tate.

After spending seven seasons in first grade with the Brisbane Broncos, (regularly perceived as the benchmark club for off field professionalism), the representative centre recently referred to his new club as “a really professional outfit from the front office right down to the coaching staff”.

And when a player of Tate’s experience says something like that, it pays to listen.

This is a far cry from what the culture used to be like – big personalities getting in the way of the on field excitement, and players of the ilk of Nigel Vagana and Stacey Jones becoming uncertain as to whether or not they would actually get paid as the club spiralled towards bankruptcy.

Fortunately, those days are long gone.

The Warriors are now a club that is respected by fans and players alike. The mere fact that former players Jerry Seuseu and Stacey Jones – both of whom were involved in “that try” in the 2002 grand final – along with foundation captain Dean Bell have returned to work with the club after hanging up their boots, is further testament to the administerial turnaround. In fact, Bell was approached by the previous management but declined because he “didn’t get a good feeling about it”.

Another positive sign is the amount of fan involvement that is not only welcomed but actually sought after by the club. Fan forums have been held, as have away functions allowing for fans to meet players, win prizes, and watch away games live on the big screen. An open and approachable CEO has replaced his somewhat standoffish predecessor. And an away fan season membership is in the works for Australian-based fans of the Auckland club.

This turnaround from management has afforded a similar about turn from the spectators.

When new crowd favourite Wade McKinnon was ruled out for the entire 2008 season through injury following an anterior cruciate ligament tear which required a knee reconstruction, fans on an internet forum organised a large get well card, filled with messages of encouragement, to be delivered directly to the player.

This simple act of kindness – appreciated by McKinnon, who, through a club staff member, thanked those responsible – wouldn’t have been possible in years gone by. Most fans wouldn’t have even tried for fear of being turned away by an impersonal organisation.

If anything, this proves that the gradual process of regaining faith and earning trust from sponsors and fans has finally begun to pay dividends.

And long may it continue.

Herman Retzlaff (L) and David Taylor.

Yep, the wait is nearly over and NRL 2008 is close to kicking off. Round 1 starts on March 14.

Thanks to my mate Aaron Heath, here is a 2008 NRL schedule in an excel spreadsheet.

It’s very cool, you can input all the scores and the finals tab will update on it’s own. This means that in effect you have your own finals predictor. Cool.

Download the 2008 NRL schedule here.

OK, so I read that in Australia the AFL has produced a DVD for their players to ‘improve athletes’ respect for, and attitudes towards, women

There are some multi choice questions for the player to answer. For example

a mate’s girlfriend calls a player into her room under the mistaken impression he is her boyfriend.
“Do you:
(a) Go and hop into bed and pretend to be him; or
(b) Walk away,”

Now that’s a good question to ask a player, but what about the women? She needs to show some responsibility for mistaking another player for her boyfriend, because that is a dumb thing to do.

Another question asks

Imagine being a leading footballer and finding yourself in a nightclub one evening with a girl who is intoxicated.
Should you fetch her a glass of water?
Call her a taxi?
Or take her back to your place and have sex with her?

Hang on, what about the girl??? Why is she not looking after herself better - where are her mates? What level of responsibility is she taking in this situation? Sounds like dumb behaviour to me.

I think this DVD is good idea, as there are regular instances of football players disrespecting women.

However, what about the dumb women that engage with football players in bars and functions and end up getting in trouble? This despite the fact that history shows football players have a propensity to disrespect women.

Who is making them a DVD?

Horrible news for the Warriors today with as star fullback Wade McKinnon is likely to be ruled out for the 2008 NRL season due to a knee injury.

Bad, bad bad . . . .the last year has mainly seen good news from the club - keeping coach Ivan Cleary, making the finals in 2007 etc.

This is not the fault of the club, it’s just a horrible, freak accident sustained during a trial game (the words ’salt’ and ‘wound’ spring to mind here’

So how will the Warriors club react?

Will they allow this to screw up the season? Or will they keep on their steady up ward path. I suspect the latter will occur.

Meanwhile, the contenders to take Wade McKinnon’s spot are Aiden Kirk and Patrick Ah Van. I hope Ah Van gets a run - he’s a good up and coming player who has impressed me.

Oh well, at least this will reduce the chance that Wade McKinnon swears on TV this year!

It was a matter of when not if, and today, Gary Kemble resigned from his post as Kiwi Coach.

This is absolutely the right thing to do as the Kiwi’s were no chance to win the Rugby League World Cup with him on board.

Now that Kemble is out of the way we need a new coach. It’s essentially a choice between two men - Brian McClennan and Wayne Bennett. My choice is Bluey who has proven himself in the job. Likewise Bennett is a master coach - the best in the business, but the advantage Bluey brings is his ability to communicate and motivate the Kiwi players.

It’s also worth noting that the Kiwi coach no longer has to reside in New Zealand - a stupid rule that was introduced simply to get rid of Gary Freeman as coach a few years back. Sigh, the NZRL seems to be an appalling administrator of sport.

Hopefully the NZRL will use what little brains they seem to have and phone up Brian McClennan ASAP.

Kiwi’s captain Roy Asotasi has been quoted as saying

“A lot of us felt that Gary Kemble wasn’t up to the task. For the NZRL to reappoint him … they might have thought they made the right decision and we’ll leave it up to them at the moment, but it’s definitely an issue with the players”

To say that the coach is not up to task is a massive call for the caption of any international sporting team to make, so why did he do it?

I think it was a mixture of frustration and desperation.

Frustration, because after losing Bluey McLennan as coach, the NZRL selected Gary Kemble - a man is sadly out of his depth at the international level.

Frustration because of the awful results Kemble has obtained since taking over - a record defeat to Australia and a 3-nil white was against the Poms.

Desperation comes from the fact Asotasi knows that the world cup is on this year. He knows that the Kiwis can win the tournament, but they need a decent coach. They need McLennan back, or they need Wayne Bennet. If we get to the tournament with Kemble as coach, we are well and truly screwed, no doubt about it.

I don’t believe Asotasi’s statements are a personal attack on Kemble - he’s just a player who wants the best coach, as he should do.

Graham Lowe, director of football for the NZRL has been critical of Asotasi, but really he seems to be put out that his selection of coach is being questioned by a player.

Wake up Graham, get over yourself and get on the phone to Bluey or Wayne or both and get us a decent coach so we can win some games.

Now would be good.

Putting aside all the other dramas that came out of the Sydney test match, the fact that Michael Clarke somehow took the last 3 Indian wickets in one action packed over has been overlooked.

However, surely this is one of the great pieces of test cricket in recent times - an inspired piece of captaincy by Ricky Ponting, and then the performance by Clarke.

I did not actually see it - about 20 minutes earlier I stopped following the action on cricinfo assuming the game would be drawn . . .silly me.

I was quite astounded when I refreshed the page, and rightly so. India somehow gave the game away in that one over.

Despite umpiring blunders during the match you would expect an international side hold out for 2 more overs to get a draw - so it’s a credit to the Aussies for getting the win, and a poor reflection on India.

Match numbers/stats are here.