The streak

The Golden State Warriors currently sit 18-0 to start the season ….in case you’ve been asleep for the last month, this is an NBA record – the best start in HISTORY.

But how far can they go?

Below is their next few games – a seven game road trip.

I’ve got to agree that the only team with a legitimate chance to beat them on this road trip are the Pacers. However, if you’ve watched the Warriors so far this season, they are legitimately unstoppable. They go 10 players deep, everyone is healthy, everyone is playing their role to an even higher standard than the 2014/15 season. Steph Curry is mind-blowing.

As long as they stay healthy, I’m predicting they go unbeaten until the Christmas Day game against Cleveland (they’d be 28-0 at this point).

The Bulls 72-10 season of 1995-6 is under threat!

Roll on December.

RWC2015: England bashing

It was always going to happen. Why wouldn’t it? It always happens. It’s stupid to think otherwise. There was too much riding on them, expectation too high, coaching staff too inexperienced and a host nation unwilling to put performance over profit. England don’t win at anything. 

Vancouver was an odd place to be watching the England v Australia however you wouldn’t have noticed with the only North Americans accents coming from the service staff. I arrived late and found a nook just by two Englishman and a few Aussies in front of me. A couple of kiwis and a welsh lady decided to come stand next to me and we start with pleasantries. From here I’m going to assume you know what happens. England lose and the rest of the world rejoices. 

While I stood watching the match in disbelief that we were likely to be knocked out of our own World Cup and the joy I saw in the kiwis eyes only 4 years ago I would not feel, I felt a dark cloud cover me. The ecstasy others felt in England’s loss would be shared and I would have to deal with it. The Aussies I understood. They were in the battle, willing every kick to fall short, every line out to be bent. The welsh had a vested interested too, their mangled team were on the brink of escaping the group of death with 8 (May have been more…. could’ve been less) fit players. 

It was the “banter” from supporters of teams who weren’t even close to England that didn’t and doesn’t make sense. 

For years I would cop the jibes from most. I took it with a smile and the hope that one day I would get to send a few back. I’m used to this… I also support Tottenham. Social media has made it worse as the pile on isn’t just limited to your timezone it continues when light hits each part of the world. That day, while wearing with pride my new England jersey, the kiwis standing next to me started to smile and didn’t stop. The best line I got was “better get that pretty shirt on eBay before the value drops”. We all laughed. 

I began to wonder why does everyone enjoy seeing England beaten?

I think I get it. England is the big boy. Home of your head of state, home of the empire, the home of the “home nations” and colonials don’t like being colonials. Sport becomes the metaphor for the struggle to be your own country, your own flag, to hopefully but that extra nail into the monarchy coffin. The elation in seek England being hammered at every last ruck thrown off every maul. Empathy gets forgotten and tribal chest beating assumes a higher status. 

It’s not like other teams haven’t felt the same pang of despair, Australians havent forgot the that little drop goal in 2003, and I hope the kiwis haven’t forgot the last 25 mins of the 2011 final or the 24 years before that? That crunch and turn of the gut every time your team lost?

Fans have a right to comment on any part of any match. It just makes sense that for a game to grow, open communication and banter are accepted with good humour. But when it gets to a constant enjoyment in the despair of other teams what does that say about you? 

With New Zealand and Australia making the final, shows how far northern hemisphere rugby has to go, not just with elite level (changing the players must play at home rule) but also development (not every rugby league player converts well). 

New Zealand winning this tournament, makes the next 4 years a little more unbearable, but really deserve it, they have the best players and the programme/society to produce them. Then we have the Lions to look forward to in 2017. Will the Empire strike back?

RWC2015: And they start to fall…

Coming into the final week of pool play, a few thoughts on RWC2015 so far…

England gone. Wow. My prediction that they would top Pool A couldn’t be further from reality. The ‘Twickenham factor’ seems to have worked more against them, and in their three games so far, I’ve seen little to suggest they are a world-class team. They are average. How did it go so wrong for them?

Wales are fighting against all injury odds and looking very solid. They do the small things very well and the rest falls into place.

Simply a HUGE win for the Wallabies this morning. This is a completely different team to the one that was torn about by the All Blacks at Eden Park not so long ago. They were composed and dominant against England. Surely Quade is now firmly glued to the bench after a steller performance from Foley, and great supporting role from Beale who came on early as an injury replacement.

Wales v Wallabies next weekend – another cracker in store. Topping Pool A will likely mean avoiding South Africa in the quarter final – instead meeting Scotland or Japan.

Where did Georgia come from?? Imagine if this team played in the ITM Cup for a season…..

Could Samoa be on a downward spiral? They are my disappointment of the tournament so far. They were simply awful against Japan this morning.

No one wants to peak too early, but the All Blacks may want to start thinking about peaking soon. I’m still holding on to the fact that we don’t want to show our hand to early. However, I remember celebrating the Wallabies being knocked out in the 2007 quarter-final, and then we joined them…. Let’s make sure kiwi celebration of English demise is not a repeat of this!

NBL 2015-16: Roster Consistency

The NBL pre-season tips-off this week with the Blitz tournament in Townsville (for the record, the Breakers got the first up win over the Crocs last night). While pre-season results always need to be looked at with a cautionary eye at best, it does provide a chance to look at the roster each team has assembled.

The NBL is comparatively a small league, with only eight teams this year. That’s only 80 full-contracted roster spots available. From my perspective, consistency in roster and coaching staff from year to year is a big factor in success in this league. (Assuming of course, you have a decent roster and staff as a starting point!). If a team can retain an import for more than on season, this is a huge benefit as well. No teams this year have both imports returning from the 2014-15 season.

So here is my summary on roster consistency this year….

NZ Breakers (defending champions)
Returning players: 8 – including import Cedric Jackson
New players: 2 – Shane McDonald from SEABL and Charles Jackson (import)
Head coach: No change

The Breakers even return the same x3 Development players this season. Consistency and club culture is huge aspect of their success. The year the lost head coach Andrej Lemanis and long-term vets CJ Bruton and Dillon Boucher returned the only losing season in their last five years.

Cairns Taipans (Last season: losing finalist)
Returning players: 7 – including import Torrey Craig
New players: 3 – including Mark Worthington from Melbourne
Head coach: No change

Perth Wildcats (Last season: losing semi-finalist)
Returning players: 7 – including import Jermain Beal
New players: 3 – including Nathan Jawai – huge ‘win’ for the league to have Jawai playing, the man is a beast. Think Pero Cameron and Jonah Lomu combined.
Head coach: No change

Perth had the unfortunate experience of marquee off-season signing, Hugh Greenwood, walk out on his three year contract after just one month to pursue an AFL career. The young Aussie certainly messed up their off-season recruitment, but the addition of Jawai will be huge for Perth.

Townsville Crocs (Last season: 6^th)
Returning players: 6
New players: 4
Head coach: No change

Illawarra Hawks (Last season: 8^th)
Returning players: 5
New players: 5 – including AJ Ogilvy and two former-MVPs Kevin Lisch and Kirk Penney
Head coach: new – Rob Beveridge from Perth via a year away from the NBL

Up there with Melbourne as the best off-season recruiting job. But after the wooden spoon last year and fighting bankruptcy, the Hawks definitely needed some changes.

Adelaide 36ers (Last season: losing semi-finalist)
Returning players: 5 – including import Ebi Ere
New players: 5
Head coach: No change

Sydney Kings (Last season: 7^th)
Returning players: 4 – including import Josh Childress
New players: 6 – including ex-King Julian Khazzouh who returns from Europe, a new import, x2 players from other NBL teams and x2 first-time NBL contract players
Head coach: No change

Josh Childress and Julian Khazzouh should provide an instant highlight reel.

Melbourne United (Last season: 5^th)
Returning players: 3
New players: 7 – including two quality imports (Stephen Holt – via St Marys Gaels and NBA D-League, and Hakeem Warrick – legit NBA and Europe experience) as well as two of the best home-based Aussie players – Todd Blanchfield and Chris Goulding
Head coach: Dean Demopoulos  – former NBA Assistant Coach.

In my opinion, Melbourne have had the best recruitment off-season. Instant title contenders. Keep an eye on Stephen Holt, boy can play!

My early season prediction….
Top 4: Breakers, Melbourne United, Perth, Hawks

Gross Over Engineering of Major Events

So who is the person sitting at the top of Organising Committees of Major events such as the Olympic Games and Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cup, Commonwealth Games et al who thinks these events need staffs of hundreds or thousands?

To read the full article click here.

Meanwhile, in NZ…

We do stupid stuff that that is awesome.

Straight Outta Kurow

McAwesome and Dre. Like peanut butter and jam it seems like such an odd combo, yet somehow it works. This is epic.

Millennium Stadium Cardiff – ready for Rugby World Cup 2015

 

 

 

 

Millennium Stadium ready for kick-off. Should be a cracking atmosphere with over approximately 70,000 fans in today! What’s everyone’s favorite venue during the current world cup?

BEST NEWS EVER – BILL’S BACK!!

Bill Simmons To HBO Was A Safe And Easy Choice

HBO is the ritziest address in the media world. After being dropped unceremoniously by ESPN, Bill Simmons was wooed by prestige, money, security, and fewer responsibilities. I don’t blame him for his choice.

After 20 years, Simmons knows how Hollywood and media work. He used to work as a writer for Jimmy Kimmel 11 years ago. His agent is James “Baby Doll” Dixon who knows everyone in the media world.

Simmons had a choice: pick the most prestigious media address he could get an invite to or go-it-alone through an unproven but potentially highly lucrative over-the-top venture channel starring himself.

To read the full article click here

RWC2015 Commentator-gate

May need to watch RWC on mute after struggling through this morning’s game. With so many great rugby voices in the UK, where did the host broadcaster find those commentators?

And then there was just the offensive start to the match…

You Can’t Handle The Truth!

One of my fav post game interviews. #ICALLEDGAME

KIWIS GOING GOOD AS BRO!

Corey Webster’s remarkable journey from the North Shore to the verge of the NBA

The die was cast from an early age. Every night before lights out a five-year-old Corey Webster wanted only one book read to him. It was, of course, a biography of basketball superstar Michael Jordan.

Young Webster, already consumed by a sport that was part of the fabric of his family, could not get enough of the tale of the greatest basketballer on the planet. He especially loved the chapters that covered the early knockbacks, and Jordan’s fierce determination to overcome them. Even at that age something clearly resonated.

Now, as a 26-year-old, this son of a gun is one step away from the landscape Jordan not only dominated but defined. The Kiwi kid from the North Shore will head to training camp with the New Orleans Pelicans at the end of the month with a shot at a full roster spot for the looming NBA season. It won’t be easy, but he has a foot in the door which is some achievement given where he’s come from.

Click here to continue reading the full article

SI’s 60 of the Best

Last year Sports Illustrated republished 60 of the best stories in its history, this is one of my favourites for no other reason than that I love the old days of baseball. These were days when going to a game meant seeing players such as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra in the same team; days when a new bat design was credited for home runs, not steroids.

Mantle is one of the greatest ball players ever, certainly the greatest switch hitter ever. The article headline is asking if he’ll reach Babe Ruth’s record of 60 homers in a season, he doesn’t, he hits 52, no one would break The Babe’s 1927 record until 1961. Regardless, 1956 was his best year nabbing the Triple Crown and the World Series for the Yankees. In the modern day game you just have to look at Mike Trout for a decent comparison, their stats through their first three full seasons in the majors are so similar, Trout is amazing and without doubt a future Hall of Famer, but he doesn’t switch hit so Mantle has that up on him in my mind.

Mantle’s number 7 was retired by the Yankees and he’s one of four players to have a monument dedicated to him in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium along with Babe Ruth, Joe Di Maggio and Lou Gehrig…I had a major internal freak out when I went there, it takes the phrase “in the presence of greatness” to a whole new level.

Click here to read the full article

Levi’s Stadium – The Future

Shane Harmon wrote a great piece after a recent visit to Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara – the home of the San Francisco 49ers

Levi’s Stadium Technology: 6 Key Learnings for Stadiums and Teams

An American watches rugby…

OK so this was written in 2012, but is gold.

An American in Auckland: Learning to Love the Haka with the All Blacks and Wallabies

LB – I feel you could’ve written this about NZ life in general!

Ouch.

Never gets old… Ruben Te Rangi may be having nightmares about the idea of facing Nathan Jawai in the NBL.

Post-match quote from Jawai – ‘He’s a tough kid. I wasn’t sure if he was going to get up after that but he did’

RWC2015 – Pool of Death

Pool A, the so called ‘Pool of Death’at RWC2015, will see two quality rugby teams not make it to the quarter final stage. Who is going through??

FIJI
Fiji have twice made the quarter finals, back in 1987 and in 2007. It’s an up-hill battle for Fiji in this pool. They deserve a few pool victories, but can only see them getting one over Uruguay.

Fiji RWC History My prediction – lonely pool victory over Uruguay

WALES
Wales had a great tournament in 2011, reaching the semi-final and arguable should’ve been the team playing the All Blacks in the final. If they play that style of rugby again, they are very hard to beat. They also get a home game against Fiji in Cardiff, but have to face both England and Australia at Twickenham. You could argue, even at Twickenham, their game against the Wallabies should feel like a home match for them.

  Wales RWC History

However, the huge injury blows in recent weeks of losing Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb will really test the Welsh depth….. and depth is not something they are well-known for.

My prediction – they beat Fiji, lose to England, lose to Australia (that prediction comes with a heavy-heart…. My head says Wallabies, my hearts says WAAAAAAAALLLESS)

ENGLAND
England in their home tournament is a significantly different equation to playing England anywhere else, under any different circumstances. They under-performed / imploded in 2011, and anything less than a victory in the 2015 final will surely be seen as a failure. They will be incredibly hard to beat at home, and as much as my kiwi bias would enjoy the entertainment of a team scandal or bad loss, I can’t see this happening in pool play (however, the finals are another matter…)

  England RWC History

My prediction – undefeated through pool play

AUSTRALIA
In the Bledisloe this year, the Wallabies showed how good and how bad they can be within a few weeks. My belief is that 2015 Australia are the new France – you don’t really know what you’re going to get when the team runs out, but when they are on, they could beat anyone in the world.

  Australia RWC History

In 2011, they lost to Ireland in pool play, but came back to make the semi-final. A two-time winner who has never failed to make it out of pool play…. I can’t see 2015 being the first time this will happen.

My prediction – beat Fiji, lose to England, beat Wales (sorry Warren)

Which would give pool standings of:
1. England
2. Australia
3. Wales
4. Fiji
5. Uruguay

Thoughts??

4 years ago…. The best videos from RWC2011

The start of RWC2015 certainly brings back some emotions from 4 years ago.

We were all avid supporters in one form or another, and some of us had the absolute privilege of being part of RNZ2011. So many memories.

Here are two videos that sum up the tournament for me…

The Crowd Goes Wild  – RWC2011 Final. including a cameo by Greg Mann….

Canadian team create their own ‘Bust a move’ music video… something for us all to aspire to for future tours