Posts by Naly D
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Should be good.
What does Dybvig actually do these days?He's with Mediaworks, he's something of a gopher for them. Last summer he hosted a lot of shows, and he'll fill in for absentees. He also does the sports wrap etc on Sunrise.
I was never a fan of Dybvig until Rich Irvine loaned me 'Microphones up my Nose' which was a good insight into the beginning of SKY and the way TV3 & TVNZ used to operate - my only memories of that sort of stuff was visiting my uncle whenever I was in Auckland and seeing him on set at TV3/SKY. [now he's at Prime but we haven't spoken since I was 10.]
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I dunno, after that Armistice Day test what, three years ago? The French have taken to having a brass band play at rugby games. Not as big as the ones that play at NCAA games though (didja forget that one?).
Also I just wanna stick my hand up for a sec. NASCAR drivers are in the main rightly stereotyped as hicks, but there's this little Australian fellow called Marcos Ambrose - casual V8 followers will remember him as the one who had that disagreement with Murph in 05) who is in his first ever season of top-tier and has recorded 2 podium finishes in a row - a big feat for a rookie, a huge feat for someone who only started racing on ovals 3 years ago)
Also, NASCAR is Southern states, Indy is Northern. I'd assume that Indy is more democratic. NASCAR only had its first black driver 2 years ago, while Indy still trumpets the fact that it has women drivers (more than just Danica).
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Heh, no. About 15yrs of loosely following it through a kid from J'Burg (Golden Lions) who came to my primary school when he was about 6 or 7 and would always bleat on about it. And as my interest in rugby grew and the internet improved, so did my attempts to follow CC, which is actually a damn good series despite what I said up there.
From memory, 2007 was the first year neither NT (Blue Bulls) or WP (Stormers) made it to the final, and if I had only looked at the past 5 years LB, I would have seen crowd #s on the increase and closer games with more competition. -
Just looking at the Currie Cup and it's quite interesting with the dynamics of it.
They only have 8 teams not 14 like us...
This to me shows once again how the Super 14 is crapping on local rugby.
But thanks to TV rights and national unions with the type of vision that shows their heads up their arses we will be stuck with a dogs breakfast of a season with the same stupid issues for the next century.
Ok. I wrote out a big reply yesterday then decided not to post it for one reason: Comparing SA to NZ is an exercise in futility.
The reason why there are no crowds at Currie Cup minnows matches is because the CC has historically been dominated by two teams. Almost every game in the CC is like the promotion/relegation games of yore in the NPC, where HB would trounce whatever team was trying to come up.Lately this has changed so in any season 3 or 4 teams are competitive. But guess what has helped that? Your hated Super 14.
And returning to the crowd figures, the CC is played over 5 months. In that time, the Springboks play almost all of their matches. The 'Bokke have only been allowed back in international for what, 15 years? And they're world champions.
But I digress. The situation in SA is different to what's happening in NZ and while you may be able to look at it on paper and go 'oh professionalism/tv rights/super 14/whatever issue fits is ruining the game, here look at what it's doing in other countries', every country has its own politics. Look at what happened with the Mazda Cup in Aus, and that was run almost outside of the AFL window, and just before the end of the NRL. It also encompassed areas which had never had a top-level rugby union team before. But the failings in the Mazda Cup can't be applied to NZ. Different markets have different politics and requirements.
In fact, the FA picks the national team from every player eligible by nationality, no matter where they play.
In the NZ context, let's go back to picking on NPC form, rather than the closed shop that is the S14, eliminating the franchises will do that.
A. If the All Blacks picked on nationality we'd have had Howlett, Hayman, Jack etc last year. And wouldn't have come across Wulf, Owens, Ross, Thomson, Kaino etc. Because of those 4, Ross was the only one I thought 'yeah, he's better than Ali'.
B. You can't pick on ANZC form when the international season starts before it. And the IRB sets international windows, not the NZRU.
And can I just say with all the dicking around that's going on here, the S15 is gonna be a cracker just because there's so many naysayers [going on all the bah-humbugging of the ANZC last year as opposed to this year].
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Thanks Hadyn, that was my point :)
@Simon; I stand corrected, apologies. (Did I mean Nucifora instead? I can't remember.)
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A combination of varying facts and figures, not pushing any agenda in particular but I've been bored for the past few hours and done this in ad breaks.
Super 12:
1996: Auck 2nd, Chiefs 6th, Highlanders 8th, 'Canes 9th, Crusaders 12th.
1997: Auck 1st, 'Canes 3rd, Crusaders 6th, Chiefs 11th, Highlanders 12th.
1998: Auck 1st, Crusaders 3rd, Highlanders 4th, Chiefs 7th, 'Canes 8th.
1999: Highlanders 3rd, Crusaders 4th, Chiefs 6th, Blues 9th, 'Canes 10th.
2000: Crusaders 2nd, Highlanders 3rd, Blues 6th, 'Canes 8th, Chiefs 10th.
2001: Highlanders 5th, Chiefs 6th, 'Canes 9th, Crusaders 10th, Blues 11th.
2002: Crusaders 1st, Highlanders 4th, Blues 6th, Chiefs 8th, 'Canes 9th.
2003: Blues 1st, Crusaders 2nd, 'Canes 3rd, Highlanders 7th, Chiefs 10th.
2004: Crusaders 2nd, Chiefs 4th, Blues 5th, Highlanders 9th, 'Canes 11th.
2005: Crusaders 1st, 'Canes 4th, Chiefs 6th, Blues 7th, Highlanders 8th,Crusaders: 4.3
Blues: 4.9
Highlanders: 6.3
'Canes: 7.4
Chiefs 7.4Super 14:
2006: Crusaders 1st, Hurricanes 2nd, Chiefs 7th, Blues 8th, Highlanders 9th.
2007: Crusaders 3rd, Blues 4th, Chiefs 6th, Hurricanes 8th, Highlanders 9th.
2008: Crusaders 1st, Hurricanes 4th, Blues 6th, Chiefs 7th, Highlanders 11th.
2009: Chiefs 2nd, Hurricanes 3rd, Crusaders 4th, Blues 9th, Highlanders 11thCrusaders: 2.25
Hurricanes: 4.25
Chiefs: 5.5
Blues: 6.75
Highlanders: 10Overall, for S12 and S14 combined:
Crusaders: 3.275
Blues: 5.825
Hurricanes: 5.825
Chiefs: 6.45
Highlanders: 8.15
As to the shifting unions idea, remember what happened to the Southern Spears when they tried to push for it.In 00-01-02 the Highlanders were undefeated at home for three seasons, has another team achieved that?
The '07 and '08 seasons as I remember them as a foaf Highlanders fan [most of my friends are from Otago] were absolutely abyssmal in the way other unions treated the Highlanders - they would loan their players to them and withdraw them if they showed any promise. Nick Evans, Paul Williams, Viliame Waqaseduadua, Isaac Ross etc. Vainikolo was the first to break that string of players with potential signing to big unions.
If James Ryan hadn't had that injury, he'd be an iconic member of a team which has historically built themselves around personalities - Oliver, Randell, Wilson, etc.
All the focus of the Bledisloe is on the performance of the coaches, right? With Henry having a 5-1 advantage?
Well, Glenn Moore's been in control of the Highlanders for two seasons and has beaten Canterbury twice. Colin Cooper and Ian Foster are yet to achieve that in their whole career. Lam is 1-0 up against Moore. Oh and the Highlanders and Crusaders were the only NZ team to beat the Bulls in 2009.What I find weirdest though is that of all the games in 2009, the Highlanders only had a PD of -15. Matter of fact they were only beaten by double figures twice, by 20 (Blues, week 10) and 18 (Waratahs, week 3). Their other losses were 2 (Brumbies, week 1), 5 (Hurricanes, week 2), 4 (Chiefs, week 5), 7 (Stormers, week 11), 8 (Sharks, week 12). So in all but 3 of their losses a converted try would have won it. And if they'd won those games, would this conversation be happening? But, so I don't seem to be completely biased, I will say IIRC the Highlanders' fatigue actually cost them the lead in a lot of their games.
Expect the team to have a largely unchanged backline for 2010, with Dagg, Bowden and Shoemark (and Cowan and Vainikolo not going anywhere - I'm not sure about Lucky but I assume he's staying too.) likely to be unwanted by the unions which can protect them. I'm not gonna check given it's not 11:20, but I think this is the first time in 4 seasons they've had an unchanged team - as well as an assistant [Peter Russell] who works with a lot of the team at ANZ Cup level.
The Highlanders, along with Auckland, North Harbour and Waikato were the NZ representatives in the Super 10. So back then for Wgtn/Canty fans it was Otago, Waikato or bust.
I was gonna do an analysis of average ages for this year's teams, but I CBF right now. Maybe tomorrow.
As I said, these are just things I've heard/researched. While I don't agree that the union should go just because of on-field performance [otherwise Manawatu should have been one of the teams cut from ANZ last year], if the NZRU [who are a business, not a publicly owned enterprise, so they don't take your opinion seriously and rightly so] decide to move them, I won't give two flyings.
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BoP being competitive is a good thing for the Chiefs, I mean.
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@Tom when you say four of five super teams are struggling in their player bases, what do you mean? The Lions and Canterbury are up the top? And surely BoP being competitive is a GOOD thing?
And it's a real good idea you've got there. 'Hey Auckland, you're gonna lose your S14 side and your ANZC team is getting relegated, how does that make you feel? Nyehnyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh!'
Jaffa: 'Oh well, guess I'll just go watch the Warriors'/'Oh well, least it'll be cheaper to go see the ANZC team now'/'so what? I'm just happy with my nimbucinno'.As to getying rid of the Highlanders, Hadyn and I have had this argument before. There's no way cutting the lower half of the country will benefit rugby. A whole island represented by one team? And I don't remember calls for the Chiefs to be scrapped when the Highlanders were still good.
The only such 'remedy' I support is playing your first 3/4 home games in different parts of the franchise area. Whichever gets the biggest turnout gets the 4th/5th games and semis/finals. And that doesn't just mean the Caketin will beat HB/Palmy/'Naki, or Auck will beat Harbour/Northland.
As a side note; I love the fact some of the people (both media and publicks) who were anti-ANZC last year because teams were getting stomped on are now some of the biggest advocates for the current system. The NZRU has bowed to public opinion in announcing the changes, now public opinion is slapping them across the face for daring to change their mind.
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Regarding the Dingo Deans comment, we all know the Australian formula for nicknames right? Here's the Aussie team to play this weekend by their nicknames.
Jamesy
Lach-o
Coop-o
Barnesy
Drewy
Git-o [don't let the 'eau' fool you]
Lukey
Browny
Smithy
Rock-o
Sharpey
James-o
Aly
Moorey
Rob-o -
My views on who should be relegated
Demoting Auckland would be an exercise in futility. They have shareholders etc who would still stump up cash for their big name players, so they'd dominate premier division [or whatever it's getting called] and pop back up the next season. Though I do think it should be done. And it'll probably get some form of fan loyalty with it.
As to 'Read-O' it was probably given by Dingo Deans. 'Rodders' So'oialo isn't much better, and Carter and McCaw don't have nicknames [Megan's Boyfriend The King Captain Tackles McCaw doesn't count 'cause if you called him that, he wouldn't turn around until the McCaw part].
Donald's nickname: Beaver.
AdM? Conan / Mega
Leonard? Harry.
Masaga? Flash
Mils? Mils.
Hosea? H.
Cory? CJ / Siege.
Weepu? POW.My favourite has to be Dom's designation of Nonu as the Predator.