Posts by Jimmy Southgate
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I like the "What's the question again?"
Because when I read the bullet point list, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what the point of the whole thing was.
I haven't bothered reading the report, but did they include any evidence that their suggestions would actually achieve what I thought was the goal - parity with Australia by 2025?
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In the context of live sport in Wellington, Roller Derby probably isn't as minor as you think.
Given Brutal Pageant vs Smash Malice is essentially club level competition (and inter-city is coming up) as a point of comparison I wonder how many club rugby, football, basketball, netball, hockey, cricket etc games get 1000+ people along to.
Minor sports in Wellington would be things like the Rembuden Taikai for Kendo where competitors usually exceed spectators, or some of the local fencing and table-tennis tournaments.
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Derby is a fast sport with very technical rules, so watching it can take a few times before you get it. A bit like rugby.
Is there anywhere you can point me for the rules Hadyn? I looked on Wikipedia, but that only had a handful of them. I think there are rules regarding whats a legitimate pass which might clear up some of my misunderstandings regarding the score.
Which is a bit of a cop out I admit, but in a similar way, I've been following rugby for years and don't know why the whistle is blown half the time.)
Thats the analogy I was thinking of at the time, any newcomer to Rugby right now must have a nightmare understanding whats going on.
Its worse when you're there live - I was at the Lions Ranfurley shield loss and there's just no way you can see from that distance what is happening at the breakdown & thus why a penalty was awarded.
At Roller Derby you're closer, but everything happens so quick involving so many people an untrained eye can't pick anything out.
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So why was it that roller derby, that combines all these elements, left me a bit cold?
For me it was confusion. I didn't understand what was going on, and it seemed that some of the time the officials didn't know either.
And because I didn't understand why people were being sent to the penalty box the Brutal Pageant come back seemed a little scripted in a 'Sports Entertainment' kind of way.
Having said that, I went online afterwards to try to get a better handle on the rules and I think I understand better what happened.
In the first bout Brutal Pageant were getting sent to the box for major infringements most of the time, but in the second Smash Malice were accumulating 4 minor infringements.
I still don't get why the Smash Malice jammer was there so often though and to be honest didn't see what any of the penalties were for, but I guess that's why they have 6 referees.
I did kinda wish they'd turn the music down a bit so I could hear the commentary and then maybe get what was going on.
Oh and the people behind me who seemed to know what they were talking about thought the scoring was a bit weird at times, I have to admit I couldn't tell who was scoring what & when. I think that's reflected by the biggest cheers always being for the bit when the lead jammer is established and not actually scoring points.
Having said all that, I think armed with a bit more knowledge i'll give it another whirl if for nothing else than its fun being amongst a rowdy crowd like that. The guys making Off the Ropes for Kiwi Pro Wrestling would love to have that many people and that much noise!
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(horizontal stripes for rugby)
Hang about, aren't stripes vertical & hoops horizontal?
I 'won' a Vikings poster off 2XS just after they started and I had it on the bed above my roof.
2XS?! ZoMG, Mike West & Baldrick!
What I found most interesting in that gallery of West Ham unis was how quickly the amount of advertising on the uniforms increased once the logos began to appear.
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The Marines modified the standard entrenching tool during the first zombie war (it was referred to as the "lobotomizer") which had the highest kill-to-dollar ratio of the war.
The Russians sure liked their spades in Stalingrad as well. Oh and is there movie (i'm sure i've seen a trailer for this) based on that book coming soon?
Of course, you could argue that Canterbury's continued strength enhances his rep as a leader, rather than detracts from it, in that he created a culture and systems with the strength to outlast his tenure.
My counter to that is that Robbie Deans' success has been built on having as many of the best players as it is possible to stick into one team. That may be more a sign of a brilliant development system in Canterbury; or perhaps more likely a brilliant recruitment system - which you could probably credit to the entire union.
" At times it was just shy of casual racism. "
To me, this was what was at the root of that bizarre refereeing interlude you start your post with too.
Pure hearsay, but i've read other threads on this on rucku and apparantely at one of the later moments when he was in discussion with the Japanese Assistant Referee Lawrence said something along the lines of the TMO being an idiot.
The decision by Lawrence was purely down to him being frustrated at the TMO not responding in the way he was expecting. The TMO presumably didn't know what else to do; somehow in translation his message of 'no try, it was grounded before the line and then knocked on' turned into just 'knock-on' which for whatever reason given he was 30 metres away and had his view obscured by 3-4 players Lawrence didn't want to know about.
Having said that, it would have been more sensible to have had a TMO and referee pairing that could communicate directly - whether that be all Japanese or whatever - as long as it wasn't George Aioub.
As for Deans' moaning; if he doesn't win this weekend he's going to have to come up with a new strategy to deflect attention from his inability to get something out of the Wallabies. With no domestic competition of note, they have no system to develop enough quality players.
They clearly have little depth as a guy who was injured wasn't replaced in the team but put onto the bench to play 20 minutes or so. What would have happened if Moore had been injured in the first 10 minutes?! Or did Deans just rethink his game plan?
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Manawatu haven't made a loss - they've signed young players on basic salaries and developed them through the academy at Massey, and saved the surplus [according to Jason O'Halloran].
Weird, given others are making big losses why are Manawatu at threat then? Hasn't Canterbury lost $700k this year?
More and more I realise that my angst about the cull is that there's nothing for them below Premier division. I really can't see a 6 team competition being interesting or sustainable.
This is why i'm so keen on 8 & 8 as I think it really does solve all the bigger issues:
1) Gives meaning to the next tier down - and as long as 2 games are live, one delayed means people can follow it.
2) Means the 2nd division unions can run on a semi-professional basis as there's still some money coming in.
3) Can easily fit into an 11 week window.
4) You can even have TMO for the Premier & not the lower divisions which would save a bit of moaning from munters in Napier.Another thing which I think is critical is that the NZRU has to develop a proper transfer system - if a province put cash in and developed a player, and then Canterbury, Wellington or Auckland want to sign them up, then they ought to pay some money to compensate them.
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Mr Semmens sir, I couldn't agree more.
The priorities are pretty weird when you think about it.
Super 14/5 - 5 NZ teams, loses NZRU $3m annually (ok, I have no reference to back that up, its just what I read somewhere else, possibly dropkicks.co.nz). Gets expanded to 8 games against the other NZ teams in already over saturated markets and then 10 other games before the semis.
AirNZ Cup - 14 teams, also loses $3m annually, but from what I can tell has had growing crowds this year in the provinces, but not the over-saturated Super 14/5 bases. Gets cut back to 10 teams and an 11 week competition. With a daft system picking the 4 teams to be dropped and no decent competition for them to go to.
As for the quality of the rugby - I don't think its actually that bad, and to be honest if you look at the Northern Hemisphere its not the quality of the game on the paddock that makes it so successful, its the quality of the actual competition.
Weirdly given the above, i'm more in favour of dropping 6 teams than 4 and creating a proper 2nd division of 8 teams with automatic promotion relegation of 2 teams every year. As the NZRU i'd demand all 4 premier division games be televised, and a minimum of two thirds of all 2nd division.
I'd make both full home & away leagues, with the top 5 Premier teams getting the Super slots for the next year and no stupid finals at all.
Unfortunately it all appears to be a done deal and all my moaning on the internets isn't going to help :-(
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I think for me there are a few disappointing things about culling the Premier Division.
1) They're basing their decision on the last 3 years of the competition, when it would seem that its only this year that teams have found the right balance in spending etc. Teams like B.o.P, Manawatu & Tasman are coming out of the fiscal hole they dug themselves now only to potentially get flung back into it when they get dropped and lose the resulting revenue.
2) A large part of the decision to drop the teams is that with 14 they can't fit the competition into the 11-13 week window they have allocated. Why is it such a short window? Because of the expansion of the Super 15. Many people question both the merits of that decision, and that competition. What is going to happen if (or when) the expansion only furthers the problems already being experienced in Super rugby - lower viewership, poorer attendance at games? And when the franchises barely play one game a season outside of their base city, what is going to be done to give the people in the regions a reason to care about the Super 15 teams?
3) What exactly is going to the be the point of a 6 team First Division? How is that going to be sustainable, and who is going to watch it and thus pay for it? My bet is that after one or perhaps two seasons they will all drop down to a revamped Heartland competition.
4) Will cutting 4 teams even save much money? If you drop 4 teams thats probably 25-30000 less people paying to see Premier Division in person, and with no team to support will the people in those regions even bother to watch it on TV?
Oh also, the suppressed conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the Canterbury boffins are going to swing it so that Tasman gets to stay and each Super franchise gets two teams in the Premier division - this means that if you accept the conventional wisdom that Northland, Counties-Manukau & Manawatu are the others under threat then potentially either Hawkes Bay or Taranaki will be axed. Clearly i'm getting severely paranoid :-D
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Copyright is a funny thing.
Oh FFS. It's not like you're a newbie around here.
My secret shame is that I didn't read that thread
Oooh, what thread?