Couldn't agree more with your call on the halfbacks. If it's true that Weber has fallen out of favour with selectors over his kicking game then I'm a bit speechless. Neither Christie, Perenara or Fakatava offer much of an exceptional kicking game. And all of them, for their various talents, don't really match Weber for his passing and decision making from the base of the ruck. Which is really all the All Blacks generally need from a halfback to execute their gameplan.
He can often be forgotten about a bit, but if you ask people who they would want starting at 9 it Aaron Smith went down the night before a world cup Semi-Final, I think you'll find most of them would eventually settle on Weber.
Big league fan here. I tuned into SOME of MOST of the Kiwis games but never really became invested in the tournament proper. The pre-tournament chat about Kiwis being heavy favourites just didn't strike a chord for me. Australia will always have that big-brother bully-boy psychological hold over us, worth 12 to 16 points in any given game between us. Now, I definitely would've become more attentive if the Kiwis' performances had more promise, but, perhaps as a well-honed self-defence mechanism (thanks to my beloved Warriors), I watched with only a passing interest and am now not psychologically scarred.
You may not be a golf fan Dylan but it's a bit damning with faint praise to say "but it seems New Zealanders had an OK year"! The key to the three Kiwi's great year was their consistency over a long period of time and speaking as a 17 handicapper hacker I know how hard to it is to be consistent from day to day let alone month to month. Trying to make some sort of comparison that might excite you I (with no stats involved at all) thought how about comparing their deeds to say an international cricketer who averages 60 for the year or a footie player who scores 1 goal every 3 matches for the season, or a basketball player who knocks down an average 25 - 30 points per game for the whole season and so on.
Unfortunately I was out and got home at 9:45, missing the best part of the T20 and subjecting myself to the excruciating second innings instead. McMillan's comments were spot on and what almost everyone outside the NZ camp is thinking - anyone who says Williamson got 61 and everyone else got 57 has completely missed the necessary approach when you're chasing 190. In my view, Williamson has got less adventurous in both his batting and captaincy over time. When he took over the captaincy, he was obviously less balls-and-all with his tactics than McCullum, but still innovative and willing to take a punt. Now we're stuck with a rigid batting order and five bowlers that get four overs each almost no matter what, and T20 has moved on a long way in the meantime. Plus we mostly get conservative selections - there was another good point from the commentators about Bracewell being man of the tri-series and not being able to get a game since. I think all the facets of our conservative approach reflect to varying degrees on Larsen, Stead, and Williamson.
Hands up as one of the ones who went to bed at 0-1 at around 10pm. The combination of having JAMT20Is (just another meaningless) rammed down our throats less than a week after a World tournament, and in general throughout every summer, and the prospect of watching two accumulators in the powerplay chasing 9 and a halfs was too much for me. Really not enjoying our rigid approach to batting, nor the incredible pressure that it puts on Phillips, Mitchell, Neesham and co to be on their best hitting form time and again. This team needs a rebrand.
As a day one Warriors fan, it's fair to say I am an optimist. However, I don't hold out much hope for the future of international league. It is a festival of sorts (as you point out). Days are gone of the massive crowds for important 3 match tours with midweek games against GBR and Australia. The recent resurgence of the Pacific teams is cool but it covers up the fact that plenty have played for other countries first.
For me, the real alarm bell comes from the fact that most kids and casual fans care far more about SOO and NRL than they do about whether we win a world cup. Ask a NRL fan: would you rather your team win a premiership or your country win a WC? I'd be willing to bet on the outcome being heavily on the NRL side...
Couldn't agree more with your call on the halfbacks. If it's true that Weber has fallen out of favour with selectors over his kicking game then I'm a bit speechless. Neither Christie, Perenara or Fakatava offer much of an exceptional kicking game. And all of them, for their various talents, don't really match Weber for his passing and decision making from the base of the ruck. Which is really all the All Blacks generally need from a halfback to execute their gameplan.
He can often be forgotten about a bit, but if you ask people who they would want starting at 9 it Aaron Smith went down the night before a world cup Semi-Final, I think you'll find most of them would eventually settle on Weber.
Big league fan here. I tuned into SOME of MOST of the Kiwis games but never really became invested in the tournament proper. The pre-tournament chat about Kiwis being heavy favourites just didn't strike a chord for me. Australia will always have that big-brother bully-boy psychological hold over us, worth 12 to 16 points in any given game between us. Now, I definitely would've become more attentive if the Kiwis' performances had more promise, but, perhaps as a well-honed self-defence mechanism (thanks to my beloved Warriors), I watched with only a passing interest and am now not psychologically scarred.
You may not be a golf fan Dylan but it's a bit damning with faint praise to say "but it seems New Zealanders had an OK year"! The key to the three Kiwi's great year was their consistency over a long period of time and speaking as a 17 handicapper hacker I know how hard to it is to be consistent from day to day let alone month to month. Trying to make some sort of comparison that might excite you I (with no stats involved at all) thought how about comparing their deeds to say an international cricketer who averages 60 for the year or a footie player who scores 1 goal every 3 matches for the season, or a basketball player who knocks down an average 25 - 30 points per game for the whole season and so on.
A pretty damn good year for the golfers I reckon.
I enjoy the newsletter - keep it coming.
"OK" was said with tongue firmly in cheek Robbo.
Unfortunately I was out and got home at 9:45, missing the best part of the T20 and subjecting myself to the excruciating second innings instead. McMillan's comments were spot on and what almost everyone outside the NZ camp is thinking - anyone who says Williamson got 61 and everyone else got 57 has completely missed the necessary approach when you're chasing 190. In my view, Williamson has got less adventurous in both his batting and captaincy over time. When he took over the captaincy, he was obviously less balls-and-all with his tactics than McCullum, but still innovative and willing to take a punt. Now we're stuck with a rigid batting order and five bowlers that get four overs each almost no matter what, and T20 has moved on a long way in the meantime. Plus we mostly get conservative selections - there was another good point from the commentators about Bracewell being man of the tri-series and not being able to get a game since. I think all the facets of our conservative approach reflect to varying degrees on Larsen, Stead, and Williamson.
Hands up as one of the ones who went to bed at 0-1 at around 10pm. The combination of having JAMT20Is (just another meaningless) rammed down our throats less than a week after a World tournament, and in general throughout every summer, and the prospect of watching two accumulators in the powerplay chasing 9 and a halfs was too much for me. Really not enjoying our rigid approach to batting, nor the incredible pressure that it puts on Phillips, Mitchell, Neesham and co to be on their best hitting form time and again. This team needs a rebrand.
As a day one Warriors fan, it's fair to say I am an optimist. However, I don't hold out much hope for the future of international league. It is a festival of sorts (as you point out). Days are gone of the massive crowds for important 3 match tours with midweek games against GBR and Australia. The recent resurgence of the Pacific teams is cool but it covers up the fact that plenty have played for other countries first.
For me, the real alarm bell comes from the fact that most kids and casual fans care far more about SOO and NRL than they do about whether we win a world cup. Ask a NRL fan: would you rather your team win a premiership or your country win a WC? I'd be willing to bet on the outcome being heavily on the NRL side...
Thanks for the ongoing content :-)
Yeah, I knew that Mr Cleaver but just wanted to highlight the stellar golfers year. Totally forgiven.