The loneliness of a departure lounge
An Ian Foster extract, PLUS: A few good things to watch, read and listen to.
Below is a small extract from Ian Foster’s autobiography which hit the shelves recently. It’s a revealing slice of an All Black coach’s life and to give it context, this was after the All Blacks lost 22-32 to Ireland in Wellington, with the men in green becoming just the fifth touring team to win a multi-test series in New Zealand.
It was a shocking result and seemed to be compounded the next morning when Foster did not, as was habit, front for a press briefing at the team hotel. That was not his call but it was poor comms management, which I critiqued in The Bounce.
As it was, Fozzie was having a very bad day.
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Edited extract from Leading Under Pressure by Ian Foster with Gregor Paul, out now, $39.99 RRP (HarperCollins Publishers)
When I got to Wellington Airport, my flight to Hamilton was cancelled and the regional Koru lounge was shut, so I found myself sitting among a lot of unhappy All Blacks fans, who had obviously travelled to the capital for the game. Robbo rang me just after I’d bought a coffee and told me he was going to say something to the media. He said he felt he had to say something because of the mix-up with the press conference earlier. My memory of the conversation is that Robbo said he was going to say something about the way the series had played out, but he wasn’t clear about the specifics, other than he suggested it would reflect that no-one was happy. We also agreed on that call that he and Lendo were going to come to my house in Hamilton on Tuesday, 19 July to discuss next steps.
About an hour after my call with Robbo, someone else rang to ask me if I’d seen the headlines running in the media. I hadn’t, so I looked at the New Zealand Herald’s website. Its headline announced that the CEO of NZR had branded our performance in the Ireland series as ‘unacceptable’.
I was gutted. I mentally replayed our conversation, and felt sure that ‘unacceptable’ was not a word he’d used with me. But he’d used it with the media, and there was nowhere to go after an unambiguous term like that. ‘Unacceptable’, to me, was a ‘them and us’ statement. The divide that had been gradually widening between NZR and the All Blacks was now a chasm. And everyone could see it.
As a team, we were under pressure because we deserved to be under pressure. The media were firing into me, the other coaches and the players because we hadn’t played well enough. The Irish series became a clear opportunity for those in the media who had taken the view that I shouldn’t be in my job, so evidently this was going to be a full-frontal onslaught.
I don’t have an ounce of self-pity or a sense of victimhood about all this. I knew the realities and expectations of coaching the All Blacks, and losing four Tests out of five had set the dogs running against me. But what Robbo’s statement did was create a lot more angst. It created another narrative for the media to exploit – one that suggested there was division between the All Blacks and NZR. That empowered everyone to speculate even more fervently on whether I was going to be sacked.
I had to sit in Wellington Airport for close to two hours, with those ‘unacceptable’ headlines running across every media outlet.
These days, if people ever ask me whether the job of All Blacks head coach was a lonely one, I think back to those two hours. Honestly, I have never felt so alone in all my life.
MORE READING: Ian Foster tells Stuff’s Paul Cully why he decided to write a book.
WEEKEND LISTENING
It feels important to note that I haven’t been involved in the BYC for 20 years, but apart from the odd hiatus, Paul ‘The OG’ Ford has. Come for the cricket, stay for the songs (and a spot of Tony Blain mischief).
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It’s not about sport (or at least not in any ways that can be said out loud), but I’m going to give it a listen anyway. From Radio NZ.
WEEKEND READING
This from the NZ Herald on Moana Pasifika makes for fairly bleak reading ($). After perusing this, it’s impossible to say with any confidence that they will be on the start line next season. There are other ethical considerations too, mostly centred around the fact that Government funds for Pasifika health initiatives were being channeled directly into a professional sports franchise. At best the reasons seem tenuous.
A bigger concern for the team centres on its primary backers, the charity Pasifika Medical Association Group (PMA), which bought the franchise last year.
Just 12 months on, the PMA itself faces an enormous reduction in revenue and is slashing costs.
Through its controlled entity Pasifika Futures (also a charity), it has held the lucrative government contract for Whānau Ora commissioning for Pasifika since 2014 – a devolved model for buying community-level health and wellness services for families and communities with public money.
The contract represents more than half PMA’s revenue, in some years it has constituted the vast majority. From July, however, Pasifika Futures will lose that contract, following a shake-up in the Government’s approach to commissioning...
… PMA used the Whānau Ora contract to directly bolster Moana Pasifika’s finances, by $770,000 per annum in 2022/23 and in 2023/24.
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Gulp…
“DraftGPT: The Brave New World of AI Hits the NBA”
This piece from The Ringer is either a harbinger of a dystopian sports world, or a pathway to a smarter, more Moneyball’ed future.
“This season is about winning,” [Johni Broome] said. “I know my teammates got my back, and they know I have theirs. My shots weren’t falling, so I just had to do whatever I can to impact winning, and I let everybody else do the scoring.”
Broome’s answer isn’t very revealing—the clichéd response probably didn’t make the game story in the local newspaper. But to Sean Farrell, the response speaks volumes about Broome’s chances at the next level. “If you’re focusing on the now … you’re more likely to make it into the NBA,” Farrell said. “If you’re ruminating on past mistakes you’ve made, you’re less likely to make it.”
By day, Farrell is the senior data scientist for the Queensland Fire Department near Brisbane, Australia. By night, the former astrophysicist makes “Moneyball models” for fun—including the models at the heart of a new research paper that analyses how the language a player uses in interviews can predict NBA success.
Or, to put it another way, the key to sporting success in an AI world is don’t say anything without first checking what AI thinks you should be saying.
WEEKEND WATCHING
Three things to tuck into this midwinter weekend…
After the shocker at Mt Smart last weekend, a response is needed.
Kurt Capewell will be critical even if he is statistically the ‘worst’ tackler in the NRL by the length of the straight. Nobody mention that within earshot of Andrew Webster, though.
“That stat’s ridiculous,” Webster insisted… “If Kurt was the worst tackler in our competition, he wouldn’t be in our team. I’d be saying can someone please take him to another team and we’ll release him. Instead, he’s the man of the match in Origin.”
I love that Webster has blown up about that because I can bore people for hours complaining about the rudimentary and often misleading stats punters are fed.
Brisbane v NZ Warriors, Brisbane, tomorrow 5pm, SS1
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Still absolutely seething about the non-screening of the England-India series. Black Caps’ fans are not like All Blacks fans — they’re more outward looking and it’s a travesty that one of the biggest test series in the world is unavailable here. It’s almost enough to drive you into the arms of broadcast pirates. That little whine aside, at least the West Indies-Australia series is on Disney+. The first test is finely poised, too.
West Indies v Australia, 1st test, Bridgetown, (day 3) 2am tomorrow, ESPN
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Might do an F1 double this weekend, with the Brad Pitt movie on the big screen and the action from the A-Ring (can’t bring myself to call it the Energy Drink Ring) on the small screen. Though not simultaneously, if case you’re wondering.
Austrian GP, Spielberg, Monday 1am, SS1
I strongly believe the ABs fall from its previous eminence began with the 2017 drawn series against a mediocre Lions team, followed by an over-looked but equally important event that followed in 2019 – the retirement of NZRU CEO Steve Tew. The man that replaced Tew, Mark Robinson, and the various chairs he served, have shown themselves to be not fit for purpose, out of their depth. The appointment of the current chair – David Kirk – couldn’t have come soon enough.
It’s in this environment that Foster had to operate. Fully endorsed by his predecessor, Steve Hansen, Foster struggled with gaining acceptance from the ABs fan base but this was not helped by Robinson’s lukewarm endorsement of Foster’s management. The core reason for a slippage in AB performance happened long before Foster took charge. The cattle he had at his disposal was several notches below what had been available up until 2017. But Robinson as CEO didn’t go out of his way to spell this out. Rebuilding, from near-scratch should have been the headline. What chance Foster against a timid, inexperienced, self-serving CEO? And so, the chasm mentioned in the current Bounce story became evident.
But the lack of support for Foster from NZRU management is very apparent in Foster’s telling of his story, especially during the SA test series of 2022. Here the senior AB players saved him from being sacked. But still NZRU management decided to confirm Foster’s replacement prior to the end of his tenure, and well before the ABs went to RWC 2023. That is the single biggest statement of the lack of support that NZRU management could have made. And they made it just months before a RWC. Wow!
When David Kirk was announced chair, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Welcome back competence, relevant experience, commercial acumen, and player-empathy to NZRU management. No way could Robinson continue under Kirk. And so, it will be proved with his planned departure later this year.
I felt for Foster. Whilst he didn’t inspire me as a great coach, the handicap of working under a CEO such as Robinson made his position particularly hard. Perhaps if the NZRU had followed previous policy, and waited until after the RWC 2023 before appointing the next ABs coach, two different events may have occurred: that one-point losing deficit in the final may have been reversed, and perhaps that chap currently coaching the Wallabies would instead be coaching the ABs?
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