November 15, 2024 • 8 mins
The New Zealand Falcons are off to the AFL Pacific Cup.
They’ve named their team, which is set to travel over to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to compete from the 17th through to the 25th of November.
Piney was joined by their head coach Chris Mundell to learn more about it and discuss their chances in the cup.
“We think we're going over with a stronger team across the board than we have probably ever put forward.”
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk zb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Okay, let's talk some Australian rules football. The AFL Pacific
Cup on in the week ahead starting tomorrow through till
next weekend. It's being played at the Marouchi Door Multi
Sports Complex on Australia's Sunshine Coast. Now our men's team,
the Falcons and our first ever women's team, the CA
who are taking part in the AFL Pacific Cup. New
(00:33):
Zealand Falcons head coach is Chris Mandel, who joins us now. Chris,
thanks for taking the time, tell us a bit about
the AFL Pacific Cup and what lies ahead for you
over the week or so ahead. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So, the Pacific Cup is the first international carnival competition
with pals. In twenty seventeen, the former iteration was called
the International Cup, where countries from all over the world,
about twenty four countries came to Melbourne and played with
the restrictions of COVID. We haven't been able to get
back into that system since then, and this is the
(01:05):
AFL's new regional model where for the first time the
nations from the Pacific will get together and compete and
runs alongside a Transatlantic Cup and a European Cup which
has also been how recently, so really exciting for us
to get back out into the international foray and to
get back and try and avenge our one point loss
which is still stinging a number of our players even.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Seven years later. So does that mean that with all
with a slightly different format now, if you were to
win the Pacific Cup, will that feed you into another competition.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That hasn't been outlined yet from the RSL. We would
obviously love to play as much international foot as we can.
We love getting across the pitch and exposing our local
players to the full, big, wide world of oursel So yeah,
that would be our preference, but we haven't had that
outlined it yet.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
How strong is the squad you've pulled together?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, really good. We've got a really good mix of experience.
As I say, we've got probably eight or nine players
who were in that twenty seventeen final and we've got
a real grudge. And you add to that a whole
group of players who some of them may not even
been paying footy when we last played back then. So
a lot of youth and an experience. It's a good mix.
AFO User has done a huge amount of work in
(02:18):
the development space and increasing our skills and capacity and
capability of our players, so we think we're going over
with a stronger team across the board than we have
probably ever put forward.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What sort of build up have you managed to pull
together before you head away, Chris, Yeah, so a.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Lot of our players are obviously rugby and football converts.
They played through their winter sports there. Our local AFL
competitions run from sort of September to December, so that's
the players last September December we're playing club footy. That
then elevated them into our AFL New Zealand Premiership, which
is essentially a bit of a franchise model. We get
the best players from around the country together. From there
(02:56):
we then pick our national squad who have been training
sort of in conjunction with both their other sports and
now the local club leagues for probably five or six months,
so it's spread out. You know, we've got players based
in Australia Christos to need in fun today Auckland or
run the place, but we keep together with the one
of the technology and connect wherever we can to try
(03:16):
and ensure we're all the line.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So who will be your stiffest opposition across this week?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Look, Papa New Guinea. They are the team that beat
us by a point back in twenty seventeen. We've only
ever beaten them once across sort of the last twenty
odd years. They are a really strong nation who have
a lot of their players playing both locally but also
in Australia. They've got a really strong base and we'll
be fierce competition and so we're both you know, we're
really looking forward to that challenge. That's what we're you know,
(03:43):
they're our team we're targeting across this competition. But that
that's not to say, you know, the likes of Nauru
where AFL's the national sport, Fiji, Tonga, those guys, you know,
we know what there's those countries produced in terms of athletes,
and we're certainly going to be ready for them.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Are you able to do any scouting of any sort
or are you really just concentrating on what you guys
are all about.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Look a bit of both. So we try whereever we
can to get an understanding of our positions, but it
is very tricky, you know, not at this level. Not
many games a televised and not many games are able
to be seen. So wherever we can, we've tried to
get an understanding. We had, you know, a network of
people who know these countries, who know how they go,
so we'd pull from that. But as you say, our
primary focus is on can we achieve how we want
(04:24):
to play? Can we get our game plan to be
more effectives in theirs? Essentially, how do.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You assess the strength of the sport here in New
Zealand at present?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Look, I think you know, we took a real hammering
with COVID As a smaller sport. We were doing alphone
user number, doing a huge amount of work prior to COVID.
In the school space, we had a primary school in
a high school competition that was beginning to create a
pool of talent and a pool of players that can
start to develop further. So that really set us back,
and we've gone back with a little bit and we
are rebuilding and regetting ourselves in that school space. But what,
(04:56):
as I said earlier, what's been really positive is that
the overall level of the players who played the sport
across the country has increased through exposure through more games
on TV, seeing more of these superstars and getting down
to their local clubs. So, you know, while we're rebuilding
in terms of our player development base, we are still
working with that, you know, an interested parties and a
(05:18):
keen group of players to develop the skills.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, you mentioned before that a lot of them come
from other codes. Can you see a time, Chris where
AFL becomes somebody's first choice?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, we hope. So, you know, like that's certainly what
we want to try and work towards. We've always positioned
the sport in this country as complementary to those other
sports as a way to improve fitness, prove cross code skills.
If you look at the likes of rugby and league,
there's a lot of AFL skills now being used with
the crosskeechs and the high overhead marks, et cetera. So
while we have traditionally positioned our sounds as complementary to them,
come and learn a new sports to improve your skills
(05:50):
for those sports, we'd certainly love to see a time
where AFL is New Zealand's first choice, and certainly in
the female space where the AFLW is a real tangible
opportunity for our athletes to get into. It's a little
shorter runway than it is for the men, and so
that's a real opportunity for us to target and say, look, hey,
here's a young female athlete, come and give the ass
at a primary sport and you've got a pathway to
(06:12):
play AFLWM be professional.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, and also I guess I think that's right, isn't it.
This is the first time a women's team has taken
part in a competition of the sort. The car who
are going to be playing alongside the Falcons in this competition.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, it's going to be very exciting. We've have aphon
the center of works towards twenty twenty was our first
initial attempt to try and get a female team across,
but COVID put the kibosh on that. So they have
been patiently building and developing and recruiting more players and
the game, the female game over here has really grown
in those last four years. So it's going to be
hugely exciting to see our Carho girls take the field
(06:44):
for the first time in an international carnival and you know,
really take it to these other nations.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I've just had a look at the weather forecast for
the weak ahead in terms of temperatures for the Sunshine Coast, Chris,
their high twenties, so your players will be nice and warm.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, Look, it's going to be something to think about.
You know, a lot of our New Zealand based players
are coming out of pretty damp and wet in New
Zealand winter and you know it's going to be a
bit of a shock to get into those high humored conditions.
I mean, I look at the forecast of the day
and there's a lot of rain as forecasts as well, So
that tropical kind of environment is going to be something
that's new to our players. What does it mean to
the suppery ball or does it mean to our hydration
(07:19):
and our recovery all those kind of things, But that's
all part of the junior It's part of the excitement
of going on these kind of campaign.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, and so good to have it back, as you say,
for the first time in seven years. Chris. All the
best for the week ahead. I hope it goes brilliantly
for you and also for the women's team as well.
We look forward to seeing the results coming through.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, really appreciate the time. Thanks mate, No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Chris Chris Mandel there. He's the coach of our men's
AFL team, the Falcons. Our women are called the Caho,
and both sides are heading to Australia. I think they
head off tomorrow the Marucci Door Multi Sports Complex on
australia Sunshine Coast. Maruchi Door wonderful part of Australia, although
I get the feeling it'll be be more business rather
(07:57):
than pleasure for the Falcons and the Caho. Will keep
an eye on how the results go over the next
week or so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Pain, listen live
to News Talks it B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk zb.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Okay, let's talk some Australian rules football. The AFL Pacific
Cup on in the week ahead starting tomorrow through till
next weekend. It's being played at the Marouchi Door Multi
Sports Complex on Australia's Sunshine Coast. Now our men's team,
the Falcons and our first ever women's team, the CA
who are taking part in the AFL Pacific Cup. New
(00:33):
Zealand Falcons head coach is Chris Mandel, who joins us now. Chris,
thanks for taking the time, tell us a bit about
the AFL Pacific Cup and what lies ahead for you
over the week or so ahead. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So, the Pacific Cup is the first international carnival competition
with pals. In twenty seventeen, the former iteration was called
the International Cup, where countries from all over the world,
about twenty four countries came to Melbourne and played with
the restrictions of COVID. We haven't been able to get
back into that system since then, and this is the
(01:05):
AFL's new regional model where for the first time the
nations from the Pacific will get together and compete and
runs alongside a Transatlantic Cup and a European Cup which
has also been how recently, so really exciting for us
to get back out into the international foray and to
get back and try and avenge our one point loss
which is still stinging a number of our players even.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Seven years later. So does that mean that with all
with a slightly different format now, if you were to
win the Pacific Cup, will that feed you into another competition.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That hasn't been outlined yet from the RSL. We would
obviously love to play as much international foot as we can.
We love getting across the pitch and exposing our local
players to the full, big, wide world of oursel So yeah,
that would be our preference, but we haven't had that
outlined it yet.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
How strong is the squad you've pulled together?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, really good. We've got a really good mix of experience.
As I say, we've got probably eight or nine players
who were in that twenty seventeen final and we've got
a real grudge. And you add to that a whole
group of players who some of them may not even
been paying footy when we last played back then. So
a lot of youth and an experience. It's a good mix.
AFO User has done a huge amount of work in
(02:18):
the development space and increasing our skills and capacity and
capability of our players, so we think we're going over
with a stronger team across the board than we have
probably ever put forward.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
What sort of build up have you managed to pull
together before you head away, Chris, Yeah, so a.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Lot of our players are obviously rugby and football converts.
They played through their winter sports there. Our local AFL
competitions run from sort of September to December, so that's
the players last September December we're playing club footy. That
then elevated them into our AFL New Zealand Premiership, which
is essentially a bit of a franchise model. We get
the best players from around the country together. From there
(02:56):
we then pick our national squad who have been training
sort of in conjunction with both their other sports and
now the local club leagues for probably five or six months,
so it's spread out. You know, we've got players based
in Australia Christos to need in fun today Auckland or
run the place, but we keep together with the one
of the technology and connect wherever we can to try
(03:16):
and ensure we're all the line.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So who will be your stiffest opposition across this week?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Look, Papa New Guinea. They are the team that beat
us by a point back in twenty seventeen. We've only
ever beaten them once across sort of the last twenty
odd years. They are a really strong nation who have
a lot of their players playing both locally but also
in Australia. They've got a really strong base and we'll
be fierce competition and so we're both you know, we're
really looking forward to that challenge. That's what we're you know,
(03:43):
they're our team we're targeting across this competition. But that
that's not to say, you know, the likes of Nauru
where AFL's the national sport, Fiji, Tonga, those guys, you know,
we know what there's those countries produced in terms of athletes,
and we're certainly going to be ready for them.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Are you able to do any scouting of any sort
or are you really just concentrating on what you guys
are all about.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Look a bit of both. So we try whereever we
can to get an understanding of our positions, but it
is very tricky, you know, not at this level. Not
many games a televised and not many games are able
to be seen. So wherever we can, we've tried to
get an understanding. We had, you know, a network of
people who know these countries, who know how they go,
so we'd pull from that. But as you say, our
primary focus is on can we achieve how we want
(04:24):
to play? Can we get our game plan to be
more effectives in theirs? Essentially, how do.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
You assess the strength of the sport here in New
Zealand at present?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Look, I think you know, we took a real hammering
with COVID As a smaller sport. We were doing alphone
user number, doing a huge amount of work prior to COVID.
In the school space, we had a primary school in
a high school competition that was beginning to create a
pool of talent and a pool of players that can
start to develop further. So that really set us back,
and we've gone back with a little bit and we
are rebuilding and regetting ourselves in that school space. But what,
(04:56):
as I said earlier, what's been really positive is that
the overall level of the players who played the sport
across the country has increased through exposure through more games
on TV, seeing more of these superstars and getting down
to their local clubs. So, you know, while we're rebuilding
in terms of our player development base, we are still
working with that, you know, an interested parties and a
(05:18):
keen group of players to develop the skills.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, you mentioned before that a lot of them come
from other codes. Can you see a time, Chris where
AFL becomes somebody's first choice?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, we hope. So, you know, like that's certainly what
we want to try and work towards. We've always positioned
the sport in this country as complementary to those other
sports as a way to improve fitness, prove cross code skills.
If you look at the likes of rugby and league,
there's a lot of AFL skills now being used with
the crosskeechs and the high overhead marks, et cetera. So
while we have traditionally positioned our sounds as complementary to them,
come and learn a new sports to improve your skills
(05:50):
for those sports, we'd certainly love to see a time
where AFL is New Zealand's first choice, and certainly in
the female space where the AFLW is a real tangible
opportunity for our athletes to get into. It's a little
shorter runway than it is for the men, and so
that's a real opportunity for us to target and say, look, hey,
here's a young female athlete, come and give the ass
at a primary sport and you've got a pathway to
(06:12):
play AFLWM be professional.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, and also I guess I think that's right, isn't it.
This is the first time a women's team has taken
part in a competition of the sort. The car who
are going to be playing alongside the Falcons in this competition.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, it's going to be very exciting. We've have aphon
the center of works towards twenty twenty was our first
initial attempt to try and get a female team across,
but COVID put the kibosh on that. So they have
been patiently building and developing and recruiting more players and
the game, the female game over here has really grown
in those last four years. So it's going to be
hugely exciting to see our Carho girls take the field
(06:44):
for the first time in an international carnival and you know,
really take it to these other nations.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I've just had a look at the weather forecast for
the weak ahead in terms of temperatures for the Sunshine Coast, Chris,
their high twenties, so your players will be nice and warm.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, Look, it's going to be something to think about.
You know, a lot of our New Zealand based players
are coming out of pretty damp and wet in New
Zealand winter and you know it's going to be a
bit of a shock to get into those high humored conditions.
I mean, I look at the forecast of the day
and there's a lot of rain as forecasts as well, So
that tropical kind of environment is going to be something
that's new to our players. What does it mean to
the suppery ball or does it mean to our hydration
(07:19):
and our recovery all those kind of things, But that's
all part of the junior It's part of the excitement
of going on these kind of campaign.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, and so good to have it back, as you say,
for the first time in seven years. Chris. All the
best for the week ahead. I hope it goes brilliantly
for you and also for the women's team as well.
We look forward to seeing the results coming through.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, really appreciate the time. Thanks mate, No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Chris Chris Mandel there. He's the coach of our men's
AFL team, the Falcons. Our women are called the Caho,
and both sides are heading to Australia. I think they
head off tomorrow the Marucci Door Multi Sports Complex on
australia Sunshine Coast. Maruchi Door wonderful part of Australia, although
I get the feeling it'll be be more business rather
(07:57):
than pleasure for the Falcons and the Caho. Will keep
an eye on how the results go over the next
week or so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Pain, listen live
to News Talks it B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.