Full Show Podcast: 17 May 2025

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Pine
from News Talks EDB. The only place for the big names,
the big issues, the big controversies, and the big conversations.
It's all on Weekend Sport with Jason Vine on your
home of Sport News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hello, Kianna, good afternoon. Welcome in to the Saturday edition
of Weekend Sport on News Talks EDB. May seventeen, Happy birthday,
Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Happy birthday to my mum.
I'm Jason Pine. Show producers Andy McDonald. We're going to
talk sport with you until three. Friday night Super Rugby highlights.

(00:52):
The Hurricanes got there just against the Highlanders driving.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
There was the.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Goalpost pass not with on the left get run.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Over the thront.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'd rather they're working for the try five and I
have scored.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
I reckon under my post.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Cam Roygard scoring the decisive try right at the end.
He's with us this afternoon to unpack that game, and
he's in a not insignificant part of it. I was
going to say his insignificant part of it. That would
have been completely the wrong phrase. Did you notice also,
Cam royguard played the entire eighty minutes. A triumph for

(01:24):
common sense. You don't have to take blokes off. The
Crusader's back into the top two be in the Waratar's
forty eight thirty three. Congratulations to Severu Reese, Super Rugby's
all time joint leading try scorer.

Speaker 6 (01:38):
Now Ray Harder he gets pave the first tackle straight
through a gap.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Reese on his left hands shoulder at seven race.

Speaker 7 (01:45):
He's gonna go.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
All the way?

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Is he the wiger?

Speaker 6 (01:47):
He does seven rece.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
His sixty fifth Super Rugby try last night, drawing him
level with TJ Pettanatta. You'd have to think Severa Reese
will take that record all to himself over the next
couple of games. Big Game tonight, Massive Game at Albany
Mawana Pacific are hosting the Blues. The winner takes a
big step towards the top. The loser makes things very
difficult for themselves. A couple of issues I want to

(02:11):
kick around with you today, both the rounds, access in
different forms, access to top level sport for the average family,
ticket prices and such like, and access to sport for kids.
This off the back of the story this week that
a nine year old boy from Auckland has been told
he can't play with his friends in age grade rugby

(02:35):
because he's too heavy. He's over the weight limit. Really
keen to to these over with you over the next
couple of hours. Other matters around today, Ryan Fox Man
he's on a tear. His excellent recent form has continued
at the PGA Championship. He's followed up his first round
sixty seven with an even past second round. He's four
under for the tournament and a tie for seventh, just

(02:55):
four shots off the lead held by Venezuela and Jonathan Vegas.
Going to cover off Ryan Fox's excellent couple of rounds
here and also how much his success at Myrtle Beach
a week ago has played into it with former pro
Phil tartod Angy later on this afternoon. FA Cup Final
tomorrow morning, Manchester City against Crystal Palace Wembley Stadium. Former

(03:18):
England international and a man who played for Crystal Palace
in the nineteen ninety FA Cup final against Manchester United.
John Silaco with US to reminisce of it after two
Adam Peacock with Australian Sporting matters this afternoon as well
but a live sport while we're on the air, including
our top men's squash player Paul Cole. He's into the

(03:39):
semifinals of the World Champs in Chicago. In about an
hour or so from now, he'll take to the court
to take on Will Staffer asal in the Semis and
the NBA Semifinals. Game six in this intriguing Eastern Conference
series between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks
has just started at Madison Square Garden, or will very shortly.

(04:02):
The Knicks can make the Conference finals with a win.
They lead three to two. It's the best of seven.
Of course, the Indiana Pacers are already into the Eastern
Conference Finals. Please join us across the afternoon if you
would like to, We strongly encourage that. We warmly invite
you to call eight hundred eighty ten eighty, to text

(04:22):
your thoughts through to nine two nine two, or email
them to me Jason at NEWSTALKSEDB dot co dot nz
BANG on eleven past midday.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Analyzing every view from every angle in the sporting world.
Weekend Sport with Jason Vye Call eight News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Some very interesting conversation this week about the price of
attending All Blacks test matches. Gregor Paul wrote an article
in The Herald which was mainly around corporate packages, but
also shone a light on just how expensive it is
to watch top level sport these days. Now we all
know ticket revenue is a vital part of any professional

(05:04):
sports business, but how do balance income with accessibility to
ensure the long term health of your sport. At what
point does the average fan and the average family become
priced out of the experience of live sport. And without
that live experience, how can we expect our kids to

(05:26):
fall in love with sport the same way we did
by going along and watching it and becoming lifelong fans.
One of our foremost sports promoters is Dean Lonigan who
joins us now. Dean, thanks for taking the time for
a chat on the show this afternoon. Just make sure
we're going to get you to air in the right place.
There by getting my fat is all in the right places.
How important Dean is watching live sport going along to

(05:51):
the game to developing a lifelong love of that particular sport,
particularly for kids.

Speaker 8 (05:58):
Finishing thridly important. But you also don't have their free
or cheap access to teams like the All Blacks, and
you've got to realize there's multiple levels of the sport.
Obviously at rugby union, you start a club, then you
got to Provincial, then Super Rugby and of course the
All Blacks. And every time you go up the it's
tier you go up, it becomes more and more expensive,
So you know, to be pulling out the All Blacks

(06:20):
only on the mill Rugby Union only two weeks ago,
I think said that they had a loss of twenty
million dollars and professional rugby has to be signed somehow,
So it's there to say at the highest level you
could expect to pay big prices and the families can't
afford to go to those particular games. Might they just
have to go to the next tier down? And if
you just keep going down, But obviously everyone wants to

(06:42):
go to see the big games because that's all the
stars playing. Starts a key to starts, the key to
the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
When you were growing up and watching live rugby league,
was that kind of club rugby league that you're watching
that first formed what would become a pro career in
the sport.

Speaker 8 (06:58):
For you, mate, we used to go to obviously when
you're planning to youngster. We used to go a lot
of their eight en or under twenty. One of my
cousins that were playing a particularly a guy called Mark
Humphreys who played for the Glory team though over three
or four years at a very young age.

Speaker 9 (07:13):
They did really well.

Speaker 8 (07:14):
Used to love going to watch them, and every now
and then you get a sampful of One of the
biggest memories I've got of a young fellow grown up
is when I think it was either the British Lions
or the Great Britain team came out here and a
guy called Jim Mills stood on John Grengrass's kin and
it was probably one of the most implemous moments at
regular league history. But you know, we didn't go too

(07:35):
much to the big games. It was always just the
club environment where you had friends playing the people you knew,
and it was I always found in the fascinating and
enjoyable experience, you know, seeing people you knew go well.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
So you've landed on a really interesting point there, Diana,
and that you know, it maybe doesn't necessarily have to
be the all blacks playing rugby that somebody sees a
young boy or girl for the first time. Even if
it's just someone from their club or provincial or even
Super rugby, you still think the love of the game
can be developed in those environments.

Speaker 10 (08:05):
Of course.

Speaker 8 (08:06):
Look, that's why you have a thing called television that
if you want, if you can't afford to go, you
can get it at home and access the reasonably cheap
at home. And I think the New Zealan Rugby Union,
and this is what most journalists I don't think get,
are indeed the public get, they had bent over backwards
to service in New Zilla rugby fan and I know
everyone will jump up and ms about this, but they haven't.

(08:27):
They've tried to keep all their best players at home
for the last twenty five years. They've been trying to
chase the market, so they're forever making more and more
money to pay the players to keep them at home,
finding against the market, which I think is a losing battle.
The only time they make money, seriously is when the
Lions come, and that's not going to happen until twenty
twenty nine, I think. And the New Zealan Rugby Union,

(08:49):
if you're a fan, needs to be applauded to keeping
all these people, all these great players at home. In
my opinion, what they need to do is a fundamental
shift away from their current policy. They need to allow
their players to go overseas to play and come back
only for test matches, and to be fair, they should
take a lot of their home test matches overseas. And
I know that rules around what they do. But when
you can go to Queensland, you can go to New

(09:10):
South Wales, or you can go to WA and play
Australia over there, or indeed in Wa you can play
South Africa over there, and you can pull in sponsorship
dollars about eight million dollars out of a local government
and then turn around and charge premiums for your corporate
hospitality and you get a hell of a lot more
money over there. By allowing you players to go overseas,

(09:32):
what you do is you reduce your main cost. I
think there's ninety two million dollars every year committed to
playing paying rugby players in this country at the elite level.
If you could remove thirty, forty or fifty million dollars
of this cost, you'd start to do something you deciminded
to do as a professional rugby organization and that's made money.
And before people jump up and down and say you
can't do that, well last time. I look South Africa

(09:54):
as a current world champion and they now allow their
players to go overseas. And I also believe Brazil and
Argentina have been pretty successful in the round ball game,
and you bugger all their players play at Artam, so
I don't know what a fascination is with keeping the
players at home. The New Zealand Rugby Union has got
some massive decisions to make over the next few years
to change in their policy because one thing you can't

(10:15):
do for a country of five million people. We've got
to think for the New Zealand peso, which is actually
not very well regarded. It's nationally when you compare it
to me in pain in euro or indeed Japanese yen
or US dollars, and we're just going to make some
big decisions because they can't sustain these losses. I think

(10:35):
already out of the two hundred and twenty million dollars
a silver late put in the New Zealand Rugby Union
reserves already down to one hundred and seventy million. You
can't take down backwards, so it'll be fascinating to see
what David Kirk pulls out as a new chairman of
the nja UN. He's obviously a succeed He's ben't run
the game of rugby for an enormously long time.

Speaker 9 (10:53):
You know, it was the first World Cup winning captain, so.

Speaker 8 (10:56):
He's obviously got the game at heart and it will
be fascinated and see what magic et pulls out. But
I don't think you have to look too farther than
the South Africans to see what you've got to do
to have a world winning team and ideally get rid
of the burden of paying your players an absolute fortune
to start at home when it's not economically viable.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
If I could just play Devil's advocate to that argument,
then Dean, if you allow your best players to go
overseas to make more money and take more All Blacks
test matches off shore, don't you go even further down
the track of denying your average everyday New Zealander access
to watching the All Blacks, a team that means so
much to us.

Speaker 8 (11:31):
Well, they're still on TV number one and number two.
You'd still play tests at home, but it it just
becomes a more special occasion. At the moment, I think,
can you encoreat me? If you're like Pliny. We played
ten eleven twelve Test matches at home, and we play
them all around the country. That's quite a huge supply
of product. And it's not that special to go and
see an all black Test match when you've got that oversupply,

(11:52):
in my opinion, So the less you play, the more
desirable they become. And at the end of the day,
what you need to do as a professional organization, you
must make money, which is why they did the silver
laid deal.

Speaker 9 (12:04):
But they're still going backwards. And here's where I could
tell you the big.

Speaker 8 (12:06):
Problem is coming right now. The NRL is expanding to
twenty teams. Now they've got two more teams to come in.
It's a huge amount of players to find the playing base.

Speaker 9 (12:16):
The NRL is.

Speaker 8 (12:17):
Making sixty billion dollars a year. They've got reserves right
now of three hundred and fifty million dollars and in
a couple of years it'll be half of billion dollars.
When the NRL say we need to go out and
get premium players and we're going to take the best
that rugby union's got to offer, they aren't going to
go to Australia.

Speaker 9 (12:32):
Together, we're going to come here.

Speaker 8 (12:34):
We've got something like twenty five thousand registered Uzella rugby
League players and about one hundred and twenty thousand registered
rugby union players now from the ages of fifteen or
thirteen through to about nineteen. The skill sets are pretty similar,
aren't too specialized, right, So you can make your transition
into rugby league from rugby union and they promise you
unless the new Zella rugby Union starts making money, they

(12:56):
will be powerless to stop it. So they've got some
big decisions to make, and you've got to take a
long term view rather than a short term view. And
everybody starts screaming, well, we've got to have more tests here. Well,
fundamentally it'd be nice to have more tests here, but
your fund them the problems. They're just losing so much
money they can't afford to.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Can I ask a question about going to the game
and what it's like when you're there and attach it
to a financial argument. If you sell ten thousand tickets
for eleven dollars each, you make more money than if
you sell twenty thousand tickets at five dollars each. But
when you got twenty thousand at the ground. The atmosphere
is a heck of a lot better. Do you think
a finance department cares about that, Well, no.

Speaker 8 (13:36):
Because what they do know is they're pretty much going
to sell the games out. Give you a classic example, Pining,
I put on a boxing match that featured Manidekiel versus
a guy called Jeff Horn in Australia, and I think
the gross turnover through the gate we had fifty thousand
people turn up. The gross turnover at the gate was
about eight point two to eight point five million Australian dollars, right,

(14:00):
which in Australian boxing terms or Australian sport terms, that
was enormous. Fifty thousand people was that number. Now, I
went to a boxing match Manipachio versus Floyd Mayweather, which
only had eleven thousand people at it, and they turned
over seventy five million US dollars at the gate. Right,
It was absolutely full. So what you've got to do

(14:21):
is you've got to find there's probably a fine line
between there's a fine line between money coming and the
charges you can You can charge what the prices you
can charge.

Speaker 11 (14:32):
But at the end of the day.

Speaker 8 (14:33):
Finally, you've got a financial responsibility, and it's only people
who have never run businesses and don't know the pain
of what it's like to try and trave the bills
when you haven't got enough money in the bank. Now,
at the moment, you zemerate the gun who's got one
hundred and seventy million dollars in the bank. But if
they check going the way they are with the exception
of the lines tour, so I'll end up with one.

Speaker 9 (14:53):
Hundred million in the bank. Didn't they land up with
fifty million in the bank? Didn't There'll be thirty million
in the bank.

Speaker 12 (14:57):
Then what do you do?

Speaker 8 (14:59):
So you've got to address this stuff early. And the
last thing they want is people coming to proach their
players and at some stage backing internationally will be that strong.
The players can't say know. So what I would do
is look at the South African Rugby Union, which is
there come through its national sport as well, and say
what are they doing right now? I don't know the
financials of the South African Rugby Union, but I do

(15:20):
know that they're allowing your players to play overseas, and
in my.

Speaker 9 (15:23):
Opinion, if we've allowed the.

Speaker 8 (15:24):
All Blacks to go overseas. All you're going to do
is get a much greater depth of players, because all
of a sudden, you're gonna have a whole lot of
players come up and take the places in the super
teams and the NPC teams of the guys going overseas,
and you're going to have much greater depth to pick from.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
Now.

Speaker 9 (15:40):
I know there will be a lot.

Speaker 8 (15:41):
Of people screaming out there it can't be done, it
can't be done. But what I was the stayers Look
at South Africa, look at Argentina thand soccer, look at Brazil.
Somehow they managed to do it. And look at the
balance sheet of the ends that are you, which is
they've had to sell off a serious percentage of the game,
and I think they give up five percent of their
gross revenue to pay for that silver ideal, which is

(16:03):
effectively alone. Mate, it's fair to space that this is
unsustainable and you're going to make some seriously big and
hard decisions. I'm not through distant future and complaining about
ticket prices. You should be gone. You should be screaming
in your Zellarug reunion. Thank you so much for trying
to subsidize the game at home and selling tickets as
schipney as you are round and say they're being out
price of the game because mate, internationally compared the international

(16:27):
revenues made what we get at home as nothing.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Dean, I can tell you we're going to open the
lines at the moment and they will light up like
a Christmas tree. You always give us something, Mate, always
entertaining and very informative chatting to you. Thanks for taking
the time this afternoon, boys, a pleasure jas Thanks mate.
That's Dean Lonigan. Plenty to unpack there, oh eight one
hundred and eighty ten eighty Anything that you would like
to pick up on from what you heard from Dean

(16:52):
Lonigan there. That conversation actually went into places I didn't
expect it to go. That is the beauty of guests
like Dean Lonigan. He always has thought provoking comments on
a range of different subjects, not afraid to spare his mind,
always makes you think and does not mind one little
bit if you have a contrary view, which I have

(17:14):
to say I do in this case, or parts of
what Dean said there. I like the fact that our
top rugby players are playing here in New Zealand. I
do believe that it is important for young people in
particular to have access to their heroes in a live environment.

(17:35):
And yes, I totally take on board what Dean said
there about how that is forged not necessarily at the
very top level, but further down kids going along to
watch club rugby games. But we know that Club Rugby
is starting to wither on the vine just a little bit,
going along to watch NPC Super Rugby. But the All
Blacks are the one and it just seems to me

(17:55):
that they are beyond the reach now of a large
segment of the population. And maybe that's just what we
have to accept that. As Dean says, New Zealand Rugby
are in a financial battle. We all know this. They
posted a loss of nineteen and a half million a

(18:16):
couple of weeks ago off the back of record revenue,
record income, and that income was you know, in part
due to taking All Blacks test matches away from New Zealand,
taking the All Blacks their most marketable commodity, their golden goose.

(18:37):
Rarely they say teams in Black, but rarely it's the
All Blacks maximizing the income that they can get from
the All Blacks. Dean said there. You know they play
eleven to twelve Test matches. They do, but not at home.
Last year five home test matches, five opportunities for New
Zealanders to watch the All Blacks here in New Zealand

(18:59):
last year, this year at six we have six Test
matches here at home this year Wellington, Hamilton and July
for Test matches against France, then South Africa at Eden
Park and at Sky Stadium in Wellington and Australia at
Eden Park, just the six Test matches. Now, the South

(19:21):
African Test match is already sold out and I'm just
interested in your thoughts on that in particular. Do you
think that New Zealand Rugby care who is in the
stands or do they just care that there are enough
people who will pay a pretty big price to go

(19:42):
along and watch the All Blacks in such a key
Test match as that one against South Africa. Another way
of asking the question, I guess is this, if they
knew that they could sell every ticket at Eden Park
for two hundred and fifty dollars, if they knew that

(20:03):
they would sell it out at that price, do you
think they would? Do you think they should? Because if
we're talking about maximizing revenue, and you look for the
biggest game of rugby probably to be played here in
New Zealand for quite some time. It's that one. So
if you put your accountant's hat on, if you know

(20:24):
that they'll get forty five thousand, they're paying well well
above what you would normally play for pay for a
test match? Is that actually okay to do? Oh eight
hundred eighty ten eighty is our number nine two nine
to two on text. Give us the old plenty of
coming through on text. But I'm very very keen to
hear your thoughts as far as this is concerned. And

(20:46):
the other part of this is how much of the
sport that you love was forged by watching it live.
That's another thing we can pick up on as well.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty nine two nine to
two on text. We're back with your calls after this
twelve twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
The big issues on and after fields call Oh eight
hundred eighty ten eighty weekends forward with Jason Pine and G. J. Gunderholmes,
New Zealand's first trusted home Bilder News Talks.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
B twelve thirty on News Talks here B Mike says
Dean A. Lonegan is spot on. He's nailing it. Diana's
so right, says Mary. Uh, he's so wrong, Piney, he's
wanting to do it Grant Dalton and take away our
players and our all blacks. And that's one of fantastic discussion,
thought provoking, with strong intellect to base and argument upon.
Thank you for your text. Let's go to the phone. Hello, James, Okay, mate,

(21:35):
good James good good good.

Speaker 10 (21:37):
Hey, Yeah, David, he made a lot of something, a
lot of us the points he made. I mean, Ragny,
we're in professional three years ago, didn't it like? But
it's changed a lot from what it was. And you know,
the Ins of Year is not another charity. They're not
a community organization. They're They're a business, aren't they. Yes,

(21:58):
they can't run your business like this is. You know,
we're all going to be stuffed. I mean, I like
that you said. You know, we all grow out watching
our heroes and you know, love the game because of that,
But we love them as well because they were winning.
That's why they became our heroes.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 10 (22:14):
We don't keep up. If we don't keep up with
not teting in the modern era, and you know, we
we start underperforming works to be fear over the last
five years we probably have suddenly they're not going to
be good heroes as much are there We're not you
know this this winning, this great team with this aura
and that you know, and and we we will have

(22:35):
to sort of move with the times and to stay
a dominant team.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's a very very good point that I hadn't even
thought of. So, yeah, you're right. I mean I sort
of forged my love for the All Blacks in the
eighties and we were well back into the eighties we
were just about unbeatable and and you know, and yeah,
in the years since, I've obviously you know that that
attachment was permanent. You know, no way I can jump
off now, as I'm sure you can't to the teams
that you have supported for a long time. I wonder

(23:03):
then you know about that? Then you do you start
to think this, okay, is the most important thing here
that the All Blacks win every Test match? And if
that is the most important thing, then you know, how
do we make that happen?

Speaker 12 (23:15):
You know?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
What was what extra resource do we throw in? Do
we say to Scott Robertson or whoever the coaches pick
whoever you like. Pick Richie Mornger. If you think he's
going to win you this test match, bring him home.
So you know, there's all the there's all the collateral
damage from outside of those discussions. If everything points to
an All Blacks one look, you and I would love
to see the All Blacks win every week, but we
know that it's a bit of a deeper discussion than that.

Speaker 10 (23:37):
I mean, like Dant, they made the point. You know,
the All Blacks they go overseas. You bring these other
guys up through the through the Super Rugby and the
NPC who start getting consistent game time and they become
the players we're seeing week and week out, and they
become the players that kids are then following and love.
They get more experience, become better, we have a bigger debt,
and then when it does come to the All Blacks,

(23:58):
we will have the situation like South Africa where we
can have a good team of experienced players and then
we can have guys at the end of their career
or you know a couple of superstars who are playing overseas,
but we can bring them back in and we create
this team that is like unbelievable, which is what said.
After they're doing you look at their bomb squad when
it comes on. It's all the old guys that are

(24:19):
gone from New Zealand rugby. You know, we could be
having you know, Aaron Smith and you know rech Rugg
and Brodie Roteling. You know, just you know, they could
be our bomb squad if you know we were, if
we were still going that way.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Hey, just a question before you go, James, what would
you pay for an All Blacks ticket? Where do you love?
Are you in Auckland?

Speaker 13 (24:37):
Now?

Speaker 10 (24:38):
Christ's mate expensive for me? I wouldn't go, you know,
but that's the thing, like you know, like I said,
I don't mind watching it on TV. I love sat
down and watching on TV, watching with the family, you know,
sat down and watch that the great experience on TV
these days. You know, the coverage is very good, the
whole the whole package is very good. It's easy to watch,
it's entertaining, you know, and going to the game would

(24:59):
become one of those very special things. But making more
money out of it and being having then you know,
to be able to sustain anable business because like being said,
you've got to look at it in the long In
the long run, what's going to happen As guys will
start leaving the game, they will go to these places
like the n r L, who have a mess of
water chest, you know, can go and target plans. They
already do target players, but you know, at a young age,

(25:21):
but could do it even more. I'd like to see
a bit disparity between our model of constantly losing money
and treading water and losing money and treading water. It
will become a much bigger ticket where they go ship.
I'm going to four times as much just going to
the n r L, you know, like I'm gone.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I'll just rephrase the question, at what price would you
definitely go to an All Blacks test?

Speaker 10 (25:46):
Well, I mean what is it to pass?

Speaker 2 (25:52):
That's gonna change, that's gonna change real quick. Yeah, would you?
Would you pay?

Speaker 10 (25:55):
And you can? You can rage between playing one hundred
bucks and tolder and fastly probably even in the moment. Yeah,
what's what's a premium platinum sitting an All Black Tests
at the moment?

Speaker 2 (26:05):
But up high? Yeah, I'd tell you what. The cheapest,
the cheapest, the cheapest adult ticket to watch the All
Blacks play France and Wellington. I checked this out yesterday
just in preparation for today. The cheapest adult ticket is
sixty five bucks.

Speaker 10 (26:16):
Yeah, well, supply in demand. Whatever they can get through
a ticket they should be charging, because that's what's beast
for Aim and the said money. It's not good for
the game. It's all just going to go downhill, you know.
So they need to look at it as a business decision.
They don't need the sub to drive us. It should
just be supply in demand. Whatever they can sell the
tickets for and sell the stadiums out, that's what they

(26:39):
should be doing.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Thanks for the call, James, I've enjoyed chatting to you, mate,
really appreciate it. Call back anytime. I W eight one
hundred and eighty ten eighty. Lewis says, did you just
say the All Black South Africa Test that Eden Park
has sold out? Yes, it is, it is sold out.
That game is officially a sellout on the sixth of September.
I eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty is our
number twenty four to one Ellen.

Speaker 14 (26:58):
Hello, Yeah, good Jason. Look, ticket prices are exorbitant foremost
anything these days, There's no question about that. And it's
down to the year of professionalism because the players who
provide the entertainment have to be paid. But I think
the thing that hasn't been discussed yet is that Longngan

(27:20):
touched on it. The best players that we have should
be put on the park. That's accepted by almost everybody.
And if they happen to be playing overseas, so what
The Kii rugby league team never got as good as
they are now until a lot of the players started

(27:41):
playing in overseas competitions and are brought back for the
test matches. Does that bother anybody when if the Kiwi's
beat them? Of course it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
It's not an apple before you carry on. It's not
an apples an apples argument, though, is it? With rugby league?
We don't have a I mean that we don't have
a domestic competition the equal of Super rugby in rugby league.
We've got the NRL, which has got one key we
team in it. I mean, I know you understand the
argument why New Zealand Rugby in its current state of

(28:12):
mind wants to keep the players here to ensure a
very strong Super rugby domestic competition. I know you understand
that and look, you're not the only one who disagrees
with it, but that's the reason why. And so you
can't really make an analogy with league because it's not
you're not talking about the same landscape.

Speaker 14 (28:29):
Well you may be right about that, but the league
have had to address this issue and as I said,
Lingen touched on it, they want to keep all the
best rugby players, all the best All Blacks in New
Zealand playing in the New Zealand Competition, Super Rugby and
the et cetera. They can't do it. They'll keep on struggling.

(28:51):
They'll keep on struggling, and they're running it a loss.
They've run a series of losses. All of sponsorship from
the big corporate companies, the major companies that are involved
in it is not going to help them with that.
What's more important is the All Blacks winning or keeping
them keeping the rugby and our best players here. I

(29:14):
know what the answer is for me. The thing is
can you can you not have both? I don't think so.
Because what the Auckland Rugby League had the problem of
players wanting to go overseas and they resisted it, and
they resisted it and in the finish it was broken
because Kurt Sorenson went to Coronella and sat out playing
football for a year and they couldn't touch it. And

(29:34):
it opened the floodgates. And it has improved our competition here.
You say the New Zealand League doesn't have a great
competition comparable to suber Avia. Of course it doesn't. We
have less playing numbers, but we're making the best of
what we've got and the All Blacks are going to
have to end the hierarchy. The administrators are going to

(29:55):
have to address that. Eventually. They cannot get away from
it because the rest of the world dominates what anybody
does and a minnow down the bottom of the Southern Hemisphere.
Although we have one of the best records ever for
international rugby tests, the truth is that the modern age
of professionalism and rugby is turning that on its head.

(30:18):
We still want to win, We still want to win
All Black Tests, no question, but you are not going
to do it by keeping your players here in New Zealand.
Eventually some of them are going to want to go
because the young men, they can make a lot of money.
You're not going to stop it, and eventually they're going
to have to start selecting from overseas. Do you if
the All Racks win a Test against South Africa and

(30:39):
the team has made up of five or six New
Zealand players who play their trade overseas, do you think
anybody's going to worry? No, of course they're not.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
No, they're not. No, Ellen, they're not. And so look,
you make a compelling argument, and I just want to
ask you, just to finish, do you think it will happen?
Do you think New Zealand Rugby will change their policy?

Speaker 14 (31:02):
My thought is they've got to. I'm not a rugby person,
you know that, and I'm not a rugby person, but
I've seen what's happened to the league, every competitive football
in New Zealand. At golf Club's RSA, they're all dying,
Jason that rugby is currently strong in this country, and

(31:22):
as it should be. It is the national sport. But
everybody else has gone professional. England, France, Italy, all the
rest of Argentina, and they all play overseas. They all
play overseas because they're recognized as being good players. What
they're alert enough to say, I've seen the player to
go and play in Argentina or Italy. They are going

(31:44):
to come back a better player, and if we want
to stay at the top, we have simply got to
change our attitude towards keeping all our rugby players in
this country to play Superruby. It ain't going to happen. Eventually,
it's going to fail, but we're not going to be
worse off. We're probably going to be better off long term.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Thank you, Ellen, good bye points very articulate and eloquently made.
Thank you for calling through eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty Kight says I'm with allan adapt or Die Peter
with the counterpoint the best players left the NPC and
now no one goes. If the best players leave Super Rugby,
the same will happen. It's a very very fascinating conversation
they have will continue to after this. Eighteen Away from

(32:26):
One News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
One Grudge Hold Engaged Weekends for It with Jason Pym
and GJ. Gunder Homes, New Zealand's fast trusted home builder
News Talks ABB.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Twelve forty five grant thank you for holding mate. Hello.

Speaker 13 (32:41):
Yeah, finally now overseas players and ticket prices now bring
back overseas players works for some countries and not others.
Works for South Africa because basically the whole of their
first fifteen place overseas and the bit of a gap
between them and the second fifteen, so it works for them.
When we've had players that have come back from overseas,
just taken them a while to get back to the

(33:03):
level of New Zealand rugby competition. So I don't think
a complete change would would.

Speaker 12 (33:11):
Work for us.

Speaker 13 (33:12):
Things have loosened up over the years. There's more players
eligible for sabbaticals and other players going, and things might
loosen up a bit more. But so I think you
know the way it is at the moment, and with
maybe a bit looser you know, would be fine. Now.
Ticket prices, Yeah, are you saying sixty five for the

(33:34):
cheapest seats.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
The cheapest adult, Yeah, cheapest adult seats, the kids kids,
cheapest adult. Cheapest kids tickets are thirty, cheapest adult tickets
are sixty five, and they go up from there.

Speaker 13 (33:47):
Yeah, And what would the best seat in the grand
stand be? Two to three hundred and two fifty something
like that?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
I would say, so yeah. I mean, you won't find
me in it grand and probably not you either, But
I think so yeah. I think the platinum if they're
called that. Yeah, I think two fifty three hundred that
sounds about right.

Speaker 15 (34:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (34:02):
When you compare that, say to concepts of things like that,
you know, I think the pricing is right, and you
know the fact that, well, people are more choosy though
these days, so I'll pay the prices just like for
big artists a concerts. For big games like the South
African Games. The fact that now we only play them

(34:24):
at home every second year, I think makes it more enticing,
you know. So I just can't wait till the South
African Games come around us yet.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Good stuff, Grant. I didn't I should have what I
should have done, as checked ticket prices for the South
Africa Test in Wellington compared to the tickets for the
France Test. Because any economist will tell you that supply
and demand, as you've pointed out, Grant as a thing,
so surely you should be charging more to watch the
All Blacks play South Africa than you do to watch
the All Blacks play what is going to be basically

(34:54):
a second string French team. I needed to check that.
I will check that and report back, Grant. Good to
chat to you.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Hello, Rachel, Hey, how you doing good.

Speaker 16 (35:06):
Would I'd be comfortable paying two to three hundred dollars.
But there's lots of things that I'll factor into that decision,
and you've touched on all of them. It's the quality
of the players. It's how the team is performing, what's
their form, like all the things that are in and
around the stadiums, the food to travel, the whole entertainment package.

(35:28):
But if they get it all right, I mean, I'm
really happy for the union to charge what they need
to charge to be able to run a profitable business
and keep our players here. Because what makes me likely
to pay that premium price is that I know the players.
I watch them week in week out. I enjoy them.
I know their strengths and their weaknesses and their personalities,

(35:50):
and it's got a real emotional connection. And I compare
it to like the reason all white assembly in their
games and I loosely follow football. But if they're all overseas,
I'm not connected to them. I don't know who they are.
You sit there and you say to your friends that
you're watching with, or who's wearing number six, who's wearing

(36:10):
number eleven, And the connection's not there. So I'm not
going to pay the same price for players to watch,
players that I don't care as much about or know
as well as what I will if they've players that
I've been hoping will get selected and love to watch.
So there's lots of factors, and we've talked about food

(36:32):
and stadiums and things for a long time. It's drinks
and it's a total package. But if they can get
it all right, then I will pay two to three
hundred dollars for a quality game of rugby that I'm
going to turn up to and think that all blacks
are going to put on a mean performance and it's
going to be.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Really entertaining, and by players who you know and have
the connection with Rachel. I think that's the first time
anybody's ever ever put that forward as an argument for
players staying here. The emotional connection you get with them
through NPC and Super Rugby, which then flows on to
test matches, and in your case anyway, the fact that
you would pay that money to go and see them,

(37:09):
because I mean, let's face it, you kind of feel
like you know them, right, I mean we're in New Zealand,
we can actually get, you know, quite up close with
these guys. You know, they'll they'll come and sign autographs
and have selfies and things afterwards. They're not unattainable, as
I'm sure you know Premier League footballers are, for example.
So it's a great point you make. So all right,
so if I need a ticket, you'll pay the two
fifty for me.

Speaker 16 (37:31):
If they've got after pay, I'll give it a crap.
But yeah, I think the other thing too, though, is
that just the lead times are important. I think for
families in the current economic climate, is that you don't
want tickets to go on sale on Monday and then
they're sold out by Thursday. Like you do need a
bit of time to get your ducks in a row
and think, okay, we're going to travel to Auckland, what

(37:51):
a flight's going to be, what's accommodation? Like, there's a
lot that goes into that decision making, and it is
an investment. But if the product's worth it, then I think,
you know, the die hads and people that can find
a way to make it happen will make it happen.
And I am mindful of pricing out, you know, certain
aspects of our community, but I think bigger picture, we

(38:14):
need to put money in the bank. Otherwise New Zealand
rugby as we know it, we'll die in a really
sad depth. And that's what I'm afraid of.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Very sensible thought, Racil. Thank you for calling and I
appreciate it very much. Drive safely, enjoy the rest of
your weekend. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty are lyle?
What do you what would you what wouldn't you pay
to watch your favorite team?

Speaker 17 (38:37):
Well, I guess depends on what I've got in the
bank at the time and what other commitments have got.
But in regards to you know, the league argument, but
Bloke said the floodgates opened after skirt Or Sorenson left
his room. That it happened in nineteen ninety after a
boy called Tony Kemp challenge in New Zealand rugby league

(38:57):
while he was here in Queensland on a scholarship form.
But they're probably going to have to let the players
go overseas to remain you know, the viable. But with
the we had a great little rugby league competition in
Auckland called the Fox Memorial and then after the fight
gates were opened, they all pulled out. Now, if you're

(39:19):
a fifteen sixteen year old that no longer has to
stay in New Zealand to maybe get the black jersey.
You can go overseas. You're going to find a huge vacuum.
They'll float out to Italy, Ireland, England, all over the place.
And so your domestic competition is going to end up
similar to the domestic rugby league competition, very poor, half
a dozen people with their dogs watching it because you

(39:41):
know how that's all the next brigade will step up. Well, no,
because they'd be in those elite development schools and everything
else like that that they were good enough. What you're
going to be left with playing MPC is guys that
probably wouldn't have got a run and they senior club
competition in Manowa two and the Super Rugby the standard
will drop.

Speaker 12 (40:01):
So yeah, the Orbits.

Speaker 17 (40:02):
May or may not keep winning as you select from overseas,
but you're going to find the domestic thing, the Super
Rugby and the MPC is going to be very very poor.
So if you've prepared to accept that at the moment,
the thing that holds a lot of people.

Speaker 12 (40:19):
In New Zealanders to get that black jumper, even if.

Speaker 17 (40:21):
They go offshore afterwards, it's worth a lot of money.
But how the South Africans make it work, I don't know,
but I'd love to see what their domestic competition looks like.
And you've got to remember now that they've got rid
of all.

Speaker 10 (40:34):
Their racial dramas and all the laws.

Speaker 17 (40:37):
They're selecting out of forty five million people, so you know,
you've got a lot more to pick from. And with
some of those African athletes, they make superb wingers with
the speed they've got everything, like that New Zealand with
five million people. You know, a little country at the
bottom of the planet. There's one previous people have said,

(40:58):
and you're fighting against it the whole time.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
But yeah, I've got to move mate. But you make
a good point. As always. Back in a moment on
news Talks, heb seven to one, four to one. Just
checked for the South African Test and Wellington cheapest adult
ticket ninety three dollars for the France test sixty five.
That makes sense, supply and demand and all that. Get
a pony, says Sean. I paid two hundred and four
dollars for the South Africa Test and Wellington certainly not
the cheapest option, and some are much higher. They seem

(41:23):
to be at least one hundred dollars more expensive than
a couple of years ago. And another text here we're paying.
We're paying eight grand for a table of ten. Take
me along.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
The only place to discuss the biggest sports issues on
and after fields. It's all on wee J and Sport
with Jason Paine on your home of Sport new Talks.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
One seven on the dot. Thanks for joining us. This
is weekend Sport on news TALKSB until three. I'm Jason
Pine and a McDonald's show producer. There's heaps of sport
on this afternoon and into the evening, and we've got
a few people say, hey, how come I don't preview this?
Why aren't you talking about this week? Look, we can
know we do one thing at once for starters, and
we'd love to cover everything off. What we will do

(42:10):
tomorrow is cover off a lot of what happens tonight,
and by that I mean the Warriors up against the
Dolphins that underway at five o'clock, huge Super Rugby match
between the Blues and more Wia Pacifica. In fact, I'll
flip it around between Mina Pacifica and the Blues because
Mina Pacifica are the home team at Albany. They've had
to put extra seats and to accommodate the crowd that

(42:31):
are going to turn up, I would say, and maybe
I might be misreading this, I would say that eighty
percent of those who go along would be Morena PACIFICA
fans tonight. That's just a guess. We'll cover that off tomorrow.
And of course the A League Semi Finals home and

(42:51):
away Auckland FC Melbourne victory tonight is the away leg
nine thirty five tonight, and their next weekend is the
home league six o'clock a week tonight at go Media Stadium. Now,
a couple of things I need to tell about this.
Tickets for that game are as you'd probably expect, going

(43:13):
pretty fast last I heard, and I'm sure somebody from
Auckland f C who are enthusiastic listeners to the show
will tell me how many tickets there are left. I
heard a couple of thousand. It might be a few
more than that. I know it's not sold out yet
but will be before too much longer. The other thing
I need to tell about next weekend is that we're

(43:33):
going to broadcast the show from Tyler Street, Sport which
is the official home of Auckland f C when they
play away from home. If you get my drift, you
can't get a seat at Tyler Street Sport tonight. They're
putting on a free event and you had to basically
register for it. Registrations took about an hour and then

(43:54):
they're all gone. It's an amazing place to watch Auckland
f C when they're away. But we're going to do
the show from there next Saturday between midday and three
as we build towards the home semi five. Now, I
think this is right Andy. You'll be able to confirm
we've got a double pass to give away to the game.

(44:14):
You don't want to confirm vocally, you just want to
give me the thumbs up. I've got the thumbs up.
But we've got a double pass to give away to
next Saturday night. Yes, I confirm that.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Great.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Is that what you wanted? That's exactly what I would
have preferred. A little bit of a more in depth conversation.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
And he it's super exciting football. You know, we've got
to double pass to give away. It'll be great some
football to which it would be so much fun football.

Speaker 7 (44:39):
Finey, double pass, get.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Along it was so good, you'll have a job on
one of our music brands. Before you know it, you'll
be splitting the discs. Yes, so we've got to double
pass to give away. We're gonna give it away by text.
We're not going to make it too difficult. Text the
word football to nine two nine two, simple as that.

(45:02):
Do we need anything else from them? Andy, Just the
word football. We've got number when it comes through. That's
all we need. Yeah, that's pretty much.

Speaker 15 (45:09):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I mean they can they can perhaps spice the entry
up with I don't score predictions for tonight? Favorite player?
Favorite player is a good one.

Speaker 18 (45:17):
I like that.

Speaker 6 (45:18):
How long you've supported Auckland FC for a lot of
one years, I'd say I.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Would say so. Score prediction for tonight's not bad. Actually,
I'm not going to make that a condition of entry.
Anybody who texts the word football to nine two nine
two will be in the draw to win this double pass.
We can't get you to Aukland, unfortunately, we don't have
the means to transport you to Auckland. But if you
are going to be in and around the Auckland region

(45:42):
next Saturday night, we've got a double pass for Auckland
FC against Melbourne victory second leg of the home and
away semi finals for the winner a place in the
Grand Final on the Saturday night of King's Birthday weekend
at the same venue, go Media Mount Smart Stadium nine two,
nine to two the word football. Just before we move
a couple of our texts to cover off from last

(46:03):
hour's discussion about ticket prices, etc. Kab says, Poney, I've
just paid eighty five dollars for a ticket to the
All Blacks against South Africa at Eden Park and I
did not flinch about that cost. I've been going to
Eden Park since I was about five with my dad.
It's my happy place. I just love it. And North
Harbor Stadium is a sell out today. I thank you Kab,

(46:24):
I appreciate it. And this one from Brett Piney. We
have no idea how accessible and affordable it is to
attend top level sport in New Zealand. My kids says
this text are currently living in the UK. It's totally
impossible to get tickets to Twickenham, Aviva and Murrayfield unless
you are part of a club and the price is

(46:45):
in the hundreds of pounds. We tried to get tickets
to the French Open Tennis last year had to do
it via an online lottery and there were three hundred
and forty thousand in the queue. We have it sweet
down here, says Bread. Thanks Brett, you make a good point.
Thank you for all your calls and correspondence around our
ticket pricing discussion last hour. No doubt it's a topic

(47:08):
we'll cover off again at some stage in the future.
Just updating you on Live Sport. They're into the second
quarter between the Knicks and the Celtics in Game six
of the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Is that score right?
Fifty one to twenty eight to the Knicks. Fifty one
to twenty eight to the Knicks. If they win this game,
they will progress to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they'll

(47:30):
be up against the Indiana Pacers. So the New York
Knicks looking to close it out in six. I think
we can move on. Oh, Paul Cole. He's going to
be on court shortly, Paul Cole in the semifinals at
the World Squash Championships in Chicago, So we'll keep an
eye on that. At the moment. The second of the
women's semi finals are still going on Paul Cole's in
the first of the men's semis, which will immediately follow

(47:51):
this particular match. Well, we talked about access last hour.
Let's move to access of a slightly different kind. A
new story emerged this week than a nine year old
Auckland boy has been told he can no longer play
age grade rugby with his friends because he is over
the weight limit. Now, this boy is a year four student.

(48:14):
He was one of one hundred and six students who
applied for a weight dispensation. This is in the county's
Manco Rugby Football Union club competition. He was denied that
dispensation and has opted out of playing any winter sport
at all this year. Now, the union says these structures
are in place to ensure player safety and fairness in competition,

(48:38):
which I totally get. But here's the case of a
young boy who wants to play sport and there is
a barrier in the way of him doing so. Andy
Rodgers is Sport New Zealand's national sport development consultant and
he joins us. Now, Andy, thanks for taking the time.

(48:59):
I know you can't comment on this specific case, but
this is the incident which has compelled the conversation, So
perhaps can stop by asking you for your general reaction
to this news that a barrier has been placed in
the way of a child who just wants to play
sport with his friends.

Speaker 19 (49:16):
Yeah, as you say, it a little hard without more
of the background context, difficult to comment on the specifics
of the story, but what I can say first and foremost,
I feel pretty sorry for the young man caught in
the middle of it. And at sport in New Zealand,
we believe, you know, really strongly that every young person
should have the opportunity to enjoy and benefit that they

(49:37):
get from being active. It's really important that we work
as a sector, you know, to remove barriers and not
create them, especially for young people. And our role as
administrators is to provide opportunities where all young people are welcomed.
And that's whether they're chasing their high performance dreams or
just want to have fun, get fit and socialized. So

(50:00):
one exciting piece we're just released, actually in partnership with
the Sports sector, is a tool that I encourage people
to jump on our website and have a look at.
It's called the Sport Pathway Framework and it really is
a tool to encourage conversations and help people find a
place where everyone can fit and support their motivations and

(50:21):
aspirations to fulfill their potential at whatever level.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
That might be fantastic. Well, I'll have to check that out. So,
in terms of barriers to kids in particular participating in sport,
what are the main ones? We've got one here, which
is I guess a specific example around around wait. And
I understand the safety argument. I think we can all
understand that. But what are some of the other barriers
to kids participating in sport in general terms?

Speaker 19 (50:47):
Yeah, it's a really good question. This fun Jason, and
something that we ponder on quite often. Look, we're told
by young people and their families people now are living
really busy lives, so busy schedules have a major impact.
The cost involved transport is a massive one. And if

(51:07):
you think about we're on based up in Auckland, getting
across Auckland on a busy afternoon, getting home from work
on a busy evening, isn't it. So transports a big one.
Access to gear, and we know for girls there's a
couple of additional ones that come through quite strongly. Confidence
in fear of being judged to big factors, and then

(51:29):
we know even more so for disabled people, they face
even more challenges. So we know these issues are real,
and that's why we're working really hard as a system
to break through and be more inclusive, be more flexible
with offerings, and take a much more community led approach
to the way that we're rolling this out because communities

(51:50):
know their people generally and they know how to adapt
and provide offerings for them.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah, and some things you can't impact. I mean, you
can't change Auckland's traffic system, for example. That's something that
I think is even beyond Sports New Zealand or beyond
any of us really. But are there some of the
things you picked up on there that that you are
doing specific work on that can be more readily removed
as barriers?

Speaker 19 (52:15):
Yeah? Absolutely, You're right. We can't change the weather, right,
and we can't change the transport at the moment in Auckland,
although putting a training would be nice. However, Yeah, there are,
and that's why I referenced community lead local solutions. We're
actually seeing some great response in some of the metropolitan

(52:35):
areas where local organizations are getting together and providing more
opportunities at a local level. You know, not everyone has
aspirations to go on to great things and have an
overly competitive structure, and we're seeing a real uptake and
more I guess close to home, locally led offerings where

(52:56):
people can enjoy the value of sport without having to
travel an hour and a half each way in busy schedules.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Are you able to in any way measure the positive
impact of physical activity and exercise on young people?

Speaker 19 (53:14):
Yeah, that is a great question. We know that it's
hugely important, and we're now collecting more and more evidence
to support that. We know that when young people are active,
not only do they build friendships for life, they grow confidence.
It supports mental well being as well. We know that

(53:35):
young people are happier when they're engaged in physical activity.
So we've recently actually published a report called Active Minds,
Active Bodies, and the report confirms that those kids that
are involved in sport and being physically active are actually
better in school, they're better in life, and that's why

(53:55):
through sport, we believe every child deserves that. So we
need to work really hard to break those barriers down
to open up offerings for everyone.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Are more or fewer ldren playing organized sport now than
in the past.

Speaker 20 (54:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 19 (54:10):
Well, obviously we had that rather unfortunate incident of COVID,
but we are seeing jason a pretty steady recovery post COVID,
especially in school sport, and we know that numbers have
grown over the last three years. Several of our large
sports are showing encouraging increases in their membership as well,

(54:33):
which is clearly incredibly positive. And there's certainly a growing
interest in flexible, more informal ways to just to I
guess activating sport.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
What sort of things are you talking about there.

Speaker 19 (54:50):
Yeah, Look, some of our sports, the sports that are
really adapting, being more inclusive and taking that community approach,
are seeing strong growth. So we've got initiatives up and
down the country, examples Hopes and Marias which is a
collaboration and partnership with you. Several organizations including New Zealand Basketball,

(55:11):
local EWE, Maldi Basketball that are putting hoops and giving
access to young people. In Maria's rugby league have a
program called Sister Rise which is addressing more offerings and
opportunities for young girls and female coaches that are having
tremendous success and talking to rugby league the other day

(55:33):
that they've got about a sixty percent increase in young
women participating in that program. And additionally, we're seeing programs
being being more inclusive and encouraging people from all walks
of life to get involved in sport and you know,
reap the benefits since rugby is an initiative that's been

(55:54):
developed by occupational therapists to fit the needs and learning
pace of players, so it looks to support you know,
players with disabilities that are neurodiverse, that have sensory and
we're seeing these programs roll out up and down the country,
so they're not just growing participation, they're building belonging and

(56:14):
really breaking down societal barriers as well.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
This might be outside the scope of your brief, Andy,
but do you think that kids sport is best administered
by schools or by clubs?

Speaker 19 (56:27):
That's a great question, and I think we're really blessed
in this country to have a system where you're able
to access sport in both. So I think that my
answer would be I think they player both play a
really important role. The key here is that not one's
better than the other. It's about how they work together
to meet the needs of all participants. So regardless of

(56:49):
the setting, you know, I think the key here is
that we want to offer quality experiences and we continue
to put the needs of young people first, you know,
and that means, as I've said previously, offering a range
of opportunities that match the motivations of the children. So
we need to fit into young people's lives, not young

(57:09):
people fit into our sports systems.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
And there's something that always happens with kids sport is
that you know, a young boy or girl shows promise
at an early age and everybody says, wow, there's the
next you know, Dan Carter, you know, there's the next Porsche,
Woodman Wickliffe. Just to use a couple of rugby examples,
and yet these children are eight nineteen years old. Is
balances better? You know, children playing a lot of different

(57:34):
sports still a key plank to your philosophy on kids
exercise and sport.

Speaker 13 (57:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 19 (57:40):
Absolutely, And I happen to know you're a big fan
of the balance is better approach, Jason, so I'm glad
you brought that one up.

Speaker 5 (57:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 19 (57:47):
Absolutely, Balance is better is more than just the talent
piece though, it's about it's our approach to use sport
in new Zealan and it's ensuring that we put the
needs of young people first. So what we say, it's
about balancing sport with life, you know. So it's ensuring
that we keep the fun element, but we also keep

(58:08):
the development element, and that we balance adults expectations with
what kids actually want. So when we get that balance right,
we see that outcomes for everyone involved, and we say
that balance is better. It's not just the philosophy, it's
a practical approach and it's now backed by strong evidence,
and it's really getting embraced by the sector. And we

(58:30):
know that those organizations that are picking it up and
using it and adopting their systems are seeing some significant
improvements in the quality of the experiences that young people
are achieving. Young people are getting better, they're having more fun,
and they're staying in for longer.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Very interesting, very very interesting thoughts this afternoon. Andy, Thank
you so much for taking the time to join us,
and know our listeners we'll have a lot of feedback
so we'll get to them. But thank you for your
time this afternoon.

Speaker 11 (58:56):
No prom it all.

Speaker 19 (58:56):
Thanks for having me on the show, Jason.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
No, thank you for joining us Andy, Andy Rogers Sport
New Zealand's National Development National Sport Development consultant. There, your
reaction is welcome. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty,
let's kick this around for a bit. We hear a
lot about how important exercises for our young people and
how challenging it can be to get kids involved in sport,

(59:20):
to get them away from their screens at the moment,
anything that is a barrier to kids getting involved in
sport needs to be looked at. Look. I totally totally
understand the reason for the weight restriction in this case
in rugby. It's a safety one, right, It's a safety

(59:42):
one kids of You know, all ages develop at different rates.
There are all shapes and sizes of nine year olds,
So I totally get the safety restriction and the fact,
you know, if there wasn't one, that may well have
the effect of turning smaller kids off, if they feel
physically intimidated by playing against much bigger kids in a

(01:00:04):
contact sport. We know that many parents already don't want
their kids playing contact sport like rugby and rugby lee
because they're worried their kids will be hurt. None of
us want our kids to be hurt. But this spoils
down to one very simple thing. This boy, this kid
wants to play rugby with his friends. That's it. That

(01:00:29):
is the thing that sits at the center of this
whole thing. This boy wants to play rugby with his mates.
It is incumbent upon the sport to find a way
to make that happen. Now, one narrative I've heard a
lot this week is this, why doesn't he just play
upper grade? And already these texts are flying in Piney.
There's nothing stopping the kid playing in the next neck

(01:00:50):
grate up, says Steve Peter says, why doesn't the kid
play in the next weight up? Geepas says this one
putting a year up or a grade up. The answer
to that is very simple, and it goes back to
what I just said. He wants to play be with
his friends. Every nine year old wants to do things

(01:01:11):
with their friends, but it's sport or anything. They don't
want to do it with kids who are a year
or two older than they are, just as a kid
who's underweight doesn't want to drop down and play with
kids a couple of years younger than him. This boy
wants to play rugby. With his mates find a way.

(01:01:32):
Maybe you've got some suggestions, let us find a way,
or you might have a completely contrary view. All opinions
are welcome on this show. Oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty one twenty seven, back with your calls after
this you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Be the TMO. Have your say on eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty Weekend Sport with Jason him and GJ. Guvnerholmes,
New Zealand's most trusted home builder news Dogs they'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
One point thirty. Hey, just bear in mind, we don't
all have to agree. We don't all have to agree.
It's actually okay to have differing views on this. There
are some good text coming throwing this and I'll get
to those. Best way to get your point across is
on the phone. Hello, Ben.

Speaker 11 (01:02:12):
Finey, how are you man?

Speaker 21 (01:02:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (01:02:14):
Hey, the importance of sports and children, it's just massive,
Like it's for me and for a lot of for
a lot of my for a lot of my mates,
and all my phone on it around me. You know,
it's just been the difference between a kid he ends
up in a bit of trouble or a kid who's

(01:02:39):
got you know, teaches some sort of I don't know,
drive or some sort of purpose and kids, and it
also turns off a lot of energy, you know, and
it's just so important, it's and it's awesome. And as
a parent, you know, I I grew uptown and Drummond,

(01:03:00):
and we always had a like all small towns all
over the show. Here we've got rugby clubs, so you know,
I was always pushed into that. And the kid, you know,
frosty mornings and cleaning all the all the sheet tickle
off the ground and bloody he's trying to do anything. Yeah,

(01:03:21):
I just I've never enjoyed it at the time, you know,
I was always moaning about things. But now after growing
up and then having kids myself and seeing the importance
that it's just been, it's been an't to how important
it is. And and it's almost a birth right. It is,
it should be a birth right, and h cater for it.

(01:03:44):
Get behind it, look like it's the priority.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Got on your bend. Like yet, Look, I don't think
there's any doubt, any doubt that that, you know, the
benefits of exercise, you know, are therefore all to see
ben and getting being involved in organized sport or exercise
of any type. As you know, there's no downside. Really,
there's no downside. So remove the barriers. And that's what

(01:04:09):
you know we spoke about before with Andy Rodgers removing
all sorts of barriers text here, you'd rather risk serious
injury to a small kid to make a huge one
feel better. When I was a kid, I wanted to
be a cool, popular kid, but I was and had
to hang out with the uncool kids. I got over it,
all right. I'm not suggesting that you just make it

(01:04:29):
a free for all. Although I have heard, and maybe
somebody can clarify this that rugby league do not have
a similar rule, That there isn't a similar rule in
rugby league. Is that right? Parents of kids who are
involved in rugby league? Is that the case? Because a
lot of the narrative I say I heard during the

(01:04:49):
week was if they're not going to take him in rugby,
will take them in league. There's a lot of people
here like I think we've all forgotten what it's like
to be nine. If I'm honest, I think a lot
of people have forgotten what it's like to be nine.

Speaker 5 (01:05:05):
George get a great program, great topic. Now, two things,
if I can One is that My kid when he
was eight years old, was what you would regard as
weight challenged and decided to play rugby. He had one
game and they put him up the next level. Why
because when he ran through he was like Jerry Collins.

(01:05:26):
He just bowled everybody over and kept scoring tries. So
they decided that it was unfired to the opposition and
the rest of his team because he basically hung on
to the ball and just bowled his way through, and
that was the thing. So it was fair, and even
though we objected, it was fair for the game to

(01:05:48):
have him transferred to the next level up whether weight
was the same as he was now. The second thing
is I've been watching TV and listening to rugby and
there is a competition out there in rugby seventy five
km below. What's the story if that is not weight
challenged set for the rugby tournaments globally, it's already in

(01:06:09):
rugby that the weight there is a constriction on adults.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Yeah, that's I think I mean that the eighty five.
I think it's eighty five kilos or eighty killers. But
George around that you're right, and what that does for
adults is make it a lot more accessible to you know,
players of different shapes and sizes, because just like kids,
you know, just like parents worry that their kids are
going to be you know, seriously injured by playing against

(01:06:35):
a bigger guys. I'm pretty sure a bloke who's seventy
kilos probably there's a huge attraction in playing in a
weight restricted adult grade. Absolutely there is, just on this one.

Speaker 5 (01:06:44):
Yeah, there's a place for it in the child as
well to be fair for the game. I don't know
if it's a nipboard or I doubt it looking at
how it plays. No, it's probably not in the in
the in the rugby league.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
I think, sorry, George, just before you carry it on,
will let you make your second point just the rugby
league one. It strikes me that if that is the
case in rugby league, that there is no weight restriction,
I mean, it's surely there's there must be concerns among
parents that their kids are going to get physically injured,
that they're playing against bigger against bigger kids, but they

(01:07:20):
just for whatever reason, say, well, the kid wants to
do it, he wants to play, tell your booth to
do it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
I think also, I don't know if it applies in
Taar rugby because you look at the kids playing there
and they are all sorts of sizes, and I'm thinking
that's interesting. So it's only if you've been demolished by
tackles that it seems to apply. So the second thing
is in the eighties, our kids were not allowed to
play with shoes on. They had to play and be

(01:07:47):
a feet rugby as little types. So during the summer
that was fine, but I remember a day when we
had a huge frost and all these kids had to
go out with beer feet on the frost and I
was like watching sheep just screaming their heads off. They
all cried. I made my kids wear his socks, but
he wasn't allowed to wear shoes, but the referee he

(01:08:08):
had to wear his shoes. So you know, there are
different times, different atteachs, different rules.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
Yeah, there are, George. I've got to move because I've
got some other course to get to. But thank you
for making the points that you have. I appreciate it.

Speaker 15 (01:08:18):
Hello, Roger, you get a piney. I've coached a few
of the junior grades through and we've had these situations
a few years where and others I think mate to
be honest about nineties ninety ninety five percent of these
young guys, who'll have to call them bigger guys, they
don't honestly make it that much of an impact on

(01:08:39):
the game. They normally slided to the tackle. They're not
running through scoring heads to tries. I can imagine, you know,
John A. Lomi was different in his day and maybe
he probably wanted to play in their other grades. But yes,
we had a decision in Hawk's Bay, I think to
deny these bigger guys mid season, and it just broke
the heart of a big sort of there's a bit
of a challenged young fellaw he was there playing with

(01:09:01):
his mates all through a skoolish challenge at schoolage challenge
on the field, you know, and then these coaches are
arguing it was.

Speaker 12 (01:09:07):
Just a disaster, mate.

Speaker 15 (01:09:09):
So I think that maybe a solution could be an
assessment of these players ability preceive him by someone from
the union. Maybe just to see lot you've got to
run around these cornes, you've got to run, how faster
you you've got to tackle? You know, maybe something like that,
because there has to be common sense. It's just absurd
that you denying these guys to play with your mates.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Mate, Roger, the phrase you've used is the one again
that should sit in the center. Common sense. You're absolutely right,
there needs to be common sense. I quite like that,
because you're right, some big kids are going to have
a big advantage in the game, others aren't. Texts are
here my understanding. North Harbor deal with this by having
the bigger kids with different color socks. And they can't

(01:09:47):
be used to take advantage of their weight. Ie, they
can't just charge it up all the time. Innovation, nothing
should be off the table. Have a bit of common sense,
do things a bit differently, find a way, you know,
the adultification of kids sport. Honestly, it's just, you know,
some of the stuff that's coming through on text. He
youre maybe he needs to find new friends who are

(01:10:08):
a bit older. What what who are you? Hello?

Speaker 20 (01:10:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:10:18):
Mate? Are you you're talking to one of these kids?
I was.

Speaker 11 (01:10:22):
I was that.

Speaker 12 (01:10:22):
I was that kid and I I wanted to play
with my friends and everybody was playing rugby at the time.
I yeah, I enjoyed rugby, but I enjoyed being with
my friends more. And you know, we had I was

(01:10:46):
a kid that didn't enjoy hurting people, so when we are.
I wasn't. I wasn't the fastest kid on the team
by no stretch of the imagination. But you know, and
I was easy to tackle, but I didn't like, I
didn't go out to I didn't go out to hurt
anybody that wasn't. That wasn't my idea. And what I

(01:11:09):
suppose the point I'm making here, fine, is that people
need to be able to look at look at the
individual cases. I mean, there's there's there's a certain amount
of you know, painting with the brush. But you know,
when when this case, this sort of case comes up,

(01:11:31):
people have to be able to look at the kid
and and say, well, your not th it to anybody.
You know, you're not going to hurt anybody further than play.
And then that that everybody sort of has need to
need to be able to get into that area of
have have an individual look at it. Don't don't throw

(01:11:51):
it all in a big melting pot and come up
with this. You know, as I just heard somebody say,
an adult, adult view of what these kids are trying
to do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Did you did you strike up position like because you
were slightly bigger than than other kids your own age,
did you strike problems and in being able to play,
or when you were playing as a kid, were you
able to your friends.

Speaker 5 (01:12:17):
I wasn't.

Speaker 12 (01:12:17):
I wasn't allowed to play. And a lot of the
times when when this will when this hale started, I
used to go to the rugby game and just I
used to watch and because I was too big to play,
I don't know, and they go, well, come and play
with us. No, I don't want to play with you.
I want to play with these guys. Because one of

(01:12:40):
the coaches wanted me to go over to his team.
And in fact, when I when I actually did, and
this is this is a good thing about the club
that they they went into bed and you know, they
put for an individual case and the union at the
time looked at it and said, okay, we'll give this

(01:13:02):
a trial and they watched. I mean, it wasn't hard.
It wasn't hard. They they they and I got to
play with my friends and that was that was absolutely
that was the whole point of the whole point of
the thing. I didn't go on to well, I could
have if I wanted to. But I did get selected

(01:13:26):
for under twenty ones in the in the in the
work up area. But I didn't. I didn't choose to
follow it because that wasn't where my life was heading.
So yeah, for this kid, I would like to see
somebody stand up and say, here's an individual case. This

(01:13:47):
is what this is, what is happening. Somebody make as
you said, somebody make it happen otherwise, otherwise kids are
going to walk. I mean, yeah, sure parents, parents get
upset about seeing big boys on the paddock, but if
you have, if you watch a game closely, there are
ones that take advantage of his gives and really and

(01:14:09):
really go out to hurt other kids. But the majority
of these big kids that play in the know and
their and their age group. I've got a grandson now,
who's who who won't He won't isn't he places just
like me? Isn't He doesn't want to hurt anybody? And

(01:14:30):
then I say to me, you can, you can tackle
him a bit better, and he goes, I know, I'm
you might get hurt, And I know that's that's the
way of a lot of kids now.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
Who It's been great to chat to you, mate. I'm
glad it worked out for you. I hope it works
out for your grandson as well. And I think you know,
you've probably put quite a nice little cap on the
end of this discussion and that yeah, common sense find
a way. I don't know what the way is, of
course I don't. I know that some of the ways
that have been suggested here on text are not the

(01:15:05):
way to go remove the barriers. Seventeen to two back
after this talking Australian sport.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
It's more than just a game. Weekend Sport. It with
Jason Paine and GJ. Gardnerhomes New Zealand's most trusted home builder,
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
MB, News TALKSB and Weekend Sport. Just trying to get
touch with Adam Peacock. He'll be along shortly to talk
about Australian sporting matters. I was wrong about the semi
finals of the squash. It looks like Paul Cole is
in the second of the semis, so he is not
on court at the moment. The first of the semis
is on there right now, so Paul Cole will follow

(01:15:44):
in the second of the semi finals. Checking out the
basketball from Madison Square Garden where it is the New
York Knicks not necessarily running away with it. I don't
think it's say but they are certainly in a pretty
strong position seventy seven forty three. They lead seventy seven
to forty three with seven and a half minutes to

(01:16:05):
go in the third quarter. So remembering that the New
York Knicks are just one game away from making it
through to the Eastern Conference Finals where they will take
on the Indiana Paces and currently seventy seven forty three
had as I say, with seven and a half minutes
to go in the third quarter. Now, next weekend, we're
going to broadcast the show from Tyler Street Sport, home

(01:16:28):
of Auckland FC when they're away from home. If you
get my drift, they are hosting tonight a special watch
party for the away leg of their semi final against
Melbourne victory. Unfortunately, if you haven't got your ticket to it,
they're free tickets, but they can only take so many
as a capacity issue, of course, you can only get
so many people in there. If you haven't got your

(01:16:50):
ticket to that tonight, it's over. It's basically full, so
you can't go. But if you would like to join
us at Tyler Street Sport next Saturday, we're going to
be there between midday and three. Looking forward to chatting
a bit of football and other things at Tyler Street
Sport on the show next Saturday. The game is next
Saturday night, the home leg of the semi final series
six o'clock could go Metia Stadium. We have a double

(01:17:14):
pass to give away to that game, courtesy of the
team at Tyler Street Sport. They've said, yep, we've got
a double pass which is which we're happy to give
to you to give away. So if you would like
to be in the draw to win it, all you
have to do is text the word football to nine
two nine two. You can add other things as well,
your name, a score prediction for tonight, your favorite Auckland

(01:17:35):
FC player, anything along those lines, and fire it off
to nine two, nine to two. So just the word football.
Make sure you've got that in there. If you don't
have the word football in your text, it doesn't come
to the right place, but if you do, it will
nine two, nine to two. Just the word football. Send
it on through to nine two, nine and two and

(01:17:56):
we'll make a drawer at some stage before the end
of the show. Just on eleven away from two. We'll
keep trying for Adam Peacock take a break come back
right after.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
This whens down to the line. You made a call
on eight hundred eighty ten eighty Weekend Sport with Jason
Hine News Talk zeb.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Just on eight away from two. I can't get in
touch with that in Peacock, so let's open the lines
again if you couldn't get through before, just to talk
about the issue we've been chatting about this hour with
regards to removing barriers to kids' sport. Oh eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty And if you want to be
in the drawer for the double past the football next
Saturday night, just text football to nine two ninety two

(01:18:34):
and we'll get you in the drawer. Courtesy of Tyler
Street Sport. To watch Aukland FC up against Melbourne Victory
a week tonight at go Media Stadium. That is a
six o'clock kickoff. A few texts to get through before
we get up to the news at two. This one
from Craig who says the issue for the overweight kid
isn't about him playing with his mates, It's about who
they would be playing against. I've coached a young boys

(01:18:57):
rugby team where a kid in the opposing team was
granted dispensation. We simply had kids getting hurt and him
being a ball hog with no good him his team
or our boys. He eventually went to league. Yeah, I
think that's it, Craig is. Yeah, not one size doesn't
at all. There are going to be kids who are
who are heavier, who are bigger, and who do take

(01:19:21):
advantage of that. On the other hand, there were going
to be others who aren't so And it's a very
very tricky situation to try and navigate. I know that
it's very very difficult to say, Okay, hey, this boy's
and our team he wants to play with his friends. Look,
he's not gonna he's not going to make much of
a difference. He's actually not that good a player. He's
not going to take it up. That's a very very
unlikely situation to play out. But the North Harbor example

(01:19:44):
of different color socks or whatever it was that basically said, look, yes,
I'm over the weight restriction, therefore I can and can't
do certain things. I don't know whether it's you can't
you know, you can't tackle or something like that, or
to tackle that boy, you just got to do it
like rip a rugby. I don't know. Be innovative about it.

(01:20:04):
You know, think outside this where as they say, James says,
I say that him play. Kids and adults will always
be different sizes, and there'll always be big kids and
other teams. It makes the other players learn good tackle technique.
What next they ban kids who are too fast? Coaches
are very good these days at making sure a player
on their team with an obvious advantage passes the ball

(01:20:26):
and can't score all the time. James another very good point.
I think that's a great point that if you're coaching
in a team where you have a boy who's you know,
even if he's not over what over the weight restriction?
You know what it's like a kid's sport. There are
kids who just stand out. You know, they'll score eight
or nine tries a game because they're so much quicker

(01:20:48):
than anybody else. So good coaching around that is without
restricting his development or her development. Just say, hey, you know,
once you've got three tries, we're going to make sure
that you know you pass it or whatever it is.

Speaker 12 (01:21:02):
Hello.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
Jason says this text from Paul, this kid's nine kg
heavier than the other nine year olds. That's one and
a half stone. My son played against boys who were
one and a half stone heavier than him. He was
getting beaten up. I pulled him out of the team, Paul,
that's going to happen, unfortunately. Yes, but I don't want
your I don't want your son being pulled out of
a team because he's worried about getting physically hurt. But

(01:21:25):
by the same token, I don't want another kid having
his access removed. Good text here from Si as a
really small underage player who went on to play senior
reserves for a number of years those massive players. When
I was forty five kilos playing under sixteen, it was horrible,
but I and we smaller boys who put on weight

(01:21:45):
later learned to tackle the big boys with our good technique.
That being said, if you lift those heavy boys up
in age group playing equivalent weights, it would help because
it definitely puts some players off. It is about fairness's side,
that's why the rules are there, and just on the
one about why doesn't he play up a grade? A

(01:22:08):
good text from Deb. A nine year old is in
no way as quick in the mind as an eleven
year old, Equally a seven year old and a nine
year old. There's a lot more to come to play
in this situation. All right, I think we've done that one.
Good to chat about it. Thank you to those who
have texted in with your wide and varying views on this.

(01:22:29):
We'll get on to some actual sport. I think after
two o'clock I want to talk to John Slaco, who
played for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Final in
nineteen ninety. Crystal Palace are in this year's edition against
Manchester City tomorrow morning. Camroy guards on the show after
two o'clock Hurricanes half back and Philled Tarto ANGI talking
Ryan Fox at the PGA Championship. Back after the News.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
The only place to discuss the biggest sports issues on
and after fields. It's all on Wi Jam Sport with
Jason Bade on your home of Sport.

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Talk T two o seven. Welcome in, Welcome back. This
is Weekend Sport on News Talk CB. I'm Jason Pine,
Andy McDonald producing the show where he till three. Then
Tim Beveridge takes over for the Saturday edition of the
Weekend Collector. Before we get there, Camroy guard this our.
The Hurricanes halfback was their hero last night in the
eighty first minute, crashing over to score a try which

(01:23:26):
got them the win over the Highlanders. Did they deserve it?

Speaker 10 (01:23:28):
To know?

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
The Highlanders will be devastated with that. A win in
Wellington would have kept their top six hopes alive. They
look all but done now. They still mathematically can make it,
but they need a lot of stuff to go their way.
The Highlanders. That would have been a huge win for
them last night had they achieved it. Instead, it's the
Hurricanes to take the points. So Camroy guard this sour.

(01:23:51):
John Silaco, former Crystal Palace attacker, is with us very shortly.
He played in the FA Cup final in nineteen ninety
against Manchester United. Also played five times for England, including
twice here in New Zealand in nineteen ninety one. Again
all whites Wonder how much he remembers about that? Wonder
how much you remembers about THEFA Cup final thirty five

(01:24:13):
years ago. John Solaco standing by the chat to us
Phil Tarto Dungi. As well as we break down Ryan
Fox's excellent recent form. First of a PGA Tour win
a week ago at Myrtle Beach and two very good
rounds well, one very good round and one very solid
round at the PGA Championship four under the car. Through
two rounds, he's easily made the cud. He's into Typhers seventh,

(01:24:35):
Ryan Fox, you can text us any time nine two,
nine to two, call us anytime our eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty. But as we tick past eight pass two,
as we always do at around about this time on
weekend sport, let's get you across some of the stuff
you might have missed. It's called in case you missed it.
Starting in the NRL, a dreadful outing for the Newcastle

(01:24:57):
Knights as they sunk to a big loss against the
Paramatta Eels.

Speaker 11 (01:25:00):
Did they do.

Speaker 2 (01:25:00):
Something that's inside? It is Munton's.

Speaker 13 (01:25:04):
Sad to.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
Johnny said. Ronnie scores for the Earlsman and this is
becoming him Fabrasic for Deja Eels. Twenty eighth Nights six
Meantime Roosters wing Mark now Wakady Towasse scored a contender
for Try of the Year. Ranley on Sabama. Kids are
going todes go five, No longer need a arse get

(01:25:30):
to the tenth little chip kick dead.

Speaker 13 (01:25:33):
Oh it's gonna down to the corner.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Did he stays the whole way?

Speaker 14 (01:25:38):
This is an extraordinary.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Try here, do yourself a favor and check that try
out if you haven't seen it. It wasn't though, enough to
lift the rooster's tour. When the bulldog's getting there. Twenty
four to twenty there.

Speaker 7 (01:25:49):
Comes out of the haywood inside the.

Speaker 3 (01:25:54):
Sid s. Don't pack it for a yet, foll not
always find a way and it's bed first under the sticks.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
There's got a football. A big Premier League win for
Chelsea over Manchester, you know, to strengthen their Champions League chances.
Tuex am across and cook correct one call that to
the other and Chelsea have a Treasures League which they
held on to winning one mill at home. Eston Villa

(01:26:22):
also winners, putting themselves in the Champions League. Conversation with
the home victory over Tottenham opens up for him better.
Two goals to the good and.

Speaker 10 (01:26:39):
That means of our hopes will be alive going into
the final day.

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
And closer to home. Melbourne City have gone a long
way to making the A League Men's Grand Final with
a big win in the semi final first leg against
Western United.

Speaker 18 (01:26:56):
And coin all that's a glorious goal won to finish.

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
Body is running international. That is a finish That's hot
quality at Melbourne City Double.

Speaker 10 (01:27:08):
M as.

Speaker 1 (01:27:10):
The scoop from the track Field and the Court on
your home of sort Weekend Sport with.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Jason coming up eleven past two. One of the biggest
days on the English football calendar comes up tomorrow morning,
the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, seven time winners
Manchester City playing in their third straight final against Crystal Palace,
playing in their third final ever. Having never lifted the
famous trophy, they came close a couple of times. One

(01:27:38):
of the most famous FA Cup finals of all time
was in nineteen to ninety when Crystal Palace faced Manchester United. Yes, ye,
his first Chester.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
To show what he can do.

Speaker 16 (01:27:49):
He's do.

Speaker 2 (01:27:52):
Because it's too.

Speaker 3 (01:28:00):
Harber's old position be then is challenging him?

Speaker 14 (01:28:16):
Stop couple name one.

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
Of the great substitutions. Yeah, A couple of goals for
Ian Wright that day in nineteen ninety, Crystal Palace three,
Manchester United three after extra time. Manchester United went on
to win the replay one nil. Five days later. John
Silaco was part of that Crystal Palace. Sciety also played

(01:28:38):
five times for England, including twice here in New Zealand
against the all Whites in nineteen ninety one, he joins
us Now, John, A great pleasure to have you on
the show. How often does your mind drift back thirty
five years to the nineteen ninety FA Cup final?

Speaker 18 (01:28:54):
Oh incredible, incredible day, just as much as when I
made my dabut in Australian played out in New Zealand.
So look, it's magical, twenty one year old going out.
You know, when you grow up in England, you know
the FA Cups were magical. It's so special, it really is.
It's a fairy tale. It's one of those magical things

(01:29:15):
where any anything's possible and the minnos go up against
the superstars and you know, nineteen ninety was just so special.
And then obviously going on to that was you know,
Liverpool in the semi final Villa Park for three was
just the most amazing.

Speaker 21 (01:29:31):
The FA Cup.

Speaker 18 (01:29:32):
They you know, they'd smashed the eighties, you know, I
think they'd won the league eight times, the league, the Cups.
They were the team to beat them and it was
a change in the guards really from Liverpool to Mona United,
Sir Alex Ferguson and you know then going on to
play for England you know, Unified Germany at Wembley and
then obviously I made my debut in Australia and going
to play twice in New Zealand was just Auckland and

(01:29:55):
went into It was just it was incredible to pull
on that shirt. It's just magical. So they're what you
dream of, Jason, when you're a kid. And you know,
I speak to kids and I coach kids and I
talked to them all the time. It's there to dream.
There there to to you know, to work hard and
you know, put pictures in your head. And I was
just one of those kids that just dared to dream

(01:30:16):
and I just loved it. I spent all my working
hours playing football, playing sport and just daring to dream
that I could one day play in the Premier League
in an f A Cup final.

Speaker 21 (01:30:25):
Pull on the pull on an England shirt. Wow.

Speaker 18 (01:30:29):
And yeah, it's pretty pretty pretty amazing that you know
that that came true. And you know, I've got Sello's Park.
I've got one of the limited editions of Sello's Park
on my wall. I've got some England shirt, Brazil shirt
that my German shirt that I got off uh sorry Muller.
When I played against Germany, the unified German side. So

(01:30:51):
not a day goes by that I don't think about
how special that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
Was, amazing to what great memories. I'm getting goosebumps even
hearing you talk about it. So walking out at Wimbley,
you talk about it being a dream of every young boy. Uh,
and you're so right. So when you did it walk
looking out at Wimbley as a twenty one year old,
were you able to be aware of the situation as
it was happening to you order do you have to
reflect back on it later?

Speaker 18 (01:31:17):
Yeah, that's a great question in a sense where you
know what it is that once we beat Liverpool in
that semi final and we pink, you know, it was
a pinch yourself moment? Did that really happen? Then you
start thinking about the final. Then it starts building up
and there's flags and everyone's talking about it. You go
to as there are test goes and even the oh
good luck in the final. You know everyone is talking

(01:31:39):
at Man United, the biggest club in the world. You know,
everyone's talking about You're playing Man United in the FA
Cup final. It's you know it, And then you realize
you go through the taxis and you start training and
you try not to get injured, and you get to
the day and I can just you know, you remember,
and what you do is I remember the night before,
but it's like you know you've been there and you
try and keep the lid on it. But how do

(01:32:02):
you do that? And really what I used to do
is and the technique and really for for for sports players.
You know, I was just talking about we're just watching
the tennis now, and you know it's a team sport.
It's not it's individuals that are playing in the team sports.
So you've just got to look after yourself. You've got
to get yourself right, and you go through your routine.

Speaker 21 (01:32:23):
What makes you go to sleep? You know, you get
your sleep.

Speaker 18 (01:32:26):
You know, eat, you know you've got like Richard Shaw,
my my room partner, he had a slightly to eat.
He would like to get up early for breakfast. I
wanted to lie in you know, he would, I would.
I would like to go to bed at half ten.
I would have to turn the telly off at two
o'clock in the morning because he used to go to
sleep with the telly on. It was like, oh my god,
you know, you had so many things this all, but

(01:32:48):
you deal with all that.

Speaker 21 (01:32:49):
You get out.

Speaker 18 (01:32:49):
You go for a walk and I can remember going
for a walk with Ian Right and Mark Bright and
the boys, and you know, you've got press and everyone,
and you know, Ian Wright's just like I'm born for today.

Speaker 21 (01:33:00):
You know, he was just so positive.

Speaker 18 (01:33:02):
And you got the guys and you get around each other,
and that's where then team comes in and you get
the boys and you're like, yeah, we're ready for today,
and you start talking about it. And then once you
go off that coach and you get up Wembley, you
walk up Wembley Way and you look around and you know,
you start of start getting starry eyed, and and then
you know, Steve Copple comes back in right heading the game.

Speaker 21 (01:33:23):
Forget the occasion heading the game. These are the tactics. Bang.

Speaker 18 (01:33:26):
Once you start getting there, you choose your starts. You
know what you're doing, and once you're in that dress room,
you got your you've got your focus head on. And
to be honest, you know, you come out of that
tunnel and the second time you come back up there,
the stadium's full. You've got the Queen there, you know,
you know, the Union, jacksonp flying and the you know,
you know, the national anthem's playing, and you're looking at
Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Robson and you're thinking, right, okay,

(01:33:50):
let's focus here, and then it's it's it's ninety minutes.
You don't remember a thing. You're just in the game,
and that's what it's about. And that's really that mentality
of listen, you can't enjoy the game.

Speaker 21 (01:34:05):
You just got gun play.

Speaker 18 (01:34:06):
And unfortunately it should have been extra time and pens
it wasn't at that time. We went to a replan
the Thursday, and it's a little bit of an anti
climax and yeah, Lee Martin whatever whatever may not in anyway,
and I think my overriding that Thursday, when I was
walking past that FA Cup as a loser, I hated that.
I did look at my losers medal for about twenty

(01:34:29):
years because I didn't want to see it. I hated
that losers medal. But then after about twenty years, you go,
I played an FA Cup final and I've got a
losers medal which is made of solid gold, and it's great.
So I'm here now and I'm grateful for that losers medal,
but for a long time.

Speaker 21 (01:34:45):
I didn't really want it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:47):
You mentioned Ian right there. I think it was under
an injury cloud coming into the FA Cup final, came
off the bench, got two goals. Here do you were
hit an extra time?

Speaker 21 (01:34:56):
How does he rate?

Speaker 2 (01:34:57):
Where does he rate among the players you played alongside?

Speaker 21 (01:35:00):
Ian Wright?

Speaker 18 (01:35:01):
No, he's the greatest, He's the best. He was incredible.
I think Ian was one of those but it was
just meant to be.

Speaker 21 (01:35:08):
He was.

Speaker 18 (01:35:09):
He was like, you know, sort of someone who almost
passed him by. He was twenty one. You know, he'd
been a little bit of trouble. He'd playing you know,
non league, and he tried and he tried. I think
he you know, Debbie, his other half was pregnant, and
you know, he'd worked on the roads. I think he's
working on a building site. And he knew he wanted it,

(01:35:29):
and then he got this opportunity to come to Palace
and he just took it with every piece of his heart.
And you know, he just came and left nothing. And
you talk about never not leaving anything behind.

Speaker 21 (01:35:41):
We used to.

Speaker 18 (01:35:42):
He just wanted it so much and we used to
come in and you know, it was brilliant for all
of us who's had Nigel Mine and May Verschu Shaw,
Mark Bright and Jeff Thomas and Nigel Martin and he
come in right, Nigel, you're getting gold on. You crossed
the balls for me and you know we were always
working on it. Did you see what that you know
Brazilian Ronaldo did last night? And you know we were
talking about Barcelona Real Madrid and we were talking.

Speaker 21 (01:36:04):
About you know, Dan and Figo and Badgio and you.

Speaker 18 (01:36:09):
Know we'll be practicing tricks and it was all of it.
We lived and breathed football and it was down to Ian.
But he was one of those players that genuinely I
can remember, as you said, he had a broken leg.
He went to a faith HeLa and he came and
and at halftime we were one nail down against Liverpool
in the semifinal the FA Cup at Villa Park and
he came in and before Steve Copple could say anything,

(01:36:30):
he came in and he was he's so animated, He's
larger than life. Ian and he was like, we still
got this, we can still do this and if any
of you don't want.

Speaker 21 (01:36:39):
It, don't fancy, I'll take your shirt. I'll play with
a broken leg.

Speaker 18 (01:36:42):
And you know he was just so passionate and so
you know, so driven, and we all I think we
all got something from that. And that was Ian And
we played in that cup final and he hadn't trained,
he had a fractured a headline fracture in his leg,
and he came back and he came on and he
scored two goals and absolutely incredible and it's just such

(01:37:07):
a shame that we couldn't see it out and win
it on that day, because I think he deserved that.

Speaker 21 (01:37:11):
But listen, he went on to greater things.

Speaker 18 (01:37:13):
I should have got to move to Arsenal as well
at the time, but they didn't let that happen. But anyway,
let's time. But yeah, Righty went on to Arsenal and
I knew he would do that and what he went
on to achieve with Arsenal and just one of the
true greats and all time best players. But he's one
of my favorite all time people.

Speaker 2 (01:37:32):
You just mentioned something there about you going to the
Gunners as well. I think i'd remember something about it.
What happened? Why didn't you get the move?

Speaker 20 (01:37:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (01:37:40):
No, George Graham came in and offered a million pounds
for me at the time, and they wanted to take
me and Palace were willing to sell at any price.
They just said no and that we ended up selling
Eddi mcgoldwick for a million pound. That tidd the box
at the time for Ron Noades and I didn't find it, no,
because I think Sir Alex came in at man United,
Graham Sooners at Liverpool and Graham yeah at George Graham

(01:38:06):
Arsal sorry came in for me at the time, but
they weren't selling, so I didn't get my move. But unfortunately,
not long after that that Australasia tour where we I
think we played Australian New Zingaland twice and then Malaysia.
I came back, you know sort of I was sort
of best thing since sliced Bread, which was incredible. Then
unfortunately the following season started and I got injured against

(01:38:27):
Leeds and.

Speaker 21 (01:38:28):
Did my cruise ye.

Speaker 18 (01:38:30):
Bummer as I don't know what would you say, Yeah,
it's a cruel game that was That was Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:38:37):
That was pretty pretty bad.

Speaker 18 (01:38:40):
So I got Yeah, I got back in England side
and then it went again, so it was kind of
a bit. Yeah, it was a rubbish time, but yeah,
so I got through thirty six, but twenty one, when
you're playing in the FA Car, when you're playing against
the World champions Germany at Wembley, you think it's going
to happen to you every season and that's where it's
going to live. And unfortunately, sometimes, you know, life, life
does that to you, doesn't quite give you what you're

(01:39:02):
hoping for.

Speaker 21 (01:39:03):
But listen, I think.

Speaker 18 (01:39:05):
You you know, you you learn to accept that you
get certain set of cards and you get certain things.
And I'm one of those people that goes, oh, do
you know what did you get England caps?

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 21 (01:39:15):
And he got five and you go you got five,
you got one, you got five?

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
Wow.

Speaker 18 (01:39:20):
You know, it's those conversations I find myself going, wow,
I got five England caps.

Speaker 13 (01:39:25):
You know.

Speaker 18 (01:39:25):
I played in the FA Cup final and you know
the year before we'd won the Zenith, we beat Everton
at Wembley, scored in that. So you know, you learn
in life, and that's one of the things I've learned
to be grateful, and you know, I really appreciate everything
I went through and what I've got and now Palliser
in the Cup final again.

Speaker 21 (01:39:45):
I was played in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 18 (01:39:47):
You know, we got to the semis with the Garra
South Cat side in ninety five and then I was
first in coach in the fifteen sixteen season when we
lost to Mana ninety two, which again Manuge. Yeah, and
then I became, you know, sort of a match day
ambassadorma club ambassador for Palace. We went to twenty two
with their semi final against Chelsea.

Speaker 21 (01:40:07):
They were just too good for us.

Speaker 18 (01:40:09):
We lost two nol Wembley and we're back there again,
you know, twenty twenty five we're in the final man City. Well,
I think our names on it, Jason and I, I
really do. I'm really humped for Saturday and I think
we're going to do it. I think third time lucky,
it's going to happen. You know, Oliver Glasner, you know,

(01:40:30):
we trust and it's been incredible. Mattessa as a sar,
you know, the bank laquir Richards and Gay Henderson's going
to be Mane of the match and I think as
a Matteta and so I think three to one Palace brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Just before you go. Obviously, Pellas have been a solid
mid table Premier League side since you know You're won
promotion back in twenty twelve thirteen four ways sort of
tenths to fourteenth or there are thereabouts. Winning a trophy.
You're probably not going to win the Premier League, but
you can win the FA Cup. How much would it
mean to the fans of Super Palace And there are
a lot back here in New Zealand as well. I

(01:41:04):
can tell you John to lift that trophy, win.

Speaker 21 (01:41:06):
Win, yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 18 (01:41:08):
I think everyone apart from the Man City fans are
rooting for Palace, you know, the under and dumb you know,
it would mean everything.

Speaker 21 (01:41:14):
It's so special.

Speaker 18 (01:41:17):
To actually get across the line and win the FA
Cup would be so brilliant for the club and to
get into Europe. And to be honest, I think the
bigger picture is obviously Oliver Glazen has been touted as
you know, going to labor Coups and everyone wants him
and Esse and Matteta and obviously gay Laqua and Waton,
so you know, it would mean everything and in a

(01:41:38):
sense where it might just be the catalyst we need
to push us on to the next level of you know,
we keep these players, we bring in some extra players,
we go into the Europa League and finally play in Europe.

Speaker 21 (01:41:49):
But you know it would be so special.

Speaker 18 (01:41:51):
I mean, the Palace fans have just been magnificent since
we nearly went out of existence, I think back in
twenty and thirteen, and then since then, the palist fans
have just embraced it.

Speaker 21 (01:42:02):
They're the best.

Speaker 18 (01:42:03):
You know, they're fantastic and they deserve that be wonderful
and you know I can't deliver that as a player,
but I feel so I'm just part of it, as
part of the Palace family. It would be absolutely incredible
and got fingers crossed. I mean, we can't take anything
for granted, but I just think our name's.

Speaker 21 (01:42:19):
On it brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:42:21):
I actually did want to ask you about coming to
New Zealand because this is obviously a show going across
New Zealand. I remember being at Athletic Park, a rugby
ground in Wellington to watch them play against New Zealand.
I was there that day watching watching England. You know,
as players yourself, we've only ever seen on television playing
against our national side and it was it was such

(01:42:42):
a buzz for all of us back then.

Speaker 21 (01:42:43):
What was it like for you?

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
I mean, you're Daybootinggainst Australia. A couple of games against
New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:42:47):
What was that like?

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
Do you remember much about it?

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 21 (01:42:50):
And do you know it was incredible.

Speaker 18 (01:42:52):
I was just you know, I was twenty two and
you know it's everything I'd ever dreamed of is been
part of the England squad and got this opportunity to
fly out and play in this Australasia tour and you
know we're gratty short, you know, and I think you know,
Gary Lineker flying out, Stuart DEAs Walker and so many
great players and I just loved it every second of it.

(01:43:13):
Going to obviously Australia New Zealand, it was so fantastic
and wonderful people.

Speaker 21 (01:43:18):
He had all the press, they're traveling with us.

Speaker 18 (01:43:20):
And you know, it was just being and it was
just right where you wanted to be and know all
your dreams come in, you know, to fruition and yeah,
absolutely magical. It was the best sort of three weeks
that I'd experienced in a footballing sense of you know,
just everything that went with it.

Speaker 21 (01:43:38):
You know, you were big time news. It was off season.

Speaker 18 (01:43:41):
It was just all about you in the newspapers every day,
on the TV doing interviews. I was sharing a room
with Mark Walters ex Rangers, you know, sort of Villa Liverpool.
What a brilliant player he was, and you know it
was just so special, absolutely incredible and obviously yeah it's
you know, a real big, big highlight and something that. Yeah,

(01:44:03):
I just it was absolutely magical.

Speaker 2 (01:44:05):
John, that's been such a delight chatting to you. Thank
you for having a wander down memory lane with us.
You're dead right, I think, apart from city fans, everybody
is super Eagles this weekend. All the best, mat Hope.
It's a tremendous weekend for you and for the Palace family.

Speaker 21 (01:44:19):
Brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
Thanks Jason Pleasure, No thanks for joining us. John. John
Silaco there a former Crystal Palace attacker. England player Grant says,
don't think John Salarco is going to have great memories
about playing here. I was at Athletic Park that day
and it had rained all week and was the coldest
athletic park I'd ever been to. Man, that's a crowded field,
a cold athletic park. They couldn't mow the grass. It

(01:44:41):
was very long by the time they played. As I said,
I was at that game as well. England won two nil.
But you know some of the players who came across.
We've only seen them on Big League soccer back then.
You know this is pre you know, pre Sky days,
pre Premier League days. And you look at the New
Zealand side that played, and a couple of famous names there.

(01:45:02):
Fred de Jong was in that side, Declan Edge, Michael mcgowry,
who's so James has gone on to be a professional footballer.
Malcolm Dumford camp captain the side, Roger Gray I want
to play. He was Michael Redenton, father of Matt Radenton.
Another father son Combo. There yea so two nil it
was at at Athletic Park and one nil at Mount Smart.

(01:45:24):
Gary Lineker was in that England team as well. Terrific.
Are there any Palace fans in New Zealand? I know
there are. Actually, that's the silly question, um fire in
your text. If you're a Palace fan, how did you
land on them? There's a relatively well known Nelsonian who's
a Palace fan. Steve Bignall, known to pretty much everybody
in the Nelson region as Bigsy, loves as football, cuts

(01:45:46):
hair and chat's football until the Cows came home. Missions
him yesterday to wish him good luck for this one.
He said he's in Fiji. I'm going to have to
find a place to watch this game. But if you're
a Palace fan nine two ninety two, give us your predictions.
I know what you're going to say. A great interview, Jason,
he talks from the hearts. Is this one. I was
in the Legion's Hospitality restaurant with him many years ago.

(01:46:08):
I'm back there in August. I hope he's there again.
They've put the price up though it's five hundred quid now.
Goodness me, half past two is the time. Let's take
a break, come back and chat to Field tato Angy
about Ryan Fox and his ongoing good form. We're back
in a second Weekend Sport.

Speaker 1 (01:46:24):
The Tough Questions Off the Turf Weekend Sport with Jason
Pine and GJ. Gunnerholmes, New Zealand's most Trusted home Builder News.

Speaker 2 (01:46:34):
Twenty seven to three. Key we goal for Ryan Fox
has held his nerve to finish strongly in the second
round of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. After starting
the second round two over through three holes, Ryan Fox
bounced back with three birdies on the back nine to
cart an even par round and stay four under for
the tournament that has him in a share of seventh,

(01:46:55):
just four shots behind leader Jonathan Vegas. This, of course,
a week after he became just the ninth Kei we
Mail to win a USPGA Tour event at the Myrtle
Beach Classic. Another member of that very exclusive club is
Philed tato Angi, who joins US now now a golf
analyst with Sky Sport and other platforms. Ryan Fox wouldn't

(01:47:15):
even be at the PGA Championship, Phil if he had
one last weekend. Would the way he played at Myrtle
Beach have flowed onto this weekend? Or does it not
work that way?

Speaker 20 (01:47:25):
Well, I certainly can. It's not an automatic.

Speaker 22 (01:47:28):
You don't start the week with a couple of birdies
already in the bag just because you won last week.
You got to earn it all over again, Piney. But
nothing quite like having a little bit of form and
a bit of confidence coming in, albeit probably with the
batteries running a little bit low, with just all of
the coming down off of the high So although hey,

(01:47:50):
look you might have had that little bit of extra
belief and a little bit of extra.

Speaker 20 (01:47:54):
Confidence, as are saying that.

Speaker 22 (01:47:56):
The balls going where I want it to go. The
performance through the first couple of days here is been
outstanding I think from Ryan, not just because of the
golf course and the tournament, but it can be energy
setting when you're in contention and then you end up
getting over the line. You achieve a career goal just

(01:48:20):
being able to reset and recharge the batteries and refocus
and do that in one of the four biggest tournaments
in the world and really position himself nicely here for
the last two days.

Speaker 20 (01:48:31):
He's done exceptionally well.

Speaker 2 (01:48:33):
What has he done well in these two rounds? He
brings the confidence, as you say, those sorts of things,
but in terms of the way he's played his golf
to cut a four under par first round in an
even past second round, what's he done particularly well?

Speaker 22 (01:48:46):
I think, if anything, the intangible here is managers energy
and I was quite happy just to see today that
after a tough start and.

Speaker 20 (01:48:56):
Look plenty you win last week.

Speaker 22 (01:48:58):
You get all of the distractions with the pats on
the back and just mentally, just even in yourself, when
you achieve something that you've been struve four for years,
it can take up your time and your energy. And
this is on the back of already playing the last
four weeks in a row and so managing his practice

(01:49:20):
coming into the first round and not using too much
energy on course major championship, the golf course. Sometimes you
can just drain the battery a little bit. He's done
really nice job of that. And look, he's for me
and Brian's always had the game.

Speaker 20 (01:49:38):
To excel in the US.

Speaker 22 (01:49:40):
It's the bought a long way, and if he can
get the flat stick to work, then the rest of
his game is capable enough. He's had a lot of
greens in regulation and has scrambled nicely through the first
two days of the tournament. And that's a pretty good combination,
especially on a golf course like Quail Hollow's third longest
course on the PGA Tour this year.

Speaker 20 (01:50:02):
So all parts of his game are tidy.

Speaker 22 (01:50:06):
You know that we can hit it a long way,
but if you can get the scoring clubs to work,
then he probably will be, you know, right at the
point the end of it, come Monday morning.

Speaker 2 (01:50:15):
Exciting stuff. Just on your experience, and you've alluded to
it a couple of times. They're about, you know, coming
down off the high of achieving something historic, something very
few Kiwi players have ever done. After you won your
PGA Tour event in Vegas in two thousand and two,
what was the aftermath of that? Like, what means were
you terrible in your next tournament? I can tell us
about it.

Speaker 20 (01:50:37):
I won in Vegas, Piney, but sadly, sadly, already had
the flight book to come home, and so it was
straight to the airport and didn't even change my clothes.
And so when you walked through the airport, the customs
officer says, you've got some golf shoes here. I said, yeah,
I look down here there they are right there.

Speaker 22 (01:50:58):
So although we had a comfortable seat on the way home,
didn't ever change of clothes, and so it was a
it was a bit of a bend there. It was
a bit of a celebration. But it was back here
in New Zealand for the few days afterwards, and didn't
have to play for another month after that. But with
other tournaments, and maybe it's not even just winning, to

(01:51:19):
be fair, even just being in contention and having that
the engine running just a little bit with a few
more reds in it, you know, just you know, you
take that game last night with the Canes in the Highlanders.
There's a lot of anticipation for getting to that, you know,
the final few minutes, the final few holes of a tournament,

(01:51:40):
and you're not too sure which way the result is
going to go. So you've got to have some tools
and strategies to decompress, to be able to put that
behind you and to be able to reset. And that's
not always that easy. When you continually get reinforced in
the locker room on the range, you know, the all

(01:52:01):
of your playing partners, that just reinforcing that you've achieved
something that not only very few do, but that a
lot of other people have expected you to or thought
you had the belief that you could for a long while.
So being able to just put that aside and then
tee it up in one of the four major tournaments

(01:52:21):
of the work of the season is bloody hard. It's
hard to put it behind you, and so I'm impressed
by Foxy's ability through this first couple of days. Usually
it's the second round. The first round you're writing that
adrenaline and you're writing you know, you've only just had
a couple of days from losting a trophy, and so

(01:52:42):
you get through the first round okay, but that second
round today was the real test for him. He gets
a bit of a rest, he gets a late tea
time tomorrow, and now he's absolutely in competitive made over
the next couple of days trying to pick off one
of the biggest tournaments in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:52:59):
Indeed, well, let's finish with what might happen over the
next two days. You talk about it being a very
long course. The leader Jonathan Vegas at eight under after
two rounds, So what does a long course due to
a four round score? So I mean, what will win
this fourteen under? Fifteen under or will it be less
than that?

Speaker 20 (01:53:16):
Yeah, it's about the weather.

Speaker 22 (01:53:17):
Unfortunately, in North Carolina at this time of the year,
they are prone to some of the spring storms, and
so that was part of the preparation here.

Speaker 20 (01:53:28):
Course was took a lot of water through the first.

Speaker 22 (01:53:31):
Couple of days, and we look at the four cast
for tomorrow and there's a chance for some more storms
to come through. So that's going to dictate things a
little bit. It could be disruptive with tea times, that
could be disruptive with getting play stopped. And so again
that's about kind of managing your energy, managing the things

(01:53:56):
that you can't control and your approach to that. I'm
not expecting the scores to go that low yet. Maybe
twelve under it might get to but this is a
beast of a golf course and saw with McRoy a
couple of late bogies today they will. I'll start tightening
the screws for the last couple of rounds with the

(01:54:16):
setup I expect, and I think, if Ryan, what are
the four behind right now? If he can shoot a
couple of rounds underpar over the next couple of days,
he will be in with the shout.

Speaker 20 (01:54:28):
I think. Come come Monday morning.

Speaker 2 (01:54:31):
Exciting times. Another excellent weekend of golf viewing coming up.
Fill always love chatting golf with you, mate, Thanks for
joining us on the show.

Speaker 20 (01:54:38):
Thanks Fini, enjoyed it man all the best.

Speaker 2 (01:54:39):
Mate, Phil, I thought on you there, went on the
PGA to himself one of only nine key Wes to
do so and golf analyst. You can watch Ryan Fox
in action in the third round of the PGA Championship
live on sky Sport one and stream it on Skysport
Now from five o'clock tomorrow morning, nineteen to three. When
we come back. Cameroy guard out of the Hurricanes.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
The biggest seams in sport are on Weekend Sports with
Jason Pain and GJ. Garno. It's New Zealand's most trusted
home builder News Dogs'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:55:09):
The two forty four Auckland FC have reached the A
League semes We're celebrating and would love you to join
us next Saturday at Tyler Street Sport in Britomart as
we build up to the home semi final against Melbourne
victory at go Media Stadium. Join us for the Ultimate
True Blue pregame Atmosphere that's next Saturday midday through three
at the new home of Sport in Auckland City. If

(01:55:31):
you'd like to win a double past to that game
next Saturday night, we'll be in the draw for one anyway,
Text the word football to nine two ninety two. We'll
make that draw before three o'clock. Quarter to three. You
try it. The Death from cam Roy guards broken the
Highlanders hearts and given the Hurricanes an importance. Twenty four
twenty Super Rugby winning Wellington Roy got snuck over to

(01:55:52):
score his second drive of the game with time up
on the clock to keep the Canes firmly in playoff contention.
He joins us. Now, gooda cam. Do you reckon you
got away with one there last night? Or do you
think you deserve to win the game?

Speaker 9 (01:56:03):
It's a great question.

Speaker 4 (01:56:04):
I mean, obviously it was pretty high and we gave
the Highlands a lot opportunity to cut it out that game.
But I guess being able to win ugly, you know,
I guess it.

Speaker 9 (01:56:16):
Is important and different ways to win.

Speaker 4 (01:56:19):
And I guess we did. We just find a way
in the end luckily. So yeah, I think we're still
probably we we created a lot. We probably just were
finishing opportunities, especially in the sick and half. What we
we had three died tribes, which you know those get allowed,
and they were pretty mentionable things go on. Was obviously
just a four pass and then half was one in

(01:56:41):
the corner. But yeah, I think we still did deserve
to win. But yeah, definitely differently as we.

Speaker 2 (01:56:48):
Watched take us to the end of the game. When
you're building phase after phase, you're right under the post.
What pictures were you seeing there as you as you
spotted and opening under the post to dive over for
the winning try.

Speaker 4 (01:56:59):
Yeah, I just I guess understanding that the Highlands are
super desperate and trying to come over on the fields
that they are all sort of swing around the corner,
and I guess it's pretty hard to defend around the
posts because there is a big post in the last
that I sort of saw Peace had a good quick
carry and then it thought everyone was just sort of
flooding around live in that space, So just saw the

(01:57:22):
opportunity there got over.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
By the time you scored that try that won the game,
you'd built twenty one phases. How much discipline does it
take to build phases like that in the dying moment
under fatigue with the game on the line.

Speaker 4 (01:57:38):
Basically, Yeah, it's method, And like I say, we had
blown a lot of opportunities beforehand, so that we I
think we all knew that that it was our last opportunity,
opportunity that we've got lifelines with there they're throwing off
straight and then we were able to sort of intel
work and we've got so much time and effort in

(01:57:59):
I guess that sort of attack and being able to
just stay in it there, being happy to build phases
and just get really direct and that either the penalty
advantages will come or the space will open up for us.
And credits everyone involved, like it has transferred from the
training field to the game. And you know, we looked
back at a game like the fourth we're it ended

(01:58:20):
going to draw and it was really tight because we
didn't get that stuff sort of didn't get that right.
So it's great that although it was an overly scrappy
game for us, we're able to I guess improve other areas.
And yeah, like I say credit to everyone evolved because
there has been growth and transferred from training Paddict and too.

Speaker 2 (01:58:41):
I guess quite last, the Nats for the game these
days is that the bloke with the number nine on
his back often, isn't it in the eighty first minute?
I mean, you don't often play the whole game. When
did it become apparent to you that you were just
going to stay on?

Speaker 4 (01:58:56):
Yeah, I figured when well, obviously both wingers been gone
early doesn't help. And I knew that well An he
was probably gonna have player role of selling in for
a position or like, it's quite risky when you've only
got one back on the bench if they to stub
me off, what will happen? So to be fair to

(01:59:16):
actually cross my line, I was pretty like there was
a lot going on. So I guess the last twenty
minutes I was pretty pretty focused on what was happening
and I wasn't really paying attention to what was going
on the sideline. But like I said, there's always I
love playing, you know, as many minutes as I can,
and really enjoying starting. And you know, Eddie is a
great team man, and although it's this pointing for him,

(01:59:38):
I'm sure he'll get his opportunity in the weeks to come.
And yeah, hopefully the other boys, we've got a few
niggels or what not now, so hopefully we can we
can bounce back and get ready for bris for the
Reds and Brisbane next week.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
Here, we all know what you went through last year
to rehab from serious injury to make it back for
the end of season All Blacks two. You've played all
twelve of the Canes matches this season, eleven starts. It's
a silly question, I know, Cam, but how much are
you enjoying this season after a challenging twenty twenty four?

Speaker 4 (02:00:10):
Yeah, I'm loving it. Obviously as a team. We faked
a bit of adversity at to start. You know, it
didn't start the way we wanted to and probably playing
the rugby that.

Speaker 11 (02:00:19):
We want to as well.

Speaker 4 (02:00:19):
So it was a bit of a bit of salt
digging in the early rounds. But I think we're starting
to find our feet, you know. I had some good
ones over the Brumbies the Chiefs obviously, and hopefully, you know,
we can start to build the momentum at the right
end of the year. Obviously it was disappointing for myself
last year, but the team was going really well. But
we probably you know, looking back, probably played that best

(02:00:43):
footy when it you know, it wasn't the most important
time of the year. So hopefully we can if we
keep building some momentum, we can be playing our best
you know, at the right time. And if that's you know,
when we hopefully we make the top six and it's
in the finals, then yeah, it's fits to go.

Speaker 2 (02:00:58):
Speaking of long reheabs, Brett Cameron made his return from
his long term injury last night. I had him schedule.
How much admiration do you have for him, particularly given
how difficult you know it is to rehab from an
injury like that.

Speaker 5 (02:01:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:01:12):
Yeah, like you know, with a c LS, you know,
it probably does a bit more damage to the need
and what my injury was, but you know, still very significant.
And yeah, really I guess stoked for him to sort
of see the determination he has probably similar to mine,
and putting his head down, working with the Hurricanes medical team,

(02:01:34):
like they've done a great job alongside him to put
in the working effort and sort of.

Speaker 9 (02:01:39):
To get it right.

Speaker 4 (02:01:41):
You know, I think that was the game that he
is sort of targeted right from the start, which you know,
if you're asking other people would be ahead of time.
So you really stoked for him and for him to
come on at halftime and look like he's.

Speaker 12 (02:01:52):
Been there all year.

Speaker 4 (02:01:53):
You know, he put on a bit of a clinic
kicks fifteen and two, put some boys, you know, in
some really nice spots, set up that line break before
my try with the bridgeball, Like look like he's playing
with lots of confidence right away, which young stoke for him,
like it's something that you never want to happen, that
can you hinder careers and whatnot if you don't get

(02:02:15):
it right. And yeah, it looks like he's just picking
up where he left off.

Speaker 2 (02:02:18):
Nice one and just to finish in his absence, a
couple of blokes have flooded into ten including Ruben Love
who's played there in the last four games. Outside you
how much you enjoyed that partnership and hey, you reckon
he's going at ten.

Speaker 4 (02:02:29):
Yeah, it's great. Well, obviously theater and we've been here
the whole time together, so we played once when we're
on twenty twenty one at nine. We're both young pups,
but so it's been good to I guess build that
combination with him, you know, since the opportunity has been there,
and yeah, really enjoying it. You know, such a great

(02:02:51):
athlete and so determined to keep getting better each each day.
And I guess that game driver, you know, running the
game is you know, it's a big challenge for us,
and we're still relatively young and so being able to,
I guess do that together, especially when we probably had
a bit of adversity at the start, you know, trying

(02:03:11):
to find our feet with how we attack and close
out games and whatnot. So it's been a great challenge
for both of us. And yeah, it's great to see
him sort of getting his opportunities and taking them. You know,
played another conach last night after tea and you know,
putting the boys in the raya in the fields of
whatnot and yeah, that's good. It's good to you. Really

(02:03:32):
enjoying playing playing it.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
In silent Congrats on the win Cam and your significant
part of it, mate, and enjoyed the rest of your
weekend things for the chat today, Thanks Cam, cam Roug
got there on Weekend Sports seven to three.

Speaker 1 (02:03:43):
From breaking down the Hail, Mary's and the epic field
Weekend Sport with Jason Him News Talk ZMB.

Speaker 2 (02:03:52):
Congratulations Shelley, you've won the tickets to the football next
Saturday night and He's going to be in touch with
you about that. Thank you for joining us on the
show this afternoon, Tim Beverage After three, we're back tomorrow.
Tomorrow's show pretty much dedicated to whatever happens in the
next twenty one hours, lots of sport to cover off
will do it tomorrow. Andy wants our exit song. Thanks
for your work this afternoon. By the way, New.

Speaker 7 (02:04:13):
Zella Music months continue Stereo Gram's Walkie Talkie Man, What
Ahez See tomorrow, My Bridey.

Speaker 1 (02:04:42):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live
to News Talk said B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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