Full Show Podcast: 28 December 2025

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm Jason Pine, show producer today Bevan Dua. We're here
until three as it's our last weekend sports show of
the year. This is our annual Year in review show.
The big stories, the big issues, the biggest interviews were
featured over the last fifty one weekends, from rugby to netball,
cricket to rugby, league football and motor racing, mountain biking

(00:35):
to snowboarding and everything in between. Kiwi's doing great things
here and overseas, and the odd wander down memory lane
as well. Hope there's something in there you'll enjoy listening
back to. Thank you for joining us on Weekend Sports
twenty twenty five Year in Review Show lines are open
all afternoon. Get in touch if you would like to.

(00:57):
On eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. You can send
your text messages into nine two nine two. Maybe your
twenty twenty five highlights if you would like to send
them in emails to Jason at Newstalk SEDB dot co
dot end zed. It has just gone eight minutes past midday.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Don't get caught Offside Call eight hundred eighty ten eighty
Weekend Sports with Jason Paine and GJ. Gardnerhops New Zealand's
most trusted home builder News Talks NB.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
This is the year in review on Weekend Sport. Let
us start with the All Blacks and head coach Scott Robertson.
He had an hour and studio with us on Sunday,
June twenty nine. That was the weekend before the first
Test of twenty twenty five. So listening to some of
his comments, it's quite interesting in hindsight. So this is

(01:47):
Scott Robertson before the first Test of twenty twenty five.
I asked him, first of all, how different he felt
going into his second year as coach compared to going
into his first year as coach.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Interesting in it to think back in has been a year.
It seems so quick, but also so long ago. We're
one hundred and twenty days better for it. Understand how
test weeks work, test matches, work on and off the field,
the length of the season. All the management or the
coaching group are better for that. But it's always different,

(02:22):
it's always changing. You have to be really innovative, you
have to think on your feet still. But the key
to these ten days that we're going to have to
get set us up for this French series is really critical.
So how you start right now is critical.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Was there anything last year that was a particular lesson
for you, something you didn't expect. What was the biggest
thing or things you learned last year on field or
on field, anything to do with the all black setup?

Speaker 4 (02:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
On field? How I you like every test matches like
a final, the expectations you compete and win, and the
margins are so close and things can change so quickly.
You know, a lot of calls that go away, the injuries,
like the ability to adapt on the field to calls,

(03:16):
yellow cards. Things are into the microscope way more. You know, tmos,
little plays, tries, no tries. You know there's substitutions. All
these little critical things add up because the margins so
small that the titus has ever been his footy. The
stats show that across the top seven teams, and how

(03:39):
those decisions and how you set your team up through
the week to win those and critical moments is really
critical important, right, And so the work you do to
get your set up so they can can own it
on the field off the field. Just the size of it. Yep,
you're on the road. You never playing the same play
place twice. Sunday, you're up, you pack up, you're gone again.

(04:02):
You know, there's a forward party that setting it up.
They leave early. Then you come in and you've got
another test week. So it's a new hotel, new coaching room,
new management room, new leader's room, new team room. You
just got to adapt on what's in front of you.
So it's exciting, but it's also it's quite relentless.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Just before we look specifically at what lies immediately in
front of you. I mean this time next week you
would have played your first Test against France in Dunedin.
In the framework of a four year World Cup cycle,
what are the goals and objectives for year two, which
this is Are there any specific goals for year two
of a four year World Cup cycle?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, over four years. Probably from a section point of view,
you're trying to be four deep in all positions. So
you've got to create enough depth. And I've said it before,
it's the White boat theory where you got Stephen Donald
coming in as the fourth ten, you know, with that nice,
beautiful type juty to kick her apparently to win the
Rabby World Cup. And who's your fourth guy in each position?

(05:01):
Or some guys people can cover two positions, especially these
forwards or midfield or outside backs. But when you name
that thirty three you've got if we three, that's got
another versatility enough I believe to pay in different positions,
but also who's needs to come in because as you know,
rugby's a brutal sport and injuries are part of it,
and things change change quickly.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Right, going to take some calls in a moment. They're
stacking up a full board already. You're a This is
the envy of a talkback host. You're getting calls stacked up.
We'll get them the moment. But I just wanted to
ask you about your squad and the thirty three that
you named. If you were independent of one another, all
of the coaches, yourself, and all of your assistants to
write down thirty three names independent of one another, and

(05:45):
then came together, I'm not sure that might be what
you do. How different do you think everybody's thirty three
would be? Would you have twenty nine in common? Twenty
five in common? Twenty nine in common?

Speaker 3 (05:54):
I'd sell you down to two or three four, depending
depending what's important to you. So what we do, We
done a lot of work on the guy's character, how
courageous to are, and what craft. So we use three
c's as a model, and then everyone sees sometimes craft different,
you know, like I've got a lot of footwork like
a fend and really good bumps and keep their feet

(06:16):
alive and anticipate. I watch type forwards a lot to
make sure that they've got the ability and skill set,
not just set piece like Jase loves the set piece,
loves us penalty and he also lights a line out
and cleans and stuff. But we will see things differently.
But the non negotiables the character of the player, you know,
on and off the field, champion, off on half worried,

(06:40):
just just will get into it and be really brutal.
And so then you break it down and then some
people see something in other players. So those are the
conversations you've got to have, you know, you break it down,
how's it going to complement our team? Are they test ready?
Will they step up straight away? Have they got the craft?
And how can you do they need a week with
us before or a couple of weeks before us and

(07:00):
you bring them in the next series. There's there's lots
of little things you go over, but majority of the
players picked themselves through their own performance.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
That is All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson on our
Year in Review show. That was the week before the
first Test of twenty twenty five. As we know now
looking back, it was something of a mixed year. Easily
the low point was the crushing forty three ten defeat
at the hands of South Africa in Wellington in mid September.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
He boots it in to touch and a thoroughly embarrassing
night for the All Blacks, But are wonderful nights for
South Africa. They have demolished the All Blacks. They have
humiliated the All Blacks Forty.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Three ten, Yeah, the All Blacks worst ever defeat, shipping
six tries to one after leading ten to seven at
halftime off the back of debutante Leroy Carter's try. I
know you've probably erased this from your memory or tried to.
One thing we had all year was win, loss or draw.
The All Blacks put up one of their assistant coach

(08:06):
is the day after the game, and this was no exception.
All Blacks assistant coach at Jason Ryan joined me the
day after that record defeat to explain what had happened.

Speaker 6 (08:17):
Yeah, disappointing.

Speaker 7 (08:19):
We just basically lost all our momentum. We Yeah, we
had a bit of a meltdown and a couple of
decisions under pressure and just couldn't get any rhythm and
they got away.

Speaker 6 (08:30):
Us in that second half.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
And yeah, we've got to take a pretty hard look
at ourselves, to be honest. Yeah, I think we uh
you know, we lost a little bit of momentum and
timing and our set piece as well. That's that's on me.
I'll take responsibility for that. We missed a couple of
couple of lineouts at key times where the scrum was.

(08:52):
I think the scrum count was they won three penalties,
we won, we won two, so that was they got
a head there and one. So yeah, I'll just take
four responsibility for my air and the set piece. We've
got to have a real hard look at ourselves and
that part of our game because we pride ourselves on
that and we just went up to par last night.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
How did the performance deteriorate so much compared to last week?

Speaker 7 (09:18):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a great question. Look, I haven't looked
at all of the game yet. I've only got to
just after halftime. I thought we played some more some rugby,
and the ball and hand in the first forty was
right on, and then you know, halftime, the boys felt
fresh and we just yeah that we just made era

(09:39):
after era and then some when we did win some lineouts,
I thought our kicking was not good enough, and we
lost the aerial battle, and we pretty much lost everything,
to be fair, So when we review that deeply, we've
got to make some adjustment adjustments pretty quick. We put
we put a lot into that dismatch. We put We

(10:00):
thought we had a great week in preparation. We you know,
we talked a lot around the week before, earlier in
the week and getting getting a mental side right. It
wasn't so much performing the putting together the same performance
as Eden Park, but it was getting there to the
same mental performance.

Speaker 8 (10:20):
And then I just don't.

Speaker 6 (10:21):
Think we were there.

Speaker 7 (10:21):
And I think everyone could have seen that that last half
we we just didn't come out of the blocks and
we didn't get any rhythm up. I can't really explain
any simply that, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, And how do you explain that that in the
second half it just all fell apart so spectacularly.

Speaker 6 (10:40):
It did.

Speaker 7 (10:41):
We missed I think forty odd tackles or forty plus tackles.
It was pretty much every part of our game just misfunctioned.
The box got a roll on, They played smart and
to be honest, gave us a lesson.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Do you think some players gave up near the end?

Speaker 6 (11:01):
I wouldn't like to say that.

Speaker 7 (11:03):
I hope that wasn't the case on these boys. Look,
I know that the performance doesn't look like that that
there was much kere shown, but where we just.

Speaker 9 (11:13):
Couldn't get clear, get our hands on the ball. Where
we did, we lost it and we just yeah, we
just weren't there under pressure when it mattered. I can't
put it any simpler than that. And we'll take full
responsibility for that as the forwards coach, and we've got
we've got to front up and be better, a lot
better moving forward. We know that we have to be.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Now, do you expect to face scrutiny after this?

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Yep? And we should.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
What do you think the things that will be worrying
all Blacks fans the most today will be.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
Probably everything that I've covered you know, we've got the
ownership part of areas of big rocks of our game
and the executing basic skill sets under pressure. I've pretty
much just covered and I think we've got every right
to to cop it with that performance, and we can't

(12:07):
hide from that.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
I know we won't be either.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
That's Jason Ryan the day after the record loss in
Wellington to South Africa forty three to ten. I remember
thinking after that interview just how honest Jason Ryan was.
That was just the first bit of it. He continued
in similar vein took full responsibility for it. But I
remember the lines into Weekend Sport that day were particularly

(12:31):
busy as we dissected what happened a couple of weeks
later at Eden Park. It was the first of two
Bledisloe Cup tests and it was what happened before the game.
I think that was perhaps one of the biggest talking points.
All Blacks wing Caleb Clark overcome with emotion after his
father Ronnie Clark delivered a surprise performance of the national anthem.

(12:53):
The All Blacks went on to win the match thirty
three to twenty four. I spoke on field with Caleb
Clark after the game and he said he had no
idea that his dad was about to sing the anthem.

Speaker 10 (13:04):
Yeah, it was pretty crazy. He didn't know he was
going to sing the national anthm. I didn't even hear
the announcement saying he was singing it. I was probably
him mid way through the English part of the anthem,
and I went, well, I know this voice, and I
try to hold myself together.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
And not cry.

Speaker 6 (13:18):
Even before I knew it was him.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
But once I look at the.

Speaker 10 (13:20):
Screen and I went, bah, got me man, I got
me good. So I was real special and and ye
had pretty special occasion for the both of us.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
We had a Ronnie Clark himself on the next day
to talk about the performance. I asked if he was
nervous before he sung.

Speaker 11 (13:36):
You know, I look back to my playing days. I'm
a wreck off the field. But when I'm on the
field and it's kick off and we're playing, I met
my calmes. So I'm standing there on the sideline together
with Sophie who was singing the Australian National anthem, and
the teams run past me and I'm thinking, don't look,
don't look. Make sure he's not turned around and looking

(13:58):
at you. I had a quick look anyway, he didn't
see me. So I'm standing there and fighting with my
mind with all that and trying to try to engage
all those high performance things. Breeze slow down, and all
I could think fighting was remember the words, Remember the words?
And now I thought, what am I doing here?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
And once you got onto it was a bit like
a game of rugby. Once the whistle goes and you're
away that you're find Once you got the first couple
of words out, you were away.

Speaker 11 (14:26):
Absolutely as soon as the first they heard the introduction
and I started, Then I fell exactly like that. And
when the whistle blows for kickoff, I was at my
calmes and same with soon as I started singing, and
then from there it was just hearing our hearing the
crowd singing. It was incredible. And then and as we

(14:47):
got through the song, I wasn't even I didn't know
how Caleb was, but I really loved the crowd of
Eden Park singing together beautifully our national answer.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
And then you shared a special moment with Caleb after
the anthem and just before the hawker were you able
to exchange a few words at that point.

Speaker 11 (15:05):
Absolute Lee, what was wonderful? I went to walk off,
but I just got to turn to my right and
as I turned my there he was walking towards me,
tears in his eyes and he goes, you didn't tell me, dad,
And I turned someone. Oh that's right, son, that's right now.
It's your turn, your turn, now, go go and play,

(15:27):
give it your best, go, welcome back, go now and playing.
So yeah, I mean it certainly as a father, that's
what really came to me. Just as a father, I
got to get that hug in there and let him
go before they kick off.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
That's Ronnie Clark who sung the national anthem quite brilliantly
on the night of September twenty seven at Eden Park
and Alka must have worked too, the All Blades running
out thirty three twenty four winners that night, in Caleb
Clark himself scoring a try. This is our year in
review on Weekend Sport. We'll stay with rugby when we

(16:04):
come back. Some reflections on his time in Ireland from
Jordi Barrett and Sir Steve Hanson's thoughts on the return
of Richie Morena. We're back in a moment. On News Talks, heb.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
You be the TMO have your say on eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty Weekend Sport with Jason Hym and GJ. Garvnerholmes,
New Zealand's most trusted home builder. News Talks NB.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Twenty six minutes past midday on our year in Review
show here on Weekend Sport. All blacksmidfielder Jordi Barrett spent
the first part of twenty twenty five on a rugby
sabbatical playing for Irish heavyweights Leinster. While I was there,
I caught up with Jordi Barrett to see how he
was going and we spoke about other things. So or
among other things, about Leinster's win over Glasgow in the

(16:50):
quarterfinals of the Champions Cup. It was a performance for
which Jordy had earned rave reviews.

Speaker 6 (16:57):
Yeah, I was very pleased, Pony.

Speaker 12 (16:59):
I mean I was on a dual week because I
mean I was starting at twelve and Robbie Inshaw, who's
been an Irish legion and Lynx legion, was playing a
one hundredth cap that day, So internally there's a lot
of added pressure that way. But look, Leo's always said
conversations might be on the bench and might be starting

(17:21):
wherever I fit into the puzzle. It doesn't matter as
long as it equates to some good rugby and ideally
wins and who knows, hopefully a trophy or two at
the back end of the season.

Speaker 6 (17:31):
So look, I'm happy with the way I'm going at
the moment.

Speaker 12 (17:34):
But the challenging footy is all ahead of me, so
I can't wait to get stuck in. We've got Ulster
this weekend, An the USC game, then Northampton and the
European semi final, and I absolutely flying at the moment.

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Some great players over there.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
So your return to New Zealand in time for the
All Black season which starts against France and July. So
how would you compare playing for Leinster as preparation for
an international season compared to what you've known up till
now just playing for the Hurricanes and Super Rugby.

Speaker 6 (18:10):
Yeah, I'm not sure.

Speaker 12 (18:11):
I mean the transition, I guess is obviously different because
I'm in a different team and up here in Europe.
But I mean, if we make the USC final, our
finals on the fourtinth Jones, they're not dissimilar to the
Super Rugby boys who have the final around the same time.
So in terms of rest transition is this I guess

(18:33):
the same in terms of time frame, but I'm not sure.
I feel like I'll be ready to go and hopefully
packed and ready to take some form into into an
all black jersey, which is the main reason why I
wanted to come up here in the first place.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
How much contact have you had with Scott Robertson while
you've been away?

Speaker 12 (18:56):
Yeah, a little bit, yeah said the odd text, which
is nice, and yeah, it shows he's keeping an eye
on things and some of the other coaches, so ye're
just touching base and making sure things are checking well.
And yeah, I mean ultimately just healthy and playing good footy.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
So yeah, I had a bit of contact.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
There and you're all Blacksmithfield partner Rico Yuani coming up
to Lynster next year, almost a straight swap. Did he
call you for any advice?

Speaker 3 (19:24):
He did?

Speaker 12 (19:25):
He sounding me out about ten days ago and just
asked to see questions and yeah, didn't say a whole lot,
so I didn't really understand.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
Sorry, I didn't get a good inkling of where his
head or heart was.

Speaker 12 (19:38):
But look, I wake up yesterday and my day off
and the news had dropped on my phone, so it's
probably good timing. It's gave me twenty four hours without
having a barrage of questions at training the morning I
went in there so that I got all them yesterday.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
How do you reckon he'll go over there, Rico, No.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
He'll go great.

Speaker 12 (20:00):
Like I said, it's a great place to develop as
a player, and he'll see a lot of improvement, no
doubt our pas a player, and I guess out of
his compay zone in Auckland and the Blues and a.

Speaker 6 (20:12):
Chance to grow. I think it's a great challenge for him.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
That is Jordi Barrett on our Year in Review show
reco Yoanni. Of course is up there now, isn't he.
He's up at Leinster and already playing. Jordy Barrett, I
think you would say his sabbatical was a success. He
came back and looked very, very good in the All
Blacks jersey for the most part. Back at the Hurricanes
of course. In twenty twenty six, it's coming up twenty

(20:37):
nine to one. Richie Mulwonga's return to New Zealand was
confirmed in August. This was a big piece of rugby news.
He signed with New Zealand Rugby, the Crusaders and Canterbury
for eighteen months from July twenty twenty six to December
twenty twenty seven, which of course puts him in the
selection frame for the All Blacks for the twenty twenty
seven Rugby World Cup in Australia. This had long been

(21:01):
talked about and widely telegraphed, but it was confirmed, as
I say, in August. Shortly after the news dropped, I
spoke to former All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hanson about
this to see if he thought it was a good outcome.

Speaker 6 (21:15):
It was obviously a.

Speaker 13 (21:15):
Good outcome for Richie because he's agreed to do it,
so he's probably very happy with it. Look, I think
he's another quality player. It's available for the All Blacks,
so it's a great outcome for them as well. And
we know he's a quality players. He's won many, many
titles and you know, five eights your main computer, so

(21:40):
he's obviously doing a good job in the team he's in,
and he's had a third and a second out of
World Cup, so you know he's obviously performed at those
levels as well. And it adds to the depth, you know,
with Boden playing really well, McKenzie playing well and Richie
coming back, so.

Speaker 14 (21:59):
You need depth to be able to win World Cups.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
The big question I think that everybody would like to
know the answer, so in your perfectly positioned to give
us some insight, is whether he'll be prepared for Test rugby.
He'll come back play, But the n PC off the
back of two seasons in Japan, Steve, how prepared will
he be to return to Test rugby? Are here?

Speaker 14 (22:22):
Be prepared?

Speaker 13 (22:23):
Like You've seen Ardie Severe come back and play, You've
seen Voden Bert come back and play, and both of
them have played well. So I think there's a bit
of a myth from years gone by about Japanese rugby
is not strong enough for preparing you for Test footy.
But there's a lot changed up here and the coaching,

(22:49):
the depth of player quality across all the teams.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
It's a very very.

Speaker 13 (22:53):
Competitive competition and you know, to be in a winning
team like he has, you've got to be playing well
and you've got to be doing commitment to your standards
and the stuff that you and your team needs you
to be doing. So I've got no doubt you'll come
back and play well. Obviously, Tests rugby is a big

(23:19):
step up from Super rugby or even Japanese rugby. You
know that doesn't matter where you go. The step up's
big and you've got to be prepared for it. But
we know that he's been there before and he's done
the job before. So you know, I think of people
like Jerome Kiner came back and was a superstar when
he came back.

Speaker 14 (23:39):
Yeah, Di Severe played particularly well as well.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, I've got Jerome down actually because he is a
specific successful example of a guy. I went to Japan,
played a couple of seasons there, came back to New
Zealand part of your World Cup winning side in twenty fifteen.
What were the reasons it worked so well for a
player like Jerome Kino?

Speaker 13 (23:58):
Well, Jerome was pretty beat up when he left, so
you know, just getting the opportunity to being a mentally
being a different place and and have different stimuli, I think,
really fresh and recharged his batteries.

Speaker 14 (24:15):
And you know, I'm sure.

Speaker 13 (24:18):
If you look at Richie, the same thing's happening with
him mentally. I know, talking to Bowden quite frequently, you
know just how much he loved the Japan stints that
he's had because you know, it is different and the
stimuli is different, and you come back, and you wouldn't
call it a grind, but it's you know, you're under

(24:41):
that constant pressure when you're backing in z whereas here
you just you know, a body, not.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Somebody man management around this Steve, you know every coach
has to manage their players. How much of a man
management challenge will raise in our faces? He as he
has Boone Baron, Damien McKenzie. Richie's not back till next year,
So how does he manage those two before Richie gets
back and then after he it's back.

Speaker 14 (25:07):
Well, that's a million dollar question.

Speaker 13 (25:09):
How well he does that job will really showing how
how well all three of them come back into the group.
And you know, you've just got to be upfront and
honest and make your selections based.

Speaker 14 (25:24):
On on good criteria.

Speaker 13 (25:25):
And if everyone's playing well, then it becomes a really
tough selection question. If someone's not playing well, then yeah,
it makes it harder for you to.

Speaker 14 (25:36):
Get picked, doesn't it.

Speaker 13 (25:37):
Well, exactly, You'll definitely have to have good conversations and
be honest and upfront, and I'm sure he will.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Be yeah, and well again, you know, without knowing the
conversations that go on. If I'm bowed embarried or I'm
Damien McKenzie. Am I looking across up my All Blacks
coaches thinking to myself, he'd actually prefer if another bloke
was in the ten jersey, not me.

Speaker 13 (25:57):
Look, I think the questions you have to ask Bone
and Damien, you know, like stuff. I can't answer that
for you because but both those young men are good
all well, they're great All Blacks.

Speaker 14 (26:11):
And they're good men who have always put the team first.

Speaker 13 (26:14):
So they'll be looking to play really, really well and
make it really difficult for someone like Richie to get
back in the team. I wouldn't think it's a given
that Richie just walks straight back in. I think he
has to earn the right just like the other two
boys are having to earn the right. But again, their

(26:36):
conversations you probably should have with Razor and Damien.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
And always enjoy a chat with Sir Steve Hansen, former
All Blacks coach, always great insight, and that will be
one of the big storylines of twenty twenty six wine
it from the All Blacks point of view, is how
Richie Wong is reintegrated back into the side. As things stand,
and unless I've missed something. He still won't be available
for the tour of South Africa, the four Tests in

(27:03):
South Africa or three and South Africa one, and they
yet to be described 's neutral location. The terms of
it were that he would come back after Super Rugby
play NPC before he was eligible for the All Blacks,
so won't play Rugby Championship or the South African Tour.
At the earliest. He'll play the End of Year tour
next year, which will be within twelve months of the

(27:26):
Rugby World Cup. Now, I would imagine that they'll find
a way to get him on that South African tour.
It would just be such a waste if they didn't,
wouldn't it. Why would you, you know, the only rules
you're breaking your own. So I get the feeling that
Scott Robertson if he hasn't already, as I say, I
may have missed this. If he hasn't already, he'll be.
He'll be making sure that Richie Moong is on the

(27:48):
plane when they go to South Africa. That'll be one
of the big big stories of next year is how
how the three tens, Boden Barrett, Damien McKenzie and Richie
Morgan are managed inside that All Blacks environment twenty two
away from one. This is our year in review on
Weekend Sport when we come back without a doubt the

(28:10):
most frustrating interview I conducted this year. That's next here
on news Talks EDB.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
It's more than just a game Weekend Sport with Jason
Pine and GJ. Gunnerhomes New Zealand's most trusted home builder,
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
EDB nineteen to one on News Talks EDB and Weekend Sport.
As we look back on the year, the biggest sports
story of the year was the standing down and subsequent
reinstatement of Dame Nolen toda as Silver Ferns Netball coach.
Netball New Zealand sidelined Dame Nolen Todoer in September after

(28:46):
concerns were raised about the Silver Ferns high performance program
and environment. A period of mediation followed, and in early October,
Netball New Zealand CEO Jenny Wiley joined me on the
show to give us an update or so.

Speaker 15 (29:00):
I thought, yeah, well, what we're providing today is an
update of where we're at. As you know, our players
are assembling for camp as they let into conc up
a northern tour and as a result, we are confirming
interim coach appointments in there. And that is because despite

(29:22):
everyone's best efforts to reach resolution in terms of the
concerns and the Silver Fans High Performance environment, we've been
unable to do that.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
What are those concerns?

Speaker 15 (29:35):
Oh, look, I think they are part of a confidential
employment matter and what we're doing is respecting everyone in
that process. But as we've said, we have concerns around
the Civil Fans high performance environment and working through those.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Are they directly related to Dame Nolen? Only?

Speaker 15 (29:57):
As you all know, we have to respect the privacy
of everyone involved and the confidentiality and that includes that
of Dame Nolen, our, the players and everyone in that environment,
and we hold that paramount in this process.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Genny, how many players are involved here?

Speaker 15 (30:15):
I think you know again that is confidential. You've got
to respect the cohort in that environment.

Speaker 16 (30:22):
We've got to respect that.

Speaker 15 (30:23):
Dame Nolen and her team, and that's incredibly important to
us in our integrity in this.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yeah, yeah, I get all that. I get all that,
we all get all that. But do you accept that
this lack of transparency is damaging to Netbor, New Zealand.

Speaker 15 (30:40):
What we do know is there is intense interest in
this and any organization like Netble New Zealand lives in
a fish bowl. But at the moment, our responsibility is
to Dame Nolen and it is to the players, and
we maintain you know that is the so priority.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Would it not, though, be perhaps a better option for
you to at least give us some idea of what
the issues are.

Speaker 15 (31:05):
Well, we have given an indication that we are looking
to resolve matters within the Silver Ferns high performance environment,
but we're also being able to respect the confidentiality and
the privacy of all involved in the process.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Can you tell us anything? Can you tell us what
the sticking points are why you haven't been able to
reach a resolution.

Speaker 15 (31:29):
I think the key thing here is we're working through
a really difficult and challenging process. None of us want
to be here, none of us want to be addressing
these at this time, and everyone is looking for certainty
at the moment. We're acutely aware that resolving these issues

(31:49):
is absolutely paramount for us all, but for confidentiality reasons,
we can't be more open about these issues.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Is mediation going to continue?

Speaker 15 (32:01):
We are working through a confidential employment process, and we're
working really really hard with Dame Nolean in her team,
and we continue to look at ways and avenues that
we can resolve these issues.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
So, in other words, then you may reach a point
or you may already have reached a point where you
don't think mediation will get you any further down the track, Genny,
is Dame Nolen a chance to return his head coach
or not.

Speaker 15 (32:26):
We're working closely to continue to discuss and resolve these issues,
but at this time the most important thing for us
is to be able to give clarity and transparency to
our athletes and management so that they can prepare to
the best of their ability for the upcoming test series.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Do you think Dame Nolean has clarity and transparency here?

Speaker 15 (32:49):
I think what we are in is a really confidential
process where we need to be able to respect all
parties and ensure that we maintain the integrity in the
manner of everybody involved, and for that reason it does
remain confidential.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Would you like Dame Nolean to return as head coach?

Speaker 15 (33:09):
Well, I think it's really important that we reach a
conclusion of these negotiations as quickly as possible and that
has not been for one to trying by all parties.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
It was quite the interview with Jenny Wiley, then CEO
of Netball New Zealand. If I totally had the word
confidential for a long long time, it'll be too soon. Obviously,
Dane Nolean was reinstated as Netball's or Silver Fern's head coach.
I think there's still some working through to be done there,

(33:40):
and not long ago Jenny Wiley of course stood down
as CEO of Netball New Zealand. The other big story
in netball this year was the change to the eligibility
rules around the Silver Ferns. This was driven by Grace
Wick's decision to play in Australia this year rather than
here in New Zealand. Under the previous rules that would

(34:00):
have ruled her out of Silver Ferns contention, but Netball
New Zealand granted her an exemption. They changed their criteria,
which led to a number of other players also seeking
similar consideration. Run Once Grace Wiki was included in what
was an eighteen strong squad for a twelve month period,
I spoke to her after the exemption was granted to

(34:23):
her to see how she had felt about that, and
how pleased she was about it.

Speaker 17 (34:29):
Naturally, very very pleased and very grateful to be able
to I guess in some ways it ma ca can habit.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
It was a very.

Speaker 17 (34:37):
Challenging time about twilve months ago, you know, coming to
terms with the realities of playing in Australia and the
implications of taking the contract and losing malgibility, and so
I guess twelve months later to be able to be
back included in the squad and be excited about the

(34:57):
games we have coming up to the opportunity to contribute
for a year that I feel with a lot of
growth and challenge and you experience it's a very co
time and can't went to get back home.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Can you tell us about the process of applying for
the exemption? What did that involve?

Speaker 17 (35:14):
Yeah, so I get this, spent most of the year
with my fingers and toe's cross hoping that there would
be some sort of process stipulated. I guess the hardest
part was that there wasn't Prior to this, there was
not really a formal process that we could go through,
and so once they announced that they were going to
allow for applications to be considered It all happened very

(35:35):
fast in terms of when you're outlining the criteria and
the Christians and answers we needed to provide and speak to,
and then it was a matter of putting the application
together and it sat with the new Zel on board
and they came back to us quite quickly with their response.
But it was a pretty seamless process once you got
into it. Obviously quite time sensitive as we were applying

(35:57):
in the midst of you know, verbal offers intent from
different clubs, kind of waiting to know what the landscape
looked like.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
A new when you made the decision twelve months ago.
I think we might have even spoken shortly after you did.
Did you feel confident? Did you have any indication as
to whether the eligibility rules would in fact be examined?
Did you have confidence that they would be.

Speaker 17 (36:23):
There wasn't an overwhelming sense of confidence, but there wasn't
an overwhelming sense that it was impossible. I felt that
I was making a decision that felt right for me,
and that's all I could do, and all I can
control was my action, and so I felt comfortable with
my choice and comfortable with the repercussions, and obviously establishedly

(36:46):
I was hopeful that it would be reviewed and my
talks with New Villain, they spoke to, you know, their
best interest is ensuring the quality and the longevity of
the game in New Zealand, which I do understand and respect,
and so with that they would act in a way
that would fulfill those desires. I felt that, you know,

(37:09):
were the World Cup in Calm Games coming up, maybe
they would the opportunity to, you know, have some more
open discussions about what it looks like to play for
New Zealand and where you play your club at all.
And I'm very grateful that that had led to a
relaxing of the rules which had hopefully been the best
interest of people in New Zealand and the Silver Ferns performances.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
That's Grace Weki after her exemption was granted that she
could play in Australia and also still play for the
Silver Ferns. This is our year and review show nine
and a half away from one New Stalks EDB.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Breaking down the Hail Mary's and the every Fields Weekends
fort with Jason m Newstalk.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Zenb looking back on twenty twenty five, The Warriors, of
course opened their season in Vegas, didn't go well for
them on the field they lost thirty eight to the Raiders,
but off the field, the trip to Vegas became all
the more special for one pair of Kiwi super fans
who took the opportunity and the lead up to the
game to renew their vows. Ben and Anna Roska were

(38:11):
among the fans who traveled. They joined me from Vegas
on game day and I asked Anna if it was
always the plan to renew their vows during the NRL's
Vegas weekend.

Speaker 15 (38:22):
Absolutely, absolutely, And the timing was so good at our
twentieth wedding anniversary as well.

Speaker 6 (38:27):
So what better way to start our Vegas trip.

Speaker 18 (38:29):
And then obviously got the Warriors today, which we're really
amped up about, so it's going.

Speaker 16 (38:33):
To be awesome.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, congratulations on the renewal and on your wedding anniversary.
Now you weren't married in Vegas, but I think you
renewed your vows one other time there, Ben, did you?

Speaker 14 (38:43):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 19 (38:43):
We did it fifteen years ago with Elvis, and it
was just crazy that this time round it was the
same Elvis that married us. Remarried us fifteen years ago,
is an absolute character.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
It was amazing it was the same Elvis from because
there must be many many Elvis celebrants in Vegas. Did
you specifically try to find the same guy.

Speaker 6 (39:05):
No, it was it was a fluke.

Speaker 19 (39:06):
He had actually moved chapels from one chapel to another
and it was at a different chapels to be set
to be.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
I mean you would have remembered him, Well, I don't know.
He probably marries and renews vows for many couples. Did
he remember you from fifteen years ago?

Speaker 19 (39:24):
He reckoned By the end of the ceremony, he definitely clipped,
So I think so.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Now I've seen the photos, as I say, being the blazer,
the Warriors blazer that you're wearing, that is that specially
made for this occasion.

Speaker 19 (39:38):
Yeah, there was tailor made in Thailand. So there's an amazing,
amazing well fitted suit. And then we had the boys
cut it out and Warriors suits as well.

Speaker 20 (39:47):
So we're all looking the part.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Anna, this is just what a cool family occasion. So
your boys, Anna, they were clearly keen to be involved
in this whole thing as well.

Speaker 18 (39:56):
Yeah, No, they were, they were keen. They were keen,
and after we renewed our vows, we actually all headed
to Fremont Street and we all did the zipline as
a family. But I lost my veil.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
It was zipline, what was absolutely crazy in my.

Speaker 21 (40:11):
Wedding dress, but my veil flew off on the red
carpet and I lost it.

Speaker 19 (40:15):
It was over the top of the NRL opening party,
so Fremont Street was packed with ten thousand crazy fans
while we ziplined over the top and our wedding attire.

Speaker 20 (40:24):
So yeah, it was amazing.

Speaker 19 (40:25):
Sam Burgess was on stage and he stopped what he
was saying to give us a wave as we was
ziplining past.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
That is so cool. The thing about it is that
you know these things would be out of place in
other cities, but in Vegas it's probably just an everyday occurrence.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
Yes, Oh it was nuts.

Speaker 14 (40:41):
It was absolutely nuts.

Speaker 19 (40:42):
It was such a such a good day, and we
were treadlight celebrities walking around the NRAL fan zone. Every
second person wanted a photo with us, so we actually
felt like celebrities on the day.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
That is being an Ana Roscoe who renewed their vows
in Vegas. More from our Year and Review. After one
well feature Andrew Webster, he popped in for a studio
chat as he has done the last couple of years.
Get some thoughts from Warriors coach Andrew Webster, Zobey Sadowski
sint after her success in the X Games, some analysis

(41:14):
of Liam Lawson's first full time year as a Formula
One driver, and one of the more harrowing interviews of
the year as well with former All Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson,
who was finally awarded damages for the medical misadventure or

(41:34):
malpractice of his former employers at Portland. All of that
to come this hour as we look back on the
year in review. Our lines are open O. Eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty on Text nine two ninety two
Before we get to any of that. One of the
best parts of twenty twenty five I have to say
was the opportunity to take the show on what I

(41:55):
would like to call the nationwide weekend sport pub crawl.
Not that I was drinking during the shows, a lot
of others who were there were, but on several occasions
we took the show some of New Zealand's finest establishments
right around the country ahead of big sporting events in
those cities. In late May. We kicked it off at

(42:17):
Tyler Street Sport in Auckland, down by Britain mart for
Auckland FC's home semi final in the A League, where
I met a few Melbourne Victory fans.

Speaker 22 (42:26):
It's funny because when I got off the plane, they're like,
what are you here for. I'm like, I'm here for
the football and the police officer first and he goes,
I've been warned about you guys.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Wow wow. But that's the thing too, isn't it that
sometimes you know that Look, I think particularly the Australian
media not so much here, but they pick up on
anything to do with football that can paint it in
a bad light.

Speaker 23 (42:46):
Right Yeah.

Speaker 22 (42:46):
So I'm not sure if you've seen like we haud
of March before the game last week and the leading
story on the main news channel Channel seven was just smarts.
The police had no problems with it. It was all
done in good spirit. They made it like like we're
suburban terrast made it's the media.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, it's bees, but it's it's.

Speaker 24 (43:07):
Good coming over here because we don't have any rival
with the Auckland It's not like going to Sydney in Adelaide,
where you can't drink at the same pub.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
That's what we love what happens.

Speaker 22 (43:14):
That's why we come here. We want to have a
bere with the Auckland guys.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah. So they were two Melbourne Victory fans who actually
ended up being a great night because Auckland FC went
down to Melbourne Victory that night and Victory went through
to the Grand Final. In late June, we parked up
at the iconic Rock Pool in christ Church ahead of
the Super Rugby Final between the Crusaders and the Chiefs.
Chiefs CEO Simon Grafis and Crusader's boss Colin Mansbridge stopped

(43:39):
in for a chat.

Speaker 24 (43:41):
I saw Simon's coaching group today walking around Hagley Park
as I was going for a jog around this so
I've managed to get in their.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Heads a bit before they've turned up today. So don't
worry about that pining.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Can we get the cow bell thing out of the
way early? Like, have you brought any down Simon to
start with?

Speaker 25 (43:55):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (43:55):
Hang on, I'm actually hoping Colin Wtt smuggled in for me.

Speaker 24 (44:08):
There's only one person that we're going to be searching
at the gate today and that's the one that you've
just seen.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
So then it was into the All Blacks season. We
were at Emerson's in Dunedin for Test one against France
and joined there by, among others former Rugby World Cup
winning All Blacks Oka Andrew Hoare. This wouldn't have been
your first trip to Emerson's. I wouldn't imagine, no. But
it's quite a handy spot, isn't it.

Speaker 26 (44:32):
A few VARs here and stumble down on the rugby,
so it's.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Perfect, absolutely perfect. What are you up to these days?

Speaker 22 (44:36):
Mate?

Speaker 26 (44:37):
Just back home running the farm. So took over the
farm ten years ago or something. So last year is
pretty tough for finsra strakes and prices and this year's
things are looking pretty good. So farm is good and
fun and just away from it down here watch a
bit of footy and a catch up a few people
over the weekends.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
You obviously talked about watching rugby these days. Do you
have any more official involvements?

Speaker 25 (44:57):
Not?

Speaker 6 (44:57):
Really help out?

Speaker 26 (44:59):
See the Targo team were cople mates and I coached
at for the Top Cup which we had to win
this year on alex It is pretty good and to
see how about the young fellow and his unopen grade
team here and Toneda we'll see. He's twelve, so he's
been around and seen us here a Jordy beret this morning,
so he's pumped about that. And I felt like a
little group at the hotel. But they're sweet, so he's

(45:20):
right into it.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
That was the unmistakable voice of Andrew Hoare. A week later,
another former Rugby World Cup winning All Black soccer Dane Coles,
joined US at Shed twenty two and Wellington. That was
ahead of the second Test against France, so I asked
him if he missed playing on the day of a
Test with all the buzz and excitement around.

Speaker 27 (45:40):
Today, I actually do like coming home to Williamson. I
live up in Carperty, so the building and just walking
around and see all the fans.

Speaker 6 (45:46):
You know, it's been It's a.

Speaker 27 (45:46):
Different buzz, but yeah, at least I get to go
to the game and kind of watch it from the seats,
and I don't miss the contact pine But yeah, I
suppose a big build up with your kids and your
family is always special. But no regrets made. I'm happy
to be on the other side now and just sit
and have a beer and watch the game.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
And the following week Stephen Donald stopped into the roaming
giant Hamilton. We had a great chat and I wanted
to know if he was actually white baiting when Graham
Henry called him into the twenty eleven Rugby World Cup squad.

Speaker 28 (46:18):
A lot of my friends trying to say, were you
or were you just trying to make a quick buck
from the next movie or something, But no, it's true.
I was white bating down the river with my great
mate Douggie. And the River's got a pretty good reception
these days, isn't it. But that part of it is
still to this day hasn't been covered by any of
the any vitowers. So yeah, I was none the wise,

(46:41):
And you know, I went down there that day having
no information but thinking, shit, it's not me then who
you know? So obviously had already been an injury, and
you'd had a glimmer of hope. But my great mate
Cruds had got caught him ahead of me there on
that one, And yeah, I had hopes. But at the

(47:01):
time Pitty was goal kicking Petty. He had also the
ability to probably cover ten if me and I didn't
know how deep the Hong Kong fallout ran with the coaches,
you know, like, did they say I mean on yours
gone from the early announcements, But did it mean that
if they were down to number three, was I still gone?

Speaker 25 (47:20):
Gone?

Speaker 28 (47:21):
So I went down. They have no ambition or thought
of being a part of it.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Well he ended up being a massive part of it.
Great to chatter Beaver and Hamilton. Then it was off
to Auckland for the biggest test of the year against
South Africa at Eden Park and we parked up at
the Kingslander and met many All Blacks fans.

Speaker 18 (47:41):
I think we got here at seven minutes too, and
we were told no, no, it doesn't open until twelve,
so we were outside on the foot path.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
So what just keen to rather than just sort of
come to the game tonight and get rid of this?

Speaker 18 (47:51):
Listen to you from home to Tony.

Speaker 22 (47:53):
We've got to be here, so we are now.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
You don't look nervous, Tony. Are you nervous about the
game tonight?

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Well?

Speaker 29 (47:59):
It was a bit nerve wracking getting ready this morning,
my run sheet, of getting the All Blacks Jersey on,
supporters jersey, getting my makeup on, you know, packing my
battery pack for my phone out last year, listening it's
a thing I needed every second, so yeah, yeah, I'm
a bit there.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Well, I just thought the All Blacks had had some,
you know, some fairly extreme game day preparation. It sounds
like sounds like fans.

Speaker 18 (48:23):
Just burrowing my husband's charging cord for the mobile phone.
He was like, but where are you going to find
a plug. I'm like, we'll find a plug. We'll just
stand beside it.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
There are actually more plugs than you think around the place.
There's a couple over here. You can use it exactly
if you need to. Some wonderful All Blacks fans at
the Kingslander. Back down to Wellington we went for the
second South African Test and back to Sheard twenty two,
twenty fifteen Rugby World Cup winner near him. Ilner's scudder
popped in for a chat that day.

Speaker 30 (48:51):
Did a bit of a wander through town early doors.
My daughter loves getting on the cable car, so I
thought I will get out there bright and early to
miss all the Russian I thought, I was, you know,
and Joe Burg or something with all the green and
gold jerseys on the cable car and rolling around Lenton.
So it's awesome, buzz. You're really excited for tonight and
yere it's going to be a good one.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
And then back up to Auckland for the final home
test of the year, the Bleedislow Cup, where we met
some absolutely wonderful Wallabies fans. We got in last night,
late afternoon and it's been a big build up last
night and then through today lunchdown at the Viaduct and
building into the game. It's fantastic, absolutely brilliant to have
you here. How optimistic do you feel that you're going
to witness something special out there in the next couple

(49:35):
of hours. From a wallerby's point of view.

Speaker 23 (49:37):
Do you know what?

Speaker 22 (49:37):
I reckon?

Speaker 31 (49:37):
We're a better chance tonight or today than we have
been in fifteen years.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
It'll be a massive upset if we get the w
but we are a chance.

Speaker 31 (49:45):
And if the boys turn up and they draw a
line in the sand and they bring it, we'll go
home proud.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
That's all we're looking for.

Speaker 31 (49:51):
But do you know what we are half a chance
tonight and the Abs might be under a bit of pressure.
You guys are defending a record now. I think you
may be looking over your shoulder a little bit of us.
It doesn't happen very often. I reckon it could be
on the cards.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
This is razor sharp analysis from you mate. You sound
like a broadcast professional. And we just got lucky and
brought over, brought over one of rugby Australia's greatest handlers.
It's done well, poney, yep. How have the last two
decades been without that cup? It's tough. It's tough.

Speaker 31 (50:21):
I grew up in an era when we used to
school you guys, Gregan Larkham, Burke Eels, so it's been really,
really tough, and rugby in Australia has been struggling, like
there's no doubt about it. The Lines tour just gone
has been fantastic and it's great to see the Aussies
have been playing with some pride and you know, the
guy's been doing their best.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
The last two decades.

Speaker 31 (50:40):
We just haven't been good enough, but we feel like
we get Vina momentum now. We might not be good
enough tonight, but at least we're here with the show,
which is great.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Just so many great memories from our pub tour. We've
got to do that again in twenty twenty six, hopefully
we will, but the opportunity to take the show on
the road during twenty twenty five was one of the
true joys of the year here at Weekend Sport one seventeen.
Let's go right back to the start of the year.
In Januaryloe Sadowski Senate once again celebrated gold at the

(51:10):
X Games in Aspen. She was victorious in the women's
slope style, her fifth gold in that event, her sixth
overall at the X Games. I spoke to Zoe Sadowski
Senate shortly after the run.

Speaker 32 (51:23):
Yeah, honestly, I can't really believe it. I put down
and run that I didn't even think was possible that
I would ever do. And so to come back after
an injury that put me out last year and come
back to do that run and win gold, it means
everything to me.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
So the run, you're talking about the world's first triple
cork in a women's slopestyle competition. First of all, you're
going to have to tell us what that is.

Speaker 32 (51:51):
Yeah, at triple cork is.

Speaker 33 (51:54):
So what trick?

Speaker 32 (51:55):
It's four full rotations and you are flipping three times.
And when we say cork, it's because it's off access
in those four full rotations, the fourteen forty part and
those three flips kind of men together and it's a
really it's a really committing trick and quite a high consequence.

(52:19):
So it's been absolutely terrifying to learn and then put
it down on snow, and then now putting it into
a competition just feels insane.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
I mean just even hearing you talk about it. So
you've put it down in training. So was it always
the aim to try and put it down here?

Speaker 32 (52:40):
No, not at all. Honestly, I've done it in training
once before, and coming into X Games, I just wanted
to do it in the big air last night, and
even to do it there, I was so nervous to
the point where I, yeah, it's been so long since

(53:00):
I'd been at X Games, and I just knew that
I had to do it, and I ended up doing
a couple of them in the competition. So then the
big air jump is the same jump as the last
jump in the flop style course. So after doing that
last night, coming into today, I knew that I kind
of had only the only option was to go for

(53:21):
it and try and put down this run that honestly
seemed impossible to me a week ago.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Well, you might the impossible possible. You committed to it,
you land it. What are the emotions when you land it.

Speaker 32 (53:36):
Honestly, I wanted to cry after It's such a scary
trick and after landing my whole run before it, and
coming into that last jump knowing that I could go
for a ten to eighty, take a step back and
then and not do the fourteen forty like then, to

(54:00):
tell myself that I could do it, and to actually
be able to put it down when it counted, Yeah,
emotions were definitely running high and it felt it felt insane.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
That is remarkable self talk to yourself to tell yourself
to do it like that. Is that something that you've
developed over time, the courage to have that sort of
self talk and follow through with it.

Speaker 32 (54:23):
Yeah, definitely, I use a lot of self talk when
I'm snowboarding. It's sow warning is such a confidence fueled
sport and it's all about scaring yourself and to have
that little voice in the back of your head just
telling you to just go for it and do everything

(54:45):
you possibly can to make it work is It's so important.
And I had that in my head today and yeah,
it's definitely taken a long time to trust that voice,
but yeah, I'm just so stoked.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Zoe Sadowski Synata after winning another X Games gold back
in January. Gee, what an exciting time coming up for
her over the next couple of months as the Winter
Olympics fast approach. She's already won three Winter Olympics medals,
one of each color. She's back for the slope, style
and the big air and you would not count against
Zoe Sadowski sen It being back up on that podium

(55:23):
in Malona, Cortina in February. Look forward to covering that
when twenty twenty six rolls around one twenty two as
we look back on our year in review here at
Weekend Sport. Liam Lawson, of course, was probably the key
we athlete overseas who we kept the closest ion as
he had his first full season of Formula one, firstly

(55:45):
with Red Bull and then into the Racing Bulls Car.
We'll cover off his year with a couple of motor
racing icons, Mark Webber and David Coulthard featuring on our
year in review show when We come Back one twenty
two is.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
The biggest season in sport.

Speaker 6 (56:01):
Are on Weekend.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Sports with Jason Pain and GJ. Junnah, New Zealand's most
trusted home Builder News Dogs they'd be.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
One twenty five the twenty twenty five Year in Review
on Weekend Sport. Liam Lawson was one of our most
prominent sports people in twenty twenty five as we followed
his first full Formula One season. Former F one Australian
driver Mark Webber, who won nine Grand Prix and competed
in Formula One between two thousand and two and twenty thirteen,

(56:32):
joined me earlier in the year. This was on the
weekend of the second event on the calendar, the Chinese
Grand Prix. That was when Liam Lawson was still with
Red Bull. You remember that after that Grand Prix he
was then moved into the Racing Bulls team. But at
the time I spoke to Mark Webber, he was in
the Red Bull team and we talked about Liam's prospects
for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 34 (56:54):
Again a top team obviously, you know Red Bull of
serial winners, they're used to know, tremendous success. They're having
an immense amount of depth and experience within the organization
from an engineering perspective and operationally in a clearly world
world class Strategically, they're great obviously, Maximus stapp and you
know current four time world champion, so he will be

(57:15):
of course leading the team. So for Liam to have
access to how Max operates will be absolutely phenomenal.

Speaker 6 (57:21):
Phy.

Speaker 34 (57:22):
But that's a very very good positive. But you know,
everyone's not a finishing school, you know, I always say
when you arrive and F one, it's not a finishing school.
You've got to really try to get up to speed
as fast as possible and and put the car on
a sippy toes and be consistently on the limit for
the car. So I think that's where Liam, you know,

(57:44):
he he knows he's at the pinnacle now Formula one.
He has the chance read Bull have showed the belief
in him to give him a full contract and now
he's just got to immerse himself into understanding that's you know,
his job as a racing driver, and his job is
to get the absolute maximum out of himself a FAP

(58:05):
and that's what he needs to do. And I'm sure he's,
of course he's trying to do that.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
How bright is the F one spotlight and how deep
is the pressure that comes with that?

Speaker 34 (58:15):
Of course you know there's only twenty of them on
the grid, you know, And you know, I think that
you know, the the industry media. You know, obviously it's
very they're incredibly well educated, some more so than others,
of course, but they try to you know, they're always
looking for opportunities to maybe create some extra pressure or

(58:36):
certain scenarios and they might not have all the pieces
of the jigsaw, but you know, the team's under pressure,
the driver's under pressure, you know, because everyone's got goals
and standards. Everyone's going trying to get towards the front
of the grid. But as we know, there can be
only one one winner or one perceived group or teams
that are doing well.

Speaker 6 (58:56):
So right now, I.

Speaker 34 (58:57):
Mean, you know, Ferrari and McLaren has come out of
the blocks pretty strong as Max. I mean Max is there,
so Liam, you know, replaced so Joe because they needed
those extra points and start to contribute to the Constructors
Championship because that's a huge for the teams. They need
to consistent drivers. So that's where you know the pressure
can mount. You know, as long as he's contributing to

(59:20):
the points in a healthy fashion, then he will be
under no pressure.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Well he was under pressure as it turned out. Shortly
after that interview with Mark where the Chinese Grand Prix
took place, and shortly after that, Liam Lawson was moved
out of the Red Bull team and into the second tier,
if you can call it that, Racing Balls team, still
of course among the twenty drivers on the F one grid.
The following Grand Prix was a couple of weeks later

(59:47):
in Japan, and Lillam Lawson outqualified the man who replaced
him at Red Bull, Yuki Sonoda, at the Japanese Grand
Prix at Suzuka. So after that I was joined by
Formula one icon David Coulthard, who of course raced Formula
one between nineteen ninety four and two thousand and eight,
winning thirteen Grand Prix across his fifteen seasons in IF one.

(01:00:10):
He gave us some insight into the confidence Liam Lawson
will have gained from at qualifying Yuki Sonauda after he
had been dropped down to ricing Balls.

Speaker 35 (01:00:20):
Yeah, it was an important weekend for him to rebuild
after what was very very difficult first to Grand Prix.
And he won't be happy, because you're only happy when
you're you know, a little bit ahead.

Speaker 6 (01:00:32):
Of your teammate, that is your benchmark at the end
of the day.

Speaker 35 (01:00:35):
But he will be let's say a little bit of
pressure has been released.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
He's back in an environment, he knows the team well.

Speaker 35 (01:00:42):
They've done a great effort to welcome him home, welcome
him back into that team.

Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
And of course he will be validated in his.

Speaker 35 (01:00:49):
Difficulties in the first two races by going, well, look,
Yuki was further up the grids in this car and
he's now behind me. So there'll be a lot of
those sort of box ticking exercises.

Speaker 6 (01:00:59):
But when you take away that emotion, when you take away.

Speaker 35 (01:01:02):
That, you know what sort of parents desire to put
your arm around the shoulders of these guys.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
This is formula one.

Speaker 35 (01:01:12):
And when you take away all the opinion and you
take away all the emotion, you're left with data. And
that data is called a stopwatch, and that stopwatch doesn't lie.

Speaker 6 (01:01:21):
So I think Liam can feel good.

Speaker 35 (01:01:26):
I think there's a great building block for him going forward,
big opportunity again tomorrow to see if he can bring
the car home and the points.

Speaker 6 (01:01:33):
I believe in Liam. I think he's a talent.

Speaker 35 (01:01:35):
I think he just didn't quite get himself up to
speed quickly enough within the rebulls scenario.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
But this is his opportunity to rebuild.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
What about Yuki Sonoda, David, He's qualified fifteenth. That car
is clearly very difficult to drive. Liam head trouble in it.
Yuki fifteenth today? How do you predict he will go
in that car?

Speaker 35 (01:01:59):
Yeah, he will be disappointed, of course, because he was
within a few tenths of Max through the clean free practices,
which I think that's all that's really expected. If anyone
is matching Max consistently, you know you found the next
super talent, haven't you. You know, But whether you're a
Maxistappen fan or not, this isn't about putting your favorite
cap on.

Speaker 6 (01:02:19):
This is just about dealing with the facts.

Speaker 35 (01:02:20):
You know, Max is a generational talent, and for UK
or any of Max's teammates, it's about being within a
few times. And if you can be within a few times,
then you're you're doing a great job. The difficulty, of course,
that anyone in that car right now is having Formula
one is so incredibly close. If you're half a second
or more away, you're outside the top ten.

Speaker 6 (01:02:43):
You're therefore in a difficult.

Speaker 35 (01:02:45):
Situation to make strategy work to find points in the
Grand Prix itself.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
David Colta do you want to throw it. We was
to speak to him. That was just a small snippet
of the interview. All of these interviews are avilable to
listen back to bother way. If you search Weekend Sport
you'll get a list of all the interviews and if
you join a podcast right they're all available there as well.
Liam Lawson went on, of course, to finish fourteenth in
his first full time season in Formula One and was

(01:03:13):
at the back end of the year and not before time.
I might add given the seat for next year, so
he'll be back on the grid. Round one of the
twenty twenty six Formula One season is the Australian Grand
Prix in Melbourne March six through eight. We're looking back
on twenty twenty five on Weekend Sport. One of the

(01:03:34):
more harrowing interviews we featured this year was with former
or Whites goalkeeper Jake Gleeson. Now in March, a jury
awarded him thirty five point seven million New Zealand dollars
and damages after he brought a medical malpractice suit against
his ex team doctor at the Portland Timbers. Jake Gleson's

(01:03:56):
football career came to a Halt in twenty eighteen after
a back surgery to treat stress fractures in both of
his legs went wrong. Both of his legs became infected.
It was alleged the plates inserted into his legs hadn't
been properly sterilized. He has since undergone fourteen further surgeries,

(01:04:18):
and this eventually ended his career. Had a long chat
to Jake and asked about the mental toll this had
taken on him, and just a warning, this answer contains
references to suicide.

Speaker 36 (01:04:34):
Yeah, and I'll do my best not to break down
for you, mate, I haven't. I've put it in a
box inside me for a very long time. So the
trial I kind of let it all out. I was
able to tell my story. I think you did. There
were points where I just didn't want to live anymore,

(01:04:57):
as simple as that. The best way to explain it is,
I felt the world would be a better place if
I wasn't in it. I was just a a burden
on my friends, a burden on my now fiance, who's
the most wonderful person in the world for putting up
with me, And we had just started dating sing then
all this happened, and she was, you know, picking up

(01:05:22):
my scrips, helped me eat when I cared making me
eat and I couldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
She was there through it all.

Speaker 36 (01:05:28):
So there was a long time where it was yeah,
very very very dark times. I'll give you I'll open
up quite quite open here. And the worst that got
was I basically had a pill jar because I've been
prescribed so many you know, oprio, It's like pain killers

(01:05:49):
and antire anxiety and all these things. So I filled
this pill jar up with enough pills that I know
that if I took it all the once so it
would kill me. And I drove out a few times
to different places, all one place, a couple of places
around Portland with that, and I had that around me

(01:06:11):
for a few months. And there was definitely some some
close calls where I thought that that was going to
be the day.

Speaker 37 (01:06:17):
But never.

Speaker 36 (01:06:21):
Never did it never went through with that, which I'm
I'm happy about, but I'm also you know, you battle
with the internal side of it of leading yourself get
that bad. So it's an interesting space to fall in.
But it was a very it was a very dark
time and it's it's something I wouldn't wish on wash

(01:06:42):
On anyone, and you know there were there were a
lot of factors that that kind of led to that
for me to get to that point and the last
few years, I would just say it's been a slow
climb out of a very very deep dark hole.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
We took a break after that answer, came back and
chatted some more with Jake Gleason. I asked him if
he'd fallen out of love with football.

Speaker 37 (01:07:08):
It's a great question, no, because if you.

Speaker 36 (01:07:20):
If I could play one more professional game and walk out,
whether it be with All White game, Timbers game, I
would I would give a lot to do that, basically anything.
And the reason I know I haven't is that there
are still mornings I wake up and I forget everything
that's happened, and I actually get up thinking I'm about
to go into training. It's a game that gave me

(01:07:43):
a lot of opportunity. I owe the game a lot.
There was a period after all this where I had
to walk away from it, and I did, and I
looked at it as a source of anger or anxiety
or stress.

Speaker 37 (01:07:56):
But I think slowly over.

Speaker 36 (01:07:58):
Time, I can't deny the fact that I love football,
and that's that's been in me since I was a kid,
so I'm I'm.

Speaker 37 (01:08:06):
Excited to watch more.

Speaker 36 (01:08:08):
I haven't really watched much and to slowly get back
into it and hopefully it hurts a little bit less
and less over time that I can no longer do it.
And I think one of the most excited for us
to see the boys in between twenty six course some
upsets in the States. I couldn't be more excited for
the Al Whites and the boys on the team that
I know, and all the young guns coming through. I mean,

(01:08:31):
they're an impressive bunch, so I'll be there supporting them
for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
That is the voice of Jake Gleeson, who I spoke
with earlier this year. Incredibly powerful chat from him and
just incredible what he went through through absolutely no fault
of his own medical malpractice lawsuit against his ex team
doctor at Portland Timbers and thankfully for Jake Gleeson an

(01:08:59):
outcome which was a positive one. But he did say
during that interview that if he had the choice of
being awarded all of that money or having his football career,
he'd take the football career in a heartbeat. Twenty two
away from two, this is our year in review. When
we come back Andrew Webster Warriors coach had a great

(01:09:19):
chat to Webb just after they got back from Vegas. Actually,
so things weren't going that well, but he gave us
a lot of good insight Our year and review show
continues in just a moment here on news Talks eb.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
You love Voice of Sport on your Home of Sport,
Weekend Sport with Jason Vyn and GJ. Gunner Homes New
Zealand's most trusted home builder News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Heb coming up eighteen to two. We had a number
of studio guests across the year, some of them gave
up a whole hour of their time. We heard from
Scott robertson before one o'clock. Andrew Webster, Warriors coach also
stopped in for a full hour in late March and
covered a wide range of topics. I asked him about
man management as a sports coach and whether there were

(01:10:02):
principles that were true across every player he coached, or
in fact whether every player was different.

Speaker 38 (01:10:10):
I think if you treat people well and develop people
that are work in any environment doesn't mean you can't
be really brutally honest as well. But I think also
too a toxic environment will only work for so long.
Like I've seen harsh, aggressive environments where they have short

(01:10:32):
term goal gains, but long term they always fail. They
fall apart very quickly, but you can see a real spiking.
People are on their toes. People are worried. I better
be good at this. Otherwise this is going to happen,
but you can't sustain it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
Cam Georgian here last year and I asked them this question.
I ask you was well. I asked him whether he
thought a sporting franchise or any organization could survive one dickhead.
He said no, Do you agree?

Speaker 38 (01:11:01):
I think no dickad policy will always give you the
best chance to see access, that's for sure.

Speaker 20 (01:11:09):
I think the thing is sometimes if there's a guy
who's a.

Speaker 38 (01:11:12):
Bit rough around the edges, and you get an amazing
culture and establish one, they could help grow that person
and do even better person. But if they're fundamentally deep
down to dickhead and always going to be one, then
they don't. They shouldn't be in your organization, or if
they are, they shouldn't be there for long.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
Players always talk about having a why. I'm sure coaches
do as well. You alluded to it before. I think
it's based around the people that you work with, the
men that you work alongside, those so you influence on
a day to day basis. Is that your why or
is it greater than that? Why do you do this?

Speaker 25 (01:11:47):
Well?

Speaker 38 (01:11:47):
I got different wise now. I think your why changes
as you go. My why has not been I want
to be a head coach for any other reason? Then
I just feel like you want that feeling of I
think I'd be good at it.

Speaker 20 (01:12:02):
I feel like if you.

Speaker 38 (01:12:03):
Enjoy your job and your rewards, then you get that
self satisfaction. I'm not in it for the pats on
the back, if I'm being honest from everyone else's. It's
just like I would love to create an environment where
everyone loves coming to work and they can be their
best and succeed. And that is so self satisfy. That
is so satisfying to be a part of that see

(01:12:24):
other people grow, and that's just my thing.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
That's my wife.

Speaker 20 (01:12:28):
I love the game like I generally love footy.

Speaker 38 (01:12:30):
I'd be doing it for nothing, you know, now old days,
I'm sure they all coach, you know, for no money.
But I'd be one of those guys like I generally
love rugby league and I love people. But yeah, for
my family as well, like for my mum and dad
and my brother and sister and my wife and my
little boy, Like i'd like to making them proud and

(01:12:53):
one day they can see mom and dad always Mum
and dad always to say, if you find something that
you're passionate about, if you chase it, and if that
becomes your job, you're pretty lucky. And I don't know
if enough people have that in their life. So if
I can teach my son, that'd be pretty cool. Last
question is around the connection to your fans. Yep, how
important is that and how important are your fans to you? Yeah, Well,

(01:13:16):
getting back to the why a bit, like I'm an Australian.
I came back to this club after working here for
two years ago, eight years ago, so I had a
connection here then and I didn't want to be a
head coach at an in club. I wanted to be
where I felt like I would fit and for some reason,
I feel like I fit here and I hope that
everyone feels the same. So then coming back then, my

(01:13:39):
wife was about, you know, I just want to improve
people and everyone to be happy, create a great environment
that people can be the best and then for him, no,
like I want the fans to taste that success, but
more like grand finals that's our goal, Like I can
promise everyone that, but the real goal is sustained success
on the fans being proud of the way the boys

(01:14:00):
play even when we're not at our best, like and
that's I feel like last year thirteenth, but we sold
it out every week. There were still they still saw effort,
they still saw care, they still saw a team that
they wanted to come and support.

Speaker 20 (01:14:14):
So yeah, they're part of my wide the.

Speaker 38 (01:14:16):
Fans, and you know, we'd say in a game to
christ Theres in a couple of weeks we go to
Australia was so well supported, Like we go I'm not
going to mention the teams we go to away games
and we've got more fans in them sometimes like that's
we're very proud of that as a club and I'm
very proud to be a part of it.

Speaker 20 (01:14:33):
So they're huge for us. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Andrew Webster an hour and studio back in March. Ge Honestly,
you learn so much when you listen to coaches like
that with so much experience but also such Wisdom could
have spent three or four hours in studio with Andrew Webster,
looking forward to seeing how the Warriors go in twenty
twenty six. In May, the hot Off It to a

(01:14:56):
Carpety rugby union took the unprecedented step of threatening to
cancel senior club rugby matches in response to escalating abuse
towards their match officials. CEO Hotton of a Corpany Rugby Union,
Cory Kennett, joined me to discuss this. I asked how
bad the abuse of grassroots referees had become.

Speaker 34 (01:15:20):
It's bad.

Speaker 39 (01:15:21):
It's a nationwide epidemic and it's bad. There's no area,
no provincial union in New Zealand it isn't affected and
it's bad. What I do have to say is it
is across all sports and sadly it's a mirror of
the degradation and society of respect in particular for authority figures,

(01:15:43):
but also for volunteerism, for community servants.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
So yeah, it's.

Speaker 20 (01:15:49):
Bad out there, mate.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Do you think it's gotten worse?

Speaker 39 (01:15:53):
Absolutely, as we've seen in the last I'm seventeen years
in as CEO and it's definitely got worse in my time.
And what we're seeing is is the more severe incidents. Sadly,
speaking with Z, are you know you've got referees at

(01:16:13):
least one a year being physicallys assaulted to the point
where they need medical attention at least once a year.
Once again, we see this in other sports and the
news of you now and again, sadly, quite often in
a child's game, but more often than a men's game.

Speaker 11 (01:16:31):
We have a.

Speaker 39 (01:16:33):
Teenage rugby game and givesbon. The other day spectator came
on felt with their rights to get involved in a fight.
That whole lack of standing up to the values that
underpin our great game in community sport in general. Who's
just been degraded and so referee abuses has been degraded

(01:16:54):
as part of that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
Let's get our cards on the table here, Corey. What
sort of abuse are we talking about here? Like, I
don't expect you to include the swear words, which no
doubt are part of this is the level of abuse
that has been received by some of your match officials.

Speaker 39 (01:17:13):
Doing a referee to get aft or your e f
and joking is now seen as relatively low level, of course,
prosecuted to the full extent of the regulations. We can
what we're talking about is comments, and they've got to
say that we're seeing a huge increase in severity from spectators.

(01:17:37):
So the players and the coaches and the management have
in general been the best group. Spectators thrown away discussing
comments like good luck getting home, I'm going to follow
you to the car park, that sort of low level
cowardly statements. But the referee I was just talking about,

(01:17:58):
who not only volunteers as a refeels a volunteers and
helping to run the Referees Association. So he was shouldered
by running past, disgruntled with the decision. The next one
who was verbally abused and told that he was going
to get beaten up as well as being shouldered, and
then was hit with a piece of field equipment in

(01:18:23):
the foot. So there's a referee who was going to
go out and give up his time, his time away
from his far no possibly take time off work, and
he's had to suffer that sort of crap, right, So
that's the sort of level and what I would say
in those instances, I've told you that would probably only
put us about mid table if we were to do

(01:18:45):
a table of the worst defenses.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
Just shocking stuff, shocking stuff. Talking to Corey Kennet hot
offin to a corpany of rugby union, they threatened to
cancel senior club rugby matches. Standards improved for a little while,
but then they followed through postponing all junior, secondary and
senior rugby fixtures for the last weekend of June. I

(01:19:07):
hope we can get some sort of improvement in this
in twenty twenty six, but I'm not holding my breath.
Nine away from two news talks in b.

Speaker 6 (01:19:15):
The sup for the.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Drag Field and the Court on your home of Sport
Weekend's Sport with Jason Lyne Youth.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
Talk ZIB looking back on the year. In March, American
boxing legend George Foreman died at the age of seventy six.
He famously reclaimed the world heavyweight title at the age
of forty five after coming out of retirement. World famous
boxing promoter Any Hern joined me to discuss George Foreman's legacy.

Speaker 40 (01:19:43):
Yeah, I mean iconic really in so many ways, I think,
you know, for me growing up, it was more about
the comeback, you know, this giant of an older man
really who seemed to have dynamite in his fists, and
I think the remarkable thing was, obviously for me, the
second phase of the.

Speaker 6 (01:20:02):
Career and doing it at that age.

Speaker 40 (01:20:04):
I mean, you know, the older Janner, probably my dad
and people like that, would really talk about, you know,
the fights with Fraser, particularly the first one in Jamaica.
I mean that was you know, he went over there
really as an opponent and knocked out Fraser in his
homecoming in Jamaica. Obviously beat him twice, of course the
rumble in the Jungle, But for me kind of like

(01:20:25):
the second phase, and I think people forget about that
route to become world heavyweight champion for the second time.
It wasn't that he just came back in the ring
and had one or two fights. He went on a
long run, you know, ten years out of the ring
and then came back. Actually lost to Tommy Morrison in
the fight before Michael Mora when he become world heavyweight champion.
And I remember that fight so clearly watching that when

(01:20:46):
he knocked him out. I think Mara was twenty three
and a zero at the time. You know, he was
a a Teddy Atlas fighter, very well regarded, and he
just flattened him with an uppercut and you know, became
a champion again. And you know, obviously people also know
him outside of the boxing world through his products and
his books and his grill and just just the sort

(01:21:08):
of big, cuddly bear really, but in the early days
of his career he was a real beast of a fighter,
you know, a strong, strong man and you know, cuddly George,
you know, lovable George. I met him once and he
was just just had a huge smile on his face
all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
That's Eddie Hearn remembering the life and times of George Foreman.
Our year and review continues after two o'clock, including one
of the great wanders down memory Lane that we enjoyed
in the twenty twenty five recollecting one of our great
golfing feats. We're back after the news at Too.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
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 Vime on your home of Sport
News Talks.

Speaker 4 (01:21:59):
It'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
Two o seven is the time. I'm Jason Pine Bevan
jewis producing the show. This is the final Weekend Sport
for twenty twenty five. It's our Year in Review show
some of our favorite interviews of the year to come
between now and three Loup Vincent really really interesting chat
to Loeu Vincent, The Shear, Sammy Maxwell, Paul Cole and

(01:22:23):
others before we hand over to Max Toll after three o'clock.
But we took many trips down memory lane. In twenty
twenty five, we had a number of sports people join
us to talk about some of their feats from years
gone by. In two thousand and two, KEEPI golfer Craig
Perks produced one of golf's most memorable wins when he

(01:22:45):
was victorious in the Players Championship, the so called Fifth Major.
Twenty three years on, he joined me to discuss this
historic accomplishment. We had a great chat. Let's pick it
up as he remembers the very last hole.

Speaker 33 (01:23:01):
So this was my first Players Championship and I play
this round Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I'd hit driver there
every single day. And again, I'm a kiwi and I
have no idea. I had no idea how to win
golf tournaments I had, you know, I played on the
I'd won a lot in mini tours and a little
bit in college. But you know, I wasn't proficient at it.

(01:23:23):
So I didn't stand on that tea going okay, I've
got to protect this too shot lead I'm really thinking more, okay,
I just hit a good T shot and then hit
it in the grain and make a power not not
the culmination of the whole week. And where I positioned myself.
You know, legitimately, great champions would have probably hit a
four or five on down to the right and hit
an eight iron short of the green and knocked it

(01:23:45):
on and made a five and one by one and
walked off, and everyone would have pat padded to you
on the back.

Speaker 6 (01:23:51):
And said well done.

Speaker 33 (01:23:51):
I just I was still trying to play golf like
I had through my career in New Zealand and then
through college and the Mini Tours and the and the
Nike two and so on and so forth, and so
I just thought, I'm going to hit this drive and
I'm gonna take down the right. It sets up perfectly.
I had a draw and lo and beholder. You know,
coming down on the down swing, you don't want to

(01:24:13):
hook it in the water, so you block it to
the right. And then I get over there and I'm
still trying to make it four not thinking.

Speaker 6 (01:24:19):
Okay, I can just make.

Speaker 33 (01:24:20):
It five and I can still win. And then I pitched.
I was able to pitch it out, which I think
was a pretty smart play. And then I hit this
wonderful aid iron from one hundred and sixty yards and
thinking it's perfect in.

Speaker 6 (01:24:33):
The middle of the green that goes over the green.

Speaker 33 (01:24:34):
My first thought was, Jean Vandervelt, I'm going to make
it double or a triple or a quadruple, and I'm
gonna lose this and I'm gonna look like the biggest
moron in the entire world. And I can't believe I've
just done this. I've hit it over the green in
three and now I really do.

Speaker 6 (01:24:48):
Have to get it up and down. And I walked
back there, and.

Speaker 33 (01:24:52):
You know, again there was this sense of calm. This
wasn't the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life,
so try and keep my competitive career alive. At spots
along the journey was more difficult because they might not
been a tomorrow here. If I didn't get this up
and down and I last in the playoff, it would
still be my best ever finished and I might have made,

(01:25:14):
you know, seven hundred and fifty thousand and I would
have kept my card and I was on my way
and all this sort of stuff. But when I walked
down there, the lie was really really good. There was
a slight little puff of breeze back in my face,
and I said, I've hit this. All I did was
work on my short game. I love spending time just

(01:25:36):
tucked away.

Speaker 6 (01:25:37):
Somewhere working on my short gam And I.

Speaker 33 (01:25:39):
Said, you've done this a thousand times, not thinking I'm
going to make this, but just get this ball up
and down. And as soon as I hit it, I said,
I've done it, because I didn't expect it to go in,
but I knew it wasn't going to be more than
a couple of feet past, and lo and behold it
dropped in, and then obviously pandemonium.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
Brilliant, So good gee, what a great description when getting
goosebum was even listening to you talk about it. Defending
champion Tiger Woods finished seven shots behind you in a
tie for fourteenth, but then he handed over the trophy
and famously said, you're unbelievable. How cool the moment was that?

Speaker 33 (01:26:10):
Well, more famously, you know, after you finished the round,
you've got to walk through the grandstand and go to
the scorer's tent and validate it all and make sure
it's official. And my wife was Maureen, she was with me. Uh,
and so we walked. They said, some of the red
coats there, Brian going the tournament director. He escorted me back.

(01:26:32):
He said, look, the commissioner will be on a little
platform behind the green and your there's a trophy presentation
with listen. I had no idea what what had just occurred.
I had no idea how to walk and be present
in a prize ceremony or.

Speaker 6 (01:26:48):
Anything like this. I had. I'm just I'm.

Speaker 33 (01:26:51):
Complete rookie and all this, you know, sort of theatrics
and what was going on. And then so we Marian
and I my wife walked through the the grand stand
and I sort of peaked to my right and I
looked over and I said what, I'm not going to
use the explicator, but I said what? And then you know,
what is Tiger Woods doing here? And then I'm like, okay,

(01:27:13):
So where he's the defending Champanese hold standing there with
the crystal.

Speaker 6 (01:27:17):
Tim Vinchm's there.

Speaker 33 (01:27:19):
So we walk up under the podium and Tiger looks
me in I'd play with Tiger two weeks previous at
Drau the event down there in Florida in the final
round and I paid well, I'd finished fifth and Tiger
finished second, and so you know, and Stevie Williams on
the bank obviously, so there's a connection there.

Speaker 6 (01:27:36):
And so we walk up and.

Speaker 33 (01:27:37):
Tiger looks at me and laughs and shakes his hand,
and then Maureen's sitting right next to me, and I'm
going to swear.

Speaker 4 (01:27:42):
On the air.

Speaker 6 (01:27:42):
I hope you guys don't go on. Go on, so
it's not that bad.

Speaker 33 (01:27:46):
But so I walk up there, shake Tiger's hand. He goes,
you know, you're unbelievable whatever, and then he sort of
moves over, slides over and looks down to Maureen and
puts his hand out and he goes, nice to meet
you on Tiger Woods. And Maureen looks up and goes, yeah,
no shit, So you know it was that was sort
of I chucked and we laugh about that.

Speaker 6 (01:28:09):
Of course, we know your title woods.

Speaker 33 (01:28:10):
You don't really have to introduce.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
That is Craig Perks remembering the Players Championship win in
two thousand and two. Brilliant stuff and great recollections from
Craig Perks this is our year in review Show two
fourteen KeyWe Cross Country Mountain Bike Out. Sammy Maxwell had
a breakout year. In October, she became the first New
Zealander to win a UCI World Series title. She joined

(01:28:36):
me to chat about that, but also about her life
in Europe outside of racing.

Speaker 21 (01:28:41):
It's funny, I always thought have been an athlete'd like
so chill, what you rade your biat for a few
hours a day and then what you just get a massage.

Speaker 16 (01:28:48):
But now that I'm here, it's so hectic.

Speaker 21 (01:28:51):
Like I guess, I like to put a lot on
my plate with studying as well. I do like French
courses online at the moment. But yeah, a lot of
time goes into training, recovery, preparing for your training, just
managing like levels, doing lots of like monitoring. I do
a lot of like journaling and stuff which helps with

(01:29:13):
my head. But yeah, I'm pretty pretty pretty happy in
a sense that I'm getting out of stage now where
I can just go out for like four or five
hours and I just design like a really nice loop
through the French Alps or the Pyrenees, and I'm just
so happy. You know, you'd come back at like three
o'clock in the afternoon and.

Speaker 16 (01:29:35):
Have some lunch and then get have some more food.

Speaker 21 (01:29:39):
I actually think we probably spend half our day eating
athletes honestly.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
Yeah. But it's hard, right, It's hard, man. I mean,
you know, physically mentally, this is challenging. It ain't just
to ride through the through the mountains and a nice
three o'clock lunch.

Speaker 41 (01:29:55):
It's hard, right, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I guess the I
think as an athlete, for us, the hardest thing is like,
well for me anyway, the thing I struggle most with
is like uncertainty of how I'm going to perform every day.

Speaker 16 (01:30:11):
Imagine like every day you go to work.

Speaker 21 (01:30:12):
And you have like someone saying, like you have to
do forty papers today, or like you have and like
every day we are like measuring ourselves our progress.

Speaker 16 (01:30:25):
Every day.

Speaker 21 (01:30:25):
We have a standard we have to reach, and then
we have a standard that we have expected.

Speaker 16 (01:30:29):
Ourselves that we have to reach. So like, especially on
days where you.

Speaker 21 (01:30:34):
Have intervals, it's like a race day every day. So yeah,
I think that's just the biggest things like that, that
uncertainty of like will you achieve your goal today?

Speaker 16 (01:30:42):
It's quite tiring in some aspects. But the more I
do it, Yeah, the more I do it, the more.

Speaker 21 (01:30:49):
I'm learning that there is variability and it sometimes well,
there's always a reason why you can't hit your numbers
or why you can't execute a training, and that just
means you have to rest a bit more. And yeah,
maybe you would have liked been able to do a
good session, but there is a way to fix it, right,
You've just got to not be silly and put your

(01:31:09):
head in the sand and keep pushing. You've got to
listen to your body and take a bit of a break.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
But yeah, So, I mean, you've been really open about
your eating disorder and its effect on your performances, and
you talked about sustainability at the start of our chat,
and I've heard you talk about wanting to perform over
a sustained period and being able to do that. Can
you tell us about the support you've received and the
strategies you've employed to do that.

Speaker 6 (01:31:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:33):
Sure.

Speaker 21 (01:31:33):
I work with the NZET Eating disorder Clinics, So there's
doctor Roge, and then I have a nutritionist, a new
nutritionist actually at the moment, and a psychologist, Hink, and
I work with Hink probably every two weeks oh no, Yeah,
every two weeks at the moment just kind of chickens.
It's really hard to do full and a REXA therapy

(01:31:56):
while I'm overseas. But we have been employing some basic
like I said, some basic journaling, doing lots of like
mindfulness and stuff. It's been really helpful with my emotions.
But yeah, a big important part of me is just
monitoring my health at the moment, Like you say, sustainability
is super important. And actually coming up here to altitude

(01:32:17):
it's been quite interesting and challenging kind of, I guess
some of those aspects, like you have to take it
a bit easier on those first few days because your
body's working harder, and that's shown kind of how my
eating disorder would use sports as a way to.

Speaker 16 (01:32:33):
Earn food or something like that.

Speaker 21 (01:32:34):
So coming up here has been super interesting and showing
different ways which my eating disorder presents itself. But yeah,
I've been seeking therapy for two years now and I
think it's the best choice I've made. I honestly don't
think I would be where I was right now if
I hadn't the start of therapy.

Speaker 16 (01:32:54):
And for sure, it's a long process.

Speaker 21 (01:32:56):
But I'm I know it's the right thing to do,
do you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
And does success on the bike necessarily are quite to
success off the bike regard?

Speaker 14 (01:33:08):
No way, no way, not at all.

Speaker 13 (01:33:09):
No.

Speaker 21 (01:33:10):
I've found the last yeah around and Dora and the
last few weeks have actually been really tough, like mentally
with my eating disorder, and I think it's quite interesting
to come to terms with the fact that on the
start line and after the races, I can be like
super positive, super happy, and then an hour later I'm

(01:33:31):
like in my bedroom freaking out because I have like
some sort of food in front of it that's scary.
And it's been quite hard like functioning quite a lot
of cortisol and stuff like that, right, food selling I
can't avoid. And I think a lot of that has
to do with just the last few years taking my
head out of the sand and accept that there is
a problem and that comes with having to do some

(01:33:53):
work to fix the problem.

Speaker 16 (01:33:55):
So there's it's been quite challenging.

Speaker 21 (01:33:58):
But yeah, just because I'm successful on the bike doesn't
always I mean I'm successful off the bike, but the
other way around definitely correlates. If I'm successful off the bike,
it's when i'm most successful on the bike for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
Sammy Maxwell a world champion, the first New Zealander to
win a UCI World Series title and she did it
in twenty twenty five. Always love a chat to Sammy Maxwell.
Coming up twenty past two. We'll take a great come
back lou Vincent, I think one of our most listened
to interviews in twenty twenty five. Lou Vincent after this

(01:34:33):
on our Year in review show.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
The Big Issues on and after Fields Call Oh eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty Weekends Forward with Jason.

Speaker 6 (01:34:42):
Fine and GJ.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
Gunnerholmes, New Zealand's most trusted home Milder News Talks at Baby.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
News Talks the b two twenty three Looking back at
twenty twenty five. Former New Zealand cricketer lou Vincent provided
one of our most listened to interviews this year. Over
a decade ago, he was banned for life for his
involvement in attempting to manipulate cricket matches overseas. That band
was relaxed in December twenty twenty three due largely to

(01:35:10):
lu Vinson's high levels of contrition and remorse. He joined
us for a chat in October. We had a long,
long chat. I asked him about how he was recruited
into match fixing, well.

Speaker 42 (01:35:25):
Seven years of having anti coruption meetings with the ICC,
which is all part of you know, playing domestic cricket
in the National cricket every two you go on, you
sit there for half an hour and you get told
by a former cop that you know, be careful of this,
and be careful of the bookies and be careful of
the honey trips and stuff. And you know, when I
got approached in India at the ICL, it was an

(01:35:46):
unsanctioned tournament, so you know, we didn't have that sort
of protection, but the education was always there and you know,
in a real brief, brief summary of what happened to
me was, you know, the phone rang was an Indian
guy offering a batting sponsorship, which happens every time you
go to India, but because you know, sort of turns
our back on mainstream cricket and signed up for this

(01:36:08):
rebel league where we were all free agents. So we
met the Indian fell and chatted for you know, he's
a good hour or so, and you know it was
as they do, they make they make you feel pretty
good and a couple of whiskeys later, and you know,
your year, he goes pumped up, and you know, by
that stage, I'd come off a bit of a heavy
mental breakdown at the end of my career, and you know,

(01:36:30):
to had that sort of attention and felt good and
then wham. That's when you know, once he thought he
built that trust with me, it was like, well, the
business is actually going to be spot fixing, and and
his fifteen thousand cash and handed over to me, and
that's when your penny dropped that this is all those
years of education, this is this is that that situation.

(01:36:50):
I've been approached by a bookie. And so I managed
to get out of that room as quick as I
could and went straight to my manager and reported it
and she was going to hand it over to the
security at the hotel and sat from there. So that
was the end of that part. But on the way
back down to my room, went past, you know, a

(01:37:12):
fellow cricketers room and and.

Speaker 34 (01:37:15):
I was, I said, you wouldn't believe it.

Speaker 42 (01:37:17):
I've told told them the story and I said, this
is what happened, and you know, and you know, and
then it's sort of there was that moment of science
of you've done the right thing, but now you're going
to be working for me, And there I am saying
yes straight away. So so when I do talk to
these governing bodies, I say, it's it's not so much
the people that, yeah, you don't know, you're gonna worried

(01:37:38):
about it. The people that you do know that recruit
as well. And that's certainly how it happened to me.
And and and that's how it all sort of started.
There's the spot sic thing syndicate I was recruited into
with people I knew and felt safe, and I felt, yep,
this everyone else seems to be doing it.

Speaker 11 (01:37:57):
And you know, this.

Speaker 42 (01:37:59):
Cripts just like a bunch of crickets playing in the backyard.

Speaker 11 (01:38:04):
It just happens to be on TV.

Speaker 42 (01:38:05):
It's unsanctioned and let's get a piece of the pipe
because everybody else is.

Speaker 11 (01:38:08):
So you know, in a real.

Speaker 42 (01:38:10):
Brief nutchhow that's how it's sort of evolved for me
that world and certainly changed my life for the worst.
And it's it's something I'm unfortunately I've got to live
with for the rest of my life. Yeah, I've done,
you know, years and years of work behind the scenes
to use what I've been through to help the game
and give give respect back to the game which I

(01:38:32):
took it away, and you know, the summer summed up
with you know, at the end of it, you know,
applying you know to the ECB to have the band
possibly looked at, and without any sort of hesitation, they said, no,
you've you've, as you said before my introduction, you've you've,
you've created the benchmark of what's required of a players

(01:38:55):
you know, silly enough to be involved, to repair the
damage that you've done, and you know the good you're
doing for the game behind the scenes. And then to
Richard Hadley wanting.

Speaker 34 (01:39:05):
To fly up and present that kept to me was
a real.

Speaker 42 (01:39:07):
Powerful you know association for me because that guy, as
we know, is just a complete legend and using on
sport and for them to a line from south with me
and presenting that cap to me was it was a
night I'll never forget. And for my family to be
there and you know, the Lawyers and Class Association New
Zealand Cricket to put that on.

Speaker 6 (01:39:26):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 42 (01:39:27):
It's awesome, awesome, really really grateful and yeah, I'm trying to, yeah,
not look in the past. Too much and just try
and use every bit of negative negativity and rough experience
and bad experience and send it into.

Speaker 6 (01:39:40):
A good one.

Speaker 42 (01:39:41):
So that's my role in life now. And I hope
that you know with these supposings that I go to
in these guest speaking engagements I do. It's a way
of sharing my story and and helping helping people and
helping sporting associations to protect the integrity of the sport.

Speaker 2 (01:39:59):
When you were asked a spot, folks, what did you
have to do?

Speaker 42 (01:40:05):
Well at the time, it was score, score ten to fifteen,
runs off twenty balls and get out, which was pretty
much just bat.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
Normally, no suspicion, No suspicion was raised, was just what
Lukenson does.

Speaker 42 (01:40:21):
Yeah, get paid fifty grand for batting normally. Okay, no
worries obviously not. You know, it's all controlled and it's
all you know, it's stopped so much about the winning
and losing of the game. It's about you know, what's
what's better on and segments of the game and sessions
of the game. So that was certain certainly my role
as the opening batsman's to score ten to fifteen and.

Speaker 34 (01:40:42):
Get out.

Speaker 42 (01:40:43):
But the last game, the last game. I think it's
documented somewhere, certainly in the court case I was involved.
It was, you know, when I was supposed to get out,
I accidentally darrek kind of looking to miss it, get stumped.
And I still stay to this day. I swear to
God that ball hit a big rock on the pitch
and it spun into the middle of my back and
went over the boy's head down to Longland who tumbled
the catch over his head for six So to getting out,

(01:41:06):
I had a sex So I wasn't very good at
at spot sixy doing my job.

Speaker 2 (01:41:12):
That is. Lou Vincent was just part of a very
very interesting chat that we had on Weekend Sport a
couple of months ago to twenty nine. Speaking of former cricketers,
Mark great Batch, keyweek Cricket icon. He's now President of
New Zealand Cricketer. His career, of course, included some iconic moments,
including that match saving eleven hour century at the Whacker

(01:41:37):
in nineteen eighty nine and also pioneering the pinch hitting
role at the top of the order at the ODI
World Cup in nineteen ninety two. I spoke to Mark
great Batch only about a month or so ago, asked
about that nineteen ninety two World Cup in general terms
and his memories of it, well, I.

Speaker 25 (01:41:54):
Think the whole country because the tournament was in Australia
and New Zealand and we played all our games in
New Zealand. You know, we started winning, which helps, but
you know, I remember the public and going to the
different regions.

Speaker 6 (01:42:08):
It was a real.

Speaker 25 (01:42:09):
Excitement for the game and for us, you know, in
that tournament particularly, so you know, that was the helter scalter.
Obviously the eighties with one day cricket started it and
we had a great team there playing competitive cricket against
some bests in the world. And then the ninety two
World Cup I think took it again, so you know,

(01:42:31):
I mean it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 20 (01:42:33):
It was six eight weeks.

Speaker 25 (01:42:34):
I mean, it ended tragically like sport does sometimes when
we lost in the semi to Pakistan.

Speaker 6 (01:42:40):
But you know, I think there was a real excitement
about the game.

Speaker 25 (01:42:44):
And you know, I mean, our guys and girls are
competing on the world stage now in different formats and
world tournaments and doing us proud.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
I think if we think back to the way that
one day cricket was played in the in the early nineties,
it was still very much certainly at the top of
the order. Anyway you'd play yourself in. You might get
through the first ten overs and big thirty without loss
and be quite happy with that. But of course you
came in and started pinch hitting at the top of
the order, which had very rarely been seen before, particularly

(01:43:16):
by New Zealand batsman. Was that an intentional decision before
the tournament started, Mark, you and Martin Krachen maybe Warren
Lea's the coach, decided that you'd just go for it
from ball one.

Speaker 25 (01:43:28):
Well, I think from memory, which is a long time ago,
so it's probably clouded. But I was playing so badly
they just said to me, go out and play freely,
and so they almost.

Speaker 6 (01:43:38):
Gave me, you know, a free sort of script.

Speaker 25 (01:43:42):
And myself and Rod Latham, who played positively in that
tournament toos that we did start to try and play
a bit differently, to just change the you know, the
way the game was played and being a bit more aggressive.
Now now it looks like pretty sedately compared to the
modern game, but you know, scoring at six or seven

(01:44:03):
and over back then from two of us three was
quite a difference. So you know that that was the transition,
and then the sholl Ankins and next World Cup took
it to another level with their openings.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
Great chat to Mark gray Batchie that nineteen ninety two
World Cup still iconic, isn't it? Can still remember the
heartbreak of being knocked out by Pakistan in the semi finals.
Depak Patowel opening the bowling, Mark gray Batch, as you
just heard Pin chitting at the top with Rod Latham,
the likes of Gavin Larsen and Chris Harris, you know,

(01:44:39):
getting wickets, Martin Crow just getting runs everywhere he batted,
and then getting that injury in the semi final. Not
Able to field and bring together the strategy which had
worked so well in terms of the bowling innings up
until then, an Inza Marmal Hauk coming in and taking
it all away from us. That's funny how you can

(01:45:01):
remember things from was that thirty three years ago? And
I can't even remember which day they put the bins
out anyway, Great to have Mark great Batch on the show.
This is our year in review. I always enjoyed chatting
with our top squash player Paul Cole. We caught up
in October after over a decade in the world's top
ten in six years in the world's top five. I

(01:45:23):
asked Paul Cole how much his game had changed.

Speaker 43 (01:45:27):
Yeah, I mean it's to be honest, that sounds crazy
to me to think about, but yeah, I mean my
game's still evolving. You know, as we speak at something
I enjoy about being an athlete being able to constantly
look for areas to improve yourself. I think that's one
of the joys I get out of being an athlete,
is just constantly evaluating how we can get better and

(01:45:50):
learning and learning new tricks, learning new fitness things, mental things.

Speaker 6 (01:45:56):
There's just so many doors to open.

Speaker 43 (01:45:58):
That's what I find the most exciting about being an athlete.
Like I said, and I sort of lost that when
I went to one, a lot of things got results forcus.
So just taking my learnings from that and even if
I get back to you know, two or one in
the world then just to sort of keep that same
mindset of operating at the top, but you know, never
being satisfied and just trying to trying to get better

(01:46:19):
every day.

Speaker 2 (01:46:19):
So did being world number one almost in some ways
become a bit of a burden to you?

Speaker 6 (01:46:27):
Yes or no?

Speaker 43 (01:46:28):
I think it was the best time in my life.
I mean, I still pinch myself. You know, I'm great
mates with Israel Dag now, which is you know, someone
who I grew up watching as an All Black and
a massive fanboy of them, and you know, now we're
good mates and just stuff like that was very overwhelming.
I think for me, it was pretty surreal to be

(01:46:50):
able to, you know, pick up the phone and call
someone like that. And I think it just got got
a lot to me, and it was sort of got
a lot results based. You know, obviously when you get
to the top, it's like you're getting all this stuff
thrown at you and you sort of don't want it
to stop, and you think, you know, you just got
to keep winning that stuff to keep happening. And that
definitely got a lot for me. Definitely was something I

(01:47:10):
wasn't used to and wasn't equipped to handle. So I
think I learned a lot from that time though, and
I think hopefully if I get back there, then I'll
be better equipped to handle it. But at that time,
it was huge, you know, a huge thing for me
and very overwhelming with a lot a lot of emotions
and everything just became very hard. You know, to compete,
to play and think clearly, it was a lot harder. So,

(01:47:33):
like I said, you know, lessons learned, and it's.

Speaker 6 (01:47:36):
A good experience to have.

Speaker 43 (01:47:37):
I think has put me in a bit of shape
for playing finals and stuff. Now I definitely handle the
situation better. So hopefully we can get back there and
you know, prove to myself that I can, you know,
belong there.

Speaker 2 (01:47:47):
Indeed, your trademark across your career has always been your
relentless chasing down of lost causes, your full length dives
across the court. Are you still doing that as often
as you always have?

Speaker 6 (01:48:02):
Yeah? Yeah. Unfortunately, my body, my body.

Speaker 43 (01:48:07):
If everyone asked me how I was coming off Katar,
and I was actually right physically, you know, but I
had no skin left on my fingers, my toes and
my knees were all shredded of skin. And I was like,
my muscle was a fine, but far out. Putting my
shoes on, my fingers floody bleeded. So just stuff like that.
It comes from the dives and stuff. But again it's
my character, It's who I am, and I don't even

(01:48:31):
think about it, mate, It just happens when I get
desperate on there so yeah, unfortunately still doing it at
the ripe old age of thirty three.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
That's Paul Cole, one of our great Kiwi athletes overseas,
doing most of his work off short although he during
that interview confirmed that he will be back for the
New Zealand Squash Open. He always tries to get back
for it usually wins it, of course, being as highly
ranked as he is. So looking forward to seeing Paul
Cole back for the New Zealand Squash Open in twenty

(01:48:59):
twenty six, coming up twenty three away from three after
the break. Our final few little snippets for you in
our year review show for twenty twenty five, We're back
in a Moment.

Speaker 1 (01:49:09):
No One Grudge, hold n Gage Weekend Sports with Jason
Pain and GJ. Gunnerholmes, New Zealand's Lost Trustinoe Milder News
Talk to Baby.

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
Twenty to three. One of the saddest stories of twenty
twenty five was that of former rugby player Shane Christie,
who passed away in August, sparking calls from grieving friends
and from the wider community for greater attention to the
damage a rugby playing career can cause. Shane Christie was
a staunch advocate for greater focus on the damage that

(01:49:42):
repeated head injuries can have, particularly the links with CTE.
Former Welsh rugby player and co founder of Head for Change,
Alex Popham joined me in the days following Shane Christie's passing.
I asked Alex how tough it was to learn of
the news.

Speaker 6 (01:50:01):
Yeah, it's been really tough.

Speaker 44 (01:50:03):
And just hearing all the and reading all the lover
support for Shane. It's just such a stop myself from swearing.

Speaker 6 (01:50:14):
But I'm just angry with.

Speaker 44 (01:50:16):
This situation still still carrying on. He was such a
eloquent guy speaking.

Speaker 6 (01:50:22):
He spoke softly, but he spoke.

Speaker 44 (01:50:24):
With real meaning and what's gone on with him over
the last few years and putting this message out there
and I really think it comes to its head where
three weeks ago, four weeks ago, he released the recording
of the CEO, Rob Nickel of the Players Association, who's

(01:50:46):
supposed to be there to look after the players, gaslight
in this situation and downplaying the seriousness of it. He
was hoping that would be picked up that recording of
telling the current players that it's down to the alcohol
of the boys that are drinking too many drugs, the

(01:51:07):
lifestyle and all that rubbish, and really, and then turning
around and saying that rugby is safer than soccer.

Speaker 6 (01:51:13):
It's just a load of rubbish.

Speaker 44 (01:51:15):
And really, for me, I think Shane thought that that
was going to be picked up and it wasn't.

Speaker 6 (01:51:22):
Now he's dead.

Speaker 44 (01:51:23):
Now we're talking about it, and that is just the
wrong way round. This message needs to get out there
to the current players, to the mums and dads, to
the coaches, because there's.

Speaker 6 (01:51:34):
Too many young men and women.

Speaker 44 (01:51:36):
I saw the parents We've lost their child with this
situation because I've had traumatic brain energy from rugby and
we're not taking it serious enough.

Speaker 6 (01:51:46):
Oh we're telling my votes.

Speaker 44 (01:51:47):
I'm angry because this man put his life on hold
for the last three years and no one was listening.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
I would not see you use A lot is denial
denial by the game's gaverning bodies. What do you want
to say see from them, Well.

Speaker 44 (01:52:08):
What's happening now in rugby. It's legue denial to what
happened in the NFL. They're playing exactly the same playbook
the NFL did with their lawyers, with the governing bodies,
and they can't make the changes that need to be
made because legally, because of the legal case in the UK,
that opens up a can of worms. They know every hit,

(01:52:30):
every contact, not just to the head, is causing small
amount of damage to the brain and that over a
player's career is resulting in CTE. So the big changes
and mostly off the pitch from limiting the amount of
contacts and training, but made that mandatory when there is
a traumatic brain injury and that player's being diagnosed, not

(01:52:52):
rushing them back in six bloody days. They need a
good twenty eight days so that brain to recover. But
there's a protocol that fits that. There's six steps that
fits into six days that these players don't miss a game.
And you've got rugby boy and rugby women who were warriors,
who were gladiators and want to be on that pitch.
That power needs to be taken out of their hands.

(01:53:15):
The other things that we would like is limit on
game time and annual medical scans that would pick up
at the damage to the brain from the previous season.
I think having those things in and they're checking out
gimmicks with bloody gumshields and this and that, it's all

(01:53:37):
smoke and mirrors to what really is happening.

Speaker 2 (01:53:40):
That's Alex Popham, former Welsh rugby international co founder of
Hid for Change. After the passing of former New Zealand
rugby player Shane Christie, we're looking back at the year
and review it's two forty five. One of the more
fascical stories of the year was the inclusion in our
National Basketball League of the Indian Panthers. Their arrival was

(01:54:04):
heralded as a game change for basketball here in New Zealands,
but just nine games into the season they were suspended
indefinitely after allegations emerged around delayed player payments and also
treatment of those players. Longtime basketball coach and basketball identity
here in New Zealand Jeff Green joined me to break

(01:54:25):
this down.

Speaker 45 (01:54:27):
Well, it was always going to be a disaster right
from the word go, and to have a team come
in at a late stage as Indian Penses did and
no real ties to New Zealand, et cetera. So it
was always going to be something that had to be

(01:54:49):
really planned well.

Speaker 34 (01:54:51):
And carried out, et cetera.

Speaker 45 (01:54:53):
But obviously it was rushed and it's starting to show
and the people behind the scenes haven't stumped up as
they promised, and so you know, it's it's been an
exercise that hopefully we never go through again.

Speaker 4 (01:55:13):
But to be fair, you know.

Speaker 45 (01:55:19):
The Panthers had a long term game and it wasn't
the New Zealand NBL, but that sort of shot their
long term plans as well. If they don't tidy up there, act.

Speaker 2 (01:55:31):
What is their long term plan.

Speaker 45 (01:55:35):
I suspect the long term plan because all their owners
are based in Australia, so you can assume that they
were doing similar things to what the Tasmanian Huskies did
early on a few years ago when they entered the

(01:55:55):
New Zealand NBL and then they left and became the
Tasmania Jeck Jumpers in the Australian MBL. So I think
that's what the Panthers.

Speaker 4 (01:56:04):
Were, sort of paps looking at.

Speaker 45 (01:56:07):
Her longer term to be in the Australian League. But
the fact that they were getting all their players out
of India and they had to be exceptions made Yeah,
it was just missy and it was too.

Speaker 2 (01:56:23):
Rushed, as Jeff Green talking about the Indian Panther. Shortly
after that chat, the Indian Panthers were withdrawn from the
National Basketball League permanently a short lived stay and well one.
I think that perhaps those who innovated in that way
we'll look back on and think that they perhaps should
have done a bit more due diligence. Our final segment

(01:56:47):
on the Year in Review is around the New Zealand
Dance Masters. They were back here in August and one
of the sports icons, legendary referee Russ Bray, was here
for the New Zealand Darts Masters. He joined me on
the show. It was great to chat to Russ Bray.
What a character, I asked him right the end of
their chat with the players ever surprised him with the

(01:57:10):
way they attacked to checkout. They have the darts in
their hand to win a league, the players still surprise
them with the way they check out someone.

Speaker 4 (01:57:23):
I mean, I don't forget on my old school. I'll
go back to them. I'll go back to the seventies
and eighties where it was really basic shots out, you know.
But these guys now, I mean, goodness me, they're going
for double doubles and all. This sort of thing was
never unheard of when I was and I was in
the game early doors, you know, so yeah, it's now
from my perspective, it's a matter of getting news to

(01:57:45):
the guys hitting double double shots out, you know one
hundred and one hundred and twelve and things like that
where it's sort of going just really really crazy way,
you know, double A and double A and double top,
this type of thing. You know, it's it's mental. It
is mental. But yeah, you don't surprise me sometimes because

(01:58:06):
your where they're going. They've got a quick calculation as
to where you think they might be going there. So yeah,
it's it's good as what I was say, entertainer, it's
good funds in and go there. And of course they
use the bulls eye a lot now, yeah, and they
never used two years ago. The bull's eye is a
big shot out and everyone loves it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:22):
Absolutely, And obviously you're still sharp airs with the with
the maths and doing the calculations in your head. Can
I give you a couple of checkouts and get you
to tell me how you think a player would take it? Yep,
so one hundred and thirteen.

Speaker 4 (01:58:38):
Trouble twenty thirteen, Double Top.

Speaker 2 (01:58:40):
One hundred and thirty eight.

Speaker 4 (01:58:44):
Well, very famous, a great man, Keith Trouble twenty team double.

Speaker 2 (01:58:49):
Twelve, love it and one oh one.

Speaker 4 (01:58:53):
Or the obviously there's a billion and one ways on it.
There's Trouble seventeen, bulls Eye.

Speaker 6 (01:58:59):
Russell.

Speaker 2 (01:59:00):
It's just a delight to have you in New Zealand,
a delight to have you on the radio again. May
there be many more conversations between and enjoyed tonight at
the second night of the New Zealand Darance Masters.

Speaker 4 (01:59:11):
So it's lovely to be over. Thanks ever so much, mate,
and hopefully catch up and have a Chatison.

Speaker 2 (01:59:17):
What a lovely, lovely, lovely man. Russ Bray, iconic voice
and iconic darts referee still and ambassador for the for
the world too of the PDC tour. Not involved in it,
not that I can see anyway in the World Champs
at the moment, but lovely to have them in New Zealand,
to have them on Weekend Sport this year nine and
a half away from three News Talks, it'd.

Speaker 1 (01:59:38):
Be animating every view from every angle in the Sporting world.
Weekend Sport with Jason Vye, call.

Speaker 2 (01:59:47):
News Talks eNB six away from three Summer Weekends with
Max Toll after the three o'clock News. Thanks for joining
us for our Year in review twenty twenty five. A
massive sporting year. Twenty twenty six is going to be
even bigger. I reckon the FIFA World Cup with all
whites involved for the first time since twenty ten. The

(02:00:09):
Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics with a number of kiwis,
The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, t twenty Cricket World Cups
for our men and our women. The Black Caps Test
series against England, India and then off to Australia next summer.
Massive all Blacks year, seventeen games next year including thirteen
tests and that massive tour of South Africa, eleven tests

(02:00:32):
for our black ferns as well. Liam Lawson back on
the f one grid sal GP back in Auckland, the Warriors.
Our year could be our year, the Breakers, Auckland FC
and the Phoenix Men and women. Super Rugby including the
opening of one New Zealand Stadium at Tekaha, will be
there for Super Rugby's Super Round over ANZAC. We can
the golf majors, the tennis majors and so much more.

(02:00:54):
And as we have this year, we will preview, we'll review,
will analyze, We'll bring you the biggest names in sport
from here and around the world and most importantly, we
will give you the chance to have your on the
biggest issues in sport. This show is nothing without you,
so thank you so much for spending time with us
in twenty twenty five. I have loved bringing Weekend Sport

(02:01:17):
to you this year and can't wait to get stuck
in again next year. From my family to yours, best
wishes for a safe and relaxing new year. I hope
twenty twenty six is your best year ever. Thanks to
Bevan Due for producing. Ill see you in twenty twenty six, mine,

(02:01:42):
mister bred and.

Speaker 35 (02:01:47):
Over oh.

Speaker 23 (02:01:55):
Again, my dear, oh God, Lets again for.

Speaker 1 (02:02:50):
More from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live to
news talks it be weekends from midday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.