Jamie Mackay: The Country host on New Zealand dominating at the 2026 Golden Shears

It's been a good weekend for Kiwi farmers, with New Zealand holding strong at the 2026 Golden Shears event.

New Zealand won five of six titles at the Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Masterton - with Rowland Smith and Joel Henare being among the big winners.

The Country's Jamie Mackay joined Piney to recap the action. 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:12):
New Zealand have won five of six titles at the
Golden Shares World Sharing and wall Handling Championships in Masterton,
Roland Smith and Joel Hennaday among the stars. Now, speaking
of stars, what a delight to welcome into the studio
on his way home after this iconic event. Host of
the Country, Jamie McKay, I feel like I should have

(00:34):
rolled the red carpet out, Jamie.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Lovely to see you well Lovely to see you Pinney.
You can't beat Wellington on a good day, and this
is not a good day. It was beautifully fine and
sunny when I left the Wira Rapper.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, maybe a good day will be along shortly. We
can never count on it. Here in the Capitol. Golden
Shares twenty twenty six is all done. Tell us about
some of the highlights and the success for the Kiwi sharers.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, look, it was a great weekend for the Kiwi
sharers and wool handlers. Of course, this year coincided with
the World Sharing and woll Handling Champian Ships as well,
and you honestly couldn't have scripted a better finish. Roland
Smith's a bit of a friend of the country. The
radio show that I run doesn't rate as well as yours, Piney,
but I try him a best and it was so good.

(01:19):
This is a guy who's effectively come out of retirement. Look,
he's won eight Golden Shares titles. He's won one previous
world title. These days, he likes diggers and tractors. He's
got a big contracting business. He's running a farm, he
was running a sharing gang, and he's just he barely
gets any time to get on the hand piece himself.
He's just a magnificent athlete. And he was able to

(01:41):
come back and win that world title last night, and
that's what he was after. He had to go at
the double obviously the Golden Shaares Open title as well,
but that I think he just ran out of juice
in the end because he's not probably fit for competitive sharing.
But he's just so good. His quality is so good.
He was able to pip Toer Henderson. So it was fantastic.

(02:03):
You know, those two guys won the world title on
the front tower, retained the Golden Shares Open as we said,
and Roland won the World Championships, Joel Hanra cleaning up
in the wall handling great weekend for the kiwis.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Absolutely and it's still a massive event, isn't it. Masterd
and just comes alive. I remember my very first radio job,
was it Radio whited Upper in nineteen ninety two into
nineteen ninety three and the Golden Shears was enormous then
still the same.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Now did you have like a hot jock music voice
back in those days? Pony Well? Hi, I'm Jason pine Well.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I do, I must say I do remember that I
had to MC the Golden Shears karaoke competition that year.
Was there a karaoke competition last night or across the weekend? No,
there wasn't a karaoke competition, But interestingly we could have
done with fun because Rowena Duncan you know Rowena, my
former off sider, was one of the MC's. They've got
very good mcs and commentators there, but they had a

(03:01):
bit of a balls up if I can use those
words on your show. Piney with the sheep one mixed
them up and we had like a forty minute wait
before we could get onto the World Machine sharing title
that Roland Smith eventually won, so poor old Rowena and
the other EMCs were padding for time. They were wandering
around the audience talking to all and Sundry Chippy was

(03:23):
there with Karen MacNulty. Karen obviously has a lot of
big connection with the Golden Shares, a former bookie, so
he's right on the money there. So we could have
done with the karaoke competition to kill a bit of time.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
And of course in the good old days they had
miss Golden Shares. That's no longer politically correct.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
No, but I sort of feel as though if you
were organizing the Golden Shares logistically you make sure the
sheep are right, you know. Was it just an unfortunate
mix up?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, someone's head or roll Eventually it was a bit
of an unfortunate mix up. They would call it a
balls up or a boxing up the sheep and to
use farming terms. But see for that world sharing title,
the one that roll in one. They had three different
types of sheep, so they had four pirindal six crossbred
long wall that's a fall fleece and then ten second share,

(04:15):
a big, big two tooth young sheep that are second share.
So there's three different types of sheep and three different
wall types. So yeah, someone left the gate open somewhere
and anyhow we got there in the end. It was
a bit of a late finish, but it was a
fairy tale finish because Roland this will be it for him.
He was out there to get that world title. He

(04:36):
got it. Now Joel Henaay now has I think twelve
or thirteen open titles in the wall handling at the
Golden Shares. Rumor is that he's going to go hunting
Sir David Fagan's sixteen open titles in the machine sharing
to maybe be the greatest competitor at the Golden Shares.
I don't think he will be. All due respect to Joel,
because Sir David Fagan is an absolute legend. But no,

(05:00):
look what wonderful occasion the War Memorial Stadium all there,
the heats well and truly on and it was on
last night, and you know we count down now three years.
I think in the World Champs are going to be
in Australia.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
The physical demands of sharing, Jamie, just give us an
idea of just how tough it is on bodies to
do this.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Well, I know a wee bit about it piney because
in a past life I was like a farmer sharer.
Not I did enough sharing to know this is just
too hard a job, you know, like I could knock
out two hundred a day. These guys will do six
hundred a day, or some of the world records are
eight hundred a day. That puts it sort of into perspective.
But it is that they are super athletes. These guys.

(05:46):
They not only share all day the tower Henderson's and
these guys are training in the gym all the time.
They're superb athletes. They say that a full day sharing
like a world record attempt, is the equivalent of running
two Olympic class marathons end on end. So it involves
amazing fitness and amazing coordination. I mean that these guys,

(06:11):
a lot of them, would have been top sports people
had they chosen to go down another field. They're just
genetically better than the rest of us.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Another great weekend. No doubt you'll cover it off on
your supremely popular country show. You talk about ratings. Most
of us can only dream of the ratings that you
pull on, Jamie. So look, I thank you very much
for the boost.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
One got a studio with my face, plass that over
it like yours? Did you get sick of looking at yourself?
I do it.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
But they need to change that screen, don't they.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
We've got a big tractor at our studio.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
I think I'd for one of those, yeah, rather than
a screen with my face on it. Jamie, great to
see you, mate, Thanks for stopping.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
And thank you Piney.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Great to be here, Jamie McKay. Hear him on the
country across the ZIB network.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
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