Full Show Podcast: 4 August

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks ed B. The only place for the
big names, the big issues, the big controversies and the
big conversations. It's all on Weekend Sport with Jason Vine
on your home of Sport News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Ed B cut of Good Afternoon. Welcome in to the
Sunday edition of Weekend Sport on News Talks ed B
for August four. I'm Jason Pine Nye McDonald producing the show.
We're here until three. Our Olympic medal tally up to
seven coming.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
To the line.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Charlene Flory of the Netherlands gets the gold medal. You
Zealand Simma Tweag get silver.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
In a twig with silver and the women's single skulls.
She's with us very shortly, unfortunately not to be for
Tom Walsh though.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Oh probably for my doctor. You know, I flip through
something like that.

Speaker 6 (01:05):
I've been finding some wee nigols in there for last month,
and you know, knew that it was a possibility, but
I gave it a go.

Speaker 5 (01:14):
I wanted to.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
Commit to this Throws, and I committed to the sus
Rows that I that I was somewhat healthy on and
give it a go on the last one. I don't
want to be city bet there tonight, wondering if I could.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Have just so so hard watching Tom Walsh battle through
injury and not register a distance in the shot book.
Great to see Jacko Gildo finish in the top six.
Lydia Co's on the show today ahead of the women's
golf which starts on Wednesday. Evening coaching guru Wayne Goldsmith
this hour too, on managing the emotion of the Olympic

(01:47):
moment and not letting it overwhelm you. James mcconey out
of Paris as well, and your thoughts too, as always encouraged.
Welcomes on the latest action at the Games of the
thirty third Olympiad Paris twenty twenty four. Other matters around today.
Sam Whitelocke our most capped All Black and test matches.

(02:07):
His auto biography is out. He joins us for an
extended chat after one o'clock. Speaking of books, there's a
new one out from David Neathy, one of our leading
mental performance coaches. He's worked across business and sport to
help create peak performance. He's in studio with us after
two will also preview Netball's a m Z Premiership Final

(02:28):
Central Pulse Northern Mystics four o'clock this afternoon. We'll get
you inside both camps with Tiana Matidro out of the
Pulse and MICHAELA. Sokolch beats in from the Mystics. Please
join the show any way you like, any time you like.
You can do it on the phone, Oh eight one
hundred eighty ten eighty. You can do it via text
on nine two nine two or flick as an email.
Jason at Newstalks EDB dot co dot Nz coming up

(02:49):
ten past twelve.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Analyzing every view from every angle in the sporting world
weekends for it with Jason Vye The Call Oh eight
hundred and eighty and eighty News talks.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
EDB back to back Olympic medals for singles sculler Emma Twig.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Florine still has the lead the Netherlens Florine could see
Emma Twig closing in and she's up to her stripe
break and we're almost back to one boat legs difference
between the Netherlands and New Zealand. It looks like it's
gonna be silver for New Zealands. Emma Twig coming.

Speaker 7 (03:22):
To the line.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Caroline Florine of the Netherlands gets the gold medal.

Speaker 8 (03:28):
New Zealands.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Emma Twig gets silver and she's exhausted. She's given it
her all.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
She certainly has, and she's won a silver medal to
go with the gold that she picked up in Tokyo
three years ago. Emma Twig is with us a long day.

Speaker 9 (03:43):
How are you feeling, I'm I'm it's all sinking in,
but it's been an awesome day and you're super proud
of today. And yeah, a nice way to kind of
cat things off for the team.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Talk us through the race from start to finish and
the and the key moments in it for you.

Speaker 9 (04:02):
Uh, yes, because we had a plan and I know
the quality of the girls that I'm racing and how
they've raced in the past, So the idea was to
keep in touch with Carolyn, and that's kind of how
it unfolded. And at moments I thought that I was
going to walk through, but unfortunately the legs lasted until
about the last hundred meters and then it was just
a manner of surviving and getting across the line in

(04:23):
one piece.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
She's I mean she's been, you know, quite dominant, hasn't
she in this particular you know event, I mean to
get as close as you did, you know, do you
take a certain amount of pride out of that?

Speaker 9 (04:37):
Yeah, absolutely, she's she's been dominant in the last three years.
She's got some real p deigree and yeah, it's been
it's been pretty awesome racing someone of her caliber, and
she's definitely had to target on her back for the
Olympic cycle, so to push her as hard as I
did today, I'm super proud of that. And yeah, it's
also just lovely to be standing on the podium with
someone that you've she had some pretty good times with

(04:57):
over the last three years.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
What about what about the last eight years for you though, Emma?
You know, eight years ago, could you have imagined the
eight years you've just had.

Speaker 9 (05:08):
Probably not, to be honest, Yeah, Obviously, hanging up the
oars after Rio, I thought that was that. And to
be able to now say that I'm a two time
Olympic medalist is Yeah, it's kind of what dreams are
made of.

Speaker 8 (05:19):
So yeah, it's just today it was nice.

Speaker 9 (05:21):
To kind of go out there and not have anything
to prove and just race the best that I possibly
could and a silver medal for me today, there's equally
as much pride in that story as there was the
one that I got in Tokyo.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's so cool. Can you just take us back to
the decision to pick the oars back up again and
what you know informed that decision after Rio, because I
know how gutting Rio was for you.

Speaker 9 (05:47):
Yeah, I guess it's something that I reflect on now,
especially as people will also have similar results to those
fourth places that I had, and just it kind of
brings back the fields to that time. But I guess
on reflection and taking some time away, it just it
made me appreciate that actually it's everything else around winning medals.
There is the thing that motivates me and gets me

(06:07):
up in the morning, and the training zequal is challenging
to me is racing in these finals. So yeah, that
was kind of the logic behind the return, and I
think with that mindset it's become so much more enjoyable for.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Me and beyond Tokyo. It was always the plan to
hit for Powis or was that a decision you've thought
a bit about as well?

Speaker 8 (06:30):
To be honest, I thought Tokyo would be the last.

Speaker 9 (06:33):
But I guess what Tokyo proved to me was that
you can really enjoy what you're doing. And I'd worked
for twenty years to achieve that result, and I kind
of wanted to make the most of the Olympic cycle.

Speaker 8 (06:44):
I guess the three years.

Speaker 9 (06:45):
Was also much more appealing than four and just make
the most of kind of being a defending champ and yeah,
just enjoy what would be the last three years of
my career. And it's been exactly that. It's been a
real joy, all right.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
So that is it now?

Speaker 9 (07:02):
Yeah, I'm saying it's the last on flat water, but yeah,
it's I mean, I've learned in the past and never
say never, but I can pretty safely say that the
single skull, I've achieved all that I want to a
net boat class for sure.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's been incredible And as far as the New Zealand
team is concerned, that this regatta again is just absolute standout.
Had the pleasure of speaking to Lucy Spores yesterday on
the radio and what a delight she is, What a
terrific regatta for the New Zealand team mate.

Speaker 9 (07:29):
Yeah, LUSA is actually sitting right next to me now.
And she's giving me grief for saying that it's only
the single that I'm done in. But yeah, I'm absolutely
so proud of our whole team, especially the woman's double
and what they did and how they did it. So yeah,
it's just I think, you know, the five games I've
been to, this team is super tight and everyone's just

(07:50):
excited for each other and achieving so well, and it's yeah,
it's pretty unique, really, and there's some memories from this
last tour that will stick with me for a very
long time.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Is she trying to get you into a crew boat?

Speaker 9 (08:01):
Well, she's whispering in my ear, but Judith that our
high performance director is also having a little giggle in
the front too.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
So well, I'll leave those discussions to you guys, and
the celebrations. Great to get the chance to chat Emma, huge,
congratulations everybody back here. Just totally delighted, Thank you so much,
Thank you for joining us. I'm a Emma Twig silver
medallist in the women's single skulls to go with the
goal that she won three years ago. Yeah, what a
story that is. Fourth in London twenty twelve, fourth at

(08:27):
Rio twenty sixteen, and just decided, look, I can't do
this anymore. I can't keep doing this if it's going
to come up short of the podium. But clearly some
thinking done after rio back in the boat, golden Tokyo
silver here and who knows? Who knows? I mean they
you know? No more the what do you call it?
Flatwater meaning? I guess you know, there's not a lot

(08:48):
of not a lot of splash from the single skulls,
but maybe a crew boat who knows. Lucy Spores seemed
to be getting in Arrear so so to the high
performance coach, so a terrific regatta for our rowers. Again,
they've led the way. We've got seven medals. They've got
four of them gold in the women's double skull, silver
for Emma Twig and for the men's four, Bronze for

(09:10):
the women's four. It's again a great return and historically
I think rowing would probably be the highest deliverer of
Olympic medals in our history. I can't think of another
sport that's delivered more medals at the Olympic level than rowing.
Would have to be It wouldn't it so wonderful to
see them out there? And it got me thinking, actually

(09:31):
about where are we now? Seven medals, We're about halfway through,
so you start thinking, okay, what's our final number going
to be? It was twenty in Tokyo. That seems at
the high end of what we could achieve. So to
break it down, I reckon there might be at least
eight left for us in the second half of the Olympics.

(09:56):
I've got four in the canoeing. I think every event
that Lisa Carrington is in K one five hundred, K two,
five hundred, K one, one thousand, I think there's medals
and all three of those, and then of course we've
got Amy Fisher in the K one five hundred as well.
We could be in a situation where we get two
medals in the same event, even gold and silver, and

(10:18):
it could be in either order too, because Amy Fisher,
as we know from the last six months, has beaten
Dame Lisa Carrington a couple of times. We could have
a Hamish car to Bevan Doherty situation from the triathlon
and four with a gold and a silver. So yeah,
so I've got four in the in the kayaking, the canoeing,
I reckon a couple in track cycling, and that might

(10:39):
be that might be pessimistic. Maybe two might be might
be low, but I reckon two and I think there's
another one on offer in the sailing as well. Tom
Saunders and the dinghy is there or thereabouts Michael Wilkinson
Erica Dawson in the nakra. I think they're definitely a
middle chant. So I think there's one more on off
of there. And I've also got Hamish cur winning one

(11:02):
in a high jump. He's just been in terrific form lately.
So I've got Hamish curR on the podium as well.
So what's that Four in the canoe and couple of
track cycling, one more in the sailing, one more for
Hamish cur that's eight eight more so fifteen. I've got
us at fifteen. What have I forgotten? Have I forgotten anything?
Let me know. I eight hundred eighty ten eighty nine
two nine two. If you would prefer to send a text,

(11:23):
and not just on the medal comp but anything that's
occurred to you over the last twenty four hours or
of something from the first week of the Olympics has
caught your attention. We had a bit of a general
chat about the games yesterday. Anything that's that's caught your eye.
I eight hundred eighty ten eighty or nine two nine
to two on text nineteen past twelve, Back after this
on Weekend Sport.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
The Big issues on and after fields call oh eight
hundred eighty ten eighty Weekends Forward with Jason Pine and GJ.
Gunnerhomes New Zealand's first trusted home builder, News Talks Abby.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yes, News Talks ab Ah. Who said this? Tim? Tim says, Poney,
I think she meant ocean rowing racing. I think it's
at the Los Angeles Olympics. Definitely a growing sport, Tim,
I think you're probably right when she said no or flatwater,
maybe she did mean coastal rowing. Now this is yeah,
this is going to be included, as Tom quite rightly
points out, in the Olympic Games from twenty twenty eight.

(12:20):
It's going to be included alongside classic rowing, beach sprint rowing.
Is the outcome of a decade long development of coastal
rowing with the active support of one hundred and fifty
nine member blah blah blah. I'm just reading off the
press release here, so yeah, so ocean ocean rowing is
going to be there as well. Thanks Tom, appreciate that Marsi,
is ponty interesting They say they lose their legs in

(12:41):
rowing when you see them really using their arms from
someone who knows nothing about rowing. There, mars I tell
you what. Put it this way. Get on a rowing machine,
go as hard as you can for as long as
you like, and then get up and try and walk.
They'll give you an indication of all you need to
know about why they say they lose their legs. It's

(13:07):
very instructive. What about Lydia for a medal? Says this
one absolutely got Lydia co on and a sick Actually,
yeah I should have. I mean she has to be
a chance silver in Rio, bronze and Tokyo. Absolutely, maybe
she completes the set. All right, we'll write that down.
So Lydia co that makes nine? Are you writing off
our chances in the women's pal vault? Says Bruno, No,

(13:29):
I hadn't thought of that either. Eliza McCartney bronze medal
in Rio bronze or silver, bronze, Bronze and Rio for
Eliza McCartney. So she's another one as well. So maybe
we are getting up towards ten more Parney cycling. Alise
Andrews Aaron Gate our men's pursuit team. How's Eliza McCartney's form?

(13:53):
Is she back at four eighty five form? That's another
good question. I guess we're about to find out. I
spoke to Eliza McCartney about a month ago on the
show and asked her whether she thought that a five
meter jump was in her future, and she said yes,
she reckons she can jump five minutes. She said, why not?
Why not? Oh one hundred eighty nine two for any

(14:17):
comments or questions by text, Calvin high Mate.

Speaker 10 (14:20):
Yeah, Hello there, Jason Fairth. I've got a question and
a comment and question here the pole volt we should
do it. We've got three women in that with Olivia mccaggart.
I think the name is yeah.

Speaker 8 (14:33):
And also we've got three the other one.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
We've got three three. Emma Gennaros is the other one.

Speaker 10 (14:39):
Now. I'm fully aware from the radio a couple of
days ago that the so called Purple Crack has been
named due to the lavender fields in that same area
that's where the color evidently came from. So they reckon anyone.
Here's the question for you, Jason, I'm writing on you. Yes,
and I've seen it two or three times on the

(15:00):
TV and air, the person stamping the steak three times, Yes,
onto the floor. What's that all about?

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I can tell you. I can tell you, Calvin, I've
prepared well for your question. The stick is called a
brigadier and it was originally used in the theater to
mark the opening of a performance. At the theater, it's
banged on the ground three times as a symbolic gesture
to get the attention of the audience. It marks a
special moment of silence and concentration, allowing the audience to

(15:32):
prepare themselves before the show. So similar to the theater,
it's symbolic, and they're getting some famous Olympians from the
past to come out and bang the bang the brigadier.
So it's a symbolic gesture to get the attention of
the audience. That's what it is. Calvin, good on your mate,
Good to chat. Dobbo Shelley and Fraser Price didn't feature

(15:55):
in the sprinting. Have you found any any more out
about this?

Speaker 11 (15:59):
H It's unbelievable.

Speaker 12 (16:00):
It's actually going viral now on social media and there's
no conjecture with this. I'm like Kaleap the Boxers. She
female is she's not female, or she banned, she's reinstated.
It's not quite in that controversial case, but still very sad.
So the thirty seven year old Jamaican has gone on
social media. She was filmed talking to her driver that

(16:20):
wasn't the bus driver. So originally we were told that
she missed one hundred meters semis because of injury, but
apparently she's missed it because she didn't take the team bus,
a bizarre rule change that didn't apply for the heats.
She got there independently, and then the semis in the finals. Sorry,
you'll went on the team bus. You can't compete in
the one hundred you're joking.

Speaker 11 (16:41):
So you have eight Olympic medals, eight Olympic medals, a
legend of the Olympics, and these officials, she give them
a white cat. They want to play god. You know
they're so busy trying to stop the wrong people coming
through the case now they have. I can't believe that
the right person.

Speaker 13 (16:58):
From coming through.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
I can't believe that. So if you're not on the
you're not talking about the Jamaican team bus. You're talking
about the bus for it's.

Speaker 11 (17:06):
We're trying to do.

Speaker 12 (17:07):
I suppose is just stop so many athletes traveling independently
or by foot or whatever.

Speaker 11 (17:13):
Yeah, collectives. But that didn't apply yesterday for her heat,
but it applied today for which is just outrageous.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
That dobba, that is absolutely outrageous. That is ridiculous. I
get the need for protocol, I totally do. But so
she's turned up and they said, no, no, did she hang?
I'm in the semifinals. You know, I've won this event
a couple of times. I've been around for a bit. Yeah,

(17:44):
that's true, and I'm sure that it is.

Speaker 7 (17:47):
That is not good.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
We'll find out more, no doubt from Shelleyanne Price. And
if you missed this new she she was due to
run in the second of the three semi finals and yeah,
and the lane was vacant. She wasn't there. And that
sounds like the reason why Crazy Women's Golf Underway wins today.
Night Lydia co won silver in Rio. She also meddled
in Tokyo. Nobody has gone better than her sixty six.

Speaker 14 (18:15):
Lydia goes standing over this one should be routine and
is indeed so.

Speaker 10 (18:19):
The lowest round of the day, five under sixty six.

Speaker 15 (18:23):
Lydia Co stays ten under.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, that was bronze and Tokyo for Lydia Co. She's
here for her third Games and joins US now on
weekend sport. How have you settled into to Paris, Lydia.

Speaker 16 (18:37):
Yeah, you know, I just flew in this morning as
I'm getting adjusted to the time zone here and doing
a little bit of media and then probably you know,
catch up with the guys later this evening. But yeah,
it's just great to be in Paris and now obviously
super honored and proud to represent New Zealand again for
my third Olympics.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, had great success of course in Rio silver, Tokyo bronze.
What does competing at the Olympic Games mean to you?

Speaker 16 (19:04):
Oh, you know, it means a lot. You know, I'm
always proud to obviously represent New Zealand, even when I'm
playing on the LPGA, But there's something about the Olympics
that's different, and you know, it's without a doubt the
biggest sporting event for you know, I think any athlete
to and I think that is something that we all
dream of, you know, having the opportunity to you know

(19:25):
be at the Games. And you know, for I was
very lucky enough to be able to win both the
silver and the bronze in the first couple of games,
so it would be great to be able to meddle
again this year.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, well gold is the missing color, oldia, Is that
what you're chasing?

Speaker 14 (19:42):
That would be great.

Speaker 16 (19:43):
It would be like a Cinderella story if I was to,
you know, win the goal. But you know, I know
that I'm here alongside the best female golfers, so it
is not going to be easy. But you know, I'm
going to just focus on my game and you know,
try and play my best around the golf course and
you know see where that puts me by the end
of Saturday.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
All right, So how do you assays your form coming
into this Olympic Golf tournament.

Speaker 16 (20:06):
You know, I hadn't played that great in the middle
of my season, but you know, I had my best,
one of my best finishes this year a couple of
weeks ago, which was my last event had coming into
the game, so it nice to come in with a
little bit better momentum. You know, I was able to
do some good work with my coaches on the past
few weeks as well, so yeah, you know, just keep

(20:26):
working the same things. And I feel like I'm moving
in the right direction, so it'd be great to kind
of put it all together this week.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
You mentioned earlier about your pride and representing New Zealand,
and as you say, you do that every time you
play a game of golf, but in an Olympic games
with not just golfers but athletes from several other sports,
over two hundred kiwi's all involved, is it a bit
special being around other Kiwi athletes in an occasion like this.

Speaker 16 (20:51):
Yeah, you know, I'm not personally staying at the village,
so you know, I don't get to run into them
very often, but you know, and I don't get to
go home. So when I do get to see other
New Zealand athletes and New Zealand Olympians, it's really cool
because now I get to also hear a little bit
of that about their stories. And I remember Eric Murray

(21:13):
bringing me bringing his gold medal to come watch me
play in Rio as well. So hopefully I can see
and meet some.

Speaker 8 (21:21):
Of the other New Zealand Olympians.

Speaker 16 (21:23):
And I know that New Zealand has won a few
medals in the even you know Emma Twiger winning the
silver earlier today, so you know, hoping to get a
lot of the good energy and you know, bring bring
a medal for New Zealander.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Fantastic. So the course itself, presumably you've played here before,
although it's not the same one as the Avon Championship,
is it. Have you had any experience on this particular course.

Speaker 16 (21:47):
Yeah, Evan is very different to hear. But I played
a couple of practice rounds you know, last year to
kind of just get a feel.

Speaker 8 (21:55):
Of the golf course.

Speaker 16 (21:56):
But the weather was was pretty bad when I had come,
so you know, it was I was trying to survive
out there. But I think this is going to be
the toughest Olympic Games, uh, as of yet. It's it's
a very high level, high caliber, a championship golf course
hosting the friendsh Open and the Ryder Cups. So yeah,

(22:18):
you know, I think I definitely need to bring my
a game and as much as I am going to
try and play aggressively because the goal is to you know, meddle,
but at the same time being strategic and smart in
the way you know, I position myself around the golf.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Does it feel like a golf course that might suit
your game?

Speaker 16 (22:39):
I hope it suits my game. I got no choice
around one way or the other. But you know, I
think the golf course seemed like a in a style
where it wasn't really fit for one style player. So
you know, I haven't seen the golf course in O
very years, so it'll be good to like see it
in like the championship, I guess set up and seeing

(23:01):
exactly what ta's if and all that, and I kind
of figure my way around the golf course.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
I saw an interview with you earlier this year, Lydia,
I think was on the Golf Channel talking about this
Olympic Games, and you indicated then that this would be
your last Olympic Games. Is that still your mindset? Do
you think this will be it as far as Olympic
Games participation is concerned.

Speaker 10 (23:22):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 16 (23:24):
I mean, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't
even know what I'm doing tomorrow, so I definitely don't
know if I'm going to be still around playing, you know,
when the LA Games are on. Obviously, if I am
competitively playing during that period of time, you know, my
goal then would be to you know, qualify again for
the LA Olympics. But I think at the back of

(23:46):
my mind, I'm you know, trying to treat it as
my last hourah and kind of give it my all
here and now you just never know what what's going
to happen, you know, down the road. So I want
to as much as I want to bring in my
A game, I also just want to really enjoy the
games and enjoy being here for my third Olympics. And

(24:08):
I feel like I play the best when I'm having fun.
So it's a you know, hopefully channel all of that
and put some good you know, put some good golf
on the score cud.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
All right, And so just finally in the lead up
to Wednesday night over there Thursday morning for us, when
golf gets under why what do the next few days
look like? For you, Lydia.

Speaker 16 (24:29):
I'm probably gonna try and get a few holes after
the men's are done with their competition tomorrow, and yeah,
you know, just rest up today. And you know, I
get used to the time zone and it's not very
often where our tournament starts on a Wednesday, so kind
of peace myself, and especially in big events like this,
I think the energy level definitely gets drained much more

(24:52):
than maybe our usual other events.

Speaker 17 (24:55):
That we have on the schedule.

Speaker 16 (24:56):
So just being smart and you know, prioritizing my practice
and yeah, I just enjoy it and hopefully I'm you know,
I'm excit for Wednesday to come around quick.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, we are too, lydia thanks indeed for joining us
and all the best in the Olympic Golf tournament. Looking
to complete that set. Lydia co silver medalist and Rio
bronze and Tokyo who knows gold perhaps in Paris. I
think I said I said Wednesday, Wednesday night your time,
Thursday morning for us. There's actually Wednesday night for us

(25:27):
that the golf gets underweight. So we'll wait to see
how lydia Ko goes. Just more on Shelley and Fraser
Price that Dobbo brought our attention to. Yeah, so she
was a no show for her semi final in the
women's one hundred meters and from doing a bit of
reading on this or having some information passed to me,

(25:48):
it is to do with access to the warm up area.
Apparently the team buses are allowed, and obviously because I've
got the team athletes on them, they're sanctioned and only
athletes and accredited officials are allowed on those buses to
come into the warm up areas, but not everybody stays
at the village, including Shelley and Fraser pri. She just said,
Lydia kose she's not staying at the village. People make

(26:09):
their own decisions around these things, so they take private transport,
and Shelley and Fraser Price was caught on video yesterday
arguing with those who restrict access, and so there's a
thought that perhaps that happened again today. The official reason
is a hamstring injury that has ruled her out, but

(26:29):
on her Instagram, Shelley and Fraser Price has said, it's
difficult for me to find the words to describe the
depth of my disappointment. I know my supporters share and
shoulder this disappointment with me. I'm truly blessed to have
had the steadfast support of my fans since my Olympic
debut in two thousand and eight. The support of my fans,
my country in the larger community has rooted me in
immense gratitude that has sustained me throughout my career. With

(26:51):
every step and whin You've all been there for me.
My faith has always affirmed my trust in my journey.
Thank you for continuing to be with me today and
every day, so no mention of an injury there, So yeah,
I think more to come on this one. Piney rowings
all leg power, The arms do very little work. That's
why rowers make good cyclists and vice versa. Good stuff, Tim,
thank you the arms of there, says Roger. To hold

(27:12):
the sweep or skull blade. All the power is in
the legs, that's why they go, Thanks Roger. Mark says
I reckon, we're a chance on the kayak cross yep
good good point, Mark, Luca Jones Van Butcher both into
the next stage after their overnight stuff. And Andrea says
Jason just wondering whether the Enzidoc and Athletics New Zealand's
failure to send Zoey Hobbes to Tokyo in twenty twenty

(27:32):
one when she had qualified has come back to bite them.
If this had been her second Olympics, she may have
better absorbed the semi final pressure, but still an absolute
champion to me and to most Kiwis. Best wishes, Andrea. Andrea,
I could not agree more. Spoke about this yesterday, could
not agree more. She absolutely should have been in Tokyo
and who knows how much that experience would have helped

(27:54):
her this morning. I guess we will never know. Twenty
two away from One want to bring in Wayne Goldsmith shortly,
our coaching guru about managing the emotion of the Olympics.
It's all about emotion for us, us the fans. How
to coaches and athletes manage that emotion. We'll get some
advice on that and some perspective from our coaching guru,
Wayne Goldsmith when we come back.

Speaker 14 (28:16):
One.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Crutch Hold Engage Weekend Sports with Jason Fame and GJ. Gunnerholmes,
New Zealand's first trusted home builder.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
News Talk News Talks the b The Olympic Games, as always,
have provided some incredibly thrilling moments of tension and excitement.
You look at the TV coverage, it's all about slow
motion replays, athletes with joy and pain on their faces,
shots of fans in the stands roaring with happiness or
sometimes with despair. The Olympics for most of us, are
about emotion, but really that is for us the fans.

(28:48):
So how challenging are pinnacle events for coaches and athletes
as they try to manage the emotion of these occasions.
Coaching guru Wayne Goldsmith joins us whe and you sent
me a great line on this. If you don't control
the emotion of the moment, the emotion of the moment
will control you. So how do athletes and coaches best

(29:09):
control the emotion of the moment?

Speaker 13 (29:12):
Well, it's the same as everything, Pinty. It's practicing and rehearsing,
training in difficult and challenging situations and to expect that
that's the environment that you're heading into. And I think
there was a great line during the week talking to
one I'm a coaching buddies from the village during the
week he said, you know, the thing about the Olympics

(29:35):
is it's the Olympics. And what do you mean by
that was it's such a unique environment and it's all
based on let's get people excited, let's get the fans
engaged with watching, let's get more bytes on social media
and all that's driven by emotion. But then when you're
standing behind the blocks or when you're running out the

(29:55):
play seven, it's how do I manage my emotion Because
I don't want to be excited, and I don't want
to be stressed, and I don't want to be angry,
and I don't want to be overthinking. I just want
to do the job that I've trained to do. I
feel like it's almost the opposite. It's at the opposite
end of the spectrum. It's those get the fans excited
and the parents excited, and there's schools Excitedaliss get everybody

(30:17):
excited and pumped and revved up. But for the athletes
and coaches, it's completely the opposite.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
So it's really, I guess, preparing yourself for what you're
about to face. So in that regard, Wayne, should training
and preparing for the Olympics be as hard, as stressful,
as challenging, if not more so than you expect the
event itself to be.

Speaker 13 (30:39):
Look, it's an interesting discussion to have, probably because I
think a lot of people when you talk like this,
they misinterpret and say, oh, your meaning We've got to be,
you know, ruthless and hard, like you know the classic
coaches of the nineteen seventies standing and yelling and screaming
and barking at people. That's not it at all. What
it is is saying, look, we're going to go into

(31:00):
an environment which is going to be mentally really difficult
emotionally challenging, physically beyond anything that we've experienced in our lives.
We can't rely on wishing, hoping, prayer and luck. With
no disrespect to people with faith, well, we can't rely
on those things to get us across the line. So
what I find is people will go to national championships

(31:24):
in New Zealand and I say, look, we'll train about
ninety five percent, ninety eight percent of what we know
we're going to have to do when we get there.
And then when we get there, what I call the
sport fairy arrives and sprinkles ferry dust, and all of
a sudden, miraculously, magically, that extra two to five percent
will just appear as if sprinkled by fairy dust. And

(31:46):
there is no Olympic fairy, There is no magical force
that turns up on the day and says, okay, you've
only prepared ninety eight percent of this environment you're going
to be given. You're going to find somehow these extra
two to five percent because you're a lucky person. We
don't rely on those as winning strategies. So, in effect,

(32:06):
and it was explaining to me a long time ago,
a very very good, successful coach, He said, the majority
of people train at a level below the Olympic Games
and then wish and hope and pray and light candles
and do all those things that they hope will give
them the answer they want. The ones who win train
and prepare at one hundred and two percent. And these

(32:29):
figures are obviously just arbitrary, but to illustrate the point,
he said, they train at a level above the level
they'll expect when they go into the games, and in effect,
they drop into the games, they drop down into the environment,
and the experienced coaches and athletes get it the first
time is rarely understand that.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
So in that regard them when you are preparing, can
a coach provide an environment where athletes can be disappointed,
can be nervous, can be stressed, and therefore learn how
to manage their emotions once they get to a competition.
Can you replicate that in training?

Speaker 13 (33:07):
It's more difficult with the Olympics than it is with
anything else, because, as my buddy said, the problem with
the Olympics, he said, it's the Olympics and there isn't
a lot like it. But you can teach the principles,
so quite often say if we're working with young athletes,
one of the principles will do is take them to
a competition where it's going to be nearly impossible for

(33:28):
them to lose. To win, it's going to be very,
very difficult. So they might be fourteen or fifteen, and
they may race against sixteen seventeen year old's kids a
little bit older that are a lot better. And even
though the physical performance, you go, well, they couldn't beat
those kids, but you work with them on dealing with
managing and learning from how they feel. So they might

(33:51):
come back and say, oh, man, I've beaten by eight
meters there. You know those guys danced around me in
that seventh tournament. They say, Okay, how did you feel that? It?
Oh I felt angry, I felt stressed, and I felt
disappointed for us. Okay, now, how can we manage that?
How can I give you the tools? They're going to
teach you the skills to deal with frustration and emotion
and difficulty. And because as you know, and we've talked

(34:15):
about this before about moving on in football codes, is
that what we know is that if you don't manage
that emotion, So if you're in a sevens as A
classic example, a try scored against you because you've had
a defensive lap a lapse. If the emotions like frustration
and anger and disappointment of those things are still there,

(34:37):
you might let in another try because not only have
you had a defensive lap laps, your emotions are now
managing your performance to the point where it's highly likely
it's going to happen again. And you're only going to
watch NRL and Super Rugby a few rounds to see that.
If they see a player that's dropped the ball, drop
the high ball, that's who they pepper for the rest

(34:58):
of the game because they're going hang on. Not only
do they miss that ball, chances are they're still carrying
the ne gative emotions that have risen from making that mistake.
Maybe we can do it again and really capitalize, so,
you know, even at a relatively young age teenagers, and
of course goes without saying we do this ethically, we

(35:20):
do it safely to teach lessons about how can they
learn to manage the emotions they're feeling so that when
they get to a big crunch moment like in Olympic games,
they've had years and years of going through and experiencing
emotion and managing them and still continuing to do their job.
And Tony in fact, when people ask me, what's mental toughness,

(35:42):
so I say, mental toughness is your ability to continue
to do the job that you've trained to do, no
matter what happens to you or what's happening around you
in competition. Because that's the crunch, that's where we're trying
to get to.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Incredible device. The enormity of these event says you've said
the Olympics. The problem with the Olympics is that they
are with the Olympics. They had a pedacle for many
of the athletes there. I'd imagine that could be overwhelming,
but also motivational. Is there any way to tippet in
favor of the latter apart from some of the stuff
you've already talked about.

Speaker 13 (36:15):
Oh, but that's that's a wonderful question. The the god,
I don't know the converse, the obverse, the reverse. I
don't do versus that. It's it's the opposite to that
is learning to manage. First of all, I can manage
negativity and frustration and anger and and expectation, all those things.

(36:37):
The other side is is to look at it and go,
this is my environment. I've trained for this environment. I
love this environment. I get excited about this environment, you know.
And I've met a lot of athletes over the years
who look at big competitions with dread pointing because it's like, oh,
you know, it's all on the line and it's going

(36:58):
to be tough. And they look and I've met she
asked as many, particularly the successful ones, and go, man,
I don't wait. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get into
the Olympics, Let's get into the village. I want to
get into that environment for the I want to feel
the emotion. And some people thrive and feed off it.
They drag the energy from the crowd particularly, and they

(37:21):
love it. And that comes down to preparation. I know
when I talk to kids and I say, have you
ever gone into an exam feeling really stressed and really worried?
And I say, yes, we have. Wayne, I'd say, why
were you stressed and worried? And I said, because I
didn't do enough study. And I said, right now, take
that into your sport. The main reason that you're feeling

(37:42):
stressed and you're not excited and invigorated by the environment
is you haven't done the preparation. Because I promise you
if you walk into an environment and go, man, I
am ready, there's nothing I could have done better with
my eating, my sleeping, my training, my gym work, my hydration,
there's nothing I could do better. It becomes an exciting,

(38:04):
a wonderful moment. If you're walking in going to yeah,
I know, maybe I didn't do this, and I didn't
cover on that, and there's holes everywhere, then you quite
rightly get a little bit nervous and stressed and frustrated.
And that's when you've really got to have the management
tools to deal with those emotions.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Always such an education listening to your Wayne, thanks for
taking the time. As always. Let's catch up again next
weekend as the Olympics come to a close. I'm sure
there'll be more lessons for you to impart to us.

Speaker 13 (38:31):
Well, I'm going to force myself now to go and
walk along Evan's Head beach and have a coffee and
baking an egg roll at the end, Pony say, but
it's a tough fight. Someone's got to do it.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Good on your Wayne, and catch you again soon, say
I mate, fake Bobby, that's my golds, but offer a
bacon roll in the cup of coffee.

Speaker 8 (38:47):
Love it.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
If you want to read more of Wayne's amazing wisdom.
His website is WG coaching dot com. WG coaching dot
com is also across social media, Wayne Goldsmith, Away from
One Us Talk, SP's.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Good from the trash Field and the course on Your
Home The Weekends for It with Jason Vine The News Talks.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
MB five to one on text Unreal interview Piney literally
taking notes here? Yeah, no, feel You're absolutely free to
take notes. All of our content goes online as well,
either on the News talks eb website if you subscribe
to the Weekend Sport podcast. All of our interviews and
the full show actually is available there shortly after we
finish every day at three o'clock, so you can listen

(39:31):
back or forward on the stuff that you found really
interesting to others who you think might find it interesting.
Carls is greater to you with Wayne. I found it
interesting how the Australian swimmers are saying that having the
qualifiers nearer to the actual event has really helped them.
They didn't need to peak twice. Interesting point, Carl, I
think Adam Peacock said the same thing yesterday when we
spoke to him that that's been a general theme with

(39:52):
the Australian swimmers and what a swim meat they had.
And still more to come, perhaps on the final night
of action tomorrow. So yeah, good point you make tonight
for the kiwis. Not as many kiwis in action tonight.
Daniel Hilly, Ryan Fox finished the golf. We've got our
sailors the Nacra, Erica Dawson, Michael Wilkinson, the dinghy, Thomas

(40:13):
Saunders and our kite foilers. Also Gretta Pilkington in the
dinghy and our kite foilers. This is a new class
to the Olympics making its debut. Lucas Walton, Khime and
Justina Kitchen also in the cycling, the road race for women,
Kim Kadz on New Fisher Black involved and Luca Jones
and Finn Butcher in the kayak cross. So that's what's

(40:35):
coming up, don't forget. You can listen to through the
night coverage of the Paris Olympic Games on Gold Sport,
also available via iHeartRadio from seven o'clock every night and
right through till nine o'clock the following morning. We bring
you wall to wall Olympics coverage. I hope you can
tune in and join us. We've been having fun doing it.
Hopefully you'll have some fun listening to it. After one o'clock,

(40:56):
our most capped All Black, Sam Whitelock joins the show.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
The only place to discuss the biggest Fours issues on
and afterfield. HiT's all on We James Ford with Jason
Vade on your Home of Sports.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Used one seven. Welcome in this hour will get you
to Paris. Must be quite late there now three in
the morning. Maybe James mcconey said, look, cal so we
will James mcconey out of Paris this hour. He's been
at the track and field, he's been at the rowing.
I also saw during the week he'd been at the judo,

(41:33):
so maybe a bit on that as well. We are
going to preview the A and Z Premiership Netball final
as well. After two. This comes around at four o'clock
this afternoon at has sold out TSP Arena in Wellington.
In fact, those tickets sold out in two minutes, would
you believe two minutes? Incredible Central Poles, Northern Mystics, Tiana Matudo,

(41:54):
Central Pole Shooter, Mikaela Sokeolech Beatson Northern Mystics wing defense,
both with us after two. I want to start this
hour though, with Sam Whitelock, one of the greatest rugby
players ever to play the game five and.

Speaker 6 (42:10):
Arriving touchline side back to the open left right in
callaher midway point.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Sat and the sail.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
That's a peta ray for the All Blacks the semifinals
day head.

Speaker 8 (42:23):
Egg for the semifinals.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
Nearly forty FATS Data fans.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
They're one of the most famous steals in All Blacks
rugby history. Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against Island last year.
Having debut for the All Blacks at the age of
twenty one, Sam Whitelock last year became the first and
so far the only All Black to reach one hundred
and fifty test caps. He finished on one hundred and
fifty three, the second highest by any international player, and

(42:50):
he captained the All Blacks in eighteen of those test matches.
He played twenty six Rugby World Cup games, more than
any other player, and appeared in three Rugby World Cup finals.
He's won eleven Try Nations Championships and never been in
an All Black side that relinquished the Bledislow Cup. He
also played one hundred and eighty one times for the Crusaders,

(43:12):
winning seven Super Rugby titles. Samuel Whitelock's autobiography is out.
It's called View from the Second Row. Samuel white Lock
is with us. Great to chat to you, Sam. How
happy are you with the way the books come out?

Speaker 8 (43:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (43:26):
Really happy.

Speaker 18 (43:28):
You know a lot of time and if it went
into it, obviously went through it like you know, with
a fine tooth co and making sure there was nothing
in there that wasn't correct or wasn't my true feelings.
So it took a bit of time to do the
interviews with Dylan, but also so much time to reread
it and make sure everything was where I wanted it
to be.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
It's a terrific greed. I enjoyed it very much, not
just the rugby stuff, but a lot of the formative
stuff as well. How much of the person you are
today and the rugby player you became can be put
down to your upbringing.

Speaker 18 (44:03):
Yeah, that upbringing is definitely the big part of it
and something that I definitely wanted to have shined through
in the book. And the main thing is having four
boys under five years on a dairy farm in the
mentor or two. That's going to cause chaos, and it's
going to be full on and there's going to be tears,
there's going to be cuts and bruises and a bit
of blood here and there. So I wanted to make

(44:23):
sure that people understood that's, you know, what my upbringing was,
and that's hopefully come through.

Speaker 15 (44:29):
In the book.

Speaker 18 (44:29):
There's a few photos there of us growing up, me
being the tall, skinny kid. So there's a couple of
photos there, probably not the most glamorous, but that's just
what it was, so true representation of being a country
kid in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
I think that's what a lot of people enjoy when
they read books about people they've only ever seen it,
you know, at the adult stage of their lives, seeing
what was what a Samuel White log look like as
a kid. Some great haircuts, mate, Yeah there's you know,
my hair is falling out now.

Speaker 15 (45:00):
But back in the day you used to love having
their bowl cut. I think it was called had had
the longer hair. Yea.

Speaker 18 (45:07):
My older brother loves shaving off before I went to
boarding school, so I think mum's actually got a bit
of it at home somewhere, which sounds a bit creepy,
but she couldn't give up the long hair.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
When did rugby become something that really moved to the
center of your life, all close to the center of
your life.

Speaker 18 (45:25):
Yeah, Rugby's always been a part of myself and the family.
So I do not remember a time where Rugby's not
you know, in the conversation, whether that's when we were younger.

Speaker 15 (45:36):
When we're older, even now. No matter whenever we catch.

Speaker 18 (45:40):
Up with any family members, whether it's mom and dad
or a brother or sister in law, Rugby always, you know,
is there in the conversation.

Speaker 15 (45:47):
So it's always been a massive part of our lives.

Speaker 18 (45:50):
But I think when rugby became a possibility to be,
you know, make a living out of it, there's around
that seventeen eighteen nineteen, and even now thinking about it,
there's no way I thought.

Speaker 15 (46:02):
I'd be able to play a professional games.

Speaker 18 (46:04):
So to be able to achieve what we've achieved, And
now that I'm retired at actual's sitting back and assessing
and looking and reflecting a little bit of Tessy very
humbling to know that I had such an amazing career.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
I think throughout your test career, you know when you
reached miles stones and there were a lot of them
near the end in terms of you know, test appearance
records and things like that. I think often your answer was, look,
it's not the sort of thing I can think about now.
I'll look back when I'm done and probably enjoy it
more then. Now that you are well, I guess, well,
maybe done. Are you able to look back with a

(46:37):
certain degree of pride at what you achieved?

Speaker 18 (46:41):
Yeah, there's It's weird because you know, there's a lot
of guys still playing in New Zealand. At the moment
that I spent a lot of time with the French
were still in France. At the moment the French team
that I played for, I want to watch them do
their fitness tests for twenty minutes and I was like,
I bugging this, I'm out of here, or just showed
up to annoy a few people.

Speaker 15 (47:00):
So I'm still on and around the rugby environment. I
think when we get.

Speaker 18 (47:03):
Home to New Zealand in a month's time and we're
on the farm and we're doing something completely different, that'll
be a time where it will sink in and I'll
probably reflect on it a little bit more. I had
a few copies of the book arrived to us here
in France the other day, and just seeing it in person,
looking at it open and up and looking at some
photos definitely did get the reflection piece going. But it's

(47:27):
still probably a little bit earlier to really assess what
we've done.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
It was a bit of chatter earlier this year about
the possibility of an early return. It would have been
very early return from retirement. Were you ever close to
coming back and playing for the All Blacks under Scott.

Speaker 18 (47:44):
Robertson, Yeah, the desire is always going to be there,
and I think if you talk to any rugby player
that's played for the All Blacks or potentially was close,
there's always that little bit of you that will go yep.
If the phone rings, I'll definitely answer and have a
really good conversation with the kids and my wife around.
You know, is that something that we need to do.

(48:06):
I think that's always going to be there. And talking
to some other great players that have played with I
think their desire is always there as well. So it's
a hard one because you've got to walk away at
some stage, whether you're told you're done or whether you.

Speaker 15 (48:20):
Pull the pen yourself. So just kind of going through that.

Speaker 8 (48:23):
At the moment.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
So are you done?

Speaker 15 (48:26):
Yeah, no, I'm definitely finished.

Speaker 18 (48:28):
But you know, I think it was Bija Lahore got
the sos and you know he left the farm and
when he played a tesmatch. I think it's a little
bit different now with being professional rather than just being
fit on the farm.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
So we are done at the stage you divote for
the old Blacks. As a twenty one year old looking
back now, did you feel ready for test rugby?

Speaker 15 (48:53):
Probably not. I think.

Speaker 18 (48:56):
The best thing I had is I had the ideal introduction.
I had three really good coaches with Ted Smithy in Chad.

Speaker 15 (49:04):
They really looked after me. They never threw me in
the deep end I played.

Speaker 18 (49:08):
I think it was my first team met teen Test
matches off the bench, so most I played was around
twenty twenty five minutes, so I never really got exposed
to the brutality of it for more than that time,
and it was a time for me to allow my
body to grow, get bigger and stronger and actually build
up my defenses. And there's pretty much the ideal way

(49:31):
to be introduced to tesmatch footy rather than throwing the
deep end, get hurt, and then you're dealing with an injury.

Speaker 15 (49:37):
From then on.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
How long did it take you to feel at home
comfortable in the all blacks environment.

Speaker 18 (49:46):
I probably never feel felt one hundred percent comfortable because
I always knew you're only one performance away from being
your last. But in saying that, obviously was around the environment,
got to know the people, got to know what was
expected of me, what was expected of being an all Black,
and then obviously being.

Speaker 15 (50:04):
A senior a black.

Speaker 18 (50:05):
So that side of it grew as I was there,
but it took a little while to kind of call
myself in all black. I still feel we're saying it
now even though I have been around the environment so long,
because it was exactly that. It was a childhood dream
and having a chance to do it for so many
years is very, very humbling, and it was an absolute privilege.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
The word you use before to describe test rugby was
the brutality of test rugby, and certainly in your position,
the physicality required at test level. How much of being
able to do that test after test, week after week,
subject your body to some massive collisions is a mental thing.

Speaker 18 (50:47):
Yeah, it's mental and physical. So like my introduction was
great because I I think it was one hundred and
six kgs where they wanted me around that one hundred
and fourteen one hundred and fifteen. So the biggest thing
for myself for those first couple of months was just eat,
eat food, protein, get bigger and stronger, because I would
have broken. And once you get your body to at

(51:09):
state where you know that you can withstand those collisions,
then it comes down to a mental game. Like you've said,
it's been able to back it up time and a
time again, and when you're playing week in week out,
you've got bruises and cuts from the week before and
you've just got to find a way to get out
there and deal with it. And I think that's the
best thing about New Zealand, and they do look after
the player. We don't play too much rugby, so you

(51:31):
do have little blocks you can look at and go okay,
about five big weeks here, then I'm going to get
a week off. So that's an easy way to break
it down rather than look at it as a whole season.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
And one when do you reckon you were playing your
best rugby? When were you at your absolute peak?

Speaker 18 (51:49):
I don't actually know that's probably for everyone else to
make that decision. But I felt like I was still
playing really, really good rugby right up to the end
of my career. So there was one thing I was
definitely aware of. I didn't want to be the guy
out there that you know that the father had said,
the son see that there he used to be a
good player. I really wanted to finish and play to

(52:12):
a really high stand in my whole career, and I
would like to say that I did that, but yet
again that's not my decision.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
To me, well, I think most observers would say that
that was absolutely the case. Twenty eleven Rugby World Cup final,
subbed off with thirty minutes to go. You said you
hate it every minute of the rest of the game.
How do you reflect back on that night now?

Speaker 18 (52:34):
Yeah, Like I said, I was twenty two, twenty three
at the time, so I was the baby of the team.

Speaker 15 (52:40):
I was the guy that no one probably.

Speaker 18 (52:43):
Expected to be there four years before, but played every
game at the World Cup. And as you found, when
you're on the field, it's fine because you have a
job to do. You obviously thinking about the linet calls
or what you're going to do. But once I stepped
off the field, I knew I couldn't have an influence
on the game. I couldn't help the team because it
was so loud they couldn't hear you. So I turned

(53:04):
into a fan that the other key he was feeling.
I felt helpless, and I remember I tried to sit down,
I stood up, I was pacing, and there's a number
of other guys doing the same. So that's where compared
to twenty fifteen final, being on the field, it was
such a different feeling because I was actually involved, I
had something to do.

Speaker 15 (53:24):
I didn't have that feeling of helplessness.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
As new players come into the all Blacks environment and
you became a more experienced voice and presence in the
all blacks environment, how did you go about making sure
that the new players coming in were well aware of
the responsibility that they had in being an all black.

Speaker 18 (53:46):
Yeah, it was something that I got set up really
well with people like Kevin me Lamu and some of
those senior guys. Mills did a really good job when
I was first brought into the environment, and they did
it through telling stories about expectations, what was expected and
what was not, so talked around people doing it well,
but talked around people that didn't do it well. So

(54:08):
then as a player, it was actually really easy. Okay,
this is what's expected, this is not. Here are the
consequences of getting it right and also getting it wrong.
So it was actually really easy. And that's pretty much
how I tried to do it. Get alongside people, and
it's always intimidating. When I first walked into the all
black environment, I was walking into a team that was
really established. Some of the legends of the game were

(54:31):
we're there. So I didn't say boo to a mouse
where I knew as a senior player, I had to
go be the first person to say gourday, to ask
them questions about themselves and get to know them. And
once I did that, then I could actually help influence them.

Speaker 15 (54:45):
What was expected.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
How challenging a year was twenty twenty two.

Speaker 18 (54:51):
Yeah, it was challenging. Every year's challenging. Every year has
different highs and lows. But obviously results weren't going the
way we wanted them to go and the way we expected,
and same with our fans and our friends and families.
That I put a bit of pressure on everyone. The
best thing through my experience experiences was I just knew

(55:14):
I had to concentrate on rugby and me, so that's
what I tried to do. I tried to just concentrate
on playing good rugby. I knew if I was doing that,
then everything else would sort itself out. I was a
rugby player at the time and that's what I was
expected to do. So go out there and play good rugby.
And I tried to leave all the external noise exactly.

(55:37):
Is that external noise? But sometimes that's easier said than done.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, I was going to ask that was it easier
said than that?

Speaker 18 (55:43):
I think for myself, not a massive present on social
media and things like that, So I just went back
to some of my hobbies outside of rugby.

Speaker 15 (55:53):
So when I was fully committed with rugby, I was
all rugby.

Speaker 18 (55:56):
When I needed to step away, I could do that
whether I was reading a book or dealing with some
stuff at the farm. And I think that's when I've
played my best rugby. I've had a busy life, but
it's busy in different areas as well.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
So you're you're the all time leading test appearance maker
for the All Blacks. Is that a Is that a
record that you're proud of.

Speaker 18 (56:19):
Of course, it's something I'm immensely proud of being able
to represent our beautiful country so many times. But at
the same time, exactly that, it's just numbers, so i'd
rather hear people talk around performance. Has been able to
back it up time and time again, but it is
something that's so humbling, and I hope that it's inspiring

(56:43):
the next generation, whether that's boys or girls, to go
out there and train hard and fall in love with
the game of rugby.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
How do you Reckon Razor will go as All Blacks coach?

Speaker 15 (56:53):
Yeah, he's three from three at the moment.

Speaker 8 (56:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (56:56):
True, that's a perfect way to start. I'm sure he'll
be very happy with that.

Speaker 8 (57:01):
I know he is.

Speaker 18 (57:02):
So it's going to come down to how he's and
grows his style of coaching, how he grows the other
coaches out of there, how he grows the leadership group,
the captains, but more importantly, the Little Black's game and
the players. So it's not an easy job. I wouldn't

(57:22):
think a lot of people would put their hand up
to do it. I think some would would, but maybe
wouldn't do the best of the jobs. So he's been
pretty excited to get into the season. He's been a
little bit annoying previously because he hasn't had a team
to coach, but he's right in the middle of it
now and they've got a test match coming up, so

(57:42):
I'm sure they're preparing as well as they can for that.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
I you want to finish with a phrase in the
book that I absolutely loved, and it's fairly simple. Darkening
the jersey? Is that something that you know? I mean,
I'm not going to ask you darkened the jersey? How
proud are you of the fact that you did that.

Speaker 15 (58:01):
Yeah, it's a bit of a different saying.

Speaker 18 (58:03):
Obviously, as key as we were black and it's awesome
watching the Olympians out there at the moment with their
black on and the silver fern on their chest and
then representing all of us. So as Key we's darkening
the jersey is actually the highest compliment you can receive.
And hearing people say that there was one thing definitely
wanted to put in the book around the feeling you

(58:26):
get when you hear some of those special words. You
know you've taken the jersey and put it in a
better spot. So pretty cool to have that, you know,
those weird said about myself.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
It's a great read, Samuel. I really enjoyed it. Samuel
white Lock View from the Second Row available wherever you
get good books right now. So you're still in France,
back home at some stage soon and then what does
the next little while look like for Samuel white Lock
in the family?

Speaker 15 (58:54):
Yep, so we are.

Speaker 18 (58:56):
I think we have twenty odd days left here and
the side of the world. We've got a bit of
a ticky tour through the south of England and then
onto the plane, flying back into crist Shots for a week,
picking out all the things of left in christ Church,
moving up to the farm and Hawks Bay, and then
straight into becoming a farmer and the real world. So
looking forward to getting to know the community up there.

(59:18):
There's plenty of jobs to be done on the farm,
so I'm sure I won't be won't be bored and
won't get into too much trouble.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Good to hear, great to chat, Samuel, Thanks for taking
the time.

Speaker 15 (59:28):
Awesome cheers, Thank you very much, No, thank you.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Sam sam white Lock. There his book is out. View
from the Second Row is it's really good. It's really good.
It's not just oh we played these guys and won
by this. There's a bit of that obviously talking about
big games, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Dylan Cleaver was involved in the writing of this book
as well. Sam Whitelock view from the second row how family,

(59:51):
farming and footy made a champion. As I was chatting
to Sam, then I was just wondering to myself where
Sam Whitelock sits in our list of the greatest ever
all Blacks. He's our most capt or black fifty three
test matches, obviously, one of our absolute greats. He'd be

(01:00:11):
top ten for sure. I was just trying to work
out where he goes on that list, who would be
above him? You might have a view on that, oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty, if you have nineteen
ninety two on text. It's a crowded field, isn't it.
At the very top you start to think about who
are our absolute greats? And as I say, Samuel Whitelock
is in that conversation, Richie mccawr, Colin Meads, Dan Carter,

(01:00:36):
Kristin Cullen, Michael Jones, Fitzi, Sean Fitzpatrick, Jonah, Aaron Smith.
So where does sam Whitelock go on that list? Is
he top five one hundred and fifty three test matches
in a brutally physically demanding position to be able to

(01:00:57):
play for as long as he did in that position
without losing form, without ever really being dropped apart from
dropped out of the Star site into the twenty three
And actually there's some really interesting stuff in the book
about that, about how he felt about being used in
an impact role at the Rugby World Cup last year

(01:01:18):
rather than as a starter. There's some really interesting stuff
in the book about that. But for Samuel Whitelock to
play for as long as he did in that position
says a lot about as I say, is his longevity,
but also his ability to stay fit and to start
the top of his game. You know, at his peak
the best lock forward in the world. Surely, oh e

(01:01:40):
one hundred and eighty ten eighty What does he sit
on our list of greatest All Blacks nineteen nine two.
If you'd like to send a text one twenty eight
on Weekend Sport, We're back after this.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
You'd be the TMO. Have yours say on eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty Weekend Sport with Jason Paine and GJ. Guvnerholmes,
New Zealand's most trusted home builder News Dogs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
That'd be one thirty on Weekend Sport. Yeah, I'm sort
of been kicking it around. These lists are always but fraught,
aren't they? With difficulty? What sort of frame of reference
do you use? I had to look back at a
couple of of lists of one hundred greatest All Blacks
selected by a couple of writers at the New Zealand Herald,

(01:02:20):
Win and Gray, the great Win Gray and the great
Phil Gifford Field won recently, actually the great All Blacks
of the professional era. So you started from what nineteen
ninety six, and you pick the top the top sixty
since nineteen ninety six, and he had Sam White look
at number seven in that list. So that's number seven
just since nineteen ninety six. It's a crowded field, and

(01:02:43):
I guess recency bias definitely comes into it, doesn't it.
You think about the players who you've watched in recent
times and you think, well, you know, I guess from
my experience in the professional era. You know, I was
was I mid twenties in nineteen ninety six, so I
didn't see a heck of a lot of rugby that
I really understood sort of pre nineteen eighty. But obviously

(01:03:04):
you watch and to stories and you read about Colin Meats,
and you read about Ian Kirkpatrick and players like that,
and Fred Allen and and others, and you you start
to wonder what they would have been like in the
in the modern day era. It's an impossible question to answer, obviously,
but you know where the where do they all sit

(01:03:25):
in relation to one another? I think you know, there's
there's some people who are unshakable in their view that
that Colin Meets is our greatest, even greater than Richie mccare,
Whereas you know, I tend to sit on the Richie
mccaure side of things, but that's probably because I never
saw Colin Meats play. You know, those who have been
lucky enough to watch across eras would be able to
make a better judgment on this. If you were able to,

(01:03:48):
I'd be keen to hear of you. Sam's a legiand
definitely darkened the Jersey says, this text has a text
has to be top five, maybe fourth behind Richie Dan
and Stephen Donald. Stephen Donald's text of the show are
very good if you want to join that conversation. Oh,

(01:04:08):
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Yeah,
we keen to hear where you think that that Sam
white Lock sits. Regardless of where you think he sits,
the book's terrific. So if you can get out and
get a copy Samuel white Lock view from the second row,
let's get you back to Paris. James mcconey normally joins
us a little bit later than this, but he's what's

(01:04:29):
halp ars three in the morning, so I think he
wants to get to bed, So let's get to Let's
get to James mcconey. Now, brilliant work that you're doing
over there, James, absolutely terrific. The stuff I've seen coming
back from you, Star de France. You've been at the
track and field. What's it like, mate? It looks amazing.

Speaker 19 (01:04:47):
Oh, it looks amazing and thanks Pineer. I appreciate it, mate.
Feedback from you is definitely appreciated and valued. I think
Star de France is not as we know it. Of course,
it's the rugby ground with your all blacks play. They've
put down the purple track, the French fans that they
love to chair, especially there their own athletes. But it's

(01:05:08):
a real wall of sound, and all the athletes are
saying the atmosphere is the best they've ever experienced. And
I was lucky enough to see Zoe Hobbs come second
in her heats in one hundred meters and looking really
good running eleven point eight, I think, But just a shame.

Speaker 8 (01:05:27):
It's a shame because she was looking at such good.

Speaker 19 (01:05:29):
Nick that she dipped out in the semifinals and you
would have seen the final. I'm guessing Pony and it
was great to see I guess an underdog get up.

Speaker 13 (01:05:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
St. Lucia's Julian Alfred beating hot favorite Shikari Richardson.

Speaker 13 (01:05:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
I just love the one hundred meters. It's just one
of the iconic events. And you're right about Zoe. You know,
eleven point eight would have gotten her into the final
is one of the next fastest. She ran eleven o
eight yesterday. She said she was in really good form,
just not to be but man, an Olympic semi final
for a one hundred meter sprinter from New Zealand doesn't

(01:06:06):
happen very often.

Speaker 8 (01:06:07):
James, Yeah, exactly. Let's be honest.

Speaker 19 (01:06:10):
One hundred meters has become the biggest event at the
Olympics and Zoe has been outstanding for a few years now,
and really her PB of ten point eight nine would
have won bronze. So that's why I feel sad for
Zoe because it's really hard to get it right. Alfred

(01:06:31):
Run ran her PB of ten point seven two, I
think tonight. So look, Zoe, I hope she doesn't quit.
She wants to take a break. I think there's plenty
more in the tank from Zoe. What we really need,
I think in New Zealand sprinting is relay teams. We
need to there's even mixed relays.

Speaker 9 (01:06:48):
Now.

Speaker 19 (01:06:49):
It's a shame Eddie and Kettya decided to leave the sport,
but look watch the space. I think he might come
back and help us in that regard because I think
having those relays gives athletes a bit more of a
They're not just on the brink of this or nothing.
You know, you need to have a campaign to build

(01:07:09):
around and even teammates you can see the camaraderie. I
was in camp with the New Zealand athletics team and
I think it would really help if there was a
team of sprinters.

Speaker 8 (01:07:19):
So you know, keep your eyes peeled.

Speaker 19 (01:07:21):
If you see anyone who's quick, make sure you get
them good good coaching. James Mortimer did a good job
with Zoe, so you know all is not lost for
the future.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, well, it's hope that she also catches a few
eyeballs of young boys and girls who think, man, I
can run fast. I'll give that a crack as well.
Not to be for Tom Walsh. Unfortunately, an injury has
really put paid to his chances of another Olympic medal.
That was tough to watch, wasn't it.

Speaker 8 (01:07:45):
Yeah, that's really hard for Thomas. Again. I saw him
in training. He was looking great.

Speaker 19 (01:07:50):
He'd trimmed down because I think he knew that his
best chance was to stay quick and stay fast. He's
doing a lot of speed training to compete with a
behemoth of a man and Ryan Krauzer. And there's a
cruel irony that he threw twenty two point nine to
zero to win the gold because that is Tom Walsh's
PB from back in twenty nineteen, I think. But let's

(01:08:10):
not forget Look, if this is Tom Walsh's final Olympics.

Speaker 8 (01:08:14):
We don't know that yet. I don't think.

Speaker 19 (01:08:16):
Here's the world champions from twenty seventeen.

Speaker 8 (01:08:20):
He is one of the great seventh best of all time.

Speaker 19 (01:08:24):
And remember some of those throws were definitely thrown by
people on the juice back in the day who had
never caught.

Speaker 8 (01:08:30):
But Tom is a great.

Speaker 19 (01:08:33):
Athlete, and I hope he's an awkward age is and
he's thirty two right now with a baby on the
way next month. To go another Olympics might be tough,
but I hope he does. And it was great to
see Jacko come seventh as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Yeah, we'll watch the space on Tom Walsh. Choppporters contend
to go a bit longer than some other athletes, so
I guess we just wait and see. Speaking of those
who I guess near the end of their Olympic career
than the start, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting
to Emma Twig a couple of hours ago. You know,
here's an athlete who was ready to throw it all away,

(01:09:09):
in fact, did retire after Rio twenty sixteen Golden Tokyo silver. Today,
I love the story of Emma Twig.

Speaker 8 (01:09:17):
Absolutely.

Speaker 19 (01:09:17):
Emma Twig is not the biggest athlete I'd say she'd
probably be the smallest in that field, and to finish
with another Olympic medal is just an awesome achievement. She
was already one of the greats. I think she's in
that pantheon of greats. But then to just cemented it
with another medal. She came fourth in London and then

(01:09:38):
fourth again in Rio, and that prompted that retirement, and
you know, just the one of those just digging deep
a show of grit. But also the other thing with
Emma is she's a true leader and she speaks her
mind and it rubs people.

Speaker 8 (01:09:54):
Up the wrong way.

Speaker 19 (01:09:55):
But I'm telling you everybody in your life, you need
an Emma Twig in your life. She'll tell you how
it is and you might not want to hear it,
but it's coming from a good place and it's all
about actually making things better.

Speaker 8 (01:10:07):
So she actually does move into say.

Speaker 19 (01:10:11):
A managerial administrative role, it'll be the best thing for
rowing in New Zealand, for sport in New Zealand.

Speaker 8 (01:10:18):
And look, she's the sort of person that is.

Speaker 19 (01:10:19):
She was to fly business class or first class around
the world, she'd be doing it to look after the
people who are in struggles street in the sport. You know,
she has always got an eye up for how athletes
are fairing and how the volunteers are going.

Speaker 8 (01:10:36):
So I've got nothing but admiration for Emma.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
Yeah, it's been another great rowing regator for New Zealand
at these Olympic Games. Just before you go, you haven't
had the chance to go to the judo, have you
and see that massive French guy, Teddy Rhiner when another
gold medal? Have you seen that?

Speaker 8 (01:10:52):
Yes? I did see Teddy Ryiner.

Speaker 19 (01:10:54):
He is something asite to behold, six foot eight, one
hundred and forty kgs.

Speaker 8 (01:11:02):
Not an ounce of fat on the guy. He is
just an absolute beasts.

Speaker 19 (01:11:07):
But you don't expect a judoka to be that height
because it's all about, you know, controlling your center of
gravity and dominating your opponent and getting them to the ground.

Speaker 8 (01:11:17):
So you think, like a big tree like that would
fall easily. Well he didn't. And that's his fifth Olympic
gold medal.

Speaker 19 (01:11:25):
He won the individual one hundred kg plus and in
the teams event it's weird, it was tied with Japan
and they went to sudden death and they sort of
spin in the wheel and they decide which of the
of the five teammates or maybe six have to fight,
And it just spun over to heavyweight men and the

(01:11:46):
crowd erupted because out comes Teddy against this massive Japanese
guy who looked like he was kind of like could potentially.

Speaker 8 (01:11:56):
Be a suma wrestler and you know, in the next life.

Speaker 19 (01:12:00):
And so that was just a battle Royale and Teddy delivered,
and look it was I've got a new found love
of the sport. I guess I've always respected judo and
played rugby with a good judo cust Steve Surage, who
was flipping on your back and before you know it,
tie you in knots like a pretzel.

Speaker 8 (01:12:22):
But seeing that, and I mean it's France. They love
that sport. I mean judo and fencing.

Speaker 19 (01:12:28):
You know how we love rowing and kayaking at the Olympics, Well,
the French love their judo and fencing for real.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Just before you go, it looks from here as though
everybody who turns up to watch these Olympic sports, and
there have been so many of them, it's just having
a party. There are DJs everywhere, there are all sorts
of fan engagement zones. Does it feel to you like that,
on the ground that the people of Paris have just
taken a month off and are enjoying enjoying a city
wide holiday.

Speaker 8 (01:12:56):
Yeah, there are two schools of thought.

Speaker 19 (01:12:57):
There are the DJs and the I'm quite near a canal,
which people will remember from the movie Unnerly it's actually
it's picture perfect and enter out there drinking in the
streets responsibly.

Speaker 8 (01:13:08):
Of course, there's there's buskers.

Speaker 19 (01:13:11):
There's the whole thing going on, just socializing in it
and it just feels wonderful, and and the restaurants have
TVs and they're celebrating every single French victory. And then
there's other people who say, well, half of Paris is
left because they knew it was going to be a
real problem, so they've left us to it. And it's
worked up quite nicely. Actually, there's been a few cramped

(01:13:34):
trains and very hot trains, and.

Speaker 8 (01:13:38):
You know, I've probably sweetd more.

Speaker 19 (01:13:40):
This has been really good for me Piney, to be honest,
you won't recognize me when I come back.

Speaker 8 (01:13:44):
And if I could have only just eliminated.

Speaker 19 (01:13:47):
The pastries from the equation, I would have maybe even
reached a goal weight by the end of Paris.

Speaker 8 (01:13:54):
Yeah, long at last.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yeah, you simply kind of go to Paris without without
sampling the pastries though that would be that would be sacrilege. James.
Great to chat us. Always enjoy the next week and
we'll catch up again one more time from Paris next Sunday.

Speaker 8 (01:14:08):
Sounds good, mate, Take it take it easy, all the best,
All the.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
Best to you too, James. Get some sleep. It's twenty
to four in the morning over there. Please get your
head down at some point. James mcconty, big part of
our Sundays and doing great work over at the Olympic
Games for Sky Simon. Hi, mate, great all black.

Speaker 8 (01:14:25):
So have you gotten your list A poney well?

Speaker 20 (01:14:28):
Michael Jones for sure, yep, him and at his peak
and the way he handles himself on and off the field.
Sam's up there, I tell you, yeah. Most the most
natural sports person I've ever come across as Kristin Cullen,
and I think that he probably didn't have as long
a career as what he should is. He's up there,

(01:14:52):
Pine Tree. You would know from him seeing him at
very aus different charity occasions. He was larger than lives
legendary and I actually reckon that he would have done
really really well in the professional era, aside from the
fact that you know, back in the day there were
a lot of dark arts and pine Tree wasn't one

(01:15:15):
to stand back. Yeah, you know, yeah, but you you
would know from from talking to him and interviewing him,
you know he was. He was that icon, that that legend.
Sam what an amazing role model, you know, and he's
still going in that that that vein, you know, like

(01:15:38):
he's the epitome of the sports person that most kids
should love to be, you know, because it's it's not
just the on field stuff. That's the mentoring that he
did of of other players and that he will continue
to do, but also the fact that he transcends rugby

(01:16:00):
and rich he is the same, I believe, you know,
they absolutely have the ability to inspire and influence and
mentor particularly our youth into different areas not just rugby.
And that's where Sam Whitelock's greatness actually really is. There's

(01:16:21):
another player that we should never forget and that's Jonah
you know, I you know, like humble self of faith thing.
We've just the first true professional rugby player that the
world had ever seen, and you know, he played through

(01:16:41):
a barrier of pain over a significant period of time
with with with what he had, and he is always
approachable and always humble and always that that amazing personality.
You know, to be an All Black grade or a
sporting great or any great, you have to be the
full package. And these guys generally are. And it's not
just guys. And you know, you look at what's being

(01:17:04):
talked about at the Olympics and then you're just Emma
Twig and some of the Sarah Olmer back in the
day as well, and probably one sports book person stands
out for me as being absolutely amazing and that Sup
and to boy you know where they just continue on

(01:17:26):
and they continue to give.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
You know, yeah, I do, Simon, I know exactly what
you're talking about. I think you and I could talk
about this for hours. We probably have in the past.
Got to move though, mate, great to chat to you
as always that Simon Wolfe you probably recognized the voice
and the name. One of our all time great photographers
and a huge sports fan as well. Just on thirteen
away from two news talks.

Speaker 8 (01:17:49):
It's more than just a game.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
Weekend Sport with Jason Vain and GJ. Gunnerholmes New Zealand's
most trusted home builder News Talks MB.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Jill says on text Jason, one of the funniest moments
of Sam Whitelock's career was his father last year at
the World Cup, saying it was time Sam gave up
rugby because he had just taken his children to the
zoo and they were absolutely feral. Time for Sam to
assume fatherhood responsibilities thanks to your great story. Another one
of our absolute greats is Tom Walsh. But unfortunately in

(01:18:21):
the shop put this morning in Paris, it did not
go his way.

Speaker 21 (01:18:24):
But he is getting into the ring to try and
into the circle, to try and deliver it and get
into this. He's currently outside the top eight, hasn't registered
to throw. Tom Walsh pivot spins and heaves it out.
Oh no, it's just not happening for him today. And
that's gone about I don't know, four or five meters.
He's grimaced as he went through the movement. Tom Walsh,

(01:18:45):
So there's some injury there and he waves the camera
a forlorn figure, that's for sure, Tom Walsh.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
Yeah, certainly an injury. Tom Walsh spoke to some of
the assembled media afterwards to let them know and let
us know what had gone on to Could you tell
us what happened?

Speaker 5 (01:19:02):
Oh, I've probably threw my ducknor on you know, a
flexi or something like that.

Speaker 6 (01:19:07):
I've been finding some more niggles in there for the
last month, and you know, I knew that it was
a possibility.

Speaker 5 (01:19:14):
But how I gave it a go.

Speaker 6 (01:19:16):
I wanted to commit to the throws, and I committed
to the two throws that I that I was somewhat
healthy on, and and then I thought giving it a
go on the last one because I don't want to
be sitting back there tonight wondering if.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
I could have.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
So when did you actually feel it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:33):
Just before release on the on that stick and throw? Yes,
I've done it a few times before.

Speaker 22 (01:19:39):
So I know that a lot have done and so,
but it had been troubling you in the in the
last couple of months, so you knew that.

Speaker 6 (01:19:46):
Yeah, it's been getting it's definitely been getting better the
last couple of months for sure.

Speaker 5 (01:19:50):
And and you know it was.

Speaker 6 (01:19:53):
You know, when we're out there doing what we do right,
it's good pushing the limit and we always know that
this is that's a that's a little chance that stuff happening, and.

Speaker 5 (01:20:04):
I'm just proud of myself that I for the throes.

Speaker 8 (01:20:07):
I hadn't ye are you feeling it yesterday?

Speaker 5 (01:20:12):
That's been live here? Okay, right, So how did you
get through yesterday?

Speaker 13 (01:20:18):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:20:18):
No, like no, yes, today, Like I'm aware of it.
There's a difference between wearing it and then do what
I just did. So it was a little bit there's
been a little bit slipped in, a little bit sore.

Speaker 6 (01:20:28):
I did not bad and then you know today I've
done a number on I think given everything.

Speaker 22 (01:20:36):
You've a cheesed the Olympics, you must be you must
be I mean devastated.

Speaker 5 (01:20:41):
I mean it must be so hard to take.

Speaker 8 (01:20:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:20:43):
I still thought that I had a chance to come
out here and throw really well today through well yesterday,
and yeah, as I said, I wanted to commit to
some throws and it was did and the body just
didn't play balls.

Speaker 5 (01:20:58):
I'll be back wherever.

Speaker 22 (01:20:59):
I'm sure you will be, Tom, Yeah, I'm sure you
will be.

Speaker 15 (01:21:01):
Thank you for spenders mate.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
That is Tom Walsh, after his injury plagued shot put
campaign at the Paris Olympics came to an unfortunate end.
So sad to see Jack O'Gill, on the other hand,
had a very good shot put competition, finishing sixth. So
maybe the mantle is about to be passed from Tom
Walsh to Jack O'Gill. We wait and see seven to
two News Talks EB.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
When it's down to the line, you made a call
on ten eighty Weekend Sports with Jason Pine News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
Heb four to two. Stew says Pinty Sam's contribution cannot
be underestimated. Meads and Whitelock are our two best locks.
Similar off field contribution to McCaw so Whitelock definitely top
five for me. I think that might be a stew
who's played a fair amount of top class rugby himself,
and Nicholas has got us top ten from ten to one,
Kerwin going, Lahore, Jones, Whitelock, Carter at five, Jonah Fitzpatrick,

(01:21:57):
Meads and McCaw thanks for sending it in, Nicholas. After
two o'clock David Neath he joins me in studio, one
of our top performance coaches. On the winning mindset.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
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 Vain on your home of Sport
News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
It'd be two seven, Welcome in, Welcome back, and as
the case may be, I'm Jason Pine. We're here till
three o'clock talking sport and then we'll hand it over
to Tim Beveridge for the weekend Collective Sunday edition. Want
to preview the A and Z Premiership Netball Final four
o'clock this afternoon, Central Pulse, Northern Mystics and Wellington. You
can hear a commentary of that game incidentally with Malcolm
Jordan and Evon Willering on Gold Sport from four o'clock

(01:22:46):
this afternoon. Tiana Matudro out of the Pulse and Mikhayla
Sokolch Beatson out of the Northern Mystic's going to join
us before the end of the show, welcoming a guest
into the studio shortly too. Your calls and feedback continue
to be welcome right across the afternoon. Oh eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty nine, two ninety two. If you
would prefer to correspond by text, But as we always
do around about this time on Sturllane Sunday afternoon, it's

(01:23:09):
time to get you across the stuff that might have
escaped your attention, the things that perhaps you haven't caught
up with yet. We call it in case you missed it.
And it's all about the Olympics today. Sim Own Biles incredible,
adding another gold to her already glittering collection. This is
the most.

Speaker 8 (01:23:28):
Difficult gold in the world for women.

Speaker 11 (01:23:30):
It's named after her.

Speaker 14 (01:23:32):
And she landed on her feet.

Speaker 8 (01:23:35):
Looks good, very good.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
She smashed it. She looked pretty tense before it and
pretty relaxed after it. And the tennis Chin Weanjeng has
followed up her upset of eagish beyond tech to take
home gold in the women's tennis singles and.

Speaker 8 (01:23:52):
They go toe to toe and it's.

Speaker 23 (01:23:54):
Jing with the four hands winner in the end of
states composed. So that is the biggest victory for the
world number seven Chinwin Jing of China in her career.

Speaker 2 (01:24:06):
Huge month that's been for Belgian cyclist Remco even pole
white jersey and third overall on the twur de France,
gold in the Olympics time trial, and now gold in
the men's road race.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Takes his feet out of the cleats and completes a
gold medal ride in Paris. Remco abedabol is the Olympic
road race champion, and boy has he done that comfortably.

Speaker 2 (01:24:32):
In the shop put Ryan Krauser secured his legacy as
the greatest of all time on the back to.

Speaker 12 (01:24:38):
The middle to the front, and he knows he's got
that connection.

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
Looked like twenty three and replay nearly there twenty two
point nine Kring Ryan Krauser.

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
And there was a shock in the women's one hundred
meter final and they're.

Speaker 24 (01:24:54):
Off register makes a slow start, she can't catch up
with the main field as Alfred Alfred up the metal
at Alfred Alfred's race to lose charging Ford. She's gotta
do it you one hundred out of Thempic Champion, Jolly
and Alfred on Olympic Games Stables.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
The Scoop from the track fields and the Court, On
your Homeless Sport, We Sport with Jason Vine News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:25:19):
The book arrived on my desk this week, called The
Winning Mindset Successful Strategies for Sport, Business and Life. It's
written by David Neathi, one of New Zealand's leading mental
performance coaches. He's worked across business and sport to help
enable peak performance in the Sporting World. Among those he's
worked with are City kickboxing fighters Israel Adasanya and Kaikara France.

(01:25:40):
He's also worked with golfers Lydia Coe and Michael Hendry,
the New Zealand breakers Jack O'Gill, and several other Commonwealth
Games and Olympic athletes. He's also got the same haircut
as Meat was keen to get him in. David Neathy,
how are you?

Speaker 7 (01:25:53):
I'm great, mate, Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
Your seminars usually include the phrase language may offend. Do
we need to be carefully here? No, we might have
to be a little bit careful, but we'll be reserved today.
Great to see him make congratulations on the book.

Speaker 14 (01:26:05):
Is this your book?

Speaker 7 (01:26:06):
This is my first book. In fact, it was unexpected.
It was HarperCollins approached me and asked if i'd be
keen and just to say the least, it wasn't. It
wasn't something that was actually planned. But yeah, here it is.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
It speaks or I think that's all right. Phrase. It
feels like the book is speaking, and now that I've
met you, it feels like it's speaking in your voice.
Is that was that the intent that you wanted?

Speaker 7 (01:26:32):
You wanted it to be kind of really yeah, I
tell you I had I will admit I did have
some help obviously with Net McCloy, who was my ghostwriter,
and she she said, look, Dave, you you've got a personality,
and idealy we want to sort of bring that across.
So she she sort of structured it that way. And obviously,

(01:26:53):
you know, the other person that really helped a lot
was the wife, my wife, Joe.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
It's off on the case. Yeah, I can say from experience, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:27:01):
Yeah, I had a lot. I had a lot on
my plate, and you know, I felt like, you know,
we didn't have we didn't have a lot of time.
But Nick did a fantastic job.

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
What are some of the central themes of the book?

Speaker 7 (01:27:16):
I think if we talk about just overcoming fear, talking
about building and strategies on how to navigate your way
through the challenges of that, you know, how do we
get into peak performance, how do we overcome fair? How
do I become the best version of myself? And the
whole books about strategies are in overcoming.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
One central question of the book is, and it's written
across the back and read letters, what would you do
if you knew you couldn't fail. How prevalent are feelings
or fears of failure in top athletes.

Speaker 7 (01:27:54):
I think you'll find that progressively as they get condition
for top quality competitions. The nerves it's no different from
a golfer on a Sunday game worrying about the hit
in the first shot. But these high performance athletes are

(01:28:15):
well conditioned. They've had tens, if not decades of hard work,
so they're kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Used to it. And failure is inevitable on any journey,
especially to the very top, isn't it.

Speaker 7 (01:28:26):
It's on the journey to success you are going to
pass through failure many times. What are the keys to
dealing with it, reframing it and understanding this? The fundamental
thing here is that there is no such thing as failure.
There's only learning. Now, what I say in the book
is if you can preserve the learnings and let go
of the negative emotions, you then develop and build a

(01:28:50):
strong self image so that you can navigate continuously on
a path to your goals.

Speaker 2 (01:28:56):
It's hard, though, wasn't it, Because at the time when
things don't go your way. I'm not just talking elite
athletes or very successful business people, but all of us.
We all have moments in as that hasn't gone the
way I hope. You feel embarrassed, you feel like you
let people down, you feel disappointed. How can you separate
all of those emotions and try and take out the lessons?

Speaker 7 (01:29:17):
Well, I think that's probably where you sort of want
to have someone or a support network that can help
navigate and create those conversations to extract from that, you know,
the key learnings. I mean, this is why you know,
sports psychologists, mental performance coaches are so vital today in
the in the world. I mean, it's a growing industry.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
You've touched on a really interesting point that I was
going to ask you about. How has the attitude towards
coaching mental performance changed and you've been doing it three decades.

Speaker 14 (01:29:49):
What was it like?

Speaker 7 (01:29:49):
What was luck when you started and nowadays? You know,
if you kind of learned from senior members around you
or your coaches. And certainly I want to make this
sort of clear in the contents of what I do.
I work with high perform moments. I don't do mental health.
So I think there's a lot more self awareness of

(01:30:13):
mental health issues and having the right people around them
to support that. But when it comes to high performance.
That's a very specialist field. That's where I sit.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
And so when you started, was it was there still
some what are we thirty years ago? Ninety four? Was
there a bit of suspicion still around about about you know,
coaching mental performance? Just gutther and lifts some more weights,
will you?

Speaker 7 (01:30:34):
Yeah, the old sort of tea spurin or concrete and
hardened up mate. I mean, but I was very much
that blue collar worker who was brought up in that environment,
which to a certain point, you know, there's some bloody
truth in that. You know, whether you like it or not,
you kind of have to harden the pep up if
you really truly want to overcome. So it's about facing

(01:30:56):
those fares. But ideally, you know, when we have that
sort of harden up narrative, it's it's it's not really
it's frowned upon. But I will tell you, you know,
working with a lot of my clients, I absolutely challenged
them to understand and to face that fair Carl Jung
said this, we're fear lies. There's your task. Love that

(01:31:20):
love that David neath, he's our guest. The winning mindset
is the book you've worked with kickboxes like Israel Adisanya
and golfers like lydia Coe. They could hardly be more
diametrically opposite in terms of what is needed for success.
I mean lydia Co's got to be utterly relaxed before
she approaches every shot. I don't know about kickboxing, but
i'd imagine you have to be fairly hyped up to

(01:31:41):
get in the octagon to start with. Yeah, it's actually
not the case at all being hyped up. I mean
in the book, I took about the performance window and
ideally the difference. I mean with kickboxing, it's not about reacting,
it's about responding, and you have to have a calm

(01:32:03):
mind to be able to to anticipate the movement. So
what I get with a lot of feedback with the
guys is when I talk about getting into that state,
the feedback is often it's like I'm half a second
ahead of my opponent, and that's a beautiful place to be. Now,
as far as Livia's concerned, I think the one thing

(01:32:26):
that makes God very challenging is that you have time
to think, and that thinking can very quickly contaminate.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
Yes, So because I think you're right, you off and
hear about the heat of the moment or somebody doing
something spontaneously. You can't reallydo that, and golf can. You've
got far too much time to think about it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:32:44):
Yeah, And you've got to be able to manage yourself.
I mean, you hit the ball two one hundred and
twenty meters down the fairway, You've got time to think
or reflect about the last hole where you boged whatever.
And these these thoughts can actually contaminate the self image,
It can actually affect the neurology and hav an impact

(01:33:04):
on your to stay in the now, which is so
so important for high performance athletes.

Speaker 2 (01:33:12):
So there are general principles that apply across goals of
special boxing and everything in between them. Absolutely one is
absolutely self awareness. Absolutely understanding through conscious awareness on the
state that you're in and understanding is this state contributing
or contaminating the moment that you can because fundamentally you

(01:33:32):
cannot change anything you don't first recognize. So you recognize, hey,
this is not helping me. I give them a toolbox
or a performance mental performance toolbox of things that they
can use to get them back into state. I want
to ask you about outside noise, which is now more
prevalent than ever. Anybody with an Internet connection and a

(01:33:53):
smartphone can make you know, can post an opinion about anybody.
Someone's probably listening to us and firing something off right
now if they want to. How important is it and
how can you block out noise that irrelevant to you?

Speaker 7 (01:34:07):
Well, I think it's quite simple. And again this is
where we had to be mindful of language. Ultimately, when
you have a strong self image, you don't give a shit.
And I think the other key thing is, you know
you can with social media today you actually have the
ability to turn your device off. You know, I'm certainly

(01:34:29):
not going to allow anyone else to contaminate my self
image or dictate to me. And so again part of
that is helping my clients build a strong self image
of undoubtable belief.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
How do you connect with your clients because they come
and they've never met you A You're a likable guy.
I know your ten minutes. It's not difficult, but I'd
imagine there be trepidation, Oh, you know, what's this guy
going to tell me? You know, like I said, I
just want to get out and lift some weights or
whatever it is. How do you establish rapport.

Speaker 7 (01:35:00):
I would say that it's see, this is something that
because I've done it for so long within weds, I
can have them very relaxed. So it's not something that
I could actually tell you. It's just something innate.

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
It's just a skill.

Speaker 7 (01:35:14):
For many, many years of coaching tens of thousands of ours, can.

Speaker 2 (01:35:19):
I always ask you work with the breakers? And Basketball's
always always appeal to me as a sport. I love
what basketball. My son's right into it. But watching the
top players in the world with seemingly ice in their
veins in these huge moments, seconds counting down, cool hidedness,
cool hiddenness? Can that be coached?

Speaker 7 (01:35:38):
I think? I think the most important thing is when
you get to elite level clients, they are so curious
and eager to learn to get that edge.

Speaker 14 (01:35:48):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:35:49):
So whilst you're on that that you've nailed it. Here's
a real beautiful story. So do you remember is it
is it twenty sixteen when we won the NBA L
I think it was something like that, something like that,
and I remember remember a big quay put the shot
up on the buzzer.

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
Yeah, absolute scenes, pandemonium.

Speaker 7 (01:36:09):
Oh mate, it was the most amazing experience, right, Now,
I remember running a seminar for the guys. This is
sort of beginning of the season, and as we ran
through it and I finished, a big way jumps up
and he goes.

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
You know what you are, man, You're real, man, You're real.

Speaker 15 (01:36:28):
You know. So these guys are keen to learn anything
they can to get.

Speaker 2 (01:36:32):
The mental edge. That's great, that is great. While there
are things and themes that will will really help towards
peak performance, are there things that will definitely detract from it?

Speaker 14 (01:36:43):
Ah?

Speaker 7 (01:36:44):
Yeah, Well, there's always going to be obviously navigating your
way through failure, and I think the keys to overcoming
some of the challenges is certainly having the right network.
You've got to have a support network and play and
to a certain point, people have got to take some

(01:37:04):
level of personal responsible to see responsibility an agency. You know,
your stat is your choice. You know, I want to
allow someone to dictate to me. So again, it's not
so much ideal so much with that in that I
established a strong self image so that it's not something

(01:37:25):
that comes up in the conversations in our journey together.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
How do you get your rewards? What are your biggest rewards?

Speaker 7 (01:37:35):
Well, obviously you can appreciate. There's a real buzz when
you have a client on TV who gets a gold
medal like Tupo, and that's really really rewarding. But there
are also times. I remember a young man who was
really struggling, sort of a low self esteem, very intimidated

(01:37:55):
by a lot of the swimmers on the pool, and
I remember we worked together and his parents phoned me
after the event on the drive home. I think they
were in an apier driving home to walk and they said,
oh my god, Dave, you won't believe what happened. He's
been working with you and been working for this particular
event and they said, look he peeb and I went, oh,
that's great, that's what I expected. And they said, Dave,

(01:38:17):
he had a thirteen second PB.

Speaker 2 (01:38:21):
Thirteen seconds in the pool. That's unreal.

Speaker 7 (01:38:25):
Now he was still quite young, which is expected that
you can make big jumps, obviously, but they hear it
on the parent's voice. The only true way to success
is to help others get what they want. And so
I get fulfilled with this, with small events that aren't
in the book that no one else will know except

(01:38:46):
for them and the client. You know, that's special for me.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Mate One thing you hear a lot as well about
top athletes and top performers across all industries is that
they always want to learn more.

Speaker 7 (01:38:57):
Yeah, you feel that way as well. Absolutely, they're incredibly curious.
And I've always said to the guys, look, you come
and see me, but don't make it one dimensional. I
want education should be on the continuant for the rest
of your life. You should be educating yourself. I think
things may change as you mature as an athlete and
come to your end of your career. Your education may

(01:39:18):
be in the next phase of your life. But education
education by definition. I'm not saying you have to get
a university degree, but you should be constantly learning. That's
the existentialist to me.

Speaker 8 (01:39:31):
Mate.

Speaker 7 (01:39:31):
You know, I believe with thrown in this world, let's
extract as much as we can out of it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:37):
So you're still learning. Oh absolute.

Speaker 7 (01:39:39):
In fact here I am. I don't know in the
book you might read, I left school at sixteen with
no qualifications. In fact, my school see English exam. I
wrote my name, put the pen down, and after half
an hour were allowed to go. So I passed off
to a rugby game that was more important for me
at the time, and I didn't have any belief in myself.

(01:39:59):
I am currently now doing a degree in philosophy and psychology,
and I'm proud to say from a man who left
school with no qualifications, I've been getting as in my
philosophy papers, which is my passion.

Speaker 2 (01:40:12):
That's brilliant. You worked with Jack O'Gill. Yeah, do you
reckon he'll be six at the Olympics. You reckon he'll
be happy, satisfied.

Speaker 15 (01:40:19):
But he won't be satisfied at all.

Speaker 7 (01:40:21):
No, I know, but he'll He's the sort of guy
where he also knows about the long game. He knows
there's a lot of work to be done. He's come
a long way and he's got a massive Him and
David Lessi I had. I had a little session with Dave.
This is probably going back about five years and I

(01:40:43):
said to him, if I think it was a Commonwealth games,
I made a bet with him. I said, mate, if
you if you, if you, if you win it, I'll
buy you. I'll buy your lunch.

Speaker 2 (01:40:52):
That's expensive, so he mate, I tell you.

Speaker 15 (01:40:55):
So we go to the pub. We're having a pub.

Speaker 7 (01:40:58):
We have the entree, main and dessert, and the lady
comes in and says there anything else, and he and
Dave goes, yeah, I'll have the same again.

Speaker 8 (01:41:05):
Please far beg guy.

Speaker 2 (01:41:10):
Two entrees, two mates and two dessents cost me hundreds
of dollars. David, Yomi, mate, h so good, so good.
I feel like we could talk for hours. David neath
thee The Winning Mindset, Successful Strategies for Sport, Business and Life.
So I guess we'll be waiting for your philosophy book next. Yeah,
that's the gay. That sounds great. Good suggestion, pe, I'll

(01:41:31):
go with that. I'll pass it on to HarperCollins. Good
to see you, mate, great to meet you. Thanks for
popping in for a chat.

Speaker 7 (01:41:36):
Thank you so much mate.

Speaker 2 (01:41:38):
That is David neath the Yeah. Check the book out
it as a cracker. The Winning Mindset, Successful Strategies for Sport,
For Sport, Business and Life. Israel A Lasanya says these
methods sharpened my focus. Lydia Coe, David helped me in
my pursuit of World number one. Some pretty good endorsements.
Two twenty six on news Talk set me back in
a sect to preview this afternoon Sneppel.

Speaker 8 (01:41:58):
From Venros to Paris.

Speaker 1 (01:42:02):
You like to call on eighty eighty weekends for it
with Jason and GJ. Gunnomes, New Zealand's most trusted home
builder News Dogs'd be tremendous.

Speaker 2 (01:42:12):
What a great chat. What an energizing chat with David
Neathy about his book and about life in general. You
feel like you could earn a lot. I was sitting
around just chewing the fat with him, and I was
pleased too that he didn't really swear. He said, just
before we went on the air, are we pre recorded
all live? I said, we live, mates, So yeah, if
you could just keep the swearing to a minimum, that'll

(01:42:32):
be handy. Although I get the feeling you wouldn't have
been offended anyway. It wouldn't have been gratuitous. It would
have been to just make a point, and he made
a lot of good points. Net Paul's a n Z
Premiership Grand Final this afternoon four o'clock TSB Arena in
Wellington Pulse against the Mystics. Poul Shooter Tiana maturo is
with us head of this one. Before we talk about

(01:42:52):
the game, Tiana, you missed the first what eight games
of the season with a foot injury, and then you
sort of eased your way back into the team. Now
you fully fit, which is great. How frustrating a time, though,
was it while you were trying to overcome the foot
injury and you couldn't play when you had it?

Speaker 17 (01:43:08):
Yeah, I guess just having to do my own sessions
on top of, you know, being there to contribute whatever
it is that I could to the girls sessions was
probably a little bit exhausting by the end of it,
but still with like a common goal in mind, that
was probably what kept me going. And just we have
such a good environment. I always I kind of always said,

(01:43:31):
I couldn't imagine being a better environment to be injured in.
But it was frustrating, but you know, we're here now,
so I think it's exactly where we meant to be
and we deserve it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
How good was it to get back on the court though, Yeah, Well, I.

Speaker 17 (01:43:49):
Was saying I was a bit average for like the
first career four game, and I probably only really found
my feet again the last game, which was against the Tactics.
But I'm not very kind to myself, so maybe I
did all right for the first few games. But I'm
just happy that I think I've found my feet again
and I'm sort of back to that sassy, aggressive hungry

(01:44:12):
goal attack that I was at the start before I
got injured. So yeah, it's good to be back and
injury free.

Speaker 11 (01:44:20):
Touch.

Speaker 2 (01:44:20):
Would you are really hard on yourself? Man, you are
so hard on yourself you need Yeah, I think that
was there straight away. You might not have felt that
it was, but it looked like and from the outside
you weren't the only one, of course, has been on
the side of as Maddy Gordon's been out others at
various times, including Amelia Warmsley down the shooting end. How
impressed have you been with the players who have been
asked to step up and have stepped up.

Speaker 17 (01:44:41):
Yeah, No, they've been amazing.

Speaker 13 (01:44:43):
And I think.

Speaker 17 (01:44:46):
Any other team would have just fallen over and would
not have been able to come back from it, and
probably would have just given up on the end goal
and would have just said, like, let's just try our
best and hope it all works out. But our intentions
are still the same and everything stayed the same, and
if everyone who took the court just did their jobs

(01:45:08):
and did them so well that we've almost come back.
And they've been big shoes to fill as the ones
who have returned and the ones who were injured, so
it's really impressive, and I think it's just great that
we can also reward them for their efforts. And without them,
we wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be in the Grand Final,

(01:45:29):
and they managed to get us through consecutive matches, and
it's just we're really grateful for them. They've done so well.

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
Yeah, one or two years ago, lost a heartbreaker in
the elimination final last year. How much motivation sorry to
bring that up. How much motivation has that provided you
in twenty twenty four to get back to the Grand Final?
What you have done?

Speaker 17 (01:45:52):
Yeah, I think we're a completely different team to what
we were last year, obviously with new additions and people
coming from all different corners of the earth to make
up our incredible team. But we I think we're just hungrier.
I think we don't have any excuses that don't We
are that sort of team that don't make us excuses

(01:46:13):
for anything. I think we're a lot more mature. I
think Amelia had only played that was your first season
last year. Paris Mason's flourishing this year and I think
we've got a lot of experience and we've got Claire
Kurston back as well, so it is a bit of
a different look, and the circumstances and things that have
happened this year haven't been idea of that we've managed

(01:46:34):
to overcome them, and so it's just there's a different
feal for this weekend. And we're back at TSB, which
is our favorite arena, and it's the atmosphere there is
always really electric. So we're really looking forward to it
and it'll be a really good challenge. So yeah, you're excited.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
Yeah, I think I think tickets sold out. Did I
read tickets sold out in two minutes or something stupid?
That's incredible, isn't it.

Speaker 16 (01:46:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 17 (01:46:58):
I tried to get tickets to my own friends, my
own friends and in the pre sale and they were gone.
So yeah, I mean I was saying to some of
the girls that this is the year that I think
people have actually what the most that it's happened, where
people have stopped us on the street and have spoken
to us about how incredible our matches have been and

(01:47:20):
how much they love watching us. And even today I
think three people just strangers on the street pushing us
good luck for the weekend. So it's really cool to
see that we're producing a product I suppose and playing
a brand of netball that people like to watch.

Speaker 2 (01:47:38):
That's so cool. Now, I know it's not your area
of the court, but how do you stop Grace and Wiki?

Speaker 17 (01:47:45):
Yeah it's funny. Excess one of my good friends.

Speaker 15 (01:47:50):
I know this.

Speaker 17 (01:47:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love her. But we it's a
full team defensive effort. I think if we have that
same mindset and approach as we did when we played
the tactics, it's going to be a really we will
be able to make it really difficult for them. So
that's everyone that's Whitney and I or whoever's in goal, attacking, winger, tack.

(01:48:15):
It's those two positions helping to apply pressure and just
being pests, I suppose, because it's a really tough gig
down that tecking end. Well, our defensive ends, I should say.
And so yeah, we've we've got our work cut.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
Out for us.

Speaker 17 (01:48:31):
But I think we we're as ready as will ever
be and we've worked hard for eight months. So it's
just another game of netball, good.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
Stuff, and just on the on the home court thing
to finish. How big an advantage do you perceive home
advantage to be in a really big game like this, Well, I.

Speaker 17 (01:48:52):
Feel like TSB is a really it's a special place,
and I think only so many people have experienced what
it's like playing in an elimination final a grand final there,
and you really can't explain it. The words that come
to mind are just electric and it's very loud, and
they're almost like an eighth player, and it's such a

(01:49:16):
it's a huge advantage, Like you feel so confident playing
in front of your fans because regardless of what happens
or what you do, they admire you. They love watching you,
they love what you do on court and how you
contribute to the team, and it's just that's I think
they've been a real key part to our success. So
farthest sings, and so we're really excited to just be
back in front of them and hopefully produce the best

(01:49:39):
set well we've played all year.

Speaker 2 (01:49:41):
Does your mum still give you plenty of advice?

Speaker 17 (01:49:46):
Oh gosh, often, I think, I think often at times
I try to steer away from it, just because I
think I sometimes probably lock into her opinions too much,
and whether they're good, sometimes they complained opposite. And so
that we have been hanging out a lot couple of

(01:50:07):
days which has actually been nice. I don't live at
home anymore, so it's been quite refreshing to just have
her there rebounding for me or feeding me when I've
gone to do shooting sessions. So yeah, I do try
to kick my distance, purely for the fact that I'll
probably accuse her of picking on me, when really that's

(01:50:28):
not the case at all.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Oh No, you got to lean into this stuff. You
have to lean into it. Hey Towa, greater chat as always,
all the best in the Grand Final. Really appreciate your time. Cool,
thanks many thanks downa Tiana Maturo. They're out of the
Central Pulse, I forget. You can hear a full commentary
of this game from four o'clock this afternoon on Gold
Sport and iHeartRadio. Malcolm Jordan, who I don't think has

(01:50:50):
been to sleep for about a week with that one,
come across in his commentaries though, it'll be the same
consummate professional as always, bringing the enthusiasm and the excitement
of his netball commentaries to Gold Sport. Yvonne Willard, former
self affirms coach alongside for the Grand Final in the
ain Z Premiership are the Central Pulse against the Northern mystics.
Speaking of the Mystics, we'll get inside their camp shortly.

(01:51:12):
Mikayla Sokolch beats in their wing defense. Also Silver Ferns representative.
She'll pop in for a chat after this.

Speaker 1 (01:51:20):
The Tough Questions after Turf Weekend Sport with Jason Paine
and GJ. Gunnerholmes, New Zealand's most trusted home builder, News Talks.

Speaker 2 (01:51:32):
Just a reminder. Sorry, I wasn't sure if my mike
was on or not. I'm starting to lose it. My
mic was on. Just a reminder that next weekend Rugby
Championship begins All Blacks Argentina Sky Stadium, Wellington, Saturday night
from just after seven o'clock. Our build up starts at six.
Elliott Smith, our lead commentator and rugby editor, has the
call for you the following Saturday night back to Auckland

(01:51:54):
and Eden Park. So back to back test matches live
here on news Talks dB the next two Saturdays, Wellington
next Saturday and Auckland the Saturday after. Let's get back
to the netball. The a Z Premiership Grand Final four
o'clock today, putting the Central Pulse, who finished top of
the table, against the Northern Mystics who came through the
elimination final against the Tactics last week to take their

(01:52:16):
place in the final. Mystics wing defense. Mikayla sokolch beats
and is with us now. Mikayla, you're defending champions. Of
course you won it last year. How motivated are you
to go back to back?

Speaker 14 (01:52:28):
Yeah, we're super motivated to go back to back. Just
to win the final with the unreal whether it was
back to back or not winning as such an awesome achievement,
but to do it twice Cinera was definitely something our So.

Speaker 2 (01:52:39):
How much confidence do you take into this final from
your win over the Tactics away from home in the
elimination final last weekend.

Speaker 14 (01:52:47):
Yeah, we took heaps of confidence from that, but we've
actually taken confidence over kind of the last six seven
weeks because we've kind of been grinding and building in
Every game for us has been must have. So yeah,
it's been an awesome I guess lead into the finals
for us.

Speaker 13 (01:53:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:53:02):
Well, just on that, I mean, you did take the
hard road, having to go through the elimination, as I say,
away from home, playing that extra game. Does that bring
fatigue into the equation or conversely, do you feel like
it might give you the advantage of a bit of momentum.

Speaker 14 (01:53:17):
Yeah, I guess for me, I've now been in both scenarios.
We're bonded straight through and played the Grand Final and
where we've done this, and honestly, there's not much different
than the two because when we went straight into the final,
we actually had we simulated a game day in a ways,
just so we could keep the legs sticking over. I
think as well, playing a game means you're in that

(01:53:38):
you don't lose focus, you stay very much in routine.
I think both have pros and cons.

Speaker 2 (01:53:44):
But no fatigue. There's no no question of fatigue in
the Mystics camp.

Speaker 14 (01:53:49):
Well, yeah, the way that we ran it last year
is we didn't rest anymore than we will not if
we played the elimination final. Yeah, we've played the game,
so yeah, hard to say. I don't know what the
Post have done with their prep, but yeah, I don't
think fatigue will be a fact down.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
All right, Good to hear how much of a boost
Michael has it been getting Grace and Wiki back in
the last month or so.

Speaker 14 (01:54:10):
It's just nice to have a full team like when
we look around the training now, it's like everyone and
that's such a nice feeling when most of the season
that hasn't been the case. So to have everyone in
participating and really involved and engaged, there's also s nice
team morale and culture.

Speaker 2 (01:54:27):
With Grace. It feels as though she's such a weapon, right,
such a weapon under that under that hoope, do you
have to in any way avoid the temptation of just
solely relying on her to win your games of nipple?

Speaker 13 (01:54:40):
Yeah, good question.

Speaker 14 (01:54:42):
And she's a huge, strong target at the back. She
in the Grand Final last year put up seventy goals.
We know that she's a sixty goal a game shooter.
Like that's incredible. Step I'm obviously we're going to look
into her and if it's working and she's on, we're
going to let the school go. So to be honest,
we just play what's in front of us. So she's

(01:55:03):
on the court, we're going to play like we know
we need to play with her. She's not on the
court sweep nets, perthm LL rolling or play with them
what we see so nothing's not really changes, it's just
the personnel changes.

Speaker 2 (01:55:14):
So the pulse you beat them by ten goals, not
long ago, just three weeks ago. Does that mentally psychologically
give you any sort of advantage?

Speaker 14 (01:55:22):
Absolutely not. No, final netwill is so different to just
normal round rolling games, and there is no way that
they're going to let us put that many points on there.
I just know that they're not. That's going to be
such a fight to the end, and we're definitely not
going into this game lately. We know that they're an
incredible team with a whole stacked bench that they can

(01:55:44):
roll onto the court at any time.

Speaker 2 (01:55:46):
And when you're preparing for this match, or any match,
but in particular a massive match like this, how much
do you focus on your individual matchups? You look across
the court and prepare for who will be directly opposite
you in the pulse side.

Speaker 14 (01:56:00):
I did both. I do my own individual analysis on
the people that I'll editing now because I need to
know where their strengths are and how I can try
and combat that. I need to know the lights that
they run. And then also was the team we look
at better factures, so how do they work as a
unit versus the individual? So for me, it's a fifty
to fifty split.

Speaker 2 (01:56:20):
And when you look at their shooting circle, their weapons,
and media warm slid to on a matulo as a
wing defense is is it a challenging task to prevent
the ball getting into the shooting circle to those.

Speaker 14 (01:56:31):
Two definitely and one of the best feeders in the country.
She is very quick she looks, which is also may
want your feeder to be looking in so you're trying
to break down those connections will be huge, And we
also are realistic. We know we can't do that for
sixty minutes. We know that they're going to get all
past us and through us, and that's just the game. However,

(01:56:51):
we can try and shut down how quick that they are.
That'll be key for us because, like I said, winning
is very far.

Speaker 2 (01:56:58):
And beyond this, Mikayla, the Silver Ferns have a big
program coming up in October, the Tiny Jamison Trophy, the
Constellation Cup. Have you started thinking about the Silver Ferns
and your your hopeful involvement and participation in those tests.

Speaker 14 (01:57:11):
Not for me, I think because I'm not I'm not
like a core member of the Silver Fans. If I
have been in consistently and I was someone that you know,
been selected offten, maybe, But because I'm kind of outer
on this springe for me, no like even to get
a trial well the team would be nice, but I'm
definitely not thinking about that yet.

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
All right, Well that all lies ahead. Your main point
of business right now is this afternoon's an Ze Premiership
Grand Final. All the best against the Pulse, Mikayla, and
thanks for taking the time for a chat.

Speaker 14 (01:57:42):
Thank you very much, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:43):
Now I appreciate you joining us, Mikayla. Thanks indeed, Mikaela
Socolege beats in there from the Mystics before that Tiana
Matido from the Pulse. Pulse playing paying one seventy the
Mystic's two ten to win that game this afternoon. That
gives you an idea of the favoritism that feels about
right home advantage, Although the Grace Waki factor, I think
is a massive factor. And look, if she can be

(01:58:04):
contained by the Pulse, then they've got to give them
Shelves the upper hand. If, on the other hand, the
Mystics can use her to the best of her ability,
then it's going to be very very difficult for the
Polse to contain her. Yeah, fascinating battle coming up TSB
Arena this afternoon. Completely sold out for commentary, as I
say on gold Sport and on iHeartRadio, Leon on email Piney.

(01:58:24):
For what it's worth, here's my top ten All Blacks
of all time ten Bruce Robertson nine, Ian Kirkpatrick eight,
Sam Whitelocke seven, Aaron Smith six, Michael Jones five, Brian
Lahore four, Jonah Lomu three, Colin Meats too, Dan Carter won,
Richie mccaugh. The reason, says Leon, I put Richie at
number one is because as an All Black he played

(01:58:44):
in one hundred and forty eight tests, only losing seventeen
and winning the other one hundred and thirty one and
unmatched percentage of ninety percent success rate. No one even
comes close to that. The reason I rate him as
not just our greatest All Black, but the goat rugby player.
Thanks Leon, I think a lot of people would probably
agree with you. Looking ahead to the Olympic action you

(01:59:07):
can hear on gold Sport tonight. It's a quieter day,
I guess you'd say for the Kiwis. Ryan Fox Daniel
Hillier play the fourth round of the golf Daniel Hillier
Underway seven twenty two tonight. Ryan Fox just after five
past nine. Chloe Tipple is in skeet shooting qualifying. Lauren
Bruce at the Track and Field our best hammer thrower.
She's in qualifying action tonight from around eight twenty. Our

(01:59:30):
sailors are out and about off the coast of Marseille.
Erica Dawson and Micah Wilkinson in the Nakra, Thomas Saunders
and Greta Pilkington in the dinghy and the new class
to the Olympics. It makes its debut this evening. Kite surfing,
Lucas Walton, Keem and Justina Kitchen are our representatives. They

(01:59:51):
have the cycling road race underway at midday sorry midnight
our time midnight. Kim Kadzo and Nive Fisher Black are
our representatives. Finn Butcher and Luca Jones also in action
in the kayak cross for both men and women. This
is This is the kayak event where in the whitewater
rapids you get four kayakers get dumped into the water

(02:00:14):
together at the top and it's just the fastest to
the bottom. You've got to go through the gates down
and up, but you can actually make contact with the others.
There's rules, but it's like Demolition Derby on Whitewater kayak
Cross and both Van Butcher and Luca Jones are pretty
good at it, so they're in action in that sport

(02:00:34):
that event as well. You can listen to it all
on Gold Sport and iHeartRadio from seven o'clock tonight right
through the night until nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Nine Away
from Three News Talks.

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
By breaking down the Hail Mary's and the epic fails
Weekend Sport with Jason yin News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (02:00:54):
What are we six away from three? That's pretty much
us for weekend sport for today. Tim Beverage is all
set to go for the Weekend Collective after three o'clock
through until six, taking you through the next segment of
your Sunday. I hope you've enjoyed the show. We've certainly
been well loving bringing it to you. Some great guests today,
including David Neathy, who's just absolute breath of fresh air

(02:01:17):
and a tornado coming into the studio. Absolutely loved meeting
David Neathy this afternoon, and great to chet to Sam
Whitelock as well, and all of the other Olympic stuff
that we did too. We're back tomorrow night on Sports
talk between seven and eight. No doubt we'll be talking
some Olympics and other bits and pieces as well, and
back on Weekend Sport next weekend. Huge thanks to Andy

(02:01:37):
McDonald for pulling the show together. We've both been working
unusual hours over the last week, so the fact that
Andy hasn't done me grievous bodily harm has a great
credit to him. Thanks mate, mate.

Speaker 25 (02:01:48):
But I actually think that most weeks for you towards
me so oh, I thought you meant the other way. No, no, no,
I wonder how other people deal with me at the
best of times, but now it's starting to get to
the thin end of the wedge, as they say. But no,
thank you, thank you for keeping me intact. Good stuff, mate,

(02:02:09):
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. I hope you can
relax a little bit. Thank you for tuning in the
song to go out with us today.

Speaker 2 (02:02:14):
I've been enjoying the Olympics coverage obviously, and some of
the famous landmarks that have featured, including the Eiffel Tower
of course, perhaps the most famous landmark well in Europe certainly,
and one of the most famous in the world. And
I thought about the James Bond film A View to
a Kill that features the Eiffel Tower fairly prominently. In fact,

(02:02:34):
I think James Bond in that movie actually has a
bit of a fight around the Eiffel Tower, like up
the Eiffel Tower and running sort of around it and stuff,
And Juran Duranne wrote the theme to it and it
was one of their biggest hits. A View to a
Kill taking us out today, Juran Duran, just think of
the Eiffel Tower. People where.

Speaker 1 (02:03:40):
M hm sh For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine,
listen live to news Talks it be weekends from midday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Full Show Podcast: 4 August

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

All Episodes

Full Show Podcast: 4 August

Stuff You Should Know