The Muster- Nathan Burdon: Where To For The Highlanders

Nathan Burdon looks at what may need to happen with the Highlanders in order to stay competitive.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Neil Young is the artist that song They're Dirty Old Man,
not referring to anybody.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
In particular Nathan Burdon. There isn't sporting Gary Good Afternoon. Okay.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I think it's the first time we've ever heard that tune.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Neil Young not a bad artist, all right. I think
he's done pretty well for himself. I think he's around
eighty or something these days, and he's still trying to
do the tour. I mean, my father's now is eighty four,
and I couldn't imagine him actually going around trying to
do touring like these guys do.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
No, we're getting a little bit off topic, but I do.
I was talking to someone the other day who's looking
forward to going to an Engelbert Humpadic, Oh my god,
saying yes, I think he might be even, he might
be knocking. He might be in the nervous nineties.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Has any other woman used to throw the undies ed?
Or was that Tom Jones both?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I think.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, let's get on the straight and narrow here. Okay,
the Highlanders, we might need to. They might need to
get on the straight and narrow because that game against
the Drew last week. I've said about five minutes in
the MIMI and they bombed a try. They can see it,
a couple of tries. It just wasn't a good look.
It wasn't a good watch, I should say. But the Landers,
they really need to resurrect something through that franchise.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Look, confession time, I was out kettying for a mate
in his Club Champs final on Saturday afternoon. By the
time I got in a position to actually watched the game,
I'd read a little bit about how it played out,
and I just said, no motivation to watch it at all.
And from talking to a few other people in the
in the rugby landscape, I don't think I was the

(01:52):
only one.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yes, they haven't had Dylan Pleasure for the year of
Fabian Holland, but those two injuries aside, there should be
a lot more of a result happening the side.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, I think you're right, mate. I think that it's
a franchise that has it has plenty of talent, or
it certainly has enough talent to be producing results. The
results just just haven't come this year. And you do
have to wonder, you know, what is the what is
the trajectory of this team that was a that was
a key game obviously, you know it was a bit

(02:22):
of a non egoatable in terms of being able to
go over there and grab a winner over in FIGI
that by all accounts that had a good week of
training in christ Church after super Round, got on the plane,
went over there and produced a performance which you know,
obviously they are pretty disappointed in the and the fans
are pretty disappointed, and now puts them in a very
tough position, I think, having to win potentially two of

(02:44):
their their three games there remaining three games and some
tough encounters amongst that to even have a sniff of
making the playoffs. Yeah, there's a there's a there's plenty
of question marks about I guess whether this team is
trending in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
A really interesting piece are in in the ADT last night.
It was an opinion piece, mind you, saying that unless
the draft occurs, the Highlanders are going to be left
by the wayside.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, and it's I guess it's just that endless cycle
of rebuilding that you get probably with the smallercount franchise
like the Highlanders, and I guess we hark back to
the to the glory days of twenty fifteen and just
what it took, I guess to put that team together.
And to me, I always sort of remember and think

(03:31):
back to the tooth Smiths. You know, Aaron and Ben.
They were two players that that team over over a
period of a couple of seasons that they were able
to build that franchise around. And I guess, you know,
if you look at trying to replicate that, who are
those players in the next year or so that the
Highlanders can build their team around.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Now, the Highlanders have got the Warrtars four o'clock on
Saturday when club rugby's happening around the Otago and Southern regions.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
And the Wartars I think, are on like a twelve
game losing streak against New Zealand. Teams haven't won in
Dunedin since twenty twenty two. But you know, sort of
it's sort of the dance of the desperates, isn't it.
Both teams having less than stellar season, so hopefully that
at least they can get a decent contest out of it.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, but when I get a decent crowded that type,
you understand, games have to be played when they're allocated.
But unfortunately I don't think you'll have a huge walking
crowd to that, would you.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
There's lots of lots of questions too, I guess around
Super Rugby and fan engagement and that sort of thing,
and just having NRL just sort of knocking on the
door and having a Warriors team which sort of seems
to even when they're not playing well from a fan
engagement or even just a just a content perspective, that
just seems to go from strength to strength, and Super Rugby,

(04:50):
to be honest, sort of pales in comparison, doesn't it.
I guess that one highlight for the season being that
the Super Round, while the rugby might not have been great,
at least it was a big you know, it was
a good fan spectacle up in christ Church. Now.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
This is from the af our Marvel Stadium which is
in Docklands where they play a lot of the Ossie
Rules for rounds ten to fifteen, which are happening currently. Australia.
Adult ticket prices they were at twenty seven dollars in
our twenty concessions fifteen dollars, a junior ticket's five dollars,
family tickets forty dollars, but the food at Marvel Stadium
hot dogs four bucks four and twenty pis four dollars,

(05:25):
seventy hot chips four dollars ninety free transport of Victoria
in May to get to the games.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Hey, urch, isn't it? And I guess in terms of
supporting that that fan experience, especially in a cost of
living crisis, is that the benefit of scale when you
sort of you know you've got some big audiences and
you can you can get enough people there that you
can keep those prices down. It was interesting reading an

(05:52):
article the other day about how you can get a
bear at the at the Masters for about five dollars
erland and I think it's about two dollars for a
pimento sandwich. So those prices haven't really changed too much
I think since the nineteen sixties, which is you just
sort of sort of shake your head. Compared with everything.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Else, it shows you what we need to look at
a game day experience. Well, let you say economy of scale.
Southern stee Oleah Wendy Frew on the show yesterday. She
was a really cool chat.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
You're just enjoying the way Southern Steel are playing this year.
They're playing some really solid netball and creating some really
good connections right through that court, building a lot of
their play around center and captain Kimi or Apoi. The
attacking end looks really good, and I guess just the
only sort of nervous tremor that goes through us from

(06:44):
a from a fan perspective is Eliah Dunn, who has
just been taking the competition by storm and just shooting
the lights out just that week half niggle and in
a competition which is as short and sharp as this
Premiership gold differential accounts for a lot so in terms
of being able to get a I guess qualifying for

(07:07):
the playoffs and cross fingers, maybe we could even hope
and dream for a home playoff game. Having a leader
done scoring a lot of goals is really important for us,
so let's hope that we can get it back out
on court sooner rather than later.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
And the Sharks doing the thing in the NBA house,
and two of our franchises are going pretty good.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, it's bullish times. The Sharks are just you know,
they are playing outstanding basketball at the moment, and they've
got a road trip which always challenging, heating up to
the North Island, but two very winnable games over the weekend,
and when you consider they've still got Tobias Cameron and
an injured Max Darling to come back into the squad,
both potentially starting five players, it is exciting times. It

(07:51):
will be interesting to see, I guess, bringing those guys
into the team and how that sort of affects the
chemistry of a team that's been operating very well. But yeah,
really interesting to see all of the imports sort of
contributing really well. Keelan Jones the new point guard, it's
been exciting. He's been a great kept for the Sharks.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Once again. Thanks to your time. Enjoy the weekend.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, lovely, thanks mate.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Laugh out loud with ag Proud because life on the
land can be a laughing matter. Brought to us by
sheer Well Data working to help the livestock farmer. Four
people are on an airplane, the pilot, the President of
the US, the world's smartest man, and a student from
a local school. Suddenly the alarm sounds. A pilot runs
into the cabin and says, I don't want to alarm you,
but there's a problem with the engine. We're going down.

(08:36):
Everyone prepares to evacuate, but there's a problem. There's only
three parachutes. One person's going to have to stay behind.
The president says, I'm the president. My country needs me.
He grabs a parachute, straps it on, and jumps out.
The world's smartest man says, I'm the smartest man in
the world. I must survive for the sake of my
great inventions. He hits a bag, jumps out. Now only
the pilot and student remain, and there appears to be
one parachute left. What else is a pilot? You take it,

(08:58):
I'll go down with the ship. Actually, he sees the student,
there's two parachutes. He looks confused. The pilot he says, hell,
the world's smartest man just jumped out of my school backpack.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Podcast is going up, surely.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I'm and Dey Buller. The Master's brought to you by
Peterson LLOX see you tomorrow.