Here’s the secret to the legendary Bart Cumming’s amazing success, courtesy of the Fitz Files:
Bart Cummings on the secret of his success after his fourth Cox Plate thanks to So You Think: ”Good horses.”
In case you don’t know, the first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day.
Prepare to be “sweeped” off your feet.
The Cake Tin … opps, Wellington’s Westpac Stadium has been voted best sports venue in New Zealand.
A nationwide survey has found most New Zealanders rate the Cake Tin tops for overall satisfaction. The venue leads the field in seating comfort and layout, toilet facilities, transport, pre-event entertainment and overall value for money.
No shock, no horror, no probe.
There really isn’t much competition.
The “secret” is so obvious that even Brendon Telfer can’t ignore.
Put the stadium in a central location which is easy to get to and easy to get away from. The links with the trains are brilliant (so long as the trains are working and on time).
Put the stadium in a place which is close to pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels.
Give everyone a decent view regardless of where they sit.
Make the stadium a regional stadium – by all means, have secondary stadia, but put the key resources into a single regional facility.
Get Peter Jackson to involve the punters in a movie soundtrack (optional).
The obvious yardstick (Q: shouldn’t that be metre-speak???) is Eden Park which fails all four tests. The decision not to go with a new stadium for the World Cup reeked of self serving parochialism. Having at least three rugby venues in greater Auckland – Eden Park, North Harbour, and Mt Smart – is just dumb particularly given the difficulties getting to all three grounds.
The other critical point is to have teams that the punters want to see:
Westpac Stadium spokesman Steve Thompson is grateful for the loyalty but says ultimately the success of the stadium lies in the sports codes it hosts.
“We’re very privileged in Wellington that we’ve got the Hurricanes, the Wellington Lions, the All Blacks sevens for rugby and the Phoenix for football,” he said.
“They’re all good, exciting sports codes to watch so that helps patrons’ enjoyment.”
I still remember Radio Auckland Sport putting up a fight to keep the NZ A-league team in Auckland. Their self-serving narrow-minded views have been shown up as being exactly that (haven’t they Brendon??)
So there ya have it.
The Cake Tin takes the biscuit.
I don’t normally flog almost an entire story but seeing a paid journo did it and got away, then I may as well do it too.
A former Manawatu rugby administrator has written an open letter to the NZRFU and it’s certainly worth reading. Especially so as it appears on the Manawatu Sub Standard section of Stuff and no one will find it there.
I won’t comment at this stage as there’s a lot to digest but while I’m happy to see a ten team comp, he does raise some interesting points.
Tew and Hobbs were in Palmy to see the Turbos flog Harbour but that may not be enough to sway the people that matter.
Anyway, here’s the letter in question:
Thank you you for your prompt and concise response to the letter written by Barrie Angland on behalf of all rugby followers in the Manawatu.
However, the points you emphasised about fiscal responsibility, while valid, have a rather hollow ring to rugby followers in this area.
On the one hand you expect unions to exercise financial prudence. Yet almost daily we are being told about the escalating losses expected as a result of the Rugby World Cup which, despite being underwritten by the Government to some extent, will surely lead to more substantial future losses than those sustained by the Air New Zealand Cup.
You can see therefore the reason for the cynicism of followers in this area. To make matters worse, Steve Tew has stated publicly that the New Zealand Rugby Union will make a substantial contribution to the proposed new division one competition (when and if it begins). Doesn’t that strike you as a strange decision?
You have worked in the corporate sector for some time now and surely one of the basic principles is that when any commercial entity undergoes a sustained period of financial reverses, a normal process is a comprehensive review of the entire operation, starting at the top.
I would suggest you instigate an independent review of NZRU head office. However, I would suspect most of the employees would struggle to achieve normal key performance indicators, if the last few years are anything to go by.
A lot of the financial pressures have, particularly in the last year, been caused by falling attendances at Super 14 matches. Has the board noticed this? I ask this question because, rather than cutting back on this competition, the board has agreed to an expansion.
That is a further unwise intrusion into the already limited window to play Air New Zealand Cup fixtures. Why do the Sanzar delegates from the world’s premier rugby nation seem to get over-run by South Africa and Australia when, historically, Australian teams, in particular, perform abysmally in that competition?
When you open the Manawatu books in the near future you will hopefully agree that if the organisation you chair achieves the same financial turnaround, you would be a happy man. The Turbos have captured the imagination of the entire region unlike any sporting team I have seen during a lifetime of playing, coaching and lately administering a game. For the reasons outlined above, axing the Turbos at the end of this season will be seen as a major betrayal.
You must concede that the poor attendances at this year’s Super 14 matches were due in part to the brand of rugby and also to the saturation of matches early in the year.
By contrast, the Air New Zealand Cup has produced an entertaining quality of rugby, drawn good attendances and built a bigger fan base (especially in the provinces). This competition has brought back to the game a generation of people who have felt disillusioned for some time. Axing such a format will surely undo all the good achieved in the last few years, a situation aggravated by the less-than-stellar performances of our flagship team, the All Blacks, so far this season.When your board considers the future of our national game, it should be mindful of the fact that stakeholders include not just the bigger unions which have a Super 14 franchise.
I have detected at all levels an attitude of disenchantment. If you choose to ignore this, the long-term ramifications will damage the game way beyond the 2011 World Cup.
Bill Anderson
There’s been a lot of analysis across the ditch about the Nix “shock” win over the Gold Coast.
To be fair to the Nix, they haven’t lost at home since last season and actually had the best losing record in the league.
Huh?
Yep, the Phoenix went into the game on the bottom of the table but had lost the least number of games (2) in the entire league.
Sydney currently top the league with 22 points and four losses.
Just goes to show winners are grinners.
Another point that needs to be made is that a 6-0 margin means a lot in such a close league. There’s only 10 points between first and last, and seven points covering teams from 4th to 10th.
The Nix still have a game in hand (and have played more away games than home games). If the Nix were to pick up three points from the game in hand against Newcastle, they could sneak into 5th position on goal difference which highlights the importance of the 6-0 scoreline.
Great to see the Kiwis continue to grow.
While rugby league will always be judged on the success of its club competition – and frankly, it’s streets ahead of any rugby comp at present – the international game provides significant pluses for the games.
First, it allows the game to put on the international stage which in turn provides a boost to the other parts of the game.
Second, in doing so, it provides an opportunity for players to travel, experience different countries and I suppose get pissed and do all the things rugby players get up to on too. Or put another way, it stops top leaguies from drifting off to the dark side just to go on tour.
Third, and this is the bit we like, it provides us with another chance to stick one up the West Islanders. Choice bro!
The good thing to come out of the weekend is that the “one off” results are starting to become more regular.
Sure, we can expect that the cheating Aussies will win more than their fair share (although putting “fair” and “cheating Aussies” into the same sentence takes some real effort!
But the Kiwis are now starting to believe they can just like the little tug in the kids’ story (or was it a train??).
At least that’s what Graham Lowe thinks:
“They’re not overawed by anything or anyone playing for Australia,” Lowe said. “They’re comfortable with their own space and with what they are doing in the NRL and that’s why the fear factor that certainly was there for a long time is not there now.”
Put it another way. We know how good they are but we know who we’re up against.
There’s also a bigger pool of players with leadership experience:
Lowe said the fact the Kiwis – headed by skipper Benji Marshall – were now key men at their clubs was a major aspect of the new confidence.
What’s even better is that the Kiwis are competing but with a stack of established players resting up.
Even Aussie coach Tim Sheens can see the winds of change:
When Cameron Smith says to you: ‘That is the hardest game he can remember playing’ – and he only played the grand final a few weeks ago – you know that’s a hard game,” Sheens said.
Good on ya Tim … now go back to bleating about the Pommy ref!
I’m sure yesterday’s post wasn’t read by one of the Phoenix.
However, it won’t stop me from making some stuff up about the team being inspired by my post about the number of draws and the number (or relative lack) of goals.
Anyway, if you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple 24 hours, you might find this hard to believe:
You’d think the Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg would be off his tree at the post match. He seemed to see the funny side of it all:
He offered no excuses, said the Phoenix deserved their moment in the sun, and described them as United’s “black kiwi sheep”.
“It never happened to me that I lost 6-0 so it’s a new experience, it’s the Ricki Horror Show,” he said. “I can’t even blame the referee, he had a good game. I think it will take time for it to sink in. I’m still laughing. I’ll probably cry into my pillow during the night.”
Bleiberg congratulated Herbert and revealed he had considered buying his counterpart’s new book. “If his book was a bit cheaper I would have bought it. I was walking down the street and only had a $20 note, but he wants $36 for his book and I didn’t have it.”
Here’s the highlights in case you’ve missed all the action – the audio is a little behind the action, much like the Gold Coast defence.
Is the Wellington Phoenix season drawing to an end already?
That could well be the only conclusion we can draw after six consecutive draws.
Has Ricky reached a stalemate in terms of options?
Certainly it’s easy to draw comparisons with the other New Zealand A-league franchises and put the spin on the fact that the Nix are the least undefeated of the 10 A-league teams.
But that’s not the point. Even tho the Nix have picked up six in their last six games, wins are what they need.
Let me draw your attention to one key performance indicator – goals:
Draw your own conclusions.
Later today, the Nix play Smeltz – what odds on one goal each?
Bastards!
A quick flashback to 2008 and the Kiwis pull off a rugby league miracle.
Let’s hope for another one tomorrow morning.
Here’s the highlights with the number one commentary team:
And we won the haka-off at the start of the game too!
Great to see the Shield go to Southland, 50 years after they last had it.
Amid the largely turgid offerings of the NPC, it’s an obviously stand out moment of the season.
The game itself was nothing to note in terms of entertainment – 9-3 is the type of scoreline we used to laugh about in NZ. And Canterbury’s points came from a dropped goal!!
More so, we used to get wild when Stephen Jones of the Times lauded such contests when we were pining for try-fests.
Sadly, I suspect most of the punters will miss the reality that these types of results are only possible because the AB’s were not playing.
Which of course raises a number of discussion points.
First, how do you think HB are feeling right now? They get within a dodgy linesman (he didn’t assist the referee!) of sharing points with the Cantabs with all their ABs while the following week the Southland get the Shield, four comp points, and with it a place in the Semis against Christchurch’s best club players. Hardly a level playing field.
Second, most people have been lauding the NPC this year for being much more interesting and particularly the achievements of the underdogs. Again, this has come because the AB’s have largely been absent from the comp.
Frankly, the NPC is increasingly sounding and looking like a second-tier competition at best.
It doesn’t undermine the achievements of Southland in winning the Log o’ Wood nor does it reflect badly on their obvious passion.
It just shows that the NPC as our number one rugby competition is a nonsense.