Posts by Tom Semmens
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Heh. Firstly, the telly almost always makes it look worse than it actually was. Having seen the cops in action when the cameras ARE NOT around, I suspect a fair amount of "Pols 101 Lab: Field Activity - The Power of the State" is dished out on other nights of the week.
Secondly, like or not, having a fuckwit with a degree and a good job is better than having a fuckwit without one and unable to get a break because of a conviction. That is why the spawn of the elites always get a better deal from the system than the poor. The system is held in place by the elites to serve their interests. It is one of the foundation stones of capitalism.
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I am going preface what I think of the All Black' latest debacle with the observation that the top players are playing far too long a season, with multiple peaks, than is good for them.
We treat burn out as if it is something that a quiet fortnight in Raro can fix, when it is as serious and potentially as career ending as any Achilles snap. Look at how many All Blacks began the Super 14 sluggishly or carrying injuries and have carried that mental state and form into the tri-nations. There is going to be no let up for them - the northern tour doesn't wind up until (I think) the 16th December and those who tour will be expected to turn out for the Super 14 pre-season games six-eight weeks later. They just can't keep it up, and the NZRFU is killing the goose that lays its golden egg.
If the NZRFU had any guts they would send a pile of All Blacks back to the ANZC and then tell them to take six weeks off from early November, and use the last ANZC rounds to select a development squad to take to wherever they are playing the Wallabies and onto Europe.
Henry, Hanson and Smith have to go as well, and before the Northern tour. They are bankrupt of ideas. They won't select outside their cosy club of professional pyjama-rugby players, yet surely the most eye popping (and worrying) lesson of this year's provincial competition has been the regularity with a semi-pro provincial teams expose the mental fragility of our big, muscular and powerful "professional elite" when put under pressure. It defies belief that they would rather play a player who can't cut it at the top level in his preferred position than pick the best ANZC second five when McAlistair was injured. Whoever that new player might have been, I doubt they would have been any worse than the shambles our mid field has become. Rokococo is a has been player now. There is any number of better wingers playing provincial rugby right now. Starting Nonu is liability at the moment with the amount of kicking and the flat defensive screens that is going on.
Henry has become lofty and arrogant, saying he won't change his attempts to play high intensity, high speed rugby, behaving as if this style of rugby imparts him with a moral superiority over other teams. How idiotic is it to try to play this style of rugby at night, in winter, while it rains, with a team low on form and confidence, and against the world champions?? Yet that is exactly what Henry did.
Smith has to go. Before this test, he said that he and the backs had done a four hour planning session so they "had covered every scenario" - except, clearly, the scenario they lost to. No plan survives contact with the opposition, and to presume to can plan for everything is a sign you've lost the plot. We are not scoring tries, we've got no real answers to the defensive screens other than pushing passes that give away intercept and Smith has run out of ideas.
As for Hanson - he is useless. Jesus, give any other coach in the ANZC his salary and job and I reckon we would see more progress in the line out in four weeks than we've seen in four years. Isaac Ross calling the throws? WTF??
People say there is no one else. But no one is indispensable, including Henry, Smith and Hanson. The problem is that professional rugby in NZ is a self-serving monopoly with no external mechanisms for jettisoning failed methods, coaches and players.
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Rather than ineffective attempts to ban gang insignia, they should just be banned outright. But if banning isn't on the cards then sure - ban their regalia.
Oh while we can all have a go at the predictable Greg O'Conner, how about a big word out to the resident intellectual apologists for organised crime in Whanganui, Denis O'Reilly and that fool Mike Hills? Their combined ability to combine intellectual sophistry with none to subtle threats of violence are models of their kind.
It is hard to square the bleeting that young gangsters will react violently to attempts to remove their regalia with the claim the law will be ineffective.
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I respect your interest, Tom, but if they wanted to devote an entire show to talking about rugby coverage, then that's one less viewer here.
Oh I agree with you. My comment was more in relation to the general structure of the discussion, which seemed more akin to a hour long RNZ documentary than a punchy TV piece. Slow to start, and just when it started to get interesting, it was off to a new topic.
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I never get to watch Media 7, because I am out on Thursday nights and I generally don't watch much T.V. which means I never watch repeats. However, I was interested enough in the rugby discussion to get home and tune in and watch it. I've had a bit of a think, and I have to say I was very disappointed in the episode.
Spiro Zavos is an excellent journalist, but he lives in Aussie, has done forever, and when it comes to talking about the particulars of New Zealand rugby (and Sky TV) it was clear he knew less about which way the wind is blowing here than my mother, who hates rugby but somehow manages to astutely call the trends.
Richard Bock was also a little disappointing. His comments reflected the view of the main centre media that is closely aligned to the professional "establishment". In particular, his comment along the lines that more and more top flight rugby leaves the punter simply seeking the caviar and champagne clearly flies in the face of the phenomenal growth of interest the ANZC, which to me points to an over-exposure and rejection of the professional layer in this country.
Given that the whole professional rugby establishment (including the big city media) seem to either missed completely or are in denial of the disconnect with the fans going on the commentators selected made the discussion a boring recitation of recieved wisdom and unlikely to pose thought-provoking questions. Why did Media 7 not get a long time provincial rugby commentator like, say, Mike Bills on the show - someone more likely to challenge than regurgitate the establishment position?
Maybe more would have come from the show if the whole hour had been devoted to the topic. Media 7 seems to be a format that is more suited to a radio program than a TV show?
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I don't know about that comparison... The Silver Ferns can catch and pass, which gives them one over on the All Blacks.
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Course not. Young is beautiful and beautiful is moral.
Yes, beauty is truth. ;P
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I don't know why women dress in such uncomfortable gear
Because they can. It is their monument to their time, in the most obvious way.
All to soon, the words of Shelley have relevance when they look in the mirror:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -
I am not entirely sure what the point of an exhaustive analysis of the Highlanders performance is for. In a competitive promotion-rtelegation system, you are only as good as your last performance. The rest is as about as relevant as working out the match statistics from Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars.
Your seems to go something like "Well, Manchester United MAY have come last in the last three premier seasons, but they won it three times in a row so you can't relegate them."
patently absurd nonsense.
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You can't shift these things around willy nilly in November for a competition that starts in February. Preparation for Super 14 2010 has already started now.
Err, dude, if it is a business, then why should they be protected from their dismal on and off field performance? I never knew The Highlanders were the General Motors of New Zealand rugby - to big to fail no matter how useless they are.
Anyway, basically it seems to me that on PA you've got those for whom the geographic status quo suits defending the current rugby structure in New Zealand vs. everyone else. Which is a QED for my argument, if you ask me.
I wouldn't care if there was no Super rugby in the lower South Island (or even Auckland). Despite what seems to be a general attitude in the lower South Island, geography does not entitle them to anything, not even your own special moment from Toni Marsh during the weather.
If they want to watch Super Rugby at Eden Park or the new flash thing they are building in Dunners, get a good enough team to EARN it.
Oh yeah what is with the "Ice Blacks?" Couldn't they be a bit more racey and imaginative? How about the "Black Ice?""Australia hits Black Ice!" Is a great headline to me.