Posts by Dave Patrick
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[Edit] - and I like a LOT of Peter's ideas.
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As a Counties supporter (yes, I know, why aren't we being dropped instead of Northland and Tasman, who were not bottom last year and will not be bottom this year......) the main thing wrong with New Zealand provincial rugby is the Super 14.
Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and to a lesser extent Dunedin hoover up all the rugby talent in the country at the start of the year, then hang on to them for the NPC/Air New Zealand Cup. This leaves the rest of the teams struggling with locally-grown players and no All Blacks (not that the main centre teams have many Al Blacks either). When a competition can only ever have one of 4 winners, it gets a bit boring.
The other main thing wrong is the lack of big-name players in the NPC/ANZC/whatever it's called this week. Before rotation, and not that long ago actually, the Super 14 and All Black players ALL turned out for their provincial teams. It's only recently that 10 or 15 games a season has been too much for the poor dears (bet that gets a real laugh from people like Steve Price and other leaguies who play upwards of 30 games a year). If you had full-strength teams, if you had All Blacks playing, if you had a decent spread of top players across all teams, you'd have a good competition. The salary cap is a start (and seems to work for the NRL) but I'm not sure how you get around the other problems.
I really don't like the Super12/14/ all that much, and have never been able to get particularly excited about it, given that for the first few seasons we (Counties) were lumped in with our arch-rivals and called Auckland *seethe*
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Ahh, come in Christchurch… (although you have a point.)
I only live here, I don't even support Canterbury OR the Crusaders. But Tuiali'i just gets on and does the job asked of him and doesn't swan around with the ball in one hand, just asking to have it taken off him.
The Press had a front-page article about the number of people in Canterbury supporting the Wallabies as if this was a perfectly natural thing to do. Think I'll borrow another Aussie term to go with Dingo Deans and call them all Deans' Drongoes
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Here's a question that I've pondered for a long time - why is Sione Lauaki an All Black and Mose Tuiali'i not? Lauaki has always been a bit of a show-pony, Tuiali'i [i]was[/i] but got turned in to a bloody good number 8 by (surprise, surprise) Robbie Deans.
And if anyone is feeling ever-so-slightly bitter and twisted about the Saturday result, they have nothing on Chris Rattue.
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They're all down here reading (and running) the Press.
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The number of "columns I read every week in the Listener just dropped by another one - I should really add up how many regulars I still read and evaluate whether it's worth putting up with Ms Black's ravings any more.....
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Simon Sweetman looks like he's too young to remember the "bad old days" of New Zealand music, when there was no airplay, even for insanely popular bands (Screaming Mee Mees, Blam Blam Blam, Toy Love, etc) - and when Crowded House had to get airplay overseas before they got played here. Mainstream radio may play the Exponents and the Dudes nowadays, but they sure didn't when those songs were originally released.
As far as I'm concerned, THAT'S what Music Month is for - a celebration of where we are now compared to where we were then, and yes a chance for New Zealand musicians to promote their music to a wider audience than otherwise. The Press had a snarky column this morning too, along the lines of "we interview a New Zealand band every week and review New Zealand records often - why should we acknowledge Music Month?"
Strange attitudes, yes - but perhaps born out of lack of knowledge of how far New Zealand music has come in the last 25 years....
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BTW - you're not the same Dave Patrick who lived in Waiuku, mid 70s onwards? If so, gidday...
Yes I am - you must be the same Rob Hosking who was 1-2 years behind me at school? If so, gidday back - small world...
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Is it too nerdy of me to recognise quite a few of those cassette inlay cards, and also to notice that the TEAC C90s that I used to live off (bought by the box of ten for about $20 as I recall) aren't there?
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That's one thing that opera singers have all over most other vocalists - they are LOUD without amplification.
The Press was all over the Kiri vs Hayley thing as well - because Hayley is from Christchurch, and the Press feels almost duty-bound to defend to the hilt all things Cantabrian (best newspaper in New Zealand? - give me a break).
And in a household where the musical tastes range from the afore-mentioned Scandinavian death metal via Flying Nun, punk, Dido, My Fair Lady, Spamalot, Sweeney Todd and Michael Ball to Wagner, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, we have one Hayley CD that never gets played, and no Kiri. We must be Philistines.