The Silver Fern

Late 2017, watching TB pick up his dog's business while chatting to couple on terrace of overlooking flat with that happy smile of his certainly came across as the behaviour of a top bloke. Living the dream I s'pose?!

As somebody who enjoys a good spar with @Baron-Silas-Greenback it is bloody annoying how often he's right with these things ...

@Gunner

There is also a High Performance Centre / Academy by the entrance to Bay Oval. Not everyone keen on the beach though. Ross Taylor went to Hamilton...

I watched some of that game - mainly to see what Milne was bowling.

He was bowling quick. The commentators said someone had timed the ball from release to the batsman and reckoned he was hitting 151 kmh. Don't know quite how accurate that assessment was, but he certainly was bowling quicker than anyone else I saw.

I've looked into some of it further.

On the scheduling. I'm disappointed Plunket Shield is reduced to 8 rounds, but NZC this year have an NZ A tour away to UAE to play Pakistan and also have an incoming tour by India A. That is 5 extra FC games (plus plenty of whiteball games) for the fringe players.

I'm not sure if one is a financial trade-off for the other.

NZC contract the domestic player for 7 months. Whether they play 8 rounds or 10 rounds is fairly irrelevant, although there would be operational costs in hosting those 6 matches.

I've looked at the rest of the domestic calendar. There are the same number of rounds of List A and T20, so no other comp has expanded at the expense of the other. So it can only be a financial rather than playing reason.

On the financial side. The annual report is due out in a few weeks so probably not worth getting stuck into that yet. Looking at last years report they made a $10m loss and explained they have a squeeze for a few years until 2023

White said NZC faced a "challenging couple of years" but explained the loss was largely due to the International Cricket Council's new financial model. In the eight years till 2023, NZC's slice of ICC funding would increase from US$90m to US$128m but it was a case of less now, more later.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/98666541/nz-cricket-to-declare-93-million-loss-as-it-locks-in-big-indian-broadcast-deal

I hope that a reduced Plunket Shield doesn't get institutionalised before the money starts coming back in.

I like watching my niece tar the shit out of opponents, and sometimes the rugby is very entertaining. But pay to watch it...? Please.

@KiwiMurph said in Super rugby final.:

From Sumo Stevenson - One can only assume given the semifinal appointments that Angus Gardner will referee the Super Rugby final. If so, massive kudos to him

The cynic would say an Aussie ref is the obvious choice - no chance of an Aussie team in the final...

But he's a damn good ref.

@taniwharugby said in If Coles is out....:

I think what the Crusaders game showed is that he still has some ways to go....I like his play, has a lot of potential but think that game just showed this year is likely to be too early.

Coles fit - he is in
Taylor, incumbent back-up
Harris - been around the squad and we know you don't lose your spot through injury
Elliott - could step up but has never been in favour
Coltman - been about squad
Parsons - has a cap...

So likely even too early as project type player, unless we cap him just to stop Italy getting him 😉

Or other Tier Two nation he might qualify for like South Afric

He's a good lad, this one...

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2017/content/story/1095119.html

Man of the match award overlooked Kane's innings @200, Wee davey's 51 @ 188, Dawan's 77 @ 166, Kaul's 3 wickets @ 9 an over, Nehra's 3 wickets @ 10.5 and gave it to Rashid Khan for 4 overs, 1 for 16 ?? Wierd

On the face of it, looks like SANZAAR has got the better part of the deal - shifting June tours into July.

It will mean different things to different unions in the Six Nations.

There was a lot of discussion around the holding of the European final and that it should be the finale of the European season. McCafferty seems to be getting his oar in early by saying the Premiership will finish last.

Besides that, the PRO12 plans to shorten its regular league season anyway, reducing from 22 to 18 weeks with a two conference structure from 2018/19. This will take games out of the international windows. The season will now start in late September following the decision for new season end to be in last week of July.

The European Cup pool stages will be run en bloc during December and January. The English and French clubs want the Six Nations compressed to six weeks instead of seven to suit their revised season.

A new British & Irish development cup competition could emerge during the 6N test window replacing the dead duck Anglo-Welsh cup. This would feature the academy players from the 24 senior teams in the two leagues. The current B&I Cup would disappear or be reduced to lower club level.

The aim was supposedly to reduce player fatigue and number of matches.

Still not sure if that will be the outcome.

@MajorRage said in We need a stadium...:

@mooshld not sure what you are reading but your post makes no sense at all given that the other side of the equation is basically all I'm talking about

On mobile but only saw your post about how much it would cost. Was interested to know how much it would bring in. In a city the size of Tauranga. Being that attendance appears to be on the wain at other venues.

@Virgil easily in the top 10 maybe top 5 . I think the seven days regulars probably deserve a category of their own, "unfunny twats who laugh at their own jokes?"

MN5 Brooke Howard Smith gets a pass from me for spending his honeymoon with his wife in Fiji building houses for Habitat for humanity , I think he's Fijian indian.

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Virgil" data-cid="609049" data-time="1472159340">
<div>
<p>Love the flag for the 1936 Gold medalist.<br>
If they can include tennis and golf surely they can bring this back?!</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Only on the History Channel</p>

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Provincial Stalwart" data-cid="590030" data-time="1466417789"><p>A big fan of his upside. Strong at super rugby level, esp. 2015, in a team that developed a very successful attacking game plan around his attributes. Gives me confidence that he is very coachable and malleable. A bit nervous about how he'll go in Sydney in about 2 months so needs 80 this week to get him closer.</p></blockquote>
<br>
It's only Australia....<br><br>
I'm a big fan of his. I like some of the little things he does like going into 1st receiver, the odd pick n go. Then the willingness to take his defender on the outside (that's a rarity these days). <br><br>
There were some concerning things about drawing and pass and just offloading in the tackle, but the promising thing is that he has done this stuff at Super level and I think he's the sort of player that when he's gained more and more experience we will see him take those options. <br><br>
I don't think there is a more rampaging runner in the backs in NZ.

<p>I suspect most players do want to play for the team their provincial side is aligned with but it is not unusual for the super side to overlook them (eg Ta$man players turning out in decent numbers for the Chiefs and the Highlanders) so if the player wants to be a professional player then he must accept whatever offer comes their way rather than living in hope that their preferred super team might belatedly come knocking on their door. It is always better to take a concrete offer rather than wait for something that might or might not come along later. Former Wellington based club players aspiring to play Mitre10 Cup know only too well that scenario.</p>

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Crucial" data-cid="566882" data-time="1458785938">
<div>
<p>Often though, they would join by touching him as they went past which is deemed legal for some reason.</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Yes what's often referred to as swimming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But there were even examples where guys didn't even bother doing that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Go watch the tries from the game where he got a hat trick.</p>

<p>Surprised they made the call to have 3 games in Rotorua but pleasantly so. We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye properly to the Theatre of Clay.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Righto Bay Union, try not to cock up the pricing at the Domain this season and over-charge for the stands - set a reasonable price and it should sell out.</p>

Green is such a tool, would be my hatiest player.

[quote name='aucklandwarlord']<br />
[quote name='WillieTheWaiter']<br />
fark i'd love to see some stats on how zero is doing against regular....<br />
<br />
just thought that when i was in the supermarket the other day and it the shelf with normal coke hadn't been touched and the zero shelf was getting near empty<br />
<br />
must have a pretty close market share i reckon<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
Yeah, it seems unusual to see someone drinking normal coke now. Coke zero was marketed as a diet drink for men, it definately seems to be reaching its target audience pretty well.<br />
[/quote]<br />
<br />
If given a choice I will still drink normal Coke, but at least for once, Coke Zero there is a palatable alternative, as opposed to freakin Diet Coke... <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Ah. True....