The Silver Fern

I don't know the xs and os of basketball but I was watching the Mavs game on Christmas day and it looks like j kidd is stealing a living.

Warriors were getting any shot they wanted when the game was on the line. If they wanted a layup they got it, an open three, a midrange all the same.... they manipulated the Mavs d however they wanted to. The Mavs could not get a stop even if their lives depended on it.

On offense there seemed to be no set plays at all...... It was hard to see any evidence if coaching tbh.

Rockets Nuggets game was a good one tonight. They went shot for shot until Segun bricked with 6 seconds to go in OT.

I haven't caught a Nuggets game in a few weeks and had no idea they were on a four game home losing streak. That was most unexpected.

@Bovidae said in Chiefs 2026:

1::25 training on the river at Cambridge. Lovely. NZ teams are so blessed to train around such natural beauty.

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:

@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:

At the end of the day, SM is part and parcel of the current climate. But at the end of the day that shouldn't stop our players from rolling up their sleeves and putting in a shift.

The boks are all over FB and Insta......usually with the same post with Cheslin Kolbe standing next to all the locks.

He's heaps shorter than they are.

Hilarious.

Doesn't stop them dominating.

I don't think anyone would give two fucks what the ABs were doing on Social Media if they were actually winning.

True but doesn't it all start to feel a bit like reality TV where you can't really tell what's real and what's fake? And it's all about producing content more then anything else?

Like when Holland was first picked for the squad the cameras are there to film the announcement and then it's turned into content for NZR and ditto when the ABs go to the Boca Juniors or Chicago Bulls matches.

I get that social media is there whether you like it or not but it seems like it's become the point of the whole exercise and the rugby is only part of it.

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

It's funny you say that about Siya and the SM.

in his book his talks about how the Springboks of the 2017/18 era were on social media "to cover up the fact that we weren't doing the basics properly" whereas he says.......

"The All Blacks weren't putting pictures of their training up on Instagram were they? They were working hard for each other without shouting about it, and when it came to noise - well, was 57-0 loud enough?".

Tbh I'm not sure how exactly you effectively navigate managing players and teams in the social media era where style takes precedence over substance and SM is seen as such an invaluable marketing tool. However, as a coaching group/administration you would have to have a conversation about how you prevent SM becoming a distraction and stop players becoming preoccupied with curating an image of themselves and losing sight of what's important. As has been stated here many occasions Ardie is very much into cultivating his image in a way that prior All Black leaders such as McCaw and Mealamu never were. You need authenticity and sincerity in your leadership group.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2025/26:

World Cup Draw

Group A: Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, Qualifier
Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, Qualifier
Group Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti
Group USA, Australia, Paraguay, Qualifier
Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Côte d’Ivoire, Curacao
Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, Qualifier
Group G: Belgium, IR Iran, Egypt, New Zealand
Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cabo Verde
Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, Qualifier
Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria, Jordan
Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Qualifier
Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana

Is that about as good a group as the All Whites could have hoped for? Looks to me like one that you could at least dream about qualifying from as the 4th seed, unlike say, the German or Brazilian group.

Sam Ruthe beats the national 1500m schoolboy record, hit time of 3:38 smashes the previous best time set in 1989.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/12/06/sam-ruthe-shatters-nz-schoolboy-1500m-record/

@Frank said in All Blacks 2026:

Ardie seems very concerned with his image. That's a hard pass for me as AB captain.

Roigard or Taylor.

Taylor is 100% AB captaincy material. As in born for the role. Only reason would be if he didn't want the responsibility or it was felt it might infringe on his own game.

Another 20+ pt outing from Mr Flagg, Mavs beat Heat. Doesn't even turn 19 until a few weeks, he is fast becoming my favourite player to watch.

Yes, he is awesome. Love how chaotic he can be. Against the Clippers he had a few finishes that were Ginobili-esque in that he was just barreling to the hoop, off balance and finished with the left hand. An uncanny resemblance if I am honest.

Mavs upset Nuggets.

Thing I kike about Flagg is his herky jerky style of movement. He doesn't affect a cool style of play he's just limbs all over the place.

@Young-Hamiltons said in NZ Sevens 2025-26:

Black out in Dubai.

Great news to wake up to.

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2025:

The only time we look ok on attack without looking at stats , and I’m not sure what the difference is , is when we have possession inside the 22 . Give us the ball there we are probably as good as anyone.

But further up the field we are terrible, lots of passes for very few line breaks or gaining territory, then resort to a terrible kick

Good point.

Its a team that moves the ball laterally a lot but doesn't play vertically. The opposition are able to keep the ABs on front of them just going east -west.

@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2025:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:

Kirk is probably in the driving seat right now. Not saying he'll take decisions on his own, but he's in a position to ask the right questions (starting to already) and seems smart enough to cut thru the snake oil and ensure he and the new CEO get the right answers

Kirk knows how to operate a board room.
And he knows rugby.
It's about setting a new direction; getting rid of the corporate type complacency that had quite naturally developed after a long period of sustained success.
Just about the perfect guy for this situation.

I mean, selecting a culturist as your HC FFS.
The height of arrogance; doubt any of our opposition are going to be following that trend any time soon.
Wouldn't get rid of Robertson yet, unfortunately his basic win/loss isn't bad enough. The nature of the losses are so bad tho!
Let him start next season, and put a contingency plan in place; in case things go very, very badly.

Get a new CEO, and tell him his first job will be to clean out the HP dept.

Living in Sydney might actually be an advantage if some people are guna get pissed-off.

I would think the best way to move forward is to leave much of what is in place in place but make a priority to absolutely nail the appointment of a new coach in 2028 and other long term reforms. I'm thinking in terms of the accountability and review pieces so that coaches can't get away with what Razor has in 2024 and 25 - no new cap at 10, that is but one example of his poor stewardship.

I'm not saying give up on fixing things for the ABs in 2026 and 27 but to me that is the tip of the iceberg and it's parts of the iceberg that are not visible that need the attention.

If you over focus on the ABs and live and die with every result you are gonna be reactive and cleaning up messes rather than creating a long term vision that will ensure success past the current RWC cycle.

One thing has become crystal clear in the last few days to me......

Razor was a massive beneficiary of being involved in a perennially successful club environment in Canterbury and the Crusaders. His coaching bona fides were inflated because of that.

If he had coached outside of Christchurch where he had had to build something from scratch or had had no cattle or tradition to work with I can only assume that his flaws would have come to the fore earlier.

The key takeaway on this for the NZR has to the that the recruitment process for an All Black head coach has to be extensive and thorough and they should be looking for a candidate with proven success in a variety of different environments. Being wildly successful in Christchurch is obviously still an achievement but replicating that elsewhere or at least showing the ability to achieve something outside of that domain would have proven Razors qualities.

Yes, he's averaged 22/8 the last three games. Can score in a lot of different ways, nice touch, very skillful big man.

Speaking of hoopers, check out Derrick Queen. That is all around polished player. If he's consistent should be a candidate for ROY.

@Bovidae said in NBA 25/26:

@nonpartizan That's cool. I was a season ticket-holder during the Bill Self years at Illinois so still try to check out their scores.

That's awesome, would've been around the time of Deron Williams?

Peja Stoijakovic son is having a solid start to the season at Illinois. So hard to keep up with player movements in this era of college basketball - I assumed he had found a home at Cal but was apparently recruited as they see him as a missing piece.