The Silver Fern

@junior said in See ya:

His spelling and grammar were a crime against humanity. It will not be missed.

Gosh, if that's all you have to gripe about you haven't been paying attention ( MN5 hits submit after checking spellcheck repeatedly )

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

alt text

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.

@reprobate alt text

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="609501" data-time="1472276452">
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<p>Maybe it was a bad joke but it's a bit mean suggesting it was as unfunny as That Guy. ;)</p>
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</blockquote>
<p>Eat EVERY bag of dicks on earth for that comment Neps.</p>

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