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Joseph Manu of the Kiwis. Photosport
OPINION
Chris Rattue runs through the winners and losers from the sporting weekend.
Yet another Warriors’ disaster barely made a headline, after they threw in
It has been all over bar the shouting for our NRL stragglers, since about 2012.
Is there really much point to the existence of this shambles of a sports club anymore?
Who knows? Maybe there is a miracle waiting around the corner, standing next to the bloke handing out gold ingots to passersby.
Let’s hang on to hope.
The Warriors do have five amazing qualities: the ability to make a headline, the ability to score a surprise win every couple of months, the ability to draw a crowd way beyond what is deserved, the ability to design new jerseys, and I can’t think of the other one.
They are a one step forward, one giant leap backwards deal.
They don’t even go down with a fight anymore, lacking the pizzazz a Kiwi rugby league team should hold dear.
Watch some of those old games and boy, the Warriors of old could weave magic. Now they just do hit-ups and stuff-ups.
The Warriors have become a sort of Gold Coast Titans-Plus or Newcastle Knights-Lite, which is not a compliment.
It leaves their fans claiming it will all come right next year when (fill in the blank) arrives, like the smoker who always has one more fag before giving up.
And yet an amazing Kiwi rugby league revolution is actually taking place.
Maybe we should be grateful that the Auckland NRL club is incapable of securing the finest talent from within this country, or quickly loses it when it does.
Instead, the best players end up at clubs like the Storm, Roosters and Panthers, where they really are the stars of “our game”, as leaguies like to call rugby league.
A case in point: Brandon Smith, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Kenny Bromwich and Jahrome Hughes led Melbourne’s amazing demolition job on Brisbane during the latest round.
This also means the national team is in amazing shape.
Kiwi coach Michael Maguire will have, in my estimation, the finest Kiwi squad ever assembled for this year’s World Cup because of the overall quality and depth.
Ironically, even the departure of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has strengthened the Kiwis in a way, because it has enabled Joseph Manu to emerge as the No 1 fullback option.
From the glimpses we have seen of Roosters centre Manu in the middle of the field this year, he is an attacking class above RTS.
Manu is a potential New Zealand rugby league legend in the making, to one day stand alongside characters such as Mark Graham, Sonny Bill Williams and Stacey Jones.
Speaking of Jones, the interim Warriors coach sounds as if he’s had enough of the job already, labelling an incredible number of players – eight or nine – as layabouts (my word) in the Cowboys defeat.
I’m guessing Jones’s favourite word right now is “interim”. Next year, he can take shelter again behind Andrew Webster, a former Warriors staffer who has come back for more as the latest head-coaching fall guy.
I ran a poll of league luminaries a few years ago in which Jones came out on top as the greatest of all Warriors. And he certainly was.
What a player, with a genuine superstar factor. Stacey Jones still is a household name, a Kiwi sports great.
But even then, the Little Magic Man was a pretty awful defender.
It sums the Warriors up. There’s almost always a significant hole somewhere.
What an incredible man. The Ukrainian boxer has taken up arms, pleaded with Vladimir Putin, and generally fought the good fight in any way possible against Russia and for peace, all while conducting two successful heavyweight world title missions against Brit Anthony Joshua. Usyk is also an incredibly skilled boxer.
Basketball’s greatest rebounder – during games and in life – is at it again. Not content with attempting to patch things up with North Korea, he is now trying to free Brittney Griner from Russia’s clutches.
There has never been anyone in sport who comes close to the Rodman persona. He made inclusivity, and just about everything, fun.
A confession. I haven’t seen a lot of women’s test rugby, not that there is much to watch.
But you don’t have to watch too much of England to know that they are one heck of an outfit, built on impressive depth and power.
They will be the hard-to-beat favourites for the World Cup, being played in New Zealand (more specifically, being played in Auckland and Whangārei) this year.
But even a Wayne Smith press conference gives a confidence-inspiring sense of how the new Black Ferns coach’s particular magic works.
The plan is clear, and so is the team spirit.
With Smith in charge, the Black Ferns are at least in with a chance against the northern heavyweights, although they have limited time to get their up-tempo game fully honed.
Part of Smith’s Schtick is to suggest that he’s not totally in charge, a la the way he hinted squad culture boss Allan Bunting picked the team, during interviews after demolishing Australia in Christchurch.
Smith exudes a sense of being there for other people, which is why so many players loved being guided by him.
It’s tough, bashing the national sport. But we’ve just been through yet another weekend, in the middle of the season, when there is no major men’s rugby on. Huh?
…for claiming that sports betting is a major factor in online vitriol directed at sports stars. I have long suspected this is a major issue.
The Brit lost the plot after being outboxed by the amazing Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, again. But Joshua regained his senses the next day, describing the world heavyweight champion as a “class act”, wishing him well, and coming across as genuine in his contrition.
Out of it all, we have the prospect of Usyk fighting the giant and clever Tyson Fury in one of the most anticipated heavyweight unification clashes for a long time.
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The North Queensland Cowboys forward was set to play for a formidable Samoan team.