Cielda.
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. From sideline squabbles to damning defeats, twenty twenty six will need to be a year of refresh when it comes to Kiwi sports.
The All Blacks.
Season has been shaky to say the least, and headlines have been dominated with netble New Zealand's off court chaos, but there have been some major wins on the world stage for some of our best athletes. Liam Lawson has become a household name and Ryan Fox has seen some career bests this year. So to wrap it all up today on the front Page, we have the New Zealand Heralds Christopher Reeve and Nathan Limb to take us through
some of twenty twenty five's highs and lows. So first off, guys, let's get this out of the way, because I know how much it pains people to talk about it, the All Blacks, Right, Nathan.
I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you.
Well, people love to talk about it, but when they lose, and there's been a few big losses this year, hey tell me about it.
Yeah, so three big losses I suppose have lowlighted the All Blacks year.
We're used to this sort of relentless standard of dominance.
But yeah, I suppose the nature of those losses is more the issue rather than the losses themselves. So they had losses to Argentina, South Africa and England, and that South Africa one in particular in Wellington where they were handed their biggest.
Test defeat in history.
Really started the alarm bells ringing, and it put a heap of pressure on Scott raisor Robertson the coach and Scott Barrett the captain. People questioning the direction of the team. There are a few issues that I guess have played the All Blacks this year. Discipline, the yellow cards and have continued in irregular feature. They work under the high ball, their line out and their defense on the edges, and to their credit, the lineout seems to have sort of
itself out through the Northern tour that definitely improved. They had a few new players, Josh Lord came in and seemed to really make an impact. But I suppose there's still a few question marks over the All Blacks and now they're progressing in those other areas with the World Cup a couple of years away.
Chris, have other teams just gotten better? Have we just been used to the All Blacks being.
The best in the world for like the past few decades and other teams have just caught up.
Yeah, I think there's a little bit of that. My thing with rugby has always been there's essentially been ten countries in the world who take rugby seriously, and as more start to take it seriously, you know, they're starting to catch up, starting to get to the All Blacks level.
I was looking at this the other day because the All Blacks can meet current world number one South Africa and the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and they met then world number one Ireland, and the last World Cup before that, it was just all Blacks, world number one,
All Blacks, world umber, all Blacks, world number one. So now all these teams are starting to get to the All Blacks level, starting to I guess bring that level back, and All blackson else starting to be in that position where it's like, well, now we've got to match it with the other teams.
Yeah.
It is always fun, isn't it when your team is the best team in the world. But I mean there's some few nail biting games, Nathan.
Over the course of this year.
One of the main criticism actually I've seen is about the team's identity. They've got an identity issue. And does that just mean basically, when you think of a team and you can't immediately think of maybe three describing words to describe them with, would you be at a loss to describe this team in three words?
Yeah?
And I suppose in a really positive way of you're wanting to look at the team's characteristics in their biggest strengths. It is hard because it has been muddled and the performances have been so up and down this year. I think one of the concerning areas is around the All Blacks attack because for so many years they've been dynamic, they've been so accurate. The simple catch and pass has
been the All Blacks identity. And I suppose there's a little bit of confusion as to the direction of how this team wants to play the game because those elegant sort of back line moves that were so used to seeing, you know, throughout the twenty twenty tens, they're not there. It doesn't seem to be part of the All Blacks game, they shift the board of the left wing to the right wing. Obviously, with the change in rules, our teams are kicking a lot more and we're putting up those
those bombs and sometimes we're contesting them. But other countries seem to be doing it a hell of a lot better than us. So what is the All Blacks biggest strength? I think is the question that a few people are struggling to answer.
At this point.
And what about the leadership they're sticking around next year?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the coaches will still be in charged, so I Scott back from what we've seen, will still be Then he's admitted, you know that it probably wasn't the best year and there are things he would like to improve on. So look, this coaching team, I suppose has been in charge for a couple of years now, and we would have probably liked to have seen more
in terms of that direction at this point. But they've still got another year and a half until a couple of years until the next World Cup, so there is time to find some brother.
It was a very good race, I know for starting third and finishing FIRSD might not sound like the best result, but given the carries, and given the drivers that are behind him, and given the way he just drove full stop, I say that was an incredible performance the other night.
Let's move on to arguably one of the most talked about Ken we athletes this year. Who do you reckon?
I'm going to say my guess is Liam Lawson?
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, because it's been everywhere right Like I, as someone who doesn't watch sports religiously or really knew anything other than what's on Netflix about F one, this year seems to be Liam Lawson's big year.
Why is that?
Do you think?
Formula one is a very hard stage to crack litt alone succeed and there's so many politics that go on and just getting into the position that Liam Lawson is in. And for Liam in particular, he started the ye arguably the best team in Formula one at red Bull, they only gave him two races before they said, actually, where we're going to put you back to the junior team. So just everything that has happened for Liam Lawson this year has sort of just made for quite a compelling story.
And from that point it's been is he going to have a seat for this for next year? And that dragged on the entire season. They gave it until I think the week before the final race of the season to make that decision. So yeah, it's just been a very very interesting and I guess fun for a reporter's point of view story to follow, and people have really really grabbed onto it.
Was it a bit too early? Do you reckon to have him sitting next to you? Max Vashtappen, Yeah, it's a good question.
I think he was ready. I just don't know if they gave him enough time to get used to that car. That's my personal opinion. I think Liam Lawson's very good at what he does and I think they just need to show a little bit more patience on him.
Right, So looking forward to seeing him next year.
Nathan, Yeah, one hundred percent.
I mean twenty twenty five has been some big highs and some big lows, and that would have been incredibly difficult for Lawson to manage the spotlight for those two races and then to be dropped. I mean, what's that going to do to your confidence? You're a young man, you're on the world stage, You've got so much pressure and through the rest of the year. The best thing has just been he's had a consistent seat and he
hasn't had to worry about that. He can just focus on performance and to know that he is going to get that again next year. He's going to head into twenty twenty six with a much wiser sort of head on his shoulders, more experienced, and he'll feel a bit more comfortable and a bit more like he belongs because he's actually had that backing of his team this time, whereas he didn't have that at the start.
Of the year.
And I think they've showed the probably should have stuck with him a bit longer because they've obviously dropped the guy who they.
Replaced him with.
Yeah, it's quite funny to see Kiwi's on the big
stage as well. Do you feel like Kiwi's put our athletes and stuff who are who get a name and are you welld known on a bit of a pedestal because we've got the tall poppy syndrome obviously, But as soon as Liam Lawson gets into the F one and does all these amazing things at the start of the year, it was like the pressure that must have mounted on him from you know, everyone talking about it, everyone having his back, and then everyone talking about it when he didn't do so well as well.
Yeah, it's been surprising throughout this year just how many people have seid Liam Lawson's not good enough. Liam Lawson doesn't belong in Formula one, just sort of based on him not being on the podium every week. Formula one is a very very very hard sport to succeed in. There's really only two or three teams that can consistently put you on the podium. The rest of them are fighting for those middle positions and that's the team Liam
Lawson has found himself in. Just being able to compete for top ten sort of week to week or Grand Prix to Grand Prix is quite a high achievement. So yeah, it's a strange one. I feel Aliam Lawson's succeeded with what he's been given. But yeah, you might get a different answer if you are someone else.
It's a bit of a catch twenty two when you're talking about the tall poppy syndrome because another, you know, we're talking about identity before another part of New Zealand's identity in the way we view sports, we punch above our weight, So in that regard it kind of is in conflict with the whole tall poppy syndrome. But I think for the most part New Zealanders have been very supportive of Liam Lawson. Would be great to see that continue into twenty twenty six.
The only purpose of elite sport, if you think about it, is victory. It exists for no other reason than to let a chosen for you express themselves in a way where they went and others can piggyback on that by way of television licensing, or ticket sales or just being fans.
Unless Nolan Tarua has had a personality transformation and they're all wandering around Netball New Zealand at the moment going jeez, I wonder what happened to old Knowles, Man that Knowles, that Knowles has changed, which I suspect has not happened at all. Then what we are left with is the inescapable conclusion that Tarua is the victim of soft management in a world where every cry baby needs to be heard.
Something else that everyone was talking about this year was the Netbull and not what was happening on the court, but what was happening behind the scenes. You did a lot on this Nathan this year in terms of Netbulle New Zealand standing down longtime Silver Fern's coach Dame Nolane Tolua.
Nathan, tell me about it? Do we even know what happened? Now?
Sort of? So I heard an.
Interview that she did about it, and I, you know, left that interview feeling like she didn't even know what happened.
Yeah, I mean, so what happened? Yeah?
So she was stood down days out from the Tiny Jamison series sort of sensationally and through everything sort of it was like chaos for a couple of months because no one seemed to know what was going on, and there was not really any communication from Netball New Zealand to the public or otherwise about why total had been stood down under the cloud of it's an employment matter,
everything has to be private. But the problem was that silence extended for months and because of that, the New Zealand public, who have an understandable loyalty to their coach at Totaler, wanted to find someone to hold accountable for this, and because she was stood down apparently due to player complaints, that turned to trying to hold the Silver Ferns players accountable for it without actually knowing who complained or what the complaints were, and that led to players who weren't
involved at all getting dragged under the bus. And so the handling of the situation by Netball New zeal And, that lack of communication created an environment that was highly it was sort of a bit toxic in terms of the public and what the players had to deal with in terms of that criticism and that scrutiny because there just would seem to be no reason or no accountability
for why this has happened. Since then, parts of the stronic report the investigation have come out, and so, yeah, the player complaints around inconsistency of Total implementing her standards, you know, potentially treating some players differently to others, and then also the way the environment is compared to after losses versus wins. So people can read into those complaints what they will for me. I mean, looking at the report, I felt it. You know, from that it was you
do get an idea of what the complaints were. No, not the specifics of who exactly complained, but totally can she was in the environment, she can read between the lines.
So you know, I.
Suppose the key issue here is this still doesn't result because total effectively was reinstated as coach.
But then wasn't reinstated as coach for this.
She'll only come back next year, and given the dates and how everything works with the ains in Premiership, she's only going to get the Silver Ferns back together in July, a few weeks out from the Commonwealth game, So she's going to go almost two years without having overseen the team. All of this dramas happened in the interim and she's not got much time to sort it out and we'll just have to see what happens. But it's a really really difficult situation.
For the Ferns.
But I also think it's worth pointing out that the Ferns had a really successful year despite all of this off the court. They won nine out of twelve games, clean swept South Africa, clean swept Scotland, beat England away from home, and drew their Constellation Cup series with Australia lost an extra time. But despite all of this, they performed really really well on the court and I think the Ferns themselves deserve.
A lot of credit.
Yeah, absolutely so sorry.
Is that July next year, twenty twenty six?
Yes?
What does she do between now and then.
Unclear planning, planning, you know, during the ains of premiership normally she'd be going around the franchise and talking to the players and giving them feedback and goal setting and that sort of thing. There has you know, she's she's talking to Super Netball clubs as well though, so if she were to take on a role the Mavericks have been you know, she's talking to them. If she were to take up a role with them, that would surely impact whether or not she can go around the aims
of premiership teams. But again there's a complete lack of clarity because we haven't heard from her in weeks. We haven't heard from Netball New Zealand on this, so it's very still up in the air and.
So okay, so it's still really nice continue.
Yeah, credit to the Silver Ferns. They played pretty well throughout the year. Once they sort of came to terms with everything that was going on, they turned things around very quickly, played very well against Australia, played very well when they went to the Northern tourst So like they've come out of this looking quite good.
Yeah.
Absolutely, Well somebody else who has had a good year this year, Ryan Fox. I'm not sure if you know him, he's won a couple of times.
Tell me about that Grose.
Yeah, so breakout.
Yeah, for Ryan Fox, it's always been a case of he's good enough. It's just a matter of putting four good rounds of golf together to win a tournament on the PGA Tour. And yeah, he was able to do that twice within the space of a month this year, which is pretty unreal. The first one at Myrtle Beach was what they call opposite field event, so all the best players are off playing a signature event. You've got to be ranked in the top seventy players to get in that. The rest of the field go to this
other one. So Fox was at the other one and one that needed to chip in from just off the green, which was a pretty unreal way to win a tournament. And then two weeks later he goes to the Canadian Open, where most of the best players in the world were playing. Scottish Effler wasn't there, but yeah, he went out and won that one in a playoff as well. So very very good month for Ryan Fox, and he continued that
throughout the year. He finished well the top fifty. So now the next year, he basically gets to take his pick of what tournaments he wants to play in.
This is something that I wanted to ask you guys in terms of sporting moments of the year. Obviously we've spoken about the All Blacks, Leam Laws and Ryan Fox, netwle dramas, etc. Is there something quite niche that comes to mind that that really is in your top moments of the year. It can be something really specific, if it can be funny, or it can be outstanding achievement. What have you got?
My one that immediately comes to mind is Lekahalasimas scoring after full time for the Warriors against Newcastle Knights off a kick deflection. He ran forty meters, got past six defenders and stole the game right at the death and I remember watching it live going absolutely nuts in my living room. My landlords on the other side of the wall must have been wondering what the hell was going on. So that one really set the season alight for the Warriors.
And obviously they made the first round of the playoffs and it fitted. But overall, you know, the season for them has been good in terms of those younger players coming to the Forum for me, that moment really typified that.
It's funny you mentioned that as the first one that came to my mid was I remember going and watching after that, going online and finding all these Newcastle kind of reaction videos to it. It was just great seeing another fan base deflated by a moment like that.
Well, because it's that's that's what sports about, right those moments where you actually jump off off the couch and scream at the TV or hug each other or something when when somebody kicks a goal or does something like that. That's what happens right.
Into two sides to those moments.
Yeah, I mean I mentioned Ryan Fox's chipping before. We had people in the office yelling and cheering at the TV when that happened.
That is genuinely why I know about that is because I was watching the whole group of people next to the TV screaming at the TV.
I just assumed that it was Rugby or something. I walk walk past its goals. Oh, thank you guys so much for joining us.
Thanks Jos, You're welcome.
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at ENZIDHERLD dot co dot NZ.
The Front Page is produced by Jane Ye.
And Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.