Winners Losers : Aussies finally & have a rugby team, Becker is toast
Becker’s financial behaviour epitomises how many of the rich and famous believe they can operate, everywhere.
Winner Steven Alker
How about a 50-plus golfer being in contention for Kiwi Sportsperson of the Year?
The way Alker is going, the Arizona-based Hamiltonian may be hard to ignore.
The man who had a couple of unsuccessful seasons on the PGA tour, and mainly played (and won four times) on the tour below, is the best senior golfer in the world.
He’s not only on top of the rankings but is playing way better than many very famous golfers who are on the Champions Tour.
His form during his latest victory, in Houston, was stunning.
The five senior majors are coming up and he’s got to be in with a great chance of winning one, given how well he is playing.
Do the oldies get a look in when it comes to our sports gongs? We may find out, if Alker keeps this going.
Losers Crusaders
All good things come to an end, although even a below-par Crusaders outfit can be a dangerous rugby animal. Still, losing to the Waratahs — no one saw that coming.
Winners Waratahs
Congratulations to the Waratahs, who have gone from whipping boys to beating the Crusaders in the latest round of Not So Super Rugby.
Remember, the Waratahs lost all 13 of their Aussie and Transtasman games last year.
New Waratahs coach Darren Coleman is getting a lot of credit, and he is an example of the passe´ idea that you don’t have to be a famous player to make a top coach.
Coleman was a Sydney club firstfive who went on to coach in his homeland, Canada, Italy, Japan and — last year — the United States.
It’s great to see the Aussie sides put some credibility into a struggling competition, one which must hang on for now and hope for better days.
Winners Black Ferns
Yuck . . . don’t you hate those modern box-ticking job titles, like ‘manager of culture and leadership’, which is former sevens coach Allan Bunting’s newly-created role with the Black Ferns in this World Cup year.
But New Zealand Rugby is on the right track in appointing Bunting, because the review of the Black Ferns left the distinct impression that at least some players may have become sidetracked by internal issues.
One of the All Blacks’ great strengths has been overcoming obstacles — rather than being overwhelmed by them — in the name of the bigger goal, which is representing the country, or fans, or family, or whatever else you want to use.
That connection with a purpose is important, as top coaches realise.
An example . . . when Scott Robertson began his coaching rise with Sumner, he videoed the suburb to help his little club team find their identity.
Loser Boris Becker
The German tennis legend has been jailed in the UK for hiding money and assets after being declared bankrupt.
The judge said Becker had shown no remorse, which is hardly a surprise on a few counts.
Becker has never come across as the overly thoughtful type. He has exhibited a machine-like persona since becoming an overnight superstar by winning Wimbledon at the age of 17 in the 1980s.
And great sports people can be self-obsessed characters, further shaped by adulation and fawning admirers.
But Becker’s financial behaviour epitomises how many of the rich and famous believe they can operate, everywhere. They have great lawyers and accountants who make a very nice living helping their clients keep their contributions to society to the bare minimum.
Or to put it another way, do you really think that the richest people in this country pay every last cent of tax that the system intends for them to contribute?
Okay, so the methods they can afford to employ may be deemed legal. But that doesn’t make it right.
It’s called a sense of entitlement.
Loser Roman Abramovich
Speaking of which . . . the bidding war to own Chelsea Football Club continues (at the time of writing), with America’s Cup chaser Jim Ratcliffe among the suitors.
Roman Abramovich has been forced to sell the club, done in by the appalling Ukraine invasion which has seen Russian oligarchs hunted down and officially turned into the pariahs they should always have been in the first place.
Extreme wealth enabled men like Abramovich to ingratiate themselves into the greedy upper echelons of free world societies, and sport played its part in that disgrace.
And they’ve got a little army of well-paid underlings making it all possible, as books such as The
Enablers by Frank Vogl detail. Lawyers for Abramovich even contacted the Herald wanting to defend his honour after I wrote that the English Premier League lost its moral compass the day it allowed Abramovich to own Chelsea back in 2003.
Then along came Vladimir Putin’s war . . . don’t think we’ll hear from those lawyers again.
Losers The Kiwis
The New Zealand Rugby League should take on the NRL and fight like crazy to have one rule for all over test eligibility.
The issue has come to light again because powerhouse Cronulla Sharks centre Siosifa Talakai can play for tier two Tonga and also New South Wales in the State of Origin.
But if he plays for the Kiwis, he is ruled out of Origin.
It means that Australia, in effect, has the power to chip away at the Kiwis’ playing resources.
While the basis of the rule has good intentions, to foster league in smaller Pacific nations, it is totally unacceptable to consider Tonga as a tier two nation at New Zealand’s expense.
Winners Penrith and Melbourne
The latest round of the NRL suggests that any result is possible, unless the Panthers and Storm are involved.
They are a cut above the rest, two stunning league sides whose clash on May 14 will be a sporting highlight of the year.
And to think, the Storm are full of Kiwis, while the Panthers are coached by Ivan Cleary, who could have been in charge of the Warriors.
Meanwhile, the Warriors are scratching around in the middle of the table, as they always do, although the NRL nomads came up with a golden-point win over struggling Canberra to offer their fans yet more false hope.