Winter wonders
There was a time when few people in my office knew the first thing about snowboarding or freeskiing.
In fact, as the story goes, there was a clipping on the wall many years ago about the exploits of one of these fearless athletes — perhaps one of the extraordinary Wells brothers — that had a few passages highlighted.
You know the sort of thing: melon grab flick flack 980 switch Japan grab right triple corked insane in the membrane.
Now, while I still battle a bit to understand EXACTLY what some of the terms mean, I have a reasonable handle on what amazing folk like Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Luca Harrington and Nico Porteous are doing.
They are new faces for a new generation, and they are succeeding with what appears to be an otherworldly amount of dedication, innovation and courage.
The efforts of Queen Zoi and the rising Luca at the X Games, which are a seriously big deal, are further proof the extreme winter sports are entering a golden era in New Zealand.
What does Southern . . .
I did not have "get irrationally irritated by Southlanders" on my list so early in the year.
But let me be the voice of reason when it comes to this faux debate over the Otago Volts ditching the "Otago" to appease a few aggrieved swede-eaters.
Logan Savory is a top man — he was a sports reporter at the second-most popular Invercargill newspaper for a long stretch, and now does a sterling job covering the region for his own Southland Tribune — and Otago cricketer Jacob Duffy, the former captain of Otago, who made his debut for Otago at the age of 17, seems to be a stand-up guy.
But Sav and the Duffman will not be getting my support as they lobby for the Volts to become "Southern Districts" in the most contentious campaign since Mr Seymour starting talking about Treaty principles.
For starters, it feels a bit weird to have Southland — know your place, little brother — trying to determine what an Otago team calls itself.
They seem to be labouring under the delusion that Southland is in some sort of equal partnership with Otago when it comes to cricket.
Um, no. Otago is a major association. Southland is a minor association. If a young Southland cricketer (indeed, pretty much anyone pursuing any career or some sunshine) wants to progress, he or she needs to leave their province and try their luck in the city.
And Southern Districts? What does that even mean? Completely nebulous. "Otago", the province that did so much of the heavy lifting for New Zealand for a century — now that carries some meaning.
. . . even mean?
Duffy is clearly as committed to the cause of taking our Otago name away from us as he is to claiming wickets.
He told The Roar podcast — usually more concerned with how the Stags can aim to finish as high as 12th in the NPC — he was working hard behind the scenes to push for the name change, that nobody in Southland grew up dreaming of playing for Otago, and that the R-rollers had to "grit their teeth" when supporting the Volts.
Treasonous!
This is all a bit weird because Southland literally has its own cricket team. Why can’t we have our own in Otago?
Some argue the only reason not to consider ditching the "Otago" before the "Volts" is history/tradition. And that’s a good reason! Enough in itself to give the idea of the name change short shrift.
Is the idea of people from Southland and North Otago and Otago Country supporting a cricket team called Otago really so weird? Any weirder, for example, than me living in Mosgiel and supporting Liverpool?
They talk about a team "representing" a place. But look at the Volts in recent seasons. South Africans, Cantabrians, Aucklanders, a kid from Duntroon — and yep, one fantastic Southland cricketer who has bowled his heart out.
They come from far and wide, they pull on an Otago shirt — hopefully they do not "grit their teeth" while doing so — and they play cricket for Otago, just as Bert Sutcliffe and Brendon McCullum and Jeff Wilson did.
Enough of this nonsense.
Duffy will go down in history as one of the great bowlers for the Otago cricket team, and I hope he and the folks down south take pride in that.
Swimming away
You have to wish swimming star Erika Fairweather well as she prepares to be based in Auckland under a new coach now the great Lars Humer has stepped back from elite
duties.
Erika’s talent and dedication have taken her to the very top and it’s still a genuine buzz that, a generation after the immortal Danyon Loader, a young woman from Dunedin conquered the swimming world.
But as a reporter, and a representative of a newspaper that has provided a remarkable amount of coverage and support to her since she was a girl, it was not particularly impressive that Erika declined to be interviewed both near the end of last year and again when it was announced she was leaving.
Not sure if we have done something wrong in her eyes, or if there is more to this story than it seems, but it was disappointing for both us and her supporters.
Crystal ball update
Thanks to those who have spotted my annual sporting predictions are already in tatters.
Tipped the Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl — knocked out of the playoffs two days later.
Tipped the OTAGO Volts to win the Super Smash — did not even make the top three.
Tipped Aryna Sabalenka to win every women’s tennis slam apart from Roland Garros — upset by Madison Keys in the Australian Open final.
Could be a long year. But would quite happily get every single prediction incorrect bar one.
Liverpool for the Premier League, PLEASE.
Eagles fly, please
Speaking of the Super Bowl.
My Rams did not make it. My son’s Bills did not make it. The Cleveland Browns, naturally, did not make it.
So let’s get together now and pray the Philadelphia Eagles can win Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
The Kansas City Chiefs are the Crusaders of the NFL. Enough of the favourable referee calls and the shots of Taylor Swift.
Everything he touches
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is an interesting man.
He’s the British chemical engineer and businessman whose success with Ineos has helped his personal fortune go past $NZ50 billion.
That is some serious cash. But sheesh, it seems like old Jimbo is having a bit of a shocker when it comes to his forays into the sporting world.
Ratcliffe has just had an acrimonious split with fellow knight and yachting god Ben Ainslie, and the Ineos Britannia bid for the America’s Cup seems to be in tatters.
He is now the minority owner of Manchester United — ye gods. It’s a great football club, Jim, but not as we knew it.
Ineos took a stake in Formula 1 team Mercedes five years ago — since when Red Bull and, last season, McLaren have dominated — and the Team Sky pro cycling team fell to bits after Ineos took over.
Which leaves the All Blacks.
Since Ineos came aboard in 2021, the All Blacks have been — by their ridiculously high standards — just a bit average.
Worst signing ever?
Remember Brazilian football superstar Neymar?
It seems an age since he was tearing it up for Barcelona then PSG.
Neymar followed the cash to the Saudi Arabian league, where good footballers go to get rich and be ignored, but has decided to get the heck out of there.
His transfer cost the Al Hilal club £77 million. He was said to be on wages of three million quid a week. He played seven games, and scored a single goal.
Lights, cameras, action
There was a buzz at ODT HQ last Sunday as those of us working in the office got a bird’s eye view of the filming for this new Netflix series.
And we saw Florence Pugh! Just a brief glimpse, but still.
It got me thinking again about great sports movies — and wondering why they seem so rare these days.
Coincidentally, just a couple of days later I stumbled across a yarn on some website called Yardbarker, ranking the top 40 sports films and asking readers how many they had seen.
Baseball film Field Of Dreams, high school football flick Friday Night Lights (I saw it in the little town, Odessa, where it was filmed) and the great underdog gridiron yarn Rudy were the top three.
I had seen 29 of the films, if you were wondering.
Absent with leave
Hope you enjoyed a bumper edition of the column because this will likely be the last Last Word for a while.
Highlanders season is here, and something’s gotta give.
