Liam Lawson has become a household name – and Ryan Fox has seen some career bests this year.
NZ Herald’s Christopher Reive and Nathan Limm count down the biggest sports news of the year on The Front Page.
The All Blacks lost three times this season under Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks
“Three big losses have low-lighted the All Blacks’ year. We are used to this relentless standard of dominance. But the nature of those losses is more the issue rather than the losses themselves.
“They had losses to Argentina, South Africa and England. South Africa in Wellington handed [the ABs] their biggest test defeat in history. That really started the alarm bells ringing and put heaps of pressure on Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson as coach and Scott Barrett as captain.
“There are a few issues that have plagued the All Blacks this year. Discipline, the yellow cards have continued and are a regular feature. Their work under the high ball, their lineout, and their defence on the edges. To their credit, the lineout seems to have sorted itself out through the Northern Tour,” Limm said.
“Formula One is a very hard stage to crack, let alone succeed. There’s so much politics that goes on in just getting into the position that Liam Lawson is in.
“For Liam in particular, he started the year at arguably the best team in Formula One at Red Bull. They only gave him two races before they said, ‘actually, we’re going to put you back on the junior team’.
“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.
“It’s been surprising throughout this year just how many people have said Liam Lawson’s not good enough and doesn’t belong in Formula One, just based on him not being on the podium every week,” Reive said.
Dame Noeline Taurua will not coach the Ferns again until at least next year. Photo / Photosport
Netball New Zealand vs Dame Noeline Taurua
“She was stood down days out from the Taini Jamison series, and it was like chaos for a couple of months because no one seemed to know what was going on, and there wasn’t really any communication from Netball New Zealand to the public about why [Noeline] Taurua had been stood down under the cloud of ‘it’s an employment matter’.
“But the problem was that that silence extended for months. Because of that, the New Zealand public, who have an understandable loyalty to their coach, 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.
“Taurua was effectively reinstated as coach, but then wasn’t reinstated as coach for this year. She’ll only come back next year, and given the dates and how everything works with the ANZ Premiership, she’s only going to get the Silver Ferns back together in July, a few weeks out from the Commonwealth Games. So she’s going to go almost two years without having overseen the team,” Limm said.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
