Lisa Carrington, Aimee Fisher and Teneale Hatton at the podium during the NZ Canoe Sprint Championships. Photo / Photosport
Lisa Carrington, Aimee Fisher and Teneale Hatton at the podium during the NZ Canoe Sprint Championships. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Loser: Aimee Fisher, maybe.
I'll be cheering for Aimee Fisher in Thursday's final showdown with Lisa Carrington, with the winner going to the canoe world championships in the K1 500.
Yes, yes. It's all respect and love between the two paddlers, blah, blah, blah.
And everyone seemsto think the best-of-three showdown is great for the sport, which it probably is given that most people wouldn't give a flying fig for canoe sprints between the Olympics.
There are legitimate ways of promoting a sport. The qualification process is about being fair to the athletes.
And Fisher is getting stiffed here.
She is the reigning world champion, and in the qualification race which should count - our national championship - she beat the legendary five-time Olympic gold medallist Carrington.
Instead, she's been put through the selection wringer.
Fisher is also fighting off the psychological back foot, going through the amazing high of beating Carrington and then realising the job wasn't done. I'm not surprised she lost race two.
Aimee Fisher after being told she had won the sprint finish at the K1 500m final during the NZ Canoe Sprint Championships. Photo / Photosport
Carrington on the other hand gets the slingshot effect of tasting a rare defeat and then being lifted, realising that she's been given another chance.
Given Carrington's vast experience, including handling a heavy Olympic workload, this best-of-three business plays into her hands.
Yet she could barely beat Fisher in race two, which was the most telling point about the race rather than the result itself.
Like most people I was shocked to find out Fisher had initially beaten Carrington, but it tells us we are at a potential changing of the guard point, as incredible as that seems.
Come on. The selectors should have all the information they need already.
If Carrington beats Fisher by a hair's width on Thursday, what does that actually prove in terms of separating their abilities?
A world champion, and the national championships, deserve more respect.
So go Aimee Fisher. You deserve the seat.
Winner: Tyson Fury
It is so hard to know what to believe in boxing.
Dillian Whyte was promoted as a terrific opponent for Tyson Fury but as things turned out at Wembley Stadium, he wasn't on the same planet as his fellow British heavyweight. Whyte was totally outclassed before Fury finished him off in the sixth round.
At $40 a pop (come on, Sky, forget that tacky $39.95 business), it was poor value considering the one-sided contest and low-grade undercard.
Fury was brilliant, though.
He's a conundrum, a flamboyant character with an oversized frame who boxes with unforgettable class and composure.
At one point in his life, he appeared to be off the rails yet he boxes with such precision.
The final punch, that uppercut which flattened Whyte, will live in the memory.
Tyson Fury knocks out Dillian Whyte with an uppercut. Photo / AP
For those of a certain age, it goes against the instincts to see British heavyweights as legends.
Even some of their big names, like the much-loved Frank Bruno and sculpted Anthony Joshua, were/are quite stilted.
For years, the Brits lived on Henry Cooper's unlucky brush with Muhammad Ali.
But Fury breaks that mould. He is a great, although Lennox Lewis should still be regarded as Britain's finest, if you can ignore the fact that he is also very Canadian.
Winners/Losers: Brumbies, rugby
Wow. An Australian victory already, in the Super Rugby transtasman flop.
But whatever the reasons - and Covid has been a massive problem - this competition just isn't flying with the public, no matter how often the deluded commentators enthuse over the - drumroll - Mexican wave.
Winner: Mark Robinson and his reality check
NZR boss Robinson was pretty open about New Zealand's chances of ever hosting a Rugby World Cup again.
They are slim to zero.
We're just too small and our stadiums too puny to go it alone anymore, as Robinson strongly inferred in his interview with Newstalk ZB's Elliott Smith.
Robinson may have been trying to prime the national forces, for an against-the-odds shot at hosting a fourth tournament.
But he actually sounded resigned to the reality, and more interested in a re-shaped rugby world which includes a global league and more countries capable of fighting for the top prizes.
In the digital age, where sport must fight every second for eyeballs and dollars, relying on a four-yearly tournament - and one which often looks like an old boys' club reunion - to grab the masses is passé and even dangerous to survival.
With Australia set to host the men's tournament in 2027, New Zealand's chances of co-hosting in the near future are non-existent.
Given the All Blacks' poor World Cup away record, it further underlines that the days of New Zealand rugby dominance are at an end.
But in many ways, that's not a bad thing.
Winner/Loser: Wellington Phoenix
Made the most of their latest visit to Eden Park, which is a horrible ground for football.
Phoenix fans at Eden Park. Photo / Photosport
Winner: The Black Ferns, if/but…
The national women's rugby side have scored a great coach and mentor in Wayne Smith, as they make a late bid to resurrect their World Cup hopes.
Naturally, there are calls for a woman to coach the Black Ferns. But I wouldn't rush that.
It should be seen as a premium job, for the very best candidate. It will take some time before a female coach can match a man's credentials in New Zealand rugby.
Women's rugby can actually be improved and advanced if an elite coach from the highly developed men's game is in charge of the Black Ferns.
The important thing is to start promoting their chances, including finding roles for women in the men's game.
Most importantly, you sense that a turning point has been reached, in which the national administration is going to pay a lot more than lip service to women's rugby.
Women's team sport is behind the eight ball, but a crowd of over 90,000 attended a recent Champions League football semi-final at Barcelona's Nou Camp. That shows the potential.
(And on that note … I'm not totally sure of the reasoning, and it might be Covid-related, but staging this year's women's Rugby World Cup in just Auckland and Whangarei also appears condescending.)
Loser: League
Isaiah Papali'i had another fantastic game for the Parramatta Eels against the Newcastle Knights, at one point wrestling out of four defenders' grasp to score a try.
We never knew how good Papali'i could be until he quit the Warriors for the Eels.
Yet after just one fabulous season for the Eels, and before the 2022 season had even started, the powerful Aucklander had decided to join the Wests Tigers next year, in one of those infamous "big money moves".
Papali'i is just another part of what has become an infuriatingly mad merry-go-round of players in the NRL, all squeezing every last dollar out of the salary cap system.
He has also played for both Samoa and New Zealand in a very brief international career so far.
It tells you everything that is wrong with rugby league. International and club teams are losing their identities. It has become like a game of pick-up in the playground.
