New Zealand cricket is in a wonderful place, with a squad full of players who can turn games. Gone are the days when we relied on a couple of superstars.
(For instance, when BJ Watling quits, up steps Tom Blundell.)
We've even got an (unwanted) spinner who took 10 wickets in an innings. Freaky.
Our cricket really does punch a long way above its weight. All you can do is congratulate everyone concerned.
The one thing we're still not good at is playing Australia… Big Brother has got the willow on us. Maybe that can change as well.
Winner: The All Whites, hopefully, please
The playoff game against Costa Rica on Wednesday morning is a potential golden moment for New Zealand football.
We have an All Whites team bidding to make the World Cup finals based around a few players who have actually been there before.
Around them is the most talented group of rising players this country has ever had led by Liberato Cacace, a world-class defender in the making, and the immaculate defensive midfielder Joe Bell.
Joe Bell in action. Photo / Photosport
Just as importantly, the man in charge, the redoubtable Danny Hay, is a passionate former All White, an icon of all the incredible range of ups and downs that are an inevitable part of New Zealand football.
It makes for a wonderful mixture.
This is a team we need to see on the world stage, and it will be bitterly disappointing - and a wonderful chance lost - if they don't make it to Qatar.
Winner: Crusaders
The Crusaders know how to win big games. If Sam Whitelock plays, I'd back them to win the Super Rugby final over the Blues. Even without him, I suspect they will sneak home.
With everything on the line and a few things in their favour, they were really ordinary in the second half of the semifinal against the Crusaders.
The bottom line is this - remember the old Ranfurly Shield mantra. The Chiefs had to take the game away from the Crusaders in Christchurch. Running through your drills doesn't cut it.
Winner: The NBA finals, but…
The seesaw battle between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics is a fascinating epic and, at times, a showcase of extraordinary shooting skills.
The ability of some modern NBA players to land a stream of three-pointers is almost beyond belief.
There are times when Steph Curry seems almost supernatural in his peerless long-range shooting skill.
I do wonder if basketball is going to change for the worse though, with young players around the world obsessed with emulating their new heroes and becoming three-point wannabes, to the detriment of basketball's traditional arts.
Stephen Curry shoots. Photo / AP
Winner: Women's number one, or is she?
Pole Iga Swiatek is the sneaky world tennis number one. She's on a long winning streak, and yet Swiatek could walk through the middle of town and hardly be recognised.
She is making hay while the sun shines - there's is a bit of a lull in the quality of women's tennis right now.
On another note, Swiatek's call for Ukraine to stand strong against Russia's invasion, during her French Open victory speech, felt like a fine use of her position.
Yet Coco Gauff's marker message calling for an end to gun violence was damn annoying.
Gun violence is an American domestic problem and we don't need it plastered all over world sporting events.
This brings me to the bigger issue.
Sport is now mired in constant political-type messaging, on the field, during press conferences etc. etc.
The extent of it will not only dilute the importance of the messages, but the overall effect interferes with sport's primary purpose, which is to provide an escape from life's atrocities and drudgery. Surely.
Hey people - there's this thing out there called social media. How about you use that as your soap box.
I suspect that eventually, all this stuff will be part of sports stars' branding.
And it certainly isn't anything to do with free speech. Or to put it another way, what will happen if a tennis player writes their support for the National Rifle Association on a camera?
So who gets to play judge and jury on what is allowable? Who controls the message?
Loser: League's State of Origin
It is so over-hyped.
Man catches ball and suddenly he's a history-making genius.
Commentators like Andrew Johns sound like an out-of-control PR department has programmed them.
Loser, briefly: Golf
Liv Golf CEO Greg Norman. Photo / AP
The war of the worlds between America's PGA and the Greg Norman-led breakaway will come together somehow. It has to.
And there is an awful lot of hypocrisy in the way Saudi Arabian money is suddenly so dirty, when the world happily trades with them.
And why isn't there a similar outcry when sport happily heads to places like China, which operates such an evil regime?
And if we are busy pointing the bone here, America's own civil rights record is appalling.
I could go on…
My-way-or-the-highway Norman isn't a particularly likeable character, and an out-of-favour journalist has detailed how Norman's "goons" ushered him out of a press gathering. But he wouldn't be the first journalist blacklisted by a sporting organisation either.
Significantly, there are a lot of undercurrents here.
The apparent fact is that while the majority of the world's leading players are remaining "loyal" to the traditional tours, they are also hoping that the breakaway by Phil Mickelson and co. will lead to better money and conditions for all.
This golfing drama is a reminder of the rugby league war which ripped the game apart in the 1990s.
The lesson - sports bosses ignore top stars at their peril.
Rugby league was vulnerable because the players were grossly underpaid by a slack administration that had a sweetheart deal with a broadcaster.
The very best golfers may appear well paid, but many don't feel they get a big enough slice of the pie they create.
As a result, the you-know-what has just hit the fan.
Winner: Kane Hames
I love the former All Black's TV commentary/analysis… A breath of insightful fresh air. The former prop doesn't run with the pack.
