Off the ball: Call of the riled keeps standards high on the playing field

By PETER JESSUP

After listening to talkback radio all hours of the day and night over the past week (excuse; I've been painting the house) I've learned plenty.

Cully is best fullback in the country and Taine Randell best blindside flanker - especially given that stand-in captain Reuben Thorne is "The Invisible Man".

Justin Marshall can't pass, Caleb Ralph is soft.

Stacey Jones is overrated and over-paid and that's why the Warriors can't afford to keep Ivan Cleary.

The cricketers who won't go to Sri Lanka are worse than poofs, Aussies always cheat and South Africans are all fat thugs.

And, in between, there's a lot of "Hello? Are you there? Am I on the air? Can you hear me Graham? I'm a first-time caller."

But then, as American comedian Dave Barry famously said: "If you ever wonder if there are people in the world dumber than you are, just listen to talkback radio."

It's easy to see (or hear) why the All Blacks' coach, his players and other sportspeople wouldn't want to listen. You wouldn't want to be Jonah's mum tuned in, given the derogatory remarks made about her son.

I couldn't blame John Mitchell for changing channels. Why should he listen to continual carping about his selections? Surely there's only one test he has to pass and that's at next year's World Cup: He gets 50/100 for this season's preliminary exam, the Bledisloe Cup still where it doesn't belong.

The coach could have eased some of the angst by fronting up more often and more openly, the discussion shows. The walkby tactics adopted against the Sydney media didn't endear them to anyone. By comparison, Eddie Jones was happy to go on air for fans here.

What Mitchell doesn't deserve or need is the knockers continually pulling his programmes and processes to bits. He's got the job - New Zealanders should support him until he proves he's not up to it.

Amongst all the rubbish spouted on the airwaves, there is much genuine concern for the team. There are callers with serious knowledge. It's ear-opening how much some know. Some have some very good ideas about the team and the game, good insights. No one would ring if they didn't care. That deserves some respect.

Maybe Mitchell could learn something occasionally because no one has all the answers. Among the reasons the All Blacks are as good as they are is the incessant hard-marking they get from their mums and dads, aunts and uncles, bar-leaners at pubs and clubs. And the talkback crew.

It wouldn't hurt the players to listen in occasionally either, to remind them how fervent is our passion for the game and what it means to us when they lose. They're privileged to play and get paid. They get paid because people paid a lot less for doing jobs they don't like as much pay to watch.

The NZRFU bosses clearly don't listen to Radio Sport or they'd have jumped long before they were pushed. The venom at "grassroots" level is clear and it goes way back beyond the World Cup fiasco to unease with the corporate approach, disappearance of all talent to the cities, huge steps between divisions three and two to one and another within division one.

There were some good questions raised.

How will Jonah ever get match-fit if they always leave him on the bench or out of the team? Wasn't it a rort that his poster was all over Manchester but he wasn't in the sevens side?

Will the provinces ever again be able to compete with the big-city NPC sides? Will a second division team ever win the Ranfurly Shield again?

If the IRB follows policy to share the World Cup around, the next hosts are likely to be the Americans or Canadians, then Japan, then back to Europe in France or Italy, South Africa, England - so how far out is New Zealand's next chance?

How far behind the average 10 points a game that Ivan Cleary scores will the Warriors' new kicker be?

Why would teams in an Australian soccer league that is crumbling at the foundations want to keep playing away to a New Zealand team that is bottom of the competition ladder? Where will the Kingz get more players? How long have they got left?

If I could have got through, I would have told Martin that it's Thorne's work on the inside that allows Richie McCaw the loose role, that Ralph is a good round-the-legs tackler to bring down the Aussie and Bok breaks, that Marshall is tougher than anyone with the name Byron.

If I'd got a second breath in I'd have told him that Stacey Jones is approaching world-best status and deserves every cent he gets, that this kid Webb looks the goods at fullback and might get 8 out of Cleary's 10 and that yes, the Warriors are true title contenders because of the improvement in their defence.

On two points everyone was agreed. The Aussies will always bend the rules or make up new variations to suit themselves - and anyone who makes a multimillion-dollar cock-up a la the World Cup shouldn't expect to keep his job.