Midweek fixture: An interview with the boss

Peter Miskimmin thinks New Zealand are well-placed to surpass their haul from the London Olympics. Photo / Getty

What better way to wrap up the year, the first and hopefully not last year of MF's existence, with a chat with the don of New Zealand sport Peter Miskimmin.

"Sport is so important to this country," he says, "it does something for this country that other things can't do."

Miskimmin specifically was talking about sport's ability to unite us in grief - the deaths of Jonah Lomu and Jerry Collins especially - and joy. New Zealand's wild ride to the final of the Cricket World Cup and the back-to-back success of the All Blacks on rugby's biggest stage galvanised not just cricket and rugby fans, but casual followers and sports neophytes as well.

Unquestionably, the big-ticket items in our summer game and national sport went swimmingly well, but judging the overall health of the country's sport by the performance of it's two flagship teams would be like saying the economy's great because Auckland and Wellington are buzzing.

"I look at our high-performance results and we're just getting better and better," Miskimmin, Sport New Zealand CEO, says.

New Zealand finished 15th on the medal table at the 2012 London Olympics, widely considered to be a great performance.

Using a metric based on the results from recent pinnacle events in the Olympic sports, New Zealand would be placed No 10 at this point of time.

"That gives us a huge amount of confidence heading into Rio next year," he says.

High Performance Sport NZ have set a target of a minimum 14 medals in Brazil and "we're optimist of reaching that and more", Miskimmin says, pointing to likely hauls in rowing, cycling and sailing, plus the ever-present excellence of the likes of Val Adams, Lisa Carrington, Lydia Ko and the sevens teams.

"But as you know, you can have all the results in the world in the lead-up to the Games and it comes down to what happens on the day."

While 2015 has seen more hits than misses, not all sports have made it to Christmas unscathed. Netball capped off the year with some positive results against Australia, but lost the one that mattered and the country's five ANZ Championship franchises continue to fluster.

Despite the successful hosting of the Fifa Under-20 world champs, it's been annus horribilis for football, with an eligibility scandal, a bevy of disappointing results, and uncertainty over the long-term future of the Wellington Phoenix in the A-League.

The men's hockey team required a back-door permit to get to Rio 2016 and have had their funding trimmed, which has raised inevitable questions about HPSNZ's funding processes, particularly around the onus on Olympic success.

"It's a tough business and it's about performing on the biggest stage," Miskimmin said, noting that New Zealand's high-performance spend was a drop in the bucket compared to the big nations and they were forced to be more ruthless when cutting their cloth.

In some ways, Miskimmin says, New Zealand has become victims of their own success. There were more pinnacle events to attend, more PEG grants to dish out. Tough decisions had to be made around funding and that meant some hardship.

You only have to look at the results as whole, he concludes, to realise we're getting a lot more decisions right than wrong.

GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI

Can't resist the indulgence... here is my favourite sporting moment of 2015, just nudging out Beauden Barrett's match-sealing breakout try in the RWC final.

You watch these last three overs and marvel at the chaos, unbelievable luck and sheer brilliance of the chase. No matter how many times I look at the third ball of the last over, I'll never understand how Daniel Vettori squeezed that to third man for four.

I'M READING

This, from the New York Times earlier this year, might just be about the most poignant sports piece I've had the privilege to read in 2015.

Homeless and Mentally Ill, a Former College Lineman Dies on the Street

My sad belief is that we're only at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the impact concussion will have on the futures of those who play contact sports for a living.

The players are getting stronger and bigger, the hits are getting more violent and powerful... and nobody has got a goddamn clue what to do about it because we, as fans and enablers, love it.

MY LAST $10

Well, the year was probably summed up by my last bet. Needing a Hail Mary-type play to get me back in the game, I instead did this...

Last week: $10 on Ross Taylor to be NZ's top runscorer during their first innings in Hamilton. He scored a duck.

This week: As you can see, the only way to break even now is by collecting $84.40 with my last $10. So I need a miracle multi. And here is the multi to end all multis. We have, Buffalo, Detroit and Kansas City to beat Dallas, San Franscisco and Cleveland in the NFL. We have New Zealand beating Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day ODI, before South Africa will get their test cricket back on track by beating England in Durban. Australia will also beat the West Indies in their secodn test. In the meantime, I also need Perth Scorchers to beat Vettori's Brisbane Heat at the WACA in the BBL. Simple, you might as well hand me the $84.70 that I will collect now.

Total spent: $260 Total collected: $175.60 (pending this week's final bet).

MAILBAG

No mailbag this week but thanks to all those who contributed to this section during the year. Always keen for a bit of debate and/or humour; absolutely bored by frothing-at-the-mouth tirades.

Write to me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz