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Home / Sport / Rugby / All Blacks

Off The Posts: Why fan backlash against Ian Foster was completely fair

Joel Kulasingham
By Joel Kulasingham
NZ Herald·
20 Aug, 2022 09:00 PM4 mins to read

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All Blacks head coach Ian Foster. Photo / Photosport

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta sounded a lot like a certain embattled All Blacks coach on the latest season of Amazon's 'All or Nothing' documentary series.

"As a manager you're going to be under pressure," Arteta says as pressure started to build around his job following a disappointing start to the 2021/22 Premier League season. "You're going to be questioned. You're going to have to deal with issues. It's part of my job and I really want to fight for this club, our players, our fans."

'All or Nothing: Arsenal', the docu-series which goes behind the scenes of some of the biggest sports teams in the world, returned this month to Amazon Prime Video and presents a compelling document of Arsenal football club under Arteta and its controversial American ownership. It also captures the fickle yet enduring fandom surrounding a team that once sat at the top of the sport, something the All Blacks can probably relate to.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Photo / Getty
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Photo / Getty
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Like Netflix's 'Drive to Survive', 'All or Nothing' understands that the best drama in sport doesn't always play out on the field. After weeks of its own off-field drama and uncertainty, the same could be said about the state of New Zealand rugby.

The big Ian Foster question was finally put to bed on Wednesday, following weeks of press conference dissections, lively debate and intense online negativity.

As attention now turns back to the rugby ahead of the All Blacks' test against Argentina, fans have been called upon to end their outrage and get behind the team.

"It's time now we accepted where we are, the vitriol should be over and we should get behind the team and hoping they go to Christchurch and have a good win against Argentina and develop further into the World Cup," said former All Blacks coach John Hart, who was one of many to speak out against the backlash towards Foster.

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Fans and media have been accused of launching personal attacks at Foster and the All Blacks, but the vast majority of criticism has been nothing but fair and based on the evidently poor performances on the field. It's a natural manifestation of fandom in modern day sport, and pales in comparison to the type of reaction that goes on in other sports, especially overseas.

If anything, the seemingly widespread anxiety towards the Foster regime only further underlines the passion that still exists in New Zealand for the national game.

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This chapter of New Zealand sport's very own docu-drama, playing out in real time as the All Blacks stumble to new lows, ended with Foster keeping his job.

But the critics and dissenters will likely remain. As Arsenal supporters will attest, it's sometimes what being a fan is all about.

Keith Quinn needs to log off

Retired All Blacks commentator Keith Quinn continues to showcase his outdated views on rugby on Twitter, his latest having a harmful racial tinge.

Quinn, who has come under fire in the past for posts lamenting the end of "bloke-ism" when sports stars dared to show emotion on the field, decided to wrongly suggest All Blacks Rieko and Akira Ioane were holding up "Mongrel Mob signs" in a perfectly innocent photo following the victory over the Springboks.

Aside from the racist stereotype, the post is another example of how the 75-year-old is completely out of his depth online.

Time to log off.

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Athletes still getting shafted by broken system

If high performance organisations don't support athletes, then why do they exist?

That's the question posed by Kiwi swimming great Moss Burmester, after Lewis Clareburt's coach Gary Hollywood revealed Clareburt's Olympics preparations could be derailed by a lack of funding.

"The money … is based on the results that the top athletes have," Burmester said this week. "My results and Lewis' results would mainly determine what swimming gets, administration costs and everything else.

"But Swimming New Zealand doesn't count Lewis as an employee so Lewis doesn't get the credit he deserves for the funding he has brought in.

"Living allowance [payouts] that they pass on are a pathetic amount.

"I've always said that if you take away the coaches and athletes, there is no reason to have national sporting organisations. The swimmers and coaches are there and they will always carry on and do their best."

Burmester nails the reality of sport's broken funding model. Athletes, in any professional context, are the ones that provide the value to sporting organisations, yet they continue to not receive their fair share, financially or otherwise.

Add in concerns around athlete safety and wellbeing following the death of Olivia Podmore, and it's clear New Zealand sport's high performance system is fundamentally broken – and it's the athletes who continue to suffer the consequences.

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