Sport Review reviews 2022
Sport Review #222
More of a ramble than a review of a year where we really, really needed some distraction.
Qatar 2022 - very, very good. Football is in a super place when the highest level of the game can produce knockout matches more exciting than a Tasmanian devil getting loose in your people mover in heavy traffic. It wasn’t that long ago the actual world cup football was pretty locked down by airtight defences, or just boring, no matter how much Pavarotti or Diana Ross you threw at them - Deschamps just wholesale going plan B mid way through the actual world cup final showed the sophistication and fearlessness required to compete at the very top.
It was a great tournament for the stars, with Messi, Mbappé and Modric leading their teams deep (France are going to be a proper force for a long time, going by their young stars’ performances here) and Morocco, who played the underdog role better than any team in recent memory. It wasn’t so great for England and Harry Kane, who had France there for the taking and Morocco next, but reverted to type, extremely unfortunately.
The murkiness and politics at the heart of this tournament followed it right onto the winners’ podium - but like everyone, I wrecked my sleep and was transfixed right through to the last penalty shootout. All we’ll remember in a few months time is Messi sinking to his knees. And possibly Macron giving Mbappé a hug more awkward than a Windsor family reunion.
And remember - the women’s version is coming right here to NZ (and Australia) in 2023, we don’t know what’s about to hit us.
Rugby - How are you going with the Black Ferns-shaped hole in your life? In a world of disease and war, an unashamedly feel-good story that created wild enthusiasm everywhere it went, was just what we needed, with the wall-to-wall entertainment of the actual rugby more entertaining than Jaws meets Water World. Hats off to the team and the tournament organisers who delivered world class matches and full stadiums.
Meanwhile the All Blacks fucked around and found out. Endless yarns about coaches, cancelled media appearances, last chances and so, so much coverage about the Canterbury coach filled up newspapers and websites. But we started and ended the year with rugby more mediocre than the cabinet offerings at a cafe still open at 3.30pm. Sure, there’s a world cup next year, but are we bothered?
Cricket - The Women’s World Cup (disclosure, I worked on it) produced terrific matches and entertainment every night for a month, even if the cursed coronavirus meant not everyone that wanted to was there to see it.
The BLACKCAPS rebuild is fully underway, with the captaincy reshuffle showing what we’re in for in the next few years. Ross is gone, Kane’s elbow is obviously a concern but there’s certainly reasons to be positive. We showed in Australia we have the players to go deep in white ball tournaments for now, but nerds will be keeping a close(r) eye (than usual) on domestic cricket to see where the next generation will come from.
Still, with all NZ cricket on free to air TV after this summer, the NZC coffers are full thanks to some savvy negotiation, and the White Ferns showing good signs, cricket is in super shape. The Test series against England, the most electric team in the world, will be a cracker.
Books - a shocking reading year for me, with screens of any size wrecking my attention span. Anyway, I can thoroughly recommend Blue Hotel by Chad Taylor, anything by Amor Towles and also PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves yarns, the funniest thing I’ve read in years and luckily there are loads of them.
Film - also not a great movie year, with whatever TV series we can fit into 20 minutes at the end of the day taking priority. So it’s Maverick. What a ride. Screw you and your nuclear ambitions, anonymous and possibly eastern European nation, and see you at the Hard Deck.
TV - Bad Sisters, White Lotus, Slow Horses, Broken Wood. There’s too much TV, and it’s mostly too good.
Online - There’s a post knocking around in my mind about Twitter and what it means for sport. Confession time, but I got up at 5.30am, not 4am to watch the world cup final, and not being able to read tweets in real time, well, sucked. Live is what the hell site does best, and despite its owner, that Friday everyone was convinced the site was about to shut forever and Mastodon, it’s basically carrying on as it always has. I’ve made friends, sunk far too many hours into and been massively entertained by twitter.com over the years, and would like it to continue (and not cause massive harm and all that), thank you very much.
Offline - Sport Review built a 4-2 win-loss record in North Shore interclub tennis before Covid II intervened. I’ve fucking loved it, despite the draining mental challenge of seeing which aspect of your game is going to fall to pieces as soon as the match starts. I’m grateful to my teammates for their competitiveness and patience, it’s been so much fun. Oh, and our family’s new addition is taking much of our care and attention:
Sport Review - It’s been a year, that’s for sure, but doing this every Friday for you has helped my productivity and creativity, even if the odd edition was late or missed. Thanks to all the NZ sport media for their world class work that’s a pleasure to share - and thanks to you for thanks for subscribing and getting in touch.
Sport Review’s focus is now largely on swimming, single malts and sustenance until sometime in late January and early February - spot you then.
The top five most-read editions for 2022:
All the iconic cricket nerd moments from Scratched: Heath Davis
NEWS: All Blacks pivot from playing rugby to just talking about the All Black legacy and shit
Thanks for reading - Richard
This week's best NZ sport content
Everyone takes photos, but when you see a pro’s work, you realise how shit yours are - check out snapper legend Andrew Cornega’s top sports photos of 2022, and a fun rundown on the GOAT world cup finals in different codes [The Bounce]
Hamish Girvan has the run down on Spark Sport’s origins and how it made everyone else better - while you’re there, read back through the top ten Sportsfreak yarns of 2022 [Sportsfreak]
Video nasty
Ah, Christmas in Norwich.
Long read
Brett Easton Ellis has navigated the genius or blowhard line for his whole career - and is back with his first new novel in 17 years. Read his thoughts on just about everything [Interview]
Recommendation
If you need Christmas distraction, A Quiet Place II (and part one!) are on Netflix.
Bring back the gif
When you turn the out of office on.
