Sport Review reviews 2023

Sport Review #264

If your mind has already turned to booze / Outlook / doom-scrolling / Proper Crisps-addled mush, hang in there, the ham / hangover / holiday is not far away now. It feels like everyone’s batteries are on low power mode right now, so I will keep this brief - here’s a bit of an un-comprehensive ramble to end 2023.

One tournament to rule them all

Was FIFA 2023 the best tournament we’ve ever held? Cricket world cups 1992 and 2015 might go close at times. Rugby 2011 was eventually triumphant but kind of tense getting there.

We had it so good, with a big Ferns win, packed stands, the full FIFA treatment, wall to wall superstars, enthralling games and kids everywhere getting the football bug. After three magnificent home women’s world cups, what happens next (and can Auckland have a stadium to go with it please)?

Ted / Shag / Foz out

He *almost* had the ultimate mic-drop by winning the world cup, but Ian Foster’s time as All Black coach is up, and in fairness, it was due. Everyone associated with the team seemed tired and thin-skinned, with no idea of what their style or reason for being there was. After achieving unwanted milestones like losing to Argentina and a home series loss to Ireland, a wholesale clear out and the end of the ‘succession for the sake of it’ era feels about right.

There’s bad mojo about our (men’s) national game at the moment. I can’t get my kids to watch it, and I really run out of patience watching TMO’s fart about while I’m trying to enjoy an evening’s rugby. We’re about to finally see what Razor can do, and it feels like there’s a lot riding on it - hopefully he can get the team humming, that will be more worthwhile and enjoyable than the rugby lifestyle content on NZR+.

It turns out you can have nice things

It’s amazing what having a competent adult at the helm can do (see also: New Zealand, 2017-early 2023). Angeball is the best thing to happen to the great Tottenham Hotspur FC in years.

We’re not just talking sublime, and at times nerve-jangling football that can match it with the very best. No, we’re talking players that suddenly look like an under 15’s team that have just been told the team bus is going through McDonalds drive through. We’re also talking inspirational but down to earth Aussie charm and common sense that’s straightforward and cool. Mate. Yinnow?

I love him with all my heart and my only concern is that he’ll only be with us a short time because someone else will come get him.

Very content with the content

Local legends like The Bounce and Between Two Beers have had storming 2023’s, delivering high quality work that’s often more considered and in longer forms than the big sports desks have time or room for. This was also the year Suzanne McFadden hung up the editor’s keyboard at Locker Room (but has not left the building, luckily). If you are looking for a last-minute christmas gift that is not socks or a sporting biography, gift a subscription / koha to one or all of the above.

Sportsperson of the year

Hamilton man Daryl Mitchell. He just keeps going and going on bigger and bigger stages, and now has modern cricket’s equivalent of a coronation, a fat IPL contract. He has all the shots obviously, but his temperament is absolutely world class. How many more New Zealand domestic cricketers are capable of doing this? My only grumble, having seen his absolute array of slow balls in the Super Smash, is why isn’t he bowled more often / at all.

Top five most-read Sport Review newsletters this year

• Fanboying over the (Football) Ferns - July

• Post-1992 NZ Cricket World Cup exits ranked by pain - November

• Just (Women’s Football) World Cup things - August

• Which is better out of New Zealand and France? - August

• Top FIFA WWC 2023 moments - August

Books

• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann - I read three of his historical nonfiction books this year, but this was the favourite. Brutal with a fair sprinkling of rollicking

• The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis - extremely sprawling, but if you enjoy reading about people driving aimlessly around LA and haunting massive, deserted mansions then you will enjoy. Ramps up toward the end

• Ask the Dust by John Fante - where Bukowski nicked all his ideas from

Screens

Loved Dead Reckoning, and The Killer. TV wise, there’s Slow Horses, The Bear, The Curse and Succession, as well as re-watching Curb.

Music

Spotify wrapped makes this too easy. Very little that’s relevant to 2023, just another year at Sport Review Music HQ.

Life in general

Still processing our trip. Can we go back please?

The family is well, work is busy, life is good in East Coast Bays. I thoroughly recommend having a dog and walking it most days if you can and also playing tennis, I get so much enjoyment out of both.

Enjoying a Fritzi Coop spicy chicken burger at the LA Farmers Market, I recommend it if you’re in the neighbourhood.

Thanks for being a crucial member of the Sport Review cinematic universe this year - it’s much appreciated, and apologies (or, you’re welcome!) for the missed weeks. See you back next year, sometime in January or possibly February.

Thanks for reading - Richard

This week's best NZ sport content

The women responsible for three world cups and one conference look back on one of the most remarkable runs in NZ sport, let alone women’s sport. The world looked very different before this series of massive events, it’s changed for the better and we need a plan for what’s next [Locker Room]

New Zealand produces the best cricket pitches in the world - thank god someone finally said it [Sportsfreak]

Hard on the heels of Sport Review’s Stadium / Star Wars missive, an update on Auckland stadiums and how we might get a new one [NZ Herald]

Typically sharp / detailed run down on Silver Lake shenanigans and Auckland stadium developments, complete with a Colin Maiden slap down, always enjoy those [The Bounce]

Video nasty

Relatable.

Long read

Who coaches the life coaches? A report from a perplexing character building weekend all about virtually climbing Mount Everest and becoming a better motivational speaker [New Yorker]

Recommendation 

I don’t need to tell you Slow Horses is peak, peak TV and season three is the best yet.