I'm not surprised, and I kind of expected that this Maorifying of the team was going on. Sure it makes for a good haka, but he's alienated our islanders who now don't want to play for us, as well as our pakeha boys (esp Mannering). Not good at all.
Kidwell could go down as one of the most important figures in International RL history, but not because of any good he's done. He may have caused irreparable damage to our jersey, and caused future generations of NZ islanders to play for the island nations.
I wouldn't want to spend 3 days at a marae on a mattress, and I'm Maori.
The question is, what do we do now? I'd be hiring Bluey McLennan back ASAP and giving him carte blanche.
Yep. I reckon he's potentially put NZRL back 10 years. Assuming Mau, Fusitua, Taumalolo, et all decided to go to Tonga because they felt ostracised by the camps Kidwell ran, and assuming they never return, fact is JT is absolutely a one in a generation player and a huge loss. SST is a star and Fusitua has a huge upside. Who knows as well how many potential Kiwis then join Tonga over the next generation.
Have to think there's something to it. Taumalolo was in the official advertising with the NZ flag. His decision was obviously very late. I wonder whether he threw the towel in once they found out what the plan was. It then would be a simple domino effect on the other blokes.
HIIT sounds bizarre in its timing. In the sense that HIIT you generally don't do before strength training because it depletes your energy. It's a workout that keeps burning post workout. All the sports teams I see generally adopt a captains run type mentality just before the match because your body needs to recover in time and mend prior to big physical impacts.
It doesn't surprise me to hear this. Just because of how often the Kiwis were dominated in the tackle. There was no real leg drive. The other teams seemed to be getting off the line much quicker than us and dominated momentum.
It just sounds like he is completely and utterly incompetent. I have to wonder how on earth there was no one reviewing what he was up to. Why was no one questioning the plan? I mean hell, staff slept off the marae floor because they couldn't sleep in that environment but they kept putting the players through it? That in itself is disgraceful. There's an old saying. Don't ask your team to do what you aren't willing to do.