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KEY POINTS:
Paul Lewis, Michael Brown and Gregor Paul pick the top 25 things in modern NZ sport that give them that warm, fuzzy feeling.
25 National Team Names
The All Blacks makes sense - they play in all black. The Tall Blacks also works - they play in black (usually) and they are mostly tall. The Black Cocks, however, was a little dubious. They played in black but were they all. . . still, it got everyone talking about badminton. - GP
24 Tottenham Hotspur
Okay, this has nothing to do with New Zealand but I've been a fan since I was a boy. That kind of loyalty has to be rewarded somewhere and, in the midst of their worst season in many a year, with relegation threatening, Spurs need the support - especially as they slumped after selling their two best strikers whom they have just bought back. Weird? Welcome to the world of Spurs. . . - PL
23 Terrace Chants
"Sign on, sign on. . . and you'll never get a job," sang the Arsenal fans in the 1980s to the tune of Liverpool's anthem You'll Never Walk Alone. "Thank you very much for paying our Giros,' replied the Scousers. Manchester United fans sang, "cheer up Kevin Keegan,' to the tune of the Monkees' Day Dream Believer. And best of all, Auckland fans sing over and over again, "Auckland, Auckland, Auckland,' with no particular tune or purpose. Who couldn't love that? - GP
22 Kiwi
I can still remember riding this wonderful horse to victory in the 1983 Melbourne Cup. I was in the pub, watching the race with about a trillion others and I'd had a sizeable punt (for me: about $20) on the Waverley wonder. In one of the great finishes of any Cup, the horse that was never meant to be a racehorse (he was bought for only $1000 to be used as a stock horse before trainer Snow Lupton saw something in this farm hack that no-one else did) bolted from last to first in that glorious finish that silenced the Aussies and turned up my volume by about 1000 per cent. - PL
21 Pukekura Park
So far and away the best cricket ground in the country that you can't even think what comes second. A delightful venue, albeit with boundaries too short for the modern game, it so moved this writer on first acquaintance that he wrote achingly about the bush, the flowers, the wood pigeons and the thwack of leather on willow. . . so amusing some mates that he still has to buy them beer all these years later to stop them mentioning it. - PL
20 Willie Mason
We can't actually stand Willie Mason and quite enjoyed it when in 2007 he was voted by fans as the most hated man in the NRL. He's loud, obtuse, arrogant and, much to our annoyance, rewarded handsomely for it. He's fled a taxi without paying, taken drugs, forged another player's autograph at a signing session, verbally challenged a female journalist, peed in public and uttered expletives in the direction of Brent Webb while he was singing the New Zealand national anthem. But sport needs its archetypal villains. It makes you appreciate the good guys, the heroes - like Ruben Wiki - that much more. - MB
19 Streakers
Why do the TV cameras so prudishly avoid showing streakers? What's wrong with a bit of nudity? We all like seeing bits bobbing up and down and the drama as the liquored-up get hunted by the buttoned-down security guards. We know it's to stop streaking happening but, hey, it's so much better than a poxy Mexican wave. . . - PL
18 Ryan Nelsen
Nelsen doesn't get much attention back here, especially considering he is New Zealand's highest-paid sportsman on an annual salary estimated to be around $8 million. But every week he proves to young cloggers on the football fields of Papakura or Paraparaumu that they can make it in the world's best football league. Nelsen recently played his 100th top-flight game and in 2005 was described by former boss Mark Hughes as the Premiership's best buy. We would love him even more if he led the All Whites to the 2010 World Cup. - MB
17Front rowers
I don't know what it is but, with some exceptions, front rowers seem to have a mortgage on the "good guy' titles within our rugby teams and a surprising depth in intelligent thinkers on the game. In a long career writing and following rugby, many front rowers populate my favourite players' list - including Sean Fitzpatrick, John Drake, Richard Loe, Peter Fatialofa, Gary Knight, Keven Mealamu, Graham Purvis, Warren Gatland, Steve McDowell and many more. Supposedly the "thickies' of the team, they often turn out to be the brains trust and highly entertaining to boot. - PL
16 Making a racquet
New Zealand tennis might be in a dark place with only one player - man or woman - inside the world's top 321. But for two weeks of the year, world-class tennis at least comes to our doorstep in the shape of the ASB Classic and Heineken Open. People probably don't fully appreciate the quality of the fields that play here. Consider this: the Heineken Open had four players inside the world's top 20 and the top 12 players had a lower combined ranking (410) than Kiwi No 1 Rubin Statham (417). - MB
15 NRL finals
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre was an Australian lawyer, historian and mathematician whom many know for his controversial book The Secret Discovery of Australia - about Portuguese adventures 200 years before Captain Cook. He's also the guy who somehow managed to design a finals system that worked for a handful of sports. Every September, the NRL's top eight provides some of the best drama and intensity in sport. It's a little generous in allowing half the teams in the competition to make it to the playoffs but it still weeds out the chaff from the wheat. No team has ever won from outside the top four since the NRL started in 1998. - MB
14 Yachties
Since 1984, from the boil-on-the-bummed Russell Coutts at the Los Angeles Olympics, through the eccentrically likeable Bruce Kendall and his wonderfully achieving, long-lasting sister Barbara, Tornado sailors Rex Sellers and Chris Timms, to round-the-world sailors like Peter Blake and Grant Dalton, to America's Cup exponents like Dean Barker, Michael Fay and many more - yachties have always been an integral part of the New Zealand sporting scene, providing some of the best copy and who are some of the most approachable and fun people, too, even if Cup politics weighs heavy at times. - PL
13 Jimmy Cowan
Cowan hit rock bottom earlier last year when he was heavily on the sauce and mentally all over the place. Then some luck came his way - he took his chance, kicked the booze and is now a national hero. Honest, eloquent (for a Southlander) and always, always committed. -GP
12 Mahe Drysdale
Enormously impressive at the Beijing Olympics and his exhausting, illness-impaired effort in the single sculls caught the imagination of a nation. Good job too as his struggle with Rob Waddell - another outstanding individual - to win the single sculls berth always seemed unfair. Drysdale had won three world championships and surely had nothing to prove. But he won us all with an impassioned acceptance of the role of flag bearer, when he spoke genuinely and winningly about what it meant to him, and followed that up with a heart-bursting effort for his bronze. - PL
11 Loose forward play
There is no worse sight in rugby than the breakdown - a hopeless melange of flailing arms, bodies and minimal understanding of the laws, policed by a referee who could, with justification, penalise everybody. Thanks, lawmakers. But the horror of the breakdown is saved by those rare creatures - the loose forwards who somehow get to most rucks, who know how to bridge and scrabble for the ball, who run the ball up, who tackle their hearts out. Some say Richie McCaw is a cheat but good loose forwards have always been one step ahead of the ref and, if you are bored with the repetitive crash and crunch of modern rugby, try watching a good exponent of loose forward play. It's an education. - PL
10 Hawkeye
What fun watching the challenges from the players in the Australian Open and didn't it add to events? Just as it does in the cricket. Superb stuff. So there's this for all the techno-phobes who can't bring themselves to bring technology into their game. Blerrrrt-blah-rafreep. That was a raspberry. - PL
9 Stacey Jones
The Little General just can't say no. He came out of international retirement 37 times to help the Kiwis win the 2005 Tri Nations and again in 2006 when they fell one game short of repeating the feat and he is coming out of full retirement to play for the Warriors again in 2009. The great thing is, Jones doesn't care if his comeback fails. He's not planning to but figures he would regret it more if he didn't try than if he injured his reputation. He never was one for taking the easy option. - MB
8 Coaches
Who'd be a coach? It's a common refrain. But, for all the pressure and pain, New Zealand turns out a long line of coaches who are almost always available and prepared to front the issues. We may not agree with them and some might twist and turn and use arcane language (stand up, John Mitchell) but coaches in most New Zealand sports love what they do and are prepared to back themselves and their teams. - PL
7 Sugar daddies
The Herald on Sunday has been hanging out for some time in bars suggestively looking for our own sugar daddy - someone to keep us in the lifestyle we have, lamentably, yet to experience. Someone, indeed, like Eric Watson or Terry Serepisos. If it wasn't for these two white knights, we wouldn't have the Warriors or Wellington Phoenix. The alternatives don't bear thinking about. NZFC, anyone? - MB
6 Winning on the world stage
Let's be honest, we are a small country, a pimple on the backside of the world. But we punch above our weight in sport and it's not uncommon for us to let the chest puff out when Kiwis succeed internationally. Like Scott Dixon, Valerie Vili, the rowers, Nick Willis, Tom Ashley, Danny Lee, the All Blacks, Bevan Docherty, Jossi Wells, the Kiwis, the 2005 version of Michael Campbell, Josh Coppins. - MB
5 Daniel Vettori
A mate complained, when Vettori first came on the scene, that "our spinner doesn't spin it.' He missed the point. The Black Caps skipper is a study in the subtle use of loop, flight, variations in pace and guile. Vettori ranks in the top three spinners in world cricket and many would say he is better than India's Harbhajan Singh (and certainly a lot less annoying) and he doesn't chuck it like that other bloke. About 40 more test wickets will see him into the top 20 bowlers of all time. - PL
4 All Black World Cup Campaigns
Every four years, the All Blacks tootle off to the World Cup having belted everyone in the intervening years. They convince the world they have fixed the problem that tripped them up last time only to go splat. It is one of the more vexing phenomenons in world sport and it is kind of fun hearing all the crackpot explanations as to why they bombed again. - GP
3 Test cricket
Forget that silly hit and giggle stuff and the frothing frenzy that is Twenty20 - this is the one true form of the game. Yes, it attracts three men, two grandmas, their knitting and a geriatric dachshund but ask any of the top players and they'll tell you this is still the pinnacle of the sport. It is a game of chess; a war game; a mixture of subtlety and applied violence; persistence and the ability to read a player/game and adjust accordingly. It doesn't fit today's minimal attention spans and disposable world but it will outlast the instant coffee of Twenty20. - PL
2 Evolution
The wheels of sport never stop turning. Athletes continue to be bigger, faster, stronger. Technology advances every year - be it better equipment or the ability to make more accurate rulings. Most sports change their laws every 12 months to adapt to the impact of better athletes and better technology and the need to engage their audience. Sport never stands still and New Zealand rugby leads the way. - GP
1 Upsets
Sport would be pretty dull if the favourites won every time. In fact, it wouldn't really be sport, rather a stage show. It's the prospect of an upset that keeps us all interested and, when it's our team, they are the victories we savour the most. Like the Kiwis' stunning win at last year's rugby league World Cup. It was the first time New Zealand had triumphed in 54 years of trying and the first time since 1975 a country other than Australia had won it. Pure gold. - MB
- additional reporting by Michael Brown and Gregor Paul
