Games boss would love to spoil Aussie party

MELBOURNE - While Games boss Dave Currie hates predicting how many medals New Zealand will win in Melbourne, he doesn't mind letting it be known he would love a gold in netball.

As he sees it, when Australia planned the 2006 Commonwealth Games, their intent was to end it with an Aussie gold.

"It would be kinda nice to upset their party," team chef de mission Currie said.

He saw the dramatic final at Manchester, which caused New Zealand heartbreak when Australia won in extra time.

Every time he walks into the athletes village he must pass the Wall of Fame, which lists the gold medals for all events in chronological order.

Winners get to proudly write their name alongside the relevant event, and have their photo taken by the wall.

Last on the long list, near the entrance athletes must use every day, is a space for the netball gold.

World champions New Zealand are favoured to have their name etched on the wall.

In the good old days, it was fashionable for the team boss to predict how many medals New Zealand would win at the Games.

That's not for Currie.

"The danger in any competition, particularly here, is to celebrate before you've done the business, he said.

"At the end of it they win their name goes up there, it's a neat outcome, but if you worry about the outcome before it happens, you're buggered really.

"It's not what we focus on, but clearly we don't come here for the journey. We come here because we've got an absolute commitment to perform well.

"If it's the very best performance they're capable of, it's going to be a bloody good performance and you end up with a medal.

Sports funding agency Sparc have predicted a medal haul of 46, one more than in Manchester four years ago -- a record tally for a New Zealand team competing overseas.

"Our job is to make if that's something people genuinely say they can do then that's got to be the minimum, Currie said.

"We want people to get beyond to reach the stars, to go beyond that.

"What I want people to do when they look themselves in the eye at the end of the Games is to know in their heart that was it.

"If everyone can look themselves in the eye and know there were no if onlys, there was no 'maybe if I had done that', they've done it.

"If everyone does that, there will be great performances, medals are going to fall out of that.

- NZPA