Captains Report – NZ Team 2007 –2008

 

Being asked if I would be the NZ team captain and acting manager for Sydney 2008 didn’t really cross my mind but felt honoured and accepted the position.

 

The challenge for us was to put in a real competitive team and I feel that we achieved this, regardless of what happened earlier on in NZ

 

It was encouraging to see a big step up from the young guys in the team to an international standard.

The first race saw a close challenge but unfortunately for the Australian team one of the cutters broke a rule and management skill was needed to solve this problem .As no official pick up on the error at the time and to be honest wasn’t interested at re looking at the race to make a decision, It took a day and a half to try and sort it out with a pleasing result of win to NZ and I would like to thank Don Buchann for his help thru this ordeal.

2^nd race let’s face it we got our arse kicked. Oz lead from the start and never looked back.

 

The team looked forward to the third and deciding test, I discussed with David Bolstad and Jason Wynyard a team that I would like to put forward, slightly different from the other two tests but I felt that it would be stronger and certainly would have given the Australians a surprise. It was a shame that it was cancelled.

 

I was very proud to be named captain and felt all individuals were proud to wear the silver fern. We have a really good team of guys a mixture of young and the more… experienced and if the NZAA looks after the young coming through it will continue do well in the years to come.

The performance of Adam Lowe and Shane Jordan is something they should be both proud of and I know that Steven Knowles and Bobby Dowling will continue to gain experience with more international competitions like Sydney.

 

Thank you to Val Baker for your guidance in procedures and Rachael Roberts for team photos.

Also David and Jason for supporting me throughout the show and if we can all put our differences aside and focus on wood chopping NZ will consistently provide a high level of competition against Australia            

 

 

Faavae Sefo

Captain, Acting Manager

 

 

JJJ

Random Funnies

‘Have you ever wondered why on a child’s superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly!’

 

‘Have you ever wondered :On packaging for a K-Mart iron :Do not iron clothes on body (but wouldn’t this save more time)’