There were three points I was trying to make- 1) is the socio demographics of the team. They do not represent NZ's multicultural society. The pathway is biased towards kids whose parents can afford for them to attend the academies and pay the subs/boots etc for clubs. For some people $150 for subs and $100 for boots/socks etc plus the cost of transport to games and practices is a lot of money. Rugby subs are cheaper from what I see. We need more Maori and Polynesian players like Bill T and Winston. Many of the ethnicities don't join clubs but just play their own leagues. In Auckland some very good players play indoor and summer football and I have never seen them playing club football. The pathway is too prescriptive- we have to widen the net.
2) the players picked do not appear to be naturally athletic. Again Winston and Bill are great athletes. Football requires speed. Our players are not athletic enough. Again this comes back to the type of player we are producing and developing. NZF need to promote Bill and Winston to the Maori and Polynesian base and maybe seek SPARC funding to increase their participation.
3) the alignment gig is up. The Emperor does in fact have no clothes on and he knows we know that! We can probably agree on 1 and 2 above but 3 will always be a philosophical thing about performance v result. I respect both sides but hate seeing team playing crap football also lose heavily. You many as well try and play if you are going to go down.