Fully Committed: The Ben Sigmund Story

Strong line-up for Auckland's Ben Sigmund All Star game on Sunday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau...

"The game features former New Zealand captains Tim Brown, Danny Hay, Ivan Vicelich and Chris Zorocich, along with a host of ex-All Whites including James Pritchett, David Mulligan, James Bannatyne, Andy Boyens, Mark Elrick, Ross Nicholson, Michael Ridenton, Noel Barkley, Noah Hickey and Sigmund himself.

Current Wellington Phoenix skipper Andrew Durante will also take part, as will former Phoenix favourite Paul Ifill and former New Zealand Knights player and national coach Neil Emblen.

Switching codes for the day is Black Caps all-rounder Nathan McCullum, while the media will also be well represented by James McOnie and Andrew Mulligan from The Crowd Goes Wild, TV3's Andrew Gourdie and The Rock's Bryce Casey."

"Switching codes for the day is Black Caps all-rounder Nathan McCullum..."

Not really switching codes as much as returning to his original sport of football - Nathan is a former national league striker/ winger and Otago rep of some ability.

He had pace to burn and was pretty skillful. Unlucky not to be selected for NZ rep sides in my opinion.

I saw a lot of him in the South Island leagues and national league in the 1990's and early 2000's before he switched to cricket.

Caversham's top goalscorer 1999 (19 goals) and played national league 2003 for Caversham.

Nathan only took up full time cricket as a way to make a living after about 2004.

He has stated he would rather have been a pro footballer.  

Hopefully Siggy gets a good turnout in Auckland tomorrow. A great bloke with a great attitude and looking forward to reading his book

CGW also doing a book giveaway.  Get in with your footie skills video.

I bought Siggys book yesterday and noticed the nice photoshopping of the Huawei sponsor on the front of the shirt. I suppose he had to support the current sponsors.

The Dominion Post Personality of the Year Award 2016

Give Siggy your vote by clicking on his picture.

Visit and vote as often as you can

I've voted for Siggy, but reckon Steven Adams will probably win this

Pleased I was wrong about this, congratulations Siggy, Wellington sports personality of 2016.

Maybe Blew.2 posting it here pushed him over the top, I wouldnt have known it was a thing wihtout it.

Go Siggy.

Ok, so I have my order in at the library.

I am number 17 in line, so I expect it will be tatty by the time I get it!!

My understanding is Huawei helped Siggy out a little bit in producing the book in return for the photoshopping on the cover.

Got this for fathers day. Great read so far

i was supposed to get this for farthers day but it still hasn't arrived

I am still waiting for anything for Fathers day. Just yet another normal disappointment. Still Siggy in the Zone would be a good laugh. Or is he consigned to the  Corporate boxes?

By the way I got my book today 

Ha ha ha, I just got around to reading the tatty library copy. :D

Honestly, the serves he directs at NZF are much more shocking (in the sense of "HOLY SHIT did those incompetent weasels really do that?") than the ones at Ricki, who seems to have been a living example of the Peter Principle at work. I wonder if he still rates what Anfony is trying to do with the All Whites; and what he thinks will happen to the Nix now that the whole old leadership team except Dura are gone.

You finish with two very interesting questions that would be brilliant if they were answered by Ben.

Does he still work at the club? Hard to get a straight answer until that relationship ends.

I caught up with Ben on Friday randomly. He is still working for the club, which I think is tremendous. He's also working for North Wellington and running his own sportwear business (Kit Man). 

Such a good bloke. Even when people have been complete c nts to him he struggles to say a bad word about them. 

I really, really wish that when I was "asked to leave" a Div 4 team because I was being too aggro with my own players, I had thought to use Siggy's line of "sorry, when I get on the field I go into a footballing trance and I honestly don't know what I'm saying, can't help it". And I never even used the words fudge or cod...

A Conference (div below Prems) club doesn't have any problems, jerk

You started it ...what kind of response did you expect?

well I'm glad you are confident that she gets what you were alluding to in your comment, because I wouldn't have a clue

Can you expand?

If I was looking for an interesting read, would this be worth a look?

Yes. I thought it was a great read. Deannas chapter in particular is probably the one that sticks in my head. 

if you had to pay for it - no

If you had to pick it up from the library - yes

Well worth reading for anyone who's gone through PND after a difficult birth. Take away: don't even JOKE about shaking your baby.

easily one of the most insightful biographies of a sportser full stop.

Nothing in it I didn't already know and I really struggled to finish it to be honest.

It's just page after page of people saying how much 'heart' Sigmund has. Whilst he's obviously a top bloke, I found it quite dull.

I'll probably be banned now.

Some interesting comments in Ben's book though on Ricki's last months at the Nix and how he seemed to have lost the plot.

Also with the later period of Ricki's All Whites coaching career.

Plus an honest insight into his long hard struggle to become a pro and an international.

If you're from Christchurch like me, then it has added interest (comments on people in the Christchurch football scene).

I saw Ben playing as a teenager and will always remember his sterling performance in defence at QE II Stadium, Christchurch in NZ's upset win over Australia u-17 in the 1997 Oceania final to make the 2017 FIFA u-17 World Cup Finals in Egypt. 

Plus his winning goal years later for the Nix against Adelaide at AMI Stadium during the quakes, December 2010 (two months before the stadium was destroyed).