It’s tiiiiime! Mark ‘Watto’ Watson joins Martin Devlin on It’s Only Sport for episode 72 of the ATM (Apologise to Me!) podcast, where they discuss and debate a variety of sporting topics in New Zealand and around the world.
On this episode, Watto and Marty talk about player rest protocols with a focus on Kiwi rugby players and cricketers, NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson’s upcoming meetings with other rugby officials in the UK, smart mouthguards, and more.
Watch the full interview with Martin Devlin & Mark ‘Watto’ Watson at https://theplatform.kiwi/
Join Platform Plus for enhanced access and features: https://theplatform.kiwi/platform-plus
Download The Platform app for free:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-platform/id1596882626
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kiwi.theplatform.android
Call 0800 DEBATE or text us at 5050 (Standard SMS text charges will apply)
Listen to The Platform’s straight-talking, free-thinking hosts every weekday.
Sean Plunket: 7am – 10am
Michael Laws: 10am – 1pm
Martin Devlin: 1pm – 4pm
#ThePlatformNZ
It’s time it’s episode 72 the ATM podcast Mark Watson a man of international broadcasting experience much of and we so look forward to your coverage of the Paris Olympics which is going to be your fourth or fifth Mark topics on the table including the black
Caps and why do we putp the bed why are we such Fredy cats whenever we play Australia Super Rugby that opening round I’m going to play you one of the greatest Mark Robinson Mark Robinson quotes ever as he jetted off to another world meeting to discuss the correct
Space in which to create space to have this meeting Mark apologize to me and let’s get this one off our chest to start with s shall we because Loy Ferguson brought up a great Point by not playing the third T20 for the black caps against Australia a point that you and
Me bang on about most weeks and we still have to hit this drum and hit it loud because no one seems to be listening still Loy Ferguson bowled eight overs across three days then he gets rested for the third t 20 even though he’s not playing the test matches in the domestic
Season has finished to manage his workload I’ll give you a list of other names so that we can double up the discussion Sam Kane Brody ralic Bowden Barrett ADI savier Aaron Smith Richie maanga Shannon friselle all seven of these men started the World Cup final all of them are playing 80 minutes apart
From bod new injured at the moment in Japan quite happily playing rugby Mark yet our All Blacks here including some of them that didn’t actually play at all in France for the last few weeks have to have managed workloads for Super Rugby so those two things to me and now
Atypical mate sorry this is a long-winded question but bear with me that we are now just getting dumbed down as sports fans in this country and we get spoonfed this continual narrative so that we’re now meant to believe that it’s better that the players don’t actually play and that they arrested all
The time and the amount of fights I have on social media about this where people just continually pedal that line at me oh know they need their rest they need their rot why have all of a sudden so many people been sucker punched into believing that this is actually real
Again look it’s just PowerPoint presentation BS at sports scientists um who seem to somehow think that you know everybody falls into the same box I mean you know scientists once told us the Earth was flat mate and we pretty much later on proved that’s not the case um
Yeah look it it it just blows me away just this we wonder why crowds don’t tune up anymore well no one’s tuning up because no one is actually playing you know me m i mean I I I come from an i IR man Triathlon background I’ve been lucky
Enough to work with some of the best athletes in the world and mate you should see the workload these guys put themselves through and people argue are yeah but you don’t have the gladiatorial contact in those Sports well I’ll encourage anyone to try and go and run a
100 miles a week and see what impact that has on the body I mean Peter Snell did a one did a I think six to eight weeks continuous only once of 100 miles a week just how tough that is and I know guys that are doing that cycling
Swimming doing all of these things I just had my young daughter down at the surf life saving Nationals uh for under 13s down down at Mount over the weekend huge huge event these kids were racing 12 times a day sometimes absolute not even thinking about it backing it up
The next day and you know as a little kid you grow up you grow up Martin and you say to yourself oh please I don’t want it to be running I don’t want it to be canceled don’t substitute me off I want to play and all you want to do is
Play you’ve got a ball before school you’ve got a ball during the interval break the lunch break after school you’re having all these ad hoc games and then suddenly you get to a professional level and you’re told you don’t want to play or you make out you don’t want to
Play or you’re going to get tired you know you mentioned the cricket we need to beat Australia we can’t just go oh well look we’ll rest and rotate these Whole World Cups everything’s always about a you but we’re developing for the World Cup no just win games in the here
And the now I I’ll keep saying it Martin Show me show me where rest and rotation has helped the All Blacks we didn’t win the last World Cup we didn’t win this Rugby World Cup there is no science that backs it up at all well historically
We’ve gone on we’ve talked the likes of Duran Kona we’ve talked the likes of Kevin M alamu and how when they did play full seasons of rugby they were actually stars of those Rugby World Cups there is no data to back this up the only data that I’m seen Martin the crowd starting
To Fall Away people becoming apathetic and people just not caring anymore you know Billboards around ockland come and watch the blues and they got these Marquee players put up on these big Billboards and you’re going yeah but if I tune up are they actually going to be playing am I actually going to
It’s basically it’s basically fraudulent it’s like you are playing but Bono’s not going to be there but we’ve got a replacement for him so they are singing the same songs but it’s not going to be quite the same but still you to I mean it’s mate it’s frustrating isn’t it mate it’s
Frustrating because we continually seem you know and look I’m going to play you this and this this is the right time to play you this Mark Robinson quote have a listen ladies and gentlemen it’s just extraordinary a man who can sit there and stare down a camera and say
Absolutely nothing and convince himself that what he’s saying is actually worthwhile and is somehow going to contribute talk about how we can be more Nimble and agile in the space I think we we are really hoping we get um into the forum and we just create the best
Possible forum for decision- making so you know I don’t want to sit here and promise what the outcomes are going to be here but we need to make sure we have the right information you know right people in the room the right insights right level of you know the balance of
Um you know fan focus and what the fans want and and player safety for instance and then we come out of there with a really unified approach to move quickly to address some of the things we’re talking about well first thing the fans want firstly by the way mate I don’t think
You really need to sit in a room the fans just want first of your players playing every week they don’t want the game refereed in slow motion and replay um but I was just interesting when he does find the space will that mean the players get more space we as fans get
More space in the grand stand and eventually we do move into that right space well we see Neil Armstrong and space out Mark so that the whole point of this IRB meeting or World rugby meeting where they all fly business class they do their festar hotels they all clip the
Ticket they don’t pay for a single drink or they don’t pay for a single eat they don’t actually spend any of their own money and they’re going there to decide whether or not the right space is in space to have a meeting to talk about
The fact that this is going to be a great meeting I’ve never heard such gobbley go and this guy is is an absolute Master at it and here they are with all the problems World rugby has at moment and what they want to do is sit around hold hands and make sure that
Everyone agrees that this is the right way to hold hands it’s just extraordinary isn’t it and what’s even worse is when you see a guy like John kin who loves his rugby so much sits there nodding his head to this no what stage he looked Robinson in the eye and
Go dude what are you actually saying Mar just don’t get me started on the whole Sky thing I mean they are just a vehicle a PR firm you know here they are now have giving free rugby back to people because they’re trying to create some sort of advertising revenues and they
Wonder why mate you know I’ve said this every week here’s a company that invest half a billion dollars on a product that no one’s watching and they’re complicit in it by the fact that they don’t create any discussion don’t ask the hard questions don’t get us standing around
The water callers actually talking about it you know rugby was never more popular when we did have controversy when are they going to realize that when you know man’s defeats are on the front pages man’s victories are on the back that we want to hear about it we want to have
The discussion I mean seriously I mean I just hope when Mark Robertson’s there sitting there talking about the space that he does get to beat Buzz Aldren that does get to meet all of those that have walked on the moon before him mate cuz I tell you what mate These Guys
These guys are just the ultimate the ultimate politicians Mar that’s what they are they don’t actually run Sports organiz and tell us they can sit there to and while they’re out there and and tell us about how you know the social media numbers for the game are just through
The roof and we shouldn’t just look at the crowd numbers and that the women’s rugby is just going to save it and what a wonderful product that is and oh yeah I mean mate honestly apologize to me oh
3 Comments
Robinson has done nothing for the game it all started when he selected fozzie and things went downhill from there the sooner he pisses off the better like fozzie
Jesus christ why would you use bono as an example of anything decent.
His toxic fixation on Mark Robinson is getting boring now and continues to sound childish. His mate Foster spoke 10 times more shit but but he had his tongue firmly up his hole because he would give him regular interviews. Time to move on with the Robinson character assassination marty.