Gisborne man's journey from the heights of NZ rowing to a mental health vision
At 17, Gisborne rowing prodigy Julian Hoogland seemed headed for great things.
He and Lytton High schoolmate Cameron Pierce had won the double sculls at the national junior championships two years running, and Hoogland had won the single sculls in those years.
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics – still two
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Newsroom
13 hours ago
- Newsroom
A shot at medicine leads to a shot in the Black Sticks
Early in the new year, Nina Murphy made a snap decision that would change the course of her life – in more ways than one. The teenager had a sudden change of heart, ditching her plans to go to university in Brisbane, and choosing to cross the Tasman to Dunedin to pursue her dream to study medicine. Within six months, the promising hockey player – who'd been training in an Australian future squad with an eye to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics – shocked even herself by landing in the Black Sticks. Although the 19-year-old was born and raised on Australia's east coast, her allegiance has always been clear. With two Kiwi parents, Murphy was a self-declared New Zealander from the start, so pulling on the black dress to play the United States in North Carolina this week won't feel strange. 'As a little kid – and I was quite a cocky little kid – I'd always tell people 'I want to play for the Black Sticks',' she says. 'I think it may have been out of spite. I was the only daughter [of four] born in Australia, and maybe I wanted to show them I was actually the true New Zealander. If we went to an All Blacks-Wallabies game, I'd always go for the All Blacks. 'There's a photo of me at the 2022 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, when the Kookaburras were playing the Black Sticks men in the final – I was head-to-toe in black and white. Whenever I come to New Zealand, I always feel so at home. 'So you can see I'm super stoked to be playing for New Zealand – and I don't think it's going to be weird at all.' Murphy, an attacking midfielder, is the only debutant in the Black Sticks (ranked 10th in the world), who'll play five matches against the world No.14 Americans, at the start of their road to next year's World Cup. She caught the eye of Black Sticks coach Phil Burrows with her stand-out performance at the Junior Hockey League in Auckland in April, playing for the Alpiners, and named MVP of the U21 tournament. Nina Murphy playing for Queensland U18s. Photo: supplied She was sitting her exams in her health sciences first year course, when she got the call from Burrows. 'He said, 'You're coming to the USA',' she recalls. 'I was focusing on so many things at once, it was crazy. 'The main thing he wanted to stress to me is that I deserve to be there. He probably thought I'd be like, 'This is a bit sudden, do I deserve to be here? Is this a rushed decision?' But he definitely made me feel like he was picking me on my talent, after seeing me play in the Junior Hockey League.' And Burrows has made it clear Murphy won't be just warming the bench in Charlotte over the next 12 days. 'Nina brings explosive speed, sharp technical skill, and a fearless attacking mindset – she's set to make a serious impact in her debut,' he says. Those talents had already put her on the radar for future international honours in Australia. It's just the Black Sticks beat them to it. Murphy started playing hockey at six, at the Casuarina club on the north coast of New South Wales. She and some school mates at Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School were trying to figure out what sport to play. Where it all began: Nina Murphy's first season of hockey at the NSW Casuarina club. Photo: supplied 'One mum suggested we should get into netball, then another mum said, 'Nah, let's do hockey',' Murphy says. 'It was a bit of a hockey school, although the sport wasn't really that popular where we lived. In senior school, I was one of the only kids in my grade who played hockey. A lot of the girls in our school team didn't want to play sport, but they just had to choose one. 'I played other sports – a bit of rugby, football and touch. But hockey always seemed to work a little better for me.' After her family moved to the Gold Coast, Murphy played her way right through the Queensland age groups – as well as in indoor hockey. Last year she was selected by former Black Sticks coach Mark Hager for Australia's National Future Squad, looking ahead to the next generation of Hockeyroos for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. 'It was awesome to get that acknowledgement. It meant training with the Queensland Academy of Sport up in Brisbane, which was so good for my hockey,' Murphy says. 'But it was an hour-and-a-half drive to Brisbane four days a week, sometimes after school. 'So when I got to New Zealand, the hockey here just got me excited for it all over again. The change has been good. 'Everything else was so new to me – going to uni, living in a hall, in a different country. But the one thing that was constant was hockey, and I could rely on it and just enjoy it.' Murphy is proud of her Māori whakapapa – her iwi Te Aitanga ā Māhaki, her hapū Te Whānau a Taupara. In 2023 she played in the NZ Māori hockey tournament for Tairāwhiti Wāhine Hinehakirirangi. 'That tournament really helped me become more immersed [in Māoritanga]. I was worried I'd feel like an outsider, but it was such a great experience. I'll definitely play it again this year.' Nina Murphy can now spend more time with her Kiwi grandmother, Dot Finnigan. Photo: Chris Hancock It was during a visit to whānau, and her marae, Takipu, inland from Gisborne, last summer that she decided to move to New Zealand. She had planned to go to Brisbane to study physiotherapy or radiography, and play hockey, this year. 'I had it all sorted, with a place to live with a few of my school mates,' she says. 'But when I came over here, family were asking what my plan was, and I realised I wasn't that passionate about it. On the last day of an amazing holiday, my cousin's boyfriend was talking about his awesome experience studying medicine at Otago. I hadn't thought about that option, but suddenly – in a 20-second period – my whole life changed. 'It was like a huge door opened for me. I didn't get much sleep that night, I was applying for Health Sci and starting my application for halls in Dunedin.' It made sense for Murphy – whose parents, Reta and Paul ('childhood sweethearts'), both studied at Otago. 'They loved the Dunedin lifestyle, so that helped reassure me,' Murphy says. 'I've heard some crazy stories about how competitive health science at Otago is, people burn each other's notes, or set alarms in people's buildings so they wake up the night before an exam. I'm very grateful I've had no experiences like that.' She hopes to study medicine next year. She's playing club hockey for the Kings United club in Dunedin, and says the experience has been different. 'I can't put a word on why it's different, but it just is – and not in a bad way. The people are all really friendly here,' she says. 'When I went to play in the Junior Hockey League and I knew no one, I didn't feel like a stranger.' Murphy is likely to play for another New Zealand team this year, selected in the squad working towards the Junior World Cup in Chile in December. 'It's always been a goal of mine to play at the Junior World Cup, so hopefully I'll be lucky enough to go,' she says. Has she allowed herself to look ahead to next year's World Cup, or future Olympics? 'This is all just so new for me, I feel like I want to own my place first,' she says. 'I really want to play the best I can to make sure Phil knows he made the right choice, before I think about the Olympics. My goal was to make the Junior World Cup… so maybe my goals might need a little adjusting.' The Black Sticks are using this series – three practice matches and two tests starting on Thursday – to build up to the Oceania Cup against Australia in September, where the winners earn a direct route to next year's World Cup, split between Belgium and the Netherlands.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Rugby Premier League looks to revive Indian game through sevens league
Former New Zealand captain Scott Curry, who will feature in the Indian RPL, scores a try in the 2019 World Series event in Hamilton. Photo: Photosport Nearly 150 years after the demise of Calcutta Football Club resulted in the creation of rugby's oldest international trophy, a new sevens league was launched this month with the aim of reviving the gladiatorial sport in India. The Rugby Premier League (RPL) has recruited top internationals from the World Sevens circuit to play alongside locals in six franchises under broadcast-friendly rule variations. Organisers not only want to lead a revival of local rugby to the extent that India one day qualifies for the Olympics, but believe they can help revolutionise the future of the game worldwide. "Rugby in India is not so popular and not because it's not played, it's played in more than 250 districts in India and there's a lot of talent pool available, but because people have not seen it," Satyam Trivedi, chief executive of co-organisers GMR Sports, told Reuters. "It has not been commercialised, originally or globally. It is a very aspirational sport. In countries like the UK, Australia, New Zealand, it's a private schoolboy sport, which is not how it is seen in India. "I'm sure with the league getting commercials, going on broadcast, some of the finest athletes of the world coming and participating, the audiences will see it and the sport will catch up." The launch of the RPL comes at a time when sevens, which took off after its inclusion for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, is facing challenges. Financial pressures have led to cutbacks in some programmes, with Ireland ending its men's programme and Britain's men's and women's going part-time at the end of July. World Rugby plans to introduce a three-division regular season in 2026, increasing the number of events to make the sport more cost-effective and competitive. Unlike World Sevens tournaments, organised on national lines, each RPL squad features five top-level "marquee" players, five from India, and three more internationals dubbed "bridge" players. Scott Curry, who played 321 times for New Zealand's All Blacks Sevens team and represents the Bengaluru Bravehearts in the RPL, believes the franchise model could be a peek into the sport's global future. "The World Series has been changing a lot and there's a little bit of uncertainty there but to see something like this, a franchise league ... I think it could be the future of the game going forward for sure," Curry said. "Having franchises where players from all over the world can come and play together along with local Indian players is really exciting for our sport." Rugby India is another co-organiser of the RPL and its President Rahul Bose senses a major opportunity to get the eyes of 1.4 billion people on the game through the country's potential bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics. "After Indian hockey, we want to be the second team, and by that time (2036), it'll be 80 years that there's no other team that's gone to the Olympics from India," Bose said. "I'm not counting cricket, which is coming into the Olympics through a different route. But certainly when it comes to sports that have 100-plus nations playing it, like soccer and rugby, we've trained our eyes on that." Spaniard Manuel Moreno, who was named in the World Sevens series dream team last season and has been playing for the Hyderabad Heroes in the RPL, thinks India might not have to wait as long as 2036 given the Olympics has regional qualifiers. "It's a long way to try to compete with the best teams in the world ... the World Rugby Series, maybe is too far from now but maybe (India can qualify) for the Games as qualification is from the continent," Moreno said. "They (India) can do it in the next Olympic cycle. There are only two or three big teams in Asia. So I think they have a real possibility to be in the Los Angeles Games in 2028." Moreno might be being a little optimistic given India's men finished seventh in Asian qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics, while the women were sixth. Still, playing with the likes of Curry and Moreno can only help accelerate the development of local players and it might not be too long before Indian rugby is known for more than just the source of the trophy that England and Scotland play for every year. - Reuters
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Squash squeezed out, again
Queenstown Squash Club's Dave Gardiner, left, and Hamish Foster are urging council to include squash courts in its new Events Centre stadium. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER Squash New Zealand and Squash Otago are backing Queenstown Squash Club's plea for council to incorporate courts in its $46million plans to up-size the Events Centre. The club has two worn and ageing courts by the Recreation Ground — "two of the worst in New Zealand", stalwart member Dave Gardiner says — and inadequate changing rooms, and can't modernise them while the land's earmarked for stage two of the arterial bypass. After council in April green-lit a concept design tender process for a new stadium, sport and rec manager Simon Battrick told Mountain Scene squash is "not in our core scope", though is a possible add-on. In response, Squash Otago chair Benjamin Hutchison says the current facility's "no longer fit for purpose". "It cannot grow, cannot host events, and cannot serve its membership properly. "Without a new home, the sport's future in Queenstown is in jeopardy — and once lost, it will not come back. "If Queenstown does not act now, it will simply be left behind [by Cromwell, Wanaka and Alexandra's expanding facilities]. "Integrating squash into the Events Centre offers a high return with a small footprint. "There is a national case, too — Queenstown could be the next iconic host of the NZ Squash Open. "Imagine a glass court under lights, the Remarkables as a backdrop, and Queenstown on screens around the world." Reiterating Squash Otago, Squash NZ also references the sport's rapid growth worldwide — it debuts at the next Olympics — and highlights its health and mental wellbeing benefits for all, affordability and accessibility, and year-round opportunities, especially during Queenstown's winters. Gardiner comments: "It just seems like successive councillors have had squash in the long-term plan, and then it seems to always get dropped." He recalls when playing inter-club, "teams didn't even want to come here because the courts are just so cold and not up to scratch". Hamish Foster, who, like Gardiner, is on the club subcommittee pushing for better courts, says "the visibility of squash in its current location is pretty small compared to if it was at the Events Centre, and it would be centre stage for other users [of the stadium]". "You would grow the game massively by exposing it to so many people, including many who used to be squash players."
