blogging it real

In his just released autobiography the Warriors Steve Price has given an excellent insider's account of the behaviour of the former CEO and heavy Mick Watson:

Mick may have been ambitious but I didn't like the way he was talking about some of the players that were already at the club. I had seen him talk to Francis acting as if they were good mates and I couldn't help but wonder: 'If you're saying that to me about Francis, what are you saying to the other guys about me?'

I had heard a number of things about PJ Marsh and how he was sent packing from the club when he really didn't want to be. Mick would tell me that PJ was causing problems, but the players said otherwise. Then there was Vinnie Anderson. He had just returned from the Kiwi tour of Great Britain when all of a sudden he started being called out of training to meet with Mick. Two weeks later he was off to St Helens in England. Before he left he was quoted in the media saying, 'I'll never play for the Warriors while Mick Watson is in charge'. Mick would tell me that there were a number of issues with Vinnie — one being that he was told not to tour with the Kiwis in 2004 so he could get over an injury and have a full pre-season for the club — and that he didn't have the right attitude, but that didn't make sense to me. I had started to become good friends with Vinnie and he loved being at the Warriors, loved living in New Zealand and loved his team-mates. Here was Mick telling me otherwise and it didn't add up.

Eventually Mick stopped talking to me as well. Rumours started circling through the media about how I was homesick and wanted to return to the Bulldogs. People would call me to ask if the rumours were true and I had to tell them they were way off the mark.

It was exactly the same cycle that had taken place time and time again. I had heard similar stories about Ali Lauiti'iti and even Stacey Jones. Once the rumours began about me I knew I was next on the chopping block.

I just didn't like the way he went about his business. There was no trust in the place and I could understand why.

Even the front office staff were frightened of him. Mick is quite an intimidating guy when you look at the size of him and he can be quite aggressive.

Mick Watson successfully drained the club of some of its top talent and several forgetable seasons followed.

It was bloody tough for fans to accept - (admittedly less so for Yamis).

Interesting though how accurate a portrayal of the clubs woes was being written by outsiders, at the time.

Anyway, my tip for tonight: Kiwis.

Although the King just suggests flipping a coin.

From the same article, imagine if an Indian cricket sports great said the equivalent about Andrew Symonds.

Of another of the Kiwi danger men, giant winger Manu Vatuvei, once a regular target of opposition kickers because of handling frailties, Lewis said the New Zealand Warrior looked to have put those woes behind him and was exuding plenty of confidence.

Vatuvei was in rampaging form against England last weekend, notching a World Cup recording-equalling four tries in the match.

"Without being insulting, he's a gorilla when he's out there on the field," Lewis said.

We'll just take it as a compliment.

But the most satisfying piece of journalism I've read lately was a story regarding the freakish mystery of the numerous shoes, complete with detached and decomposing feet, that keep washing up in Canada and the northern US.

Seven feet in the last two years....and check out the quote.

The discovery of dismembered feet, all in buoyant sneakers, has been headline-grabbing world news for the last year....

Dr. John Butt, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in Alberta and Nova Scotia, said earlier this year that finding the feet in the same area is difficult to explain, although that's not the case with the condition of the feet.

Butt said a foot and leg will separate naturally, in water or in the ground, given enough time.

Gold.

I know the media is accused of focusing too much of its coverage on crime and death, and it undeniably does, but to be fair to them there have been some damned interesting crime stories out there lately.

Like Germany's Woman without a Face.

In April 2007, Michèle Kiesewetter, a 22-year-old policewoman from an elite drugs squad, was taking a lunch break with a colleague in their BMW patrol car in Heilbronn, nearly 100 miles from Bad Kreuznach. Two people climbed into the back seat and shot the officers from behind, killing the woman and seriously injuring her 25-year-old partner. The assailants struck so quickly their victims had not even drawn their weapons.

As dozens of green-uniformed officers, carrying a smiling portrait of their murdered colleague, paraded at her funeral, the case shocked and moved the country. It also sparked one of the largest criminal investigations in German history - with results that at first puzzled, then stunned, the investigators.

The only clue was microscopic traces of DNA, found on the centre console and the rear passenger seat of the BMW. And when the samples were finally fully secured, tested and compared with Germany's central crime database nearly three months later, there was an extraordinary match - from two quite different murder scenes stretching back a decade and a half. The 'Woman Without a Face' had, it seemed, struck again.

To the Canadian film producer who found his latest creation came to life - unfortunately his art wasn't no Pinocchio - but a film script about a stranger who gets lured to a garage and cut to pieces.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand our law breakers don't seem to understand the most fundamental basics of committing crime - trying to get away with it.

Stacey Bennett knew she was too drunk to be driving - so she called the police...

"She stopped outside the Northern Dairy (Stratford) and used a pay phone to call police to request assistance," Prosecuting Sergeant Lewis Sutton said.

Bennett told police she had been drinking and had decided she was too drunk to carry on.

"Police arrived at 4.46am to find the defendant asleep in the driver's seat with the headlights on and the keys in the ignition," Mr Sutton said.

Nor him.

Labels: crime, rugby league, warriors