Tackling topics such as rugby and body image, Stuff’s latest podcast shines a much-needed light on Aotearoa’s complex relationship with masculinity, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black. I wasn’t sure what to think when two episodes of the new local podcast He’ll Be Right landed in my inbox. My daughter … Read more
Rugby commentator Keith Quinn’s call for rugby players to ‘harden up’ shows how much New Zealand’s macho culture has changed since the days he ruled the airwaves, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black. I have a confession to make. I am helplessly addicted to the tearjerking TV documentary series Lost … Read more
In June, Trevor McKewen, an Australian citizen living in New Zealand, travelled to Queensland to be with his dying brother. Now back home, and staying in an Auckland hotel, he writes this dispatch from his second spell of managed isolation in as many months. For the past month and a bit, I have lived in … Read more
Think people in hotel isolation here have it tough? As Trevor McKewen, an Australian citizen living in Auckland, writes, the Australians take it to a whole other level. It didn’t really feel like a choice when I boarded a plane to Australia from my home in Auckland. My brother is 56 and gravely ill. I … Read more
He thought he’d moved on, but the news the Holden brand was being killed off hit Trevor McKewen harder than he expected. Here he reminisces about a youthful infatuation that never quite burned out. A part of me died this week and I didn’t see it coming. Holden has shut up shop permanently. American parent … Read more
A unique deal saw Sky buy the rugby rights and sell some of itself to NZ Rugby. Trevor McKewen breaks down what it all means. The news came thick and fast over a remarkable five-day corporate slugfest, starting last Thursday. First, Spark Sport struck, gobbling up New Zealand Cricket’s domestic broadcasting rights for the next … Read more
Could Spark’s Rugby World Cup streaming failure force a pragmatic alliance with Sky? Trevor McKewen asks what this would mean for each of the corporate giants – and NZ Rugby. Spark Sport has just dumped incoming New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson with his first serious challenge. The streaming platforms “abject disaster” – as … Read more
Ahead of the All Blacks first game Trevor McKewen makes some fanciful, fraught and hopefully on-point predictions for the Rugby World Cup. Can you take one for the team? Could you cope with the All Blacks coming up short in achieving an unprecedented third straight World Cup if it was for the greater good of … Read more
The latest twist in the Warriors tale might be grim, but it comes as little surprise to sports journalist and former Warriors CEO Trevor McKewen. He traces the club’s long and sorry history I know that by now a lot of people don’t care what happens to the Warriors. I’d like to think this piece … Read more
A squad of New Zealand’s big sporting bodies just announced they were ‘taking a stand’, to ‘create a positive experience for all young people playing sport’. If they’re serious about achieving both a healthier national culture and a slew of world-class athletes, the model should be Norway, writes Trevor McKewen. “It’s time to change our … Read more
With the acquisition of global rugby streaming leader RugbyPass, Sky might have just secured its future, writes Trevor McKewen. For several months now, the war between Sky and Spark Sport for the peerless prize of All Blacks and New Zealand rugby rights from 2021 onwards has been escalating. Every week, one of the two corporate … Read more
Spark has issued a blunt invitation to Sky TV to get into the ring over the fight for Kiwi sports fans and their eyeballs. This week Sky’s CEO took that up. There were moments at Sky TV’s relaunch of its sports product which felt like those famous Apple annual conventions the late Steve Jobs used … Read more
After a truce as both sorted out new corporate bosses, the Sky v Spark sports war has suddenly hotted up again. Trevor McKewen had a ringside seat. Earlier this year, the live sports viewing landscape in New Zealand suddenly got very interesting. Then it took a twist. Then it went quiet. On Monday open warfare … Read more
Twenty-seven years ago, Trevor McKewen’s book about New Zealand rugby heroes celebrated a stoic, machismo national character. Recently his daughter asked him: would you want your grandsons to read that? I had always wanted to write a book. For a lot of my early working life, I was a sports journo. So I wrote a … Read more
Times have changed, writes veteran sports journalist Trevor McKewen, and so should rugby. Steve Tew was a man for the ages in rugby. But that age is over. Tew’s quarter century of rugby administration is marked by strong success by the All Blacks. When it came to the shop window, he was the perfect administrator … Read more
Fresh shadows are descending on Australian rugby – and it goes further than the Israel Folau saga, writes Trevor McKewen. Folau’s dismissal from his $A4m four-year playing contract was as predictable as the inevitable legal appeal that will follow – and probably swallow up his salary, savings and more. There have been missteps all over the … Read more
New Sky CEO Martin Stewart has had a huge first month in the job, burning down the house of his famed predecessor John Fellet, writes Trevor McKewen. Less than a month into his new job as the CEO of one of New Zealand’s most disliked brands (and that really is a feat when you’re in … Read more
Surfing is having its own #MeToo moment and the reckoning is long past due, surfer Trevor McKewen explains. In a galaxy a long, long time ago, I started surfing and there were no women. Actually, it wasn’t a galaxy. It was Main Beach on the Gold Coast in the mid-1970s as a recently transplanted Kiwi … Read more