FROM THE SIDELINES
Big games
The Highlanders head into crunch time with five games left in the season.
It had been a strange old season. Good start, followed by some close losses and now the side sits seventh with a few foreign teams left to play.
There have been a few murmurings about the camp and there always is when things are not going great. Really though, who would know?
Head coach Aaron Mauger is apparently too nice and runs an attack which goes sideways all the time. Mark Hammett can’t coach and has won nothing, while Glenn Delaney has spent too much time in England and what do they know over there?
People have short memories. In the train wreck of the 2013 Highlanders season, all and sundry were calling for the head of Jamie Joseph. Two years later, the side won the title and Joseph was close to a knighthood. He did not have to buy a beer for a year.
If the side does not make the playoffs, there may be a shuffling of roles or an assistant moving on but this is New Zealand rugby, not English football. Coaches have time and patience is given.
There is more chance of Scout BarbourEvans gaining the mayoral chains of Dunedin than Mauger being moved on.
Just want to play
There is a keen sporting family in Dunedin. Mum, dad and three kids.
Let’s call them the Brown family. Mr and Mrs Brown love to go and watch their kids play sport.
Oldest girl Jenny is a top football player and, as she is studying at Otago University, goes to play for the top Varsity side.
She turns up to practice and is all ready for the season.
So one month into the season and how many games has she played?
Zero. Mum and Dad miss out on seeing Jenny play as games are called off — postponed or deferred is the word used — because of players on holiday, the Hyde St keg party and Easter.
Middle child
Never mind, think Mr and Mrs Brown. They can watch their second child, Brad, play in the premier colts grade for Dunedin. Brad works at a pretty mundane job so lives for his footy on Saturday.
Colts rugby is held in high esteem in Dunedin rugby circles.
Well, the Browns can watch Brad for a few Saturdays but then for two weeks in a row around Easter, sorry no can do. It is student holidays and colts rugby is off. So Brad and a few others are left twiddling their thumbs on Saturdays.
Youngest boy
Ah well, youngest child Jeff is still at high school and will be getting into his rugby. Get along and give the youngest a cheer.
Well, you will some time but not too often.
School rugby does not start until early May, a full month after primary school rugby — based around clubs — has kicked off.
Then the first day of the season coincides with the opening weekend of duckshooting. And with duckshooting being a religion to many, most games are simply not played or played earlier in the week.
One grade, which has 12 teams in it, played three games last Saturday. Supposedly the opening day of the season and half the teams did not play. Strange.
It’s called commitment
Now we all know is this day and age with such busy lives, and busy people, competitions have to be changed and not always played on a Saturday.
But when does it go too far and the competition simply lacks credibility and the sport integrity? How can the top women’s football league in the South have a competition in which one side has played five games and another side has played one?
Or why did the marquee school rugby competition in the South kick off last Saturday and half the teams did not play?
It’s hard to fathom. Isn’t sport, for young people especially, generally about playing? By chopping and changing things so much to accommodate every request — no matter how bizarre — doesn’t the competition in the end cease to be a competition?
Representative teams
Interesting move put forward by rugby unions around the country to get rid of under14 representative teams and below.
Plenty of people were against it — apparently not playing in some sideshow representative tournament when aged 10 is going to be the pivotal moment for a budding All Black.
One can question their worth but it is good fun for many kids.
Like most tournaments involving youngsters, it is littered with pushy parents and biased selections which in the end make the teams worthless.
Do the existence of these representative teams put kids off playing? Maybe. Maybe not. But energy and money would probably be better spent on a wider circle of kids and get them playing the game.
And, by the way, other sports like basketball and football also need to come under the microscope with representative teams.
Hockey one, hockey two, three, four . . .
Good to see some progress being made in the construction of a third hockey turf in Dunedin. But is it a tad worrying that a local authority is called in to help lead things? Generally, if you want to get something done and quickly then local government is not the first port of call.
Let’s hope the turf gets a bit of momentum with this step — if it is approved — and the turf gets built. It has dragged on for some years. But these things often do — Forsyth Barr Stadium did not exactly spring up overnight.
Any parent standing down at the McMillan Centre on a freezing Friday night would not be slow to come forward with some cash one would imagine.
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Southern is often at the bottom of the heap when it comes to hockey. But the region made a good contribution during the biennial Transtasman Masters Hockey Challenge on the Gold Coast last week.
Otago pair Michele Lace and Lynne Dickie helped New Zealand claimed gold in the women’s 55year grade. Sadly, it was New Zealand’s only gold medal. Australia retained the overall title. But chef de mission and University of Otago associate professor Tania Cassidy said her 270strong team had a good time which is what sport is really about. She was joined on the trip by fellow Otago hockey players Vicki Rewcastle, Jeff Sarjeant and Warren Leonard.
Grizzlies come good
Who does not love a good underdog story?
Green Island was utterly hopeless five or six years ago in premier club rugby.
The ‘‘Battle of the Saddle’’ was a rout in 2014. Taieri smashed the Grizzlies by a then record 12712. Josh Casey scored 47 on his own.
That same year the Eels recorded a 960 win as well.
The calls for Green Island to join University B on the scrap heap grew louder.
Harbour pumped it 997 the following year, adding to the club’s agony.
But when Dean Moeahu took over as coach in 2016 there was an immediate improvement. Green Island won six games that season but drifted off the pace again in 2017.
It finished last and was forced to play a promotionrelegation match against West Taieri.
Last year Green Island took some impressive scalps but was not consistent enough for a spot in the top four.
That has all changed this year. It shares the lead with Harbour after seven rounds and it is hard to see it dropping out.
It is probably the best story in club rugby since Taieri fought its way back into the top grade and went on to win titles in 2010, 2011 and 2014.
Bring them back
Who out there is thinking about kicking in $1000 to help get the Nuggets back up and running? The franchise is seeking 3550 people to chip in a grand to jump start the resurrection. It is a lot of money for most of us but a lot cheaper than if the franchise was to fine the Otago Daily Times $1 for every time it mentioned that infamous losing streak. That could bring the Allied Press empire down.
The poor old Nuggets were described as beleaguered so often, it prompted one reader to ask if beleaguered was the major naming sponsor.
The carpet city
Football South is about to launch the new artificial turf at Logan Park and it is going to be a huge asset to the city.
Wet winters and canned trainings may be a thing of the past for many teams as they can train and play all year round on the artificial turf.
With the Edgar Centre still going strong coming into its 25th year, sport in Dunedin is well catered for when the elements express themselves in the middle of winter.
But there is a school of thought out there that all the flash facilities have done is make kids — and adults, for that matter — a bit soft. A tad shy to get out in the elements.
Sure, it was no fun getting out and playing netball on a frosty July morning but you just went and did it. Playing in a puggy, muddy field was no fun but that was the way it was.
Although standing on the sideline at the Edgar Centre in the middle of winter is hardly the equivalent of soaking up the sun rays on a Miami beach.
A From the Sidelines is a series of thoughts and opinions on sport from the Otago Daily
Times sports department. For any feedback please email: sport@odt.co.nz