Sports Wank #1

- What a great way for the Manawatu Turbos to finish their season: by completely destroying North Harbour, a team that doesn’t appear to be facing the threat of relegation into “Division One”, even though they ended up twelfth on the table.

If you picked up issue 26 of CHAFF, you might have read the article Scott Devonshire and I wrote which basically covered why the proposed revamp to the Air New Zealand Cup is total balls. We had the idea to contact each provincial union to find out who was for or against the revamp (which Sky Sport’s Reunion also ended up doing last week). We only heard back from Manawatu, Counties-Manukau, Auckland, Northland, Tasman, and North Harbour, and given we only had a page and half to work with, I decided not to include these comments. However, given the Turbos impressive result against North Habour, I though I’d share with you the comments we got from their CEO Brett Hollister (which I think is the same response he gave Reunion, word for word):

 “On the back of the very significant financial sustainability issues facing New Zealand Rugby, and the future expansion of the Super Rugby competition in 2011, North Harbour Rugby is supportive of a reduced 10 Team Air New Zealand Cup competition. We believe that the methodology agreed and committed too in writing, by all of the 14 P.U’s earlier this year to determine which teams remain in the Premier Competition, is also appropriate.  Had the criteria to determine who stayed up been based on the actual finishing position of the top 10 teams in this year’s competition, we would have encouraged further unsustainable spending on professional rugby, and created a financial train smash at the end of this year.”

 That’s funny considering that the papers are saying that seven teams are projecting a loss for 2010. As far as I know these seven teams haven’t all been named, but Canterbury/Crusaders rugby is set to lose $300,000. How about that for your financial train smash? Manawatu on the other hand are about $16,000 short of breaking even with four days to go until the deadline.

 You’ve got to remember that North Harbour is the same union that packed a sad when the NZ Rugby Union wanted automatic promotion/relegation for the top two teams in “Division One” and bottom two teams in the “Premier Division”. The NZRU changed it back to one team from each division, but now you’ve got to think that North Harbour still have a reason to be scared. If they were smart, they would oppose the revamp because even automatic promotion/relegation for one team from each division is bad from them. If the revamp goes ahead as planned, I would not be surprised to see North Harbour in “Division One” in 2011, but then they would probably convince the NZRU to change the rules so there is no automatic promotion/relegation (though as stated by Manawatu CEO John Knowles in CHAFF, the smaller unions believe that the teams that are dropped to “Division One” are really doomed to stay there anyway).

And with that, I hope North Harbour comes last in whatever competition they are in next year.

- I was in the Manawatu Rugby Supporters Club after the game (though Steve Tew and Jock Hobbs didn’t show like many of us would have hoped), and I was looking at the honours boards. It brought back some memories to look at who had won Manawatu Player of the Year over the years. They’re were guys like Chreston Davis, Karl Williams, Jason Holland, and the great Christian Cullen, and it got me thinking about who should win the award this year. At the start of the season you would have thought Aaron Cruden would have won it, but unfortunately he’s had injury troubles. Grant Polson, Brent Thompson, and Nick Crosswell would certainly be up there, but I would be inclined to give it to “Big Dog” David Te Moana. He’s had a great season scrumming, proven his mobility around the field, and been a top tackler. We’re really going to miss the Big Dog’s presence next year, but I wish him the all the best playing in France.

Do they still give out a Most Improved Player Award? If they do, I’d probably give it to Doug Tietjens, who really took his game up a notch this year, with Josh Bradnock being injured for a lot of the season. Isaac Thompson is a guy who would come close to winning that title, after taking more of a staring role this season. Aaron’s injury gave Isaac a lot of opportunities, but his superior kicking really helped us out on a number of occasions (except for when he missed that one at the end against Waikato).