RUGBY - Sorry Northland, but where were you when the Taniwha called?

Bay of Plenty Times sports editor Kelly Exelby offers his view on Saving the Taniwha in the aftermath of the weekend's Northland vs Bay of Plenty game.
The New Zealand Rugby Union might have been the ones who swung the axe two weeks ago but can Northlanders, hand on heart, say they haven't spent years sharpening the blade?
The public campaign - Save The Taniwha: Stop The Drop - championed by the Northern Advocate, More FM and the Northland Rugby Union did a fairly decent job of drumming up groundswell to put bums on seats at the weekend.
"The NZRU need to know where we stand as a union," Northland chairman Wayne Peter quipped.
So, Wayne, why is it only when you get dumped do you start encouraging crowds to turn up?
If your rugby team means so much, where has all the support been for the past decade? By staying away, Northlanders have shown they really haven't given a toss about their team for years. Yet offer the threat of demotion and the lure of cheap entry - and suddenly the Taniwha's the hottest ticket in town.
Sorry Northland, but where were you when your team needed you? Where were the marketing initiatives and oomph from the Northland Rugby Union to get the people through the turnstiles before the gun was pressed against your head?
You've treated your provincial team with disdain and now you're reaping the reward.
Granted, Northland has bred some of New Zealand rugby's all-time greats, such as Johnny Smith, Peter Jones and Sid Going _ three giants among the province's 24 All Blacks. But when was the last home-grown All Black out of the far North?
And although my views on Tauranga's Baypark Stadium being far from perfect as a rugby ground are well documented, Okara Park - Northland rugby's supposed showpiece - has been left to deteriorate into a bleak, embarrassing edifice.
Like the horse that bolted, Okara Park's impending $16 million facelift is too little, too late to bolster Northland's cause. Rumours have been rife since Northland's chop of a totally dysfunctional relationship with the New Zealand Rugby Union.
Northland can rightly point out they fought for and earned the right to be in the top division, unlike Counties-Manukau, Manawatu, Tasman and Hawkes' Bay.
But any sorrow at Northland's demise, at least as far as Bay of Plenty fans are concerned, should be tempered by the fact that it could have easily been Bay of Plenty.