SPORTRITE - Let's put a few things straight about Northland rugby

with Tim Eves
Apart from a few niggly circulation issues in the general area of the buttocks, and a slightly testy domestic environment, the overall prognosis for recovery from OOS - otherwise known as Olympic Over-exposure Syndrome - seems to be quite promising.
The saddle sores from a 13-day watching marathon excepted, the bit about the Beijing Olympics that really made an impact happened in a stadium as far removed from the Bird's Nest as Winston Peters is from reality.
As in: Okara Park, a place that has been mentioned in this piece of fire-starting equipment in the same sentence as "bomb shelter", "decrepit", "junk" and "garbage".
For 14,000 people last Friday night, somehow the choice between watching the kayaking finals, the marathon, the women's high jump and the last stages of the men's decathlon fell in favour of a ticket to the bomb shelter to watch the Northland rugby team lose. In the circumstances, you would think that would be hailed as a remarkable effort.
But no.
Instead there have been missives from other parts of the country almost admonishing the Northland rugby faithful for turning up at all. As in: Where the bloody hell were you before? And: Yeah righto, bet ya won't turn up again.
Mixed in with these carefully developed and minutely researched arguments are glib comments like "Northland's totally dysfunctional relationship with the NZRU" and even passing references to rumour and scuttlebutt about Northland rugby officials having the temerity to wear shorts, sell cheap tickets to games and a suggestion that it was the NZRU board, not chief executive Steve Tew, who decided Northland was a waste of space.
This whole debate is starting to get overcooked but, just in case someone other than my mother reads this, there are a few inconsistencies that need to be addressed here.
Where the bloody hell were Northland rugby supporters before? They were in the same place all the other provincial rugby supporters were last week at every other place except Whangarei during an Air NZ Cup match: in front of the idiot box.
The NZRU has ensured that has happened by kow-towing to the money men at various broadcasting offices and televising every game live for about 10 years. Will they turn up again? Well, for a start, a few more would if they couldn't watch it on the telly.
Dysfunctional relationship with the NZRU? Yup, but that is hardly restricted to the relationship between the Northland Rugby Union and the NZRU is it? Ask anyone, go on, anyone, with a remote affiliation to rugby about the NZRU. But stand back, because the replies are usually colourful, dripping with spite and laced with furious sadness.
And rumours? Hell, where to start? Ridiculous stories have surfaced. Sadly some of this laughable and childish behaviour has been traced directly to staff members at the NZRU.
As for the vitriol aimed at Mr Tew? Well, he needs to be given a break. One: Tew did not make the decision, nor did the NZRU board, because no decision has been made yet. Two: The move to axe Northland from the Air NZ Cup is a recommendation from NZRU middle management - the same ones who are now spreading childish rumours.
The real heart of the matter still sits with the Northland board though and, by association, chairman Wayne Peters.
The appointment of a chief executive who promised much but only delivered a wonky balance sheet, a disgruntled staff and a bewildered rugby public needs to be explained. So does the way Northland rugby ended up here, treading in treacle.