Peter Williams: Auckland lagging way behind in sports world

Why is Auckland such a thoroughly unsuccessful sporting city? Do we even realise our teams are dreadful underachievers? Do we care?

Maybe Daniel Carter asked himself a few questions like that before deciding to stick with Canterbury.

But then why did Auckland Rugby, with the largest talent pool in the country, need to buy him anyway?

It's not just rugby. A snapshot of Auckland teams, across a range of high profile sports, provides results more in keeping with places like New Plymouth or Invercargill.

The rugby scenario is well documented. In last year's Air New Zealand Cup, Auckland finished 11th of 14 teams. North Harbour was 12th and Counties Manukau 13th. It's hardly surprising the Blues were just ninth in the Super 14.

The Northern Mystics are eighth of ten teams in the ANZ Netball Championship with a three win-seven loss record. This is no improvement on last year when they were seventh.

The Auckland Aces might have won the State Championship cricket competition for four-day matches last season but, in the most popular and lucrative one-day versions of the game, Auckland was decidedly lacking. The Aces were dead last in the State Shield and third in the Twenty20. The women cricketers were worse - last in the 50-over league and fourth in the 20-over competition.

The National Basketball League scenario is pretty embarrassing. The Auckland Stars finished the season seventh out of nine teams, winning only four games.

There are a few bright spots. Waitakere United topped the New Zealand Football Championship table and Auckland City won the grand final, and last year's provincial hockey championships were both won by North Harbour, with the Auckland men runners-up. Auckland has dominated a paltry domestic rugby league scene forever but does anything really matter in league here apart from the Warriors? And we know how they're doing this year.

Outside of team sports, the national scene is not exactly dominated by Aucklanders. Fourteen New Zealanders won medals at the Olympic Games last year. Only Tom Ashley and Valerie Vili come from north of the Bombay Hills. The country's best golfer is from Hamilton, our best surfer from Taranaki and our richest footballer is a Cantabrian.

So it goes on.

All this isn't surprising. Aucklanders just don't care about sport the way they do in other parts of the country. Reports from Dunedin in the lead up to the test last week provided snapshots of a city and a region involving itself with a big sporting occasion.

Ever remember window displays with a rugby theme on Broadway or Queen Street before a big match at Eden Park?

I've been in Auckland for around 20 per cent of my life but at various times in the past 35 years have lived in all four main centres. For people in Auckland, sport doesn't matter as much as it does in Christchurch or Hamilton or even Wellington. We're too busy making a buck and having a good time after hours.

Maybe it's because we're just not parochial. The region has been carved into parts. The large population means what was once just Auckland is now various south, west, central and North Shore entities.

Playing for Auckland just isn't the big deal that playing for Canterbury or Waikato is.

I remember doing a TV story on this theme 10 years ago. Nothing much has changed and I doubt much will in the next decade.

Of one thing I'm absolutely certain, though: the rest of the country has no sympathy whatsoever.