Scotty Stevenson: Strong individuals make up collective identity of Blues

Blues George Moala scores a try against the Crusaders. Photo / Richard Robinson

You're probably asking yourself, as I am, what the hell is a copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead doing sitting on the kitchen bench inside the breezeblock bowels of the Blues HQ?

Is someone here actually reading this? Has the big city franchise found fresh inspiration in the labyrinthine prose of HRH of Objectivism? Put down the barbells, men! Let us engage in an axiomatic discourse on the attainment of reality via the conscious appreciation of Chase Cobb's It's Going Down for Real, which just so happens to be providing, at a volume of at least 120 decibels, the intellectual counterpoint to Rand's great physical/metaphysical puzzler in the gym, two doors down the hall.

Oh, false alarm. It turns out Rand's novel is the property of the resident architecture masters student-cum-barista. "It's almost required reading for architects," he tells me, as if to explain what it is that Auckland architects have been doing instead of, say, reading about aesthetics or 'How to Design an Apartment Building That is Not Offensive and Hideous'.

Then again, if existence is identity then the collective identity of the 2015 Blues is both buff and strong, especially in the case of George Moala who has, as usual, been proving to everyone in the team that he is possibly the strongest man in New Zealand.

"George is an animal!" says a teammate. George pays no attention. He is busy bench-pressing a small car.

What a collection of specimens there are here today! Moala, Halai, Li, Saili, Lam, Visinia - to see so much potential on-field excitement in one room is dangerous for one's expectation levels. But then again, is perception not reality? Is the logical conclusion not "if you give them the ball, they will score tries"? If you asked Jimmy Cowan, he would say it is so. He would also stand as the tattooed "selective recreation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments", which would be Rand's way of saying that man has had some serious ink done.

Good on Cowan for showcasing his individuality. Not that there is any shortage of individuality in this room. The Blues have always been a unique conglomeration of individual pursuit, and that individual pursuit has so often trumped collective achievement.

After all, "man has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history". Then again, if reason is our guiding principle, then it must stand to reason that Sir John Kirwan, the greatest of all the rugby romantics, has assembled for the task ahead a group that possesses the faculties of volition and validation, one with an understanding that in order to be imaginative and original, they must first have an awareness of what is possible, what they are capable of.

It would not be hard for the Blues of 2015 to believe they are capable of something special. It takes but 19 short steps to pass from Joeli to Jerome, Vidiri to Kaino - the first and the last player of the year in the Blues 19-season history. Their photos are there on the wall, down the corridor from the gymnasium and the lunchroom, on the way to the coaches' office. Photography as art; players as percepts; The Blues as they could, and should, be. And it's all in front of them now, isn't it? It is an upcoming season in which the promise and the perception and the expectation must all come together. It is a defining season for the franchise, and one for the players too. Which of them would like to be on that wall?

Or maybe the bigger question is can this collection of individual talents work together to return the Blues to the winner's circle? So many brilliant players line that wall, far too few titles are on the board.

What was it Toohey had written of Keating in The Fountainhead? "Greatness is an exaggeration, and like all exaggerations of dimension it connotes at once the necessary corollary of emptiness."

3 Blues to watch this season

George Moala
One of the side's best in 2013, Moala continues to astound onlookers with his physical prowess and this, coupled with his versatility as a mid-field and wing, offers the Blues a destructive week-in-week-out option. We're picking Moala to have an unforgettable 2015.

Jimmy Cowan
He may have been there, done that, but the nuggety veteran understands what he has at his disposal in the Blues backline. He may have a quick temper, as he proved in the ITM Cup for Tasman this year, but he also has a great understanding of how to unleash a backline. He'll be a great mentor for Bryn Hall.

Tevita Li
He may not have the size of some of the other wings in this competition but what he has is one of the best swerves in world rugby and express pace as well. A season of provincial rugby under his belt with an improved Harbour side will have given him some much needed confidence.