Rugby season!
Oh. Right. After one of the greatest cricket summers in living memory, it almost seems obscene to have a game of rugby in our fair city tonight.
But don't blame the Highlanders. How were they to know the attention of the sports community would be utterly captured by a record-breaking kid from South Dunedin called Baz?Anyway, the Super 15 is back and it is that marvellous time of season when the Highlanders have not yet lost a game.
So, let's start the countdown off with 10 reasons for Highlanders fans to stroll to the Glasshouse with a spring in their step tonight.
. . . to be optimistic
1 It's not 2013.
2 Seriously. The single biggest thing going for this Highlanders season is that last year can be put to bed. What a nightmare. What a shocker. Dear lord, what an utterly appalling season. Begone!
3 Ben Smith. The king of Otago rugby. A gliding, glimmering, sizzling, scintillating champion. He will never let you down.
4 If you think about it, isn't Smith the greatest homegrown Otago rugby player of all time?
5 The Highlanders ain't Southern United. They won't be losing 10-0, or by the rugby equivalent, 100-0.
6 They're playing the Blues. And pound for pound, is there a bigger under-achiever in New Zealand sport? The Blues are over-hyped (thanks to the northern media) and overrated. They must not be feared.
7 It is going to be great to see a big OTAGO on the backs of the Highlanders jerseys, thanks to their new deal with the university. Right, swede-eaters?
8 The stadium. Of course, it was too expensive. Of course, it was never going to get used enough. But it's the best sports venue in the land, and the atmosphere with 18,000-20,000 fans in there is unparalleled.
9 Just think about Brendon McCullum. Scoring THREE HUNDRED.
10 Fine, I've run out. Just go and cheer and hope the Highlanders play with a mix of enterprise and grit, if nothing else.
The triple ton
Four years ago, the Otago Daily Times sports department produced a series called the 150 Greatest Moments in Otago Sport.
If we had to update it, where would Brendon McCullum's triple century rank?
Straight in at No 2 or No 3, I reckon. Above Alison Shanks (world cycling titles) and Hamish Bond (world rowing titles), but behind Danyon Loader's two Olympic swimming gold medals. Bond's Olympic gold, earned after the series, also comes into the mix.
A big call
I don't know Jack O'Leary.
I don't know his family.
I hear Jack is a smart, mature young man who is extremely focused on what he wants to achieve.
I know he is potentially a great rower.
I know he can make up his own mind about where he wants to go in the world.
I know the University of Otago is a fine institution.
I know most (all?) of New Zealand's elite rowers have managed to win Olympic gold medals and world titles by staying at home.
I know we have great rowing coaches in this country.
I know, all right. I know.
But Harvard, Jack. Yale. Cradles of learning beyond anything we can imagine this far down in the world. AND hotbeds of rowing.
Are you sure, young fellow? Are you a THOUSAND percent certain? A scholarship to an Ivy League university is life's golden ticket and it is a brave call to turn that down.
Some pooh-pooh the idea of young Otago athletes going to college in the United States. Indeed, Jack's coach was quoted as saying Jack would be in danger of going ''out of the loop'' if he went to America.
But here's a statistic for you: Harvard has produced 74 Olympic rowers who have won four gold, 13 silver and four bronze medals. Sounds like a decent loop to me.
A sad loss
My deepest sympathies to the family of former Otago netball coach Sheryll Roy, who died last Sunday aged 59.
I had a lot to do with Sheryll when I was the netball writer, and she was an absolute joy from a reporter's perspective. She was funny, friendly and slightly cheeky, and she was a heck of a coach.
Football farce
Not sure whether I felt more anger or disappointment after the aforementioned Southern United meltdown.
No doubt the young fellows on the field tried their best and perhaps, as their chairman suggested, the 10-0 result was just a blip.
For me, it highlighted again the essential absurdity of having a national league containing teams with such a staggering disparity of resources.
Auckland signed a new striker who had played in the Portuguese first division; Southern United had a bunch of Dunedin club players, and a 16-year-old goalkeeper.
In rugby terms, it was Green Island v the Crusaders. The result was really no surprise.
Dunedin connection
Look out for rising Brisbane Broncos star Kodi Nikorima in tomorrow's game against the Warriors at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Nikorima (19) is a talented halfback, formerly of Christchurch. He will have some support in the stands, as he has family in Dunedin too.
Wind the clock back
The Milwaukee Bucks are battling away in the NBA but are trying their hardest to bring in the crowds, Deadspin reports.
The Bucks recently held a ''retro night'', harking back all the way to (gasp) 2000. They invited people to enter a halftime contest - but only if they FAXED in an entry form.
Eat me
The Wall Street Journal published a transcript this week of a rather wonderful exchange between Russian ice hockey coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov and a reporter in Sochi.
Q: What future, if any, do you see for your own work and for your coaching staff? Because, you know, your predecessor was eaten alive after the Olympics.
A: Well then, eat me alive right now.
Q: No, I mean -
A: Eat me, and I won't be here any more.
Q: But we have the world championship coming up.
A: Well then, there will be a different coach because I won't exist any more, since you will have eaten me.
Q: But you're staying, aren't you?
A: Yes, I will remain living.
On par
Prepare for The Last Word to have a distinct theme next week.
I am in Arrowtown for the revived New Zealand Open and there should be plenty to write about.
Birthday of the week
Austrian Formula 1 great Niki Lauda is 65 today.
The three-time world champion had 25 wins in 171 starts, and represented five teams. I haven't seen it yet but they say Rush, the story of his rivalry with James Hunt, is a heck of a film.
