We here at From The Sidelines love Dunedin and everything it has to offer - from the long expanse of beach on our southern coast to the indoor-outdoor flow around the bars in the Octagon, and houses which don't require a Lotto win to buy.
Which brings us to the question: why does no-one want the Highlanders job?
So far, Tony Brown has been joined in removing his hat from the head coach ring by Rob Penney (who reckoned he had no chance), Robbie Deans and John Plumtree.
It beggars belief.
Here is a team which appears to have a good structure and team culture, a fantastic stadium to play its home games, and - in case you forgot - just happens to be the defending Super Rugby champion.
Tony Brown's reluctance to take over the head coach role is understandable, considering his relative inexperience, but why are the rest dropping like flies?
Perhaps the franchise's strength is actually a weakness.
The organisation has made it clear the support staff - Brown, Jon Preston, Scott McLeod et al - are part of the package.
Some coaches like to start with a blank canvas, so maybe that is putting off a few potential candidates, to which the Highlanders would no doubt reply: "look at the results''.
You could argue it's a coaching wasteland in Dunedin at the moment.
Jamie Joseph is leaving, Mike Fridge has opted out of the Southern United coaching job, and Nathan King has resigned from his Volts role.
King's departure is arguably the most disappointing.
A local lad, who patiently worked his way up to the first-class level, appears to have been made the scapegoat for several regulars underperforming in the 2015-16 season.
The irony about cricket is the influence of the coach is less than what you find in basketball, netball, rugby or football.
It's a game for individuals played by teams - with a little help from 10 team mates in the field and one team mate during a batting partnership.
It's a job
Talking of coaches, has professional sport matured in this country so much that the old way to being a coach at the top level has disappeared?In times gone by there was a lengthy pathway.
You coached a school or colts team, then the senior club team, then maybe a lower level representative team.
After that if you were judged good enough, you would get the top representative side and then one day if you were good enough get the national job.
But those days are now behind us.
Professional players hang up their boots and move into coaching.
They might hang around in some assistant job somewhere for a while and then it opens up.
It seems like Ben Herring arrived back in Dunedin only a few weeks ago and he is already involved with the Highlanders and is the new Otago assistant coach.
No-one seems to come up from club rugby and then get the big job anymore.
But then again, who would give up a secure job to expose themselves to the cut-throat world of professional sport?
Fizzy drinks all round
Sport and alcohol have a close relationship - too close, some might say - but a responsible solution can always be found.
An Oamaru liquor store provides a hefty bar tab to the winner of the North Otago premier club cricket competition at the end of every summer.
This year, there was a little problem.
The winner of the Borton Cup, for the first time in nearly 50 years, was Waitaki Boys' High School.
We hear a couple of the older boys were dead keen on accepting the prize but a compromise was reached, and the lads enjoyed a slap-up meal at the North Star.
Say no to prescription drugs
Now that Drugfree Sport New Zealand has weeded out all the 50-year-old chronic asthmatics and 20-year-old football players with a cellulitis infection, we can all rest easy - New Zealand sport is clean.
In March, two Otago athletes received bans after testing positive for prohibited substances.
Football player Kelsey Kennard was banned from sport for six months after testing positive for probenecid.
She had been given the substance by a doctor while in hospital being treated for a cellulitis infection.
And then veteran cyclist Mark Spessot was banned for two years after testing positive for prednisone and terbutaline - two substances common in the treatment of asthma.
Sorry, but that is just a breathless absurdity and it highlights one of the problems with drug testing.
There is seemingly no room for discretion or common sense.
Booty
As team sports continue to struggle - looking at you Hancock Park lads - what has seem to have exploded is personal fitness.
Cross Fit, boot camps, fat camps, whatever you label it, it is all the rage.
As society breaks down - which Margaret Thatcher predicted all those years ago - it has becomes more about the individual.
The onus is on the individual to keep fit.
They reckon in Dunedin there are near on 40 gyms.
That number of gyms equates to plenty of people throwing tin and sweating on a treadmill rather than being at the local sports club.
Another thing
These boot camps are very popular and are springing up everywhere.
You see them all the time - at the St Clair kids playground at 6.30am one Tuesday.
Striding out while the kids are playing rugby on a council ground on a Saturday.
At Queens Gardens after work.
Isn't doing 10 burpees under the shadow of the cenotaph a tad disrespectful?
Do they have to pay fees to use the grounds?
Or do they just rock up and use them because they are there?
It appears to be the latter.
Dunedin City Council project and asset management team leader Hamish Black said commercial fitness operators had not booked to use the grounds.
The council is currently reviewing the fees and charges, this will include the appropriate mechanism to manage and charge commercial operators such as boot camps.
Only a game
Secondary school rugby kicks off through the grades this weekend.
Well, we think it is schools rugby.
The way some carry on it appears to be one level down from test games.
Is is really that serious that teams have to start training in the January school holidays?
Is it true opposition coaches go along and watch other school's trial games?
And one school lets only its First XV train on its number one field?
