After 101 games, Jamie Joseph is stepping aside as Highlanders coach. Is this going to lead to ruin or will it be a seamless transition as Tony Brown takes over? Matt Smith thinks the Highlanders glass is half full, while Steve Hepburn thinks things are not that rosy.
Half empty
Cast your mind back to, say, 2008.
It was not just the economy that was in the toilet. The Highlanders were, well, if they were not in the toilet, they were coming through the door.
That did not change for a couple of years and as Roger Clark, the Highlanders chief executive, said shortly after taking over in 2010, the franchise was broken.
The first thing he did was get Jamie Joseph. Joseph signed both Colin Slade and Adam Thomson, and instantly gave the franchise credibility.
We all know, Slade turned out to be a dud with bones made of plastic, but Joseph managed to get the players down here.
What he changed the most was perception.
The Highlanders were no longer seen as easybeats. The side was seen by players as a legitimate contender and a place where careers could take off and catapult players into the All Blacks.
Journeymen underachievers like Hayden Triggs and Isaac Ross were no longer in the picture.
Players of higher quality came south.
Think of the talent which has come through this place in the past six years - Aaron Smith, Malakai Fekitoa, Richard Buckman, Josh Hohneck, Lima Sopoaga.
Now those players - well, most of them - are still going to be here after Joseph moves on. and if you have the players on the field then you should get the results.
But once again it comes down to perception.
What happens next year if the side starts off the season with a couple of close losses. You can just hear all the northern knockers already beating on about the loss of Joseph.
It will probably have nothing to do with the departure of Joseph, but these days perception and reality is almost one and the same.
A couple of losses will instantly have players' minds wandering. And a player who is not focused will not win many games.
Throw in a team in which many of the players may have passed their peak, a coach who is there for just one year, and the vagaries of a frankly mental competition, and it could be - and this is a big could - a season of regret for the men from the south.
But then again - they could go out and win the whole damn thing.
half full
As Bob Marley told us almost 40 years ago, every little thing is gonna be all right.
Sure, the Highlanders say farewell to Jamie Joseph after six seasons with the southern franchise, but - despite what some might think - a coach isn't the be-all and end-all of a professional rugby team.
What the Highlanders have is cattle, and good export-quality cattle at that. Cast your eyes across a backline featuring Ben Smith, Aaron Smith, Lima Sopoaga and Waisake Naholo. If you don't get a pleasurable shiver down your spine thinking about that quartet linking up, then, well, you're as cold-blooded as a Komodo dragon.
Which leads us to contracts. A lot of these guys are locked down for multiple years, and the presence of such stars in the backline in particular will certainly make new head coach Tony Brown's job easier as he looks to fill the last remaining spots in the roster for next season.
That's not to ignore the forwards, mind you. The sum of the Highlanders forward pack is greater than the parts and even when the front-liners have succumbed to injury, the replacements have bought into the attitude, leaving the side with solid set pieces on which to base its game plan.
Brown might not have wanted the job initially, but Kaitangata's favourite son is gritty and determined and will expect standards to be maintained from this season, when an atrocious travel itinerary finally caught up with the team in Johannesburg on Sunday.
While the flights took their toll, the Highlanders players were resolute in their attitude to travelling, suggesting it just meant the team got to spend more time together.
And that comes back to that horribly-modern word, "culture'', which the management has been able to foster among this squad and those before it.
The team-issued Swanndris worn by the "dirty dirties'' on the sideline are not just a questionable fashion statement - they're an indication that these players love the Otago and Southland region, the opportunities afforded to them outside playing and training, and the fact they're in it together.
Keep up that sense of belonging with just a hint of a chip on the shoulder, and we've got nothing to worry about. Take it away, Bob: "don't worry, about a thing . . .''
