After the party
So, where were we?
It is back to the non-Olympic sporting life, sadly. Time to find something else to fill the sports pages, the evening viewing and the workplace debates.
So, in lieu of the pole vault or the pistol shooting, the sprinting or the swimming, what options are there?
Here are seven ideas:
• Highlanders First XV final: Head along to Littlebourne today to watch a magnificent team ... cause a huge upset.
• Premier League: Resumes this weekend. Suarez!
• World junior track cycling: On next week in Invercargill. See our future Olympians in action.
• Freeski and snowboard halfpipe world cup: Massive week coming up for the snow bunnies at Cardrona.
• Heartland Championship: Real rugby. Get up to Oamaru for North Otago v Buller on September 1. I hear a reunion of the great 1997-2002 era is happening.
• South Island secondary schools netball: New Zealand's biggest tournament is in Dunedin from September 3.
• NFL: The new season is just a few weeks away. Tim Tebow!
Fields of conflict
Is it just me or is Otago rugby turning into the Wild West?
Barely a week goes by now without a brawl, a disciplinary hearing, or allegations of referee abuse.
It may well be that this season has been no worse than normal, and I have absolutely no doubt the vast majority of rugby players, coaches and supporters in this region are good people.
But some of the things you read and hear about are sickening. Mass fights.
Supporters getting involved. An adult pushing a junior player's face into the mud. Teeth knocked out. Coaches verbally abusing referees. Parents spewing torrents of abuse in all directions.
Rugby is a tough, physical game. Like all sports, it can arouse intense passion.
But people MUST maintain a sense of perspective. It is a game. It is a GAME.
I'd like to see the Otago Rugby Football Union, even in a time of transition, take a firmer grasp on some of these issues.
It's not good enough to release vague details of disciplinary hearings. Name, shame and get on with the game.
Singing the Blues
One of Oamaru's oldest sporting institutions is getting an early start on its birthday celebrations.
The Excelsior Rugby and Associated Sports Club - "Blues" - celebrates its 125th anniversary at Queen's Birthday Weekend in 2013.
All the usual events - social night, photos, junior and senior rugby, dinner, jersey auction and BBQ - will be held. Guest speaker is running great Dick Tayler. Those interested can contact Herb Tonkin (03 427-2170) or Alan Milmine (03 437-0590), email casem@clear.net.nz or write to PO Box 184, Oamaru.
The Excelsior club is now home to rugby, squash, netball, cricket and petanque.
The SBW issue
Good to see common sense triumphed over knee-jerk emotion regarding the selection of Sonny Bill Williams.
He might be saying sayonara, but as long as SBW is available for the All Blacks, he must be picked.
Times have changed. Society, sport, people, expectations ... everything has changed. Yes, even the hallowed All Black jersey has changed.
Williams can't be compared with legends of the past. They operated within a completely different sporting structure.
There was no chance any of them could be criticised for taking a sabbatical to play rugby in Japan - such an option didn't exist.
The All Blacks might retain a rigid, draconian policy of refusing to pick New Zealanders playing overseas, but otherwise their selection motto is quite simple. You pick the best player available. And SBW is still our best second five.
So he's leaving. So what?
Brad Thorn and Mils Muliaina, to use two of many recent examples, had signalled they were heading overseas last year - to earn more money, by the way - yet were retained for the World Cup campaign.
The SBW-slaggers say we must think of the future, and not waste a cap on someone who won't be around next year. What rot. There are two major holes in that argument:
1. The All Blacks are expected to win every test they play. "Building for the future" has NEVER been used as an excuse for losing. Nor have tests against the Springboks and Wallabies been seen as ideal opportunities to blood rookies.
2. Who had heard of Beauden Barrett or Brodie Retallick a year ago?
This is New Zealand rugby, the deepest nursery the sport has ever seen. Should we really be gripped with the fear no-one will emerge in a year's time to fill the No 12 jersey?
Please.
Right on cue
Dunedin Metropolitan pair Garry Hale and Alan Gill have been sizzling on the snooker table again.
Hale and Gill recently won an unprecedented fifth successive South Island pairs title - their 10th in total - at the Waimea club in Nelson.
Playing in their 12th final, the men comfortably beat Papanui's top pairing of Brent Jones and Brian Dunn by three frames to one. Hale also recorded the tournament's highest break, with a quickfire 79 clearance in the semifinals.
Bravo, chaps.
Tweetle-dee
Twitter figures show sprinting great Usain Bolt was the most popular athlete during the London Olympics.
Bolt's win in the 200m generated a staggering 80,000 tweets per minute, DPA reports.
His 100m win prompted 74,000 tweets per minute.
Andy Murray's tennis victory was third on the list, with 57,000 tweets per minute, followed by Jamaica's 4x100m relay win (52,000) and the US basketball victory over Spain (41,000).
Sadly, all were dwarfed by the Spice Girls, whose appearance at the closing ceremony led to 116,000 tweets per minute. Well, if that's what people really, really want ...
Another mega draft
The Last Word is planning another fantasy draft exercise following our Super Rugby extravaganza a few weeks ago.
This one is four times as ambitious: we plan to hold a 20-team English Premier League football draft.
Twenty people will draft teams of 11 players, chosen from all of the world's major leagues.
We'll then feed the rosters into Fifa 12 or Fifa 13 on the old Xbox 360, and simulate a season or three.
Any takers?
Birthday of the week
A bloke with the utterly, spectacularly magnificent name of Fat Lever is 52 today.
Fat - christened Lafayette - played 12 seasons in the NBA, for the Trail Blazers, Nuggets and Mavericks. He is now working for the Sacramento Kings.
And in Oamaru, the scoreboard clock at Whitestone Contracting Stadium will turn even slower now Ross Meikle is another year older.
