I've given up defending what we do, having learned it is impossible to please everyone and the best course of action is simply letting readers, players or coaches make their point and then moving on with life.
See, here's the thing with this job: It's not about being negative.
Nor is it about being positive.
It's about trying to call it as we see it.
No fear, no favour.
But I'll break the cardinal rule this one time and take a deliberately upbeat approach to assessing the Highlanders' chances in the Super 14.
Here goes.
I believe the Highlanders will be fun to watch this year.
I believe Jimmy Cowan has answered his critics (including me) and has matured into a fine, responsible leader.
I believe the Highlanders have assembled the best locking squadron in the competition.
I believe Adam Thomson will start to be included in discussions about Otago loose forward greats if he produces another season like the last two.
I believe Ben Smith, Israel Dagg, Fetu'u Vainikolo and James Paterson comprise the most exciting group of outside backs the Highlanders have had in 10 years.
I believe Josh Bekhuis and Jayden Hayward will have break-out seasons.
I believe Glenn Moore knows what he's doing.
I believe the Highlanders will catch a whiff of the semifinals this year.
And I believe tonight will finish 26-20.
To the good guys.
Return of the king
It was probably only a matter of time before Laurie Mains made some sort of return to Otago rugby.
The great coach and former All Black has signalled his intention to stand for the Otago Rugby Football Union board later this month.
Mains gave the same reason everybody offers when they run for public office or a major sports administration role - "I think I've got something to offer" - but this is obviously no ordinary candidate.
Mains is arguably the most polarising figure in the history of Otago rugby.
I know plenty of people who are fiercely loyal to the man, and it would be a surprise if he does not get enough votes to join a radically overhauled board.
But there are also plenty who remember the meltdown of 2003, when Mains was the coach of a Highlanders team that disintegrated following a player mutiny and a breakdown in relations between Mains and then-chief executive John Hornbrook, and who feel he can be a destructive influence.
It is indisputable that Mains knows rugby, is passionate about Otago and doesn't suffer fools.
What will be fascinating now is how he operates in a board situation, and what he can do to help a union that is in a near-permanent state of suffering.
Propping up the game
It is good to see a few prominent voices questioning the theory that various rugby unions will have to help Carl Hayman into a farm to encourage the great prop to come home.
Hayman is a quality man and I imagine he is coming back for the right reasons.
But the New Zealand Rugby Union, in particular, should be careful it doesn't send the wrong message by adding Carl's Farm to Dan's French Leave and Ali's American Jaunt to the list of questionable favours done for elite players.
This is the same NZRU that axed the women's national championship and the national B championship and virtually abandoned Maori rugby, remember.
Legends in their lifetimeYou don't need to be a golf fan to get a little excited about the inaugural City of Dunedin Legends Pro-Am on February 26-27.
Some of the greats of Australia and New Zealand golf, including the incomparable Sir Bob Charles and Rodger Davis, will tee off at Balmacewen alongside some very good local players and some weekend hackers.
It's for a good cause - profits go to the Otago Hospice - and the organisers are approaching the event like it is the Masters, making sure all bases are covered.
Alas, Smith and groans
Television commentators have a difficult job at times but I wish they wouldn't dig so many holes for themselves.
The latest culprit is former New Zealand cricketer Ian Smith, who staged an unexpected defence of the Castle St rioters in one of his stints behind the microphone at Monday's one-day international at the University Oval.
Smith mentioned the high number (100-plus) of people arrested at the sevens in Wellington, and then segued into this bizarre line with sarcasm dripping from his tongue: "Half a dozen students hold a street party and it's front-page news. Double standards."
Ian, some points: Try 600 students, not six.
Eighty arrests last year.
Eighty out of 600.
The sevens? A hundred arrests out of 35,000.
A street party? A STREET party? No, Ian.
A riot.
With booze-addled numbskulls abusing police, throwing beer bottles, performing a pathetic haka and generally disgracing this city's good name.
Mothers know bestNormally, when a reader calls the sports department and introduces themself as "the mother of (insert name here)", I get very nervous.
They're never calling to deliver praise.
But kudos to the mother of Nick Beard, the promising Otago cricket and former ODT club cricket correspondent.
She rang me on Wednesday to point out it was not her talented son who whacked 33 off 20 balls to help Otago beat Central on Tuesday, as claimed in a New Zealand Press Association story we ran.
It was actually Anthony Bullick, who had earlier taken four wickets.
And Nick Beard's mum felt sorry for the Bullicks, because she knew how she would feel if young Nick had been similarly overlooked.
Da dum da daah
Otago Daily Times sports reporter Adrian Seconi has had a lot on his mind recently.
There's been the return of the Otago Nuggets, of course, and the disappointing one-day form of the Volts, and the looming Steel season.
But mainly he's been thinking about a wedding.
Adrian marries Tracey Turner in Dunedin today, and his very generous sports editor has allowed him to take two weeks off at the height of the cricket season.
Congratulations, you two.
