Blue must be joking
Look, we get it. Professional sport is a tough business. Good results are considered essential, not a bonus. Coaches and athletes are treated as dispensable. It's win or go home.
But I am still shaking my head at the decision of the Warriors to sack, er, "part by mutual consent from" Bluey McClennan.
There seems no controversy, no whispers he "lost the dressing room". It is just that Bluey only won eight of his first 22 games, so is clearly hopeless.
Talk about knee-jerk reactions.
The bloke had less than a full season, and had a team riddled with injuries. Seven of the side's 14 losses were by six points or fewer.
There seems to be a feeling McClennan had failed because he took the Warriors from the grand final to 13th.
Sure, that's not exactly justification for giving the guy a bonus. But remember last year's team, in typical Ivan Cleary fashion, was middling around for ages before going on its winning streak. It is a stretch to say the Warriors were the second-best team in the NRL last year.
Also, this is an unbelievably tough competition. All NRL teams have losing streaks. Very few are able to dominate for long stretches.
To be honest, I wondered how Bluey would go with the Warriors. His brand of earthy optimism, which worked so well with the Kiwis here and there, does not exactly fit the methodical grind of the NRL.
But he's been harshly treated.
And I hope he finds another role somewhere.
Guards on point
Point guards are like halfbacks in rugby.
They're the generals, the ones with their hands on the ball the most, the blokes who slap their team-mates on the butt and tell them where to go and when to do it.
They're also, often, relatively small in comparison with their team-mates, and they compensate with big egos and bigger mouths.
For the best part of a decade, the Tall Blacks entrusted their point guard singlet to two men: Otago basketball great Mark Dickel, and his quieter-but-still-vocal rival, Paul Henare.
Now, their rivalry will be extended (sort of), following the news this week that Henare has signed to coach the Southland Sharks.
That's a bold move by the Sharks, who must still have some reasonable financial clout.
Henare will bring players with him and make the team better.
The Nuggets are on notice.
They need to get better, or the Sharks will circle.
Olympic celebrations
This may sound a little whiny, and I hasten to emphasise it should not be construed as a dig at the great Hamish Bond, but Dunedin folks might be feeling a little short-changed.
There have been lovely scenes this week of New Zealand Olympians reconnecting with their home towns.
Yachties Blair Tuke (Kerikeri) and Peter Burling (Tauranga) got street parades, both the New Zealand equestrian and cycling teams were in Cambridge, and Invercargill got out the ticker-tape for its Olympians, particularly rowing medallists Nathan Cohen and Storm Uru, on Thursday.
Christchurch got to hold the main welcome home yesterday, and it would be a mean-spirited type who begrudged the beleaguered city that honour.
Still, I can't help but be a little disappointed Dunedin is not involved.
Bond is an Olympic champion, a product of Otago Boys' High School and a man who still wears the colours of the North End club.
Much as the immortal Danyon Loader deserved his emotional welcome home in 1996, the rowing great warrants a special function.
Bond effectively lives in Cambridge now, and his parents are in Twizel. He told me this week he would be back in Dunedin on October 4.
Wedding bells?
This seems extremely unlikely in the age of modern media where very little happens to public figures without Twitter/Facebook/talkback, on top of the usual newspaper/TV/radio avenues, being all over it.
But The Last Word is intrigued at a whisper regarding one of Otago's favourite sons.
There is speculation this magnificent man - he's fairly prominent, but I won't say any more - got hitched recently.
Presumably, if it is true, few details have leaked out because he and the new Mrs (insert surname here) have tied up a nice deal with a glossy magazine.
If it's true, congratulations mate. And bravo on keeping it out of the news.
Our boys' high school
Best wishes to Otago Boys' High School for today's South Island First XV final against Christchurch Boys' High School.
Hopefully, this once-in-a-generation Otago Boys' team can win in Christchurch and then beat the winner of the Hurricanes region for a spot in the national final.
Now is the time to set aside school allegiances. All of the region, even the proud Waitakians, should be backing Otago Boys' to go all the way.
Rugby market shrinking
Interesting news out of England, where the Rugby Football Union has announced a new funding deal with the second-tier Championship.
As part of the deal, clubs will have to field 15 England-qualified players in a match-day squad of 22, rising to 16 the following season.
That will mean fewer opportunities for itinerant rugby players, and could spell bad news for New Zealanders eyeing up the lucrative European market.
NFL time
The countdown is on to the resumption of the National Football League, the biggest of the American sporting competitions and a growing attraction for New Zealand sports fans.
Like I did last year with the National Basketball Association, I plan to publish a pick-your-team guide in the next week or two.
Any passionate NFL fans out there? Flick me an email with some reasons your team is the one to support.
Go Rams. (He says with just a touch of embarrassment.)
A bad omen
Look, it wasn't the GREATEST start to the Premier League season for the biggest and best football club in the world.
Liverpool fell to pieces in its 3-0 loss to West Brom and faces a nasty stretch of games against Manchester City, Arsenal, Sunderland and Manchester United. The games against the three superpowers are at Anfield, but that has hardly been a fortress of late.
If the Fifa 12 video game can be used as a guide, and surely it can, I fear I may have contributed to the shocking start.
My Virtual Pro in the game, a strapping goalkeeper, has been playing for the Wellington Phoenix. But last week, the club sold H Meikle. For six million quid. To West Brom.
Birthday of the week
American baseballer Rollie Fingers (66) and Pakistani cricketer Shahid Mahboob (50) blow out the candles today.
I couldn't decide which name was cooler.
