"What if" is always a fun game. The five reporters in the Otago Daily Times sport and racing department were each tasked with imagining what might have happened if something had gone down a completely different path. Here are the results.
What if... Richie had stayed in Otago?
-by Robert van Royen
1999, after boarding at Otago Boys' High School for four years, Richie McCaw slipped from Otago's grasp and did the unthinkable - moved to Canterbury.
He quickly went on to represent both Canterbury and the Crusaders, before making the All Blacks in 2001, winning everything from the Ranfurly Shield to the William Webb Ellis Cup.
While the two red-and-black sides he represents have won three Super rugby titles and eight national provincial titles since he joined them, Otago and the Highlanders have won zilch.
It begs the question: What if McCaw had stayed in Otago?With Otago flanker Josh Kronfeld retiring at the end of 2000, the timing is impeccable for McCaw to serve a mini-apprenticeship under the veteran before making the No 7 jersey his own in 2001.
Otago does not have to wait long for some silverware. Instead of being beaten 30-19 by Canterbury in the 2001 NPC final, Otago, with McCaw donning blue and gold, reverses the result and is crowned national champion.
The following year, at a time when All Blacks actually front for their provinces, McCaw, alongside the likes of Carl Hayman, Carl Hoeft and Taine Randell, helps Otago's pack steamroll the rest of the competition on the way to back-to-back titles.
The Highlanders do not immediately taste success with McCaw, and 2002 still ends in a semifinal loss to the Crusaders in Christchurch. However, McCaw's ticker, leadership, ball-pilfering and enthusiasm make the Highlanders an attractive option for other players.
With the help of McCaw, Otago poaches Daniel Carter, ensuring Otago and the Highlanders are armed with the best pivot in the world.
From 2003 to 2007, Otago claims another national provincial title, beating Auckland at Carisbrook in the 2005 decider.
As good as McCaw is, he is not bulletproof. Injuries, preservation and All Black management start limiting his game time at provincial level, and with the likes of Hoeft, Hayman and Anton Oliver retiring or moving on, Otago does not win another title.
The same can not be said for the Highlanders - who go on to win not one, but two Super rugby titles.
When the Highlanders added Tony Woodcock and Ma'a Nonu to an already talented roster last year, every man and his dog picked them to win the title. Instead, a dysfunctional team lost its first eight games and finished the season with a 3-13 record.
With McCaw and Carter leading the forwards and backs respectively, the dysfunctional team would have been replaced by a team ready to fulfil its potential.
Throw in Hosea Gear, Ben and Aaron Smith, Nasi Manu and Tamati Ellison, to name a few, and the Highlanders would have been too good.
After waiting 18 seasons to finally win a title, the majority of the side returns to successfully defend its title this year as rugby reaches fever pitch in Dunedin.
If McCaw had stuck around, the Highlanders would be going for a threepeat next season.
What if... Walter Hadlee had stayed in Dunedin?
-by Adrian Seconi
WE HAVE crunched the numbers and reckon a bunch of short-sighted accountants cost this province 484 wickets and 7555 runs.
That is how many wickets and runs the Hadlee brothers - Barry, Dayle and Richard - combined to produce for Canterbury during their first-class careers.
The family patriarch, Walter Hadlee, was a Cantabrian but he had a stint in Otago from December 1945 to March 1947 and fashioned a wonderful record for the province. He is perhaps most fondly remembered in these parts for his fighting 198 against the Australians at Carisbrook.
Walter may have extended his stay in Dunedin well beyond two summers. Instead, he returned to Christchurch, where a more cricket-friendly accountancy firm awaited. If he had found a more understanding work environment in the South, the Hadlees could have grown up playing cricket at Carisbrook.
Otago had a very useful team in the mid and late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The province won titles in 1974-75, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1985-86 and 1987-88, but Sir Richard Hadlee would have been a pretty handy addition, all the same. He was named New Zealand Cricket Almanack player of the year in 1979, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1987. He held the national team together throughout the 1980s and his haul of 431 test wickets was a world record at the time of his retirement.
Imagine Sir Richard opening the bowling with Neil Mallender and then spinner Stephen Boock coming in to clean up the remains. The word ''invincible'' comes to mind.
Dayle and Barry were not bad, either. Barry was a decent first-class batsman. He scored 4538 runs at an average of 31.51, including six hundreds. He also played two one-dayers for his country.
Dayle was named New Zealand Cricket Almanack player of the year in 1975 and was a fine bowler in his own right. He took 71 test wickets and 351 first-class wickets at a healthy average of 25.22.
All three brothers played in the same team against Otago more than once but the 1975-76 Shell Trophy final, which Canterbury won by nine wickets, sticks out.
Hadlee took four for 53 and one for 20.
Hadlee took five for 62 and none for 47.
Hadlee scored his maiden first-class hundred and was named man of the match.
Richard. Dayle. Barry.
Three reasons why you cannot trust accountants.
What if... They had stuck with Carisbrook?
-by Hayden Meikle
The stadium issue in Dunedin is not remotely contentious so this one is hardly worth ... oh, right.
It is fairly clear now, looking back, that a core group was determined to push through the covered stadium proposal regardless of the level of opposition and despite the niggling (well, overwhelming) sense that a city as small as Dunedin really shouldn't pour so much public money into a stadium.
I remember seeing an artist's impression (not the one pictured) of how a new Carisbrook might have looked, and it was great. But there was always the sense that this option was buried as quickly as possible.
That's all in the past now. The new stadium is here to stay, it's fantastic and it simply has to work somehow.
But what if the grand proposal had been defeated, and the less ambitious option (upgrading Carisbrook) had been pursued?First, the good news.
Dunedin doesn't disappear! It is still on the map! And it still wins Gigatown!The city is still chosen as a venue for Rugby World Cup games, and the new-old Carisbrook still gets regular All Black tests, and the Highlanders franchise stays put, and Phoenix, Warriors, Kiwis and All Whites games are still held in Dunedin.
The big plus of sticking with Carisbrook is obviously the financial side of it. An early quote for a redevelopment was about $30 million, which no doubt would have ballooned to $50 million, but that is still less of a burden to the ratepayer than $250 million.
Another real benefit is that keeping Carisbrook is good for South Dunedin, and it allows sports fans to keep soaking up the spirit and the soul of the place. Forsyth Barr Stadium is wonderful but it will need to be around decades to be able to claim to have any soul or real history.
But, let's face it, there are some downsides to remodelling the Brook.
It's still cold, for a start. Crowd numbers for rugby at the Glasshouse are hardly spectacular but they would be even lower without the roof.
Carisbrook was also to have retained a facility to host limited-overs cricket, which was a sound theory but would have denied rugby fans the intimate seating structure of the new place.
And, of course, the stadium would have lost its biggest selling point - the roof. None of those ageing pop stars would have come to town.
Local reporters and anti-stadium activists would also have lamented the ''safe'' option of sticking with Carisbrook. The new stadium has kept them occupied for years.
What if... Ryan Giggs had been a New Zealander
-by Steve Hepburn
Ryan Giggs won it all for Manchester United.
But what if he had been born in Cheviot and not Cardiff?His father was a league man so little Ryan would have been shipped into town after playing junior rugby for Glenmark. There, he would have turned out for the the Addington Magpies.
But hang on. This is Canterbury we are talking about.
By the time he is 10, the scouts from the local high schools - Christchurch Boys', St Bede's, Christ's, St Andrew's - are knocking on the door.
Rugby is surely his destination. He's sucking up the supplements and throwing round some tin to put weight on that weedy frame.
But not even drugs which could knock out an elephant can make Giggsy any bigger, and by the time he is 17, he goes to the round-ball game.
He joins the federation training centre and trains about 20 times a week, every week of the year.
He quickly gets the 10,000 touches which make or break a footballer. Do not worry about skills, speed and temperament.
After careful advice from his family and mentor, Chris Turner, Giggs signs for Swedish third division side Sandvikens IF and plays over there for a couple of years.
A hat trick in some Swedish backwater has him picked in the All Whites. He plays well on the left wing, putting in endless crosses to super strikers like Rory Fallon and Jeremy Brockie.
The All Whites qualify for the World Cup and, with Ricki Herbert in charge, Giggs plays as a covering left back.
The All Whites, of course, draw all their games. Playing an 8-1-1 system, with no-one up front, the All Whites fail to qualify for the knockout rounds. Never mind, they are lauded back home and win the Halberg Award.
Giggs' impressive play has him sign for a so-called glamour club - Hull City. No New Zealander ever plays for a star team over there.
As with any New Zealander footballer who plays offshore, his appearances are sporadic for his country.
Injuries, flight times, grumpy managers, the sights of Hull . . . it all adds up to earning just 22 caps for the All Whites over a dozen years.
Linked with every top club in Britain, Giggs stays at Hull. He then comes back to New Zealand for one final season, one last hurrah, in the national summer league.
His appearance for Canterbury United when it plays Southern United doubles the crowd at Forsyth Barr Stadium. At least 300 people view Giggsy play his last match out in the middle.
What if... Dexter Dunn had remained in Australia?
-by Matt Smith
He's been breaking records like an anti-vinyl campaigner intent on ridding the world of 33s and 45s.
But what if Dexter Dunn decided a stint with Victorian trainer Andy Gath in 2006-07 was so enjoyable that he had to join myriad New Zealanders making Australia their home?Dunn went to Australia as a 16-year-old, as Australia regulations allowed junior drivers to start off at 16. His first win came with The Ultimate One at Geelong in 2006, and he got his New Zealand winning tally off to a start with Crusader Franco at Ashburton in November 2006.
After collecting seven wins by the end of the 2006-07 season, Dunn has gone berserk in the ''bike''. Prior to last night's meeting at Addington, Dunn (25) had amassed 1413 wins in New Zealand alone from 7694 drives - staggering numbers, all told.
So what would New Zealand harness racing have missed out on? A pin-up driver, for starters. Dunn's youthful image, in a sport which is often derided for being an ''old man's code'', has resulted in mainstream media coverage, including a story alongside talented young jockey James McDonald on Seven Sharp two or three years back.
Harness racing would have missed out on Dunn leading an injection of new drivers in the industry.
''Double D'' has been joined by Matthew Williamson, Tim Williams, Zac Butcher and Josh Dickie as the new breed of drivers who are respectful of their elder rivals, but prepared to dish it up to a driver who is getting away with a soft lead. Yes, several of those drivers are from harness racing families, but it's a brash generation of drivers ready to take on the world.
Harness racing would also have missed out on Cran Dalgety winning the 2012-13 premiership. Dalgety has been one hell of a mentor to Dunn over the past seven years but - by the same token - Dunn has paid back Dalgety's support in spades. In that premiership-winning season, 98 of Dalgety's 115 wins came through the incredibly steady hands of Dunn.
But the most important thing of all that could have been missed if Dexter had taking a liking to Australia is his example to other drivers that you can still win a race while being very kind to a horse.
Take last month's Miracle Mile, for example. In a race where the field produced the second-fastest mile in Australasian history, Dunn used the whip only six times in the home straight. It's almost as though the whip is a last resort for Dunn.
With Dunn nearing 1500 winners so early in his career, you would have to say the approach is working.
