The team is heading to Wellington, where it will play in the NPC beginning this afternoon, kicking off its first match at 3pm against Canterbury. It is coming off a strong performance in which it won 93-65 against the Christchurch Bulldogs, Canterbury’s top club team. While that has left Otago more confident than ever before, coach Warwick Kain said the game went to another level at the NPC.
"It’s a pretty major step," he said.
"Some of these guys are very good. Some of these guys have been playing for 15 years, whereas some of our guys are quite new, although we’re more experienced than we’ve ever been.
"It’s a lot faster, too, so your time with the ball is very minimal. We’ve got to manage ourselves, as well, when we’re playing three games in a weekend. You’ve got to use everyone in every game, we made the mistake last time of not doing that and then we had 16 players left for the last game."
While Canterbury had won four of the past five championships, Auckland looked to be the team to beat. It had an experienced team, with lots of depth and quality players who had played at a high level. Auckland had won the competition four times, while the only other winner was Wellington, who claimed its only title in 2009.
That left Otago the only team without a championship at this year’s competition, although it looks to be heading in the right direction as its players become more experienced. Its performance in its win over the Bulldogs drew plenty of praise from its opposition, boding well for the weekend.
"They were actually quite complimentary of how we switched the ball around," Kain said.
"We weren’t one-dimensional, there was always three options instead of just one, that’s so more difficult to shut down and it creates a lot of space.
"We’re a good running team, but the bigger field will challenge us. We don’t have a full-sized field in Dunedin. We’ll see how the running players last on a full field, we’ll have to be very good with our rotations on and off the bench. Regardless of their ability, you can only run for so long."
After its first game against Canterbury today, the team will play Auckland at 9.30am tomorrow, before finishing its campaign against Wellington at 1.30pm.
Ask the coach
What does it take to be good Australian Rules player? Jeff Cheshire asked Warwick Kain about some of the key fundamentals.
Aerobic fitness
Players run for at least 3km in a quarter, making for a total of at least 12km in games. Having the aerobic capacity to run those distances is important, as is the ability to lift to a higher intensity at different stages of the game. The New Zealand team had been doing a 3km time-trial run to get a gauge of players’ fitness.
Taking flight
A big part of Australian Rules is contesting the ball in the air to win possession. Therefore getting your hands higher than your opponent is a crucial aspect of the game. Being tall with long arms has its advantages, but the ability to jump high and get into the air is a key skill.
Unrewarded running
When you are running 12km in a game, there is going to be a lot of hard work that might go unnoticed. It is important for two or three players to get themselves into positions to give the ball carrier an option to kick or hand ball to them. While that can often mean a lot of work for little reward, it makes it far harder for the opposition to defend and creates more space for the potential receiver.
Avoiding the tackle
A key difference between rugby and Australian Rules comes in the tackle. For the tackler that means making the tackle between the shoulders and thigh, while not being allowed to push the ball carrier forward from behind. The tackled player must get rid of the ball straight away, meaning contact is something to be avoided. That is something rugby players often struggle with and the game relates more to basketball, football and hockey.
