Double the sense
Club rugby will return to a proper double round next year and it just makes good sense.
Last season, the clubs voted to drop from 18 round-robin games to 16 in order to ensure the best players were available for the playoffs.
So, instead of the 10 senior teams playing each other in home and away fixtures, two games were stripped from the schedule, which proved unpopular and created an unbalanced tournament. Harbour and University, for example, did not play each other in the first half of the competition.
The luck of the draw meant a team could potentially miss out on playing two weaker sides like Pirates or Zingari-Richmond and instead have to play Kaikorai or Dunedin.
Thankfully, a compromise was reached. Otago contracted players will be available for a week longer and the teams will play a midweek game in order to squeeze the competition into the available window. Everybody is happy except Dunedin and Paul Dwyer, apparently.
Shame.
Twin threats
Another big hearty congratulations to St Hilda’s Collegiate and its cricket team, which rolled through the national secondary schoolgirls’ finals unbeaten to claim the title earlier this month. It has given the province fresh hope about unveiling the next Suzie Bates or Katey Martin. Bates, in particular, has carried the Otago Sparks for more than a decade with her wonderful array of skills but it appears a new generation is emerging. The Heffernan twins, Kate and Georgia, proved instrumental during the campaign. Kate was the second-leading scorer with 155 runs at an average of 38.75 as well as the second-leading wicket-taker with eight wickets at an average of just six.
Georgia did not get as many opportunities with the bat but still scored 75 runs at 37.50 and finished as the sixth-leading wicket-taker with six wickets at 8.16. They are pretty good netballers as well.
Bad work if you can get it
Now, it has come to the attention of some senior honchos on the press benches that Basketball Otago pays some of its referees.
No doubt other sport organisations in and around Otago do so as well.
Now we all know the reasoning — refs give up their time, it is a hard job and you have to pay in this day and age.
But isn’t paying for referees in club sport in a place like Dunedin — where every dollar in sports administration is precious — just wrong?
Apparently, one of the issues around payment for basketball referees is few people would do it if they were not paid because of the abuse referees receive.
Well, there is a simple answer to that — stop the referee abuse.
It’s Dunedin basketball — not the NBA. If over-the-hill wannabes still want to abuse referees because it is "part of the game", then there will be no referees.
Has no-one in Dunedin club basketball realised if a team plays well enough then the referee gets taken out of the game and is irrelevant, no matter how bad or good they are?
Champion 12-year-olds
The Tahuna Normal Intermediate School cricket team struggled at the national tournament last month.
But one has to ask, why does this tournament exist? Does anyone care what intermediate is the best at cricket in the country apart from a few egotistical parents and coaches?
It is hardly going to develop players, as they have a lot more growing to do.
At this age — 12 and 13 — shouldn’t the emphasis be on participation rather than elite competitions for intermediates?
Surely, New Zealand Cricket should have a better use for the money than wasting it on this tournament. Make fees a bit cheaper so more people can play.
Too close to call
One has to ask the question. If they can play twenty20 cricket at Pukekura Park, which has boundaries about as long as the line of the queue at Scary Movie VI in its second week, then why can’t twenty20 be played under the roof at Forsyth Barr Stadium?
All right, it probably is a bridge too far.
In Otago’s innings the other day in New Plymouth, 72% of its runs were scored in boundaries. Central Districts was about the same. We know it is all about the batsmen in the game but this is getting ridiculous.
More of the same
Well done to Southern United for getting its first win the other week. Let’s hope it is not the last of the season.
And hats off to the members of the Mosgiel club who barracked long and loud with their big horns, cheers and jeers.
That helped create an atmosphere at the match that is rare in this day and age.
Summer break
It is inevitable that summer sports will be disrupted by Christmas and New Year, but surely breaks should be kept to a minimum. The majority of summer sports in Dunedin finished on December 17, or the week preceding it, and many are not set to go back until mid-January. That takes nearly a month out of the middle of the season and in Dunedin, where summer is not always that quick to arrive, every week must be seen as precious. Of course everyone deserves a holiday, but not restarting your competition until January 14, or 21, seems a bit excessive. Most people sign up for a sport because they want to play; should they not be given the opportunity to do so as regularly as possible?
Belated good news
Basketball Otago announced its first surplus in several years at its AGM earlier this month. That is great news for an organisation that was on the brink of existence two years ago. But it was news that came a little late. The AGM was for the year 2015, meaning the $85,263 surplus is 12 months out of date. Not only does that give an inaccurate perception of the current situation, it surely does not make it easy to manage its finances when it is dealing with year-old figures. One wonders why this was ever considered a good idea. BBO is addressing this issue and moving its AGM to midyear from next year.
What will 2017 bring?
● Glory for the Black Caps at the ICC Champions Trophy — or maybe not. Group A looks a little tough with Australia and the home team, England, shaping as the favourites to progress from New Zealand’s half of the draw.
● The All Blacks will sweep a knackered Lions team 3-0 in June and July but will have to wait for the following year to play England, which has emerged as a world power again thanks to the tutelage of Eddie Jones.
● Emirates Team New Zealand has to get through the Louis Vuitton Cup before it can start thinking about the 35th edition of the America’s Cup and how to wrestle the Auld Mug from Oracle Team USA. The racing is in Bermuda so let’s hope the Kiwis don’t go missing like they did in the latter stages last time.
● Joseph Parker will have to be content in the WBO belt because it is looking unlikely he will get a shot at the IBF, WBC or the vacant WBA title next year. He needs a more decisive victory against a higher-profile opponent to capture the attention of the bigger promoters around the world.
From the Sidelines is a selection of thoughts and opinions from members of the Otago Daily Times sports department. Please email any comments to: sport@odt.co.nz.
