Why the snub
April 27th, 2008, 6:10 pm Teen Hobbies
Invercargills Super 14 snubbing never sat that well with me when it was revealed in The Southland Times late last year.
The Highlanders organisation was never meant to be an us-and-them situation between Southland and Otago, which is partly why I havent been prompted to voice my concern previously.
But as the Super 14 season has worn on more questions have been raised about why Invercargill was left off the Super 14 schedule this year.
During the debate late last year about where the Highlanders would play their six home games in 2008, officials put Invercargill and Queenstown head to head.
During the decisionmaking process the Dunedin public sat back from a comfortable distance knowing it would host five games while Invercargill and Queenstown scrapped over the other.
Why was Dunedin not put under that same microscope? If the Highlanders were packing out Carisbrook regularly during the past five seasons there would be merit in holding all six games in Dunedin.
But the simple fact is the Dunedin public dont seem to care at the moment and dont deserve to be hosting five games to Invercargills zero.
Last Fridays empty Carisbrook for the Highlanders round-eight game against the Lions was nothing short of abysmal. The crowd would have struggled to reach 5000, and while Invercargill would probably only have pulled in 8000 at best it certainly wouldnt have been any worse than Dunedins poor numbers.
Theres a growing interest in the Highlanders in the deep south at the moment due to a bigger player representation.
That connection hasnt always existed so it needs to be maximised by Highlanders officials as they attempt to grow the franchise.
In the Highlanders 22 named to play against the Lions last Friday night Southland and Otago both had eight contracted players feature, while the other six were draft players.
Five games for Dunedin to Invercargills none %26mdash; does that resemble a similar balance? No.
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