OPINION: Magpie fans must emulate Cup zeal

Anendra Singh
Whether you prefer the round-ball code or the game with the funny-shaped one, you have to take your hat off to the 2006 Fifa World Cup soccer finals in Germany.
It brings out myriad emotions as one eases onto the lounge suite every weekday at 3.35pm to watch the highlights on TV One.
If you have Sky then it takes a brave soul to get up at 4am, stoke the fireplace, grab a hot cuppa and persevere for more than one and a half hours only to find your team draws or, worse still, loses in the dying minutes.
It's not for me. The afternoon's choice pickings of two to three matches from every morning's fixtures are enough to whet my appetite.
With the children home from school half an hour before the programme, getting them to focus on homework can be challenging. It need not be. The World Cup can easily become part of a parental-lesson plan.
I've turned the time spent in front of the telly into a win-win situation. My 10-year-old footballer has to use her copy of the atlas to find as much as she can about the countries locking horns before she receives a green light from me to watch any highlights.
Serbia and Montenegro can't play the game right now to save themselves but where the heck are they on the globe? Ditto Togo, Ukraine and Costa Rica?
Even my geographic knowledge has been tested.
At a more universal level in the sporting arena, the visual smorgasbord in Germany is also a great litmus paper for emotions.
Right up to the final clash on July 10, the world's largest sporting stage will depict varying degrees of passion from the millions of loyal fans in Germany and even those from the non-participating countries.
Remember the Czech Republic boy sobbing uncontrollably like a baby in the pavilion as he watched Ghana destroy his countrymen, who used to be a force?
All Black fullback Leon MacDonald's support in Argentina for the Socceroos is perhaps a classic example of putting aside traditional rivalry in a show of allegiance to help develop another code in the South Pacific.
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without passion.
The kind displayed at the World Cup is the sort of fervour Hawke's Bay fans must harness if the Kelt Capital Magpies are to create any sort of impression in the restructured premier division of the Air New Zealand Cup, starting next month.
Tomorrow night the Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union (HBRFU) launch their campaign with the announcement of the 30-strong squad and the unveiling of the Magpies' new strip.
It was encouraging to see the boost in sponsorship that prompted HBRFU officials to move the function from Chapman Pavilion at McLean Park, Napier, to the Centennial Hall next door.
It would not have been possible to shift at such short notice for the biggest launch in HBRFU'S 122-year history had it not been for the generosity or understanding of another code - the Napier Badminton Club for rescheduling their club night - and the Napier City Council and Sport Hawke's Bay.
While the financial moguls have got behind the campaign with passion, the ball, as it were, is now in the hands of the thousands of fans in the region, who must match that energy by turning out in droves to rally behind the black-and-whites against traditional powerhouses, such as Canterbury in the opening clash at McLean Park on July 28.
To entertain victory against the big, powerful unions would probably be beyond most fans' imaginings.
It would be unreasonable to expect the Magpies to do so, despite their regular supremacy in the second division. But a word of encouragement after a defeat is often worth more than an hour's praise after a win and the Magpies will need such support if they are to establish themselves on the national stage.
The quality of the Magpies' new threads after tomorrow night's disclosure is bound to be the subject of plenty of debate among the fans but, ultimately, what matters most are the 30 players who will slip on the strip and the backing they get to spur them on this season, whatever the odds.