Christmas came early for Wellington Phoenix head coach Ernie Merrick. Photo/File
Nine days ago the Wellington Phoenix ran aground against Adelaide to the tune of 2-0 in their A-League clash.
For Ernie Merrick, the well-respected coach, that was it.
Game up.
Game over.
He said he had taken the team as far as he could and so basically that was that, and the hunt began for a new coach to get the side through the rest of the season.
Later that same day the New Zealand Black Caps (the cricket chaps) also ran aground against an Aussie foe.
They gave the Aussie lads too many runs and failed to get enough of their own.
Then on Monday, the day after we got nailed by the Aussies, Prime Minister John Key announced his resignation.
Crikey JK, it's only a game.
And hey, Guptill got a ton so all was not lost.
And the Phoenix always go through a slump at some stage of the season ... it's traditional.
But no, the leader of the land had seen enough.
There are only so many times one can watch that fidgety article by the name of Steve Smith raise his bat in century-making triumph or grinning and applauding the bowlers who put us behind the eight ball.
Yes it was a time for resignations, with the common factor being that both team leaders effectively said they had run their courses and it was time to hang up the coats of leadership.
When that huge announcement was made it stopped everything in its tracks for a time, and news travelled fast.
"But Ernie did so well with Melbourne," people gathered to whisper.
They were also mystified by Key's decision to quit his game.
The game of politics.
Given the nature of the job, and the time spent in the spotlight (which is pretty well all the time) I reckon the biggest motivating factor here was Christmas.
He's given himself an early Christmas present.
I daresay the eventual payout will be pretty good, and basically he only had to give a week's notice of his decision to quit the job.
But he was behind the resignation pace of Ernie though.
He told the players at the end of their dinner session after the defeat and basically, after a press conference staged upon arrival back in Wellington, he was packed, signed off and departed.
No apparent benefits lost by either chaps by the sound of it.
I sense a sort of odd omen has emerged here.
Or more a portent really.
For I think 'tis the time of the resign.
The European political landscape copped what I suspect may be the first of a few when Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzo pulled the pin and walked away in his smart suit and shoes.
It was all a bit odd in my eyes.
Because Ernie quit after his team lost too many games while Matteo quit after losing a referendum.
Just the one.
Crikey, if he lost three in a row I'd understand but that's politics, I guess.
Who's going to be next as Brexit continues to rattle cages and the human and financial cost of the effectively out-of-control refugee crisis across Europe continues to cast great shadows?
There are elections coming up in many European lands next year ... I wonder how many current team captains will still be here for them.
Then there's the lad now seated in a suite near his scheduled new home in Washington ... although word is he doesn't want to shift into that great White House.
Donald Trump.
That finest of targets for cartoonists as well as political analysts.
I get the feeling he will become saturated with whatever it is in the air that has begun creating this time of resign, and after tasting the role or presidency for a couple of months will then declare that no, he doesn't like it.
It'll be like stepping away from a TV show because he didn't like the script.
I don't think Trumpie would see anything amiss in it and will stand by what appears to be one of his staunch philosophies and beliefs.
"If I don't like what I'm hearing, or if I don't like what you're asking me to do then I'll quit ... I'll go do something else."
So the door will be open.
John, Ernie, Matteo ... I reckon there could be a job going by March next year.
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