SO there he was, The Offsider, warmed to the very cockles of his heart by another fantastic response towards the 10th NAKFA Cup soccer series from the wider Kaitaia community. The help and input from several key people over the past 10 years had ensured the event had become a permanent fixture on the local sporting calendar. And during this time, the 7-a-side tourney had kept its original grassroots appeal by remaining affordable and placing the accent on fun rather than rules. The Offsider derived particular pleasure from watching the delight both on the faces of the children as they took on adults in the social division, and those newcomers playing the Beautiful Game for the first time. But perhaps most important, was the way the NAKFA has come to symbolise generosity towards others by using some of the proceeds from the registration fees to buy footballs to be put under the Age Christmas tree for under-privileged families.
The enduring popularity of the NAKFA was a reflection that football has been steadily capturing the growing imagination of the New Zealand public in the last two years since the world cup. That includes the wave of fun created by the Phoenix fanbase - shirts off, boys and girls! - who are by far the most entertaining supporters in New Zealand sport, while a turnout of 35,000 rabid Aussies for what was barely more than a club game last weekend well exceeded the 26,000 at a major league test between the Kangaroos and Kiwis in "nearby" Townsville. And how about those scenes of the hysterical Queensland supporters celebrating Del Pierro's tidy free-kick goal?
That football could well be on the way to becoming the new rugby in this neck of the woods was reinforced in the general apathy shown towards Northland's national provincial competition campaign this season by many died-in-the-wool rugby stalwarts which Kaitaia was supposedly full of. That was never going to stop the Age sportsbuster continuing to fulfil his obligation in promoting rugby and league by heading through a storm on the way to Whangarei last Saturday to catch the Taniwha playing what became their last game of the year. It ended up being a fine day but he had nearly turned tail and headed for home in the daunting conditions encountered while driving the sportsmobile over the Mangamukas mid-morning. The wind was howling like a banshee and throwing tree branches down upon the rain-soaked highway, which reminded him of an image he'd seen on a television newsreel the other night showing a car being bounced by a typhoon wind through a Japanese town like a tumbleweed.
Anyway, many locals he encountered defended their own lack of support for the provincial rugby team by saying they simply weren't interested in watching outside players, while the increasing number of Pacific Island names on the team card appeared to be a snub to locals under a perception that selection was merited through birthright. The Offsider suspected critics of Northland selection policy were being a tad disingenuous as a way to disguise a lack of willingness to support a losing team. Or they were simply refusing to accept the awful truth that they had become as much a part of the death of New Zealand's provincial rugby culture as the sight of empty stadiums and the increasing number of financially stricken unions desperately holding their hand out to communities no longer willing or able to provide support. Did any of these critics actually stop to consider what professional sport was about? As in, one can count how many Englishmen actually play for any one of the top sides in the EPL on the fingers of one hand. The guy sitting beside The Offsider at Toll Stadium on Saturday was still a good bloke even when he jokingly mentioned the notable number of "coconuts" playing for both teams. Instead of confronting the man about this subtle but widespread form of racism practised by far too many in the Far North, The Offsider instead grinned weakly and acted like he hadn't noticed.
Besides, he was doubtful many Far North players were actually interested in playing for Northland because of the distance and loss of lifestyle that required, while from watching the Mangonui final, highly entertaining though it was, questioned how many could actually cut it. He remembered how the Bay of Islands beat Whangarei to retain the Harding Shield this year. The only player from the Bay side, which has traditionally beaten Mangonui's best whenever the two sub unions met in recent years (despite the general disinterest shown by the southerners towards such engagements), to make it from there to the provincial squad was hardly a local. Which was, admittedly, a bitter pill to swallow.