Honouring war heroes, strict alcohol consumption rules and even staying in a motel with no WiFi have been credited for Ngāti Porou East Coast securing a home Lochore Cup final appearance. Ahead of Sunday's match, Neil Reid looks at the team's stunning turnaround just a year on from ending a
Men of mana: From 54-game losing streak to NPC finalists
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Legendary East Coast fan John Manuel was a regular sideline at Whakarua Park on his horse until he died in 2020. Photo / Neil Reid
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"It is going to be a cross between Eden Park and the wild, wild west," Morrison told the Herald.
"They have that saying [on the East Coast] that rugby is a religion and church is at 2.30pm on a Saturday. Well, this weekend, church will be at 1.05pm on Sunday [at Whakarua Park].
"[Traffic's] going to be backed up, you're gonna see a number of people on horseback as that's part and parcel of up there, you're gonna see all the mobile grandstands with people parked up on the back of their trucks and utes with lounge chairs and sofas.
"I was talking to a guy from Mid Canterbury on Monday and he had talked to his boys and he said to them, 'Where we are going next week, for a lot of you this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience'."
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Sunday's final caps off an incredible season and a half for the Ngāti Porou East Coast side; the world's only iwi-based team.
Their efforts last year would go on to see the team turned into small-screen heroes via the East Coast Rising show - the brainchild of award-winning TV producer and former East Coast rep Bailey Mackey – which broadcasted in mid-2022 to rave reviews and ratings.
The show not only cast a spotlight on the side's coaches, players and fans, but it also highlighted just how big a part, rugby played in the social fabric of the remote region.
Morrison – well-known as "Uncle Val" up and down the East Coast – said he couldn't be prouder of what the team – dubbed the "Sky Blues" - had achieved.
"I couldn't be a prouder uncle. It is hard to say, hard to put into words how I feel about them. I am just really rapt for the boys and the effort that they have put in.
"It is awesome for the team, but I think if you ask the team themselves they will say that it is firstly great for our iwi. That is who they play for."
Morrison was heavily involved off the field during some of East Coast rugby's halcyon days.
He came on board as manager in 2001 and oversaw the team as they defied the odds to reach that year's NPC Second Division final; a match they narrowly lost to Hawke's Bay.
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The previous two years the team won back-to-back Third Division finals, with Morrison being part of the team's legendary supporter group.
Then, in 2012, he was back as manager when the team dramatically won the Meads Cup final. Utility back Verdon Bartlett and halfback Sam Parkes remain from that squad.
In 2013 the team won just two games; the last victories they were to taste until 2021.
The dedication and strong work ethic of coach and former All Black Hosea Gear couldn't be understated in the province's dramatic turnaround.
Gear – a proud East Coaster – came on board for the 2020 season; a year which saw the Heartland Championship cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Mackey previously told the Herald that Gear was "at the ultra-end of being professional" and said he "put a lot of things on the line" to come home and coach the province where he and his family hail from.
Gear's goal had been to "put mana back in the jersey".
Morrison said one of the big team culture changes and standards that Gear had pushed through was tackling alcohol consumption.
That included a ban on drinking while in any team issue gear; including a ban on drinking at aftermatch functions.
"And they [the team] have embraced it," he said.
"They have made a lot of sacrifices, these boys, a lot more than our boys would have back in the day. If we would have said 'No beers', they would have said, 'Go get stuffed ... piss off'.
"It's not like back in the days where the coach would say, 'You guys go for a run' and the players would say 'Yep' [and maybe not do it].
"Now they have to send the coaching team videos of their run, what they're doing and what they've done."
Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Union chief executive Leroy Kururangi said the change hadn't been immediately embraced.
But it was now.
"For years when you are losing, it [losing] just becomes a habit," he said. "So the drinking was all part of it.
"It was about them understanding that to have a beer, you have to earn it. And we bought that in last year as one of our policies.
"They are not allowed to drink [in uniform] and also not in front of the coach. Whatever they do after that, you have to have trust that they will only go away for a couple [of beers] and I don't think it was as bad as it used to be.
"The boys took it onboard and we are playing better rugby for it and recovering better [from matches]."
Kururangi said the strict alcohol consumption rule had worked to not only make the team fitter, but also "tighter".
That tightness was magnified even further ahead of last weekend's semifinal win over Horowhenua Kapiti in Levin after management booked them in to stay in accommodation that didn't have wifi access.
"Personally I think that helped out a lot," Kururangi said. "What we observed was that our players had to talk to each other.
"The old Gutter Ball game came out a couple of times and there were mini-comps going on. And indoor cricket. There were games where they all had to interact with each other rather than sitting on the phone and messaging."
Gear hasn't just used stricter fitness and training standards to get the best out of his players.
He has also dug back into one of the East Coast region's most famous taonga – the Māori Battalion's C Company which was comprised of soldiers from the wider Tairawhiti region –to inspire his rugby warriors.
The C Company was a legendary fighting unit during World War II. One of its recruits included Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
"They took on when Hosea came on board the 28th Māori Battalion . . . and that was big," Kururangi said.
"That has been three years in the making we have pushed that. It has been a big thing, the boys having to respect those who went to war . . . we are using that to motivate us."
Like Gear, Kururangi is in his third year with the Ngāti Porou East Coast Rugby Union; the first two where he was the union's community rugby manager.
A former East Coast rep and captain, he said the opportunity to be a positive influence off the field was something he cherished – as was the fact his team had made Sunday's final.
"I never got the opportunity when I had a jersey on to play in a final," he said.
"But to be in the admin and in the final is very special."
Some history is likely to be repeated in and around Ruatoria on Sunday.
East Coast played their first NPC final, also at Whakarua Park, when they beat neighbours Poverty Bay 18-15 in the Third Division decider.
Those onboard the Poverty Bay team bus for the 90-minute drive from Gisborne to Ruatoria were greeted with Sky Blue and white balloons hung off fences for the duration of the journey north.
Houses, fences and even businesses had been quickly painted Sky Blue in the lead-up to the game.
And further messages of support were even written on the surface of SH35.
"Everyone's excited," Kururangi said.
"We are hoping to paint everywhere blue and white. We are planning to drop blue balloons in at every town up and down the Coast."
The passion of fans and players for the East Coast jersey is not the only thing the union is known for.
So too is their world-famous in New Zealand aftermatch feeds.
In East Coast rugby circles, the aftermatch functions are referred to as the 'third half'; sumptuous offerings including fish, crayfish, kina, roasted wild pork and hangi.
Former All Black Andy Jefferd last month lamented the amazing spreads when he talked about his time in the East Coast jersey after first making his rep rugby debut for Canterbury.
"One of the really memorable things was that Canterbury was the top province in 1977, winning the NPC championship, and for the aftermatch functions, we would have those little red sausages and tomato sauce. That was it," Jefferd laughed.
"I came back to play for the East Coast, the weakest union in the country, and the first aftermatch function, we had crayfish, paua fritters, chicken, pork and salad. The hospitality was amazing . . . I suddenly realised what a special place the East Coast is.
"I got home that night and my mother said, 'How was the game Andrew, did you win?' I said, 'No, we got beaten, mum, but you wouldn't believe the feed we had afterwards'."
As fans countdown for the kick-off of Sunday afternoon's final, plans are in place for the delivery of crayfish from a local fisherman's commercial quota.
"We have to try and put some crays out and knock the weekend out properly," Morrison laughed.
