KEY POINTS:
The latest spate of backbiting involving a New Zealand sports star - the Silver Ferns' Irene van Dyk - once more showed what petty little supporters we can be in this country.
All right, the Ferns did poorly against England, especially, and Australia and it is not surprising
that van Dyk came in for criticism - hers being the most obvious and visible role in the entire team.
But it was surprising how deep and how bitter that criticism was and how it reared up again when van Dyk did the not unreasonable thing and defended herself.
Expectations in this country are high. I don't mind that. Quite like it even. As Tana Umaga once said when dismissing questions about unreasonable expectations by All Black fans; "We like it. It helps us win."
But when are we going to show the maturity to resist the impulse to blame, bash and belittle stars who do not perform up to scratch?
When are we going to see what is before our eyes and not blinker ourselves by simply attacking the obvious?
Van Dyk performed poorly because she is having to change her style at a late stage of her career; because opponents have worked out how to cut off her feed from her team-mates. Yet her detractors somehow seem to focus on her as the architect of the Silver Ferns recent misfortunes and the increasing possibility that they will not successfully defend their world title this year.
Look, the Ferns are struggling in several departments. Captain Adine Wilson has escaped almost all criticism but has looked increasingly one-dimensional with her methods of getting the ball to van Dyk being read effectively. Temepara George, the irresistible force of the Ferns' midcourt and the core of their rhythm, has been less of an influence - those seemingly tireless legs now running out a little, perhaps, and she also has had problems feeding van Dyk.
Vilimaina Davu's formidable defence was exposed by the Australians before she decided to retire from internationsl to coach Fiji. But the Ferns are still missing her former authority and that brooding physical presence.
Van Dyk, as she said herself, is having to re-think her game - moving more and further and taking longer shots as defenders have "worked me out".
That is a big statement for any sportsperson. Most would never admit to it - certainly not publicly. But perhaps van Dyk made a bit of a mistake in saying she was "horrified" at the criticism.
All that earned her was more bitterness. We like our sports stars humble and accepting when we go into bitch mode, don't we? One commentator cruelly lampooned her protests, mimicking her accent and called her "an old dog" - with all that implies.
We have yet to see if van Dyk can learn new tricks. Maybe she can, maybe she can't.
What she is trying to do is difficult for any leading sportsperson. Revising the formula that has taken you to the top is a tough thing to do.
It's like, for instance, All Black first five-eighths Grant Fox, towards the end of his career, being told he had to morph himself into a running first five like Carlos Spencer. Or king of the baseliners, Bjorn Borg, being told he has to change to a tennis serve-and-volleyer.
To take a real-life example, it's like Mark Richardson painfully transforming himself from not very successful spin bowler to international opening batsman. Or Tana Umaga acknowledging he was running out of time as a winger and metamorphosing into the world's premier centre.
The common factor in such change is time. The Ferns don't have long and neither does van Dyk.
So maybe she won't be able to make the large changes to her game that are being sought - especially not at 34. Maybe she will have to use the 'exit' door that appears in front of all sports stars eventually.
But it's a gutsy call of hers to dismiss thoughts of retirement and to seek a way which she can improve - and to tell us all what she is doing.
So the world's most capped netballer and the player who has been at the forefront of New Zealand world and Commonwealth Games titles deserves a little better treatment.
Not backbiting, carping, mimickry and bitchiness. Grow up, New Zealand, grow up.
