Rugby: Chiefs' problems identity crisis and fans' apathy

John Mitchell is obviously someone who likes a challenge, but this next one will be far and away the biggest he ever gets.

As the new coach of the ill-begotten Chiefs, he has to face the unpleasant reality of a team who have consistently failed on the field.

It is a pity that Mitchell and John Boe couldn't have shared this job. It would have been a formidable combination of know-how and can-do.

Neither is accustomed to failure and both are exceptionally gifted coaches and motivators. And the Chiefs need all the talent they can get behind them.

For a variety of reasons, the Chiefs have never really achieved any lift-off as an integrated enterprise. Rugby Park in Hamilton is pathetically inadequate as a stadium for hosting high-voltage professional events.

There are better player, spectator and corporate facilities to be found in some third-division stadiums. That should be rectifiable if the proposed improvements proceed, and there have been promising signs that such a prospect is now not far distant.

But there is another constraint which is rather less utilitarian. Rugby Park is not particularly well suited as a regional franchise headquarters because of the fiercely partisan identification of almost all its patrons with only one part of the franchise, Waikato.

The difference in atmosphere between a home shield defence and a Chiefs match is palpable. Spectators aren't sure what the Chiefs' colours are supposed to be - nobody seems to be - and they have voted with their feet when it comes to supporting the regional team. There is hardly a cowbell to be heard in the house when the professionals play in Hamilton.

By contrast, they come out in real numbers and with real purpose when their local heroes of real substance, Waikato, are playing.

In other words, the Chiefs suffer from an identity crisis and have done from the very beginning. Waikato succeed and the Chiefs fail, leading some to suggest, only half seriously, that who needs anyone else when Waikato can do the job better than an uncomfortable amalgam of reluctant bedfellows.

This isn't a set-up such as Canterbury or Otago, where the dominant union's personality is synonymous with the professional franchise brand.

There has clearly been great difficulty in welding together the various parties involved in the franchise and this has hardly been helped by what has amounted to something of a revolving door in recent years, with unions coming and going as a gradual shakedown took place.

It isn't so much the fault of those who run the Chiefs' franchise: there are some very capable people involved. It is more the fact that the Chiefs have never been able to settle on a distinctive identity. The brand is fuzzy and it is the brand that pulls people through the turnstiles. But only if you win, of course, and here the Chiefs are at their most vulnerable, having had a dismal record in the Super 12.

This, then, is the environment that John Mitchell must grapple with. It is important that the Chiefs lift their game. With the Australians constantly chipping away at the credibility of five New Zealand franchises compared with only three in Australia, it is important that all five stay well clear of the bottom of the Sanzar barrel.

With the prospect of a better regional flavour, including some matches in Rotorua next season while Rugby Park is finally rehabilitated, the Chiefs may just be poised for lift-off. And let us hope it isn't just the bounce of a dead cat.