Opinion: Getting a kick out of work

REALLY? Promoting the 2015 Rugby World Cup's new credit card sponsor this week, Dan Carter was involved in perhaps the most unnaturally posed rugby action photo ever. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

I WOULD like to take this opportunity to welcome Jason King on board with the Wanganui Chronicle as our new football corespondent, taking over the post vacated by Simon Butters.

Done with the usual "smooth transition", which in the journalism world means "thrown together at the last minute", Jason accepted our invitation last Friday to be our eyes and ears at Wembley Park for the winter season, while also keeping up with Wanganui City and the Wanganui AFC men's and women's teams as they travel the central and lower North Island in their various competitions.

Being a Marist man who still plays the game (with his teenaged son in the same team, no less), he will have a first-hand perspective on all the comings and goings at the park, which I feel is vital to give Wanganui football its due coverage alongside the other Saturday winter club sports.

Cloning is outside the current office budget, so for now I can only be in so many places at once.

If even half of Jason's love of the game can come across in his analysis and predictions, I think we'll be on to a winner.

And believe me, it is all about love of the game with Mr King, as evidenced by the most pleasant "contract negotiation" I've been involved with last week.

The Chronicle's football reporter draws a small fee for each story produced certainly not the mega salary a columnist such as Richard Littlejohn pulls down with his musings in The Sun, but hopefully enough to make the time that's sacrificed worth the while.

Jason's request was that all his fees be made as donations towards the "First Kicks" football programme, which he and Russell Eades set up in 2012 to give kids aged 4 to 6 their first taste of the sport. Quite selfless, and as I told him on the phone last week, "that's why you win local hero awards".

Jason and Russell picked up a Visique Local Hero gong last August after their efforts saw "First Kicks" grow from 60 to upwards of 250 youngsters registered to learn the fundamentals on Saturday mornings making the programme one of the largest gateways to any Wanganui sporting code for pre-school and first-year children.

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We all do interesting things to honour our commitments, as All Black first-five Daniel Carter discovered in London this week.

I could not help but guffaw when the above photograph landed in my email inbox, showing Mr Carter promoting MasterCard as the official payment system for next year's World Cup.

And what did the boffins in the boardroom decide they should have our Dan do? Use his radar boot on London's biggest set of goal posts.

Fair enough, but corporate shilling is all about the public face so have a gander at the absurd posed nature of the Golden Boy swinging his leg at full extension while looking over his shoulder to flash the pearly whites.

Have you ever seen anything so unnatural involving the oval-ball code? And I thought Aaron Cruden's attempt to turn a penalty goal into an offensive cross kick for the Chiefs a few weeks ago was ridiculous.

If you ever needed proof that the marketing groups hired to promote world rugby are filled with people who know nothing about rugby, I give you Exhibit A.

One can only imagine what the reaction from the boy from Southbridge was when the photographer told him, "Nice one. Now, for the next shot, we were wondering if you could try something a little different ..."

Happy Easter, everyone.