Sav's Sidelines: Stags fans' NPC victory
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at all things Southland sport, from the grassroots to the professional ranks.
With the rugby season largely coming to an end the weekly Sav’s Sidelines column, which previously focused on rugby, will now take in all sports and include a bit of opinion, whatever I think may be interesting, and take a trip down memory lane.
Stags fans’ NPC victory…
Southland Stags fans have had to watch the interesting and entertaining NPC playoffs play out without their team being involved.
Wellington and Bay of Plenty will contest the NPC final this weekend to find out where the NPC trophy will head to this year.
But it appears Southland rugby will at least finish the 2024 NPC season with one significant honour.
The 7343 fans who showed up for the annual Stag Day Southland-Otago showdown at Rugby Park in round one is the largest crowd for any 2024 NPC game - to date.
There’s one more game remaining to topple that which is the final in Wellington on Saturday, but Wellington is notorious for offering up little support for its NPC team.
I’ve written that as a challenge to Wellingtonians.
There has been some real positivity around the NPC this year. The fact there has been an 11% increase in crowd attendance across the competition from 2023 and 2024 justifies that positivity.
Time to get optimistic about Sharks, Steel, Stags?…
Stags coach Matt Saunders signed off on the latest episode of The Roar Podcast saying he has a feeling that a change in fortunes is instore for Southland’s three semi-pro sports franchises - the Steel, Sharks, and the Stags.
“I feel like we're about to hit a great era of Southland sport with the three franchises here,” he told The Roar Podcast with an optimistic outlook.
That’s the sort of positivity worth latching onto.
It got me thinking, firstly around why there might be a reason to be optimistic, and also - if we are going to be blunt - just what a poor few years it has been.
I’m probably not going to win many friends by crunching the numbers and rolling out the following stat, but sometimes you’ve got to stare down the truth.
Over the past three years the Steel, Sharks, and Stags have won a combined 26 games from 131 appearances - a 19% win rate.
The breakdown: Steel has won seven of 45 games, Sharks 14 wins from 56 games, and the Stags five wins from 30 outings.
The beauty is, despite the challenging few years, the fan support across the three teams have remained and justifies the resource poured into these teams.
Now for that optimistic outlook.
All three of Southland’s pro sporting franchises have already, or are currently, undergoing a changing of the guard in the coaching department.
This shouldn’t be viewed as a slight on the likes of Reinga Bloxham (Steel) and Guy Molloy (Sharks), but there is a feeling, or at least a hope, amongst many in Southland sporting fans, that a freshening up of environments could led to a positive change in results.
Bloxham - who won back-to-back titles as coach in 2017 and 2018 - has been replaced by Steel legend Wendy Frew.
Frew is a coaching novice when it comes to taking the reins of a pro team. But she is a winner; her playing career is testament to that. She found ways to win against the odds as a player and there’s a hope that will transfer into her coaching career.
The Steel have also recruited well for 2025.
Guy Molloy arrived in Southland with a jam-packed coaching CV, but for a host of reasons the Australian couldn’t make it work with the Sharks in terms of results on the court in 2023 and 2024.
The Sharks did finish this year positively under his watch, but the damage had already done finishing 10th in the 11-team competition.
Molloy was initially expected to return for the 2025 season but after further reflection the timing around his job with the Sydney Flames in the Australian women’s league, and the start of Sharks campaign, wasn’t going to work.
Again, full respect to Molloy, but maybe a forced change at the helm of the Sharks might actually turn out to be a welcomed one.
The Sharks are currently working through sorting their new coach. The player recruitment will also be key to any sort of turnaround in results.
On the Stags front there has also been changes to the coaching setup. Matt Saunders joined James Wilson as a co-coach this year and there was improvement with a three win-seven loss record.
But Saunders himself says the coaching group will be better for the 2024 experience when the 2025 season rolls around.
So, all of this factored in, is there every reason to believe 2025 might see some improved results for Southland’s semi pro sports teams?
Let’s say yes.
Blast from the Past…
Remember when big time heavyweight boxing arrived in Invercargill? Today we turn the clock back and recall when Joseph Parker fought Bowie Tupou at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill on August 1, 2015. The build up to the unique event in Invercargill was a lengthy one, although the fight itself didn’t last all that long as a young Parker continue his march towards the elite ranks of heavyweight boxing.
Wow, that's a really interesting stat on NPC crowds. One wldv'e thought with the non-big cities doing ok...both Bays, Counties and Naki.. they might've drawn a 10k crowd somewhere. Great work Invers peeps but a little worrying, shows how tough the environment is, more promotion, day KO's ? Dunno