Waikato 2022

Hooroo

@WillieTheWaiter said in Waikato 2022:

I didn't make the parade cause I was a bit dusty from the 100 year black tie dinner on the Friday, don't think they were ever going to get massive numbers but seemed to be well received.

The game was a great spectacle, great to see some absolute legends running around. Some in much better shape than others.. The Saffa crew always going to struggle with the likes of Marty Holah, Adam Thompson and Liam lining up (not a bad loose forward trio!). Loads of subs.. Liam finished off in a Waikato jersey by getting carded towards the end. ha. Lads got on it at Speights Alehouse after with both teams having a great night.

The Friday dinner was decent, the videos over the years they put together and the speeches were pretty good.. Matt Cooper is a fantastic speaker and a rep at NZR
I don't want to focus on the negatives there were a couple of things that frustrated..

old mate 'diversity'.. yep we get it, there's womans rugby now that's going well and the black ferns won the WC a couple of weekends back. To have this mentioned 6433 times over the course of the evening got a bit grating, as did the terrible MC doing it with McOnie who every time she opened her mouth started with 'equal pay for womans rugby'.
4 interviews during the night. 50/50 split with men / women.. Black Ferns player obviously lengthy interview about WC, followed by fairly brief chat wiht Duanne Monkley.
Next interview with Honey Hireme.. fark all to do with anything Waikato and talked about her childhood, league and being so hammered at the WC final so didn't even know they won. Followed by Arther Stone which was great.

Just a shame that loads of Waikato legends in the room who love a yarn, and the audience who were there were 100% there for 'waikato rugby' didn't get to hear from them - which has been the case at the smaller annual waikato dinners over the years - was a shame that wasn't replicated.

Don't get me wrong I'm not wanting to sound like I'm anti Black Ferns or something, but it wasn't the purpose of the dinner and took up way too much bandwidth. Just seemed like a missed opportunity and a bad 'read of the room'.

Secondly, and this really grinds my gears.. this is a big occasion for the union, celebrating 100 years of its history and culture.. and you know how many players from the current squad took up the opportunity to come along (free)...
ZERO.
that is shit, and I struggle to think of another union in the country where this would be the case.

Anyway enough on the negatives. still a great night and a zillion beers catching up with people from my Hamilton days.

And for those of you that know me and are wondering if I'm still an idiot - I'd like to confirm it with this story.

In 2013 I just about gave my old lady a heart attack bowling in to her room at 3am in the morning getting back to the tron after we took the shield off the Naki wearing the Mooloo mascot head. I thought it was funny as fcuk, her not so much.
Obviously my biggest disappointment from that was not filming it - so thought this was a great opportunity to rectify since Mooloo was in the car..
This went exceptionally badly for the following reasons.. 1. I was hella pi$$ed. 2. My mum wasn't even asleep 3. My dog was there. 4. My kids were there.
So all that happened was the dog went apeshit, my mum went mental at me for being an idiot, I woke my kids up who started screaming at me for being an idiot.. then I got the farking head stuck on my head.
Still, I found it funny as fcuk and great end to a great night!