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Rugby league's national club competition, the Bartercard Cup, starts this weekend. Wellington has just one team entered having had two previously and the competition signals a relaunch for the game here. Chris Mirams looks at whether the makeover will help the sport in Wellington.
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THERE'S an uneasy edge in Wellington rugby league. On Sunday, the region's premier team plays its first game in the national club competition, the Bartercard Cup, and some people don't know whether to laugh or cry.
It's hoped kick-off will signal a new start, a relaunch of the code after the national body issued a smarten-up-or-else edict to the then paralysed Wellington board just over 12 months ago.
Back then, Wellington had two Bartercard Cup teams. Now, after much politicking and with wounds still being licked, the Capital has been left with one team in the competition but a new board looking to move in a new direction.
Whether calm and consensus will be restored, and the game can move on with the various new structures being put in place, rests partly with the team's performance. On-field success will filter through all levels of the local game, on and off the field.
Therefore, a lot rests on the shoulders of coach Gerard Stokes, recruited from the highly successful Canterbury Bulls, who is aware of what is at stake but is trying to put it aside.
"I think we (the team) have a responsibility to all the rugby league players in Wellington," Stokes said. "That responsibility has to be upheld every time they run on to the field because they represent every player who has played for Wellington and everyone who will play. I think the mana of any team in this region is with this team."
Stokes has thrived on the challenge since taking the job in mid- November. From a playing perspective, the team is as ready as he can get it physically and his anticipation of Sunday's opening game...