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SenioGate
29th
September 2005. By the poached and fried
Kiwipie
Here’s the story so far
Kevin Senio joins the Bay after failing to break
the Auckland NPC squad. He forms a great partnership with Glen
Jackson culminating in winning the Ranfurly Shield in August 2004 –
he is then injured putting him out of a possible end of season tour
with the All Blacks.
Senio is deputy to Byron Kelleher in the 2005
Chiefs and sees little game time. He is called into the Junior All
Blacks tour of Australia when Jimmy Cowan is sent home and impresses
enough to be called up as Piri Weepu’s deputy in the All Blacks when
Kelleher is injured. After keeping the bench warm for nearly 3
Tri-Nations matches, he makes it onto the field for 2 minutes in the
final game and thus becomes the Bay’s first All Black for many a
year.
There are strong rumours that Senio will move to
Canterbury to avoid being Kelleher’s deputy at the Chiefs and enable
him to push for the All Black number 9 shirt in 2006. Two weeks ago,
after the Bay’s game in Wellington there is a story that Senio has
decided to stay with the Bay. Then this week, to nobody’s particular
surprise he signs for Canterbury.
So why did he go? Well one reason is that it
greatly improves his chances of starting for the All Blacks in the
2007 World Cup final instead of battling it out for the Bay against
Manawatu. But surely, you say, he could have stayed at the Bay and
still played for the Crusaders? Isn’t that what the Super 12/Super
14 concept is all about?
Imagine this scenario – should the Crusaders
sweep all before them again next season and Senio slot in behind a
dominating pack just like Marshall used to do, then there is a good
chance he will be in the All Blacks 22 for the whole international
season. Given the expansion into Super 14 and the bigger
Tri-Nations, Senio will not play any NPC at all – for the province
who snapped him up. So why have Canterbury gone out of their way to
sign a player who won’t play for them – knowing full well that Super
14 contracts can’t be used as a lure for players?
There is a glass ceiling above the likes of the
Bay, Harbour, Taranaki and Southland. Develop an outstanding team
and then see whether the franchise base chooses to leave out its own
players to include yours – if they don’t, the players move to a
franchise base or move overseas. To be fair, this isn’t really the
case with Senio who would have stayed with the Bay if the Chiefs
starting position was available for him. And also to be fair to our
friends over the Kaimais, the 2005 Chiefs squad was pretty fairly
selected after the Bay’s players were ignored in 2004. So let’s see
how many of the impressive Harbour outfit are rewarded with Blues
contracts this time around? And see what happens to those that miss
out. Would Otago still be doing well if it wasn’t a franchise base?
With their ever-dwindling crowds and low population, they might be
struggling in the lower reaches of Div 1 without the ability to sign
the likes of Newby and Evans – and having their own talent poached. |
