the wine spy versus johnie walker blue

i am an avid reader of keo.co.za. it is a rugby blog that has some interactive fascilities and a weekly newsletter rewarding its intelligent readers and followers. every week keo offers a bottle of johnie walker blue label to the reader that sends him the best question. and this week it went down like this...please read the following...

chef says: ‘Hey KEO. My question/comment concerns the PROFESSIONAL ERA and the lack of Joe Public and the so-called administrators to wrap their minds around what that means. I think a lot of problems concerning the rules of the game; the format of Super rugby/tournaments; and allowing players that play in foreign countries to play for their national teams, are embedded in this. I think in 15-20 years time (hopefully) we’ll be getting it right. Compared to European football or the American sports…it is evident that professional sport is about money and entertainment. Even the scum of big cities like London and New York understand that. They don’t seem to have a problem if one player gets transferred for the odd million quid. Perhaps it is our blockheaded conservative background as a country/hemisphere (cos the buggers Down-Under plus their 8th state also known as New Zealand, are just as bad) that stands in the way of progress into the arena of professional rugby. It is “their” amateur mindsets that say that guys playing outside their own countries should not be selected for their national teams and the same mindset does not understand that professional sport is (or should be) a CONSUMER DRIVEN brand. I have been living in Europe (France and England) for a couple of years now and I want to use the Dan-mania at Perpignan as my example. In such a remote/backwards part of France, people went CRAZY because of one player. And I was stunned by the professional manner his arrival there was handled. I am told the sales of jerseys and ticket went through the roof. Why don’t we see this type of thing in Super rugby? I put it down to the AMATEUR mindset we still carry around.’

KEO says: ‘You win the Jonnie Walker Blue Label Chef, because you reinforce what I say, know and believe and because at least I know I am now not alone in thinking that way. We have two games of rugby union, one that wants to be professional and one that wants to be amateur but reap the benefits of commercial investment. You can’t have it both ways and rugby administration, 15 years into professionalism, is way off the pace. The old buggers that engrain this mindset need to die. We ain’t getting rid of them. Until then we can put together any kind of professional blueprint, that makes commercial and common sense and it won’t be embraced. The good news is you are a winner. The bad news is I don’t do charity gigs like posting you a bottle of the finest, so contact Kara@hsm.co.za and nominate a charity of your own (a good friend in South Africa), and he/she will get to savour the taste of your great insights.

just goes to show...the value of a utility player...
wine spy.
poet and performer.
rugby guru.
the list goes on....

...or in the words of my good friend johnie w....

...keep walking.