Kia ora. 

Aotearoa have been knocked out of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup in a quarter-final loss to Fiji. That's right, Aotearoa lost to Tonga and Fiji and underneath my positive vibrations, there was a gut feeling that this is exactly what could happen. 

I don't really know how to digest all of this because I'm not all that upset, like I'm kinda happy overall because this signals the end (surely!) of the David Kidwell era and boy oh boy, that ending couldn't come soon enough. I'm also in a good space because I understand where kiwi rugby league is at and while other folk may tell you how terrible this result is for rugby league in Aotearoa, all the evidence points in the other direction.

I won't go into depth about kiwi rugby league's glorious position right now mainly because you can read all through the Niche Cache and find different angles about it, or look forward to all of that this summer. If you're reading this, you know about the #KiwiNRL takeover and no one covers kiwi rugby league like myself, so just trust ya boy when I say that everything is all good. 

There's no need to be overly upset when this all falls into the David Kidwell vacuum of absolutely weirdness. Players need to cop responsibility - for example we can approach judging Shaun Johnson as a normal halfback, just a stock-standard normal NRL halfback from this point on. Prior to this game I had no idea what Johnson was and now it's been confirmed that he's just a regular halfback, which is completely all good. 

Our expectations need to be as such and there's no hatin' on Johnson involved here. Those celebrating Johnson were kinda irrational and those hatin' on Johnson were irrational as well; Johnson just sits in the middle. Until he proves otherwise, it's wise to view Johnson as having limitations to his game. 

The players however get a pass because of the extent of Kidwell's shenanigans. This isn't a case of good coach being let down by his players, this was a coach he delivered moment after moment of straight up mayhem and so the players reflected that. Even the selectors should cop more blame than the players and as far as I'm concerned, Hugh McGahan, Tawera Nikau and Tony Iro should join Kidwell in having no future involvement with the Kiwis.

The selectors (Kidwell's a selector as well) were not only responsible for selecting a squad with obvious holes such as no specialist edge forward, or selecting Thomas Leuluai to play hooker despite him playing halfback in the Super League and then not even using Leuluai in the quarter-final, the selectors were also responsible for some rather strange antics in the build up to RLWC. These antics were so strange that I actually found myself writing about them specifically.

The selectors went to mainstream media outlets (who were pawns for NZRL) and made public comments about Benji Marshall, or how Simon Mannering was initially going to miss out on selection. Throw in the utter unprofessional handling of Jaread Waerea-Hargreaves, who was told he was in then out, then back in of the Kiwis squad and you've a group of men who clearly had no idea what they were doing.

Ah, but they thought they knew what they were doing and this air of arrogance made me mini-spew a few times. Arrogance and Aotearoa don't go together, us kiwis can spot an arrogant geezer, nah, we can smell an arrogant geezer even when that geezer is upwind from us. We've got arrogance senors that are fine-tuned to sussing out arrogant folk and all of this Kiwis stuff stunk of arrogance.

Sweet, you don't need to select Benji. Surely you'd consider the fact that having Benji in the squad might help the team and ahead of RLWC, Kidwell needed all the help he could get.
Yet Kidwell acted like he didn't need anything, he acted as though the Kiwis were Jah's gift to rugby league. To such an extent that the Kiwis started their RLWC camp a week later than the majority of the other teams, after the other teams had already played a warm-up game. 

What made Kidwell think that Aotearoa didn't need to play a warm-up game? 

What gave Aotearoa the right to do the opposite of the righteous Kangaroos?

We were told how the Kiwis got back in touch with their culture at a Turangewaewae marae, although this started after all those warm-up games were played. The Kiwis could have already been in camp and already made a bunch of community appearances, prior to that. Maybe fans would be more invested in Aotearoa's rugby league team if there was more time and effort into getting out into the community instead of rocking up a week after everyone else - after the Pacific Island teams had already been in camp in their respective Pacific Islands, feeling their nation's pride and connecting with their communities. They could have also, actually played a warm-up game.

We were also told of this team culture, or pride in the jersey that Kidwell was installing in his troops. The result of this was at the complete opposite end of the spectrum of a vibrant team culture and pride in representing Aotearoa. First and foremost, the Kiwis routinely lost games and played fairly crappy, that's not a sign of a vibrant team culture or pride in the jersey.

On top of that, the team culture and pride in representing Aotearoa under Kidwell was so strong, that Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor got caught up in their mischief. And then Jason Taumalolo felt a stronger connection to the Tongan jersey, as did Manu Ma'u. 

I don't care for the specifics or debating whether or not Bromwich and Proctor should have been cut. The fact is that they did what they did and this flows on to the Taumalolo decision as I'm not fussed about his decision; both instances are the exact opposite of a strong culture and pride in the jersey. 

Both instances reflect so negatively on Kidwell and his selectors that right now, I'm happy they happened because you can't argue with the evidence. If you talk up a team culture, we can all see if that's true or not in how the team performs and how the players conduct themselves in and around that team.

I was embarrassed, as the leader of the #KiwiNRL takeover, I was embarrassed by the last two games. Everything about these two games was anti #KiwiNRL takeover and for a moment I questioned myself, my beliefs and my understanding of kiwi rugby league.

Only for a moment.

Now I stand staunch as a kauri tree, proud and content because I know exactly where kiwi rugby league is currently at and I know where all rugby league is at. The Kidwell regime is in no way related to where kiwi rugby league is at. Such arrogance from the coach and selectors is not fitting of Aotearoa Kiwis, nor is a blatant lack of skill, tactical nous and pure coaching ability.

The old boys club that ran this Kiwis team under the Kidwell regime proved themselves to be so out of touch that it makes sense. It makes sense that an old boys club would be out of touch with what is required in 2017 and beyond, what is required in the age of the #KiwiNRL takeover.

I'm glad it's over and that it got terminated instead of being dragged on, which is what would have happened had the Kiwis made the final and lost to Australia. This regime got nipped in the bud (surely they'll all lose their jobs, please) before we got too far down the track. Now we know what kiwi rugby league needs, what kiwi rugby league deserves as we move forward into a new era of international rugby league.

Hold your heads high as rugby league fans and be glad that it's over. We deserve better and somehow this feels exactly how it was meant to happen - how else can you explain such shenanigans?

Hit an ad if you feel the vibe and enjoyed the yarn. You'll making a donation to the Niche Cache and helping us preach the good word of the #KiwiNRL takeover. Chur to you.

Peace and love 27.