Blues fail to replicate success
Since 2003 the Blues’ successes, as current Chief executive Andy Dalton ruefully agrees, have been below expectations. Many of the reasons are complex and varied and it has not been as if the franchise has lacked quality players or diligent management.
This is not an explanation advanced by Dalton or any other official, but it is possible the Blues have been victims of their own success, and even that of the great Auckland 1980-90s era. When the Super 12 started much of Auckland’s best talent, at the behest of the New Zealand Rugby Union, was relocated through the introduction of a draft system.
Still, there is no denying that the Blues’ record over the past decade has not reached the expectations that Aucklanders became so used to in the glorious 1980s and 90s. Andy Dalton, chief executive of the Auckland union and the Blues, agrees that charges of under-performing are “fair comment”.