Former All Black Ma’a Nonu pictured in the new Sharks jersey.
When the Sharks launched their rebrand a week ago, to a mixed reaction from supporters, I was cast back to the early days of my sports-writing career.
It was the beginning of 1996, and I was brand new to The Mercury sports department. This was still the heyday of newspapers. The internet was just warming up, and mobile phones were crude, brick-like devices used only for making calls, so the good old newspaper was the primary means — rivalled only by the 8pm television news and radio broadcasts — through which the public received information.
It was also a means for the public to vent its spleen. That old expression, incidentally, dates back to medieval times, when medicine men believed anger was stored in the spleen. And to “vent” is to release air or gas, which is exactly what Natal rugby fans did when they learned their team had been rechristened the Natal Sharks.
No more Banana Boys after more than 100 years. Hello, Sharkie.
