And because the once-mighty rugby province had an historically hopeless season last year, nobody will utter a peep.
Phil Mooney - now labelled a co-coach with Andy Hunter - helped unveil the Otago squad yesterday. It's big, at 30 players, and there are an incredible 14 new faces. That reflects (a) the high turnover in professional rugby and (b) the aforementioned fact that Otago was complete shit last year.
Replacing the Japan-bound Alando Soakai as captain is another flanker, tough and popular South African Eben Joubert.
Tough? Er, yes. Just look at this photo:
Joubert's is quite a story. As revealed in the Otago Daily Times recently, he went through a botched shoulder operation and subsequently became addicted to painkillers.
The Otago squad includes Adam Thomson and Ben Smith, but fingers crossed both will be on All Black duty during the ITM Cup.
A massive clear-out has seen no fewer than 19 of last year's players miss the cut (or run out of town). This won't necessarily mean Otago will beat all comers this season, but it at least signals something has been done in an attempt to stamp out the rot.
There are four first fives (youngster Hayden Parker, oldster Tony Brown, the under-rated Glenn Dickson and English rookie Tony Fenner), but only four players to cover fullback and wing. That seems a little strange.
New faces include former Hawkes Bay midfielder Sam Giddens, former Chiefs prop James McGougan, former All Black Ben Atiga and a couple of young signings from Wellywood, Buxton Popoali'i and Hanipale Galo.
I wouldn't expect miracles. Otago has too much rebuilding to do to expect much more than a handful of wins and perhaps fourth or fifth place in the second tier of the ruined NPC.
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