Highlanders coach Glenn Moore has been a father farewelling his 28 sons this week.
The season has been over for seven days and Moore has spent most of that time in his office doing one-on-one evaluations with his players.
Now the players have dispersed and the team's base at Logan Park sits silent.
"The last of the players headed off today. It's quite a sad time, to see them go," Moore said yesterday.
"They've been a good bunch. You go through some hard times together and they really grow on you."
Moore said he and the rest of Highlanders management had already started their analysis of the season and evaluation of their own performance.
The main job this week has been collating feedback from the players and giving them some critical analysis of their efforts.
"Nothing too startling has come out, but there's been a few good ideas and I think, by and large, they were pretty constructive interviews.
"It's given us some good things to take forward," he said.
"Like any bunch, you always have times where you disagree on things. We're disappointed we didn't get better results but I think we're pretty happy."
There are eight draft players in the Highlanders and Moore is confident many of them will come back to Dunedin.
"Obviously, one or two prefer to keep their options open with their own franchise and we understand that."
Moore will eventually take some time off but now he is focused solely on reviewing a season that included 10 losses from 13 games.
It was important to use the post-season time wisely, to identify the things that worked and what could be improved, he said.
Moore has completed the first of his three contracted years as coach.
He will have a thorough review by the New Zealand Rugby Union in July and hopes his future in the role will be endorsed.
"I'm really passionate about rugby and passionate about this region. Whatever's best for the Highlanders is what I want."
Moore said he deliberately did not have a specific number of wins in his mind at the start of the season.
He thought if the Highlanders could finish somewhere in the middle of the Super 14 table they could be reasonably happy.
They finished 11th.
"I'm still frustrated that a number of games were there to be won. You sit and look at the four teams in the play-offs this weekend.
"We beat one of them, dominated one of them and got within a few points of the others. Just a bit more experience and maturity and those results will come."
As the first Highlanders coach to be based in Oamaru, Moore has had months of spending time away from his family since pre-season training started in November.
That had been tough but he had survived with the support of his wife and children, he said.
He was also grateful for the help of people within the franchise.
