Profile Featurette #13

Duck

Born and bred in the Wairarapa, the duck is an odd creature, designed for swimming, flying and joga bonito.

Its discovery by Masterton pair Arthur Tse and Geoffrey Wong meant The Sam FC finally had a new mascot, after the huge failure of Roger the Wall Wrecking Rat.

The duck resides at Lakeview, Masterton, owned by Arthur where it spends most of its day eating snails and chasing the mailman. Due to its popularity, especially amongst the elderly, the number of ducks increased at Lakeview and at one time there were as many as 14 ducks living at the A-Train residence.

What distinguishs the duck from other animals is its ability to play soccer. It has supreme dribbling ability, great leadership on the pitch and is capable of juggling the ball for long periods of time. One duck was recorded to have juggled a soccer ball on its beak for 5 days straight. It died afterwards from exhaustion. Sad story.

Since becoming the mascot for The Sam, the duck has also become acquainted with many other teams and is now statistically the most widely used mascot of any sports team. Famous ducks such as Newcastles Toon Duck have gone on to become successful actors in daytime soap operas.

These days, unfortunately, the duck is often hunted by poachers for its fur and numbers are on the decline. The duck is near extinction and there are only about 10 billion left in the wilderness. But The Sam FC remain supportive and have several wildlife reserves, where the duck continues to be bred for mascot superstardom.