Bay of Plenty Steamers' veteran first five maestro Mike Delany, whose second Mitre 10 Cup season since returning to his home province from overseas rugby adventures was cruelly cut short by injury, is looking forward to seeing how the future rolls out for himself and the team he debuted for in 2005.

A pectoral muscle tear during the Steamers' September 16 encounter with North Harbour took the 36 year-old out of the team's Championship division campaign, and any return to on-field duties looks a distant prospect at this stage.

'It's a six month return to play time so that'll put me into my forties – nearly,” he says. 'But no I'll see what happens. I'll just get through this injury and see how we go, but most likely call it a day.”

Though he could do nothing but sit in the Tauranga Domain grandstand with his arm in a post-surgery sling, he enjoyed watching his team wrap up their disappointing season with a win over Northland on Saturday.

'It's never easy sitting and watching and not being out there with the boys but they finished well. It's good to finish on a high like that and put a pretty good performance together.”

Injuries to a number of key players was a critical factor in the team's mid-season slump which cost them a semifinal, but his loss hit them particularly hard. His experience in the crucial number 10 position would have been priceless over the second half of the campaign, and may well have been enough to get them up off the canvas and into the playoffs.

Mike says he can't knock the guys who've been doing the job though, and while the results haven't been coming the effort has been going in, and positives have shown up.

'I think the forward pack's been going fairly well. Guys like Mitch Karpik, and James Lay's been great the last few weeks. And Chase (Tiatia) has always looked dangerous at the back.

'They've just been working hard, and unfortunately the execution hasn't been there at times but I can't really fault the effort.

'So it's been good, there's been a lot of growth throughout the squad.

'It may not look like it but it's been pretty hard graft behind the scenes and hopefully that's put us in a good place for next season.”

The injury toll the team suffered meant young talent has been coming through earlier than expected. But that's been beneficial in the case of guys like Kaleb Trask, who finished the season as Mike's understudy at first five and made a great fist of it, and winger Emoni Narawa who debuted against Northland and hugely impressed him until tragically breaking his leg.

'He was awesome, I was loving watching him.

'I was gutted to see him get injured in the corner there but if we can hold onto those young guys and have that with a few other more experienced guys we're in a good place.

'But it was good to see Emoni doing what he does out there and just playing what he sees and just enjoying it. I was really stoked for him.”

After the highs of last year in reaching the Championship division final and only losing it to Wellington in extra time hopes were up this season, but the Mitre 10 Cup is a tough competition to sustain success in year on year, Mike says.

'Yeah it's an interesting one, there seems to be a lot of turnover within squads so it's not really a true reflection of where you are each year I guess.

'We lost quite a few good players last year and that probably showed through this year with a bit of a lack of experience, and you don't realise how good those guys are till they've left. It's the nature of the competition - teams change quite a bit, but I suppose the key is keeping the core guys together and creating some real leaders among the group.”

As for his own future, Mike says coaching is a real possibility, though he's got a few deep breaths to take before he makes any decisions.

'I'm open to a few things, into the real world and all that, but I'm really keen to get into the coaching side of things. I'm not too sure how that will look, just working through that at the moment, and seeing what opportunities may arise.

'But at the same time it's nice to just step away from rugby for a bit and let this injury sort itself out and then go from there.

'I've been pretty grateful for the career I've had till now so I'm not feeling too bad about it.”