New Zealand's success on the water isn't about to end any time soon, according to the brains behind the Olympic rowing team.
The New Zealand rowing squad picked up five Olympic medals, three of them gold, on Eton Dorney and legendary rowing coach Dick Tonks sees that good record continuing at Rio in four years' time.
Tonks spoke to TVNZ's Close Up in a rare interview and said he believed that if they could successfully embed young talent in with the experienced heads of the squad, there would be plenty of opportunities for more golden moments.
"It should be pretty good, after Beijing I really thought we might have gone downhill. I thought some would give up and we might crash a bit," Tonks said.
"But the rumour is there's quite a number who will come back so the biggest problem now is if we have a number of people up the top and we have the young ones coming up, we can't have these top ones blocking them."
With London gold medallists Eric Murray, Hamish Bond, Nathan Cohen, Joseph Sullivan and Mahe Drysdale all hinting at having a crack at the 2016 Games, Tonks believes the selectors will be faced with some tough decisions in the coming years.
"It's very hard for the young ones to knock that out, so you've got to balance that.
"If someone's coming up and doing really well, they may not be able to beat this person at the top at present, but you may have to take a punt.
"But I think we'll be right because there's a lot of events to go and we had six crews that didn't and I still think we had three crews there that could have medalled so we didn't achieve everything that we wanted to, so we can improve."
Rowing has become one of New Zealand's highest funded Olympics sports, receiving $4.8 million for the Olympic campaign and Tonks said there is a direct correlation between the level of funding and the number of athletes who were able to get on the podium.
"Gold medals and money run together unfortunately, the more money you get the more medals you get.
"You can see with the funding that came in about 2005, New Zealand sport has done a lot better and the Olympic team this year is a lot better, because of the funding that is put in."
However the understated coach is comfortable with the money currently dished out to his sport and said there is a concern that after a point money would begin to be wasted.
"It's very easy when you've got a whole lot of money to start throwing it around.
"It's a very simple sport, as long as you've got your boat and your oars, your bed and breakfast and that, that's all you need, people start worrying and start looking for the magic wand, there is no magic wand. It's very simple."
While Tonks is more than happy to talk up New Zealand's chances at Rio, he was less willing to divulge what his role might be in that campaign.
The 61-year-old conceded that working overseas is an option, but was unsure whether his success would transfer to a different culture.
"I think the thing of going to another country is how would you do it, you're going into a different environment, with different people and their approach is different.
"If I went to China or somewhere in Europe could I actually go there and be successful in their environment?
"You couldn't just go in bowling along in your same old way, you'd have to make some little changes so that would be intriguing to see if I could be successful."
While it would be seen as a great loss if he was to end his involvement with the New Zealand squad, Tonks didn't believe their success relied on his presence.
"That's why New Zealand's so good. You've got Olympic champions back coaching at school level, there's plenty of coaches in New Zealand who will keep rolling on for sure."