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Lote Tuqiri has gone all out in his appointment of legal representation following his dismissal by the ARU, putting his faith in the hands of legal eagle and defamation expert Mark O’Brien.
O’Brien is well known as a courtroom pugilist of the first order and has been described as “an extremely tough advocate in a classic Sydney brawling way”.
His clout is considerable, demonstrated by his ability to cow the ABC into retreating from their mooted publication of Jonestown (the unauthorised biography of Alan Jones by journalist Chris Masters) in 2006.
O’Brien is clearly one of Sydney’s, even Australia’s, foremost media, defamation and employment lawyers. He is not without football experience, having represented the Australian Rugby League in its battle with Super League in the mid 1990’s, and has also been a long time representative of the Nine Network and the Packer family during his time at top-tier media, IP and litigation firm Gilbert and Tobin before moving his team lock, stock and barrel to boutique operators Johnson, Winter and Slattery.
If you’re wondering which lawyer was standing behind Graham Richardson when he brokered a peace deal between the Bulldogs and Sonny Bill Williams in 2008, look no further than O’Brien, who was recruited by Williams’ manager Khoder Nasser and who in turn got his good mate Richardson involved to sort out the mess.
O’Brien was also behind the Nine Network’s failed attempt to air the crime series Underbelly in Melbourne despite the pending trial of Tony Mokbel, although O’Brien was by all reports handed a lemon.
No due diligence done on the series in the first place, and O’Brien was brought in only a week before it was due to screen, so he can probably be excused for not getting it over the line.
The point is that when Nine realised they had a massive problem – they went straight to O’Brien.
His experience would lead one to believe that he is a ripe choice for a case like Tuqiri’s, which is undoubtedly going to be played out in the papers as much as the courtroom.
Already the bush lawyers of Sydney are confidently airing their views, rehearsing their closings and pronouncing sentence, despite the fact that the closest thing on offer to fact is totally unsubstantiated rumour.
This is something of a problem for O’Brien, because although every rugby insider in the country has a view on the Tuqiri saga, the ones that count (over at ARU headquarters), aren’t saying anything.
Herein lies a standoff which would make William Munny whisper a delighted oath.
At one end of the street, Mark O’Brien, the brawler, waiting for the ARU to draw so he can start shooting. At the other, John O’Neill, with his .45 Peacemaker still smoking from the coup de grace it delivered to Lote Tuqiri, and his arms folded, and lips sealed.
As a contact of mine said the other day “I don’t know what’s going on here – but I do know that you don’t f— with J. O’Neill and get away with it”.
Pithy, but true.
O’Neill is a little like castor oil – hard to swallow, but in many cases mighty effective.
In 1995, at the beginning of professionalism in rugby, new ARU CEO O’Neill was present at a SANZAR meeting which was chaired by the imperious, tyrannical Afrikaaner and Springbok rugby supremo Louis Luyt.
As the agreement on the new SANZAR broadcast agreement was thrashed out, O’Neill questioned the sums by which the $550 million figure for the broadcast rights had been reached.
Luyt snapped, bellowing at O’Neill “Who the f— do you think you are, you little prick?”. Despite the emotionally charged nature of the meeting, O’Neill stood firm and built Australia’s share of the disbursements from 24% to an eventual 30% – a significant financial advantage for the ARU.
In early 2003, just months before their home World Cup, the Wallabies, through RUPA, were pushing for a major increase in bonus payments for a successful World Cup campaign – from $80,000 to a massive $160,000 per man.
According to John O’Neill, the ultimatum from RUPA was clear. If the increase didn’t happen, there would be no player signatures on the IRB participation agreements for the World Cup.
As O’Neill said later “It was gun-to-the-head stuff”.
Eventually the impasse was only broken after weeks of emotional and at times angry meetings between the Wallabies, the ARU and RUPA, when O’Neill sent Brett Robinson and Peter Friend to South Africa on a sign-up mission.
There they beat RUPA CEO Tony Dempsey to the punch and signed up the Wallabies to a new agreement before Dempsey arrived in the country. Prior to this, O’Neill and Dempsey also had words during a 2003 meeting at Dempsey’s office during which, Dempsey allegedly had to be restrained from making a physical assault on O’Neill.
Some weeks earlier, after a lunch at Armstrongs in North Sydney, Dempsey had also allegedly shadow-boxed O’Neill whilst the party was standing at the bar, flicking punches at his face and eventually growling to O’Neill “You don’t know how much I would have loved to land one”.
So O’Neill’s no stranger to handling intimidatory tactics – but perhaps more importantly, he also isn’t scared of a sacking.
Among others he has punted rugby god Mark Ella from his role as ARU Marketing Manager in 1995; 1963 Wallaby and renowned coaching intellect Dick Marks from his role as ARU Director of Coaching in 1996; and Socceroo coach Frank Farina from the top job in football in 2005.
In 2000, after NSW Rugby almost collapsed under a mountain of debt, O’Neill (as head of the Special Executive Committee formed to run NSW Rugby) also made 21 NSWRU employees redundant, including former Test No.8 Steve Tuynman. The redundancies were unfortunate, and necessary, but a lesser administrator may not have been cold enough to go through with them to that extent.
And so we come to Tuqiri.
O’Neill is not exactly the flavor of the month for many at the grassroots of rugby, but his record as an administrator who embraces the hard decisions is difficult to argue against.
Many of his calls, although controversial, have been proven appropriate in hindsight.
For instance, few could argue now that the ARC was, at the very least, financially unsustainable.
The recovery of NSW Rugby from its financial woes was largely due to O’Neill taking some hard decisions on good rugby people.
The sacking of the respected Frank Farina was the catalyst for the genius of Guus Hiddink to take the Socceroos almost to the pinnacle of their sport.
So the question begs to be asked, why would O’Neill, with such a good record of making hard decisions, now make a poor one on Tuqiri, when the stakes for the ARU, financially and reputation-wise, are clearly so high? It seems unlikely.
If he has made a poor decision, the man to uncover it will be Mark O’Brien.
His record of advising some of the heaviest hitters in Australian business and media speaks for itself – and the likes of Packer, Rivkin and Jones don’t, or didn’t, employ anyone but the best.
The facts about the Tuqiri saga may be less than crystal, but one thing is clear. The O’Neill vs O’Brien battle will be worth watching.