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The ARU statement on James O’Connor was headed: Australian Rugby Union Grants James O’Connor Early Contract Release.
This can be read two ways. It could mean that O’Connor is now free to take up a contract outside of Australian rugby, or even the rugby union code.
Or it could mean, as I believe it does, that the ARU is giving him the chance to do a deal with the Western Force and if, and it is a huge if, he performs well, on and off the field, he will be able to negotiate a new contract with the ARU that will ensure that he plays for the Wallabies again.
For Australian rugby, and for O’Connor’s sake, this last outcome is the best chance for him to redeem his life and his career as a rugby player.
Going through the statement you can see how accommodating the ARU is to the notion of O’Connor returning to the Wallabies.
It is a ‘mutual agreement’ and not a dictated agreement from the ARU.
O’Connor is still allowed to negotiate a Super Rugby contract. And ‘he could be eligible to play for the Wallabies in 2014, as long as his behaviour was consistent with our [the ARU’s] expectations and if his form warranted selection.’
The ARU is ‘hopeful that James will stay in Australian Rugby and play in next year’s Super Rugby competition.’ This hope, it seems to me, is a wink-wink, nudge-nudge hint to the Western Force to make O’Connor an offer he can’t refuse.
There is the consideration, too, of ‘reviewing our (the ARU’s) position regarding a national contract for 2015 and beyond if we believe James’ behaviour is consistent with the values associated with a being a Wallaby.’
For me, this language enforces the notion that the ARU wants O’Connor back. They have not given up on him. But they also are making it clear that they want him back as a reformed character who plays, on and off the field, for the team and its values and not for Brand O’Connor.
Finally, the statement does not go to into the details of the ‘alleged incident at Perth Airport’ which was investigated by the ARU’s integrity unit.
Again, I believe this is a significant concession to O’Connor. It does not expose what he may have done. But it does acknowledge that this incident along with ‘the evidence of numerous incidents’ have forced the ARU to act in the way it has.
The first thing that needs to be said about all this is that the ARU has done what it had to do. O’Connor had to be punished. And ripping up his ARU contract, which is worth about $300,000, is a significant punishment. There is, too, the endorsements that he is certain to lose with this fall from grace.
I was told by a high-ranking ARU official when Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale were getting into trouble and being whacked for this by the authorities that the ring leader in the ‘three amigos’ was O’Connor.
He was a shifty, conniving trouble-maker who had the knack of getting up to no good with his mates, encouraging them in their stupid antics, and then somehow slipping away and avoiding the consequences of the bad behaviour he had enticed the others into.
And then there was all the nonsense about Brand O’Connor and the implication that being a Wallaby was merely the means to an end, the end being a hugely-paid celebrity.
The incident at Perth Airport finally enabled the ARU to pin something on to O’Connor. It also exposed the player to the ridicule and outrage of Wallaby supporters. What was a Wallaby doing in a short break in The Rugby Championship taking his girl friend to Bali for a couple of days?
It also, in my opinion, exposed a weakness in the coaching staff and their protocols that they didn’t know about the proposed trip or if they did know that they allowed it to go forward.
The two-week break between games is meant to allow the players to have some stability away from travelling in their lives. Going to Bali is something you do after the tournament, not before it.
Presumably, O’Connor will get offers to play rugby in Europe and in Japan. If he takes them up we will know that he is not really interested in playing for the Wallabies again.
David Campese was an exception to the rule that the Wallabies are selected from players playing in Australia.
O’Connor is a valuable player in Australian rugby. But he is no ‘Campo,’ who was the most charismatic Wallaby of recent years and the greatest broken field runner possibly the game has known.
There are suggestions, too, that O’Connor might go off and play rugby league. Well, good luck to him if he does this. He’ll be smashed and regret it.
I am a great believer in the redemptive power of sport. Ricky Ponting was something of a wild boy as a young Test cricketer. He married. Had kids. Became captain of the Australian XI and is now one of the icons of the game.
It is harder in a team sport for someone, no matter how good he is, to become as iconic as, say, a cricketer who individual statistics promote his glory and stature even more than his team’s statistics.
But a reformed O’Connor, playing brilliantly for the Wallabies as he is capable of doing and behaving like a grown up off the field, could certainly re-invigorate Brand O’Connor.
For the sake of James O’Connor’s future and for the good of Australian rugby, I hope that he will negotiate a deal with the Western Force, turn around his life and play so well and behave so responsibly that the ARU will welcome back into the Wallaby family again.
Everyone involved in Australian rugby will benefit if this is the outcome.