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When I was told about the incident that occurred between Wallaby staff member Di Patston and Kurtley Beale I was bemused.
Surely there had to be more to this situation. I fantasised that Beale had actually been involved in another great Australian sporting tradition of seeing how many drinks he could get through on an international flight a la David Boon.
People being sent home over an argument about a t-shirt? What the hell?
What was the most disturbing to me was that two different articles ran in the Sydney Morning Herald. One proclaiming the ARU are standing by Di Patston, the other claiming that player power saved Beale.
Both Phil Lutton and Georgina Robinson are hardly sensationalists. Both have always been pragmatists close to the action. Both have researched the facts and given such alarmingly polar perspectives as to the support of Beale dividing the united players and the bourgeoisie ARU that you almost expect the Wallabies to start wearing BLF jackie howes.
Ironically, Beale would now make a great poster boy for the Melbourne Rebels brand.
Let’s take a view of the facts provided so far:
▪ Di Patston was travelling with the Wallabies on tour for the first time
▪ Di Patston was sitting next to coach Ewen Mckenzie
▪ Kurtley Beale was wearing the wrong shirt
▪ Di Patston told him to change his shirt and an argument broke out when he refused
▪ Di Patston had recently become involved in discipline matters involving Wallaby players
▪ Senior players and captain are standing behind Kurtley Beale
▪ Beale did not play against Argentina.
▪ Kurtley Beale is off contract and has been talking to NRL clubs and wealthy French clubs
End of facts. Summary: What the hell is going on?
You don’t have to work for a leading consulting firm to have surmised after those facts that something is gravely out of order with the leadership of our international rugby side. By leadership I mean the ARU and the coach.
Let’s start with the ARU. For the last five years the ARU has been allowing elite talent to drip through its fingers by poor mismanagement and woeful leadership decisions. I am not talking about the leadership that requires strategy working groups, press releases and disciplinary committees; I am talking about the type of leadership that understands the strengths, weaknesses and motivations of its key personnel and sets up processes to support them – not disillusion them.
How could Kurtley Beale not be disillusioned about this treatment? He has already been played out of his best position for numerous Tests and is now warming the bench. His efforts to correct his behaviour are well documented and successful. It must be considered that he is a senior player now.
He has played over 50 Tests, won a Super Rugby title and is about to play in a second World Cup. He is regarded as one of the most talented footballers in the world. No player is bigger than the game, but all histrionics aside, Beale is a bloody good player that when on form is a drawcard. I will even be willing to drive out to the western suburbs to watch him play for the GWS Rams in the National Rugby Championship. He is great for the brand of rugby.
Both Rod Kafer and Simon Poidevin have spoken out to prevent the ARU once again pushing our best overseas. Why is it so hard for the management of the ARU to humble itself before our talent when they get the decision wrong?
An easy route for the ARU here is to blame Di Patston for not following an acceptable chain of command that would include going through the coach or the captain to enforce discipline. Tellingly, they have not. However, she was allegedly sitting next to the coach and chose not to go through Michael Hooper on the understanding she was allowed to discipline players in behaviour.
What the hell was McKenzie thinking? Has he completely forgotten what it is like to play in a combative sport? He was in the 1991 Rugby World Cup team… could he actually imagine someone outside of Nick Farr-Jones or Bob Dwyer chipping a senior player like David Campese or Simon Poidevin?
Ever since I have been involved in rugby I was aware of four people in my team that I always listened to. The coach on what I had to do, the captain on how I was going to do it, the physio to tell me if I could and the head of the social committee to tell me which ladies in the grandstand were single.
Anyone approaching a Wallaby veteran after a hard loss and deciding to engage in an open debate over a t-shirt on an international flight instead of going to his captain or coach seems to have remarkably poor judgement or has been given very ill considered KPIs in their job description.
Maybe it was all a misunderstanding – a storm in a tea cup if you will.
What the hell? How is this even news then? Is the ARU so filled with its own importance that it believes the place to escalate a feud over a t-shirt, to the point “player futures are in doubt”, is in our major newspapers? We simply do not have the playing depth in Australia to handle situations with our elite players like that.
When analysing where you stand in business practices it is best to benchmark off the industry leaders. In rugby this is easy to identify thanks to IRB rankings and 100 years of dominance by a team known as the All Blacks. They have the best brand, best depth and best record.
Could you ever imagine this happening in the All Blacks? With their brand and their culture? Even with their amazing depth would Sonny Bill Williams ever have his international career in question over an argument about a t-shirt?
What. The. Hell.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.