Alan Jones’ recent call for the outgoing Commonwealth Bank CEO, Ian Narev, to replace Bill Pulver as CEO of the Australian Rugby Union highlights what is fundamentally wrong with the sport of rugby both on and off the field.
Bill Pulver came to rugby because, in the words of then-ARU Chairman, Michael Hawker, “We wanted someone with proven commercial success at CEO level, with international business experience and a love of rugby. The Board also set priorities around good communication skills and an understanding of the world of Sports Marketing and Media.”
While Pulver’s passion for rugby or indeed his desire to help grow the sport cannot be denied, what he seemed to lack was skill and experience in sports management.
The great folly in both the ARU management and board is that because someone loves rugby and because they’re good at business, then that is often taken as sufficient evidence that they are able to manage a beloved major sports organisation.
Sport is a unique industry and just because someone can manage a business it does not mean they can manage a sport. It requires a distinct attitude, approach and understanding.
Sport and sportspeople have to be managed very differently and by the right people – sports managers. This was illustrated in the recent cricket pay dispute.
The Cricket Australia’s chairman, David Peever, a former managing director of Rio Tinto and Australian operations, tried to bring approaches used in settling industrial relations disputes for the mining industry to the negotiations with the cricketers.
It was only when Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland, who has considerable sports management experience, became involved that the dispute was able to be settled.
What Peever did not appear to understand was that athletes are not workers in the sports industry, they are the product!
Sport is a special and idiosyncratic enterprise which requires skills and experience for and from it.
(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
A comparable trend can be seen in relation to on-field matters. Michael Cheika has as his two senior assistant coaches Nathan Grey (defence) and Stephen Larkham (attack). Despite both playing for the Wallabies in the past, neither of these have significant credentials in terms of coaching success.
In fairness to Grey, he did have runs on the board firstly with the Waratahs’ 2014 Super Rugby success and the Wallabies’ 2015 World Cup performance. But since then it has all been downhill for both those outfits under Grey’s defence tutelage.
Yet Cheika expressed total (“one hundred per cent”) confidence in Grey after the most disastrous defensive effort ever by a Wallabies team.
If the ARU is to go forward it needs a drastic change of culture and attitude in its selection of key personnel.
In regard to the coaching staff, Cheika brought in the proven scrum specialist Mario Ledesma, and that has been reasonably successful. He needs to bring that same approach to his choice of defence and attack coaches by hiring proven specialists, not just ex-players.
As for the CEO, the ARU must first and foremost bring in someone who understands and has experience in sports management.
Preferably it is also someone from outside the broader ARU circle, although that is not as essential. Passion alone, nor generic skills, will ever be enough to successfully govern, manage, coach and indeed win in sport.
Proven specialists are needed, and urgently.
Paul Jonson is an Honorary Associate Professor in Sports Law and Management, University of Technology Sydney and a Former President of the World Association of Sport Management and Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. He is a Co-author of the book Sports Law.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
JON was the inaugural CEO in the professional era. He was the start of corporate board members.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well if you want to say this has been a problem, you need to be able to say how it has actually happened in the past.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That's what you don't consider. The real world factors that limit the best that rugby union can be in Australia.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
EJ remember like my school, Palm Beach Currumbin, Keebra offers scholarships and a close to professional program for Rugby League players.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The comment was that the majority of NBA players are recruited from the NCAA, but nobody says this is a problem. That is because the NCAA themselves recruit the best players. The same can be said for GPS schools.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
What organisation runs a transparent recruitment program for a CEO?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
They don't. Josephine Sukkar is one member of the nominations committee.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Shute Shield does not produce 60% of players. That's a blatant lie.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
They have stymied it, but they are also a result of providing the bulk of the registered players and fans.
In Brief
Guest
Funnily enough rugby is growing in WA, the team they decided to cut from Super rugby. For a sport struggling to grow to cut one of the few states where it is successfully making inroads in participation and performance must rank was one of the worst moments in sports administration history.
The Gold Jersey
Guest
I agree. League players come through a rigorous club scene whilst schoolboy rugby union players get seven fixtures a year because the school won't let them play club rugby. There's never been so many kids attending private schools in Queensland yet league remains king. Cannot believe the 2nd xv and 3rd xv schoolboys teams that pack uncontested scrums
Lano
Roar Guru
Great read Paul. Interesting to see ARU run a transparent recruitment program. Maybe joe-public can vote on the next candidates?
Bakkies
Guest
That needs to change too.
Bakkies
Guest
Paid and paid out. The Fred the Shred of Australian Rugby. Left the game in a poor state financially and morale wise after taking a circa 2 million dollar golden handshake
kaiviti
Guest
The ARU has tried without success to grow Rugby in Australia, what they need to do is take many, many pages out of the ARL and AFL busiiness manuals and try and imitate what they do because whatever they have been doing up till the present isn't working.
RahRah
Guest
It's the voting blocs that are rigged. NSW/QLD each have twice the voting power of everyone else so Jacky's argument is quite legitimate. These two power blocs have stymied development outside of those two states since Adam was a boy.
RahRah
Guest
Err yeah we all do. You might want to have a look at his time at the NAB.
Bakkies
Guest
Hasn't public school Saturday sport numbers declined across the board over recent years?
RahRah
Guest
Remember that "Buildcorp" selects the members of the ARU board.
Jock Cornet
Guest
Yet it is ok to spend 100s of millions on force and rebels for an outcome if the spoon. Yet Oeter is worried about 1 or 2 mill to a club comp that produces 60% of players.