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When Raelene Castle became the first women CEO of Rugby Australia this week, there was another first.
Castle is a proven sporting administer – not primarily a bean counter then an administrator as an afterthought.
Netball nationally in New Zealand and rugby league with the Bulldogs were hugely successful, until the Bulldog hierarchy made a bullheaded decision to part company with quality.
Their loss.
That decision opened the door for Castle to change codes, where a Kiwi and rugby automatically go hand-in-hand, even if born in Wagga.
But it won’t be easy for the newcomer.
There’s no doubting her ability, but she will be dealing with a Rugby Australia board of directors who have plummeted to the basement after the axing of the Western Force from Super Rugby.
Only one director, Geoff Stooke, voted against the sacking, and immediately resigned.
His parting comment was right on the money: “The Australian Rugby Union is the custodian of the game of rugby in Australia, not simply the custodian of the business of rugby.”
In other words, not bean counters.
It’s how Castle handles this hot potato that will define her brief.
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What on Earth were Rugby Australia thinking when they were a party to changing Super Rugby from 15 to 18 teams?
It was 15 with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa having five teams each under SANZAR, to 18 with New Zealand and Australia five each, South Africa six, and one each from Japan and Argentina under SANZAAR.
It was all about making the competition more lucrative without a thought to all the excess travel required on top of massive travel anyway.
And how did South Africa get away with six teams? Australia and New Zealand should have told South Africa to get stuffed. But they didn’t, and soon realised 18 was too many.
To compound the stupidity of the decision that lasted two seasons, it’s now back to 15 with New Zealand having five, South Africa and Australia four each, but Japan and Argentina are still there.
The format is still stupid, leaving Rugby Australia with egg all over its face.
And these are the administrators Raelene Castle has to deal with to get rugby back into the good books of a disgusted fan-base.
Who are these directors?
Chairman Cameron Clyne is a former banker, aka bean counter, whose Rugby Australia CV states he has been a rugby man all his life.
I’ve only been covering rugby for 53 years, and a follower long before that, and I’d never heard of Clyne until he took over the chairmanship from former Wallaby Michael Hawker in 2016.
Cameron Clyne (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
There are three former Wallabies on the Board – deputy chairman Dr Brett Robinson, Wallaby legend John Eales, and Paul McLean.
How in hell can three Wallabies vote to kick out an Australian franchise from Super Rugby?
The other two directors are women, with Ann Sherry – the executive chair of Carnival Australia, the biggest cruise ship company in Australasia – the first to sit on the national body, in 2012. The other is Kiwi-born Pip Marlow, the managing director of Microsoft Australia.
Both are successful and respected in their own fields, as was the third in Elizabeth Broderick, the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, until she pulled the plug.
The obvious question to ask is do they qualify as rugby decision-makers at the highest level?
Surely there must be other former Wallabies to call on? No, none.
They are either far too successful in their own fields, or businesses, so don’t have the time nor the inclination to do the job, or don’t want to be part of a rugby circus, so they join the growing disgusted fan club.
Simply, Raelene Castle is stepping into a minefield but fans mustn’t let that be a deterrent. Back her as she sorts it all out in her own time and in her own way.