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Rugby Australia need to quit slapping the proverbial pokie

Roar Rookie
14th November, 2018
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An artist's impression of the Australian Rugby Development Centre (ARDC) at Moore Park.
Roar Rookie
14th November, 2018
15

In my younger days, I worked in a pub that was filled with the sweet sound of pokies. By the sweet sound, I mean sweet to the publican, as each machine was worth its weight in gold every year.

Too often, regulars would come for a beer and stay for a punt, unable to resist the familiar tune and flashing lights.

Often those same regulars would come in the next day, having spent their rent, with a photo of themselves to be put behind the bar to alert all staff that they were not to be let on the premises.

And all too often, it wouldn’t take long for them to be back for another spin.

Addiction of this kind can be quite confronting, leading to people getting caught in the debt cycle of so much lost that a gambler’s fallacy forms in their psyche, resulting in a belief that their only way out is by steadfastly doing exactly the same thing that got them into all their troubles. Every dollar in is a dollar closer to that big win – a way out.

A typical example of a gambler’s fallacy is when a coin is flipped a number of times and lands ‘heads up’ every time. It is then believed that the next flip is more likely to result in the coin landing ‘tails up’. Every spin of the roulette wheel is one closer to your number coming up. Every spin, flashing light and jingle of the pokie is one closer to a big win.

Rugby Australia’s current balance sheet is some pretty ugly reading, which has left them exposed to the risks of gambling.

They gambled with the rugby community’s support by culling the Force and backing the Rebels; gambled with a lack of investment in grassroots on a Wallabies first or top-down approach, and they gambled on Michael Cheika and certain players when Ewen McKenzie stood down.

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They gambled on the coach’s unorthodox methods, giving him time and autonomy – and now they are in deep.

Cheika himself has been gambling, with strange and bewildering tactics, coaching appointments and squad selections. And now he and Rugby Australia are asking us to ‘buy in’ to their gambler’s fallacy.

That every loss is one match closer to it all clicking. That the payoff is coming. One more roll of the wheel and our numbers will come up.

The sad truth is that this has been going on for longer than Cheika has been coach. Addicts lash out and blame others around them – as we have blamed coach after successive coach.

And, as someone invested in Australian rugby, I am an addict too – prone to a gambler’s fallacy.

So do we roll the dice on another coach? Maybe this watershed moment should be about something more.

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