Rugby Australia face Sunday showdown talks

1. Return game to solvency by terminating contracts of all professional players. 2. Terminate contracts of all professional coaches who won't take 80% pay cut in return for working to develop future 'coaching of coach excellence program'. 3. Forget super & tests for rest of 2020. 4. Appoint straight shooter Justin Harrison to oversee committee of well qualified volunteers to oversee reopening of rugby (whatever form their deliberations opine). Cheers KP

What a bunch of arrogant wingers , every time Rugby gets into trouble, the blame always goes against the wrong people , example - Raelene Castle. It's not her fault the game is infested with arrogance and denial. Let's be honest, the problem with the game , is; is, the game itself. It's not Raelene Castles fault that the broadcasters or the people don't like the game. It's a fact face it the game stinks. Except this fact you arrogant people and work towards changing the game. The arrogant assumption that if RU ( in its present form) was on freeTV the people would like it. The problem with Rugby is Rugby itself, not the people who administer the game. Arrogance will destroy Rugby not Raelene Castle.

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What I have seen Twiggy done in the past couple of years, with very little for him to gain if anything, I think your comment is a serious case of tall poppy syndrome. RA will be in a much better position with Twiggy’s backing just as the Force players found out.

AFL and NRL have the advantage of being in a very narrow market. By having a salary cap, they can place a ceiling on the salary expense in their business. They are very much club based and do not depend on internationals to boost their revenues. Rugby union’s strength is its biggest weakness. It is an international game and players are free to move to the leagues that offer them a stable financial career. New Zealand and Australia and South Africa will never be able to compete with Japanese and European clubs on salaries. Unfortunately, the local rugby academies,clubs etc for NZ,RSA and Australia are not reimbursed for their investment in players. It may well be that a solution is to run a professional league in Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately,it won’t be able to offer top dollars to players as it is unlikely to attract the TV revenue it needs. The way that our local clubs,unions etc can raise money is to have a transfer system like professional soccer. Having grown up a rugby spectator, there is nothing that surpasses an international tour like the old days although not as long. However, it is very complicated. Maybe a world championship maybe the answer. The irony is that all the World Cup winners with the exception of England, cannot compete salary wise. So I guess World rugby will have an important role to play. Enough rambling from me.

PREDICTION: If Kearns becomes CEO we will be screaming "come back Raelene. all is forgiven".

I could see Raelene as Clyne’s pick - meeting the criteria given to the board’s appointed recruitment firm. Clyne and the board were copping major heat after the Force were thrown out so Castle was the perfect lightning rod to hide behind and use gender and nationality as shields in desperation. The most patronising part of that ridiculous process was the narrative that there were ‘only two’ options being her or Phil Kearns. If they are the only two the board genuinely could come up with then they should be digging ditches rather than pulling millions out of the game.

Warwick Todd, Thanks, I finally got it! Equity & diversity to the max.....!!

The “Oracle of Omaha” or someone similar that understands Rugby is not a silly suggestion. The thing about about Warren Buffet is that he made his fortune through multiple commodities in the equities market, not just one major play in one field of investment, and in a sustained career over many decades. Do many Australians qualify? A solid business person with first rate exprience in equity finance, strong management skills and hands-on experience in building a new business model from a start-up basis.

Warwick Todd, that is a terrible thing to say about Forrest after all he has done for rugby in WA and attempted to do for A.U. and has never asked anything in return from us. Anyhow as Twiggy is not from Sydney he will get stick no manner how it unfolds, please just keep shooting yourself and rugby in the foot and he may just get there.

Twiggy came across as a real snake oil salesman yesterday as he was extolling the virtues of the altruistic Chinese filling his containers with medical supplies for shipment to Australia. Twiggy has probably set WA up to be Australia's Vichy state under Communist China's inevitable occupation :stoked:

Great news. I really don’t think we need a Randwick stalwart taking the reigns with the code on the edge of the precipice. Other board members, regardless of their character or good intentions need to make way. Ideally to be replaced by those prepared to make the ‘right’ decisions, not the easiest at the time. Castle has failed to think about the consequences of her decisions and a lack of foresight has caused major problems. Just ask the Canterbury Bulldogs how good she is at at managing finances with her back ended contracts

If "The task is huge n it going to be painful", then Australian rugby won't do it. It will start with brave words and high ideals, but the moment some actual change looks likely for the entrenched cliques the white-anting and politics will start, some people will be stabbed in the back and things will go back to how they have always been because that is where those that hold the reins are comfortable....captain of the ship, even if it is sinking.

GRS, I share your pain! I agree that Castle's time at Canterbury is a big ? mark and I find her the epitome of the corporate nothing speak that typifies management and politics. However, I also don't think she is really the problem. She also may not be the solution, but change merely for the sake of it just sees more of the revolving door that has typified the (mal) administration of Oz rugby for much of its history. The structural problems facing rugby in Oz are massive and bigger than any one person, which may be why a fair number of pretty good individuals have fallen by the way trying to manage rugby here. What is needed is a team of people with a range of skills to enable them to tackle the politics of Oz Rugby, the financial restructuring that is likely going to be needed, a love of the game (because you are right that you can't run a business if you don't understand and have a feel for its particularities - this is something Warren Buffet is big on when he says don't invest in a company you don't really understand and he does get capitalism), a grasp of the shift in sports economics, whereby it is increasingly commoditised and at risk of being a price taker rather than a price maker, a strong background in new narrowcasting technologies and an IR approach that harnesses the expertise of players (workers) rather than treating them like serfs. It is not much to ask for...(?) I am not sure that Phil K, wonderful player though he was will be leading such a team.

Over a decade of decline n it will take at less 5 years to get rugby back to health. There has been so many mistakes, bad appointments, bad investments in players n coaches, not investing or not concentrating on thing that matter to make rugby grow. The structure is unsound n like a poorly built building it is finally keeling over. Nothing is going to happen for at less 12 months, best time to start anew. I would consider a task force with some members outside Oz for some fresh ideas n unbiased judgement. Current members of the board should stay n input on the good n bad on their watch. The task is huge n it going to be painful, but better get it right this time......you seldom get an opportunity like this.

A word of caution re Twiggy - he has done many good things for rugby in WA (and other things too) but he has also been at the centre of some serious corporate controversy re Fortescue and misleading comments about the nature of a Chinese commitment. He was cleared by the High Court in a very technical ruling after the full Fed Court found against him (one of the Feds is now a High Court judge). Anaconda Nickel was also not a stranger to controversy. I appreciate there is an argument that Cline at NAB was not a stranger to problems, so one might well say it couldn't be worse than... I don't have an alternative name, but if there is to be change let it be for a team and let it include some people with expertise in resuscitating struggling corporates, who don't see players as serfs and who have some pretty good links to the kind of merchant banking finance and new tech that is likely to be needed. If only Wozza Buffet loved rugby!

In defence of Raelene Castle, opening up the TV rights to others may have been a good idea at the time with others on the horizon. In any case if she had re-signed with Fox they may have claimed Force majeure (even though its next season) with a new Super Rugby format as the contract would have been dead anyway. Still Amazon Prime need an entry point in Aussie TV market. On the other hand I would rather be Israel Folau than Raelene Castle (God playing the long game again?)

Peter K here is a solution, pass the whole of RA over to Sydney and allow them to run the organisation further into oblivion, Hand the rest of Australia over to Twiggy Forrest who does know how to appoint good, clever people. Then we can have an organisation and a game truly representative of Australia. 15 ex captains plotting to take over AU and you can be sure they are all Sydneycentric as I can't recall a Wallaby captain from anywhere else, to get what you have already got keep on doing all the same things.

Hi Roarers, Rugby in Australia, for various reasons, has declined since the 2003 world cup. Therefore, we now have a unique opportunity to reboot rugby in Australia. I perform strategic and tactical planning for businesses as a living. This is how I would approach the thorny issue of re-structuring/reorganizing Rugby Australia. It is by no means perfect and there are no real right or wrong answers. But I have found that the following plan of attack works: 1. Strategic Planning Meeting - Call a meeting of the key stakeholders in Rugby Australia for a strategic planning session - this could take several days of various work shops. 2. Organizational Health - The first step in this rebooting process should be to have a frank examination of organizational health. Organizational health should surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage. 3. Cohesive Leadership - Build a cohesive leadership team, ensure that they are aligned, and establish clarity among those leaders. This is followed by communicating that clarity to everyone within the organization and putting in place a structure to reinforce that clarity moving forward. One of the single most, untapped competitive advantages is great, functioning teamwork. 4. Code of Conduct - The Code of Conduct is an important first step towards a cohesive leadership team. The senior leadership team come up with it (Beliefs, values, and commitments), they sign off on it, they live it. This also drives all the strategic projects. 4. SWOT Analysis - Analyze the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. These should be identified, summarized and presented to the group. This will help to understand where the company is now, which will lead to formulating an end goal, which is the mission and vision. Having a mission and a vision help frame where the company wants to be in the future – throughout the company, every decision made by employees should be made as a means to achieving the end goal. 5. Based on where the company is now, and its end goal, the leadership team should develop a set of strategic priorities, or stepping stones, which would be required to achieve the end goal. This will take the form of strategic and tactical projects to be accomplished in certain time frames. 6. Measures to define success - These will be helpful to monitor performance against the strategic plan. A quarterly survey of the management team, rating each strategic project out of 10 is a good way to monitor success. Ensuring there are target end dates for projects. 7. Review the strategic and tactical plan at annual meetings - change the plan if the necessary results are not being achieved. Nothing is set in stone. Examples of strategic projects could be: 1. Strategic Plan - To establish the strategic plan and tactical/implementation plan by communicating it to the wider group of stakeholders. 2. Group Structure - the legal structure and governance of the company. What does the overall corporate structure look like? What does the Board look like? Who should sit on it? How do we minimize partisanship? 3. Organizational Structure - A project to develop an appropriate organizational structure, roles and responsibilities. 4. Financial Systems - A project to establish management accounts, budgeting/forecasting; and actual v budget analysis. 5. Standardization – Establish and standardize systems, policies and processes. 6. Work Cultural Transformation - Establish a cohesive leadership team based on the strategic intent. Live the Code of Conduct – it drives everything. Improve the decision making processes by delegation. 7. Training programs to build competence - Establish a company wide training program for all roles within the company. What happens if we train people and they leave? What happens if we don’t train people and they stay? One of the biggest challenges is also the key to success. If we can transform the work culture from where it is now, to where we want it to be, then we will stand a good chance of achieving the strategic priorities and vice versa. So how do we transform the work culture? By instilling and following the 7 C's: Communication, consistency, context, commitment, creativity, collaboration, and conviction. The path is not easy. It will take time. It will take discipline to persevere with the plan. It will take collaboration and mutual support. It will take a conscious effort to lift everything to international company standards. But we must succeed - this a unique opportunity to set Australian rugby on the right path after many years of decline. a strategic planning meeting with the key stakeholders attending. 2. 2. The first jobs are to define new vision, mission and code of conduct (extremely important).