The CEO of Rugby Australia, Raelene Castle, has resigned under pressure from her board. This is a disgraceful turn of events, and the lack of solidarity on the board is gob-smacking.
What is she to claim responsibility for in her resignation?
Poor performance at Japan’s Rugby World Cup? That’s on Michael Cheika, who caused Castle no shortage of grief.
Sacking Israel Folau? Folau was never to play for the Wallabies again, according to both Cheika and the captain, Michael Hooper.
While it might come as a surprise to Alan Jones, there are vast swathes of the rugby community – not to mention the general public – that applauded this decision.
Not sacking Cheika? Difficult given the financial implications.
Poor performance by Australia’s Super Rugby teams? You’re kidding.
Castle was handed a broke basket case of a code and went about shaking things up. Her appointment of Dave Rennie was astute, and she was in the process of securing a TV deal and the financial future of the game.
(AAP Image/Daniel Munoz)
Which brings us to an ill-timed letter to the Rugby Australia board from several former Wallabies, which acted as a catalyst to the resignation. The letter provided no solutions to the problems identified, and invitations to discuss concerns with RA in person were, it seems, declined.
Could it be because there is, in fact, a paucity of ideas and understanding about how to administer an Australian sports code among the signatories? Do they have plans for rugby in Western Australia, in western Sydney, and for the women’s game? Are they aware that RA has been making headway in Tasmania?
The presence of Phil Kearns on the letter gives the game away. Kearns was put forward as an alternative CEO to Castle, and it is hard not to see his signature as self-interest writ large.
The presence of a number of other players central to the player power controversies of years past is also cause for concern. Let’s hope they don’t see the way forward as more pay for professionals and less for the grassroots.
Most concerning, however, is the presence of Kearns, George Gregan and Nathan Sharpe as both signatories and Fox Sports employees. This is clearly a conflict of interest, given the amount of scrutiny applied to Castle off the back of the protracted contract agreements between RA and Fox Sports.
If the agreement had been successful, it appears Castle’s job could have been secured. It is up to these gentlemen to reflect on, and perhaps explain to the rugby public, whether they did everything they could behind the scenes to ensure that the television rights secured by Castle and her team were in Australian rugby’s best interest.
Finally, the absence of a number of Wallabies captains was as telling as who was included on it. Putting John Eales and Phil Waugh as current board members to one side, the absence of David Wilson, James Horwill, Rocky Elsom, Mark Loane and Mark Ella, just to name a few, suggests there was nowhere near any sort of unity of opinion among former players – let alone the wider rugby community – on Castle’s performance.
It is unclear what Castle’s resignation has achieved, or what she failed to do as CEO.
It is unclear who the next CEO will be. But if one of the signatories becomes CEO, expect a huge deal of scepticism, even contempt, among Australian rugby-lovers.
The resignation marks a deep nadir in Australian rugby, with a halted playing season now joined by an administration in total chaos.
aussierad
Roar Rookie
Agree with you. Perhaps Castle was hoping that being woke, she could gain favour with the public. What's amazing though are the Roar articles and the usual suspects defending Castle, overlooking her (lack of) performance and blaming it on everything else under the sun.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
aussierad: At a fundamental level that is all there is to it. Had the Wallabies been performing then the coffers would have been full. Then the Folau incident would not have had such an impact and they could have sacked Cheika and brought in another coach. John O' Neil must have been shaking his head in amazement at the antics of RA and how the Wallaby performances were not as important as kicking a fundamental Christian out after a laughably stupid comment. Success is not everything but it trumps just about anything else.
aussierad
Roar Rookie
John O'Neill who was possibly Rugby Australia's greatest administrator, said "i oversaw a glorious period of on-field success, which made me look like a genius off-field". I don't know why the outraged mob here just can't see that - she's a woman, shrieked the Red Pirate. She's not from the Sydney Eastern Rubgy Stock was the excuse by Geoff Parkes, whom I understand is considered a Sage in these parts of the internet, blah blah - could it be possibly the Wallabies just didn't perform and Australian fans went away in droves?
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Kane: That's mostly true here. I gathered that you were refering to Cheika's support for the sacking of Folau. A truly left-wing supporters issue. Hardly a right-wingers view of life ie take away their right to free speech regardless of how silly it is.
Kane
Roar Guru
What makes you think I vote left? Is that your answer to anyone who disagrees with you?
Josh
Roar Rookie
Geez Waugh would have been in a tough position board member, fox employee.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
ken awaiting mod's...
Iain
Guest
First of all I am not a Folau supporter - in my view his stance on a number of social circumstances do not represent the ministry and teaching of Jesus; quite the opposite in fact. That said I do believe in free speech - which is where the water becomes somewhat muddied since it is an observable fact that we pay more attention to the 'heroes' in our lives than they sometimes deserve. As a star of the Union game Folau was deliberately using that status to influence people to his point of view - so in that respect the 'playing field' was hardly level. It was also against the stated principles of RA and if they had not taken the action they did would have cost RA a great deal in lost sponsorship. Forget the fact he ended up being paid off - it is a sad fact that once lawyers & the court system get involved the only winners are likely to be said lawyers [from both sides]. As an aside - & I cannot remember who did this, but someone with a great deal more union expertise than myself analyzed the Wallabies results both with Folau playing, and post Folau and apparently came to the conclusion the results were slightly better in his absence. Of course we still went on to have a disastrous World Cup but then we still had Cheika as our coach [don't like to dump on him because I get that he is passionate about the game & his players - but he did make errors of judgement at critical phases of the competition]. OK - now everybody can have a pop at me!
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
SMI, please point me to a balanced article that looks at all the evidence in a balanced way and then concludes she ‘had to go’. There are many on these boards doing just that, but without the ‘balanced evidence’ bit. All commentary on this issue, from all POV’s, is flawed, just like Castle’s tenure. just like my opinion here. But flawed does not equate to unworthy. Sacking Castle for mine was analogous to treating a sprained ankle by amputating a leg. The OZ rugby body has cured its sprained ankle, at a significant and unnecessary cost. Future evidence may turn my view on this but not the evidence at hand.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Earl: If it's unclear to you what she did wrong, then you need to read more. There are plenty of comments here criticising her performance but you seem to have missed them. She was not a rabbit in the headlights contrary to the emotional outbursts of many here. No! I'm not going to repeat what I have written many times on the roar of my criticism of her performance.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Ken: That is one of your poorest comments EVA! It is not that hard to take both her good and bad parts and write on her performance over the 2.5yrs of her appointment, that is what good journo's do. There has not been one balanced article on her yet. I don't want to read a professional writers biased 'opinion', I want to read a report and decide my own opinion based on that. In this case, it is Earls opinion, so I accept it for that and disagree with him. Bowing to a political drum or any drum is stupid and you should know that.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Steve considers professionalism lavish. He believes Aus Rugby should just become semi pro and it won’t decline.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
How does breaking even over 4 year cycles equal spending beyond their means?
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Whatever that number was, it’s ultimately not the quantity of the deal that is crucial. It is the quality, especially an opportunity to grow the game onto mass demographics viaFTA or accessible streaming options. We have needed to loosen Fox’s golden handcuffs for 20 years, and Castle’s brave move is as close as we’ve got. At the cusp of transition back we slide. I just hope that the next Chairman runs a better gridiron blocker game against the reactionary dogs of war when they next bare their teeth at an evolutionary CEO.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
SMI, again - one man’s balanced boat is another man’s Titanic. I think we would agree on the principle of balance but defining it, there’s the rub.
Josh
Roar Rookie
lets hope not betting as he would have no money left.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
Josh, does "backing" mean betting or is it to be read literally !:)
Josh
Roar Rookie
To be fair on fitzsimons he does joke about how he is always backing the wrong horse.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
kane: I guess you mean he agrees with your left wing politics?
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Ken: I would settle for a balanced article and not one banging the 'she got done wrong' drum.