This week there’s been another twist in the soap opera we call Rugby Australia.
We had the sudden resignation of Peter Wiggs from the RA board, reportedly after his bid to become chairman and install Matt Carroll as CEO failed on Monday night.
An interim CEO, Rob Clarke, has been appointed.
Rugby Australia’s continuing boardroom dramas bear serious resemblance to a 1980s American soap opera.
Already there have been rocks thrown at Clarke for his part in dropping Western Force from Super Rugby. Peter Wiggs must have completely misjudged the board’s mood in his reported bid for power. There are still many supporters of interim chairman Paul McLean, who would have seen Wiggs bid for chairman as unacceptable.
Rob Clarke (Hugh Peterswald/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Maybe Wiggs was absent when Clarke’s appointment was discussed, because the new interim CEO Clarke is a respected rugby administrator, notwithstanding there are some who still hold a grudge for his axing of the Force. He’ll be more accepted by the rugby public. It will be interesting if he continues permanently with the job. Perhaps he can steady the ship enough for the game to start again and reduce some of the internal rifts.
The issue of TV coverage and network deals must be quickly but carefully sorted, as other codes are already on their way to resolving their problems. The FFA has received its full quarterly network payment, and rugby now needs to lock in something soon.
Things must be done for the lovers of amateur rugby. I had a conversation with a coach looking to gain promotion to top-grade rugby, and he mentioned the six-figure sum required just to make it there. Unfortunately gone are the days of amateur football even at the club level. Costs are very high and require major sponsorship.
Briefly, I must comment on a 2019 World Cup interview with Michael Cheika before the Georgia game. He stated that the Wallabies had no tactical kicking game and that the rugby public didn’t like that kind of play. Good grief. No wonder things were as disjointed as they were. I don’t think the reporter could believe what he had heard. You would have been disappointed to hear that sort of casual attitude from a junior coach, let alone the top coach in the country.
New Zealand Rugby has set its plan to return soon with only domestic matches to be played. Sam Cane has talked of a Test match with the Wallabies later on in the year, which will be a real yardstick as to where our top-level game is.
As a final note, I saw another article about Quade Cooper, who really represents the enigma of Australian rugby. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes times tragic and always entertaining, he’s a personality and media figure the public loved.
If Rugby Australia can unlock the secrets of past success, big crowds will once again return to stadiums around Australia to watch winning rugby.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That's if it's even a loss when it's due.
Alex
Roar Rookie
Yes when they eventually do then the actual loss will be a concrete figure. They guesstimate RA is about 20 million in the red. I guess this will be revealed in due course.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Reading Wayne Smith in the Aus today, that “debt” (he used quotation marks) hasn’t actually crystallised. Which sounds like whatever the instrument is, the position isn’t good which would be completely normal in the current financial market - but is not due to be settled. So if he is right (which he may not be), it’s the equivalent of holding a stock which is down on the market, your position may be down but until you sell you haven’t lost money.
Alex
Roar Rookie
Yes as it was explained to me you pay for the insurance about 2 percent roughly, work that out on 20 million for example quite a bit. That will be the loss i guess.
Marcus
Guest
My guess is the cash flow was known (super rugby payments are in USD) but the cash flow stopped ....... a massive problem.
SandBox
Roar Guru
What was that game where Quade scored all the points through his skills along with intercept passes. Remember watching it with bemusement. Think it was a reds game. He’s come a long way since then. Would have no problem if he’s the best 10 we have, but hope we can find someone else that holds the wallabies 10 at a decent international level one day
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That’s doesn’t align with anything I’ve read. Hedging is essentially an insurance policy. Hedgers charge a premium, and take the benefit of fluctuations in your favour, in exchange for those against your favour. The only thing I understand that could be owed would be premiums.
Alex
Roar Rookie
I'm no expert but as I understand you are charge on the loan say 2 percent if you hold that for say 2 years it becomes 4 percent and so on so yes you can end up with a debt.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
But it sounds like something in the story is seriously incorrect - what RA supposed have invested in, or the result because as you see the result sounds like something else. So we can be pretty sure something is wrong, and if they can get something easily wrong, how do we know what’s right without actual clarification? Maybe the error is that it’s not hedging, but speculation and everything else is right. Or maybe it’s something different.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It just seems illogical. Currency hedging is common and I think NZ does it to due to TV rights in US dollars. But I don’t understand how many can be owed. The whole purpose of the hedge is the hedging purchases the risk of the downside for a fee, and the benefit of an upside. It doesn’t make sense they would owe money. They would miss out on benefits of currency fluctuations, but I’m not sure how a financial insurance policy can leave a debt beyond the fee rendered.
Realist
Guest
The inaccuracy is in the lies and propaganda spread by Castle apologists and factional RA stooges on this site. Optus have come out and confirmed they weren’t even close to a deal with RA and certainly not at the numbers suggested. One post by KCOL or someone like him stated the Foxtel offer was $20 mil and Castle was a whisker away from a $30 mil deal with Optus - a blatant lie. In reality they were offering a little over half of what Foxtel was ($40 mil pa) and now they are offering nothing with a desire to solely focus on football (soccer). Foxtel have now also come back and advised they are no longer interested. I hope you haven’t spent your $840k + $120k bonus + $$$ severance package Castle as you’ll need a good lawyer.
Alex
Roar Rookie
I'm unsure of the financial guidelines and restraints on investment in the RA model, there may not be any, but that would be hard to believe.
Fin
Roar Rookie
Quade SBW and The Man all on the same team! Worth the price of admission.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I’m happy to believe anybody is incompetent. I’m more saying that what they are describing doesn’t add up. Something they’ve reported has to be wrong. Either the debt, the risk, or the instrument.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Hahahaha what a quote
Harty
Roar Rookie
That’s always a likely possibility. “I find the newspapers to be very accurate. Except when I actually know about the story being written”
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Even for someone with a passing interest in Aussie politics, asking who was PM on a particular date in the past decade is a pretty tough question. There’s always the nagging doubt that the questioner picked the five minutes Rudd came back. You may as well go the whole hog and adopt the mud farmers’ system from MP and the Holy Grail https://youtu.be/FSbl16vTovU
Alex
Roar Rookie
Yes hard to believe but it is RA we are talking about. Pretty bad no wonder they were keeping this quiet. Maybe solid investment in stadium or such things might be better, or maybe bitcoin lol
K.F.T.D.
Roar Rookie
Maybe they could set up a Quade Cooper v Bernard Foley game, where they each get to choose their own players and coach. I'm sure it would be a sell out.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Or the reporting is possibly inaccurate? As you say, what is reported doesn't sounds like hedging, which is what has been reported.