Rugby Australia have announced the appointment of Hamish McLennan as a director and chairman-elect on the same day the governing body secured much-needed funding from World Rugby.
McLennan, who replaced Peter Wiggs who resigned last week, will be officially welcomed to the board at their June 15 meeting. He will be the body’s third chairman in 2020 after Cameron Clyne stood down and Paul McLean stepped in to perform the role on a short-term basis.
McLennan chairs several ASX-listed companies and his former corporate roles include CEO, executive chairman and managing director of free-to-air television Network Ten and executive vice-president, Office of the Chairman at News Corp.
“Hamish’s appointment marks a new era as we reset Rugby Australia and our game with a focus on the future,” McLean said.
“He brings exceptional commercial skills and experience in leading some of the largest and most successful businesses in the country.
“Hamish is also a lifelong rugby man and is passionate about uniting the game and bringing all of its diverse and enthusiastic stakeholders together to drive the game forward.”
Meanwhile, the long-awaited funding boost from World Rugby landed at Rugby Australia today in the form of a $AUD14.2 million low-interest loan from the game’s global governing body.
With Rugby AU in a precarious financial position amid the coronavirus pandemic, the care package from World Rugby will provide some much-needed financial security for the game in Australia.
“Our game has suffered an enormous impact globally from COVID-19 and we are very grateful for the support of World Rugby and commend them on their leadership in managing this issue for the global game,” interim Rugby AU CEO Rob Clarke said.
“The financial implications of the virus have been significant for Rugby Australia and this emergency relief funding will provide us with certainty for the next twelve months and enable us to close off our 2019 accounts.
“The funding, in combination with the extensive cuts made across the business, provides us with the short-term impetus to see through the pandemic but does not solve all of the challenges.”
With AAP.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Hopefully arguing the relative merits of good ones
jeznez
Roar Guru
Selections, tactics, option taking - we can only hope!
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Not a problem for me Jez. I was wondering how we close this off :happy: Sorry that you had to resort to counting my words. I will say though, that the longer I think, write and challenge on this subject, the more concerned I become. We have dug a very deep hole and I am not sure that is well understood. Hopefully we are just complaining about selections by this time next year.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Mug, since I got triggered by your line: "I think we are creating a problem over News Corp that does not exist" I've slung 729 words at you and you've directed 2,266 back at me. I'm not sure either of us has advanced our position with the other one iota, my apologies for jumping on to your reply to Micko and let's move on shall we?
Muglair
Roar Rookie
You can't 'slink back' when you make no effort to break away. Anyone can say 'no' but RA couldn't back it up. Castle and Clyne absolutely owned the broadcast negotiations. If she signed up with Optus at a significant premium she would have been a hero. She did not sign up with Optus, there is no deal. If Optus sees value there in excess of Fox then I am sure they will be in the mix. Frankly I think that was never what it was painted to be, and the rights will go to Fox. As I originally said RA need to build a valuable product. There cannot be many human activities where there is no leverage in just adding more value. RA has not added value since 2015, it has destroyed it. Does not matter whether it was Castle, Cheika or Folau. In any event the rot started to set in a long time before any of them got near RA. If RA wants independence from News it has to have a product other people want.
jeznez
Roar Guru
I think you are projecting enormously, you keep going on about Castle's failings when I have said very little about her. I'm just not happy that we are in a relationship with a deadbeat business that looks like it could fail within a few years. A deadbeat propped up by it's parent organisation (but we are not sure for how long that will last) and that itself with it's malicious siblings slander and run us down whenever it looks like we might leave them. A deadbeat that has already cut support for us, forced out the person that was trying to get us away from them and has now installed someone to keep us tightly tied to them. Maybe someone else would have done a better job at getting us away from the deadbeat (I'm not disputing that) I'm just upset that we are seemingly slinking back to them even further under their thumb.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Thats great Jez. Supposedly RA thought so too. Sitting at home thinking about it, and going to sleep dreaming about it, will never really replace actually doing anything about it. You obviously are not familiar with how the business world normally works. Read the business pages for a month or so and you will find numerous instances of sudden terminations, neatly balanced by new employees or partners the following day. At $800k per annum I would expect a CEO to have another deal ready to go. RA has had 25 years to prepare for this moment.
jeznez
Roar Guru
No I just don't expect us to keep meekly signing up to a party that tells lies about us, every time it looks like we might leave them. Note the 'might' there, Fox were still invited to the public tender and rather than back their best bid they publicly trashed the game, forced out the CEO and somehow have inserted someone they've got a pretty incredible record with as Chair. And this attack procedure is what they have done time and again. We are in an abusive relationship and I think it's high time we got out of it.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
You expect a multi-million dollar commercial arrangement is a one way street? RA has trashed the commercial value of the 2016-2020 broadcast rights that News paid record money for. You expect them to keep throwing good money after bad. I do not really think it is the crown jewel you all imagine. It is in a nice to have category, not a must have. There is one legitimate commercial reason to keep an open tender unlaunched for three months after the Fox rejection. Optus was supposed to be extremely interested and I suppose RA was hoping to land them without too much difficulty. The whole episode is a facade.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Josh Your comments are naive in the extreme imo. News Corp is not just a tough negotiator they are a ruthless predator with no interest in anything except their own short term profits. Yes, as decisions arise there will be some where RA's and News Corp may coincide but NC decisions will be made by their marketing execs who have no knowledge of rugby, or any concern for long term benefit of the sport. I'm not angry at NC - this is just normal business for them. I do have contempt for the long list of NC yes men in Australia's rugby administration, the 10 ex captains, Kearns, Jones and the rest who are self seeking pawns in this power game. If News Corp win this RA takeover rugby in Australia is STUFFED.
jeznez
Roar Guru
And you keep telling yourself that any issues with News are imaginary.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Of course we will Jez. We have not left ourselves with any option as far as I can see. Then you will be able to complain again about it being fixed by News. The specific issue remains that in the face of this "specific not negotiating period" what were RA doing? Nothing. Just keep telling yourselves this is prudent risk management and you will probably start believing it.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Funds management business, I note that John Eales is on the Magellan board with him so hopefully Nobody vetted him.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Magellan were the major sponsor of Cricket Australia but annulled their contract immediately following the sandpaper scandal. I'd never heard of them before that.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Chairs the majority Newscorp owned REA-Group, chairs the listed radio firm HT&E who has as a major shareholder Newscorp and chairs Magellan Financial who as far as I know have no connection to News.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Gee jez, a lot of smoke and mirrors. So what exactly did he end up doing between then and now?
Micko
Roar Rookie
Sorry TWAS, I think I had you confused with Geoff.
jeznez
Roar Guru
He was appointed by Lachlan a bit of a question mark over how he left 10 and what the Murdoch's were trying to achieve with regards to ownership. https://www.smh.com.au/business/ten-boss-hamish-mclennans-abrupt-departure-doesnt-pass-smell-test-20150727-gile3b.html
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I think most broadcast rights contracts also have it Jez.
jeznez
Roar Guru
"I am surprised that RA signed such a document in 2015" by this you mean the exclusive negotiating period? My understanding is that every single agreement with Fox going back 25 years has had this clause in it. And my memory tells me that every single time RA have even looked like they might think of letting the period lapse that News have opened up with both barrels and smashed the code with negative and questionable stories. And yet the dance continues and I'm sure we'll be signing up with them again.