A rebuttal of Alan Jones

If you’re like me and you read The Australian, then Alan Jones’ weekly stream of consciousness is probably becoming quite tedious.

This week there have been some pretty egregious claims levelled at his usual targets. Unfortunately, unlike this site, The Australian doesn’t encourage a wide range of comments from their readers. A review of the comments section of any of his articles will confirm this.

Alan says a lot of ‘stuff’ – I’m being courteous – in the article, but what gets my focus is the weekly attacks on Scott Johnson, Dave Rennie and the RA admin.

Below is a series of excerpts I have pulled from Jones’ article that I have rebutted and attempted to publish unsuccessfully in The Australian‘s comment section. I did have to be somewhat selective to avoid rewriting his whole piece.

(Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage via Getty Images)

I republish here because I believe this Trumpian propaganda must be challenged in the marketplace of ideas so that these shallow, uninformed, conflicting and boring repetitions can be properly dismantled.

Each of Alan’s points is numbered and my response is below each point. I have not changed anything from the original comment posted. If some of the answers appear terse and short, well, all I can say is that you can only work with the material you have.

At point one Alan starts off by strengthening the foundations around his strawman argument that Rugby Australia’s high-performance coaching unit is a waste of money.

1. “Rugby Australia have ring-fenced the low-performing Wallaby coaching team that chews up around $3 million a year in salaries”
Alan, I know that you know that the new Wallaby coaching team has not even gone into a camp yet let alone played anything that could demonstrate what level they are performing at. I am sure this plays well to your base but it’s nonsensical at best.

At point two, Alan attempts to argue that the $3 million that RA is spending on top-tier international coaches just isn’t really worth it. Below is the core of that argument. It is obvious that point one and two combine into one. Needless to say that these are two separate points in Alan’s world.

This compounds his audience’s sense of grievance, which is much like compounding interest. The grievance grows exponentially in their minds.

2. “Yet a decade-long study by Sam Walker, published in The Wall Street Journal, has discovered that the best teams in history all have one thing in common, a great captain”
Alan, I wonder if your Wallaby team was included in that study. From all reports, it would certainly correlate with the proposition.

In point three, Alan attacks the Tahs’ performance on the weekend. Okay. But the nub of the argument is that the Kiwi coach is the problem with the simplistic solution offered below.

3. “Not so long ago, the Waratahs won the Super Rugby competition under Michael Cheika with a ‘Liverpool attitude’”
About six years ago to be precise. I think we can agree that it was a while ago. Also, I know that you know how Cheika performed overall. Statistically, he had the worst win-loss ratio for any Wallabies coach ever.

Point four is just repetition and inconsistency.

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

4. “The heart of the team is the heart of the coach. The Kiwi coach should never have been given the job. Scott Johnson knows how to pick duds”
Alan, the dislike that you have for Scott Johnson is getting pretty petty. Also, I refer to your previous point regarding great teams and coaches. Which way do you want to have it?

Those are the comments The Australian would not publish.

I know my responses will resonate with the majority of this community. My challenge to the community, particularity those who read the The Australian, is to take up the fight here. Much like the Republican party in the USA, all of these poor souls who follow Alan’s words as gospel need some serious re-education. If I was rich and I knew stuff I would start the Lincoln Project equivalent to limit this man’s reputation in the rugby community.

Make no mistake, if you support Dave Rennie and you support Scott Johnson and you support what RA is trying to do to turn things around, then you must support the destruction of these ramblings.

A Chinese proverb goes something like this: a man can die from 1000 paper cuts. The way I see it, it’s either those mentioned above or Alan Jones’ column which will suffer this fate. Go forth and deliver, my Roarers.