Are Australian rugby's administrators courageous enough?

The real reason Bledisloe 3 was canned. Pretty big claims that the Kiwis have torpedoed the Perth game where proceeds belong to RA, so that they can negotiate more lucrative income from the game being played in Europe. Murky undertones that this is part of the ongoing PE negotiations with Silver Lake too. I started off saying I would not believe a word out of Marinos' mouth but what we are seeing today is outstanding with different stories in The Australian and the SMH both painting RA as the innocent victim. I have seen tips of icebergs before, but never one made totally of smoke. You can get away with it if you have enough mirrors.

No, you should see the story in the Australian, can you get access?

I was pitching for a project once and the diminutive Welshman was describing my role as being like a forward at a lineout protecting my half back (him). I landed the job anyway, even after thoughtlessly responding that some half backs are not worth protecting. Down the track I decided I had been quite insightful.

Sorry, I will ignore it, time I don't have. Just like these posts :laughing: What football are doing is very exciting. The reason is both sides are investing in each others' success. I can't remember the details but the structure of the deal is designed to increase the financial success of both sides. RA is so appallingly unsophisticated in its dealing with the broadcasters. They could not even come up with a tender package; 'here is some stuff we could do if you want, let us know which parts you like and how much you will pay'. That was even after paying hundreds of thousands to experts!! 'By the way we didn't include a NRC which is fundamental to future success because it is such a dud, nobody will ever watch it'. Some self serving individuals perpetuate the idea that rugby is a 'business' not a 'sport' so that we can pay millions to 3rd rate business people who can't get a job elsewhere. None of them have the requisite skills to run a coffee shop, let alone a complex beast like rugby union. I am really not in a good mood today :silly: . COVID is getting me down and I think they draw government officials from the same talent pool as sports administrators. :laughing: Lets catch up for those beers in 2024, we should be allowed out by then

You guys talk about rugby and courage, given what’s happening in both Aus and NZ, which could now be considered provinces of China, you have far more to be concerned about. Rugby doesn’t really matter when you live in a totalitarian dictatorship where your liberties are traded for your apparent ‘safety’

Back at you Midfielder, wait till you see this. Hang in there ... Understand that Midfielder, I have been saying the same thing for a long time. The similarity with soccer stops at the last chapter. The A League is now predominantly (totally?) controlled by private club owners. What are the costs of owning a football club in the A-League? If you take out some of the cross subsidisation of RA you are probably looking at $20-25m per annum for a SR club. There is a lot of upside in actually running the commercial side of a club really well, but I also do not see the depth of commercial expertise in managing sports. There is just not enough to go around. Here in Sydney alone, there are not enough quality operators at CEO level in the NRL. The amount of capital required to acquire, stabilise and grow these clubs and the relative chances of success make it unrealistic. You are talking about five Nathan Tinklers who have a passion for rugby in that region, and think they have a pot of gold. The key is in structure. We pretty much have a 19th century structure, tweaked by JON ten years ago to eliminate the influence of NSW and Qld, now leaving the RA board as a self-administering and unaccountable board with total control of the game's assets. The one smart thing Castle did, and there was only one, was insisting that she did a game wide review, visiting rugby at all levels across the country when she started. She was well received and widely praised, but neither she nor the board ever said anything about it again, let alone do anything based on what she discovered. If you need to turn any organisation around the first thing you must do is accept that you are failing, then honestly establish just what shape you are in, where you need to be, stabilise your organisation while developing a plan to grow into the organisation you want to be, implement, monitor progress, adapt etc. It will need a significant amount of capital and require new and better management. While McLennan/Clarke/Marinos have been vocal about how hopeless the previous administration was, there has been no hint of catastrophic failure, let alone any need to have a good long hard look at ourselves. A quick constitutional tinker to further reduce any accountability for the Board and management, and some PE money on any terms, are easily executed actions to restore us to glory. Wiggs certainly disagreed, he thought the place was absolutely cooked and insisted on immediate action if he was to accept the Chairman’s role. No surprise the board were unhappy, collective responsibility for an insolvent company is hardly something anyone needed to see out in the light of day. The ten captains disagreed too and offered the relatively more palatable solution of skirting an open admission of failure but implementing, and offering to assist in, a massive review of the game. These guys also ended up under a bus with the new Chairman suggesting that the Board were conducting their own review and that RA was not insolvent and able to operate in a safe harbour. As in all prior reviews the rugby public is not entitled to know if a review was carried out, or a report completed, and certainly not the contents of any report. While perfectly acceptable to operate under a safe harbour, given the impact of COVID, it is hard to believe that RA would be solvent, but for the belief that it is plausible that private equity investment is possible. I have no problem with that, but solving today’s solvency problem by selling a share of future revenues only kick passes the can down the road to future administrations. Yes, there is the Lions and RWC coming up, but they are essentially unknowns. Not doing anything today based on future ‘what ifs’ is fine for ‘fly by nights’ who move on to their next gig or disappear without explanation if the going gets tough. It is not a solution for bolted on rugby fans whose only interest is the long term health of the game. Hope you read this far, but the main point is that structure is absolutely key. The structure cannot change until you decide that the current structure is not, and never will be, working. Changing the constitution is a ‘must’, but only after you decide how rugby is to be structured and operated for success in the future. JON only tinkered while the ARU is burning, I don't think McLennan has the same latitude for inaction.

Yep it starts from the head.

Nice identification of problems Cheik but don't think your solution amounts to much. RA Board has absolute control of the game. They are also unaccountable for failures. There has never been a better example of a fish rotting from the head.

:shocked: :shocked: :shocked: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: By any other standard, reckless and negligent. Almost forgot, incompetent.

That is where the money and status is. People who care about rugby volunteer and do it for the love of the game and its future.

The RA board is unaccountable. The high performance review is being conducted by the CEO and two directors who were Wallabies a decade and more ago, and have spent their post rugby time in business and administration. Anyone think the outcomes will be published in full? They are fixated on absolute control over strategy and message, there is no transparency, and no way to hold them to account.

Private ownership of super rugby clubs is too unrealistic. The game needs to turn itself around, figure how it is best structured and perhaps have an eye to how private ownership can be brought into that structure. The best form of private ownership is by having a spread of members and running a club successfully. Again we are a long way from that. Private ownership is not similar at all to the private equity structures being promoted. In those the PE is buying the rights to Wallabies and SR and whatever else is tipped in. That is a permanent percentage of revenues leaking to the PE investor. They play no part in operations or bearing the costs of the game.

Players should come first, at every level. Players with certain qualities aspire to playing with and against better players to get better themselves. The Wallabies are critical to the game. The problem is that is where the money is and the game is now full of professional sports administrators whose interest is pay, status and their next gig.

Not enough quality people and spread across six organisations.

You really nail the issue of stakeholders. Players and paying supporters built the value of the game for over 100 years. Now it is owned by a "private company" with a closed and unaccountable board. The value built has been largely transferred to players and administrators in the last 25 years. We are all now just potential customers, and since 2003 ARU/RA has largely been chasing the much larger group of potential customers, people who are not rugby fans. Sadly they are not seeing the light and neglected rugby supporters are losing interest in being second class citizens. RA Board is only interested in being seen in the right places and staying solvent. Administrators are only interested in their status and remuneration. TV broadcasters and sponsors are the only people who count.