Reading recent comments regarding Rugby Australia and Hamish McLennan, I couldn’t help but draw some parallels with what Hamish McLennan and RA have accomplished over the last three years and what the Romans had provided for the Jews in the movie Life of Brian.
No doubt 99% of readers will recall the scene in the movie Life of Brian, where the indomitable leader of the People’s Front of Judaea, Stan, was trying to motivate his charges to take on the Romans.
Stan’s pitch was that the Romans had done nothing for the Jews and they would be better off without them. What follows from the gathered throng is list of what the Romans have done and how much better off their lives actually are, don’t forget the wine.
When Hamish McLennan and Rob Clarke took over RA, they were left with an organisation that was pretty much a basket case thanks to previous administration and coaching, Raelene Castle excepted.
I think their accomplishments warrant recognition.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
We are all aware of the obstacles that they had to overcome just to keep the game alive. Through their work we had a domestic Super Rugby comp with one game a week on free-to-air TV.
The broadcast deal now has grown to three Australian rugby shows a week, including a club-specific show.
There are live telecasts of the six Super Rugby Pacific games, all of the Brisbane and Sydney club games and the match of the round out of Perth.
There is the reintroduction of a truly national footprint with the Western Force being invited back into Super Rugby and the player and supporter flow-on from that.
There is a greater focus on First Nations people that has seen the anthem sung in a First Nation dialect by the players before a game, permanently having a First Nations presence on our Wallabies’ jumpers and retiring the Cook Cup and recognising our first First Nations captain Mark Ella on its replacement.
There is the retention of key Wallabies and future Wallabies, all done on a reduced budget.
There is the successful acquisition of both the Women’s Rugby World Cup and the Men’s Rugby World Cup, which will provide grassroots growth and funding, increased participation on all levels and greater support on all levels.
Lastly, there is Hamish McLennan’s drive to achieve the best outcome for Australian rugby and not take the first offer tabled if he believes he can achieve a better outcome for RA.
I can hear Stan saying, apart from all that, what has Hamish McLennan really done for Australian rugby?
Guess
Roar Rookie
Lots of the changes you mentioned is due to covid not Hamish
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Now hold on Hamish has friends you say??? None he has worked with that’s for sure
Micko
Roar Rookie
Does that really need explaining? Obviously the point of a competitive comp sees a quick turnaround between a team being a wooden spooner, and that same team being competitive and challenging at the top again.
Double Agent
Guest
How can any competition in any sport have all teams having a realistic chance of challenging for titles? Every comp has wooden spooners.
Malotru
Roar Rookie
No great task keeping Rugby out of the media EFF. Ch7 news, wall to wall AFL, occasional league story, then NBA, cricket, netball, women's AFL, tiddlywinks and just about anything but Rugby. ABC ditto, don't know about the rest but would assume it's much the same.
Malotru
Roar Rookie
The thing missing in that narrative Paulo is that the board of directors make decisions, not the CEO. The CEO's role is to provide information, options and a degree of advice. The position of the organisation is invariably dictated by the board of directors. Castle may have made mistakes though on day to day issues (the initial response to the Folau saga springs to mind). In all other respects responsibility could and should be sheeted home to the board.
Steve 50
Roar Rookie
I want negotiations done in public I’m nosey and disagree with you that it Should be behind close doors
ozziedude
Roar Rookie
Predictable response.. funny that you agreed with everything i wrote as you paraphrased it back to me yet still needed to find a way to weave in the anti Aussie rugby sentiment as with most of your stuff :stoked: must be quite draining for you ..different strokes aye! anyways troll on dude
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Wtf are you on about? Or are you trolling Micko and his word salads? :laughing: It must hard for you to write something meaningful in opposition to my comment when you know I’m right. So you’ve resorted to this. It’s all good :stoked: I’m out (washes hands in a basin of water)
ozziedude
Roar Rookie
Here we go :laughing: You know what they say about empty vessels…
Paulo
Roar Rookie
If I was trolling Micko I’d keep referencing him shaking his fist at the sky yelling about Kiwis. But I didn’t, I parked that a few years ago. Effectively, we’re all basically saying the same thing in that something needs to change. The difference is in part who is responsible for the crap sandwich we have right now, and what the solution is. Finger pointing serves no real purpose and is just a media sound bite. As for a solution, I don’t think NZR or RA should put all eggs in a SR basket. NZ still maintained NPC, but RA don’t have the same thing. They need to set up a tier level or rugby co p that can operate nationally/domestically. But also maintaining some sort of outside competition with other competitive countries. Geographically, that means there aren’t many options, for either of us. If it is a club/franchise based comp, then it needs a revamp and can’t be SR 4.0 or what ever we are up to. One major problem, is NZR and RA get along about as well as we do. So very hard to have a sound conversation when we’re constantly sniping at each other, and blaming the other side while pretending we are virtuous. I don’t see all this talk in the media as being constructive, and it’s not just kiwis that have criticised it.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Your examples are meaningless. Argentina beat NZ after several years of SR exposure, where the Jaguares improved regularly peaking with a finals appearance a in ‘19. Would Argentina have beaten NZ without years of SR? Who knows, but just because there was no SR that specific year you can’t write off the impact it must have had in them. And the ‘19 semi as the most one sided and dominant loss for the ABs in 30yrs? LOL that wasn’t even the biggest hiding the ABs got in just that year! I’d say Aus in Perth was a bigger hiding, or Ireland in Chicago? I’m sure in 30yrs there will be far more, those are just a couple of the top of my head. But look, I agree RA should not be all about competing with NZ, I’ve never said they should and I don’t think many people have said that either. Both RA and NZR have used SR as a protectionist model to develop the national sides. They both restrict player movements through national selection criteria, NZR more so than RA but not be much. Something does needs to change, I just think we have different solutions or think different things are viable.
Micko
Roar Rookie
"Top ranked sides" Paulo? :silly: They're literally most of the nations in Europe where the sport has any popularity or cultural impact. And they're about half of the global nations for the sport full stop. Give me a break!! :laughing:
Micko
Roar Rookie
The point is that rugby union isn't big enough in Australia to realistically have an international one off/multi-game format with NZ in their national sport and worshipped national team, but we all know who wanted this, and who benefited the most. This is linked to the current failed SR format Paulo, with kiwis wanting a disingenuous weird protectionist development war format in the pro era, where Australia can't sustain many competitive teams due to not having the player depth NZ has, but can't really afford to have the sport only represented by just three pro franchises nationwide. Yet NZR has made no concessions in evening up the competition by dropping their mandate, and allowing NZ players to play for Australian franchises. This parochial mentality from NZ has meant that SR is an objective failure, and bleeds money on both sides of the Tasman. Meanwhile the AFL & NRL are increasing their viewership and ratings over the past decades, and SR further sinks into an abyss!
ozziedude
Roar Rookie
Some trolls are best ignored Micko, they'll twist yr words into irrelevant nonsensical discussions and end up agreeing with you anyway!
Ex force fan
Guest
Steer the ship, keep rugby out of the media, changing the culture, aligning stakeholders to work together- not being a Clyne…
ozziedude
Roar Rookie
Sure thing guest.
AndyS
Guest
And for most but a hard-bitten few who believe that time could have been stopped, that was less golden and more just the shine hadn't worn off. It was a period of complacency when a poor deal done in haste was never revisited or planned past, and the weaknesses it enshrined (even encouraged) set the code up for the decline of the last 20 years. As he found out himself second time around. It is not a case of half full or half empty, the question is what's the substance?
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Was it 11? I thought one pulled out and said I don’t want my name on that? To be honest, I don’t know a lot, I don’t have a high care factor. But I’ve seen enough and I think James was using quite a bit of hyperbole in his assessment. It’s all good, you guys have your position, others have theirs, I have mine. My personally position is less than meaningless in the grand scheme, so I wouldn’t really worry about what I think to be honest.
Warwick Todd
Guest
Paulo, what do you actually know about the machinations of RA, now and during Castles tenure? Do you know more than the 11 ex Wallabies captains that wanted the entire board to stand aside? You’re not one of the speculators that believes the decorated coterie were motivated by bigotry and misogyny?