Opinion
Nick Malouf raising the silverware with the Australian men’s sevens team in the grandstand at So Kon Po was not meant to happen.
In December 2021, Rugby Australia (RA) announced that men’s coach Tim Walsh and women’s coach John Manenti would swap roles.
With no context, this exchange would have seemed peculiar. RA however understood the assignment.
Weight was once more being thrown behind the women’s program, with Walsh deemed the man to take them in the right direction.
Manenti on the other hand was sent to take on a previously impossible task with the men, who had time and time again failed to establish themselves as consistent performers.
This was a demotion.
The men’s side had been thrown back into semi-professionalism after RA’s budget cuts. Full-time positions had been reduced to six, players were loaned out to Super franchises or let go, and the team then received the second-best coach at RA’s disposal.
It wasn’t a death sentence for the program, but it certainly was a move backwards. There is simply no way that RA intended the Aussie men to flourish under these new conditions.
No doubt it was important for the men to remain visible and occasionally competitive, but the new regime imposed upon them did not exactly lend itself to more preferable outcomes. It was a concession.
A seventh-place finish at the 2020 Olympics and financial constraints combined and made the men expendable.
(Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
In the ultimate irony, it was the masterstroke decision from RA that led to success for the men.
Who would have thought that drastically reducing their budget was in fact their key to success? RA knew that the men only needed six full-time contracts to succeed, any more would have been indulgent.
The men lifted the World Series trophy in 2022, after a third-place finish in Los Angeles snuck them to the top of the leader board for the first time in the history of the competition. A gold in London and five podium finishes in the eight-leg competition was about as much consistent success as one could have asked for.
Despite everything, Manenti and the side he coined the ‘Misfits’ had toppled the world’s best.
The side are truly misfits. Some have played professionally in Super Rugby, however very few and very little. Others are young and upcoming talent, pushed into sevens for professionalism and experience.
The vast majority however, if not for sevens, would be playing club rugby in either New South Wales or Queensland.
It has become apparent that sevens is in fact not directly comparable to 15s and vice versa. We have seen Super Rugby players and even Wallabies underwhelm in the World Series. Some of the current sevens squad are good, but not outstanding club players.
It doesn’t matter. It is a different sport. One may be indicative of the other, but it is not a direct correlation. The current stock needs to be good at sevens, and they are.
And it’s time to pay them.
It is time to reward the program, reward the coach and reward the players. If the 13 players collectively can be the best in the world on Sunday afternoon in Hong Kong, they should all be paid more than minimum wage.
The players have earnt the right to be respected in RA’s order of importance.
Financial impacts of COVID have started to disband and RA are not in the red like they once were. So open the books and get some money back into the men’s program.
Despite what may have been accounted for, they are the premier sevens program and should be treated as such.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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