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Opinion
Rugby Australia has a handful of great cards: a fantasy World Cup draw, a Lions series in 2025, a flush budget, gleaming new stadia, and a renewed general interest in the code due to a charismatic new head coach.
So why is the organisation losing their clearly successful CEO four months before the big show, not long after their flagship Wallabies shed its top two assistant coaches and the scrum coach?
Did the CEO preside over a money loss? No. Was he a fair weather lad? No, he was around for tough times. Did the CEO invent drama? No, he was devoid of drama.
In the aftermath of Andy Marinos’ oddly timed resignation, with whispers and innuendos that he had lost the boardroom by being the voice of caution on League targeting, a fiscal conservative, and commuting the cardinal sin when Eddie Jones is ‘coach’ (headman): not wanting to fire Dave Rennie and replace him right before a World Cup with Jones, and then being a counterbalance to both Jones and his kindred spirit, fiery Hamish McLennan.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Anything counter, no matter how balanced, ends up being seen as disloyal, disruptive, disappoints, and dissing.
The most dangerous place in Australian rugby is to be between Hamish and Eddie or between them and a camera or mic; close behind that would be to oppose their aims.
Andy was muting what Hamish was mooting.
It did not sit well.
The Eddie-and-Ham show is all about flooding the zone, kicking media doors down, winning footholds in the brash Australian sport consciousness, out-Leaguing League, outleaping the AFL, and explaining everything away in the context of coming Cups and tours.
In the place of quiet professionals, the talk is about bringing in similar brassy top brass: Phil Kearns, who never lacked for confidence or Phil Waugh, who plays life like he did rugby; or maybe both.
It is Eddie’s era and we are all just living in it: Hamish got what he wanted and scepticism is now viewed as weakness.
But will this last?
Is this not all premised on winning?
What happens if the Wallabies fail to fire, get bounced like Ireland did in 2019 in a quarterfinal? Besides blaming Dave Rennie and Marinos and all the clubs and perhaps a ref, will the second Jones honeymoon mutate into a circular firing squad?
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan. (Photo by Tom Dulat/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
Almost certainly. Eddie Jones, at England and now in Australia, has staked his reputation on one big tournament. It was worth it to him to saw off old relationships to gain new ones, and he is focused like a laser beam on France 2023 with its lovely pathway to a semifinal.
If the Wallabies stumble in a pool or quarter, the new sport will be to find blame. The culture of the camp will then be front and centre.
The actual love in the brotherhood will then be relevant. Not exigency or expediency or political alliances.
Ireland is the number one rugby nation at the moment: several of the coaches in the national setup could be head coaches for clubs or countries but are highly unlikely to leave any time soon.
Visit Ireland’s rugby world for any amount of time and you will feel the love, the trust, and the commitment.
Head coach Andy Farrell has right hand man Mike Catt on attack, Simon Easterby devising defence, Paul O’Connell teaching manic precision, Richie Murphy drilling skills, John Fogarty training the scrum, strength and conditioning by Jason Cowman, some of the finest analysts in the world, tightly run media, and a well known doctor.
They have a strong board who do not get in front of the camera. Chair and CEO and the rest? Unknown, but staying in their lanes and getting results.
O’Connor can walk into a head coaching job but won’t. Catt could be director of rugby but loves his post. Farrell is self-effacing and listens to David Nucifora and Stuart Lancaster, who differ with him and each other but sort it out without leaking to their favourite pens.
Ireland has all hands on deck.
Eddie has Hamish and Hamish has the board and they both have most of the media dancing to their tune.
Gone to the Midlands is amiable, hard-working, and successful Dan McKellar, who won the gig at the title-chasing Leicester Tigers ahead of Michael Cheika and Rassie Erasmus. Very few coaches going right now are more valued than big Dan, who joined us on the podcast from his weights room, and admitted Rennie had ‘mentioned’ succession with him before the sack happened.
Having any sort of continuity at all, especially with a player group which will not differ much, with only months before the Cup, would have been optimal, but now Eddie is steadily and surely more and more the alpha and omega of coaching oxygen in Camp Wallaby.
McKellar pointed to disruption in S&C as one factor for the horrific injury tally in the Rennie era, but now almost the entire staff will be in change management mode.
Brumbies brother-in-arms Laurie Fisher also declined to serve under the irascible Eddie, along with scrum guru Petrus du Plessis, whose cryptic prose bore the marks of style differences.
Other losses have been filled by cross-code coaches.
Not long after good news of a modest budget surplus were announced, CEO Marinos resigned (or ‘resigned’ by agreement).
Together with Eddie, Hamish is now one of the two biggest personalities in Aussie rugby. As they size up, others (including players) size down.
It would be odd indeed for a CEO of any union to step down at this exact stage, but stranger still after announcing a surplus, and bringing on a new coaching team, whilst losing the old assistants.
The likeliest reason is that he felt he was no longer CEO. Hamish has gobbled up that portfolio, and then shared it with Eddie.
When Andy Marinos was on our podcast, he did not disagree that Eddie needs a counter balance.
He said he was one of those. He left Eddie to the rugby, he thought. But in this era, there is not as clear a line as Andy imagined. Also, if Andy was not a fan of bringing Eddie in 2023, that was not a secret.
If targeting rugby league backs like Joseph Suaalii was a strategy Andy disagreed with, was it a rugby topic or a budget topic?
None of us immediately likes to hear ‘nay’. We like ‘yea’. But we do better when we have a strong, wise voice we trust that tells us why we are wrong in this particular moment.
Partnership is saving each other from our own worst instincts. We have blind spots.
Eddie does best when he has a strong assistant Steve (Borthwick) or when he answers to a Jake White.
Who is his counterbalance now?
Who will it be?
What strong coach would say yes?
How independent will the next CEO be?
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.