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?
RobC
Roar Guru
korek
Harry Jones
Expert
Not a no man neither
RobC
Roar Guru
Dunno exactly HaaaaazzzzAÀAAAAAÀRAAAAaaaaAAA. Should be a NSW man. Not a yes man. Nor a yesterdays man.
Harry Jones
Expert
So who will it be, Robbity?
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Sadly, I don't think they will be surprised, because they will never notice. Fort Fumble lives, there are only windows, no mirrors.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
It gets worse Harry. We were all critical of Marinos sacking Rennie by Zoom from South Africa. At the time I felt it appalling that no director in Australia at the time took on the responsibility of meeting him in person. Now we find out Andy was the only person defending Rennie, and the Board saw fit to require him to fire Rennie over Zoom. Maybe Marinos felt obligated to be the bearer of bad news, but it only lowers my opinion of the people running rugby in this country. Who would have thought that was possible? Easts will always be my club but I wonder if I can become enamoured with Aussie Rules? Or soccer, the game day experience at Sydney FC certainly leaves the Waratahs for dead.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Its causing a lot of confusion Dean, we rarely see so much media coverage of this type of deal, it is mostly around the sort of transaction you assumed. Secondly the rugby administrators like to build that impression. It sounds like they are sophisticated and they like to trumpet the supposed value of the game e.g. NZ Rugby is valued at $3b. What it means is that if you are just entitled to receive $200m a year (the revenue) with no costs, then that is valued at $3b. You can rest assured that most of the profits are negotiated in to the deal by the PE executives up front. When a rugby organisation like RA or the English Premiership sell out to PE, they are desperate for cash, and will do almost any deal. English clubs are broke because they sold 27% of the Competition's revenue (presumably mostly TV rights) for STG13m each, most of which was used to repay debts or owners. You have to replace the revenues very quickly or you are likely to just keep losing money. This is dangerous for RA who say they are going to repay debt, and pay marquee players from NRL or to rugby players to "stay here" or "come home". The balance will be locked up in a trust somehow. Is it possible for community rugby to be less supported? I think so. Quite a scandal, the Constitution requires RA to look after all rugby, from elite to grass roots. Presumably in return for receiving all of the assets of community rugby for zero. Now they will sell them into the company that will be under the influence of the PE investor.
Dean
Roar Rookie
Thank you for the explanation. Think I was trite confused with Takeover/Privatisation.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Dean that is not how the PE deals work. They lock in a share of the revenue by putting all the commercial rights, and revenue earning activities, into another company and having an equity share in it. From a risk perspective they need to stay right away from RA management. One risk for the PE is that RA goes broke and it cannot organise games etc. There will be contractual protections (such as taking control of the rights etc) but the last thing they need is a dispute where RA blames PE for going broke. For this reason PE will not want to be seen anywhere need a decision made by RA. It could even expose employees of the PE to legal action where they can be shown to be 'shadow directors'. A bit like Clive Palmer where his nephew was the legally appointed director.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Harry, you now need to read the absolute hatchet job by Jessica Halloran in the Australian and Daily Telegraph. A "source in the know" explained how the board are collegiate and nimble, debating the big ideas. Its all Andy's fault, apparently a track record of going off on his own in complete defiance of board directions. Things like the Suaalii signing are down to McLellan making all the moves. Likewise Hamish reached out to Kerevi and agreed in principle on a $1.2m pa contract, only to have Marinos cruel the deal by offering a one year $900k contract. If Marinos is as bad as they now say, then the performance of the board belongs in a high school students union. We should now make one of them CEO? The briefing of journalists is absolutely disgraceful, if not outright cowardly. I am increasingly disgusted with administration of rugby at state and national level. They act in total contradiction with my personal values, and I bet a lot of others feel the same way. Maybe Dave Rennie would not have made the semi finals at the RWC. I honestly don't have an opinion on that. I guess we won't know until we see the quality of opposition that turns up to play against us. Maybe Eddie will do better with a hit and run. I do not believe anyone could say with certainty which one would have been more successful in France. There will be a lot of rugby faithful, no matter their views on which coach would be more successful at RWC 2023, who believe a five year contract for Eddie is a massive risk. I would say Marinos may have been in the majority. The biggest factor in on-field success will be the quality of coaching and development pathways for the large group of players that will be available for selection in 2027. That would be the area where ARU/RA have been failing dismally for almost 30 years. Don't be confused about Hamish the magician, by the time he has finished we will be able to put the game back in a hat.
LBJ
Roar Rookie
A succession plan? What are you on about?! He hasn't even kicked a ball yet. How is that remotely a topic of interest?
mushi
Roar Guru
An opinion piece is exactly that an opinion. I'd you ask someone's opinion of you garden do you require multiple peer review horticulturalists quoted?
RobC
Roar Guru
Thanks Haaazzaaaa!!! Godfather comes to mind - Tom Hagen was let go as consigliere - The family was going to war - As RARA goes to its own "war". Hamish needs a wartime #2 - I dont think Marino is the kind of guy for it. And I dont think its something he signed up for
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
RA has form here Harry. They did the same with Rennie. The "kumbaya" comments happened after all the bodies were on the floor, not during the gutting process. It's quite revealing of character and mettle, methinks. 'No honour' indeed.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Honestly, I think Rennie was well on track. Well, the stats don't lie I'm afraid. We had a snowballs chance in hell without hope. Now we still have a snowballs chance... but with some hope.
KiwiHaydn
Roar Rookie
Honestly, I think Rennie was well on track. Built significant depth and had pushed the All Blacks and both Ireland and France on the 2022 EOYT.
Dean
Roar Rookie
Personally, I think that the Private Equity deal is the only way we will see the required cultural change at RA. RA May think it is holding the strings however, we know that big money want big returns. That will include “efficiency” (less staff) and results that can be forecast.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
We were heading for an early exit under Rennie as it was. Everything about this World Cup campaign is Hail Mary.
Wig
Roar Rookie
Eddie eddie eddie :thumbup:
The Ferret
Roar Rookie
Someone just needs to teach Eddie jones how to use Adobe so he can do the rest of the marketing teams work for them.