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Opinion
Dear Phil. I’m aware you’re about to start a new role as the CEO of the body that governs our sport. First up, congratulations. To be put in charge of helping steer our game forward is something that many players and fans wish they could do themselves.
Despite the results of Super Rugby Pacific, there is good reason for us to look forward to the future of our game. Touted by some to be the ‘Golden Decade’, we have a Lions Tour in 2025, and World Cups in 2027 and 2029 are incredible opportunities, and with the likes of Eddie Jones as coach there is hope we can start to do the one thing Australian rugby needs more than anything else: win.
It makes sense then to have someone who has not only had extensive business experience and success at Westpac, CommBank, Capital Finance and NAB (in addition to already serving five years on the RA board), but also is a 79 capped Wallaby captain, and one of the most capped Waratah players of all time.
However, I think many fans are going to look at this appointment with trepidation, and that is not a reflection on you, your career or your credentials and capabilities in the role.
Hamish McLennan and Phil Waugh. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
Australia’s rugby public have been watching the last few years. They’ve seen the diminishing returns of both our Super Rugby clubs and the national side. The off-field controversies. It’s impossible not to ignore. If there is a feeling I can sum it up as, it is of being tired of the bad news stories, and of glimpses of potential for no result. We want action.
I think I speak for many when I say this, in the politest way possible: please don’t stuff this up.
I don’t think you’re going to, by the way. Many online commenters and armchair critics are quick to pass judgment on the heads of our sporting bodies, the easy targets of online vitriol when the results on the field or the challenges of running the sport do not fall in our favour.
Rugby has taken its fair share of hits over the last few years in the era of Castle and Marinos, and while many are quick to dismiss these former CEOs, many of their achievements laid the groundwork for where we are now. It would impertent and wrong to automatically assume the worst. This role is, as you eloquently put earlier today, a responsibility.
So, in the event that you do stumble across this, here are three things I think that, when the day comes that you depart the role, should be goals that you aim to resolve in your tenure. This isn’t done as an audience poll, these are picked by just me, as a fan of our game who is striving to find new ways for our game to progress forward.
Priority One: The complete professionalisation of the Women’s Game
Women’s rugby is incredible. Covering the Super W and the Wallaroos over the last few years, the sheer enthusiasm and determination of our girls in gold has been a privilege to watch. This is a side of our game on the up, and should be our central area of growth for the Golden Decade.
It’s comforting to know that of all the goals, this is the one that has seen the most progress. The Sevens program has been hugely successful, but also the commitment in February this year to update playing contracts and a commitment to have the Wallaroos fully professional by 2025.
The reality is that where we are now is the start line. If the Wallaroos are to have a chance of winning the 2029 Rugby World Cup, it will not just be the national team that will have to be professional. A commitment to a longer, professional schedule with Super W and a combined schedule with Aupiki across the Tasman should be on the table.
The opportunity with this investment, however, is immense. Like the Wallabies are the signature brand for Australian rugby, the Wallaroos present an untapped wealth of opportunity to further the reach of our game. The fact they have only had 67 test matches across their entire history is a crime.
Seeing what the Red Roses in England or the Matildas in our own backyard have achieved, the sky’s the limit for future stars to follow in the footsteps of Shannon Parry, Grace Hamilton and more.
Ryan McCauley of Sydney competes at the lineout during the round 2 NRC match between Brisbane City and Sydney at Bond University. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Priority Two: untangling the challenge of Australia’s pathways
It was particularly encouraging to hear that one of your priorities is a resolution to Australia’s pathways. In truth, it is one of the major issues that kneecaps our potential.
When fans look at the direct challenges our Super Rugby sides face, it’s player depth, player conditioning and player cohesion. Coming up against teams in New Zealand who play 24 games a season in Super Rugby and the NPC, and it gives their players a serious advantage.
This is not isolated to New Zealand either, with South African players having access to over 30 rounds of competitive rugby in the URC and Currie Cup, and the Top 14 in France having a mammoth 26 round regular season. Even here in Australia there is an appetite for more rugby, with RugbyWA recently expanding the Fortescue Premier Grade to a 22 round regular season, and the Western Force confirming a four match series with the Cheetahs in August to try and give their players more game time.
When the rugby season for our non-Wallaby professional players ends in early June and they play no professional level rugby until the season starts again next year, something is wrong.
Of course, they do play rugby in respective premier grade competitions like the Shute Shield and Queensland Premier Grade. But, while this strategy proved invaluable during the Nineties when the gap was not so big a jump, in the age of professionalism it is no longer the case now.
If Premier Grade rugby competitions are to foster that talent and depth, we need a solution similar to the NPC in New Zealand and the Currie Cup in South Africa: a professional competition that serves as the bridge between clubland and our professional sides, giving those players the game miles and time together they need.
Of course, this discussion is not new in Australian rugby, with the Australian Rugby Championship and the National Rugby Championship both attempting to fill this gap in the past. Critics of these competitions took aim at the lack of fan interest, the struggle to connect with some sectors of the rugby community, and the financial cost.
But I answer those critics with a question: is fan engagement the goal of the NSW Cup in rugby league? Or of the NPC in New Zealand? No, it is to serve as a pathway. Former NZRU chief executive Steve Tew was often asked about if the NPC would be affected during the shake up of Super Rugby, even when many of the unions in that competition were running at a financial loss.
“Our system for decades has produced great players and great coaches. It is our job to make sure our system is refined and resourced and continues to do that,” he responded in a 2019 interview with CNBC.
Even if it comes with a financial burden, will benefits outweigh the costs? For New Zealand, it does, because the investment into the NPC sees them with strong Super Rugby clubs and a strong All Blacks brand that recoup the investment down the track. Australia needs a bridging competition.
Do we bring back the NRC? Do we implement the success of Super Rugby AU and turn that into our domestic competition in the latter half of the year? There are options on the table. But it serves as the key piece of the puzzle missing from our pathways.
Priority Three: a micromanagement approach to grassroots
Grassroots is one of the most heavily debated topics in Australian rugby, and it is often one of the easiest targets critics level at rugby.
But what does investment in grassroots rugby actually look like? Is it a simple case of money? Will money solve declining team numbers, will it give clubs the business know-how to pick up sponsors? The reality is that the challenges a club like the Penrith Emus face are completely different to the challenges a club like Macquarie University faces. Are the issues of Elizabeth Rugby Club in Adelaide the same as the Bathurst Bulldogs? Honestly, probably not.
Waratahs winger Max Jorgensen’s father Peter Jorgensen watches him make his debut in Sydney. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
A particular comment you made from earlier today really stood out to me: “Rugby starts and ends in our communities, at our local rugby clubs – to drive the game forward, we must place more emphasis than ever before on engaging and connecting with all areas of our broader Rugby community.”
When you boil it down to its simplest form, rugby is about community. And so, if our game and our clubs are to survive, we need to find ways to transform those clubs into functioning pillars of the community, integral areas where people come together.
How can a governing body help with that? A program like this is complex, but I believe that RA has the know-how to implement programs to engage with clubs in this manner.
Clubs can be connected to school sports programs, to community centres, to local businesses, and find new ways of passing on the experience and know-how to keep a club functioning.
Community Rugby is built on the back of the volunteers, the local people who run the barbecue and the canteen, the men and women who set up the ground on a Saturday morning. Strong community clubs means that more people will be interested in playing, which means more engagement, which means a stronger community and a stronger union overall.
***
Of course, I expect you to know a lot of this. But it is one thing to talk and another to walk the walk. In a decade where Australian rugby is set to win big, we may soon have the resources to enact all of the challenges that our game faces.
At the end of it all, Australian rugby fans are unique: people who often have either played the game or know someone who’s played the game. The challenges are hard, probably harder than any other national union on the planet right now, but with the right investment, you have the potential to lay the groundwork for generations to come.
Welcome to being CEO, it’s going to be a wild ride.
Regards,
A Potential Fan of Yours
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.