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Joined October 2012
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Geoff is a Melbourne based sports fanatic and writer, who started contributing to The Roar in 2012, originally under the pen name Allanthus. His first book, A World in Conflict; the Global Battle For Rugby Supremacy was released in Dec 2017 to critical acclaim. For details on the book visit www.geoffparkes.com Meanwhile, his twin goals of achieving a single figure golf handicap and owning a fast racehorse remain tantalisingly out of reach.
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Is there any Australian sport that does a letter quite like rugby does? After months of disquiet about the actions of Rugby Australia chairman…
It’s only mid-November, but given what a wild ride it’s been, now feels like a good time to wrap up the 2023 rugby year.…
In the wake of Australia’s shambolic pool stage exit at the World Cup, Rugby Australia announced last Thursday, the appointment of a three-person panel…
The 10th Rugby World Cup is over. After seven weeks, at times drawn out, at others exhilarating, South Africa has become the first nation…
It all began on the 13th August 1921. New Zealand versus South Africa may not be rugby’s oldest rivalry, but incorporating the two nations…
With rugby’s two greatest rivals, New Zealand and South Africa, set to square off in the World Cup final, fans everywhere should be relishing…
PARIS - On what was roundly hailed as one of rugby’s best ever weekends, the World Cup quarter-finals were conspicuous by Australia’s absence. Everyone…
There’s an iconic image which captures the conclusion of the second Test in Pretoria in 1996, where, for the first time in their history,…
There isn’t a person with even the slightest bit of rugby knowledge who doesn’t know that the draw for the 2023 World Cup is…
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It’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship time again this week at the home of golf, St Andrews, where New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, coming off a…
Like having to endure Chinese water torture, the Wallabies 2023 World Cup is still not strictly over. Even though, despite their 34-14 win against…
It’s been tough work wading through the aftermath of the Wallabies’ early World Cup exit, with understandable outpourings of anger and frustration to the…
In a World Cup that goes for seven weeks, Australia lasted two weeks, one day. Forget about permutations that might see Australia go through…
So much for this column being a late-in-the-week, casual stroll around the edges of this World Cup, ticking off a few culinary delights and…
SAINT ETIENNE - After a promising opening weekend, where Georgia was dispatched with relative comfort and conviction, Australia’s World Cup took a dark turn…
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Another week, another player damaged to the extent his playing career is called into question. Another week, another media frenzy tapping into the emotions…
While the Rugby World Cup pool groupings are a well-documented schemozzle, nobody could accuse organisers of not making the best of a bad situation,…
PARIS - World Cups are funny things. Most nations run to a four-year cycle, planning things to the minute. Yet here were the All…
Dunno, Ken. I’ll check with some of my close Irish and sheep friends…
'Sad to see him go': Young gun Gordon says Wallabies won't be scarred from World Cup flop
Carter’s knee is like the indicator light on Paddy’s car. “Yeah, its working… no, it’s not… yes it is…”
'Sad to see him go': Young gun Gordon says Wallabies won't be scarred from World Cup flop
That’s true Peter, it would be helpful if everybody knew more detail as to what centralisation actually entails. And the point about lack of trust in RA is valid, and Herbert and Waugh have already identified the rebuilding of this as an urgent requirement.
That said, the state’s letter clearly indicates that they too recognise the need for a more centralised system, and it will be interesting from here to observe how genuine that is and how well all parties go about it.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
I think it can be about both, whistleblower.
Certainly the big push to oust McLennan was personality driven.
What remains to be seen is how genuine these states are in achieving the reform that is needed.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
I think that kind of governance structure has long since been replaced by ‘the vibe’ and ‘I know a mate who has a mate’, CW…
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
No question, Rob. Firing Hamish solves one problem. But it doesn’t solve the big problem…
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
I agree with you, JN. Good to get in at the bottom.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
There you go Adam… who needs a chairman when we’ve got Google!
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Good post, Ed.
That fear or concern you have around a void in experience is valid.
Fingers crossed it comes to nothing.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Just to be clear Simon, I’m certainly not accusing Justin Harrison of being part of any ‘jobs for the boys’. Nor Phil Waugh. He’s been in the job five minutes. Now he has some clear air, without a micromanaging chairman over his shoulder, let’s see what he can do.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
“Chairmen and CEO’s are fired daily for those reasons alone.”
True, Perthstayer. I find McLennan’s comments today that he was the target of a smear campaign, and that the state’s motivation was some kind of conspiracy deeper than a mere issue with his personality, to be nothing more than him trying to shore up his legacy on the way out.
Nevertheless, the point still stands that, until Waugh and Herbert prove themselves, and until the states walk the talk on centralisation, there are rightful concerns about a lack of leadership experience, and a fear of a return of debilitating parochialism and infighting.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
I’m accountable to my readers, LBJ. I am paid to express my opinion, which I do, always with the intent of being considered and informative. Some (many?) people appreciate that, others form different opinions, it’s no more or less than that. If I got as many things wrong as McLennan did, I would lose this job, and rightly so.
In the case of Hamish McLennan, what you might consider disrespectful is nothing more than calling out some behaviour unbecoming of a board chair, some demonstrably poor decision-making and a failure to accept responsibility and be accountable for those decisions. If McLennan is still your man after all that, you’re well entitled to hold that view. But I’ve got a load of messages from Australian and NZ rugby officials, RA staff, his colleagues and ex-colleagues from other businesses, as well as my own eyes, to support what I have written.
What you call backing away from accountability today is merely recognising that this isn’t an absolute matter. Deserved or not, McLennan’s exit is not all good news for Australian rugby.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
“Inevitable and necessary” indeed, Dani.
And so frustrating, because it didn’t have to be that way, had McLennan been able to add a bit more finesse, humility and empathy to the rest of his armoury.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
He was never staying on the board in any capacity other than chair.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
That’s the relevance Cassandra.
Nothing to do with politics in the left v right sense.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Centralisation definitely does not mean the central body directing players around as they see fit. This isn’t what happens in NZ, the franchises still compete for players and players are free to go wherever they choose to go.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Yes, TWAS. The detail around centralisation hasn’t even been properly articulated.
It’s more a general sense that constitutional change along these lines is necessary, along with the need for change and improvement across a number of other areas.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Yes, and just to clarify as per comments I made a couple of weeks ago… Justin is a genuine, highly valued contributor to Australian rugby. The concern is solely around his being appointed to the review panel where he could potentially be required to make critical findings against players he represents and/or the administration his association relies upon for funding.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Thanks for the post, Benn. We’re all informed by our own experiences. Mine are that the overtly political and overwrought aspects of the COVID response (not COVID itself), from so-called leaders on both sides of politics, caused great anguish and harm to members of my staff, caused severe financial hardship to my business, which we are yet to recover from, and caused many other people I know to lose their businesses and in some cases, homes.
You may brush this off as “letting the covid thing go”, and good luck to you if you were on the winning side. COVID outcomes were indeed very good for people in certain cohorts.
IMO it’s entirely appropriate to use those failings, enabled by the system of federation, as an analogy for similar concerns for Australian rugby. For all of McLennan’s failings, he was right about the need for constitutional change.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
Point well made, KP. My analogy certainly intended to highlight the role of the states and the central administration together. Not a left v right argument, just an illustration that in a time where we needed leaders to step up, the federation structure only served to highlight how weak and self-interested they were.
Rugby’s issues are bigger than just that, but the system is definitely an important inhibitor.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
The shortest off-season on record, BF – lasted a whole week!
Let’s hope this is it for a while, we can all digest this, have a proper break over Xmas and come back next year in a more positive frame of mind towards Australian rugby.
ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one
He references that period in one of the songs on this album, Lux, ‘Vestavia Hills’, about how the boy genius has grown now. I recently saw a doco where they had footage of him on stage with the Truckers, and an absolute mess. At the age he was it was borderline criminal how they let him become like that, but as the saying goes, I guess that’s rock and roll…
The 2023 Wrap: Man who was 'dropped from heaven' and the abject s--t show that followed in his wake
Enjoy the break, Paulo. Cheers.
The 2023 Wrap: Man who was 'dropped from heaven' and the abject s--t show that followed in his wake
No it isn’t, and he frequently makes a point about ‘donating’ his salary.
This has nothing to do with money Ben, and everything to do with personality.
The 2023 Wrap: Man who was 'dropped from heaven' and the abject s--t show that followed in his wake
Good on you, cs!
'Sad to see him go': Young gun Gordon says Wallabies won't be scarred from World Cup flop