Australian Rugby / RA

[Derpus]

I find it hilariously ironic that RA went down the exact path (tv/steaming deal wise) that in a round about way cost her her job

She never recovered, through no fault of her own, from the IF saga. Oh and from being a female executive in Australia.

 

[wamberal]

She never recovered, through no fault of her own, from the IF saga. Oh and from being a female executive in Australia.

She was absolutely, and irredeemably, "not one of us"!!!

 

[Members Section]

She never recovered, through no fault of her own, from the IF saga. Oh and from being a female executive in Australia.

Just for what its worth & only in my personal opinion we needed a complete 100% clean out on field, off field & in the board room. Thats happened lets move on. IF situation left a bitter taste around rugby no matter what side you were on. There were no winners

 

[dru]

Assuming you're being sarcastic, but that's cool. I'm not employed by The Aus, but just wanted to share something I'd written which compared the year that's been for the four Australian men's football codes and how I saw Rugby's year in reflection. As I said in my original post, sure plenty of you disagree, and that's your pregorative - not an issue whatsoever at my end. Cheers, have a good one.

No sarcasm at all. And I’ve said before I like your podcast.

I just completely disagree re Castle.

Wish you all the best and will keep watching your pod.

 

[mst]

I find it hilariously ironic that RA went down the exact path (tv/steaming deal wise) that in a round about way cost her her job

She never recovered, through no fault of her own, from the IF saga. Oh and from being a female executive in Australia.

She was absolutely, and irredeemably, "not one of us"!!!

Just for what its worth & only in my personal opinion we needed a complete 100% clean out on field, off field & in the board room. Thats happened lets move on. IF situation left a bitter taste around rugby no matter what side you were on. There were no winners

One thing is clear about Aussie rugby is its absolute intent to always protect and maintain the "old boys club" and the incestuous controls over the game for personal power and profit over any success for the game. "She" made radical changes that have reaped rewards. It was a similar story at the Brumbies with the Jones saga. The outsider who dared to make change and was cast out yet his governance reforms, financial reforms, restructure and operational changes are still in place (and many were implemented past his departure).

Outsiders are bad for Rugby because their success highlight the utter ineptitude and lack of business and commercial acumen of the current RA cohort. All radical outsiders are unwelcome because of their "magic" that brings success at the expense of of egos. Absolutely unacceptable!

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Hard to argue with much of that MST

 

[ForceFan]

Don't know enough about what Castle tried to achieve v what was actually achieved to come to her defence.

However, totally agree with MST's summary of one of the major issues of the management of the great game in Oz.

 

[wamberal]

Hard to argue with much of that MST

Hard to agree with much of it, either. It all depends on your own experience, background, and perspective.

 

[formerflanker]

One thing is clear about Aussie rugby is its absolute intent to always protect and maintain the "old boys club"

There have been some significant exceptions to your "always" comment.
Apart from Raelene Castle, lets not forget the work done by 3 female Board members of the ARU/RA in recent years:
Pip Marlow
Ann Sherry
Liz Broderick.

 

[wamberal]

There have been some significant exceptions to your "always" comment.
Apart from Raelene Castle, lets not forget the work done by 3 female Board members of the ARU/RA in recent years:
Pip Marlow
Ann Sherry
Liz Broderick.

These highly qualified and experienced women were all attacked and vilified on this forum.

 

[mst]

There have been some significant exceptions to your "always" comment.
Apart from Raelene Castle, lets not forget the work done by 3 female Board members of the ARU/RA in recent years:
Pip Marlow
Ann Sherry
Liz Broderick.

Josephine Sukkar is also worth mentioning as are many others. No doubt they did do some good work. As have many others; irrespective of gender.

I am sadly unaware of much of their work or the work of many of the board members; as I believe many would be. But then again, the board is a collective so we generally only see a collective outcome publicly. It may be in-part why they have been attacked publicly, unjustifiably at times, but then again so have most of the board have been for the continued failings - which is certainly justified.

I would be interested to hear some of the "significant exceptions" that have helped RA. Although I think its a moot point. Despite all the work, publicly the "old boys club" is still is alive, well and rules the roost. That is pretty clear.

It may depend on an individuals own experience, background, and perspective, but the continuing issues for the game, lack of real reform in combination with public perception is generally a good marker to make judgments, especially if you don't have access inside the tent.

 

[Quick Hands]

One thing is clear about Aussie rugby is its absolute intent to always protect and maintain the "old boys club" and the incestuous controls over the game for personal power and profit over any success for the game. !

Yes, yes, yes.

Outsiders are bad for Rugby because their success highlight the utter ineptitude and lack of business and commercial acumen of the current RA cohort. All radical outsiders are unwelcome because of their "magic" that brings success at the expense of of egos. Absolutely unacceptable!

Again, yes and yes.

Naturally the RA response is to appoint more Shore old boys and Mosman residents to positions of power.

 

[Quick Hands]

Hard to agree with much of it, either. It all depends on your own experience, background, and perspective.

Or possibly whether or not you that that people should be democratically accountable to their stakeholders, or whether there should just be a corporate oligarchy who are accountable to nobody but themselves and who appoint and reappoint each other.

 

[wamberal]

Or possibly whether or not you that that people should be democratically accountable to their stakeholders, or whether there should just be a corporate oligarchy who are accountable to nobody but themselves and who appoint and reappoint each other.

Not much "democracy" in corporate governance, in my experience. However, to answer your question, I would say that a relatively small and unimportant body like Rugby Australia will struggle to find fully qualified directors who are not either part of or close to the magic circle.

 

[ForceFan]

There have been some significant exceptions to your "always" comment.
Apart from Raelene Castle, lets not forget the work done by 3 female Board members of the ARU/RA in recent years:
Pip Marlow
Ann Sherry
Liz Broderick.

Absolutely correct. We need to remember these three women who were on the board which helped send RA broke and made the decision to axe the Western Force.
Diversity is one aspect - effectiveness in another.

 

[kiap]

Josephine Sukkar is also worth mentioning

Although pulling the NRC sponsorship, she redirected the money and actually did something positive for women's rugby. That's more than can be said for most of them.

Some "boys" weren't in the old boys club. Ironically, some "girls" were. We move on. Clyne has been declined and it's a new year with a new(ish) board.

 

[dru]

Although pulling the NRC sponsorship, she redirected the money and actually did something positive for women's rugby. That's more than can be said for most of them.

Some "boys" weren't in the old boys club. Ironically, some "girls" were. We move on. Clyne has been declined and it's a new year with a new(ish) board.

As far as I am concerned, any board member who did not stand up to Clyne (all bar one WA-er) deserve the same condemnation. That is all we need to understand of Sherry, Marlow and Broderick.

Sukkar was actually the “expert” who brought nominees to the Board as possible members, completely dictating how much “Old Boys Club” influence there was. The board did not need to isolate Old Boys for the role as the Sukkar filter had that pre-arranged.

Sukkar is certainly heavily invested in and has been dedicated to progress in the game. And at (what I would call) the grass roots. Positively in that arena. And she had good intent with her ARU role. Pity that “intent” is not the same as implementation, effectiveness. To be fair she has achieved great things in rugby - just on this issue of how the ARU board proceeded she was integrally an enabler.

We really do need to move on from that period. We have actually to a large extent.

 

[Adam84]

Trans Tasman bloc on the cards for private equity

"Of most interest to me is whether an Anzac bloc makes sense to both parties [NZR & RA] to see if we can get more leverage working together," Mr McLennan told the Financial Review.

"I suspect we will. We haven’t appointed any advisers yet, but that’s something we discussed at our last RA board meeting and we’ll take that up in the very near future."On the presumption we execute well, this could provide a fantastic amount of capital to be injected into all levels of the game.

Silver Lake is believed to be one of the private equity firms that has reached out to Rugby Australia and is likely to turn its attention across the Tasman should it soon complete a deal with New Zealand Rugby. Silver Lake bought Australian-based global live events giant TEG in 2019 for more than $1.3 billion.

CVC Capital, which has also been trying to get a deal done with New Zealand Rugby, has been investing heavily in rugby globally and will probably not want to see Silver Lake secure a monopoly in the trans-Tasman area.

CVC acquired a 28 per cent stake in Europe's Pro14 competitionfor $223 million last May. It will also reportedly finalise a deal to buy 14 per cent of the Six Nations tournament by the end of January, according to World Rugby vice-chairman Bernard Laporte.
https://www.afr.com/companies/sport...rds-as-private-equity-circles-20210112-p56tkj

 

[zer0]

RA trying to coast in off the back of NZR's hard work.

smh.

 

[Rob42]

OK, I still don't get the attraction of private equity money. It's not free money. They will have no interest in their money propping up any part of the business that's not making a profit. "Injecting capital into all levels of the game"? Why would private equity want to do that? I'm sure it's good for the execs who survive the takeover, but otherwise, who benefits?