• Welcome to the Green and Gold Rugby forums. As you can see we've upgraded the forums to new software. Your old logon details should work, just click the 'Login' button in the top right.

Australian Rugby / RA

RebelYell

Arch Winning (36)
It is 100% responsible for the RA financial statements not having the audit signed off at this stage.


Ok, I'll pay that. That point aside, her performance has been extremely poor for the entirety of her tenure.

This has nothing to do with her being a woman, and everything to do with her not being good at her job.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Ok, I'll pay that. That point aside, her performance has been extremely poor for the entirety of her tenure.

This has nothing to do with her being a woman, and everything to do with her not being good at her job.

Reasons?

Because I completely disagree, and am quite supportive of her actions in a number of areas including the sacking of Folau and ultimately how that was resolved, Australian coaching appointments, and taking the broadcast rights to market.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Ok, I'll pay that. That point aside, her performance has been extremely poor for the entirety of her tenure.

This has nothing to do with her being a woman, and everything to do with her not being good at her job.


A lot of us disagree strongly on this. I think her performance has been far better than her predecessors and she has had far more difficult issues to deal with.

Pulver had the Western Force and Beale/McKenzie/Patston and it's hard to imagine how any of those issues could have been dealt with worse.

John O'Neill firstly blew Australia's windfall from the 2003 RWC on largesse both in terms of staff and corporate costs and then when he returned the second time did nothing notable except left with a large golden handshake.

Gary Flowers is notable for introducing the ARC but spending so much money on it that it was never sustainable. Maybe we'd be in a much stronger position now if that competition had been started with a more modest approach that was sustainable.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Question, Castle has reduced her pay by 50%, but is this just for 3mths ?, if so does she resume her full salary come July. My point is if this for only 3 mths then over 12 months that is what just over 10% pay reduction, am I right ?


A 12.5% paycut annually if that is all it is.

Any decisions being made should be in roughly three month increments. The future is unknown. The next move in July might have to be to cut even harder or it might be more of a return to normal operations. No one knows at this stage.
 

Derpus

George Gregan (70)
People hate on Raelene because they need someone to blame.

She really hasn't done anything wrong. At best, some largely religious people disagree with her approach to the IF saga. But i'd argue people would be pissed regardless of how she approached that clusterfuck. There was no outright win possible.

To add to BH's list above, she got to work immediately improving development pathways and securing the next generation of talent which shows a lot of promise.
 

RebelYell

Arch Winning (36)
She cost the code $4 million by not inserting a clause in Israel's contract preventing him from what he did. FACT.

She turned down a broadcast deal which was singificantly greater than market value, regardless as to what has happened in the world since then. FACT

She allowed a Wallabies Head Coach to continue in a role and develop poisonous factions within her employ despite him failing to achieve acceptable results, leading to a splintered playing group and Board. FACT

She has not stood up for Australia sufficiently at a SANZAAR or World Rugby level, leading to losing the WRWC bid, and seeing the Super Rugby competition continue to move towards a model which is unpalatable for the Australian franchises commercially. FACT

She has consistently performed poorly in a media context, and has shown an inability to communicate clearly, develop genuine relationships in the press and be a positive representative of the game. FACT

There are bucketloads of FACTS for why she has performed poorly, and if you retrace this thread you will see plenty of examples. People who like and support her are unlikely to change their minds, ditto people who don't, however the suggestion that so many of us only want her fired due to her gender is completely incorrect. She is extremely unfortunate in what she inherited from Bill Pulver, and in the current pandemic, but that doesn't make her immune from critique.

FWIW, I too am pleased with some of the coaching appointments and the progress in elite development (Schoolboys, Junior Wallabies), as well as the development of Super W.
 

RebelYell

Arch Winning (36)
People hate on Raelene because they need someone to blame.

She really hasn't done anything wrong. At best, some largely religious people disagree with her approach to the IF saga. But i'd argue people would be pissed regardless of how she approached that clusterfuck. There was no outright win possible.

To add to BH's list above, she got to work immediately improving development pathways and securing the next generation of talent which shows a lot of promise.


Not offering him a contract of that size and length without inserting a social media clause, would have been the outright win. And no, I am not relgiious
 

The Honey Badger

Jim Lenehan (48)
Jessica Halloran in today's Australian outlines a lot of criticism of RA and Raelene Castle that I agree with.


* RC's management of TV rights is her worst move as chief executive.
.

I actually thought it was her one redeeming action. She was certainly heading in the right direction to get live content on Free to Air.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TSR

Finsbury Girl

Trevor Allan (34)
It is 100% responsible for the RA financial statements not having the audit signed off at this stage.


Er no it isn't.

They should be able to answer any question around going concern in a worst case scenario RIGHT NOW. End of.

If they cannot then it is further proof of sheer incompetence.
 

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Not offering him a contract of that size and length without inserting a social media clause, would have been the outright win. And no, I am not relgiious

No, RA were covered by their code of conduct which Folau agreed to when he signed the contract, which he later breached, and for which he was eventually terminated..........
 

Micheal

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
She allowed a Wallabies Head Coach to continue in a role and develop poisonous factions within her employ despite him failing to achieve acceptable results, leading to a splintered playing group and Board. FACT

She has not stood up for Australia sufficiently at a SANZAAR or World Rugby level, leading to losing the WRWC bid, and seeing the Super Rugby competition continue to move towards a model which is unpalatable for the Australian franchises commercially. FACT

She has consistently performed poorly in a media context, and has shown an inability to communicate clearly, develop genuine relationships in the press and be a positive representative of the game. FACT


These three are literally just opinions.

The Israel Folau thing we don't have enough information to comment on - but RA's reported loss relative to 2015 seems to indicate it wasn't anywhere in the ball park of $4 million - nor do we have enough information to comment on the broadcast deal.

Allowing Cheika to "continue" was contractually guranteed. If she'd terminated him she would've cost RA a bucket load of cash, something you indicated that you clearly don't like based upon your Folau comment.

I suggest you revisit the definition of 'fact'.

FACT.
 

formerflanker

Ken Catchpole (46)
Another criticism I have of RA is its long term agenda of paying over the odds salaries for the CEO.
If newspaper reports are any guide, RC started in Jan 2018 on $760,000 p.a. and until Tuesday was on $840,000.
It seems the Board assessed her each year as "meeting or exceeding KPIs" and gave her a 5% increase.
RA paid an excessive amount for what the CEO actually achieves, unfortunately in line with all other professional sports in Australia.
Yes, Olympic/NRL/AFL leaders get paid big sums too, but RA didn't have to follow that pathway.

For that amount of money, RC should have spent time informing RUPA of RA's full financial position, but she didn't.
 

Rebels3

Jim Lenehan (48)
Not offering him a contract of that size and length without inserting a social media clause, would have been the outright win. And no, I am not relgiious
Actually the RUPA agreement with RA prevents players to have individualized contracts. All players signed must be signed under the same terms and conditions as all other players. It would be something that would have to be renegotiated under the next collective bargaining agreement. Israel Folau (like him or love him) was one of the few players that commercially brought about a positive commercial return for the game.
 

RebelYell

Arch Winning (36)
Actually the RUPA agreement with RA prevents players to have individualized contracts. All players signed must be signed under the same terms and conditions as all other players. It would be something that would have to be renegotiated under the next collective bargaining agreement. Israel Folau (like him or love him) was one of the few players that commercially brought about a positive commercial return for the game.

I try not to bite too often on here, but this is spreading incorrect information.

RUPA/the players are able to make exceptions to this clause if the alternative is that the player is not going to be offered a contract, and it has been widely reported that JOC (James O'Connor), Karmichael & Kurtley have all had contracts negotiated under these conditions
 
Top