Kurtley Beale

[Train Without a Station]

Bingo. Seems she has a bit of experience on this via Maroochydore.

At the end of the day she confronted and forgave Beale over this in June. Frankly, that should have been the end of it.

Not if she felt his contrition was faked.

 

[chasmac]

I agree. I think the same applies to Hooper though and it is ridiculous that people are trying to hold him responsible for both not providing support to Patston and not dealing with Beale.

The Wallaby captain is not made responsible for every situation that arises, just as the coach isn't. To do so would place undue pressure and responsibility on one person.

It is widely reported that when McKenzie became coach he took on far more responsibilities within the ARU than any coach had done previously (at least in the professional era). He was across every section of the ARU and was given far more power to do so than previous coaches. It would seem that this is unlikely to be repeated as it is one of the reasons this has ended up so badly. It created a situation where McKenzie would be in the middle of virtually any situation rather than just being able to look after his core responsibilities and be immune from situations that have nothing to do with him.

I might be wrong in my assessment but I'll give it a shot.
In response to the ARU losing money rapidly, BP and EM cooked up a plan prior to the Lions tour which would see them turn around the financial malaise the code was ( still is ) in.

Part of the plan included playing style. EM implemented a gameplan that was based on entertaining the crowd.
Part of the plan included cost control. EM wore many hats within the management. This became an issue when he was judge and jury over in Dublin last year. Players reacted by getting RUPA to clarify his jurasdictions etc
Part of the plan included the NRC which has taken some funds.

Because of the cost controls the recent touring party was under resourced and Di Patstons role was expanded by management (EM) to a point that the players didn't approve. KB (Kurtley Beale) has reacted to the various pressures and lashed out verbally on the flight to Argentina.

What I don't understand is why he originally sent the text message given that he had only just met Di Patston the day prior to sending it?
It could be that I have the timeline wrong.

My opinion is that EM's intentions were good for Australian Rugby. It is a thankless task trying to balance the books for an organisation that has been spending too much. The players would naturally resist losing any of the perks of representing your country.

There is a balancing act for the management. If you spend funds on a new competition like the NRC but you cut your spending overall, where does the money come from?

I would like to think that RUPA take a broad view and try and advocate on behalf of all players from the grass roots up and not simply focus on the top 40 - 50 players in the country.

The problem to me is the lack of revenue in rugby. I think the solution to this problem has been given to us in the form of the NRC. There should be a massive push via the NRC to raise the interest in Rugby. Given that it is running on Free To Air and has been played whilst the Rugby Championship has been contested, we have had a golden opportunity to steal the limelight from the mungos.

The result has been a soap opera with rugby getting talked about for all the wrong reasons.

Lets hope that this thread dies down and that the Baa Baas match thread and the NRC grand final thread get some more action.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Interestingly this problem has been prevented from occurring again as Whittaker is touring as an interim Manager. I'm sure he won't have a cost cutting mandate which makes him unpopular with the players. He obviously won't give too much of a fuck about the costs as it's not ultimately his responsibility.

Everybody's happy now. Unfortunately it doesn't resolve the fact that the tours are not profitable enough.

 

[Tomikin]

I wonder if she will sue the ARU, it wil be interesting times ahead.

 

[No4918]

No4918, you claimed Beale bullied her into it in your previous post.
I don't have access to the Oz article but this is what was attributed to her in todays SMH article.
"I actually said to my dad I felt bullied into not telling anyone about the photos because I was embarrassed. I actually sat at a table and cried for an eternity because I didn't know who to tell because I'm so embarrassed by this. Is this what people think of me?," she said.
Patston made no mention of Beale in her comments here.

Just checked the post and that is not what I said.

 

[Tomikin]

P.S. when is Link writing his book. It's gonna be amazing

 

[Scoey]

Bingo. Seems she has a bit of experience on this via Maroochydore.

At the end of the day she confronted and forgave Beale over this in June. Frankly, that should have been the end of it.

That's your second post referring to Patston's alleged history at Maroochydore in a few minutes. Seriously, in this whole saga, that was the most tabloid, gossipy, irrelevant piece of rubbish printed and that's the bit you've grabbed with two hands.
Instead of focussing on the apparent inaccuracies in what Beale presented to the tribunal, or the fact that he sexually harassed a co-worker and then lied about it you've essentially labelled the victim as a habitual extortionist. Bravo sir!

 

[Gillys_ghost]

I think that Beale and his lawyers waited until the plane to the EOYT had left to protect those other people involved. Conjecture on my part, but Hanson's name coming up suggests that maybe it just wasn't Tahs, either.

Hanson didn't do anything. he received the text from kurtley and thats it, unless you have any proof his involvement was anything more than that?

 

[Slim 293]

TahDan is asking for the ban hammer..............

The other post was very quickly deleted.

 

[Ash]

I can't access the Australian website (a man can only afford so many monthly subscriptions for fucking everything) and so assume that the Wayne Smith article comprises the extracts kindly provided by Slim or the link to the other "resources" site .

I thought I read that Beale had sent the "first" text to some Waratah team mates some days prior to sending it to Paxton, and their names were redacted from the transcript (without the benefit of the details I am pretty appalled that KB (Kurtley Beale)'s solicitors apparently did not see fit to accord Hansen the same courtesy).

I did not see anything about the "second" text at all, being the one with the offensive additional commentary. (**Note for the pedants who have special trolling software to search and respond to key words** the second sending of the "first" text is not the "second" text)

Therefore I can't see on what basis this is evidence that Rebecca Wilson "lied" about the fabricated text.

Ash, can you please explain further?

As an aside, I have not really missed Growden in the SMH and have not followed him on espn at all. I did read todays article though and I must say I have never seen him so specific. The only thing I can't tell is if Radio is involved or not.

Here are some selected bits from the article. Obviously, I can't cut and paste the whole thing.

However, in his written statement to the tribunal, Beale admitted he had kept from her the fact that he had sent the same grossly offensive image to “some Waratahs mates” via the phone messenger application WhatsApp six days earlier, on June 3, just two days after he met Patston for the first time.

“I did not tell Di any details, however, for fear of hurting her or inflaming the situation,” Beale wrote in his statement, a copy of which was leaked to The Australian. “I would rather she did not know about it.”

The June 9 MMS, which Beale actually had intended to send to a Queensland member of the Wallabies only to confuse his mobile number with that of Patston, also included a second, even more offensive image and caption.

But because the tribunal was not able to establish that Beale was responsible for this image, it stopped short of following what is understood to have been the Australian Rugby Union’s advice to it that it tear up his contract. Beale indeed claimed to have been “vindicated” that the evidence presented to the tribunal did not establish that he had been the author of this second image.

Certainly, the question needs to be asked whether the strong support Beale received from within the Waratahs component of the Wallabies was in any way prompted by the players trying to protect themselves.

 

[Braveheart81]

I might be wrong in my assessment but I'll give it a shot.
In response to the ARU losing money rapidly, BP and EM cooked up a plan prior to the Lions tour which would see them turn around the financial malaise the code was ( still is ) in.

Part of the plan included playing style. EM implemented a gameplan that was based on entertaining the crowd.
Part of the plan included cost control. EM wore many hats within the management. This became an issue when he was judge and jury over in Dublin last year. Players reacted by getting RUPA to clarify his jurasdictions etc
Part of the plan included the NRC which has taken some funds.

Because of the cost controls the recent touring party was under resourced and Di Patstons role was expanded by management (EM) to a point that the players didn't approve. KB (Kurtley Beale) has reacted to the various pressures and lashed out verbally on the flight to Argentina.

What I don't understand is why he originally sent the text message given that he had only just met Di Patston the day prior to sending it?
It could be that I have the timeline wrong.

My opinion is that EM's intentions were good for Australian Rugby. It is a thankless task trying to balance the books for an organisation that has been spending too much. The players would naturally resist losing any of the perks of representing your country.

I have absolutely no doubt that McKenzie's intentions for Australian Rugby and the Wallabies were entirely noble. It doesn't mean that some of the things he did and the level to which he involved himself in all of the ARU's affairs were good decisions.

If one of the people involved in cost cutting and doing other things which would be unpopular within the organisation was also propelled into a role by McKenzie which involved them with players, that would also seem to be a poor decision.

There's a reason why many companies going through cost and staff cutting programs hire external people to implement it. It's unpopular and upsetting for many people involved and whilst in time those remaining might see it as being essential, there's also likely to be resentment. By making the focal point someone external to the organisation, you can paint someone as the bad guy who doesn't then hang around afterwards.

I am in no way trying to defend or mitigate Beale's actions. Merely discussing the fact that McKenzie ended up as collateral damage because he put himself in almost every possible firing line within the ARU.

By the sounds of things, if there'd been a scandal in accounting, McKenzie would have still been somewhat involved because he'd chosen to expose himself to every section of the ARU.

 

[TahDan]

Not if she felt his contrition was faked.

If you resolve the issue and then bring it up over something completely unrelated, then bring it up over something unrelated, it's effectively blackmail.

Seriously, I know people are tip-toeing around this because there's a lot of people reducing this issue to "if you talk about anything but Beale being a sexist harrasser, you're condoning sexism and bullying", but this is an individual who did try to sue a local council for hundreds of thousands over a spider bite.

Now, I whether you'd admit it to yourself or not, if anyone here had heard about someone doing that in isolation of this bloody circus, their response would be something along the lines of "what a dodgy bastard" and you'd probably assume they were an American.

But at this joint people want to pretend like the character of Patston should never have even been looked at. It's been tantamount to "fuck due process, Beale's a c##t and that's all there is to it".

 

[Train Without a Station]

Considering Beale has admitted to sending an offensive message, been fined $45,000 for it and still come out and said he "felt vindicated" I'm not sure how Patson's past is relevant. He has admitted and accepted guilt.

 

[Ash]

Hanson didn't do anything. he received the text from kurtley and thats it, unless you have any proof his involvement was anything more than that?

Unfortunate for Hanson if that is the case, and unfortunate he gets named for getting forwarded something while the orginal people in the conversation get protected.

Unfortunate for Hanson that, for some reason, Beale thought he might appreciate a message denigrating a female manager of the team.

 

[TahDan]

That's your second post referring to Patston's alleged history at Maroochydore in a few minutes. Seriously, in this whole saga, that was the most tabloid, gossipy, irrelevant piece of rubbish printed and that's the bit you've grabbed with two hands.

With respect your honour, this case goes to the character of the accuser and should be admitted to the court.

 

[Train Without a Station]

If you resolve the issue and then bring it up over something completely unrelated, then bring it up over something unrelated, it's effectively blackmail.

Seriously, I know people are tip-toeing around this because there's a lot of people reducing this issue to "if you talk about anything but Beale being a sexist harrasser, you're condoning sexism and bullying", but this is an individual who did try to sue a local council for hundreds of thousands over a spider bite.

Now, I whether you'd admit it to yourself or not, if anyone here had heard about someone doing that in isolation of this bloody circus, their response would be something along the lines of "what a dodgy bastard" and you'd probably assume they were an American.

But at this joint people want to pretend like the character of Patston should never have even been looked at. It's been tantamount to "fuck due process, Beale's a c##t and that's all there is to it".

Well if the texts of his apology are true with all his comments about he knows how hard she works for them, etc. then him snidely calling you Link's gopher for doing your job is a fair reason to believe he's apology was all BS.

 

[Slim 293]

If you resolve the issue and then bring it up over something completely unrelated, then bring it up over something unrelated, it's effectively blackmail.

You seem to be the expert on unrelated issues.

 

[Train Without a Station]

With respect your honour, this case goes to the character of the accuser and should be admitted to the court.

Well Beale has admitted his own guilt.

 

[No4918]

P.S. when is Link writing his book. It's gonna be amazing

Tentative release date is a week before the RWC kicks off

 

[Ash]

If you resolve the issue and then bring it up over something completely unrelated, then bring it up over something unrelated, it's effectively blackmail.

Seriously, I know people are tip-toeing around this because there's a lot of people reducing this issue to "if you talk about anything but Beale being a sexist harrasser, you're condoning sexism and bullying", but this is an individual who did try to sue a local council for hundreds of thousands over a spider bite.

Now, I whether you'd admit it to yourself or not, if anyone here had heard about someone doing that in isolation of this bloody circus, their response would be something along the lines of "what a dodgy bastard" and you'd probably assume they were an American.

But at this joint people want to pretend like the character of Patston should never have even been looked at. It's been tantamount to "fuck due process, Beale's a c##t and that's all there is to it".

Firstly, in regards to sexual harassassment, bullying, etc at work, no. It is not blackmail. The person harassed can withdraw their acceptance of the apology at any time if they feel the harasser was not honest or disingenuous.

Seconadly, what makes you think that anything to do with the character of Patston matter with regards to what Beale did?

Thirdly, what makes you think this is the first time that Patston has tried to talk to the press?