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Australian Rugby / RA

LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
Was just thinking the same thing.

It’s just fluff that some people gobble up. Throw a couple of cultures, add transparency, environment, community haha. I’m not sure there is one directly measurable point in here. Something like increase revenue by 10% year on year. Provide 5% player wage growth. Employ xyz development officers.

Not sure a single thing can actually be measured. So we are officially on track for achieving making everyone feel warm and fuzzy, and not actions.
This is the first step towards that; can't run before you can walk.
 

Strewthcobber

Simon Poidevin (60)
Establish more clearly defined roles and responsibilities for coaching staff and team captain in selection process.

Is this suggesting the team captain should have a role in team selection?

That seems.....unwise
 

LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
Is this suggesting the team captain should have a role in team selection?

That seems.....unwise
Could go both ways - to me it reads like captains have previously been able to provide input, which could have either been completely ignored or followed in its entirety. Sounds like they're putting some boundaries around it.

Putting my conspiracy cap on, maybe that's a reason Hooper and Eddie didn't see eye-to-eye.
 

Sword of Justice

Nev Cottrell (35)
so.. everything's fucked and do it again?
I think perhaps rather than starting again the recommendations seem to be that RA should just start.

Things like an integrated model, systemic and standardised metrics, leadership model, transparency in selections, training principles, cultural inclusiveness, high performance development - this is surely square 1 for any public organisation. It must be even more of a joke organisation than one would have thought.
 

Dctarget

Tim Horan (67)
I mean, Eddie is on camera where he instructs his supporting coaching staff not to tell the players Will Skelton is out because the players "would run to their agents".

You can see why the players felt bugger all trust or transparency with the coaching team.
What does running to their agents imply?
 

Strewthcobber

Simon Poidevin (60)
I mean, Eddie is on camera where he instructs his supporting coaching staff not to tell the players Will Skelton is out because the players "would run to their agents".

You can see why the players felt bugger all trust or transparency with the coaching team.
No doubt about this. I just don't see what bringing the captain into the selection tent achieves, especially if their own position is under threat.

The Australian cricket team used to occasionally tear itself apart on overseas tours because of this

And which captain? Eddie had 6 of them
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Joe Schmidt was pretty good on Rugby Heaven this week. It's worth a watch.

I think it was refreshing after Eddie that he didn't really make promises beyond that he'd work hard.

An interesting point when asked about senior players was saying that a coach only does so much of the coaching and a lot of it will always come from players coaching and learning from each other. It certainly seems like he'll be less quick to discard experienced players from his squad compared with Jones.
 

Ignoto

Peter Sullivan (51)
What does running to their agents imply?

That the players aren't trust worthy and they'll tell their agents Will is out of the upcoming match and the Fijians could alter their preparations as the agents would blab to the press.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
It would be interesting to get a full breakdown of it.

Was the $2.6m over budget based on a budget done before Eddie Jones took over?

How much was payouts to assistant coaches who were sacked and potentially Dave Rennie?
How much was on player payments vs what was budgeted for? Wallaby contracted players such as Hooper, Ala'alatoa, Hodge missing the RWC squad certainly adds to overall costs because you're then making additional match payments.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
It would be interesting to get a full breakdown of it.

Was the $2.6m over budget based on a budget done before Eddie Jones took over?

How much was payouts to assistant coaches who were sacked and potentially Dave Rennie?
How much was on player payments vs what was budgeted for? Wallaby contracted players such as Hooper, Ala'alatoa, Hodge missing the RWC squad certainly adds to overall costs because you're then making additional match payments.
Given this is being described as unapproved overspend I can't see how it could be things like player payments or payout for sacked assistants. More likely it's for bringing in extra consultants, travel and accommodation spending, cattle prods and possibly things like flying the players partners in for the going away.
 
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LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
Given this is being described as unapproved overspend I count see how it could be things like player payments or payout for sacked assistants. More likely its for bringing in extra consultants, travel and accommodation spending, cattle prods and possibly things like flying the players partners in for the going away.
I mean, the assumption is that someone would have to approve those sorts of purchases though right? They're a bit different to putting a boozy 'networking' lunch on the corporate Amex
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Given this is being described as unapproved overspend I count see how it could be things like player payments or payout for sacked assistants. More likely its for bringing in extra consultants, travel and accommodation spending, cattle prods and possibly things like flying the players partners in for the going away.

I assume it's a bit of an all of the above.

If it is purely from managers and above committing to expenditure that wasn't approved and effectively "going rogue" then it's way worse. Particularly as we know there had to have been a heap of extra cash spent from sacking Rennie and co.
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)
I assume it's a bit of an all of the above.

If it is purely from managers and above committing to expenditure that wasn't approved and effectively "going rogue" then it's way worse. Particularly as we know there had to have been a heap of extra cash spent from sacking Rennie and co.
I don't see how player payments (as agreed to by RUPA in the CBA) could be part of it, otherwise you've got a situation where a head coach needs approval to pick guys from outside the wallaby top up group or where injuries could just easily create "unapproved overspending". Similarly I would've thought payouts for sacked coaches would need proper sign off from on high, otherwise I'm not sure who could've ticked off on it that has subsequently been sacked for it.

I mean, the assumption is that someone would have to approve those sorts of purchases though right? They're a bit different to putting a boozy 'networking' lunch on the corporate Amex
I'm guessing the approvals process itself was pretty lax, possibly you have someone like Eddie bulldozing his way through it as well. Alongside everything else that went down last you had both Andy Marinos and Peter Conde leaving RA early in the year, with Conde not replaced, that transition period can't have helped the process. But there's definitely room for it - this is from the reporting over the Wallaroos anger about partners getting flown in at the time:
According to an RA insider, who spoke exclusively to ESPN, the decision to reshare the video on Wallabies' social media channels came "directly from the top" with an investigation into whether the funding came from sponsorship or from RA finances already underway.

Whether or not that investigation was legit or someone covering there arse, that's exactly the sort of "unapproved spending" that someone's eventually getting fired over.
 

Strewthcobber

Simon Poidevin (60)
Previous reporting on it, although it must have been pretty nice accommodation to get to $2.6m


Budget overspend​

McLennan also conceded that they overspent during Jones’ tenure, with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that it related to pre-World Cup accommodation costs in Paris and having up to 15 extra players based in Europe as injury cover, although none were called up.
“We don’t disclose [figures] but it was over … more than we would like, yeah,” he said.

“We have to have tighter budget control and so we have certainly got a new CEO, and stricter processes that will ensure that doesn’t happen in the future.”
 

Wilson

Phil Kearns (64)

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I don't see how player payments (as agreed to by RUPA in the CBA) could be part of it, otherwise you've got a situation where a head coach needs approval to pick guys from outside the wallaby top up group or where injuries could just easily create "unapproved overspending". Similarly I would've thought payouts for sacked coaches would need proper sign off from on high, otherwise I'm not sure who could've ticked off on it that has subsequently been sacked for it.

I'm not saying that these items would be unapproved spending. I am assuming that the entirety of the $2.6m isn't unapproved spending that resulted in people getting fired. A chunk of it is just going over budget for various reasons.
 

Tomikin

David Codey (61)
Was just thinking the same thing.

It’s just fluff that some people gobble up. Throw a couple of cultures, add transparency, environment, community haha. I’m not sure there is one directly measurable point in here. Something like increase revenue by 10% year on year. Provide 5% player wage growth. Employ xyz development officers.

Not sure a single thing can actually be measured. So we are officially on track for achieving making everyone feel warm and fuzzy, and not actions.
To be honest, I thought most of the staff in that should already be in place. I would have suspected we probably just have these charters/process in place but like the Australian Constitution, no one knows what they say or follows them...

Just a bunch of wankers gathered in a room to say here's our mission statement with no substance.
 
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