Don't just sign off because of the messenger - read the message.
So much of what's being said is highly relevant.
Alan Jones
27 April 2018
Here's my article from today's Australian Newspaper about rugby.
It is most probably unpalatable for the Board of Rugby Australia to contemplate, but the reality is, another grim weekend lies ahead for Australian Super Rugby teams.
Not only did those teams not win a game last week, but none of them at any time lead in their respective matches. Surely we can’t be that bad.
Someone has to concede that there is something chronically wrong and yet Rugby Australia is deaf to the problem and therefore indifferent to any solution.
As my readers know, I have had a lot to say on this issue.
But what is more instructive is what others are saying about what I am saying. The feedback has been overwhelming.
Almost without exception, the rugby family is angry and that is borne out by attendances. Some of the comments by leading lights are a scathing indictment of where we are and if nothing changes, and nothing so far has changed, it’s disturbing to think where the game may end up.
A former very senior official with Rugby has written to me, “as for the state of rugby, it is just abysmal. The responsibility for the appointment of a CEO, indeed in each and every business and sport, rests with the board; it’s the board’s single-most important decision. If you get it right, then enjoy the fruits of success; however, if you choose badly, the consequences are dire. Then the board/chairman must consider their position. As for the nominations committee, they seem notorious for fishing from the same gene pool. That is a real obstacle for bringing in people with the required and appropriate skills set to govern and manage this magnificent game. A closed shop, I’m sad to say!”
A dedicated Queensland rugby supporter and one of our finest and most acclaimed sporting journalists wrote to me this week: “Congratulations on your rugby column. Someone needs to breathe some sense into the sport”.
He was commenting primarily on the Israel Folau affair. But having seen the demise yet again last week of Queensland on the field, he argued, “it’s sickening to watch a once great Queensland rugby side have no idea how to play the game. And to leave out the man who used to orchestrate it! The commentators talked about the “crowd’’. That was an overstatement. Queensland rugby moved to Suncorp because Ballymore only held 20,000! Now, they wouldn’t half fill Ballymore.
“I know people must think Quade (Cooper) to be a very bad person not to be allowed around the team. They can’t imagine he’s been left right out on huge money unless there were some nefarious reasons. They roll their eyes unknowingly.”
And then with a slogan that echoes with Queensland rugby fans, he wrote, “put the Q back in Queensland and bring back Quade”.
Well, the weekend ahead doesn’t offer a lot of hope for scoreboard change. The Rebels play the Stormers, which may well offer our only hope of success; Queensland play the South African Lions, who have played nine and won six; the Brumbies play the Crusaders, who have played eight and won six. Mercifully, after a scoring wipe-out last weekend, NSW have the bye.
But it prompts a question doesn’t it?
What is being done to arrest this?
We haven’t won a game against a New Zealand province since goodness knows when. I wrote early last month that someone on the board had to recognise the mess the game was in and do something about it. And I wrote: “One of the great weaknesses of Australian rugby, certainly at provincial level, is coaching … there is no one with any coaching success that I know of who is responsible for appointing coaches.”
I have said it before. If there’s a high-performance unit in Australian rugby, it seems to be about as effective as the cricket high-performance unit. The person whom Rugby Australia appointed to develop Australian coaches is Rod Kafer. I’ve asked before and I ask again, was the job advertised? Who appointed him?
The hoopla and fanfare would have you believe he’s a great thinker of the game. That being the case, as I have said before, why did he last one season as a head coach at Saracens in England?
And he has not coached anyone to win anything in Australia. It is valid to ask, what criteria were applied in charging him with developing Australian coaches?
It seems we are prepared to address everything in relation to rugby bureaucracy but don’t know enough about the game to address the issue of rugby results. Last week, the South African Lions beat NSW 29-0.
Surely it’s valid to argue that if Australian teams are playing a poor brand of rugby and not winning, people will switch off.
In that environment, how long can the game survive? Two things emerge. We must invest in our best young players so they stay in the game and get the right people coaching them. This means we must put more players, fresh out of school, in full-time high performance environments. Find a sponsor. Save the code. If we want to grow more winners, invest in those who will make winning a habit.
I will address the Super Rugby model at a later date. Suffice to say, I do not support the current model. We should be playing in an ANZAC Super Rugby competition. Let South Africa play in Europe in their own time zone. And it is not our business to prop up Japanese and Argentinian rugby. We have to save ourselves.
Surely four or five Australian teams, playing seven or eight Kiwi teams would give us a great competition. New Zealand is strong enough to field seven or eight teams and the Force should be brought back.
Swallow your pride, Rugby Australia, along with your administrative stupidity and ask Andrew Forrest to sponsor the Force plus a National Academy. Everyone wins. The savings in travel costs and accommodation would be enormous; and we would be giving a very wealthy rugby-loving philanthropist an opportunity to change the game.
Get rid of Giteau’s law. That allows Test players with over 60 caps to play in Europe or Japan and still play for the Wallabies. It sends a mixed message to players.
If you have built a winning culture your best players will put the green and gold ahead of financial inducement. After all, the Wallabies are well paid and there should be a price to be paid for deserting Australia when they should be leading Australia.
But if you want to put the cue firmly in the rack, and highlight a symbol that surely emphatically confirms we are well down the wrong track, consider this. NSW rugby is not alone in being strapped for cash. Broke may be uncharitable but close to the truth. And so, we say, we can’t afford to keep our best schoolboy players in the game. But we’ve got money for personal gurus.
It seems that the Waratahs’ Kiwi CEO, Andrew Hore, would rather spend money on psychobabble than on developing talent. This is the organisation that could not find a full-time academy spot for Billy Smith and Charlie Rorke, our best two Australian Schoolboys from 2017. Both have gone to the NRL in full-time roles.
The Waratahs cry poor, but have money to shell out big cash on boardroom head shrink gurus.
Are you as staggered as I am, to learn that NSW have appointed an “executive coach”? Apparently his job is to “facilitate change to their development”. Not sure who or what he’s developing, but I love his observation about his role: “I am not attached to the outcomes …” Now there’s a good job!
And what about this: “The biggest thing for the Waratahs is changing their culture to one that learns from loss — I call it learning how to lose. And they didn’t understand how to do that properly ...”.
Well, forgive me. I am not a defeatist, but I am inclined to want to give up on noting this extravagant stupidity. But I suppose we should celebrate his success. If you’re going to teach people how to lose, then last week the shrink was spot on. Lions 29, Waratahs 0.
