Aside from the ongoing media circus - is this necessarily a bad thing?
It's not. But the whole situation is so mismanaged.
For so long Rugby in Australia has been captured by short-termist thinking where stakeholders protect their own interests. Our administrators (state and national) have finally cottoned onto the need for long-term strategy and there is a chairman who clearly prioritises that at the expense of anything else. The irony is that in not considering the short-term implications of that transition, they have jeopardised their ability to execute their plan. I refuse to believe there couldn't have been a more subtle, nuanced way of getting Jones as coach from 2024-2027 and a centralised improved performance structure. That didn't require the turmoil and disrespect to the fanbase we currently have.
Re Tom Decent.
1. Are we foolish enough to think it was sheer coincidence he dropped his exclusive the night before the Wales match. I refute the idea that its in the public interest and he has a responsibility to publish. It is a game of Rugby, not of public corruption on the night before the Federal Budget.
2. He uses techniques lots of journos use that I can't stand. He knows full well none of his reporting can confirm that Jones wants to go to Japan - but that's the story he wants to spin. He has one source claiming an interview and nothing else. But he won't place proper context around the truth of what he actually knows, which is diddly-squat.
Here is another example of the kind of bullshit spin journos put on the truth to gain clicks and attention from an article he wrote this morning: "Multiple Japanese news outlets, and the London
Telegraph, have reported that Jones is a candidate to take over from Jamie Joseph as Japan head coach on a long-term deal."
This is just not the truth.
ONE Japanese source has made a claim, and other outlets including the Telegraph have picked up on that and reported it as gospel. But he implies multiple different organisations are hearing that, when he knows full well that isn't the case. Lazy journalism designed to spin an overall narrative for clicks.