A few thoughts, on all this mess
Firstly Beale should answer to the charges against him. They are serious. If proved (even if only have proved), he will be subject to sanction. The sanction could be termination, but the ARU might find other sanctions appropriate such as an apology, a fine, compulsory training etc. Either way, the matter needs to be progressed quickly and until its resolved, Beale needs to be away from the Wallabies.
Cause of the issues?
It goes deeper than “Beale is an idiot”. For starter, don’t forget that over the last two years we have changed Wallaby coach, captain and the ARU CEO – i.e. all of the key leadership positions within Aus rugby. The replacements were all new to their positions and had little direct prior experience. Then there are other changes on the fringes, like Egerton going and massive changes to the starting team. Collectively, this is a huge and looks like it has caught us out. It also looks like we didn’t really understand all of the causes of disappointing results of the Dean’s era and the impacts of player power (or the toxic environment). Overlay the focus on cost cutting and you get very fertile conditions for issues.
The solution
Unless there is something we don’t know Hooper should stay on as captain for the spring tour. We should appoint an interim coach only at this stage while the ARU works through this in a more orderly manner. I would suggest someone who has experience with the Wallabies, someone like Nucifora, McGahan or even John Connelly. In fact Connelly would be my vote if he is up for it. I would also suggest someone like Bob Dwyer or Rod McQueen spend a month with the ARU (I.e. Bill Pulver) sifting through this debacle to work out what else needs to next. I don’t think we should appoint a permanent coach until this is completed, otherwise we will throw someone else to the wolevs and watch them end up on the scrap heap
