Priorities For The New ARU CEO

[Scott Allen]

There's been plenty of discussion (and I'm sure there'll be more) on the Who Should Be The New CEO thread but the decision's been made - it's Bill Pulver as the new CEO, hence this new thread.

Start date of February 1 - let's allow him a day to get his feet under the desk but what should be on his to do list on February 2?

1. Book appointments to meet with the CEO and Board of every Super Rugby team to get their input;
2. We need a new HPU boss - they have to sort out a coordinated approach between the ARU and the franchises regarding player management leading into the Lions tour - they also have to sort out the U20 coaching to determine if any changes / additions required;
3. Complete review of all positions in the ARU (apart from Wallaby coach as that's for later in the year);
4. Make sure Australian rugby has got its act together to take advantage of the publicity that will come from the Lions and maximise the impact to grow participation;
5. Establish a working group within the ARU to get out and get input from grassroots as to what's needed - dedicated staff member in charge of that area - draft report and plan submitted to Pulver by ?? (I'd suggest April 30);
6. Give someone within the ARU the responsibility to update plan for how to progress players through the ranks - look at academy setup and possibility of third tier - draft plan submitted to Pulver by ?? (again I'd suggest April 30);
7. What can the ARU do to help build the ranks and quality of referees?

Sure there's plenty more to do but it's a matter of prioritising - if some things have to wait until second half of the year, so be it.

 

[Tiger]

Well I didn't see this coming: McKenzie as head of HPU?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/w...e=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#.UO4DRKWj7qE

 

[Lindommer]

Neither did I, but it makes sense. As I understand it Ewen's family have lived in Sydney for the entire time of his Reds' sojourn, I think he has school-aged daughters; that must create some personal problems for him. And now he's not required to do day-to-day coaching with the Reds squad it sorta begs the question what he's going to do with his time. Even if a specific list of tasks is drawn up by his QRU taskmasters it surely can't be as time-consuming as coaching. McKenzie is one of the top coaches in Australia, if not THE top coach, it'd be a crying shame if he's not got a team somewhere to work his magic.

The past model pioneered by Nucifora of HPU Manager combined with national under 20 coaching duties patently didn't work. Maybe it was just Nuci, but I'd like to see Link get the under 20 gig this year. He remarked yesterday he doesn't want to move into admin at the expense of coaching as thinks it'd be hard to return to coaching. The HPU job? Shame Pat Howard didn't work out.

 

[Jets]

Link's family have been in Sydney since he was Tah's coach so they would be pretty use to him not being around by now. As for him not required to do the day-to-day coaching, that is just wrong. They have changed the names of the roles around but Link is still the head coach. The Reds only have a 3 man coaching staff and the loss of Link would be huge. With this in mind he wouldn't have the time to fit in the U20's role in 2013.

I doubt he would take the HPU role and would be gearing up his application for the Wallabies role towards the end of the year.

 

[Lindommer]

Thanks for that, Jets. The info re Link's and Graham's respective roles as Reds coach(es) hasn't been clearly set out in previous media reports, now I know. And I agree, he'd be mad to take the HPU role. He's gunna end up coaching the Wallabies one day, no point risking blotting his copybook before then.

 

[p.Tah]

Opposing view regarding Link and the HPU role - could he use the opportunity to set up the structures and pathways for professional players that will assist him in the future and contract/retain the players he wants when he becomes the Wallaby coach?
Also it's not always wise to turn down an interim role from a potential employer.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Opposing view regarding Link and the HPU role - could he use the opportunity to set up the structures and pathways for professional players that will assist him in the future and contract/retain the players he wants when he becomes the Wallaby coach?
Also it's not always wise to turn down an interim role from a potential employer.

Wouldn't his appointment be a red rag to Deans?

 

[Ruggo]

Back to Pulver's to do list.

He can pull in all the presidents and GM's of state unions and discuss what he sees as the future for grass roots rugby. How best can state unions assist all clubs in promoting the game in their areas. How best can the state unions assist all the volunteers who put so much into the game. How best can the clubs and state unions form progressive relationships with schools both public and private. Most importantly he can discuss how the ARU can aid the state unions in achieving this.

 

[p.Tah]

In regards to point 6: Give someone within the ARU the responsibility to update plan for how to progress players through the ranks - look at academy setup and possibility of third tier - draft plan submitted to Pulver by ?? (again I'd suggest April 30);

Pulver was quoted in Wayne Smith's article today:

For starters, he said, he was more than receptive to the idea of reviving the so-called third tier set up by former ARU chief executive Gary Flowers in 2007 but scrapped by O'Neill at the start of his second stint in the job.

"I'm coming in with that certainly on my to-do list," he said. "And certainly nothing I've heard from my board of directors to date suggests that has been approved. However, it is clearly something we want to review very quickly. We need the right pathway from junior rugby all the way through to the Wallabies and there is a sense that there is a level missing in this country."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...mate-bill-pulver/story-e6frg7o6-1226550687472

Nothing concrete, but at least he is not dismissing it outright. Time will tell.

 

[rugbyisfun]

I have this terrible feeling any attempt to re-hash the 3rd tier concept is going to be gobbled up by the recent surge of excitement for 7's , the Olympics blah blah blah. Pulver has already stated he see's the 7's as a great avenue for growth. I'll bet everything I've got that we will look back at the inclusion of 7s rugby into the Olympics as a complete waste. Just like quite a few other international sports that have their own genuine international tournaments.
So, add to the list.
- don't get too carried away by the 7s program. It will do very little for growth and player development .
- focus on repairing the mountain of damage that has occurred through blatant neglect at the Grassroots level.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Rationalise the structure of under age rugby so that we dont have quite so many weekend warriors protecting their piece of the australian rugby landscape from incursion by any other under age body.

 

[Bernie_Larkham]

1.speak in depth to Jim Carmichael.

 

[emuarse]

1.speak in depth to Jim Carmichael.

Assuming Jim applied for the job, I can't help wondering that he might of trod on a few toes when he went batting to retain Quad Cooper in rugby.
Not that he had a chance anyway - he didn't go to a Sydney GPS school.

 

[Quick Hands]

1. Expand the game at junior/grassroots level
2. Sort out the administrative mess that is rugby in this country
3. Examine options for a 3rd tier

Re 1: Unless their parents are involved in a local rugby club, boys will play with their mates. In western Sydney at least, there is a local soccer or league club and most boys will follow their mates to one of these. There simply isn't a close junior rugby club in most parts of western Sydney, hence participatation ratios between league and union in western Sydney reflects poorly on union when compared with the ratio in the northern & eastern suburbs. Any sustainable and long term solution needs to address this.

Re 2: Not enough room in this post to discuss.

Re 3: We need to decide on a model, i.e. what type of 3rd tier. The French Top 14 model of a season long competition or a SAF/NZ model tacked on the end of the season or even a hybrid of the 2. What we shouldn't do is create meaningless franchises and stick them in a place for 6 weeks and expect to achieve anything.

I'm not sure that the SAF/NZ model would work here. It would either start at the same time as the NRL/AFL finals and be deprived of any publicity or would be held afterwards, which to me is the wrong time of year to be playing rugby in Australia- too hot and running into cricket season.

I'd suggest a modified French Top 14 model starting in June. All current grade competitions in capital cities start at current time. After 1 full round; top 4 Sydney teams, top 2 Brisbane teams,top 2 Canberra teams and a combined club team from Melbourne and 1 from Perth play a 10 team 1 round competition with a top 4 finals system. Advantages: clubs already exist, complete with infastructure and admin so no need to add another layer, has an inbuilt promotion/relegation system, provides high level of competition each week - the equivalent of 9 weeks of semi-final football before the finals and runs at a time when people are in rugby mode. As with anything, it could be modified as the years go by, but it is simple to understand, reasonably easy to implement and is affordable. (Existing grade competitions would continue while the Top 10 comp is running and have their usual length of season)

 

[Lindommer]

Rationalise the structure of under age rugby so that we dont have quite so many weekend warriors protecting their piece of the australian rugby landscape from incursion by any other under age body.

Would you care to expand on this, IS.

 

[wamberal]

The biggest single problem is that basically we are an amateur game, except for a very thin professional layer. We do not have the money to do much for the grass roots of the game, it is as simple as that. And we never will, in my lifetime at least.

A third tier is a logical impossibility, unfortunately. If two or three clubs are cherry picked from each of Sydney, Brisbane, ACT, Melbourne, and Perth the clubs that are not picked will die off in time; who would want to play for them? We might get a regular competition on FTA, we might even get paid for it - but at the expense of the footprint of the game.



If Bill Pulver can work out a way to run a viable third tier competition without detracting from the game's grassroots he can retire from the ARU and work on world peace, a cure for cancer, and a solution for climate change. All at once.

 

[No4918]

I have this terrible feeling any attempt to re-hash the 3rd tier concept is going to be gobbled up by the recent surge of excitement for 7's , the Olympics blah blah blah. Pulver has already stated he see's the 7's as a great avenue for growth. I'll bet everything I've got that we will look back at the inclusion of 7s rugby into the Olympics as a complete waste. Just like quite a few other international sports that have their own genuine international tournaments.
So, add to the list.
- don't get too carried away by the 7s program. It will do very little for growth and player development .
- focus on repairing the mountain of damage that has occurred through blatant neglect at the Grassroots level.

Agree completely. I don't get the emphasis on 7's and don't really care for it. It has provided opportunities for young guys and has a place but I would much rather the ARU focus on 15's and put money into a 3rd tier. The experience, development and chances given in such a comp will be better for Aus rugby than winning 7's gold. I really don't think the average sports fan that isn't already into union will be won over by 7's.

 

[RedsHappy]

A relevant article in today's AFR titled:

"Can football's biggest loser find its feet again?"

(Not for those in these parts who argue everything's just fine with our code.)

 

[RedsHappy]

Pulver's biggest priorities - without question - must be:

1. However it's to be done, get demonstrably competent board, business and coaching management resources into each state rugby franchise

This is clearly not the case today, and there is only one state - QLD - that has developed a proven model for integrated board, management and coaching success for modern Australian rugby. The core failure of the NSWRU/Waratahs to do the same or similar is possibly the single biggest factor in rugby's market serious market share and eyeballs decline since 2003.

Anyone who thinks some kind of homespun revolution of rugby revival will be principally led by better grassroots 'investment' is utterly deluded. The key is successful, winning hi-profile teams with high media exposure with iconic players playing the game in a truly competent manner that fans from many social origins are drawn to. This then drives motivation and street cred for the game at lower levels, that then need specialist forms of support to grow further building upon a reviving vibe. If the Reds had not been relatively successful during 2010-12 and not composed of players and a playing style that drew enough eyeballs (TV and gate), the tremendous growth that QLD rugby has now enjoyed at lower levels would never have occurred, repeat never. It's just the way it is in elite sports in Australia, like it or not.

The 'hands off' model that dictates how the ARU and state RU relate to each other has generally been a disaster for rugby in Australia as, de facto, no one ends up truly accountable to anybody for anything real. Awful performance has few consequences until a total - and potentially irreversible - crisis hits requiring expensive bail oust and full purges, etc, and then years of painful rebuilding with uncertain results as the competitive football market landscape has moved on.

If the State RU's are not very well run in all aspects of essential competencies, nothing will save the code from inexorable and continuing decline, it's that simple, and that's why Pulver's Priority 1 must be this.

2. Related to 1., get the Wallabies into a much better position in terms of proven fan attractiveness and commercially

If the Wallabies pay a boring, low-skill, low-dynamism 'constrained' game with consistently poor results vs the ABs (the priority competition for most Aus fans) and unpredictable-to-mediocre results elsewhere, the code will decline. The national team has to cohere with a number of successful state teams to provide goods level of sustainable symbolic pride and eyeballs pulling power of adequate size. If this doesn't happen, we get the crowd declines and viewing declines we have seen, and thus gross national code income from all sources will fall as will fan enthusiasm and attachment to the code, which is also what is occurring now, on a palpable scale.

Whatever else may be positive and valid objectives for Pulver, if he doesn't pay very high and very competent attention to the above 2, the current code market share and income slide will continue and his dream job will end in nightmares for him, and similarly for we fans who desperately desire the game's successful revival in Australia.

 

[Braveheart81]

RedsHappy - Surely number 2 on your list is very much out of the control of the CEO of the ARU except in the long term.

The CEO might be able to affect a lot of things that will have influence on the success of the Wallabies in the long run, but if Pulver just looks at the Wallabies success as his driver in the short term then he will be doing little to benefit the game now.