Curiouser and curiouser. The
Sunday Mail article only serves to deepen further the mystery of why the Graham appointment had to be announced mid-season when both clubs involved were struggling to put a team on the park. QRU CEO Jim Carmichael explained the underlying reason for the restructure:
"We wanted to give Ewen every reason to stay in Queensland. He's been a coach for a long time and he might not necessarily always want to be, I'm a big believer in giving your key people ambition to do bigger things."
Nice try, Jim. You're the trump so you want to give the impression that you're "giving your key people ambition to do bigger things". But even your mum would be awake to the fact that the one pulling the strings in this caper isn't you. "Every reason to stay in Queensland"? He loves the joint so much his home and family are still in Sydney. "Might not necessarily always want to be" a coach because he's been doing it "for a long time"? Sounds like burn-out to me. And this is the bloke who can't wait to take over the Wallabies gig. I wonder just who it was who spelled out exactly what Ewen would be doing for the next few years. I'll take short odds the first draft wasn't written by you, Jim.
The QRU press release announcing the new arrangements stated:
In 2014 and beyond, some of McKenzie’s objectives will be to drive growth and development in the community game which includes over 200 clubs, the redevelopment of Ballymore into an elite and community sporting precinct while maintaining a high level role in setting the direction of the Reds, particularly around talent pathways and recruitment and retention strategies.
But now the
Sunday Mail reports:
McKenzie is qualified as a town planner and that expertise will be channelled into turning Ballymore from a money-eating white elephant into a high-performance and community sport precinct when his far-reaching director of rugby role kicks in for 2015.
Has McKenzie's shift to the "far-reaching director" role been put back a year, perhaps because Graham will still be on trainer wheels?
And what can we make of the statement that because McKenzie is "qualified as a town planner" his "expertise will be channelled into turning Ballymore ... into a high-performance and community sport precinct"? Normally the redevelopment of a major sporting stadium would be handled by a high-profile firm of architects with considerable experience in constructing stadia or other large sports facilities. They might include a firm of town-planners among their long list of subsidiary consultants but it is certainly a novel idea to have someone with a degree in that discipline and presumably minimal experience driving such a huge undertaking in his spare time. That's not what town planners do. Their expertise is at the macro level of land usage not with transforming "money-eating white elephants".
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