The Pulverisation of Australian Rugby

[Quick Hands]

I guess I must be missing all these rugby followers out there then. Because where I stand the code has been shrinking in interest of any level, not just those which the ARU profit from, for over a decade.

Must be Pulver's fault though.

Not his fault in particular, the problems are systemic.

 

[Muglair]

That may change soon. I see a lot of futsal happening in summer, and many junior soccer clubs in Canberra are now conducting trials for next winter's selections.

This has been openly canvassed as the A-League has become established. They went for summer purely because they wanted to start off without competition from the other football codes. You may recall the long hiatus from the end of the last NSL season in September until the start of the A-League season the following October.

They probably are feeling pretty bold about giving winter a shot now. Makes a lot more sense for them not competing with the European leagues and may actually lift the revenue value to Fox sports. Also means the A-League is aligned with the rest of the sport.

 

[Quick Hands]

This has been openly canvassed as the A-League has become established. They went for summer purely because they wanted to start off without competition from the other football codes. You may recall the long hiatus from the end of the last NSL season in September until the start of the A-League season the following October.

They probably are feeling pretty bold about giving winter a shot now. Makes a lot more sense for them not competing with the European leagues and may actually lift the revenue value to Fox sports. Also means the A-League is aligned with the rest of the sport.

And this has only been achieved through competent administration and structural reform. (Which they had to be pushed into by the government)

Remember when the only time soccer made the news was when they had a riot at the ground?

 

[It is what it is]

And this has only been achieved through competent administration and structural reform. (Which they had to be pushed into by the government)

Remember when the only time soccer made the news was when they had a riot at the ground?

And those riots had flares, always flares.
It didn't matter if the crowd was 30,000 or 300 >>> flares.
What is it with soccer riots and flares?

 

[Ruggo]

And those riots had flares, always flares.
It didn't matter if the crowd was 30,000 or 300 >>> flares.
What is it with soccer riots and flares?

I have a heap of outdated flares in the boat. Been meaning to donate them to my local soccer club.

 

[Kenny Powers]

OK. Got it.
I was thinking of the consultants appointed by the ARU last year.
They were Saltbush Capital Markets.

Saltbush is connected to Steve Williams a former ARU Director.

Keeps it all the family and obeys the golden rule of consulting there's no money to be made in solving the problem.

As Greg Growden commented in his interview with Alan Jones , the directors of the ARU are not independent but dependent on each other to protect their positions.

http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/71176#.VFC-RYhXerU
.

 

[Melbourne Terrace]

This has been openly canvassed as the A-League has become established. They went for summer purely because they wanted to start off without competition from the other football codes. You may recall the long hiatus from the end of the last NSL season in September until the start of the A-League season the following October.

They probably are feeling pretty bold about giving winter a shot now. Makes a lot more sense for them not competing with the European leagues and may actually lift the revenue value to Fox sports. Also means the A-League is aligned with the rest of the sport.

No they moved to summer for several reasons, the main ones being alignment with the international season, ensure stadium availability and to guarantee that pitches weren't complete mud pits. Even if the other codes didn't exist, playing in winter did no favours for the game. The free space thanks to no NRL and AFL is a handy bonus.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Marcelo]

Absolutely agree, but with current state of the adminstration none of those important things are going to happen.

Think soccer for a moment, they were a basket case for decades, riven by ethnic and political tensions, petty empire building etc. They had thousands of juniors and volunteer coaches at the grass roots, but they were still a distant 4th in the football landscape. Look at soccer now - all that really happened was they got their administration in order and with a bit of hard work the Socceroos are now sellout crowds for home matches, Sydney and Melbourne derbies attract 35,000-40,000 people to club matches. In fact , they've gone forward at about the same speed that we have gone backwards.

I just despair, we've won 2 world ups and hosted another one and look at the state of the game

Despite all that, Wallabies are still an important brand worldwide, despite the enormous growth of soccer in Australia, in social networks we have similar numbers. That's what we have to point

Qantas Wallabies Official Twitter Account: 118,860 followers

Socceroos Official Twitter Account: 192,254 followers

Qantas Wallabies Official Facebook Account: 419,167 followers

Socceroos Official Facebook Account: 433,054 followers

 

[Quick Hands]

Despite all that, Wallabies are still an important brand worldwide, despite the enormous growth of soccer in Australia, in social networks we have similar numbers. That's what we have to point

Qantas Wallabies Official Twitter Account: 118,860 followers

Socceroos Official Twitter Account: 192,254 followers

Qantas Wallabies Official Facebook Account: 419,167 followers

Socceroos Official Facebook Account: 433,054 followers

Agree that the Wallabies brand is a huge positive for rugby is Australia. Is the current administration doing a great job in protecting and promoting this brand? Or is the brand keeping us going despite a clueless administration?

 

[Quick Hands]

Saltbush is connected to Steve Williams a former ARU Director.

Keeps it all the family and obeys the golden rule of consulting there's no money to be made in solving the problem.

As Greg Growden commented in his interview with Alan Jones , the directors of the ARU are not independent but dependent on each other to protect their positions.

http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/71176#.VFC-RYhXerU
.

Another GPS old boy

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Saltbush is connected to Steve Williams a former ARU Director.

Keeps it all the family and obeys the golden rule of consulting there's no money to be made in solving the problem.

As Greg Growden commented in his interview with Alan Jones , the directors of the ARU are not independent but dependent on each other to protect their positions.

http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/71176#.VFC-RYhXerU
.

There's another connection.
Patrick allaway and hawker played for syd u , lived at Paul's and administered syd u together.
He is chairman.

 

[It is what it is]

Saltbush is connected to Steve Williams a former ARU Director.

Keeps it all the family and obeys the golden rule of consulting there's no money to be made in solving the problem.

As Greg Growden commented in his interview with Alan Jones , the directors of the ARU are not independent but dependent on each other to protect their positions.

http://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/71176#.VFC-RYhXerU
.

Yep that would make them "Interdependent Directors"

 

[Spieber]

There's another connection.
Patrick allaway and hawker played for syd u , lived at Paul's and administered syd u together.
He is chairman.

Paddy, schooled in SA, sent his offspring to Shore (his son may have been in same rugby team as Pulver jnr but happy to be corrected). Would not be surprised if he also is a water-skier

 

[Quick Hands]

Yep that would make them "Interdependent Directors"

With an interdependent CEO

 

[Quick Hands]

Hawker and ARU board express complete confidence in Pulver.

The GPS old boys cabal closes ranks.
Hawker, however, said the ARU "absolutely" stood by the chief executive. Breaking his silence on the controversy, the former Wallaby inside centre also said of scrutiny on him as chairman: "I'm not going anywhere."
We fully support Bill and have done the entire time and continue to do so. We think he is doing a fantastic job," Hawker said.

I especially loved this bit - applying the final coat of whitewash with a flourish of the paintbrush, take it away Bill:

"I think the last three weeks has been very unfortunate. I think we were making great progress with the game up until this point. This has been a bump in the road, so that's why I'm looking forward to putting it behind us and moving on."

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/b...-chairman-michael-hawker-20141031-11f19y.html

 

[Chris McCracken]

Yep that would make them "Interdependent Directors"

Co-dependent, IMO

 

[Quick Hands]

It's widely agreed that the Wallabies are the greatest asset that Australian rugby has at the moment. And apparently this is how people are appointed to senior roles within that. Where's the oversight from the CEO? Doesn't he think that it's actually his job to appoint people to these roles? If not, why not? And this is how he washes his hands of any responsibility for it:-

“When I hired Ewen McKenzie, he wanted to bring three QRU employees with him. Ewen confirms that he did all of the appropriate reference checks and history checks when he hired her,” Pulver said, saying he’d only checked himself in the wake of the Beale flight row.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...rtley-beale-saga/story-fnp0m104-1227108925033

 

[Inside Shoulder]

It's widely agreed that the Wallabies are the greatest asset that Australian rugby has at the moment. And apparently this is how people are appointed to senior roles within that. Where's the oversight from the CEO? Doesn't he think that it's actually his job to appoint people to these roles? If not, why not? And this is how he washes his hands of any responsibility for it:-

“When I hired Ewen McKenzie, he wanted to bring three QRU employees with him. Ewen confirms that he did all of the appropriate reference checks and history checks when he hired her,” Pulver said, saying he’d only checked himself in the wake of the Beale flight row.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...rtley-beale-saga/story-fnp0m104-1227108925033

I dont understand what, in Patston's case, were the formal qualifications necessary for the job and Link would have been in the position to know if she had the informal qualifications.

 

[Quick Hands]

I dont understand what, in Patston's case, were the formal qualifications necessary for the job and Link would have been in the position to know if she had the informal qualifications.

I guess that would depend on what precisely her job was and this appears unclear, and it also appears that her role may have changed at some point between start and finish. In the absence of an ARU team manager - at some point she seems to have taken on some or all of this role.

Regardless, I'd expect the CEO to be the person who interviews and appoints people to important roles in the Wallabies. As it was it appears that she was employed by and reported to the coach rather than the CEO - thus the ARU and the CEO could and it appears were, left out of the loop on some significant matters. I've always understood that the Manager and admin staff were essentially the ARU's people within the team structure and were responsible to them for logistics and finance (while of course liaising with the coach)

 

[Sully]

So the national coach should not being any of his own people with him? Why has Nathan Grey been bought in to replace McKay and who asked for him and who interviewed him? What are his coaching qualifications?