Wayne Smith signs off as chief rugby writer at the Australian

[Army_Gav]

Big supporter of Victoria's bid before the Rebels existed, often sinking the boot into the ARU.

 

[Pieman]

Maybe someone here can offer him a spot writing under a fake name?

Good idea. Or maybe even for the occasional podcast here at G&GR.

 

[fatprop]

With the Australian going behind a pay wall most of us won't be reading his stuff in the future anyway

 

[Jnor]

Moses posted this on twitter yesterday - all you do is find the headline, paste it into google and read the full article through your search results (or find it linked through here, twitter, facebook etc).

You can do that three times a day on their system which would be enough to read their rugby stuff but if you want more, just delete cookies and go again.

 

[RedsHappy]

That might have been his last report, but by gum he made it a doosey!! That has to be one of the best and most courageous pieces of rugby writing I have read. Totally committed to the game, totally accurate in exposing our masters' hypocrisies, beautifully written. Sad to see him go. All we are left for quality now is G&GR. Can anyone imagine Growden writing anything one-tenth as good as this?

Yes, Hawko, yes. The scary thing is that the remaining rugby mainstream media is, on policy and general code management matters, totally complaint with the ARU media machine's wishes and latest 'please think this way' influences. And they're all terrified of the well-known wraths of ARU senior leadership when challenged or critiqued. It's a very unhealthy environment around mainstream Australian rugby, Wayne Smith was alone with some courage and independence left.

Just one example: when the ARU and JO'N tried to hide JO'N's last $ salary from the last ARU Annual Report, it was Smith who wrote against that disgraceful lack of transparency from the governing body and leader of a 'public' game owing loyalty to its fans, etc.

 

[MrTimms]

Moses posted this on twitter yesterday - all you do is find the headline, paste it into google and read the full article through your search results (or find it linked through here, twitter, facebook etc).

You can do that three times a day on their system which would be enough to read their rugby stuff but if you want more, just delete cookies and go again.

Or do it with Chrome in incognito mode. No Cookies.

 

[Scotty]

Going from rugby to cricket! What'd this bloke do to get those two gigs? Someone decent to read so's I don't have to put up with Roebuck's drivel.

You can always not open the SMH. Roebuck and Growden. What a great team.

 

[proton]

Never having read Smiths articles that one was a real eye opener and its sad to think the head shed cannot jel together for the sake of the national team given that the players coming from the different francise make up that team. Its that old school mentality that defines much of the politics in sport. NZ had a coach who operated like that saying it was his way or the highway Mitchell and he got it so wrong for the world cup that year. I still believe Aussie should have ben in the final if they had of beaten Ireland but the SA game took so much out of them and the injuries also. I dont know if they would have had much in the tank and the crowd booing QC (Quade Cooper) was a bit pathetic but he'll have the last laugh if he stays on board.
There just doesnt seem to be any accountabilty when people fail and second chances well we gave Henry one and one point was all it was in the end for him to be a winner or loser. WHo knows but you definitely need a national sounding board then just the corporate coaching box to do the damage.

 

[Swat]

I really struggled to take in what you had written there proton. Reasonable points in all, it's just my NSWelshman breeding instantly sees the koala and the fern and thinks "this ought to be a load of sh*t", thankfully it wasn't.

 

[Lance Free]

Moses posted this on twitter yesterday - all you do is find the headline, paste it into google and read the full article through your search results (or find it linked through here, twitter, facebook etc).

You can do that three times a day on their system which would be enough to read their rugby stuff but if you want more, just delete cookies and go again.

Or you could just buy the newspaper?

 

[Jnor]

Pay money for things!?!?!? It's also harder to convince myself I'm not procrastinating if I'm reading a real paper, as opposed to it's online version...

 

[Pieman]

That might have been his last report, but by gum he made it a doosey!! That has to be one of the best and most courageous pieces of rugby writing I have read. Totally committed to the game, totally accurate in exposing our masters' hypocrisies, beautifully written. Sad to see him go. All we are left for quality now is G&GR. Can anyone imagine Growden writing anything one-tenth as good as this?

I just hope Smith's switch to cricket doesn't signify a reduction in rugby content in The Australian. It's always had at least 2 or 3 times as much as any other paper. And apart from Bret Harris,(plus G&GR of course) who else is now worth reading??????