So we’ve talked about the players. We’ve talked about the games. Next week we will be getting into the top tries of the decade. But now? Now we’re going to look at some of the off-field moments of the decade. Ok, so not all specifically take place off the field, but the implications of them are more significant off the field than they are on.
The premise of these list is that these are the tent pole moments for Australian Rugby over the decade. Those moments that shaped our sport in our country most significantly. It has been a massive decade for all involved, one filled with turmoil and change, challenges and opportunities. We started the year as World Champions and one of the most memorable series of test matches in history, and finished with a failed re-enactment of the 1984 Grand Slam.
But what were THE biggest moments. The ones that got people talking. That had the press circling. That had ours (and others’) chat rooms spinning. This will take the form of three posts over the next three days, so take your time taking it all in.
5. John O’Neill’s departure post 2003 RWC
John O’Neill was as much Australian Rugby as the Wallaby jersey at the time. In fact he’d seen half a dozen different versions of the jersey in his time as CEO of the ARU. O’Neill oversaw the progression of the ARU from amateur organisation to one of the most forward thinking and well regarded sporting organisations in the country, with some of Australia’s highest paid athletes. In the recent past the Wallabies had become the first nation to win two World Cups, winning the 1999 title. The Wallabies won an incredible 2000 Tri-Nations series and then backed up to beat the British Lions in a series for the first time on Australian soil the next year.
Off the field things were firing. The Wallabies were recognised on a par with the Australian Cricket Team as the premier national team in the country. Sponsorships and profile were soaring, and to top it off O’Neill had snuck in and secured sole hosting rights of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, from New Zealand. The move was a huge success with the tournament being a triumph across the board. Crowd numbers, profile, profit, TV ratings – it all went through the roof. Australian Rugby was on a high.
So what happened?
Following the World Cup O’Neill apparently decided he wouldn’t renew his contract with the ARU. Stories insist that he had put Board Members off-side with his ego, and that he was trying to run sporting body like his only little fiefdom. A period of head-butting (figuratively, not literally – although that would have been funny) with Wallaby skipper George Gregan was also proving troubling.
How did it change things?
Well two things happened. Firstly, O’Neill jumped ship and moved to soccer. The Socceroos qualified for the World Cup and all of a sudden O’Neill had the Midas touch again. A Government enforced restructure of the ‘global game’ was called for and John was the man to deliver it. New sponsorships were signed, a new domestic league was established and top ARU staff were poached.
Meanwhile the ARU would soon appoint lawyer Gary Flowers to wear O’Neill’s shoes (if not his red pants). Now whether it was coincidence or a sign of their respective management skills, but whilst soccer was booming under O’Neill, rugby was fading away under Flowers. A ‘rainy day’ fund of approximately $45million earned during the 2003 RWC evaporated, sponsors left, the Wallabies (more often than not) lost.
Implications for the future?
O’Neill’s back, but we are yet to see any of his magic touch. The Wallabies are still losing the big games. Big sponsors have left. The Australian Rugby Challenge was axed, as was the Australia A program and other development initiatives. Despite his alleged need for control, it was a shame that O’Neill wasn’t left to look after the World Cup nest egg. There is a hell of a lot of ground to catch up on. Rugby Union was probably the 2nd most popular footy code back in 2003, and pushing AFL. The Wallabies were the premier national sporting team, behind only cricket on a year round basis. Now the Wallabies are close to a laughing stock and rugby is trailing well behind league and AFL and will drop further behind soccer as next year’s World Cup in South Africa get’s closer.
Can O’Neill turn things around again? How long does he have to do it? And if he can’t, who can?
4. Robbie Dean’s signing
Since the 2003 World Cup, the Wallabies had been struggling. From the heights of the McQueen/Eales/O’Neill era to the lows of the Jones/Gregan/Flowers era. The Wallabies could no longer pull off the big match win. They were no longer recognised as the innovators we once were. Elements of our game were downright embarrassing.
A seven-game losing streak in 2006 was pretty much the final straw. Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was sacked and, in a move that always seemed temporary, John Connolly (who hadn’t coached in Australia for a little over half a decade) was appointed, along with a bevy of wannabe head coaches as his assistants.
Connolly would have the ultimate challenge. Success would ONLY be gauged on a World Cup win in 2007. He had to turn around a weak scrum and soft forward presence, along with an aging backline, to win back the World Cup we had lost so dramatically four years prior.
He didn’t, and he was sacked.
So what happened?
With John O’Neill back at the ARU he replicated his appointment of Guus Hiddink as Socceroos coach by naming former All Black Robbie Deans as the Wallaby coach. The coach of the highly successful Crusaders Super 12/14 team had missed out on the All Black head coach spot, with Graham Henry somewhat controversially reappointed. So O’Neill, much like he did with the 2003 RWC, swooped.
How did it change things?
Deans’s appointment, regardless of his qualifications, over the likes of Ewen McKenzie and David Nucifora – highly credentialed Australia coaches (and former Wallabies) was promoted by the ARU as a sign of the times.
It graphically displayed two things. First, the impact of professionalism on sport. Whereas previously the Wallabies were a representative team made up of the best players selected by the best coach, they were now a team of people fulfilling ‘contractual obligations’. Sure, Deans was (and probably still is) the best man for the job, but appointing an ‘outsider’ to the Wallabies in my opinion devalued the meaning of the Wallaby jersey, if only just a little.
Secondly it showed that the development path for Australian coaches just isn’t there. Whether it is because our accreditation programs are not efficient enough, or the respective club competitions aren’t of high enough standard, or that the Super 14 tournament was irrelevant as a judging platform, something within the system failed us in producing a home grown candidate to be the best coach.
Implications for the future?
Robbie needs to prove himself. I say his appointment has devalued the jersey, but he has the ability to put some added value back into it. By creating a Wallaby team that can win away, that can win the big trophies, that a country can be proud of.
On a bigger picture, it means rugby in Australia is now open slather. Purely professional. We now have imports playing for our ‘state’ teams, players are moving between sides like they are night clubs. I fully expect we will see a player start the season with one team, and finish with another in the next year or two.
Not that Robbie Deans caused this, but his appointment was the turning point for the change. It is about “KPIs” now and getting the best person for the job, regardless of their background, is now the way forward. The sporting industry in Australia is a competitive market place and only the strong will survive. To keep the clichés coming, the be the best you have to get the best. And Robbie Deans is one of the best. The ARU pretty much had to sign him, and that will be their strategy for years to come. Even when it comes to finding that next CEO, one would assume.
*****
Tomorrow we look at our next two Moments of the Decade. Both happen in the first half of the decade and it is probably fair to say that neither had the dramatic positive impact on the game that officialdom would have hoped they would. In the meantime, let us know your memories of the above. Did the ARU make the right decision in both situations? Where do we stand now and how are we looking for the next decade as a result of these decisions?
