O'Neill pushing for contract window

O'Neill pushing for contract window

By Wayne Smith
April 15, 2008

AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union boss John O'Neill will meet the country's four Super 14 teams at the end of this year's competition in a bid to find a more logical window for contract negotiations.

At present, most contracts are negotiated during the 15-week period of the Super 14 which is a massive distraction to the players and coaches at a time when everyone should be focusing exclusively on on-field performances.

Given that there are another 37 weeks in the year when those negotiations could be conducted, it's a distraction Australian rugby seemingly should be able to eliminate.
"I agree with those sentiments," O'Neill said. "I don't think it's a sensible arrangement at all. Is there a better way? I'd like to think there is.

"The players are professional athletes training hard. There's a lot of travel involved during Super 14, a lot of other things weighing on their minds. I'm not sure that having negotiations going on and agents buzzing around while players are in the thick of competition makes much sense.

"Once we're through the Super 14 season, the four CEOs (from New South Wales, Queensland, the Brumbies and Western Force) will be sitting down with ourselves to try to work out a better system."

Western Force coach John Mitchell has recommended a December-January window which makes sense given that they are the only months of the year in which Australian professional footballers are guaranteed not to be playing, but that would force clubs to base their player assessments on form from six months earlier.

And there is also a belief among players and their agents that negotiating during the season injects a sense of urgency that works to their advantage.

While that issue has been placed on hold for another month or two, O'Neill and ARU chairman Peter McGrath will use Thursday's annual general meeting of the national body to identify the strategic imperatives for the game in Australia.

For once, they will not have to start from scratch with new directors. For the first time in memory, the ARU board will remain unchanged following the decisions of the NSWRU and the QRU to nominate their respective board representatives - Mike Brown and Rod McCall - for re-election.

O'Neill said the annual general meeting provided the perfect opportunity to put more flesh on plans for the expansion of Super rugby to a 26-week competition and the associated push into Asia, specifically Japan.

He raised again the possibility of a joint venture between the Australian and Japanese Rugby Unions to base a composite Super team in Tokyo, with each country providing 50 per cent of the playing roster. But he also took the concept one step further by raising the possibility of staging Super 14 matches in Japan to further stimulate interest in that market.

While the 26-week Super season concept still has to be sold to Australia's SANZAR partners - O'Neill will speak to his New Zealand and South African counterparts in Dublin later this month - the expanded season promises to inject new life into the Sydney and Brisbane club competitions.

"If we play March to August, staging the Tests midweek and Super rugby fixtures on the weekend, then clearly Super rugby teams will need to run bigger squads," O'Neill said. "When the Tests are on and the Wallaby players are missing from the Waratahs and Reds, Brumbies and Force, then those teams are going to have to dig into club rugby for replacement players."

If the two SANZAR partners agree to the Australian proposal, the financial situations of the provinces will be improved because of a virtual doubling of home matches while relevance will be restored to club football.

O'Neill also foreshadowed a tempting offer to the broadcasters for the 2010 negotiations of the new broadcast deal. "It may be that in terms of providing more certainty for long-range planning, there might need to be an extension of the contract."

At present the broadcast deals run for five years but O'Neill said there might be benefit in examining a five-year package with a five-year option.