Oh for Gods sake John, don’t touch ‘em with a barge pole! The time bomb is about to explode, and hopefully Clyne & Clarke go with it.
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Oh for Gods sake John, don’t touch ‘em with a barge pole! The time bomb is about to explode, and hopefully Clyne & Clarke go with it.
To be honest, I can't see what reaching out or bridge building is possible. They obviously aren't going to be able to offer money, not that they ever have in the past. Making some BS offer about including the Force in some imaginary future competition would simply be an insult, only serving to highlight the past...why would anyone trust that it would play out any differently? And what about the commitments made to GRR...just give them the flick and run back to RA, the way they just flicked the Force? For good or bad, things have moved on and that can't just be ignored.
But the most galling is "He has reached out to me and told me of his intent to involve WA rugby in the national programme". How is that an offer of anything...does that mean they hadn't been planning to? At best it is an offer of nothing that shouldn't have been already happening, but really just suggests that won't last long before they again decide WA is superfluous. And to top it all, in case of any hard feelings, they are making a big thing about him only being temporary. Can't help but wonder whether it means anything he says that might prove inconvenient could then be disavowed.
John Edwards doing the best John Edwards to do.
Like it or not, rugbywa is still a member union of rugby Australia snd therefore Clarke is now his boss, so to speak.
He did the right thing by calling McLean and letting the truth be known and he did the right thing by offering to take Clarke at face value and hold him accountable.
He also did the right thing by putting his displeasure out in front of his members (albeit quite samitised I'll bet) but to think that rugbywa gets anywhere by refusing to deal with clarke is a fantasy.
And IMHO equally divisive as appointing Clarke as ceo
John has no choice but to take Clarke at face value. But Clarke isn’t going to be interested in what RWA has to say as they have nothing to do with the Force anymore and will carry on surviving on the crumbs that have always only ever been thrown this way by Clarke and his RA mates for the community game here.
It’s Forrest and Minderoo who have all the power now and it’s them (if anyone) and their deep pockets that Clarke will be courting.
Hope they both tell him to go away!
Great post AndyS - agree with everything you’ve said.
Absolutely, and I wasn't intending any criticism of him. Indeed, I couldn't help wonder whether the specific mention of the supposed prize wasn't intended to give everyone a heads up.
I guess WA has one interesting advantage now, in that RA has to deal with RugbyWA when as a result of RA's past dealings they no longer own the Force. It gives RugbyWA and Forrest the chance to play good cop/bad cop in any negotiation, and RA no direct leverage over the Force. As noted, RA also wouldn't really have much to offer that couldn't be walked away from. And all with border closures that might allow them to shrug shoulders anyway.
Can anyone put a copy of this up from the West today. Behind paywall.
RugbyWA chairman John Edwards warns against Rugby Australia’s recent appointment of Western Force-slayer Rob Clarke as interim CEO
The other, left of field option is for RugbyWA to provide the team to the new Super Rugby bastardisation (IMHO the only way it could happen without Twiggy having a say in exactly how) and the Force remain in GRR. I've been thinking that it would be cool to have a Force Super Rugby team that feeds into a Force GRR team (or even the GRR teams in general)
I have visions of Clarke running around the offices looking for incriminating documents and gleefully standing at the shredder.
Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows Clarke NEVER carries documents. Everything, especially spreadsheets, is on his I Pad. That's why he couldnt possibly have provided the hard copy of the ARU/Force agreement which miraculously "beamed in" to land on Tim North's desk. This was presumeably a set up by some radical West Australian faction with a particle transporter stolen from the United Federation of Planets because everyone present in North's office had no idea how it got there. They did however take the opportunity to arrange for an underling to get photo copies in case it just as mysteriously beamed out again. Dead set!
They would borrow North's secretary. She knows how to mysteriously photo copy and shred documents..