Getting rid of Lote was a great move.
Getting rid of each teams academies is a dreadful decision. Wear the cost and make up for it when the Lions come round in 2013.
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Getting rid of Lote was a great move.
Getting rid of each teams academies is a dreadful decision. Wear the cost and make up for it when the Lions come round in 2013.
True that James, but don't forget the other entries in the atrocious decision pile, getting rid of the PNC and the ARC, both represent the only pathway between the different levels of rugby. Sure it was a cost, but a re-structure could have avoided a lot of that and still maintained a pathway
I wouldn't have said PNC, it was more getting rid of Aus A. That for mine was his worst move, as it immediately puts us in the position of having to give away cheap caps to blood players in Tests. There's no opportunity to audition or develop players and no chance of the incumbents being pressured for their spots. Instead we have to throw unready kids into the line, either to find out what they have got (and constantly disrupting the established partnerships that are the hallmark of the top teams) or to cover for a player that has monopolised the only opportunity such that his replacement is completely unprepared for Test rugby. To me, that is the decision that will cause the most long term damage to the Wallabies.
After that, it is getting rid of the ARS. One of their greatest priorities should be the grassroots amateur game, but it seems to actually be their least. If the ARU is going to focus solely on the professional game, they should just wrap up and we can restructure along the lines of American Football where the teams own the competition.
My views on the ARC are well known, we won't go there.
Bring it on
You forget that JON has to balance the books.
It isn't an eternal spring that runs money nor is it a money tree that can be picked weekly. In a period where the biggest financial crisis since the great depression rocked the foundation of world currency flow and big sponsors went running to cut costs.......JON has prevailed.
CEO's earn big coin. For a CEO he is on sh1te money.
As discussed, getting rid of cost-a-Lote paid his salary.
The books will be in good order thanks to the competent management of JON.
What sort of a professional sporting franchise can't develop it's own junior system without handouts? A farking shambles with a management of dunderheads is the answer.
Unfortunately flying academy sides all over the country and putting them up in hotels and feeding them costs coin.
The ARU is a business and there are a lot of hands out asking for donations. I imagine the economics of the organisation are quite complicated and the bottom line is pretty skinny.
The ARU had to bail out the Tahs and recently the Reds. They need an emergency kitty..........known to economically minded people as a surplus........easily wasted by inept managements and incompetent governments (see Julia and her chronies)
When the bottom line is skinny and big pay days and cashed up sponsors are scarce, some tough decisions need to be made...........for the long term good of the financial state of the ARU.
This country breeds a mindset of sitting on your sorry @rse b1tching about not been handed this and spoon fed that. It's pathetic.
JON gets paid big coin to balance the books and he's doing a damn fine job, as well as getting our national team back on track after the dark ages when we let him go to soccer where he transformed an archaic and feudal competition into a national comp and got the socceroos to the first world cup in 1000 years. The bloke is a good manager, a great leader and a visionary.
We are lucky to have him at the helm.
Take your small minded socialist whining and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
5 professional franchises will supply enough quality for 22 wallabies + 22 backups. Another JON success story
Back to you already Eddie
Burgs Socialist?---now,that's a laugh
Have you sobered up?
Hey Rexy, if JON is such a financial genius, how did he miss the obvious wad of cash in the tv executives back pockets and get 20% extra revenue for rugby when Gayfl and NRL got friggin squillions.......or is that part of the fiscal management plan as well?
I think the problem lays at the feet of spoonies like Richard Graham and the "bore the crowd to booing" match day plans. JON has little say in the popularity of the sport and the product that is on display. He openly called for attacking rugby to help him bargain at the table.
The game should have listened
Defy JON at your peril.
I prefer to focus on the good things. The bloke had to make some hard calls.....a struggling national team and boring rugby have meant there is less cash. The GFC has meant there is less cash. He is putting it right
There is only so much to go round. It's called the bottom line.
Strong management was required. We have our man. He's a farking legend and whipping the kiwis at Eden Park in the RWC final will be his masterpiece.
Be thankful the w@nkers at the Reds and Tahs and Brumbies aren't in charge. The ARU would be bankrupt and the grass roots would get nothing at all
20% extra would have equated to about a 60% increase on the previous TV deal. Yeah we need more but just saying.
Bear in mind that Fox is banking on their premium AFL package driving a massive increase in their subscription base, which is why they're throwing that much money at them. There's no way they view rugby in the same way.
I'll stay out of the JON argument and comment only that I could not see any responsible decision at the time other than scrapping the ARC in THAT format.
I'm not so sure that relocating the academies is also a responsible decision. But I haven't got the facts, either.
Rugby, in Australia, has the same crippling problem as RL had for a decade with regards to TV rights. They basically go cap in hand to News Ltd. Unless SANZAR can somehow talk them into loosening their hold, or has the balls to reinvent a new competition and go to the market with it, nothing will change.