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Wayne Smith | May 29, 2009
Article from: The Australian
AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union protocols on third-party deals to recruit players are being widely flouted, according to the chief executives of the Western Force, Brumbies and Reds.
The chief executive of Australia's fourth Super 14 team, NSW's Jim L'Estrange, dodged the question of whether contracting rules are being observed. "They're not being flouted at the Waratahs and I'll only comment on the Waratahs," L'Estrange told The Australian.
However, he acknowledged that some of the recent offers made by rival teams to lure players away from the Waratahs included third-party offers - which of itself is a breach of the contracting protocols.
Greg Harris, who stands down today as chief executive of the Perth-based Western Force, said Blind Freddie knew that teams were actively seeking third-party deals to attract players, in defiance of ARU rules that stipulated a player must be signed to a team before his agent was then permitted to seek private sponsorship on his behalf.
Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan conceded that trust among the four unions had broken down.
"I do think that over the course of the last three years there have been occasions when clubs have facilitated third-party deals," said Fagan, who raised the issue at a recent meeting of Super 14 chief executives with the ARU. "The sport cannot afford it. It can only be fixed if there is a real buy-in from the states that it's not in the best interests of the sport."
Reds boss Ken Freer said he had no doubt the regulations requiring the provincial unions to stay at arm's length from any private top-ups were almost unenforceable.
"I think everyone recognises you can drive holes through them," Freer said. "I have no doubt it goes on, which is pretty disappointing. And we (the Reds) have seen the impact of it. We haven't done that and haven't gone down that route. But can I put my hand over my heart and say others haven't done that? No."
Freer was not critical of the ARU for failing to enforce its own regulations,
acknowledging that it faced an almost impossible situation. "I have no doubt they ask the questions. But in order to prove it, you need video and tapes and that's very difficult to obtain."
Indeed, even around-the-clock surveillance would be unlikely to detect breaches of the protocols because it is too easy for the teams to circumvent the rules. "Just say I've done a deal with a sponsor for $1 million," said Freer. "But I say to the sponsor, just give me $900,000 and then steer the other $100,000 to me whenever I need to recruit a particular player."
The third-party issue has become the 500kg gorilla in the room, a presence every senior administrator in Australian rugby is aware of but no one wants to rile.
The Reds, the bottom-placed Australian team for the past three years, believe their insistence on playing by the rules may have cost them the chance to recruit Rocky Elsom.
According to QRU chairman Peter Lewis, the union was contacted by sponsors prepared to put up third-party money to help the Reds lure the Wallabies flanker to Ballymore but, rather than package those offers up into one tidy deal, it advised Elsom that nothing could be finalised until he had signed with Queensland.
Even then, technically speaking, Elsom - who does not have an agent - would have had to do the rounds of the backers himself to lock in the third-party contracts.
It's debatable whether this was what really scared Elsom away. Rather, the 40-Test veteran made it clear to the Reds he wanted to join a strong team, not a developing one. Still, it's hardly likely these unwieldy financial arrangement would have attracted him.
The Force is the only Australian team to have been penalised for breaching the protocols, with Rugby WA fined $150,000 in 2007 for deals done while Peter O'Meara was chief executive. But Harris sympathises with the difficulties his predecessor faced, arguing O'Meara would not have been able to lure players from the east coast to Perth without stepping outside the guidelines to provide them with "extras".
Those dodgy practices have come back to haunt the Force, with east coast unions - the Reds in particular, since the bulk of the players lured west were Queenslanders - now unwilling to cut the Perth club any slack to help it offset the difficulties raised by its geographical isolation.
Harris admitted the fact the Force was not permitted to offer Wallabies prop Matt Dunning any monetary incentive to uproot his family from Sydney and relocate in Western Austrlia was making it extremely difficult to entice him away from the Waratahs.
"The best thing for Dunning and for Australian rugby would be if he came to the Force. But why would a married player with children and no overheads in Sydney come to Perth where he would have to meet all the costs of setting himself up because we're not allowed to make him an extra offer?" Harris asked.
"I think the West (Rugby WA) has done a fantastic job. When you consider the resources the AFL is pouring into western Sydney and the Gold Coast to get them ready to host AFL teams and then you take into account the ARU (under then chief executive Gary Flowers) provided Perth with no seed resources at all, the previous Force administration had very little option but to engage in third-party deals to become competitive.
"There is too much of a provincial mentality prevailing on the east coast. If we want to embrace a national perspective, we have to overcome that narrow-minded outlook."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-32102,00.html