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I said this about 4 yrs ago and was told to take my tinfoil hat off.. There has been a conspiracy against the Western Force for a few yrs.. The problem The 2 so called heartland teams.. They are very worried that with the Expat population of WA that they will be loosing the so called top dog role in Rugby.. With the AFL investing 200 million into getting 2 Sydney teams up and running and the NRL expanding.... The sponsorship $$$ will be spreading wider.. WA mean while has 2 AFL teams 1 soccer and now 1 rugby team.. The NRL have declared that they will not push into the WA market until union is done and dead.. WA rugby is the best and Will be a very competitive side in the next 5 yrs if they are left in the comp.. Players are now seeing the future in Rugby in WA.. The old boys clubs have no one to blame but themselves.... I would really like to know the answer to Alison's ????? What was the process that lead to the Western Force selling the IP back to the ARU.. Could we have raised the funds thru the Own the Force then... Or was it a push from the ARU to complete the puzzle..??? The only thing that really urks me the most is that a group of over paid bullies are holding to ransom the lives of the players and Admin staff of 5 SR clubs .. Not just the Force and Rebels as anyone with a contract has to be placed somewhere else.. .. The ARU are driven by the NSWRU and it will not change just wish some of the Younger members could do something about it..
It appears that young Jake McIntyre from the Reds has signed with Agen in France, another decent player lost overseas due to the restricted market being created.
#wewouldhavebeenstrongerasfive
Simon Cron: “People talk about winning and losing all the time and they are critical, but there’s a process to get into and it’s the ability to stay present, do your job and execute skills under pressure.”
Campbell Magnay from the Reds off to Japan, yet another decent player lost overseas......
#wewouldhavebeenstrongerasfive
Simon Cron: “People talk about winning and losing all the time and they are critical, but there’s a process to get into and it’s the ability to stay present, do your job and execute skills under pressure.”
2 Reds off in a row? Reds to get the chop = confirmed.
ok, so I have read through all posts in this thread, and there are some very interesting comments. Here's my take on things:
1. The Melbourne Rebels actions to call the EGM were done to bring to light the process for deciding which team (if any) to cut
2. VRU and RUPA voted to keep five teams
3. I still cannot understand why WARU did not join that vote - but possibly - and this is from the comments in this thread, due to a feeling that the VRU were acting to cut the Force - not true in my opinion.
4. The ARU provided papers before the EGM for member unions to read - at ARU HQ - and these were so heavily redacted that they were of no use
5. I agree with the sentiment that we should stay as five as a national sport
6. ARU have pumped millions into the Rebels - true, but the ARU engineered it that way - In the first instance, Pulver appointed his old school mate, Rob Clarke (previously sacked from the ARU by JON in 2007) as CEO of the Rebels and basically let him spend what ever he needed and pumped about an extra $5m into the franchise in 2013 + 2014. In 2015 Peter Leahy took over as Rebels CEO and the business almost broke even - ARU funding of $1.5 m extra - the light was at the end of the tunnel and this was when Clarke got his old mates together, Gary Gray and Jonathon Ling (both MRRU Board members) together with Andrew Cox and pushed through the sale of the Rebels to Imperium with certain secret clauses (which have now come out) that the Rebels would receive extra payments amounting to about $6 m , as a balloon payment scheme, so most has been paid now. My point is that much of the extra money the ARU paid in those years was engineered by the ARU and they still cannot explain why they did what they did. If anything, the administrators should be sacked - and I'm kind of glad that Todd Day has gone now, cos his paw print is on this too.
Excellent summary Lou, and probably so close to the truth.
Always wondered about the Rugby WA voting reasoning at that meeting.
Maybe Hansie or The General could explain or enlighten us on that.
Jeansyjive I really hope it does get exposed if what Lou has surmised is true.
Probably only the ABC may take the challenge as most other rugby journalists are so far up the ARU's, you know what's.
Lou maybe you could put something together and send it to the ABC Four Corners. I have sent emails to them a couple of times to try and get them to get to the bottom of the whole show that's been orchastred by the ARU Board and Executive.
To bad there are no John Olivers in Australia
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
Great stuff Lou, two points from my view.
The extra money granted to the Rebels would not be in any way a problem if it came from a sound business model or an even playing field. The AFL spend plenty of money developing their expansion teams and do a good job of it, but the money spent is always with the purpose of overcoming the costs and challenges, therefore teams get money relative to their location and it's always success focused. If the ARU were going to push through a scheme of funding the Rebels highly, why then were they so intent of ripping money out of their other expansion franchise to save a dollar? other codes use the successful franchises to support the expansion, not the ones who can't afford it.
Secondly, I reckon the RugbyWA vote at the EGM was simple boardroom politics. Don't vote for a lost cause regardless of your opinion on the matter, because you lose support (one day you'll need to call in those favours)
It is interesting that Sinders is continuing to peddle the 4 teams line, but I'm not privy to his reasons and he certainly appears to be on the ball for the Force in every respect, so I'm going with benefit of the doubt. Maybe the numbers DO stack up and the country can't afford 5 (but the ARU can certainly afford to pay substantial salaries to the mungbeans who have generated this mess, it appears since the day they were appointed)
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The biggest issue around the EGM is that it forced the resolution of which is the worst outcome, going to 4 teams. This backfired big time on RUPA and the VRU. The franchises basically said to the ARU, we support you going to 4 teams and we have an official vote to back it up. Whilst the intention of the meeting was to gain clarity on the criteria and avert the culling of a franchise, it went the opposite way badly. No answers were gained, no new information was brought to light and the ARU were empowered by receiving the franchises backing to go to 4 teams. Just a dumb, dumb decision by RUPA and the VRU. The ARU voting proceedures at thes meetings are heavily skewed towards an ARU outcome with the current voting structures. This EGM was a complete waste of time.
I think the reason that the WARU voted the way they did was not to upset the apple cart further than we already had by supporting the EGM resolution and assuming that the motion would fail anyway. That's where the transfer of the rabble licence to the VRU if it happens should be remembered by the ARU that VRU were one of the parties who wanted the EGM = black strike.
I always wondered that part of the ARU-RugbyWA "alliance" was the requirement to do as the ARU required as far as a vote was concerned.
I have nothing to base that on - and I am probably wrong.
Exile
Sydney
"Pain heels. Chicks dig scars and Glory lasts forever." Shane Falco
The ARU-Rugby WA agreement removes voting rights from The Force as the ARU technically 'own' the Force and as such own the vote.