1
Spiro pulled out this fire wrapper to school Geoff Parkes in his latest Wrap on the Roar.
Geoff
My article about the Brett Papworth challenge and the Cameron Clyne/Bill Pulver rejection of it in 2016 suggested that if Papworth did not succeed in changing Rugby Australia’s attitude to its responsibilities to the game itself rather than political correctness that ‘it would end in tears’ for rugby in this country.
Jessican Halloran’s detailed article on the finances of Rugby Australia, or their lack of finance, indicates that this prediction has now come to pass.
Among the revelations in the Holloran article is that fact that the size of the media department of Rugby Australia was increased under Castle by 33 per cent.
Is this the explanation for the fawning adulation Castle has received from the rugby media despite the fact that Rugby Australia this year still refuses to publish its real accounts?
I can prove with emails that the money spent on the media department was not spent on actually providing important information to journalists about the managers, say, of various Rugby Australia appointments.
A sub-headline to the Halloran article stated: ‘RA rotting financially and needs to come clean.’
So much for the work of the over-sized media department.
It is time now for the rugby media to stop supporting the old regime. This regime has virtually bankrupted rugby in Australia. It has left the game in the perilous position where there is no broadcaster willing right now to support it.
I conclude with the observation that the line run by the Castle supporters that she was within a few days of being signed and was exploded by the corona virus pandemic is bunkum. Optus has revealed it was never really interested in the sort of deal that Castle was peddling to the gullible media.
What was the connection between the expanded Rugby Australia media department and the swallowing by the rugby media of the Optus contract nonsense?
So far the Australian rugby media has been silent on this matter. Why?