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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?
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
I would love to know why the media outside of WA has been silent on the RA financial mess since 2017 when so much information was provided during the Senate Inquiry!!
They are all puppets!!
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Absolutely and it was appalling reading Parkes and TWAS go on about agendas despite their obvious ones. All Spiro is saying is that little investigative work has been done to make the RA accountable. The two of them getting defensive over Sydney Uni was ridiculous despite that club dominating the Chairman’s seat and board appointments since Peter Cosgrove stepped down. It has been explained to them countless times.
Wayne Smith’s credibility went out the window a long time ago. His comments about Queenslanders not signing the captains’ letter was ridiculous. Nathan Sharpe and Moore represented the Reds from underage. Smith finished his Australian career there.
Moore’s junior club in Rockhampton going under is a valid enough reason for him to sign. These clubs are badly underfunded by the RA and have to charge high registration fees.
Bakkies, I dont expect much from TWAS and his never ending one sided posts on Roar supporting the RA. But Geoff Parkes is a professional journalist and is very skilled wordsmith, but is also very one eyed. He always puts some clever little snide comment in his pieces about WA or Force supporters. He always ignores or dodges questions. He will pretend that he does not understand the question and even said to me recently, that because he lives in Melbourne, I should not regard the Rebels as his team. I dont always agree with Brett Mackay, but he is a real journalist in my view and Geoff Parkes is a pretender.
Why include the Sunwolves? Even NZ is working on a 5 team format. Why does RA want to complicate things?
I'd still like to see a one-time NRC with full strength teams, even if to only see the XVs on paper.
Last edited by chibi; 11-05-20 at 21:25.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Would have found that more interesting myself, but suspect it might trample on club rugby a bit.
That sounds perfectly like the way Rugby Australia operates
They need the Force to generate enough content so they just assume that the Force will play because they're told they're playing.
It would be nice for Mark Evans to demand an equal share of all profits resulting from this competition go to GRR to compensate them for permitting the Force to play. Let's see the response from RA when they realise they're not going to get the Force for free and they'll be losing 20% of the revenue
C'mon the![]()
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Typical RA style bullshit, tell everyone the Force are welcome and when we don't agree to their ransom they will say well we wanted them to join us and they chose not to.
They tried this with Eales in SA and then when we agreed to their terms plus more after they had already decide to cut us, they couldn't hold up their end of the deal.
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
Colour me unsurprised, and I would think we are a far more likely participant than the Sunwolves. It is the tactic SANZAAR used on them too - cranked up the participation fee without any financial return, then put it around that the JRFU weren't willing to support the team when they gypped.
On that topic though, and looking forward to next year, I hope folk are still working GRR and seeing what advantage may come out of all this. I was interested to see this (https://www.thenational.ae/sport/rug...oics-1.1002077), and couldn't help wondering how well a Future Blossoms team or two might fit into GRR. Also can't help wondering whether all this might act as a bit of a reset on the appetite various companies have for the Top League and what ultimately is just a bit of an overhead.
There were more than those - Rod McCall and Jason Little signed as well. That sort of Nixes the theory that it was decided by the long running distrust between NSW and Qld. But, to be fair loyalty to mates may have played a hand too - with Ella, Slack, Loane and Tony Shaw all being contemporaries of Paul McLean.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David