Alan Jones, Loved this correspondence from Stillas
From: Welborn, John - Perth
Sent: Tuesday, 15 August 2017 12:54 PM
To:
alanjones@2gb.com
Subject: Rugby - A personal note of thanks
Well may we say Advance Australia Fair because NOTHING is fair about the Australian Rugby Union! (with apologies to Gough). Reverse the decision on Western Force - first step in renewal.
Dear Alan,
I am a former Wallaby. In fact I am WA’s first born and bred Wallaby. I grew up with most WA kids burning sporting passion: to play AFL for my favourite VFL team or play cricket for Australia. In 1984 I stayed up late at night with my English born father and watched you and the Wallabies triumph in the Grand Slam. I was 13 and was hooked. So you are largely responsible for the twenty odd years I spent passionately involved with rugby union as a player. Luckily it turns out I was better at running into people than running away from them.
You presented my Wallaby jersey to me in the 1999 Centenary Test at Stadium Australia. You spoke about the early farming family of Homebush and the slaughter yard history of the site. You used the local history to frame the context of our battle with the old foe. I was marking Martin Johnson that day. We won (in those days we did).
The local history of rugby in Western Australia dates back to 1870s. The WA Rugby Union was formed in 1893. The workers on the Kalgoorlie goldfields played rugby. The immigrants from Wales, Scotland, and England. In my childhood it was the New Zealanders who arrived in droves and lifted the local standard. Recently it has been South Africans who have boosted the sport. Today rugby in Western Australia is thriving. You have the statistics and I have heard you use them on your show.
The funding model for professional rugby in Australia is broken. Every Super team has had to be bailed out by the ARU parent at some stage including Queensland and New South Wales. The system has always penalised WA and made funding the Western Force extremely difficult. Despite this the sport has prospered. And now a so called “Alliance Agreement” funding supplement from the ARU has been used as the trigger to kill off the side. Deceitful and treacherous.
What is happening in Australian rugby is a disgrace. You know it. I know it. Below are texts this morning I have sent to my two former team mates who are ARU Directors, John Eales and Brett Robinson.
The decision to terminate the Western Force has to be reversed. But that is not the answer. Rugby needs strong leaders and it needs funding and structure. Your comments have been extremely useful in holding individuals to account.
The solution is better leadership focused on a funding model that is sustainable and supports growth. Attracting and welcoming business leaders like Andrew Forrest inside the tent is a good start. Coaching development and talent development (I am a product of the AIS rugby program now disbanded) is essential. Less funding for buying $1million players (which we developed at our cost!) back from European jaunts. Less funding for “sabbaticals” (!). Better links with club rugby and less isolation of professional squads of 30 players rotating in and out of the one team. When I turned up at Easts in Sydney in 1993 I played 3rd grade. Then 2nd grade. Then 1st grade. Then NSW B. Then NSW. Then Australia A. etc. And sometimes I went back down! Depth is not solved form the top. Invest in the bottom. Also (and this is fundamental to the current problem) cutting a team and going from 5 to 4 does NOT mean the team will be better. As you know better than most the age old cry of every unsuccessful coach or structure is “we didn’t have the cattle”. Look at the superstars of the NSW squad and what the Western Force did to them in the last round. Cattle?
5 teams to 4 will not make Australian rugby any stronger. It will only kill off a union that is creating Wallabies and supporters and concentrate our resources in an even smaller pool. It is madness.
Keep at them Alan. Viva le Revolution!
Most of all, thank you for turning me into a rugby player all those years ago. Despite the current malaise it has made my life magnificent.
Regards
John Welborn (Wallaby #731 1996-1999)
To Eales:
Hi John,
Powerful open letter in the Australian by Wayne Smith today. It is addressed to Bill and Cameron, but John it could have your name on it too.
Guess what? "Leadership Matters". You are currently on the wrong side of this. It's a bad decision and you must know it. There are better solutions to the funding problems. I have heard Andrew offer his unequivocal support to Cameron and be told "it's more complicated than that". Is it? The rugby talent argument behind 5 to 4 is rubbish and you know it. The decision to cut the Force is wrong. It will be turned around. Leadership matters. So can you show some leadership? Actually a wonderful opportunity for you. Come out of the shadows and broker a deal with Forrest for an outcome that ALL Australia rugby would support and cheer. Nobody wants to kill off a successful union. Or have I got that wrong? Maybe you and your fellows Directors do? At least it looks like that now because there is an obvious alternative solution. So tell me why that is? And what are you going to do about it?
Leadership Matters.
Stillas
To: Brett Robinson
Robbo,
See my text above. It remains relevant. You are on the wrong side of this at present. Powerful open letter from Wayne Smith in The Australian today. And he is right - it is as simple as changing the decision. All Australian rugby would cheer. So why not be a winner instead of a loser? Can you show some balls and get Cameron and Bill to sit down with Forest and turn this decision around? Or are they (and you) so compromised and committed that they (incorrectly) think it is too late? Newlinds QC and Alan Myers QC are costing Andrew tens of thousands of dollars a day! They are both very confident in the appeal. Regardless, next they will with the WA government on a recovery claim for the $120 million the State Government invested in the NiB stadium renovation for the benefit of Super Rugby. And there is more coming - deceptive conduct litigation in relation to the “Alliance” agreement (nice title btw). But wait - there will be more. I promise you Robbo it will never ever end. I say again: you are on the wrong side of this.
Hundreds of thousands, and ultimately millions, of dollars on both sides are going to lawyers that could be going to fund rugby. It's insane.
Think about it this way: For the first time in memory Australian Rugby has a major benefactor who has emerged on the scene, an individual who doesn't balk at giving away $400million to the University of WA and others, an individual who had pledged to give away the entirety of his 6 Billion fortune in his lifetime, someone who wants to help, who has simple said "This is a dud decision - can I help change it - tell me what you need". Someone who gets behind causes with passion and conviction. And above all someone who is TOTALLY DEDICATED TO BEING A WINNER AT ALL COSTS. And you guys show him the finger. Slam the door in his face. turn up the chance to have him behind you and in your team. Are you serious Robbo? And for what? Tell me Robbo how you make this decision and thus your tenure as a Director a winner?
I'm available for a call. So is Andrew.
Change the decision - it's the wrong one.
Stillas