Arbitration hearing - Western Force v ARU - 31.07.2017

[wallabydarnd]

well we have 10 days stay of execution and must keep the energy going
i am told there is a lot going on behind the scenes-
time to put pressure on the ERU Board
have emailed John Eales and deposited my third and last OTF $ 1000 in today- this one courtesy of Andrew F--
last chance saloon

[Kalahard]

Info here: https://www.rugby.com.au/news/2016/0...ernance-review

Actual document here: http://myrugby.rugby.com.au/myrugby/...ov/Details.pdf

A bit wordy but the Arbib report basically recommends that the ARU governance becomes independent of state based influence in its board members, incorporate the Super Rugby teams in the decision making process, be mofe transparent in its processes and that member unions take more responsibility for grassroots development in their own states.

Apart from grassroots growth in WA, the rest is a massive fail. They changed nothing except one voting structure around Super Rugby license holders to incorporate them in decision making processes but that change has resulted in this change being used as leverage against the ARU. The Arbib report was a waste of time. The same problems that have always plagued rugby still plague rugby.

[Usebeo]

I was going to write to the Federal Sports Minister, Greg Hunt, but guess where he's from......Victoria.

[.X.]

well we have 10 days stay of execution and must keep the energy going
i am told there is a lot going on behind the scenes-
time to put pressure on the ERU Board
have emailed John Eales and deposited my third and last OTF $ 1000 in today- this one courtesy of Andrew F--
last chance saloon

thanks for being a Owner mate.

[Alison]

deposited my third and last OTF $ 1000 in today- this one courtesy of Andrew F--
last chance saloon

Ditto!

[Egan]

Care to do a side trip to St Leonards for us Egan,possibly a night tour?

Lol, not sure it makes much difference at this stage. The real warfare now is not on hearts and minds, but on legalistic definitions.

It is always sad when sport has to be settled via a court case, but in this situation its 100% justified.

[wallabydarnd]

Wayne Smith writing in "Australian "online just posted-- firmly in our court::
Dear Sirs,( Pulver and patsy cline )

You both are decent, honourable men and you must hate the position that you find yourselves in at present. You believe you are killing off the Western Force in order to save Australian rugby. I am asking you to consider that in the process you may be killing the very soul of the game.

It is not entirely your fault that Australian rugby is in this mess, though you have contributed to it through decisions you made in the past. Well-meaning decisions, decisions based on the proposition that bigger is better. We, all of us involved in this ambitious experiment known as SANZAAR, have come to realise that bigger, in fact, is not always better, which is where the backtracking comes in and the Force go out.

Perhaps you can’t conceive of any rugby life bar one spent in the company of New Zealand and South Africa. One partner the more powerful on the field, the other more powerful in a financial sense, off the field. And over time, you have allowed them to dictate terms to you. It’s flattering being in such company, with two of the greatest rugby nations on earth, but don’t forget that Australia itself won two World Cups and played in two other finals. OK, we might have fallen off the pace, pretty severely this year especially, but Australia will rise again. There are too many good people putting their shoulders to the wheel for it not to happen.

You clearly know what a dreadful thing you are doing in condemning the Western Force to death. It’s written in your faces at press conferences. You outline the reasons it is necessary but perhaps not so much to convince us, but to try to convince yourselves. All those reasons you give — the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few or of the one, et cetera — they may belong in Star Trek movies but they don’t belong in a team sport. The needs of the one do count, or at least they used to count when I was growing up.

We’ve all seen those movies, where a bunch of survivors are drifting for days and weeks in a lifeboat and the food and water running out. And eventually someone turns to the weakest member and says: you must die so that we might live. In the dark of night they do the deed and in the morning there is one less body in the lifeboat. But now their eyes are all watching each other nervously. And the next likely victim shifts uncomfortably in his seat. Doesn’t he, Melbourne?

So, Mr Clyne, Mr Pulver, please don’t speak of how you are only following the decisions made at the AGM and EGM. Those votes were taken by nervous men, men who could see no way out of their own dire predicament. They tell you to proceed and then they avert their eyes and lower their heads. And in the morning there is one less body in the lifeboat and, curiously, no one ever mentions the horrific deeds done in the dark. But that should not be the way things are done in this game. Where are the voices defending the one singled out?

If Geoff Stooke, who until Friday was a member of your company until he resigned as an ARU director when you ordered the Western Force on to death row, acknowledges that the financial situation is grim but it can be worked through, why is no credit given to him? Presumably he is operating from the same set of (unseen) numbers as you. How can sensible people, working from the same script, arrive at such totally different conclusions. Yes, he was once chairman of the Force but rather than block him out because of obvious bias, why not tap into his experience of working through the hard times.

One last thing, something that has mystified me. The Force and, indeed, the Melbourne Rebels have largely sorted out their financial problems. They proved what could be done in a crisis and are becoming viable again. Which begs the question: why terminate one of them now? There was a time during the lengthy lead-up to the arbitration process when you were reconciling yourselves to being stuck with five teams. Reluctantly, you were looking at ways to make it work. So why stop now, just because you’ve had a win at arbitration? Please tell everyone, but especially the people of Western Australia, that you are not doing this to honour your word to SANZAAR.

Well-respected colleague Paul Cully, writing yesterday in the Fairfax newspapers, said Australians want to know why opportunities for Australian players have been reduced by 20 per cent in part to fit a SANZAAR model they no longer like, and whose leaders they barely know, never mind respect. SANZAAR, I might add, was forced to adjust its model to correct the mistake it made in expanding to 15 teams, so the Force are paying for a mistake they didn’t make. “Quite simply,” Cully wrote, “they want to know if being part of Super Rugby is still serving the interests of Australian rugby.”

That raises questions for another day, of whether Australia should stay in Super Rugby or go off on its own, or in company with New Zealand. But you have enough problems on your hands at present. One of the few advantages of this process having lasted 127 days is that the landscape has changed since you started down this path. The Australian rugby public and most especially the WA rugby public have been energised by this crisis. Things may be possible now that weren’t possible before.

You know what you have to do. Look inside yourself.

Use the Force.

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[valzc]

I have been looking closely at our posts so far and we have not brought up anything about Governance and constitution I may be wrong. It might be irrelevant but I had a quick read through the Governance review Mark Arbib organised with an independent board. This was done in 2012 and some of the findings and recommendations are what should be in place. Key recommendations such as transparency to stakeholders, equal voting rights, independant directors not aligned to any faction. I only scratched the surface but a legal team would have a field day on this.

And to another issue. Mclean, Eales - REDS, Robinson - Brumbies, Clyne / Puller - Tards, but were do the "eye candy" ( sorry to the feminists) sit in all this. My apologies up front to the ladies of the force but if you want equal pay and equal rights you better expect to cop the same amount of shit for failing to deliver. The female vote from what I can gather was all about women in sport, one has a honorary law doctorate, one was a cruise (yes cruise) director and the other had some banking smarts and liked rugby. FFS ! I ask the question why hasn't the Minister for Sport jumped on this debacle. They have the power to dismiss the board and start afresh. We should get on their case as the importance of Rugby from the Wallabies to Super Rugby to Community Rugby to Australia and along with junior path ways and players was very prominent throughout the governance document.

Thoughts?

Yes have had a quick Read of that report, and some very pertinent remarks which are damning to what 's going on now. And also thise silly tarts on the board have no right being there! Also emailed them today along with John Eales asking how they can live with themselves. John has answered with the usual crap about spreadsheets but nothing from the girls-they might've been at The hairdressers!

[valzc]

I was going to write to the Federal Sports Minister, Greg Hunt, but guess where he's from......Victoria.

Twiggy was asking us to contact him also- does anyone have the email?

[Jules]

Yes have had a quick Read of that report, and some very pertinent remarks which are damning to what 's going on now. And also thise silly tarts on the board have no right being there! Also emailed them today along with John Eales asking how they can live with themselves. John has answered with the usual crap about spreadsheets but nothing from the girls-they might've been at The hairdressers!

I've been wondering how they are taking all this fight! Do they feel bad or are they just telling each other it will pass quickly! Can't believe he's sticking to spread sheet BS!! Great letter from Wayne smith it's true there is so much passion and feeling for rugby right now use it

[BLR]

Yes have had a quick Read of that report, and some very pertinent remarks which are damning to what 's going on now. And also thise silly tarts on the board have no right being there! Also emailed them today along with John Eales asking how they can live with themselves. John has answered with the usual crap about spreadsheets but nothing from the girls-they might've been at The hairdressers!

Did you reply asking to see the spreadsheet? This should be public knowledge otherwise it is a hatchet job and he is damaging his legacy.

[John Edwards]

Yes have had a quick Read of that report, and some very pertinent remarks which are damning to what 's going on now. And also thise silly tarts on the board have no right being there! Also emailed them today along with John Eales asking how they can live with themselves. John has answered with the usual crap about spreadsheets but nothing from the girls-they might've been at The hairdressers!

We've seen the "spreadsheet" and we drove two road trains through it. We would have used a third one but they hitched a ride in it back to St Leonards.

[valzc]

I'm amazed how completely out of touch Eales is! These douche bags (including Ex-hero Eales) just DO NOT GET IT! Surely when 99% of a population is screaming no at you, maybe you would think twice- but no, they just stuck their heels in even further! Clyne has definitely got some kind of hold over them, maybe the money laundering issue has snowballed haha!

[GIGS20]

Yes have had a quick Read of that report, and some very pertinent remarks which are damning to what 's going on now. And also thise silly tarts on the board have no right being there! Also emailed them today along with John Eales asking how they can live with themselves. John has answered with the usual crap about spreadsheets but nothing from the girls-they might've been at The hairdressers!

I'm pretty sure they've technically complied with most of the recommendations in the arbitration report, let's just set aside the ones about transparency in decision making, because that's obvious, but they changed from identifying nsw and qld in their distribution of votes to a model which ties extra votes to a criterion that only nsw and qld will meet in the next 10 years, they removed a vote from each ubion that has an Sr team and gave it to the Sr teams. Complied with all the recommendations about makeup of the board without having to actually change the makeup of the board. Conniving arseholes dudded the fed got out of funding ad well

[scrum]

Anyone wanting to air their comments to AU Rugby great John Eales (ARU board member) should try sending their comments to John.Eales@chandlermacleod.com