@ Hansie: Can you fill us in at all as to why Pulver is in town?
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@ Hansie: Can you fill us in at all as to why Pulver is in town?
How can one scream online???? I'm going for a lie down.....:(
....with a cup of tea and a bex ;)
I'm still trying to process the situation, so I go back over the actions and decisions and I've been trying to put them into order:
1. ARU decides to axe Force.
2. To keep Rebels safe, the ARU arrange for the sale of the Franchise to a private owner who doesn't have to put any money into the business because the financial forecasting for the next five years have been determined and the expected losses for the initial years reduce until the franchise is financially sustainable - the ARU agree to provide about $6-7 m to the new owner to ensure that he has enough working capital to keep the franchise afloat in the first two years. If he can make a go of it, he gets to keep what he can and if he is unable to make a go of it he can exercise the Put option and hand it back to the VRU.
3. When the Force go to the ARU seeking $ injection they offer to buy the licence on the understanding that it means they can keep playing and pay their bills
4. ARU go to SAANZAAR and confirm mechanism is in place to reduce the Aussie teams - they were a bit obtuse about it, initially whispering that the decision was imposed on the ARU but then telling the truth when SANZAAR revealed it was the ARU's decision to cull a team.
5. Cox is unable to make a go of the Rebels having lost most of his sponsors, lost significant numbers of paying memberships, and lost all but two games all season, coming last on the ladder for a second time so he exercises the Put option and divests himself of the club
6. ARU now discontinue Force Super licence.
Is that the order of things as you read it? If this is the order of things, then the original decision happened in 2014 when Clarke began talking to Cox about selling the Rebels to him.
Speculation so far but I'd expect there'll be concrete planning by NRL officials between now and the finish of any court proceedings. If I were involved in this planning, I'd be pushing to join the Queensland Cup instead. Much higher profile, better quality comp, not looked down on as "reserve grade" by the people in Qld.
WA league officials reveal plans to capitalise on Western Force's departure.
Adrian Proszenko
Western Australia rugby league officials have revealed plans to introduce under-20s and reserve grade teams into NSWRL competitions in a move that will provide professional pathways for players affected by Western Force's departure from the Super Rugby scene.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...12-gxuuu6.html
And let's be accurate, this is opinion from a REBELS supporter, surely no bias in this post.
#Strongerasfive was never going to work, ARU were planning to kill the Force when they signed the Alliance agreement, RugbyWA board were smart enough to see that and build some protection into the agreement (protection that wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, but no disrespect to them for trying) This timing is nothing more than speeding up the timeline that the ESFURU had planned and giving them a few million dollars a year in bonuses.
It stinks, and I hope to hell the Legal team can destroy Aussie rugby as it stands as a a result. THe current ARU needs to be nuked in it's entirety and replaced by a truly national body, preferably organised by the Australian Sports Commission to ensure that the Sydney Mafia no longer rape and pillage all of Australia so they can continue to cherry pick the best talent in the country at bargain basement prices.
Thanks for your support Lou, I hope to christ your mob can get their financials sorted and stay alive, because the only other option is to return to the early nineties when everybody else plays rugby from the 21st century.
The more I type, the more I like the idea of supporting the raiders!
Looks like the last season for the spirit as well.......
Go Pirates! NRL all the way now.
Best possible outcome from here is that RugbyWA / WA government wins a damages case against the ARU, causing bankrupcy. These extra funds effectively puts RugbyWA into the position of being the national body, and they take over the ARU duties.
With a WA centric ARU, the game can be administered truly nationally without the Qld and NSW "heartland" bias, supporting grassroots rugby in all states, requiring KPI's to be met for any grants and funding, a super rugby structure that is fair to all with a meaningful salary cap (not the skewed one with wallaby top ups we have now), a national draft, etc.
A proper independent analysis can be done into how best to proceed with the professional game in Australia (super rugby, a national competition, pacific competition, etc.).
Overhead costs can be dramatically slashed at the national level and at each super rugby team where common services are currently duplicated.
...and so on.
Never going to happen, but a man can dream.....
That's an "I have a dream" dream