3
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So this lot have seen:
3 major sponsors walk away.
2 clubs with legal action.
Another debt with players not required next year to be paid out contracts that could then total over $3M.
Disheartening and disenfranchising of fans, which is the revenue stream for the game. This is yet to be tangibly assessed through ticket sales, merchandising and the broadcast deal in 2020.
Putting foreign interests ahead of Australian rugby.
Financial mismanagement of paying out $28M (their figures) to franchises with no accountability or recovery.
Yeah I can totally see these guys keeping thier jobs looks all good to me.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
There’s actually a broader issue.” Clyne said.
To be fair he is right here. His logic falls apart after that though.
The critical question is does the ARU have the best leadership to deal with the broader issues? I reckon he knows the answer. Looking forward to seeing how he deals with it though.
My money says Bill doesn't get to the end of June.
Interesting that Raelene Castle's name bobs up in light of this article I read about a week back. For those who don't know of her, Raelene is a past CEO of Netball NZ a post she held for 6 years. She has done a great job as CEO at the Canterbury Bulldogs but has decided to finish at the end of this year. The Bulldogs have always been a strongly board driven club and her resignation is for reasons of operational protocol, she is a more than capable CEO. Chairman Ray Dib is a very hands-on operator and tends step into areas that a CEO would normally be handling. How this would work at the ARU could also be problematic if the current chairman remains.
Roy Masters is a true journalist who doesn't invent stories. A family trait. Could there be a fire underneath this smoke?
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...08-gwnaav.html
ARU's lost sponsorship could trigger boardroom change
Roy Masters
The withdrawal of a key Australian Rugby Union sponsorship may be the trigger for a palace revolt at the code's troubled headquarters, with a possible outcome that an Australian football code will have a female leader for the first time.
The decision by Buildcorp to cancel a million-dollar naming rights sponsorship of the code's key pathways competition, the National Rugby Championship, will destabilise the leadership of chief executive Bill Pulver and chairman Cameron Clyne who are already under siege for the painful delay in announcing which Super Rugby team, the Western Force or the Melbourne Rebels, will be cut from the 18-team SANZAAR competition.
Buildcorp's co-chair is Josephine Sukkar who is also a member of the powerful ARU board nomination committee, the body which assesses the credentials for those who stand for election on the peak body of the sport. The ARU has three female directors, Ann Sherry, Elizabeth Broderick and Pip Marlow, all prominent in business and social equity forums.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Clyde & Pulver can go because of their missmanagement of ditching the Force etc. In with the new BOSSPERSON at ARU - they are not going to say "let's save the Force", they are going to say what was the reason for Pulver & Clyde's demise.......failure to make a concrete decision, failure to execute the decision.... the new person selected will be selected on their ability to ... pull the pin on the Force. Pulver and Clyde will go on to something else.
SACKING ARU rugby boss Bill Pulver would not magically fix Australian rugby’s problems, according to chairman Cameron Clyne.
Clyne is right, sacking the CEO won't be a magical fix by itself - however, it is an essential part of a solution. The ARU, under Pulver's leadership has run a disgraceful, shambolic process in what was the most important decision the ARU would make in decades and it cannot go unrewarded.
A major clean out and substantial change in direction is required, otherwise I cannot see how the rugby community's faith in the game's administration can be restored. Our game has been dramatically eroded, not by its competitors, but from within - it is an absolute disgrace.
Therein lies one of the major issues for the ARU being such a dysfunctional mob. I wonder if all these ladies were selected purely on merit or selected because of their gender to appease the minority. Actually I think I know the answer to this. WTF does social equity have to do with rugby.
Wests Scarborough 1st Grade juggernaut has played finals rugby each and every year since its inception and continues this remarkable feat yet again this season and unbelievably it's still rolling on and as an added little circle jerk for the masses Wests actually hold the record for the current longest unbroken finals record.
It won't just be the fates of the Melbourne Rebels and Western Force discussed at a special EGM on Tuesday, but also that of embattled ARU chief Bill Pulver.
Source: AAP
3 HOURS AGO
The future of ARU boss Bill Pulver, moreso than that of the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels, is likely to come to a head at Tuesday's emergency general meeting in Sydney.
The Rugby Union Players' Association and Victorian Rugby Union called for the EGM last month after being left frustrated by the ARU's ongoing delay in naming which Australian franchise would be cut as part of SANZAAR's plans to reduce Super Rugby to a 15-team competition in 2018.
Concerned about the mental welfare of those players affected by the uncertainty, members are seeking clarity and transparency from Pulver and the ARU board around the decision-making process.
Tuesday will be 71 days since ARU chairman Cameron Clyne said players, stakeholders and fans would know "within 72 hours" whether it was the Force or Rebels culled, along with two of South Africa's six franchises.
But while the South African rugby union has called a special meeting for July 7 to propose which two of its teams will be dropped - almost certainly the Cheetahs and Kings - the ARU admits it still has "no definitive timeline" on when it will decide the fate of the Force and Rebels.
Australia's governing body is in legal stoushes with both franchises and has an arbitration hearing with the Force set for July 31, after beginning mediation with the Rebels later this month over their damages claim.
The messy, seemingly endless, saga has placed Pulver under extreme pressure to keep his job.
Two of Australia's most successful ever coaches, 1991 World Cup-winning mentor Bob Dwyer and 1984 grand slam engineer Alan Jones, have both this year called for the chief executive to step down.
Pulver is contracted until February next year, but promised in April when it was first announced that an Australian franchise would be cut that he would resign "in a heartbeat" if that was for the greater good of the game.
The 57-year-old is sticking to his word.
"If everyone in the room stood up on Tuesday and said, 'Bill, we think it's time for change now', I will step down immediately," Pulver told Fairfax Media.
"It's not an issue of anyone having to push me out."
Despite much angst in the rugby community, Pulver - who replaced John O'Neill in 2013 - maintains he has the majority backing to remove an Australian franchise, which he and Clyne estimates will save the governing body $6 million annually.
"The feedback I have from virtually every state is they agree that we need to go from five to four," Pulver said.
"Most people who understand the game appreciate that we need to go from five to four."
But he understands the frustration and anguish of those potentially affected.
"I am in multiple discussions at the moment, which I am not at liberty to discuss," Pulver said.
"I am in the process of reducing five teams to four teams in Super Rugby and if my team were threatened, I'd be reacting the same way. I understand that.
"It's just a difficult issue we have to get through. We've got to establish a willingness to confront the issues that are affecting this game."
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2...fates-be-heard
PULVER WILLING TO STEP DOWN FROM ARU
Monday, 19 June 2017
Australian Rugby Union chief executive Bill Pulver says he will resign immediately at Tuesday's emergency general meeting if everyone in the room votes against him staying in the job.
Pulver said he would step down if necessary and revealed to Fairfax media that, this would be his one and only job in sports administration.
'If everyone in the room stood up on Tuesday and said, 'Bill, we think it's time for change now', I will step down immediately,' Pulver told Fairfax.
'It's not an issue of anyone having to push me out.
'If the members of Australian rugby felt the game would be better suited with me gone, they don't need to call an EGM.
'I will do one sports administration job in my life and it's this one. I didn't do one before and I won't do one again. I'm here for the good of the game. If and when it's time for me to leave, I will leave quite happily.'
AAP
http://www.skynewssport.com.au/rugby...rom-aru_190617
What a generous bloke he is?!?
Yeah as long as his contract is honour and he gets a huge payout that ARU cannot afford
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
He wants it to be unanimous? So if, say, Clyne himself voted against Pulver leaving, Pulver can say "well, it wasn't everyone in the room". 2/3rds should be sufficient to get the message, surely
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon