Originally Posted by
valzc
This is on Facebook, from a Michael Bell and pretty much breaks your heart:
Dear ARU (or Rugby Australia or whatever you call yourselves this week).......I have supported OUR game (It's not yours) as a player, a volunteer, a coach, an employee, a contractor and most importantly as a die hard fan who resides in the area you consistently neglect.......western Sydney.
I have worked my arse off to get boys and girls and young men and women playing the game. When coaching at a northern beaches club I would drive to Campbelltown from Moore Park to pick a talented kid up for training, then drive him home after training then I'd go home near Penrith, all while it was $1.85 a litre. I have sat in meetings where the then CEO of NSW Rugby wanted to kick the 2nd oldest club in Sydney out of the comp so his old club could feed on the carcass. I've helped extremely talented kids get into exclusive GPS schools to see them go on to represent Australia at Schoolboys and U20s level. I have seen the Waratahs try to recruit 2 of those players in particular by placing a condition on them to change clubs to Randwick as a condition of the contract. Those 2 players now dominate NRL on a weekly basis and 1 played for the country of his father's birth in the semi finals of the RL World Cup. I've seen the current coach and GM Rugby of the Waratahs not even have the courtesy and decency to tell a contracted player there's no deal for him next year. The player only finding out by the announcement in the media of the signing of a pIayer from another side. I've seen the ARU spend a quarter of million dollars on a "governance review" where they consulted the then CEO's of Super Rugby teams ONLY and called it a "comprehensive review of all levels of the game". I've sat in meetings where the current CEO of ARU announced the withdrawal of all financial support to all non professional levels of the game because if grass roots were given money "they'd piss it up against a wall ". I've seen the ARU continue to appoint people to the Board of Directors with absolutely no experience in Rugby whatsoever. I've seen the ARU continue to refuse to answer people who have asked them to clarify the Directors nomination process. I've seen the ARU continue to ignore the very people who support them. I've seen the ARU completely embarrass us as a nation over the diabolical handling of not only their own finances (who pissed what up against the wall?) but also of the Super Rugby number of teams reduction. I've seen them appoint a coach who whilst he has probably forgotten more about the game than I'll ever know, continue to make me feel embarrassed to be an Australian by the way he behaves and reacts to on field decisions, or legitimate questions from the media or satire in the press.
But I draw the line, I simply can't continue, when two of the fundamental characteristics of our great game are completely disregarded. Respecting the opposition and not giving away a jersey in selection to someone who doesn't deserve it. The selection of the team v Scotland this morning showed the lack of respect for the opposition. And the selection of Stephen Moore was nothing more than a testimonial selection. Granted, he's been a tremendous servant to the game.......for half a million bucks a year........but club teams don't give away 1st grade jerseys yet the Wallabies now give away theirs.
So ARU thanks for the memories. I'll cherish forever having seen great players like Poidevin, Horan, Ella, Eales, Lawton, Lynagh, Campese, Tune, Roff, Ofahengaue, Gavin, Kefu, Leeds, Campton, Kay, Cahalane, Lowery and Koen to name a few.
I'll cherish seeing young Parramatta players who didn't have two bob to rub together travel from Canberra to Parramatta at 4am to serve breakfast to 400 homeless people at Parramatta Mission. Those players then thanked the homeless for the opportunity to be there and help.
But I am done.
I simply cannot any longer, sit by and watch you allow people, employed by yourselves, soil the memory of those who've gone before them and disrespect the traditions of the game.
Simply...... I surrender!
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