States Move to Oust McLennan

[Burgs]

Crikey, head out for a few hours and BOOM!

“As Tom Petty famously sung, I won’t back down,” McLennan told The Australian Financial Review on Sunday. “This is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.” That aged well...

[WFDom]

Our saviour is gone!

You.... you...... BASTARDS!!!!

[GIGS20]

The one thing that's been missed in this is the SRU clubs banding together and calling for his head. The timeline is significant.

A majority of voting members call for a vote of no confidence, McLennan puffs out his chest and the board stand behind him
A minority of voting members back him and get bunches of airtime, the board back him
The Shute Shield clubs, via the SRU say "we think he should go too"
The board hold another meeting and get rid of him.

It certainly doesn't dissuade the SRU from their delusion that they run Aussie Rugby, does it?

[Burgs]

Ousted Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan claims to be victim of 'smear' campaign

ABC reporting

Claiming to be the victim of a power grab, Hamish McLennan believes his axing as Rugby Australia (RA) chairman will only create further division in a code already badly fractured.

Key points:
Six member unions demanded Hamish McLennan stand down as Rugby Australia chairman on Sunday night
The Force, the Rebels and the Waratahs were all in favour of McLennan staying to continue RA's centralisation
The departure comes two weeks after Eddie Jones walked away as Wallabies coach 10 months into a five-year contract

McLennan was ousted following an extraordinary late-night board meeting on Sunday after six member unions, including the Brumbies and Queensland Reds — who are yet to commit to RA's centralisation plan — demanded his resignation 48 hours earlier.

While insisting he is not angry, McLennan is disappointed about the manner of his sacking and not being able to finish the job of fixing "a broken system".

Asked on 2GB radio on Monday if his ousting was due to a power grab by some states, McLennan said: "In my opinion, yes.

"They want to have a greater say. This is all about money and control at the end of the day, so we'll see how it plays out."

"There's been a coordinated campaign to sort of smear me and that's been fed back through me and other board members. That's a complete cheap shot.

"I mean, we've won a World Cup [hosting rights] for the men and women in '27 and '29, we got broadcast deals done, we brought sponsors into the game and if you just look at some of the support where I had from former prime minister John Howard, John Coates, key sponsors, Cadbury [boss] Darren O'Brien …

"A lot of support out there and Andrew Forrest and Nicola Forrest. They're not dumb people, they're really smart.

"They know it's a journey and, in life, any business takes time to fix."

Replaced as chair by 1999 World Cup-winning Wallaby Daniel Herbert, McLennan turned down an offer to stay on as a director.

"When a board goes through a process like that, they obviously want change," he said.

"I understand it was a bit of a split vote, which is sort of interesting, so I think what's happened is actually going to create more divisions within rugby, not less as they talk about unity.

"They can't lean on me to continue to help on broadcast deals and the Rugby World Cups in Australia and all the other commercial matters and still expect me to contribute in that regard.

"If you want to change the direction, you guys go for it.

"What I would say too is that three of the Super clubs that drive all the money into the game being the (Western) Force, the (Melbourne) Rebels and the (NSW) Waratahs were very happy with me to stay."

McLennan's departure comes two weeks after Eddie Jones, who McLennan parachuted in as Wallabies coach in January, walked away 10 months into his five-year contract, blaming a broken system for Australia's diabolical 2023 World Cup campaign.

"The results of the World Cup were pretty poor, but I think we've got to look at the underlying reasons, and the fact is the system's broken and we've got to fix it," McLennan said.

"That's what we were trying to do. It's a long and hard process, it's a federated model and you've got to work really hard and get the member unions to actually give up power and centralise.

"And that was the crux of the issue."

Jones copped most of the heat for the dismal World Cup performance, including reports coming out during the tournament that he had already had an interview with Japanese rugby bosses about becoming the Brave Blossoms' coach once more.

McLennan said he was meeting with Jones on Tuesday to get to the bottom of the months-long saga, saying if the reports are true "that's terrible and appalling".

"Especially when you're leading into a World Cup and your focus should be on the team, [but] I haven't seen the proof. I want the absolute proof," he said.

"I've been promised that I'll see the proof at some point and it'll come out and I just want it to be 100 per cent confirmed that it happened in the fashion in which it was reported.

"So, yes, if he did do it, terrible form, especially when you're coaching a national team. But let's wait and see the evidence."

Through the entire messy saga, McLennan insisted he is not bitter.

"I'm philosophical. It doesn't matter," he said.

"No-one died at the end of the day and it's just a game at the end of the day, an important one and one that I love.

"But there's a war going on in the Ukraine. There's a war between Israel and Hamas and that's real stuff that really matters."

[GIGS20]

Interesting that in the article posted on the other thread McLennan suggests that "it was a bit of a split vote" and this article says everybody by McLenan voted for Herbert to take over.

It doesn't sound very split......

I think, in reality, Hamish was never going to deliver any kind of alignment between the state unions, if there was a chance, then 6 of the voting members wouldn't have issued an ultimatum.

Will Herbs have any realistic chance? I honestly don't know, but he's officially Interim Chair until the process that selects a new board member, who will likely be the chair is complete. The states will be voting to recognise that appointment and there's at least a chance that they'll pick somebody who can unify the country.

[shasta]

I was unsure whether this change was necessary going into the weekend, given some of the people backing McHamish as the only one who could get centralisation done. Thinking on his professed love of the game, the positives he brought so far and stated determination to set it on a sound pathway, you might expect him to read the wind, stand aside and accept the proposal to continue using his talents to help get things moving. His sulky responses and parting shots proved he hasn't got it in him.

CYA.

[Leo86]

[B]
"What I would say too is that three of the Super clubs that drive all the money into the game being the (Western) Force, the (Melbourne) Rebels and the (NSW) Waratahs were very happy with me to stay."

Interesting comment. Maybe McLennan has better excel skills than Clyne.

What a turn of events. We all knew it was fishy that 'We' were to blame for all of Rugby's financial woes but they also had the Rebels in their sights. Now we are the money makers... Not missing the fact of the support of the Forrests/Tattarang

[Burgs]

Interesting comment. Maybe McLennan has better excel skills than Clyne.

What a turn of events. We all knew it was fishy that 'We' were to blame for all of Rugby's financial woes but they also had the Rebels in their sights. Now we are the money makers... Not missing the fact of the support of the Forrests/Tattarang

I have a sense the interviewee may have embellished general support for continuity to "very happy".

Am undecided if his biggest peeve will be his fall from grace in Australia or his ascension to International duties he so coveted must now surely (and surly...) be over?

[Burgs]

Fairly good Roar article-

ANALYSIS: McLennan's fatal blind spot, and why his exit leaves Australian rugby in a better place and a worse one

https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/11/1...d-a-worse-one/

[shasta]

....fullowed by some good news.

Swinton is set to sign with French Top 14 club Bordeaux.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/11/2...g-sign-for-ra/

[GIGS20]

....fullowed by some good news.

Swinton is set to sign with French Top 14 club Bordeaux.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/11/2...g-sign-for-ra/

I love the "Warning sign for RA" part of that headline

WARNING, WARNING BORDEAUX ARE ON THE CUSP OF GETTING A YELLOW CARD EVERY GAME

[Burgs]

The individual player is no great loss, but it isn't a great sign given the Tahs aren't a particularly deep Squad on paper.
Though, to be fair, he has probably dropped down the Backrow pecking order with Lee-Warner and Slack-Smith arriving and Gleeson and Gamble hitting their straps all in front of him in the "power Backrow" role. Holloway would bump him for Lock/Backrow cover while the arrival of Kunavula and Amatosero puts the pressure downwards from the true Locks.
And then there's the temperament...

[bootsetal06]

Was there any statement by Western Force / Tatterang / Forrest’s giving reasons for backing McLennan . Just to get perspective.

[GIGS20]

Was there any statement by Western Force / Tatterang / Forrest’s giving reasons for backing McLennan . Just to get perspective.

Not that I've seen, I think both have been pretty happy to attach their name to statements championed by others and not be to close to the bloodletting.

ANybody who can bypass the paywall might be interested in this article https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sub...haviour=append

[Burgs]

The receipts left in Hamish McLennan’s downfall
The ousted Rugby Australia chairman leaves a trail of receipts that led to his demise.

Mark Di Stefano
Columnist
Financial Review

Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon once described the US conservative movement’s tactic to “flood the zone with shit”. The thinking was if you fill the airwaves with enough material, regardless of the content, the media will be overwhelmed and have no choice but to start repeating it.

And so it was during Hamish McLennan’s final days as Rugby Australia chairman. The numbers were well and truly against him, and rather than work to turn the tide in private, McLennan went public, trying to bend reality to his will.

There were interviews in the major papers. Broadsides picked up across rugby websites. The Hammer even dropped a cringeworthy Tom Petty lyric. This was delusion, dressed up as tactics.

We asked some of the anti-McLennan crowd for a read where things were going. One plotter responded on Sunday by musing that McLennan’s own comments were doing so much to undermine his tenure they’d “hate to stop his momentum”.

As McLennan discovered, talk is rarely enough, especially when others can see right through you. There was a growing crowd within Australian rugby who saw past the excuses, the dissembling, the non-apologies, the eventual apology and the attempt to collectivise responsibility for the Eddie Jones mess. It’s always the spin you tell yourself that tends to get you in the end.

Sunday night’s final board meeting ended the McLennan melodrama. The eight-person vote was confidential, but there’s already talk about who flipped. Did Rugby CEO Phil Waugh stay loyal to the last? In private, Waugh couldn’t hide his dismay at how the game had descended into a circus. What about Matthew Hanning, the corporate finance chief at Barrenjoey, who had been added by McLennan to the RA board?

Rather than stay on the board to assist former Wallaby Daniel Herbert with chairman succession, McLennan has flounced out. Herbert inherits a toxic mix of stakeholders, sponsors and initiatives, chief among them the task of soothing the renegade states and getting them back onside with the crucial plans to centralise the game.

“There’s no change in direction,” Herbert said on Monday. “We have to get out of the mentality of thinking that a coach can fix it, we need to fix the inputs”.

The new chairman’s in-tray is also bulging with chits from the disastrous World Cup campaign in France. McLennan ceded that the campaign ran over budget, but by how much?

Sorting through the receipts from Paris and St Tropez and other parts of France will take time. If Herbert and Waugh want to turn the corner, they should commit to making the comprehensive review into the campaign public, particularly the expenses.

Arriving back at Sydney airport earlier this month, McLennan was met by a reporter. McLennan was still defending the Jones move at that stage, insisting he had “inherited a burning mess”.

“I think there’s a lot of interest in rugby; we’ll get through this. It’s interesting, everyone’s talking about rugby,” he said. “So a lot of the sceptics say the code’s dead, and it’s not.”

No one would deny McLennan got everyone talking about rugby. Shame everyone was talking about him.