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RugbyWA has turned its back on a board-level power struggle threatening to split the Australian Rugby Union to concentrate on getting more money for Perth club rugby.
Queensland chairman Peter Lewis has created huge waves by putting up his own candidate to oppose the presumed ascendency to ARU president of NSW’s Ron Graham.
It is traditional for the ARU vicepresident to get the top job when the incumbent reaches the end of his term. Paul McLean will step down from the top job at today’s ARU annual meeting but Lewis wants another Queenslander, Dick McGruther, to replace him.
The possibility exists the voting will be split 7-7, forcing McLean into the embarrassing step of making a casting vote.
RugbyWA has been strongly lobbied during the past week but refuses to get involved and will stick with convention and back Graham.
Neither of the candidates for president is in a position to influence the matter of most importance to WA: correcting the inequality in ARU rugby funding for States.
NSW and Queensland have parlayed their historical dominance of the sport into a joint grab of 80 per cent of the funds the ARU allocates to club rugby in Australia, despite providing only 74 per cent of the players.
Their lavishly funded first grade competitions — Sydney’s gets $2.276 million and Brisbane’s gets $1.02 million — provide an added incentive when both States recruit players for their Super 14 sides.
Their advantage comes mainly at the expense of WA and the ACT. They each get three per cent of the funding pie, despite jointly having 17 per cent of the playing population, and the ARU insists they use their Super 14 teams to generate the extra revenue.
The decline in attendance at Super 14 matches at Subiaco Oval has led to RugbyWA reversing a 2006 decision compelling Force players to participate in the local premiership this year. Instead, many players will return to Sydney to add to their income at the expense of the Perth competition.
RugbyWA boss Geoff Stooke has taken the fight to the ARU but says a solution is a long way off.
“The ARU sympathises with our position but it lacks the resources to address the inequality affecting the competitions in Perth and Canberra,” he said.
“It says adjusting the allocation on the basis of player numbers would cause irreparable damage in NSW and Queensland because the ARU funding is ingrained in their systems.”
He could have added the voting system effectively entrenches NSW and Queensland as untouchable.
With Super 14 no longer able to adequately fund club rugby in WA and the ACT, the ARU grant of $200,000 to each is ludicrous compared with the $475,000 allocated to Victoria and the $225,000 to each of South Australia and the Northern Territory.
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.as...ntentID=132414