Andrew Forrest hits back at Australian Rugby Union claims about Western Force axeing

[JSJ]

I hope our lawyers, Senator Reynolds and Twiggy have take note of Clyne's careful chosen of words in his published reply to Twiggy's rant about the legal advice they sought back in February.

“Andrew, in his press conference this morning, referred to a document or documents which indicated that a decision had been made to remove the Western Force in February. This was not the case and there are no documents which contain this information."

I wonder if all the power players like Clyne, Pulver, Robinson, Eales and Clarke are all prepared to stand up in court or in a senate enquiry and under oath deny that there were never any decisions or discussions out side of the boardroom along the lines of " OK guys, we are going to axe the Force. While we go through the pretense of looking at the Brumbies and Rebels, please make sure there no documents or emails on this decision"

[JPR]

I hope our lawyers, Senator Reynolds and Twiggy have take note of Clyne's careful chosen of words in his published reply to Twiggy's rant about the legal advice they sought back in February.

“Andrew, in his press conference this morning, referred to a document or documents which indicated that a decision had been made to remove the Western Force in February. This was not the case and there are no documents which contain this information."I wonder if all the power players like Clyne, Pulver, Robinson, Eales and Clarke are all prepared to stand up in court or in a senate enquiry and under oath deny that there were never any decisions or discussions out side of the boardroom along the lines of " OK guys, we are going to axe the Force. While we go through the pretense of looking at the Brumbies and Rebels, please make sure there no documents or emails on this decision"

Prior to this legal information there were three options tabled by SANZAAR at a meeting in November when the ARU made the executive decision to throw one Australian team under the bus.
The link below indicates the date and detail of the SANZAAR meeting.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-u...u-ng-ya-201466

[Vasco]

Prior to this legal information there were three options tabled by SANZAAR at a meeting in November when the ARU made the executive decision to throw one Australian team under the bus.
The link below indicates the date and detail of the SANZAAR meeting.
https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-u...u-ng-ya-201466

That link did not work.

[sittingbison]

The shredder has been busy at St Leonard's

[The InnFORCEr]

Anyone heard what Pulver payout figure is?

By coicidnce a friend has some shares in a Voice Communication/Translation business on the ASX.

Pulver is on the board. His hares return about $200K dividend per year. He just sold about 2m shares at about $4.00 ($8m) and still has another 2.5m ($10m) shares. He could just about fund grassroots himself!!

[jono]

Anyone heard what Pulver payout figure is?

By coicidnce a friend has some shares in a Voice Communication/Translation business on the ASX.

Pulver is on the board. His hares return about $200K dividend per year. He just sold about 2m shares at about $4.00 ($8m) and still has another 2.5m ($10m) shares. He could just about fund grassroots himself!!

he could have done a lot of things this year the weak prick.
instead he did nothing and allowed himself to get walked over by Clyne and the other nations and consequentially fucked over a massive potential market

[JPR]

Contents of ARU legal advice. https://superxv.sportsmatemobile.com/news/11054.

Sorry everyone the link above does not work.

This link does work.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2...u-legal-advice

[shasta]

My antiirus is warning that the first link above is suspicious.

[SteveWA]

It just redirects you to the Apple App Store, trying to get you to download an app that seems to be a sports news aggregator.

I suspect the link should be to this article from a couple of days ago http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2...u-legal-advice

[Jules]

I think we deserve to stay in for the amount of fight we have put in alone! I wonder when this was all decided back whenever that was if those arrogant twats thought they would get any backlash! I'm just so proud of the way we've been fighting and hope to god we have a team next year as every one involved deserves that outcome....

[Alison]

Just been trawling the net in an attempt to find some financial statements for the Rebels. Didn't find anything specific to them but did find a couple of very interesting docs showing the PARLOUS state of the VRU's finances at the end of 2015 - when their total liabilities exceeded their total assets by $239K, and the end of 2016 financial year - when their situation improved such that their total assets exceeded their total liabilities by just $24!

And check out the following cut and paste from the "going concern" sections of both docs, particularly for 2015:

2015

"The financial report of the Victorian Rugby Union Inc (“VRU”) has been prepared on a going concern basis, which assumes continuity of normal business activities, and the realisation of assets and settlement of liabilities in the ordinary course of business.

For the year ended 31 December 2015, the VRU made a net profit of $109,166 (31 December 2014: loss $174,473). At year end, the VRU had a negative working capital, being current liabilities less current assets, of $243,816 (31 December 2014: net current liabilities of $351,310), and total company liabilities exceeded total company assets by $239,087 at 31 December 2015 (31 December 2014: net liabilities of $348,253).

Notwithstanding the deficiency of total net assets, the financial report has been prepared on a going concern basis for the following reasons :-

● An agreement has been reached whereby the Australian Rugby Union will provide a grant of up to $125,000 (exc.
GST) to the VRU, matching funds raised by the VRU from additional designated fund raising activities;

● Since year end, $55,700 has been raised by the VRU and expenses totalling $50,993 have been paid by the Australian Rugby Union on behalf of the VRU;

● Effective 1 January 2016, the Australian Rugby Union will employ directly one of the VRU’s staff members, who is
responsible for running the Elite Pathways program, thus reducing VRU salaries and oncosts. In the event that the matters detailed above cease, there is material uncertainty whether the association will continue as a going concern and therefore whether it will realise assets and discharge liabilities that might necessarily be incurred should the association not continue as a going concern."

2016

"The financial report of the Victorian Rugby Union Inc (“VRU”) has been prepared on a going concern basis, which assumes continuity of normal business activities, and the realisation of assets and settlement of liabilities in the ordinary course of business.

In previous years the financial statements have shown net current and net total liabilities, and have highlighted that there was uncertainty as to whether the association would continue as a going concern. During the current year the VRU adopted stringent budgeting and cash flow policies, as well as undertaking enhanced fund raising activities. In addition, efforts were made to reduce expenditure and dispose of assets financed, no longer required. These measures had the effect of reducing debt and increasing cash flows. The VRU also received funding from ARU. For the year ended 31 December 2016, the VRU made a net profit of $239,111 (31 December 2015: profit of $109,166). At year end, the VRU had a positive working capital, being current assets less current liabilities, of $25,076 (31 December 2015: net current liabilities of $243,816), and total company assets exceeded total company liabilities by $24 at 31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: net liabilities of $239,087).

Going forward, management and the Board will continue to maintain tight financial controls over revenue and expenditure, and the Board’s expectation is that the financial position will continue to improve. The Board considers there is no material uncertainty with respect to the going concern basis."



I mean no disrespect to the Rebels or the VRU, but could someone please tell me, how in heaven's name is the VRU going to fund the Rebels in 2018-2010 and keep both organisations financially afloat without A LOT of extra cash from somewhere that isn't Andrew Cox????!!!!

Another huge nail in the coffin of the "financially unsustainable" argument used by the ARU in their "reasoning" for culling the Force, especially given our Own the Force scheme and Twiggy!!

[shasta]

Good work again Alison. Perhaps your next job interview should be at ASIC or APRA. This is part of a post I made in the Appeal thread.

Apart from that it's pretty hard to justify knocking back 50-ish million. The only thing that keeps making sense to me is they really need the cash from Fox and the VIC government for a purpose that's outside Andrew Forrest's offer. Said it before but the only thing that makes sense is that one or more "heartlands" franchises is in dire caca and has to be bailed out - again.

Unless of course someone has compromising photos taken during one of their junkets.

[todd4]

National Australia Bank's Head Office is in Melbourne. Clyne was CEO of NAB for 5 years. He would have made a lot of high profile connections in Melbourne. No surprise to anyone that he would have ties to Melbourne and be biased in favour of the Melbourne team.

I think the more Twiggy demands that he resigns the more he will dig his heels in. There would need to be a revolt at board level to overturn their decision. Who on the board would be able to lead that revolt? Personally I don't know, but I hope it happens. It's our only chance if we don't win the appeal.

[fulvio sammut]

The Vic Rugby union financials are less impressive than the Kwinana Rugby club's in a bad year!

[chrisk]

Just playing around with the kids, and we accidentally stumbled across the VRU's new funding campaign: