The future of WA rugby

[UAUdiver1959]

Nice little article about the Tah’s getting $17m over three year in compensation from the NSW government because they loose Alliance Stadium seating capacity. 60,000 seats down to 40,000 seats. It’s a laugh. They struggled to get a regular 8,000 fans per game this year.

[oxleymoron]

Using the term created by Raphael Lemkin in 1944 is very strong to describe the current situation but essentially it is what RA want.

Shame we can't use The Hague in this context.

Yes I am being deliberately cryptic.

[Bakkies]

That money won't last long as the Tahs will be down on corporate box take up and will have to rent various grounds based on availability. Playing at North Sydney Oval has been mentioned. That's a sure way to lose money.

[valzc]

All I can say is that RA must be f###n desperate for money, they’re trying every trick in the book to connive money out of WA! Obviously they still think they can blackmail Twiggy into handing it over. Isn’t it time for World Rugby to step in now & start pushing?

[Bakkies]

Absolutely and they should be sanctioned for breaching their role as custodians of the game of Rugby in Australia.

[Good Times]

It's a desperate act by a desperate organisation. They will need to tell RUPA in their CBA negotiations why they are putting more playing futures in doubt by overseeing the Rebels naming a 45 man squad on their own website and stalling the IPRC.

Yes Bakkies interestingly Rebels have a 45 man squad named, Brumbies have listed 41 on their site plus 5 Force boys to be added so will be 46, Reds 36 but minus 2 with Cooper and Frisby out, so now 34 and Tahs have just 29 listed, so Rebels and Brumbies must have been given most cash. Hmmm there could be a long overdue backlash happening very soon!

[Bakkies]

The Force boys are named in the Brumbies squad. I counted at least 31 full time players in the Brumbies squad and at least 7 in the EPS.
https://www.brumbies.com.au/2017/11/...quad-revealed/


The Rebels have actually got to cut players who are contracted which include Nic Stirzaker and Jordy Reid.

[AndyS]

Secession is back on the table

To be honest, it seems to be the way they are heading. The bad move for mine was making it an "Australian" competition...should have been an Asian joint venture from the start. But if the money being talked about is real, I don't know why folk are tiptoeing around disaffiliation.

Especially if Twiggy is in this with other money men. That sort of money, just make it available and the players will vote with their feet. If they want to hang tough with RA, that's fine, don't use them. Make the rule that only players registered and playing in the Pindan Cup will be considered from Australia - can't say fairer than that. Probably a fault in how it was promoted, but why does everyone think it will be all Australian players anyway? Bet there'd be no shortage of ITMC players who'd be chucking their name in the ring to play professionally with marquee players. But once the competition exists, I doubt it would be long before WR would just cave to five other unions all pushing for recognition. Not ideal, but RA are choosing the rules.

[blueandblack]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...e42a6d6d780672

"Rugby Australia put brakes on Twiggy Forrest’s grand plan

The planned Indo Pacific Rugby Championship, into which Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is scheduled to pump $100 million a year for the next 10 years, is in danger of falling over as talks with Rugby Australia grind to a halt.

A term sheet sent by RA to Forrest’s people sets out four pages of conditions that will have to be met before Australia will give its permission to the new competition. And unless RA signs off on the IPRC, then World Rugby has made it clear that, however much it wants a major competition in Asia, it will also withdraw endorsement.

In that event, Forrest could be forced to take his competition offshore — which defeats the initial purpose of providing some significant rugby in Perth following the closure of the Western Force — or to set up a rebel league.

Neither prospect greatly appeals to him but there clearly is growing exasperation with RA, with a spokesperson describing the latest term sheet — the third such document in three months of negotiation — as so restrictive that no investor would be prepared to accept the conditions. “We’re negotiating but there is little hope RA will be reasonable,” the spokesperson said.

A planned state-of-the-art Rugby Centre of Excellence in Perth, to which Forrest planned to contribute between $10m and $15m, has been placed on hold.

“There is no point having a high-performance centre without a high-performance competition,” she said. “We don’t know what it will turn into. It could be a community one in the future but for the moment it’s just on hold, sadly.”

Little by little, further details are coming out on the IPRC, including the fact that Forrest wants to fund the first professional women’s 15-a-side rugby competition in the world, as well as using his six competition centres — five in Asia as well as Perth — to host a men’s and women’s sevens competition annually."

More RA bastardry at the link.

[Alison]

I guess this was predictable knowing what we know about the cesspit that is the ARU. There is no limit to the depths they will plumb to try to save their sorry arses and those of the rest of the cabal

BUT, they are too stupid to realise that this will only serve to make the rugby community in WA even stronger and even more resolute in our efforts to make damn sure that rugby continues to thrive in WA despite everything they throw at us.

While the IPRC may be stalled, RugbyWA is quietly working away in the background to ensure the WA faithful have some good news to end the year with!

So, Stay Calm and Think RugbyWA!!

And remember, the night is always darkest before the dawn......

[chrisk]

I'm looking forward to hearing some good news Alison, thanks for letting us know there's something to look forward to.

[fulvio sammut]

Let's get a few things clear here.

When Hodgeson refers to "our money remains here", who's money is he referring to? Forrest's? Has Forrest paid one cent of his own money or FMG's into RugbyWA?

RugbyWA's money? What money? They are in Administration, for Dog's sake, and if I know how these things progress they will be in Liquidation soon, if they aren't already. You know what that means? It means "their" money if any goes to the Administrators/Liquidators to pay themselves handsomely, and to pay the rest (if any, ha, ha) to the existing creditors.

Money RugbyWA receive from the grassroots rugby clubs?
Let me tell you a little well kept secret about that. Unless ARU/RA agree to affiliate the Administrators/ Liquidators, (or someone else approved by ARU) as becoming the successors of Western Australian Rugby Union, we, the local clubs, are not legally able to play Rugby.

Only the ARU can sanction an Australian Union, and the IRB will not permit an Australian club to play rugby unless they belong to a Union which is sanctioned and affiliated to the ARU.

And what are the chances of the already despised, abused and vilified ARU Board, after demonstrating so obviously that they don't care about WA Rugby at any level, going out of their way to sanction any new Union coming out of WA, particularly in the knowledge of the parlous and dysfunctional state of WA rugby?

And what local club in WA is going to pay fees to RugbyWA in its new phoenix like incarnation, presumably under the same direction that was involved in the lead up to the current situation, unless it is assured they are affiliated with the ARU?

So we have no Union, no money, no sponsors, no means of raising money, potentially no local competition, and the remnants of an administration who now wish to introduce another 8 teams into the potentially non existent competition.

The media release quoting Hodgeson speaks for itself, if you discard the spin. There will be no Asian international competition run by Forrest for Forrest while the ARU's collective arse points to the ground.

Have we all gone mad?

The prospect of next season's WA Farnarkling World Series appears far more attractive as each day passes.

[AndyS]

Out of curiosity, when you say "...we, the local clubs, are not legally able to play Rugby. Only the ARU can sanction an Australian Union, and the IRB will not permit an Australian club to play rugby unless they belong to a Union which is sanctioned and affiliated to the ARU.", what is the legal protection that applies? When they send the cops in to arrest everyone for playing unsanctioned rugby, what do they charge them with?

[fulvio sammut]

No, they, or more likely the ARU, at their direction, can apply for and obtain injunctions against the organisers, which can be enforced by legal means. You seriously think they won't?

Do you think a player can claim insurance if he or she is seriously injured in a non sanctioned competition?

Do you think local club administrators are so stupid as to risk personal liability for taking part in a non sanctioned competition?

Well, perhaps the 8 new ones are.

[AndyS]

So if it is not an illegal activity, just all the same people running around on the same field, playing the same game to the same laws, all the insurance companies will think to themselves "No, best we ignore that business, it might annoy some unrelated people in Sydney or Dublin"...?

If it were to get legal, that might actually be interesting and not the worst thing. This has gone down before, and the precedent would seem to be https://www.accc.gov.au/media-releas...ti-competitive. Only seven years ago, and the headline from that was "The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a notice revoking Ice Hockey Australia's notification, under which its members are prevented from playing in ice hockey competitions that have not been approved by Ice Hockey Australia. Ice Hockey Australia proposed to suspend or expel any member who participated in a non-sanctioned Australian or international ice hockey game. The policy applies to all players and officials, including referees and coaches." As I read it, they basically ruled that not only could ice hockey personnel participate in unsanctioned competitions, IHA couldn't even delist them. And these were even rival competitions in locations where the governing body did make sanctioned alternatives available .

I wouldn't have thought it would be difficult to argue anti-competitive behaviour if RA to use their position to block a rival competition. I certainly think it might be interesting to put the dealing to date and (from what has been suggested) their latest "offer" in front of the ACCC for judgement under their own key headings of anti-competitive conduct, cartels, exclusive dealing and misuse of market power, even unconscionable conduct.

Mind you, I'd hope they would go and get whoever argued the winning side of the ice hockey case. Our local luminaries haven't exactly set the world on fire...