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Thread: Ex Wallabies Captains Speak

  1. #16
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    Whilst much of the criticism in many of these posts is with foundation and still shows how deep our wounds still are, I think many of the questions, statements and comparisons made are counterproductive.

    Yes, many of these past captains have said, done or been associated with organisations or people that have also got question marks over them.

    The fact 11 past captains have finally stood up and demanded change shows that the game has descended into mayhem. Lots of ex captains have not signed - EALES - being one of them.

    I am happy that finally these guys have woken up. Let's put RA into VA.

    I think Kearns would make a great CEO. Some news articles have him penned in as a possible CEO. I had a few run ins with him when I was President, especially as I perceived his silence at our demise to be deafening and I asked him what he meant about "blowing up the Force". I think the board went for Raelene because Australian Rugby has this infatuation with all things KIWI.

    When the world knew it was between him and Raelene for the top job. Kearns had the guts to call me in my capacity of Prez and ask what we would want from the ARU. I received no such call ( no did I expect it from either Kearns or Castle) from Castle, and to my knowledge neither did our Chair at the time. When Castle got the job, I phoned Kearns to offer condolences, he was rightly angry. To his credit he has still been part of the game - as President of Mosman subbies .

    I have no doubt that having 11 people of this calibre put pen to paper will generate a lot of criticism, but if they say they can fix our broken game, I say give them a go.

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  2. #17
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    Hansie, that is good feedback, from somebody on the inside, who was close to the action.

    I must admit, I loved Kearns as a player, but hearing his one-eyed comments on Foxsports about referees and the opposition, turned me off him and I was happy that Castle got the job.
    From the outside, my impression was that Clyne was the dictator, and Pulver, Castle, Eales etc did not have the guts to stand up to him or resign, as Stookie did.
    Do you think Kearns would have stood up to to Clyne?

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  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hansie View Post
    I perceived his silence at our demise to be deafening and I asked him what he meant about "blowing up the Force".
    What was his answer about "blowing up the Force"?

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  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by JSJ View Post
    Hansie, that is good feedback, from somebody on the inside, who was close to the action.

    I must admit, I loved Kearns as a player, but hearing his one-eyed comments on Foxsports about referees and the opposition, turned me off him and I was happy that Castle got the job.
    From the outside, my impression was that Clyne was the dictator, and Pulver, Castle, Eales etc did not have the guts to stand up to him or resign, as Stookie did.
    Do you think Kearns would have stood up to to Clyne?
    Along with getting an explanation in why the co founder of Virgin Brett Godfrey was appointed on the board when Qantas are the major sponsor.

    Wigg is still involved with V8s and their major sponsor is Virgin. V8s are also due for tv rights negotiations and are competing for the same limited rights that Fox can afford to pay.

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  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by GIGS20 View Post
    Newscorp clearly has an agenda. That agenda is in conflict with the clear agenda of the power brokers currently in charge of RA. Neither agenda has been constructed with the best interests of rugby in mind. It only remains to be seen which cadre of assholes will do the most damage to the sport during the blood-letting. I don't believe Castle and McLean's "pure as the driven snow" act either. Both sides of this fight are as ruthless as each other. The best thing for Aussie rugby would be for the lot of them to kill each other off and a third player with no agenda and suspicious allegiances to fill the power vacuum. In line with the likelihood of that happening, I'm pushing for the lock NESS monster backed up by sasquatch
    I don’t believe they have an agenda the RA were going broke regardless. Those ex players who have commentated for Foxsports did it as a side job. They aren’t like McArdle and Clarke who have it as their main job. McArdle was let go and he is starting his own venture which could be a potential broadcast option in the future. Ben Alexander is drawing up a business plan for a Rugby streaming service for the RA in the future but in order for that to work the RA need a viable business and something for it to broadcast.

    The apologists that think Foxsports and News Corp are putting the boot in through their journalists need to realise that their Rugby scribes will likely lose their jobs as they will have nothing Rugby wise to write about if the RA went broke. They certainly don’t write about local club Rugby. Paul Cully, Tom Decent, Sam Phillips and Georgina Robinson are writing similar articles in Fairfax. You can’t accuse them for having a so called News Corp agenda to drive the game down as they don’t work for them. They are just reporting the news which is their job to do so, the RA is farked. You can’t write delusional positive fluff pieces about that which you often see on the Roar these days.

    Cully is actually writing for free as he admitted on Twitter that he has been stood down by Fairfax. Phillips worked for the RA’s media unit. There seem to be more journalists writing about the game now even though it is about the same thing. Compared to the dark days of 2017 where the likes of Payto and a Panda were basically mouthpieces for the RA and Wayne Smith took months to wake up to what the RA is up to. Wayne Smith is still avoiding the real truth and hoping that someone will bail them out. Nick Taylor was a lone voice along with Chadwick. Neither have a national audience.

    From what I have heard around the traps this was brewing for some time. Ex players have been fed up for a long time. Those that have tried to get involved have had issues with red tape and politics so they walked away. Former players have set up C2K Rugby in Brisbane where they run coaching clinics for promising underage players for free. They have had some impressive names like Sharpie, Latho, Phil Mooney, George Smith come down to give unit skills coaching. These blokes did it as they got fed up with players getting to the top levels without basic skills which is a reflection on the RA. Poor skills has led to a decade of losing teams which people don’t pay good money to watch. That has hit the bottom line hard. Overseas teams such as the Lions, Ireland and England have padded crowds in recent years. They didn’t come to watch the Wallabies they went to watch their own sides.

    Kafer was seen as the facilitator for the coaching program that was launched but the real brains behind it Dick Marks who basically wrote the original coaching manuals in the 80s that addressed the issues back then walked away due to the politics. Marks walked away and vowed to never get involved again. Appalling and further vindicates Twiggy’s comments about dealing with the RA was like swimming in glue.

    You only had to read about how the RA have ignored the Classic Wallabies program particularly when they had the flood fundraisers with the Barbarians a couple of years ago. The players said the RA couldn’t be bothered. Uncle Cam said it wasn’t their job to promote it.

    With the RA inevitability going under GRR aligning with Hong Kong is now a stroke of genius.

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    Last edited by Bakkies; 22-04-20 at 19:49.

  6. #21
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    Just one point-Tiranui (I know he’s also a bit of an RA mouthpiece) mentioned on Rugby Ruckus podcast, that he quite respected Castle & that she made efforts to go along and watch the Classic Wallabies play in Japan. It’s so hard to get a true perspective of what Castle is about, apart from the fact that the whole RA board is a fiasco of a setup.

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  7. #22
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    She is out of her depth as a CEO due to her poor management skills. It is not just Cheika she got Grey and Larkham’s contracts both wrong. They had to be paid out. This is despite redeploying them to roles they both resigned from. Instead of sacking Cheika she had to get Johnson out of his existing contract with the SRU then added an extra management salary, the lawyers that handled the Folau case are owed seven figures, back ended Tupou’s contract which at the end of it he was due to receive seven figures, Hooper’s contract is extortionate, made a hash of putting the tv rights out to tender, still stands to receive a bonus despite saying it was delayed, got RUPA offside and sponsorship money from Qantas was paid in advance in 2018.

    She may be a nice person but she is just not competent at her role.

    Junior development is about her level which is the one thing she is getting right.

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  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kiap View Post
    What was his answer about "blowing up the Force"?
    Kiap, I googled "blowing up the Force" and I found some amazing stuff, but nothing related to the Western Force or Kearns,

    When I added "Kearns" to the search I found this:
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/kearns-w...w-some-kahunas

    "Former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns has challenged the ARU to show some gumption and demand SANZAAR retain all five Australian teams in Super Rugby.

    As the saga continues over who's in and who's out for 2018, Kearns believes it's high time the ARU made a stand and stood up to the competition's rulers reportedly lobbying to have one Australian team and two South African sides chopped.

    The Western Force are the latest Australian franchise in the firing line but not only is Kearns advocating their survival, but also urging the ARU to insist no Aussie outfit is cut."

    It was dated 29/3/2017.

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  9. #24
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    Phil Kearns also encouraged everyone to buy shares on the Own the Force initiative

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  10. #25
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    Stephen Moore has just come out and said that he tried to join the board this year and was contacted by a third party working for a recruitment company. Another example of an organisation run by a bloated bureaucracy of 150 people which doesn’t include contractors and match officials. I wonder how much that recruiting company was paid.

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    'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'


    https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne

    Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca

    https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by JSJ View Post
    Hansie, that is good feedback, from somebody on the inside, who was close to the action.

    I must admit, I loved Kearns as a player, but hearing his one-eyed comments on Foxsports about referees and the opposition, turned me off him and I was happy that Castle got the job.
    From the outside, my impression was that Clyne was the dictator, and Pulver, Castle, Eales etc did not have the guts to stand up to him or resign, as Stookie did.
    Do you think Kearns would have stood up to to Clyne?
    Kearnsey's answer to me over the Blow up comment - was that at the time the Force was in total disarray and he wanted to show his disappointment and probably the choice of words was not the best, but he did not back away from expressing the fact he thought we were a rabble at the time.

    Would he stand up to Clyne? Good question. I honestly don't know, I would like to think he would. Eales, Pulver and Castle followed Clyne blindly so did Marlow and Sherry. Stookie was and is a beacon to the pillars of our game. He called out the lack of transparency, lack of loyalty, courage and compassion that went missing during our culling.

    I have kidded Kearns on being too one eyed and Sydneycentric. Again he won't apologise for being that way, he is very passionate and loyal to the game and his roots in the game.

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  12. #27
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    On the upside, if he was CEO he wouldn't be commentating. Would he?

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  13. #28
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    The Force as an organisation probably was a rabble, for various reasons. But the playing squad never ever was.

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  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alison View Post
    The Force as an organisation probably was a rabble, for various reasons. But the playing squad never ever was.
    If the Force were rabble in 2017, how bad then were the Reds, Rebels and Tahs, that the Force beat?

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  15. #30
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    Castle has resigned

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