Player agents are lousy keepers of secrets, with Andy Marinos confiding in them earlier this year that he probably wouldn’t be affected by Rugby Australia’s problem of recontracting players for the 2024 season and beyond.
Now rumour has become fact, with Marinos confirming on Monday he would stand down as RA chief executive next month. It is one of the most curiously uneventful resignations in the recent history of Australian rugby, certainly in the period since the second coming of John O’Neill.
This is not how RA purges itself of a chief executive, though admittedly circumstances have changed since O’Neill moved back to Moore Park in 2007. Back then, and for much of his seven-year second stint in the job, he was the dominant force in the game, with the chairmen of the era largely deferring to him. It was a system not without controversy, but he made it work.
Since then, the load has been spread more evenly between the two positions. Bill Pulver worked hand in glove with RA chairman Michael Hawker, his former schoolmate. Raelene Castle and Cameron Clyne forged a volatile yet mistake-prone duo who eventually triggered a game-wide revolt. It was messy for far too long and the damage sustained by rugby is still being felt.
Then along came Hamish McLennan as RA chairman. Personality-wise, he is up there with O’Neill: brash, determined, shooting from the hip. His first act was probably his brightest, to persuade Rob Clarke to remain in the job of acting CEO while he got his feet under the desk. They worked extremely well together, and because Clarke always had it in the back of his mind that he wasn’t staying long – he had oceans to sail – there was no competition between them.
Initially, it seemed Marinos would be a continuation of that situation. Marinos had been a low-profile, some would say near-invisible, chief executive at SANZAAR – the body running southern hemisphere rugby. It was thought he would slot into a similar role at RA. And so he did, in the early days, but more and more he found himself called on to put out McLennan’s fires. No one was safe. New Zealand came in for a battering from McLennan, so too rugby league’s Peter V’landys.
Hamish McLennan, Eddie Jones and Andy Marinos.Credit: Peter Rae, AP, Jessica Hromas
Some of the battles were almost cringeworthy, with McLennan challenging rugby league to a six-scrum showdown – three in the league configuration, three in the rugby union – with $100,000 for the winner. Marinos’ resignation followed within days.
The jury is still out on some of McLennan’s bold plays. Eddie Jones, who was snapped up by McLennan to replace Dave Rennie, remains everyone’s favourite Wallabies coach but only because he hasn’t picked a team yet or taken Australia into a Test.
The Joseph Suaalii signing is attracting good reviews but what if he suddenly loses form before the 2025 season? It happens. Channelling millions into a kid who twice rejected rugby at a time when genuine young rugby talent is being short-changed could dramatically shift the storyline.
The question now is whether McLennan fancies a low-key appointment for the chief executive role or whether, as the eternal risk-taker, he sees a golden opportunity to shake up the organisation.
Phil Waugh is a Wallabies great, but there could be fears of favouritism to the Waratahs if he was made RA chief.Credit: Getty
The simple and most widely touted solution would be to appoint RA director and Wallabies great Phil Waugh. He is certainly highly capable and entirely across the rugby landscape. Concerns he might favour the Waratahs might not materialise. Waugh is very much the politician, and he would be at pains to avoid any hint of favouritism.
But it is unlikely his CV would stand up to a genuine “global search” in which some serious administrators would be lobbying for the position. His best hope may be an interim appointment, and then performing well enough to warrant retention. With only four months to go to the Rugby World Cup, he can’t be affected in any serious way by how Australia perform. Indeed, given he played under Jones from 2002 through to his departure in 2005, he presumably would have a better idea than Marinos of how to handle the mercurial coach.
He may need solid help around him, however. Even O’Neill had Matt Carroll – now CEO of the Australian Olympic Committee – as his deputy chief to implement some of his more controversial calls. And while the spring clean is in full swing, perhaps the high performance unit could use an overhaul.
This could be the moment for Rugby Australia to get its house in order before the trials of a British and Irish Lions tour in 2025, the home World Cups in 2027 and 2019 and the Brisbane Olympics in 2032. The time is ripe.
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