Once six state union members of Rugby Australia became signatories to a letter expressing no confidence in McLennan\u2019s leadership, the notion that he nonetheless remained the correct person to continue as chairman was untenable. <\/strong><\/p>\n Even if McLennan could have carried the numbers if those state unions had forced a vote at an annual general meeting, the mortal wound was inflicted as soon as those state unions declared their united hand.<\/p>\n Hamish McLennan on 2GB radio this week.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Kate Geraghty<\/cite><\/p>\n A vote of tepid confidence is actually a vote that a person is no longer fit to lead. <\/strong><\/p>\n McLennan became a dead man walking once the majority of the state unions had expressed an appetite for carnage. But he was the walking dead even before that.<\/p>\n It was over for him by the time the Wallabies were on the plane home from Charles de Gaulle Airport, once McLennan\u2019s man, Eddie Jones, started sniffing around the Japan coaching job and even as soon as McLennan backed Jones for the Wallabies job in the first place. <\/strong><\/p>\n Hamish McLennan was a dead man walking all of these times. And so he was when he decided to go all-in on poaching Joseph Suaalii on a $1.6 million-a-year deal and also when he attempted to pay about $1.6 million over two years to acquire the services of fellow Rooster Angus Crichton.<\/p>\n Had the Crichton coup come off, McLennan would have had RA paying 3 per cent of the company\u2019s gross revenue on two untried quantities. That\u2019s not good business. <\/p>\n Truth is, Hamish McLennan was a dead man walking even before he was walking, in a rugby sense. The only interesting things RA has actually done in the past five years all revolve around disaster. Raelene Castle\u2019s flagrant disregard for procedural fairness and attempted sacking of Israel Folau happened almost five years ago now; not many sensible decisions have been made since.<\/p>\n But will Hamish McLennan\u2019s departure make any significant difference? Those with the collective voting power might be momentarily<\/i> appeased, but that period won\u2019t last any longer than it takes the body politic of the sport to understand that the removal of a high-profile and domineering chairman won\u2019t ever serve as a magic pill.<\/p>\n The body of Australian rugby is more riddled with disease than that. RA is the archetypal gravy train, running on biscuit wheels. Hamish McLennan\u2019s head on a stick won\u2019t achieve much at all, besides the sugar hit. RA\u2019s issues are more structural \u2013 its governance is insular, inward-looking, and influenced. There\u2019s a lack of independent thinking in the room.<\/p>\n Eddie Jones and his coaching staff during the failed World Cup campaign.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n McLennan\u2019s eventual removal was a board decision; the board appoints the chair after all. The messaging <\/i>is that this decision was unanimous. It was inevitably the correct decision, but it\u2019s a fallacy to say the decisions for which McLennan has been crucified were his alone.<\/p>\n Decisions must have been authorised and approved by at least a majority of directors. So where\u2019s the wider accountability? There\u2019s none. It\u2019s as if the rest of the board considers McLennan a fair sacrifice.<\/p>\n RA would do very well to have a majority of its directors with NO knowledge or experience of the sport. That knowledge is largely unnecessary for directors. That\u2019s what senior management is for.<\/p>\n Also why, in 2023, is the CEO of RA also a director, rather than the person who is answerable to the board. That\u2019s 1970s sports governance writ large.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s a fallacy to say the decisions for which McLennan has been crucified were his alone.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s tough to cede power. Nobody actually prefers <\/i>change. But non-rugby people mustn\u2019t be feared. Or loathed. In my experience, one simply doesn\u2019t require an intimate knowledge of the peculiarities of a particular sport to have the potential to make a huge difference in the management of that sport.<\/p>\n In my experience, the directors who achieve far greater things are those with a broad knowledge of sport as a whole and a good dose of common sense. Running Rugby Australia isn\u2019t rocket science, but it requires fresh brains and new thinking from entirely outside the box.<\/p>\n If RA is to succeed in dragging rugby in Australia back from the brink, it must be a broader church. Removing the former chairman (thus provoking him to resign as a director) and installing a former Wallaby as his replacement might be the best interim fix available, but it won\u2019t achieve anything of significance in the long run.<\/p>\n What RA should do is this. First, its board should comprise a majority of directors from outside the sport, who bring desperately needed professional skills and different experiences but definitely not just more \u201cRugby IQ\u201d, whatever that actually means.<\/p>\n Former Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Edwina Pickles<\/cite><\/p>\n Second, the structure of the company\u2019s board must be altered, so the CEO is removed from being a board member. There\u2019s no need in 2023 for the existing structure, under which the CEO is appointed as the managing director. It\u2019s rubbish governance.<\/p>\n Third, Rugby Australia must appoint as a chairperson one of these new \u201coutside\u201d directors who come in under a new structure. Fresh eyes, fresh ideas and no entrenched enmity.<\/p>\n Fourth, Rugby Australia needs to be a bigger democracy. Those who are \u201crugby people\u201d are, in my experience, passionate about the sport and its hoped-for future prosperity.<\/p>\n But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve spoken to a single one of these people in the past four years who\u2019s talked positively about the direction rugby in Australia is headed in. Why would they? It\u2019s a cluster-you-know-what<\/i>.<\/p>\n And yet, none of these people have a podium to influence change because of the slippery pyramid structure of the sport and the lack of voice that organisations outside of the state unions, the Super Rugby franchises and the players\u2019 association have.<\/p>\n The congregation needs to be bigger, the church needs to be huge, and people in the sport need to have a proper voice in how it is run. Because Hamish McLennan\u2019s spearing will end up proving not a jot.<\/p>\n If a ship heads off on a vector even a fraction of a degree wide of where a compass directs it should sail, and if the vessel travels for long enough, it will end up miles off course.<\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary.<\/i><\/b> Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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