If in doubt... double down
Australian Rugby continues to throw shade, The BYC plunges into pessimism, and swimming is all over the news.
It’s hard to think of anything more Australian than what Hamish McLennan is doing right now.
Go into attack mode and just when everyone expects you to walk it back a little, double down.
If you work in the media you’re there for it, because rarely are you presented with such a gilt-edged opportunity to use words like imbroglio, brouhaha and katzenjammer.
The Rugby Australia chairman previously said that all bets were off for Super Rugby 2024 and that Australia might go and do their own thing, while inviting a few close friends in the Asia-Pacific region.
This was seen, quite probably accurately, as a reach for some of the broadcasting lollies NZR enjoys through its incredibly lucrative broadcasting deal with Sky.
His posturing was pooh-poohed on this side of the Tasman but the fact he has gone in for a second bite, saying among other things that NZR “aren’t good partners” would seem to indicate that he has broad support among Australian rugby’s power brokers, even if that doesn’t include Wallabies coach Dave Rennie.
Either that or McLennan’s gone completely rogue, but that is unlikely given the personality of ARU CEO Andy Marinos.
When researching a story last year about the breakdown in the Sanzaar relationships, a well-placed source described Marinos as “impulsive” and his NZR counterpart Mark Robinson as “aloof”.
Marinos would love to watch NZR squirm but, playing to type, Robinson has remained above the fray, leaving it instead to Roger Clarke, Highlanders’ chief executive, to register his dismay at McLennan's sabotage.
“Comments like Hamish’s in the last week have harmed all 12 clubs and the future,” Clarke told Stuff. “At the end of the day, it’s a little bit sad because it’s pretty obvious it’s a money grab.”
It’s an interesting thought exercise to picture what a post-Super Rugby world might look like.
Many in New Zealand fear it’s a doomsday scenario because Super Rugby is NZR’s only player retention tool. Could a revamped 10-team NPC, with a Pasifika entry generate enough commercial and broadcast interest to pay for top-level talent?
It’s not something NZR will be in a rush to find out, even with their “reimagining of rugby” (which is gently skewered here by The Spinoff’s Madeleine Chapman.
There’s a cautionary tale amongst all this.
Her name is Kate Palmer.
A few years back, Palmer, Netball Australia boss, decided she didn’t need five largely uncompetitive New Zealand sides cluttering up her netball picture so despite Sky TV effectively paying for the sport on both sides of the ditch, set up an eight-team, Australia-only domestic tournament.
Palmer had the confidence to do so because NA was cashed up after hosting the 2015 World Cup.
Netball Australia is now deeply in debt and current chief executive Kelly Ryan has had to publicly deny they are on the brink of bankruptcy.
Over here, the second-biggest game in the domestic netball calendar, the elimination final, was played in a community gym in South Auckland in front of a couple of thousand people.
That was an administrative katzenjammer that has worked out terribly for both.
With a Rugby World Cup heading Australia’s way, McLennan might too feel Australia’s outlook is bright enough to throw shade this way.
Standby for the next installment in this imbroglio.
It was nice to see Carl Hayman talking so openly about his battle with dementia last night. That he did it in shorts and jandals on the shortest day of the year only adds to the legend.
The BYC was today helmed by Beige Brigade co-founder Mike Lane. His pessimism about the state of the Black Caps had started to rub off on the panel, so that was addressed right out of the gate.
We also pick ridiculous teams for the third test - mine includes D Cleaver (potentially as a concussion substitute) - and ponder the many and varied delights of Leeds, including a fish shop and the world’s slowest Mexican Wave.
New Zealand has won two tests at Headingley, which makes it the most fertile hunting ground for the Black Caps. In 2015, BJ Watling, playing as a specialist batter, inspired a 199-run victory, while in 1983 Lance Cairns and Ewen Chatfield took 16 wickets between them as New Zealand won for the first time on English soil, by five wickets.
My favourite anecdote from that match comes from Jeremy Coney’s The Playing Mantis, and describes the festive scenes in the sheds following the triumph.
“In one corner were three generations of Hadlees, all of them in tears. Walter, father Hadlee, in tears because of the moment. He was a man who had spent a long and close association with the summer game, first as a player, culminating in captaincy of the 1949 side to England, then later as an administrator when he held the post of chairman of the board of control. He memorises Wisden. His tears were emotionally motivated. Richard, son Hadlee. His tears proclaimed he hadn’t got a wicket in the match. What irony after his performances. He’d beaten the bat, had catches dropped, and done everything except secure wickets. Yet the undeniable, most galling and damning statistic was that I got four. I took great pleasure in sidling up to him and casually announcing ‘Thank heavens you can bat, Hadlee.’ Nicholas, grandson Hadlee, was in uncontrollable tears because he had nappy rash, unhappily exacerbated, I think, when Richard became confused with a tube of Deep Heat.”
FINA would have been hoping that they could move the conversation quickly on from their decision to ban transgender athletes from women’s events.
While the decision has been largely celebrated as a victory for common sense, two-time Olympic champion Kieren Perkins has added welcome nuance to the debate when he says the sport must be careful the “blunt” exclusion tool used at elite level doesn’t trickle down into community sport.
While I agree with FINA’s decision, Perkins makes some excellent points and this is well worth a read.
“I think we need to have a far more elegant solution than just excluding people,” he said.
“We’ve completely marginalised an entire community of people globally on the basis of one athlete’s [Lia Thomas] intent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky moved the focus back to the pool by collecting her 17th world title by destroying the field in the 1500m. This piece outlines how extraordinary Ledecky’s range of excellence is, saying it would be like a 100m sprint runner being able to win at 1500m.
“You don’t have those speed-power athletes running longer distances. You don’t have those longer endurance athletes coming down to speed. And that’s kind of where she is in the swimming world, she’s an anomaly.” - Brett Hawke.
