Wallabies legend Mark Ella: ‘One year of AJ was enough for me’
Forty years on, Wallabies legend Mark Ella has revealed why he walked away from the game at the height of his powers.
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Forty years on, Wallabies legend Mark Ella has explained why he walked away at the height of his powers and addressed long-held speculation it was because he did not want to continue while Alan Jones was coach.
In a 2007 biography he said his decision to retire was made easier by the fact Jones was at the helm.
It was also said he disliked the intensity Jones brought to the Wallabies set-up.
“There were a number of things involved,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I was playing in an amateur environment, not getting paid, and got married a week after getting home from the tour. I needed to start the next chapter of my life, knuckle down, start working on a post-rugby career.
“It’s also fair to say Alan Jones wasn’t my type of coach. I didn’t retire because of him, but Alan being coach did make the decision easier,” Ella said. “What he did for rugby was terrific. But one year of AJ was enough for me. I was ready to move on.
“If I’d been paid $1 million a year I might have kept on playing but that wasn’t happening.”
Ella stayed in the UK for three months after the 1984 tour, working for tobacco company Rothmans.
On his return to Australia there was a mega offer from St George rugby league club and interest from South Sydney.
THE COMEBACK
Ella returned to club rugby in 1989 and led Randwick to a premiership but “never with ambitions of playing rep footy again”.
The same year, as home loan interest rates spiked at 18 per cent, he sought a pay-for-play opportunity and joined Milan rugby club in Italy. Despite the game still being amateur, he was well paid.
“We went for one season and stayed for four,” Ella said, the last three as coach after club boss and future Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi offered him the job.
WE REALLY NEEDED ANOTHER GRAND SLAM TRIUMPH
Ella says another Grand Slam triumph would have been the lifeline Australian rugby needs to halt the game’s decline, but the Wallabies lost 27-13 to Scotland on Sunday, shattering dreams of their first slam in 40 years. “Rugby in Australia has been suffering for the last 10 years, and it’s struggling to survive at the moment,” said Ella.
Ella scored a try in each of the four Grand Slam Tests in 1984.
“I’m proud that we finally achieved a Grand Slam because we were there in 1981-82 with a great team that we thought would do it, and we didn’t,” he said. “It meant a lot to go back and win it, and with every game we got more confident.
“As for a try in each Test, it’s something you could only dream about. I laugh now because in 21 Tests before that tour I’d only ever scored two tries.”
Ella then stunned the sporting community by retiring international rugby at just 25.
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Originally published as Wallabies legend Mark Ella: ‘One year of AJ was enough for me’