Welcome to the column where you provide the content. After Rugby Australia’s apology and multimillion-dollar payout to Israel Folau, Alan Jones railed against an insensitive, incompetent and virtue-signalling outfit and Janet Albrechtsen called for Raelene Castle’s head. Beverley was brief:
“Go woke. Go broke.”
Mark A was measured:
“Sport, like nearly everything else these days, is run by the woke elites. Being woke means being far left in politics, and the far left hate the capitalist principle of competition — all forms of competition.
“Sport is built on the principle of competition. Sport in the hands of woke far left is thus utterly doomed. Sport is also a strong social glue — and the only glue the left likes is to stick oneself to the road in protest.
“Look how wokeness has already wounded the NFL in the US. Look at the woke ABC refusing to cover the Olympics, which also involves nationalism, another thing the left despise. Capitalism, competition, sport and nationalism are all under equal threat.”
Not so, said Justin:
“Think of the 5 most woke companies you can … Google. Facebook. Apple. Microsoft. Amazon. The top 5 US companies by market cap.”
Charles J said:
“As the top 5 they can afford to be woke but man on the street doesn’t give rat’s about how woke they are because it doesn’t affect them. The IF row affected many rugby supporters.”
Roger reasoned:
“In a confidential settlement body language is all you can judge. Folau and his lawyers were very happy and celebrating. Castle & Co were matter of fact and spinning things as best they could. What was Folau seeking? Reinstatement; he gave that up in the settlement, compensation; his body language says yes and pretty substantial; apology; made through gritted teeth by RA but made nevertheless. RA can spin it any way they like, but the optics say a big win for Folau. Consequently Castle should be gone by 5pm today.”
Deploracon declared:
“They couldn’t help themselves & once they (RA) had apologised to Joyce before addressing the issues there was no way back. Believe it’s called being hoist by ones own petard.”
Russell’s rhetoric is rewarded with comment of the week:
“Take a look at the rugby landscape from the bottom up. Juniors in the city and country thriving, subbies very strong, Shute Shield in Sydney and Premier clubs in Brisbane going gangbusters with record crowds and free to air TV.
“NRC, hopeless and watched by family members and a few friends. No one even knows who plays and players hate it. Super Rugby, in Australia reeling. All metrics down, TV, crowds rapidly declining. Wallabies, deplorable, ranked 6 in the world.
“Where rugby is run and administered by the people, the volunteers and local sponsors the game is thriving. In fact assisting in funding RA. As soon as the professional administrators become involved down hill we go.
“This is in spite of buckets of money spent on High Performance Units and over 100 admin staff, coaching directors and coaches and support staff, constant changing of locations and new facilities, plus signings from league of questionable talent.
“It goes on and on. Rugby needs a complete clean out as so many responsible and respected people have called for. Why are the member unions not heeding this feedback and taking moves to vote and clear out. NSW chairman Roger Davis should stand up and take the initiative and start the movement for a full clean out and restructure.”
Peter wasn’t positive:
“You think this was bad? The sleeper is males claiming to be transgender competing in women’s rugby. Diversity? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
The Real Conservative Igor concluded:
“A textbook case on the cost of wokeness. Destroy the product at great cost to all stakeholders. How anyone that presided over this, let alone championed it, is still there is beyond rational explanation.”
Howard’s end:
“Each week you articulate examples of the diabolical incompetence of the team at RA, the lack of accountability and transparency and the absence of due process in recruitment. Each week your readers provide the ‘hear hears’. Everybody gets it! However, the fact that Castle, Clyne and the cronies are still incumbent surely means that they have actually been extremely successful at what they do — maintaining a dictatorship that makes unilateral decisions. It is fanciful to assume that they care about rugby. If they did they would step aside as you suggest. Evidently their objective is to remain in their immunity cocoon.
“You start with the words ‘surely they must go now if the game is bigger than the individual’.
Why must they ‘go now’? What is new? What has changed? What is suddenly more diabolical than before? It bottomed out some time ago. These latest fiascos are simply more evidence that the bottom is where it is staying.
“Who is going to make them ‘go now’ who hasn’t until now? Nobody (or bodies) appears to have the ability and/or motivation to topple the empire. To remove a dictator requires a revolution and a revolution requires a leader with the gravitas to unite the disenfranchised. Who is that Champion, Alan? You? Forrest? A consortium? … Do we need a petition? Or will they now simply resign even though they have publicly exonerated themselves of any wrongdoing. What player drops themself? What player is totally objective about their own performance?
“RA administrators will continue to enjoy the sanctuary of their ivory tower and internal appointment process until there is some external influence to challenge it. As a rugby loving fraternity, we have been and continue to be played by the administrators. And we sit around and whinge to each other about it and console ourselves with the fact that we all feel the same resentment. And all the while rugby continues to wither and perish.”
Finally, Phil:
“Anyone know who the CEO of the World’s best Rugby Union is? I doubt many do and that is a good thing. We don’t hear his name every 5 minutes in a negative context like we do with Raelene. For the record his name is Steve Tew and he has been the CEO for 11 years. Just like he manages his own reputation, he manages the reputation of NZ Rugby.
“He puts the game and the players first. If this sorry saga happened in NZ, it would have been handled behind closed doors 9 months ago. Done and dusted. But not with RA and Raelene. I’m sorry Raelene but you need to be fired and the reason you need to be fired is too many people know who you are and that means you are not doing your job.”
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Scott Morrison has ordered the biggest shake-up of the public service in more than 30 years, axing four departments and five mandarins in a move to implement a “lean and mean” bureaucracy. Miguel mooted:
“Can we do ABC next?”
Rhonda reasoned:
“If the public service union is whining it must be a good move.”
Y oh Y wondered:
“Can you please tell me how a public servant can earn over $700k?”
Beniah blasted:
“They can’t. They just get paid that much.”
Just, said Judy:
“In an unelected and unaccountable position no less. The mind boggles. They sit at the head of departments with huge workforces, layer upon layer of management levels, with budgets that do not rely on any particular productivity or KPI and are paid twice as much as the Ministers they work for. Frighteningly, these are the people actually running the country.”
This, said Chris:
“You allow public servants to engage an ‘independent’ consultant to evaluate the value of senior public service positions. Surprise, surprise, they advise that the people who gave them this nice little consultancy job should be paid more. And of course that same consultancy firm goes on to get many more contracts from those same senior public servants. Very cosy arrangement for all parties — except the taxpayer.”
RP reckoned:
“The Public service and CEO’s of Corporations use consultants to absolve themselves of responsibility for making decisions or strategy choices. It goes like this: ‘I was advised by the smartest people money could buy, I did what they said/advised it’s not my fault it went wrong we will never use those consultants again!’.”
Judy judged:
“The consultants, in general, are ex-public servants. Their permanent jobs having been chopped, they’re invited back by their ex-coworkers to provide specialist advice. After they’ve taken a massive redundancy usually.
“The public service is a fantastic, lucrative career, when you’re on the inside, but a closed loop of inefficiencies and unproductive departments and workforce dysfunction to anyone operating in the open business market. Want your child to have a cushy job-for-life … point them toward middle and upper management in the public service.”
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Nancy ‘don’t mess with me’ Pelosi lost the plot when she was asked if she hated Donald Trump while explaining that she was proceeding with articles of impeachment. TonyW weighed in:
“ ‘But a Republican-picked law professor warned that the evidence was too thin and the process too rushed justify impeaching the president.’ That is a very superficial summary of what the professor, a Democrat and non-Trump supporter very clearly stated. More accurately he said ‘if you proceed with this impeachment it will be an abuse of power, your power’ and very very clearly set out exactly what demonstrates that this ‘impeachment’ case is farcical.
“Furthermore, when asked by a Republican Senator if anyone present had any material fact that supported impeachment not one person responded. Not one. Not a Democrat, not a legal expert, not a Committee Member, not one. If this style of politics is allowed to continue I fear for the US as a democracy.”
Armando said:
“I don’t think Pelosi realises the size of the whole she’s just dug herself into. It seems if you're a woman and you raise your voice or wag your finger a someone its acceptable but if you’re a male you're a bully.”
John added:
“If she melts like this in the face of one simple question, how would she cope with the same level of abuse they have heaped on Trump? I seriously hope some of the US media get the sniff of blood and start interrogating the Dems a bit more after this dummy spit.”
Rebecca reckoned:
“Pelosi is deluded by her own blindness. It really is a hoot for her to talk about democracy being a threat when they have not yet accepted the results of the last democratic election as we approach another. Absolutely pathetic dummy spit!”
Mark said:
“It’s not possible to loathe (Trump) beyond reason because the reasons to despise the man are infinite.”
From Grant:
“Pelosi and the Democrats were seeking all along for a means to ‘undo’ the result of 2016, the ‘Russia collusion’ stunt didn’t achieve it so now they are using this. It will most likely backfire on them but she doesn’t care, she’s so scared of ‘The Squad’ coming after her, who kept demanding impeachment that she’ll do it regardless of whether she thinks it’s a strategic mistake.”
Last word to Tim B:
“Methinks she protests too much! Nancy Pelosi is now the global poster child for the crazy Left in politics across the western world. She is the embodiment of the ‘whatever it takes’ attitude of left-wing parties, who will use any means to attack and destroy their enemies. This farce will undoubtedly make Trump stronger and leave the Democrats in the wilderness for a generation.”
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