Raelene Castle’s $114k bonus as Australian rugby burns

Rugby Australia chief Raelene Castle is due to receive a $114,000 bonus despite the organisation recording a $9.4m loss last year.

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle was awarded a $114,000 bonus last year. Picture: AAP

Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle is due to receive a $114,000 bonus despite the organisation recording a $9.4 million loss last year.

The 2019 ‘unaudited’ annual report seen by The Weekend Australian details the huge bonus for the embattled chief executive but Castle is now denying she has received it.

In the report, Castle’s salary with superannuation was disclosed as $775,000 with an amount of $114,000 being listed under ‘incentives’ for 2019.

It was a year in which the chief executive oversaw the Israel Folau saga that cost Rugby Australia a $3m payout and she also failed to secure a TV broadcast rights deal, which today leaves the code on the cusp of insolvency.

The 2019 financial report shows Castle due to receive close to $900,000 in the most tumultuous 12 months in Rugby Australia’s history, which included the Wallabies slipping to seventh in the world, with viewership and crowds down.

It was former RA chairman Cameron Clyne who signed off on the CEO’s $114,000 ‘financial incentive’ — even though Castle did not meet all of her ‘key performance indicators’, according to sources.

Rugby Australia confirmed the bonus but said it had yet to be paid despite the amount being detailed in the yet to be publicly released 2019 annual report.

“There was a bonus calculated on Raelene’s performance against her KPIs for 2019 however she has not received any payment of this bonus,” said a RA spokesman.

It is not clear why it was recorded in Rugby Australia’s 2019 financials if Castle hadn’t received the payment.

The Weekend Australian has also had it confirmed from several sources that former players are currently demanding answers on a “missing” $750,000 from a Rugby Australia-controlled retirement fund.

One person with knowledge of the situation said more than 20 players are awaiting payment from the fund and Rugby Australia has refused to answer questions on the status of the money in recent weeks.

Retired Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell, a 71-Test veteran, has applied to the fund but hasn’t been paid around $100,000 he is understood to be entitled to.

Castle’s powerbase has significantly diminished in recent weeks.

As exclusively revealed by The Weekend Australian last week, Castle’s days are numbered in the chief executive’s job. This is despite assurances from interim RA chair Paul McLean that Castle has “the full support of the board”.

RA has forecast a $120m revenue hit if no Super Rugby fixtures or domestic Tests are possible this year.

The CEO’s gamble to turn RA’s back on its 25-year partnership with Foxtel to “test the market” on TV rights, and then unable to secure a new broadcast partner, combined with the arrival of COVID-19, sees the code in a financially catastrophic state.

Late last year Castle walked away from a broadcast offer worth $40m a season for five years with Foxtel (part-owned by News Corp, publishers of The Weekend ­Australian).

But most recently it is the CEO’s failure to close a new pay deal with the players that has her position under pressure.

Castle has angered players with her lack of transparency on RA’s financial situation. She held out for two weeks on financial information she didn’t believe the players’ union had a right to see and then finally released some documents last Saturday.

While other sporting codes have already come to an agreement on athlete pay cuts RA has struggled to get close to closing a deal with Australia’s 192 players.

Castle’s relationship with Australian rugby players has never been more fraught and fractured.

Outgoing board member Brett Robinson, who until now had worked alongside Castle in the protracted player pay talks, has notably stepped down and will not be present at Saturday’s crucial pay meeting with the players.

Instead Supercars chairman and new board member Peter Wiggs — and fellow new director, former Wallaby Daniel Herbert — will step up to help “rescue” the Castle-led talks with the players.

Representatives of RUPA in Saturday’s talks include its chief executive Justin Harrison, its president Damien Fitzpatrick as well as founder, Joseph Hayes from Wexted Advisors.

While the players initially put forward a 42 per cent pay cut that was turned down by RA, RA’s most recent request has been that the players accept a 65 per cent pay cut so RA can save $11.7m.