O'Neill gets all the presents. Again.
May 25, 2009
I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if I discovered that when John O'Neill was a kid he got every last Christmas present he ever wished for.
Because as an adult, or more specifically a sports administrator, nothing's changed for this masterly Aussie manipulator.
In short, whatever John O'Neill wants, John O'Neill gets. Sooner or later.
From sticking it up our puny rugby administration at 2003 World Cup time to overseeing Australia's special exploits before and during the 2006 Football World Cup, the credit must go to O'Neill.
And so it goes with the revamped Super 15 competition from 2011.
After having a few days to soak up all the proposed changes, it's certain to me that there is only one clear-cut winner in nearly every respect.
Always the prime mover and shaker to bring about change to the existing format, O'Neill has again brilliantly manipulated the situation by on the face of it, arguing for everybody's good, but in reality, seeking and achieving maximum advantage for Australia.
With his "saving the rugby world mask on," O'Neill put forth the dictum that "this new structure will enable us to further embed Super Rugby as the premier, provincial competition in world rugby."
Really John? So adding a few extra games and some motley new Australian-based franchise is going to see enthusiasm rival that of the Heineken Cup for example, where crowds of 80,000 plus and vast television audiences are commonplace?
What poppycock. What O'Neill was much more obsessed with all along was simply adding more first-class rugby to an Australian menu which, outside of Super 14, offers Aussie fans very lean pickings.
Australia has never had any domestic competition to rival that of the Currie Cup or the NPC, which is why an extended Super 15 format would fill this huge gap.
O'Neill would obviously have known that to suggest a format that would have tampered with the Currie Cup would have been clearly counter-productive.
Hence, under the new format, current Springboks will be available for Currie Cup duty.
Then again, O'Neill knew that the dysfunctional Air New Zealand Cup presented no such similar problems and that current All Blacks will never play in it again.
Of course, money rules everything and O'Neill also knew that brokering extra cash from Sanzar for all concerned would rule out most fears, gripes and grizzles.
So a new Super 15 tournament that is to be bizarrely interrupted towards the end, a tournament that continues to ignore any chance of Argentina or the Pacific Islands being involved and a tournament that will do its part to extinguish any chance of the Air New Zealand Cup or the Ranfurly Shield recapturing past glory has solved all of John O'Neill's current problems.
If I'm deadly honest, I have to say good on him.
Because deep down, I'm only jealous that we haven't had such a clever, cunning, effective administrator sitting at our Chief Executive's desk for many a moon.
Your thoughts please.
Because as an adult, or more specifically a sports administrator, nothing's changed for this masterly Aussie manipulator.
In short, whatever John O'Neill wants, John O'Neill gets. Sooner or later.
From sticking it up our puny rugby administration at 2003 World Cup time to overseeing Australia's special exploits before and during the 2006 Football World Cup, the credit must go to O'Neill.
And so it goes with the revamped Super 15 competition from 2011.
After having a few days to soak up all the proposed changes, it's certain to me that there is only one clear-cut winner in nearly every respect.
Always the prime mover and shaker to bring about change to the existing format, O'Neill has again brilliantly manipulated the situation by on the face of it, arguing for everybody's good, but in reality, seeking and achieving maximum advantage for Australia.
With his "saving the rugby world mask on," O'Neill put forth the dictum that "this new structure will enable us to further embed Super Rugby as the premier, provincial competition in world rugby."
Really John? So adding a few extra games and some motley new Australian-based franchise is going to see enthusiasm rival that of the Heineken Cup for example, where crowds of 80,000 plus and vast television audiences are commonplace?
What poppycock. What O'Neill was much more obsessed with all along was simply adding more first-class rugby to an Australian menu which, outside of Super 14, offers Aussie fans very lean pickings.
Australia has never had any domestic competition to rival that of the Currie Cup or the NPC, which is why an extended Super 15 format would fill this huge gap.
O'Neill would obviously have known that to suggest a format that would have tampered with the Currie Cup would have been clearly counter-productive.
Hence, under the new format, current Springboks will be available for Currie Cup duty.
Then again, O'Neill knew that the dysfunctional Air New Zealand Cup presented no such similar problems and that current All Blacks will never play in it again.
Of course, money rules everything and O'Neill also knew that brokering extra cash from Sanzar for all concerned would rule out most fears, gripes and grizzles.
So a new Super 15 tournament that is to be bizarrely interrupted towards the end, a tournament that continues to ignore any chance of Argentina or the Pacific Islands being involved and a tournament that will do its part to extinguish any chance of the Air New Zealand Cup or the Ranfurly Shield recapturing past glory has solved all of John O'Neill's current problems.
If I'm deadly honest, I have to say good on him.
Because deep down, I'm only jealous that we haven't had such a clever, cunning, effective administrator sitting at our Chief Executive's desk for many a moon.
Your thoughts please.
I am not confusing the GP with the Heineken Cup but I can see how you think that. My point was that there are not big crowds at rugby games every week in the northern hempisphere like we regularly see reported. One game a year hardly makes crowds of over 80000 a regular occurence. I went to the semi last year at Twickers between Toulouse and London Irish. There were around 30000 empty seats there.
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