Queensland Reds CEO adresses Rugby Australia's centralisation proposal and NRL player investment
Queensland Reds CEO Dave Hanham has criticised Rugby Australia’s (RA) proposed centralisation model to fix the sporting code’s significant woes.
Following the disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign, RA are in negotiations with the rugby bodies across the state to assume full control of the decision making within the sport.
Hanham says whilst the idea of a centralised model is fine in theory, the explanation from RA has been far from adequate and could damage the sport in further.
“There is merit in working together in a better aligned high performance system,” Hanham said on SENQ.
“We agree that it is a path forward but it needs to be a collective decision (but) there needs to be more detail.
“There has been an absence in detail in some of those areas.
“Our frustration comes from (RA) talking about a model with the buy-in (from all states).
“We know the on-field performances from Australia have to improve and we are not sitting with our head in the ground.
“The area we don’t agree with and the element that we are particularly frustrated with and that we’ve pushed back on publicly is this view of a commercial takeover.
“It’s where all assets, liabilities, staffers, contracting for sponsors and all relevant income generation sits under RA and the Reds would turn into a subsidiary of RA and we wouldn’t exist.
“We don’t feel that’s the right model (and) we are going to retain that. We have no interest in giving that over.
“There has to be a clear separation of improving on-field performances and taking over our assets.
“I don’t believe that’s viable.”
Hanham also took a swipe at those at the top of RA who have attempted to entice players from rival codes such as the NRL over to rugby.
Hanham said RA needed to be careful with the investments they make and insisted RA needs to be transparent in their dealings.
“We have to continue to grow the game at community level,” Hanham continued.
“It’s hard to build a (healthy) relationship (with RA) when they are out spending a significant amount of capital attracting league talent.
“We have an enormous amount of talent in our younger age groups.
“Suaalii is a good player and I don’t blame him for looking at rugby but for me, it’s a significant amount of money we’re allocating for the game that doesn’t have the same balance shit as the AFL or the NRL.
“We need to be careful and smart where we put our investment. Take a longer term view and let’s not buy our way to win the next Test.
“Let’s set ourselves up for the next 5-10 years.”
Suaalii will switch codes upon the completion of the 2024 NRL season.