Change of big Chief appeared inevitable

There appears to be smoke billowing from the Chiefs after what looks like a sudden decision to part company with chief executive Andrew Flexman. But there might not be a fire. Not much of one anyway despite the fact Flexman is understood to be leaving with no job to go to and no desire to conduct any exit interviews with media.

Such a scenario creates suspicion about why the club has parted ways with the man who has been at the helm since 2013. There's no real need for the conspiracies to start, though, or for the spade to be sought so as the dirt can be dug.

Given the events of last year and the impact the “strippergate” saga had in damaging the club’s reputation, it would have been a bigger surprise if the Chiefs had chosen not to seek a change of leadership.

Arguably, the Chiefs should have forced an executive cleanout last year because, looking in from the outside, they appeared to have a deeply misogynist culture that rejected any notion of acceptance and diversity.

Worse still was the impression given by senior management, most specifically Flexman, that they were in denial about their culture and almost resentful at the public and media outcry which erupted when details emerged about how the players conducted themselves at their end of season party.

There were not only allegations that the players degraded and abused the woman they paid to perform for them, but that Michael Allardice was also separately guilty of making homophobic slurs against a member of the public. Flexman infamously called into question the integrity of the woman at the centre of the allegations, adding further concerns about attitudes within the club.

It was a horrible period for the Chiefs in which they spectacularly alienated women and men around the country and sold themselves as an organisation without a moral compass or bold and decisive leadership.

Damage like that is not easily or quickly fixed and it was apparent this year that there was an awareness within the club that there remained a simmering resentment towards them.

Assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge talked publicly about his belief that the Chiefs were viewed differently by their fans and wider rugby public as a result of what happened in 2016. He gave the impression that the incident remained a cloud hanging over them – tainting their character and moral standing.

With that sort of sentiment being felt internally, it was perhaps inevitable that change has come at the top. Coach Dave Rennie announced in early 2016 that this year would be his last campaign. A handful of senior players such as Aaron Cruden, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and James Lowe are moving offshore and the franchise, it seems, has the chance to make a fresh start in 2018.

Bringing in a new chief executive is an opportunity to bury the past and to build a new culture without the ghost of the sordid feast past being at the table.

Presumably the Chiefs board and Flexman have reached that same conclusion – that it would be best for the club if there is change. Such decisions are never easy to make, not always amicable, but nor or they always dramatic or symptomatic of an obvious and defined falling out.