Has Castle dropped the ball?
OPINION: When Raelene Castle walked into Rugby Australia’s shiny new building as its shiny new chief executive in mid-January, more than a few eyebrows were cocked in disbelief at NRL headquarters on the other side of the Moore Park carpark in Sydney.
Castle talked a big game in her five years as Bulldogs chief executive. In chief executive meetings, according to those in attendance, she and Souths counterpart John Lee would offer grand theories on how the game should be run but provide little substance.
‘‘They were like the two old blokes out of The Muppets who always thought they had a better idea how things should be done than the rest of us,’’ says one club boss, with a chuckle.
Lee eventually left the game. As for Castle, she’s now responsible for leading rugby out of the ugly mess it finds itself in.
Inexplicably, nobody from Rugby Australia spoke to the NRL or the Bulldogs about whether they thought she was up to it. Not NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg. Not Bulldogs chairman Ray Dib. None of them.
RA [Rugby Australia] and Castle need Folau more than he needs them. It shows the tail is wagging the dog.
Castle may well go on to prove she is the right person for the job but, this week, she fell spectacularly at her first major hurdle in failing to sanction Israel Folau; not just for his anti-gay Instagram post but for his on-line column questioning Castle and her motivation over some reasonably banal comments about him at a media conference a week ago.
Let’s not under-estimate how weak RA has been in the past fortnight.
Two weeks ago, Folau said on social media that gays are going to ‘‘hell if they don’t repent of their sins’’. RA dithers about how to respond. Sponsors get twitchy. Castle and NSW Rugby Union boss Andrew Hore finally meet with Folau and his manager, Isaac Moses. Nothing really comes of it, except a Castle doorstop media conference about ‘‘having a conversation’’ with Folau and that more ‘‘conversations’’ will be had.
Late last week, major sponsor Qantas is told Folau will be sanctioned on Monday or Tuesday. Aside from a couple of cryptic Insta posts about the big man upstairs, Folau doesn’t say anything until Monday night when the Players Voice website publishes a column explaining his position. He quotes passages of the Bible to justify his remarks about hell and gays but then has a crack at Castle for ‘‘misrepresenting my position and my comments’’, which he says she did ‘‘to appease other people’’.
That’s the game’s highest-paid player, with the biggest profile, having a shot at his boss in a column.
WHAT DOES CASTLE DO?
She says good as Wallaby gold! That’s the ‘‘respect’’ we were looking for! Play on, Israel! And hopefully, at a later date but not much later, you’ll sign a big fat contract extension to stay in rugby and not take the big cash in European or Japanese rugby as foreshadowed in your column. Or, worse still, rugby league.
‘‘In his article, Israel clearly articulated his religious beliefs and why his faith is important to him and has provided context behind his social media comment,’’ Castle said in a media release. ‘‘In his own words, Israel said that he did not intend to upset people intentionally or bring hurt to the game. We accept Israel’s position.’’
NOW THAT’S LEADERSHIP, EH?
Actually, it’s not. It shows RA and Castle need Folau more than he needs them. It shows the tail is wagging the dog.
It also sets a dangerous precedent. Can a player from now on make discriminatory remarks with impunity as long as they are made ‘‘respectfully’’ and in line with their ‘‘religious beliefs’’? What if it’s just ‘‘respectfully’’? Or does this new edict only apply to those who can find the appropriate passage in the Bible to support their ‘‘respectful beliefs’’?
Castle would’ve won far more supporters if she had called Folau into her office on day one, told him to delete the post, reminded him he’s the highest-paid player in the game and that young kids hang off every one of his words and if he doesn’t like any of that he can go and play another code, or rugby, in another part of the world.
The game is supposed to be bigger than one person. This week, Castle has shown it isn’t.