Australian rugby has been on its knees many times.
After World War I, it almost got swept away by rugby league. Rugby in Queensland disappeared during most of the 1920s. In 1972, being whipped by New Zealand saw the 'Woeful Wallabies' tag used for the first time. A year later, Australia were beaten by Tonga. In 1977, Australia did not play a Test because the Australian Rugby Union was broke.
Yet Australian rugby has always rebounded.
Australian rugby is currently in a parlous state, with teams not producing on the field, funds having been squandered by the ARU, general interest dropping off, and the axing of the Western Force from the Super Rugby competition prompting outrage. A game that not so long ago was vying with rugby league to be the second-most popular football code in the country is now far and away the fourth- -- a fair distance behind the other three.
But Australian rugby can again get itself out of this sorry mess, with the platform provided by Bill Pulver's resignation as ARU chief executive officer. Here is the chance for the ARU to appoint a convincing leader who can embrace all sectors of the game, provide direction, and properly represent the interests of the game rather than alienate important sectors.
The ARU board must learn from its mistakes.
Australian rugby has justifiably been accused of being an 'old mates' network, where quality has been overlooked because of decisions made by those looking after friends.
Instead, the ARU must start thinking outside the square and appoint the best and the most competent administrator for the position as CEO -- not a person who is there because of a network that protects its own.
If the ARU is to re-establish itself as a slick professional organisation, it must have a strong administrator prepared to make the big decisions, stick by them, and be a credible figurehead. He or she also needs to boast entrepreneurial skills and be a tireless public figure who knows how to sell the game. He or she requires vision, and knows how to sell that vision. And be provocative.
The task requires someone who understands the need to prioritise work in areas that have been neglected - such as the recruitment and nurturing of young talent, improving the level of coaching at all levels, ensuring good administrators are appointed at all levels of the game, and doing everything possible to provide support to the grassroots.
This is no cushy position because Bill Pulver leaves behind a code that is both struggling for recognition and fighting among itself. So it needs a hard, resilient and wily operator to enliven an organisation that many have lost faith in.
Pulver's term was sadly underwhelming.
We saw him when there was an easy story to sell. Whenever there was a crisis, however, it was more often a case of 'Where's Bill?'.
The good administrators are forever out there, bobbing up on news bulletins, when times are good but especially when they are bad. They understand the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity. Even more so after Australian rugby lost a meaningful presence on free-to-air television and so for the masses became the forgotten code.
Once Australia had enormous clout at International Rugby Board / World Rugby and SANZAAR level. During Pulver's term, Australia became a pushover. That happens when you go to important international meetings pleading for financial assistance. This from a country that just four years ago made a financial windfall from a British & Irish Lions tour. No wonder numerous important countries looked on in disbelief. New Zealand in particular once feared an often ruthless Australia at the board table. Not anymore.
But Pulver lost out most when he alienated the club scene. Some of his comments defied belief. The Sydney premiership clubs had every right to be furious when he told them last year: "I'm not making any money available for you to p--- it up against the wall." He put his foot in it again this year when saying the clubs "don't need funding from us".
Apart from showing a lack of understanding of grassroots rugby, it was so stupid to upset this level of the game because it is probably the best organised of all, provides the bulk of Super Rugby and Test players, and revolves around those who love rugby the most -- the volunteers. Why alienate those who put in the most and will forever defend the game? Unlike numerous faceless officials from the ARU down, the volunteers actually put in, and need to be protected. The club game requires funding from head office.
Nonetheless club rugby is going through a resurgence. There is an element of a 'protest vote' with the punters going back to club land because it is tribal, has history, and boasts a competition structure that is understandable and means something. The Pulver-inspired National Rugby Championship doesn't have that. Super Rugby is also now convoluted.
A clue to the ARU's approach to the CEO will come later this month with the appointment of a board director to replace Geoff Stooke, the Rugby WA chairman who resigned his ARU position in disgust over the Force decision. The ARU board is now a very interesting mix- four men Brett Robinson, John Eales, Paul McLean and Cameron Clyne and three women Elizabeth Broderick, Pip Marlow and Ann Sherry. While Stooke's position is up for grabs, Pulver will be replaced on the board by the new CEO.
The ARU CEO position is a tough gig -- especially with the code now so fragmented. But it's certainly not an impossible task. After all an Australian team, the NSW Waratahs, won the Super Rugby title just three seasons ago, and the Wallabies, even if blessed by a dubious refereeing decision against Scotland, made the 2015 Rugby World Cup final.
Australian Rugby is not entirely a hopeless case.
And watch how the alienated punters will return in their droves, and everything will be fine and dandy again when the Wallabies win a Bledisloe Cup Test. It has to happen one day.
Then again ...