Force blasts 'hypocrite' Waratahs
By Peter Jenkins
April 25, 2006
WESTERN Force bosses last night slammed the "mass hysteria" over third-party payments to Matt Giteau - claiming corporate dollars almost delivered Andrew Johns to the Waratahs.
"I get angry at all the hypocrisy," Force chief executive Peter O'Meara told The Daily Telegraph.
"We've done nothing wrong. We did not breach any protocols. This is exactly the same as when the Waratahs were trying to get Johns. Well, actually, it is slightly different.
"People who were involved inside NSW Rugby at the time were actually prepared to shell out their own dough then. Directors were prepared to put their hands in their own pockets."
O'Meara was there as the Waratahs tried to poach rugby league's greatest player.
He was a NSW board member in 2004 when the collective of individuals known as "Friends of the Waratahs" worked behind the scenes to pull together third-party contracts for Johns via his manager John Fordham.
The "Friends", including former Test captain Mark Ella, did the dealing because ARU recruitment protocols ban provinces from offering third-party endorsements or assets during the negotiation process.
A player's agent must tap the corporate market alone.
O'Meara is stunned that two years on, and with the Force desperate to build a competitive team for their second season in 2007, key figures within the game have conveniently forgotten the Johns saga.
ARU chief executive Gary Flowers has already warned how Giteau's goldstrike - an overall playing and endorsement deal worth $4.5million for three years - could trigger new regulatory measures to avoid upward pressure on player payments.
East coast franchises have joined the attack by suggesting the campaign to sign the Wallabies centre was over-aggressive and out of order.
Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher and Queensland coach-in-waiting Eddie Jones have also weighed in with opinions that Giteau will suffer as a player from his move to the west.
O'Meara has heard enough.
He claims to know details of significant third-party deals for players at other Super 14 franchises.
He cites a massive car sponsorship for another so-called "Million Dollar Man", and the lucrative package cobbled together for one star three-quarter to prevent him walking out and joining the Force this year.
Third-party arrangements are a fact of professional sport, O'Meara argued. "We're talking about the top six or seven players in the country, that's all," he said. "They're the ones the corporates want to be associated with.
"I don't think what we've done is going to blow the whole system apart. I don't think we're doing anything that is screwing Australian rugby. What we're seeing is mass hysteria.
"The kid and his manager took the initiative and knocked on doors over here. They were overwhelmed with the response because what we have over here is the country's strongest economy.
"Some of the fastest-growing companies in Australia are in the oil and mining sector and WA is the capital.
"Besides, why should there be constraints on what players can earn from the corporate world? Try telling Tiger Woods that. And if you restrain those top guys in this country you're only driving their managers to look more closely at Japan and Europe."
The Force will continue with an aggressive recruitment campaign.
Roosters centre Ryan Cross is next on their radar.
O'Meara has been in further contact with Cross' management but the ARU needs to handle negotiations on a top-up payment.
O'Meara also expressed interest in ACT Brumbies back rowers Jone Tawake and Adam Wallace-Harrison and is awaiting instructions from the ARU on whether he can still bid for Waratahs second rower Al Kanaar.
The Daily Telegraph
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,18914529-5002381,00.html
It was reported on the Back Page last night that the Force only put up $150K , and the ARU put up $450K, the rest came from the corporate sector, which his manager negotiated.
Seems to me he went where the ARU wanted him to go.
