It took long enough, but the Australian
Rugby Union finally turned the lights on to ruin the annual shadow play of
rugby league players pretending to be interested in the heavenly game, leaving
their managers to get back to negotiating with the Murdoch Ball clubs.

Friday’s ARU announcement was an inordinately long time coming. Maybe the North Sydney machine was merely
being kind to the folks who have to pad out sports pages, leaving time for
Wally Lewis to have a say, Campo to decry the waste of funds, mungo types with
vested interests decry the salary cap and leather patched gents enjoy a little
Schadenfreude after all those decades of watching League buy our amateur Union
stars.

On the other hand, maybe the delay in
dealing with it is just a sign of the vacuum that’s existed at the top of rugby
since John O’Neill was shafted as CEO and trundled off to find success with soccer instead.

The ARU is not a happy ship. Greg Growden gave us a glimpse in his Ruck & Maul column:

An independent report on
the “shortcomings” of the Australian Rugby Union will be unsettling reading
for numerous officials at their North Sydney bunker. ARU staff members
have told R&M that the
report, to be released in several weeks, targets officials at the highest
level, and could even affect their positions… the investigation, partly aimed to find out if certain
officials have been leaking confidential information to the media, has included
the checking of staff telephone records. Some officials have even been probed
about their relationship with certain media identities, while the performance
of others at Fort Fumble has been questioned.
Meanwhile, dramatic changes on the Queensland Rugby Union board could easily
affect the sway of power at the ARU. We also hear there is a short-list of 10
candidates for the two independent directors positions, who will be part of a
revamped ARU board.

There are actually about three major
stories in that paragraph, including a hint of the paranoia within the ARU that
sparked the witch hunt.

The problem is that O’Neill departed more
than two years ago. Sport politics in general and rugby politics in general are
as bad as any you can find, but two years is too long to wait for the house to
be put in order.