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Home / Whanganui Chronicle / Sport

Russell has lots to crow about

By Jared Smith
Whanganui Chronicle·
3 Oct, 2014 08:50 PM4 mins to read

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Jared Smith byline
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If the Rabbitohs can go from being the club that should have been skinned and cooked in the late 1990s and early 2000s to their first NRL premiership in 43 years tomorrow, then does that make Russell Crowe the greatest celebrity owner in the history of professional sport?

Surely at least in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is the guy who asked talisman player Sam Burgess to leave his native England game (which historically is always a financial and physical gamble for the fair-skinned boys in the Mother Country to ply their craft in Sydney) on nothing more than a handshake deal on the movie set of Robin Hood.

Four years later, Burgess stands as arguably the NRL's biggest star (depending on how many SBW defenders are cool with him also leaving the 13-man code, again).

Crowe then made sure Burgess' three brothers and mother had a home at the Redfern club, and agreed to release his star to try his hand at union in time for the 2015 World Cup.

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You might only get that kind of loyalty from a world-travelling Ocker actor rather than a crabby, hard-bitten, set-in-his-ways sports administrator.

It has even come to the point where Souths' living legend George Piggins, who played in the last premiership win in 1971 then walked away from the club after 42 years when Crowe and his associates took over, will be at the Grand Final.

Lengthy court actions and allegations of a private investigator trying to dig up dirt on the Piggins family made the hard-nosed former test player vow in 2006 he would never again attend a Souths match.

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These are proud men. Old school. Forever means forever.

Crowe tried for years to broker peace with Piggins but was rebuffed every time.

But now, after a campaign for charity which has raised A$120,000 ($134,100), Piggins will be there tomorrow.

And if he sees Crowe, Piggins says he is going to shake his hand. Bugger me, that's getting serious.

Seems like the actor can perform miracles, maybe something he picked up on the set of Noah.

So, where do you stand on this scenario?

Rugby boy gets told by coach to change his T-shirt into something more in keeping with team colours while on a long, grinding flight from one game to the next. Player does comply.

However, while sitting back down, player makes a sarcastic comment. Coach, sitting two seats over, ignores it but team business manager either takes offence or at least calls him out.

The business manager is a woman. From one perspective, a very hard-working woman who performs multiple roles, having made herself fairly indispensable to all facets of the team scheduling, financial matters, and liaison to the union bosses.

From another, an individual who never played the game and has slowly, through the departure of other staff, acquired an unusually heavy-handed say on unlikely areas for her expertise - like disciplinary hearings and travelling with the wider touring party.

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Normally such roles are handled by coaching management, the ones who must build up crucial rapport with their team.

The player is known as a hot head and a drinker, although he was not doing the latter here.

A heated argument develops across the plane aisle, evidently over who has the authority and/or the entitlement to throw their weight around.

Within a few hours the business manager is on her way home and the player is being stood down before their final big game.

So, is this a neanderthal who expressed antiquated views, or a control freak who well over-stepped her bounds?

Do you choose who is the bigger cancer in your group and get rid of them? Or just go the school master route by sitting them down in a room and telling both of them to "grow up"?

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This is the latest kerfuffle the Australian Rugby Union finds itself dealing with in the furore over the Kurtley Beale investigation.

And if it wasn't so serious, it would actually be funny.

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