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'It's a huge opportunity': Why Australian rugby's newest chief executive took charge of the struggling Waratahs
By Online Editors
New NSW Rugby Union CEO Paul Doorn says he's stepping into the role with his eyes wide open, with the Waratahs and Australian rugby battling negative perceptions in a competitive sporting marketplace.
Doorn, who starts on Wednesday, had contact with his predecessor Andrew Hore in his previous job as CEO of Venues NSW.
He adds to a revamped set up for NSW, with the Waratahs also having a new coach and captain and playing roster.
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The Waratahs have made their worst start to a Super Rugby season, losing their first three games.
With Australian rugby in general struggling to make an impact, Doorn has had plenty of people ask him why he chose to get involved at such a challenging time.
"I've had a few people say the same thing to me, but it's a fantastic opportunity.," Doorn said.
"When you think about the the Waratahs brand representing the state, I've come from a job in which I've been proactively promoting state-owned assets for a while
"To take on a challenge - and it is a challenge - to look for the best out of what the game can bring to people, I think it's a huge opportunity."
"I did my due diligence talking to ex-players ex-officials, board members," he said.
"I had a relationship with Andrew (Hore) the last couple of years through his work when they (the Waratahs) came out and played out at Bankwest, so I've come in with eyes wide open..."
One early challenge for Doorn is trying to reverse the trend of declining attendances, with the Tahs drawing their lowest-ever Super Rugby crowd for their last home game in Newcastle.
The nomadic Tahs home games this year are spread across Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, and Tamworth, while their stadium is being rebuilt.
'I know this year we're playing six different home game (venues) which is a disadvantage," Doorn said.
"But also a huge opportunity to engage with a whole new set of markets that perhaps we haven't done, or haven't done as regularly as we have in the past."
- AAP
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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