 Richard Kinley, the CEO/General Manager of Otago Rugby, spoke at the meeting last Thursday. He outlined his life/career background (from Gore to Balfour to Milton to Dunedin) and emphasized the important role that Rotary has played in determining what he did in his life, describing both his experience in RYLA in the 1980's and his Group Study Exchange trip to Colorado in the 90's as 'life changing'. For the past 15 years, following a stint working as a sport development officer with Sport Otago, he has been leading community rugby in the province - he was 'encouraged' into the role by our former member, John Brimble, at a time when the Otago Rugby Football Union was in a serious financial position (broke!) and about to collapse.
Highlights of his time in the role include leading the ORFU into a stable financial state (the debts were repaid and reserves have been steadily building), winning the Ranfurly Shield in 2013 (after 56 years without) and two more times as well, and maintaining and even growing participation numbers in the sport at a time when many sports have declined. He described it as a "most challenging but most rewarding job".
There are lots of challenges in the sport at present - the governance review that NZRFU is going through (Richard says it is important that the provincial unions continue to have representation on the NZRFU Board), player pathway development, contracts with professional players, the upcoming renewal of the contract with Sky Sport, the fact that the anticipated funding from the Silverlake deal is yielding a lot less than anticipated (the ORFU is getting a quarter million dollars less than they were told they would be getting), and securing new office space if the developments at the Forsyth Barr stadium go ahead.
There were several interesting questions asked and Richard gave really enlightening answers - but I was too busy listening and forgot to write them down! |
