Raelene Castle will become Rugby Australia's new CEO and the "first female boss of an Australian football code," according to Tom Decent of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Castle "edged out" former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns for the position, despite reports suggesting he was the favorite to take over rugby's top job. An announcement is "expected to come in the next few days that Castle will take over" from incumbent CEO Bill Pulver. The appointment of the former National Rugby League side Canterbury Bulldogs CEO is a "watershed moment" for Australian sport given no female "has ever been the boss of a major football code." There "was an appetite" within Rugby Australia ranks for the new CEO to be a "rugby person" but Castle's expected appointment shows the code "wants a fresh set of eyes to put it on a new path." More than a 100 people applied for Pulver's job and in recent weeks that number "was cut to only three" (SMH, 12/11). In Sydney, Wayne Smith reported Castle is regarded as being a "safe" appointment. As the CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs for four years and before as CEO of Netball New Zealand for six years, Castle has "considerable experience as a sports administrator running a code." For all Pulver's abilities and experience, the fact that he had "never run a sport before joining the then Australian Rugby Union was always regarded as a liability." Tennis Australia has a female president and chair in Jayne Hrdlicka and Kate Palmer was Netball Australia's CEO, but "no woman has been CEO of a major Australian football code." It "might not be her gender that Australian rugby fans have most difficulty with but her nationality." The thought of a New Zealander, albeit one born in Wagga Wagga, "running Australian rugby would have seemed preposterous less than a decade ago," but "much of that barrier was broken down" when Robbie Deans was appointed Wallabies coach in '08 (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/12).
