Rugby the glue for Force’s O’Connor

Ten days out from the Western Force’s 2024 Super Rugby Pacific opener against the Hurricanes at HBF Park on Friday February 23, the final touches of an arduous pre-season campaign are being applied at Force HQ.

Inside the club gym, Force men’s and women’s players go about their business in a no-nonsense manner, under the watchful eye of new chief executive officer Niamh O'Connor, who was appointed on February 7 following a four-month stint in an acting capacity.

Ms O'Connor is the first female appointed chief executive at a Super Rugby Pacific club.

While most top-level managers at national or state sporting organisations bring a detailed appreciation of the components that make up their remit – community, regional, state, national and international – not every CEO can draw upon years of volunteer roles in grassroots sport.

Born to it

Growing up in rural Ireland, Ms O'Connor lived in a rugby-mad household with her father leading the way.

Whether she was studying at university or travelling overseas, spending time at a nearby rugby club was always a high priority, particularly given the supportive, inclusive nature of the clubs and spectators.

“When I was growing up, the big drawcard with rugby was the social impact it was having at the time,” Ms O'Connor told Business News.

“It was a game for everyone. Everybody has a place in the team; you don’t have to be a particularly fast runner, as it’s a game for all.

“I just saw the social impact it could have in keeping kids off the streets by doing things a little bit differently.”

Build better

Ms O'Connor has more than 17 years’ experience in the construction industry and has a comprehensive understanding of project management, from initial concept to design, execution and client engagement.

In many ways, she believes this background provides a unique set of eyes for not only her role, but also to gauge where the Force sits in Western Australia’s sporting landscape.

Her decision to relocate to Perth in 2011 was built on multiple factors, although a love for Australia certainly played a part in the decision.

“I backpacked here in 1999-2000 and fell in love with Australia,” Ms O'Connor said.

“[A few years later] the GFC came and hit Ireland pretty hard in 2008. I was doing a lot of work for major pharmaceutical companies and delivering major manufacturing facilities, but the work was all over Europe.

“At this point in time, my kids were quite small, and I ended up being away a lot during the week.

“So then, we decided … to see if we could move somewhere where we could work and be around for school assemblies and to do all of that good fun stuff.”

Heartbeat

Ms O'Connor immersed herself in community rugby from the moment she arrived in WA, becoming a volunteer at UWA Rugby Club.

She said her understanding of what rugby meant to people across all walks of life was enhanced by the experience, attending many hours of committee meetings, filling out team sheets and providing an ear for players, coaches, parents and sponsors.

Whether engaging with the secretary of the Geraldton Tiger Sharks or the president of a Fortescue premier grade club, Ms O’Connor has the background and experience to appreciate the sacrifices made and challenges faced by sports administrators at all levels.

“It’s definitely one of those ‘university of the world’ situations,” she said.

“I think unless you’ve come through it, it’s hard to understand the challenges that are there.

“There’s a lot of people doing it hard financially, so you were constantly looking for different ways to create, promote and engage partnerships across a whole pile of alternatives.”

Next steps

In 2021, Ms O’Connor was approached by Rugby WA to sit on its board, a position she still holds, with an emphasis on junior participation and pathway systems.

Last year, she was appointed to the board of the Western Force as community representative and acting chief executive.

“It’s interesting, because I’d been working for myself over the previous three years, three days a week,” Ms O'Connor said.

“The balance of my week was volunteering for rugby anyway, and the dynamic shifted.

“Because I didn’t come from a sport administration background, I never really saw myself as the long-term solution, and it was very late in the piece when I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

“I am really, really, grateful to the other directors who have supported me in this because my thinking is probably a little bit different to the traditional way.

“So that’s the part they are backing me on, which has been really good and very daunting in equal measure.”

Vision

While on-field success is a key priority for the Force each year, the club is leading change in aspects off field.

In October last year, the Force appointed Dylan Parsons as the first full-time coach in Super W, officially known as Super Rugby Women’s.

Additionally, the club was the first in the competition to appoint full-time high-performance staff and pay its female players.

“We’ve got a whole dedicated team now to growing both the women’s game and the academy, which cuts across both men’s and women’s games, which is making it equal for everybody,” Ms O’Connor said.

“That’s the part which excites me, along with the changes we are beginning to see in this space.”

Ms O'Connor said she was heartened by the success of the HSBC SVNS tournament in January, the first time the series has been played in Perth.

Sevens rugby union is a condensed form of the traditional game, with each match played over two seven-minute halves, with seven players per side.

There are eight rounds of the series during the 2023-24 campaign, contested around the world by traditional and developing rugby union nations.

“Sevens is a pretty sticky format of the game because it’s short, sharp, fast and has a festival atmosphere,” Ms O'Connor said.

“But the principles of the game are the same to the fifteen-a-side format. So it’s about building that awareness, love for the game and speed around it, which makes it fun.

“For me, it demonstrated what we knew was there anyway: how strong rugby is in WA.”

Prior to the January 26-28 tournament, Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the event would bring in thousands of out-of-state visitors to WA, with the increased visitor spend helping the state’s economy.

Roaring

In 2025, the Force are to play a one-off clash at home against the British & Irish Lions, a team comprised of the best players from the UK and Ireland, which tours Australia, New Zealand and South Africa every four years on a rotational basis.

Perth will also host matches at the 2027 men’s and 2029 women’s rugby world cups.

The last time a Rugby World Cup test was played in Perth was at the 2003 tournament, during which more than 124,000 spectators in total attended pool matches at the now-demolished Subiaco Oval.

While the England-South Africa clash was predictably a big-ticket item, given both countries have large expat populations in WA, a crowd of 21,507 for the Georgia-Samoa clash was also a massive plus for local stakeholders.

The 2003 world cup generated $41 million in visitor spend for the WA economy.

Season ’24

With six of the Force men’s seven home games this year scheduled for Friday or Saturday nights, Ms O'Connor is keen to enhance the WA sporting public’s passion for rugby union and, in time, ensure the club can become a leader in the sport.

“For me, it’s about setting the club up for long-term, sustainable success,” she said.

“Putting the right people in the right roles, really generating a roster which connects with the community, along with growing more WA talent so that we build that wave around WA.

“We’ve been tasked with being the best club in the world – so that’s my focus now – but it’s how we do that and connect back to the community.”