The Chairman of Swimming New Zealand (SNZ), Bruce Cotterill, can write all his management books. He can pound the celebrity speaker’s circuit. He can excitedly explain the wonders of discounted cash flow rates of return. But, behind all the froth and bubble, good management relies on honesty, integrity and trust.

What is the difference between America today and two years ago? It is not the economy or the military or education. But it is honesty, integrity and trust. Those personal qualities of leadership have been abused and discarded. The country is clearly in decline. Sadly, on a much smaller stage, SNZ has the same malaise. The evidence points to the fact that the membership can no longer trust the honesty and integrity of the organization. Let me give you some examples.

First let’s consider the roll-out of the Francis’ Plan. Gary Francis and Steve Johns have been selling the Francis Plan as a “new beginning” a “fresh start”. Of course it is nothing of the sort. The old Centralised Training Centre policy was targeted, so is the Francis’ Plan. The old Centralised Training Centre ran a squad out of the Millennium pool, so is the Francis’ Plan. The old Centralised Training Centre policy went around the country picking a cosseted group of SNZ favorites, so is the Francis’ Plan. The sameness is overwhelming.

And yet Francis and Johns bang on about the totally fake newness of it all. It is a scam, a deception intended to con the membership into believing a more benevolent democracy has arrived. The reality is, it’s the same old SNZ grab for power and control, dressed up in a new coat of many colors. Does anyone really believe the arrogance of an organisation that for 24 years has spent $30 million of investor’s money and has won no Olympic medals is going to be curbed by what’s right and honest? Of course not. If you can spend $30 million over 24 years and lose it all you simply are not going to give up on power. Your behavior and your record tell us all we need to know about you. You will instead search out a new con-job to sell us. And that is exactly what SNZ are doing with the Francis’ Plan.

I am told the most recent Francis’ Plan meeting was in Hawke’s Bay. That news came in an email so I can’t even vouch for its validity. No one could accuse SNZ of going overboard to sell the Francis Plan. It seems like they are doing just enough to say they have discussed it with members but not enough to have the plan examined thoroughly: the minimum required. Perhaps SNZ know that a full examination would reveal the extent of their fraud.

But Lauren Boyle’s sickness during a SNZ high altitude camp took SNZ’s dishonesty to a whole new and unforgivable level. I have never understood how the Board got away with that dishonesty. This is how that event was reported on the Roar website.

David Lyles’ fake press release and the time it took SNZ to issue a further cover-up smacked of the most amateur dishonesty. We can guess who they were trying to con. They wanted to avoid HPSNZ hearing that New Zealand’s best swimmer was not well. In 2014 Lauren Boyle was the organisation’s financial lifeline. Her illness could put all their lifestyles at risk. In my opinion they didn’t care about Lauren Boyle. They didn’t care about lying to the press or the membership. The cover-up was to protect their pathetic jobs. In my view it demonstrated clearly the moral bankruptcy of all those involved.

Which means of course I should have known better than to trust David Lyles with coaching my West Auckland Aquatics team while I was attending the European Mare Nostrum meets. I paid him $3000 to coach the team while I was away. The last thing I said to him was, “Don’t shaft me over this.”

However you describe what happened, I left a medium sized, successful and happy club and returned to Armageddon; an apocalypse with David Lyles and a pet committee member sitting in the middle of it. A couple of months later West Auckland Aquatics was the first club in 100 years to be dissolved by SNZ. I will never forgive those involved. Not only because of what they did to the club when I was there but what they did to the legacy of people I admire like Ross Anderson and Donna Bouzaid.

With all that background; I look across the pool these days and there is Lyles, Mayne, Francis, Johns and Woofe all buzzing around massaging each other’s egos. No amount of showering seems to wash away the clinging sense of betrayal. In my view we are being badly led, primarily because the fundamental qualities of leadership are not on display here. Like are gathering with like, which is why good people who do have those qualities, men and women such as Hurring and Bouzaid were discarded in favour of this lot.

Occasionally I wonder whether these guys would ever entertain thoughts of initiating a case of libel. My defense would of course be truth and honestly held opinion. However more important than all that I would like nothing better than to have SNZ appear in a Court and be required to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Wouldn’t that be good?