Outgoing Australia Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill issues a stern warning ARU CEO John O'Neill announces his resignation during a press conference at the Australian Rugby Union headquarters. Picture: Brett Costello. AUSTRALIAN rugby must ditch an archaic governance model and emulate the AFL - with a dash of All Black - or risk a slide into obscurity on the Aussie sporting landscape. That's the stern message of outgoing ARU chief executive John O'Neill, who yesterday announced his resignation after a total of 14 years running Australian rugby. Having recently taken on the chairmanship of ailing casino operator Echo Entertainment Group, O'Neill said he'd come to the realisation he was "pushing his luck" adding it to the workload of his full-time duties at the ARU. It was a view shared by the ARU board and after discussions with chairman Michael Hawker in Pretoria last month, the pair made a "mutual decision" for O'Neill to step down as ARU CEO and managing director a year ahead of his contract expiring. O'Neill will focus on Echo, and continue representing the ARU at the IRB and on the Rugby World Cup board. O'Neill said he holds great pride of long tenure at the top of the ARU, which began in 1995 and was only broken up by a three-year stint running the FFA between 2004-07. O'Neill has had a turbulent second stint from 2007 that's seen rugby lose ground to rivals. He remained optimistic about rugby but a dated governance structure was the main "barrier to success." The findings of a review into Australian rugby's governance - conducted by former Sports Minister Mark Arbib and former Major General Peter Cosgrove - is set to be handed down on October 22. I initiated the review in 2008. Have a good read of it (the findings)," O'Neill said. It will explain a lot about the shape of the game, the circumstances and why modernisation of the governance of Australian rugby is not a nice-to-do thing, it's an absolute essential thing to do. Otherwise, the future is not that bright. We are hamstrung with a governance structure from the amateur days."The ARU board has two independent directors but is largely still federated. O'Neill said he'd recently had a conversation with a leading politician who hailed the long-standing, independent AFL commission model. (He said) they have been able to implement strategy without political interference. It really struck a chord. I thought, 'That's it in a nutshell'," O'Neill said. I am convinced the AFL model is the gold standard. Priority No. 1 is to a move toward better corporate governance. A completely independent board, no one with a reliance to be elected. Once that is set up, I am very optimistic. Because then the hard decisions won't be that hard, they'll be devoid of politics. The barriers to progress are substantial if we stay as we are. But if you improve the governance ... you can accelerate."O'Neill also hinted at support for the recent comments of ARU High Performance Unit boss David Nucifora, who said Australian rugby should be run centrally like the New Zealand Rugby Union. Asked about best-practice player welfare, O'Neill said: "New Zealand are doing something right. If you look at their record ... a lot of the conclusions come back to the way they manage their players, their coaches, strength and conditioning people and their doctors. Hawker met with recruitment firm Russell Reynolds yesterday to begin an "international search" for a replacement. A foreigner would not be ruled out, Hawker said.