National Rugby League CEO David Gallop at a press conference at NRL headquarters. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
The biggest challenge facing the NRL isn’t ensuring Brad Fittler knows which is his hotel room but rather ensuring that the One RL dream becomes a reality.
While, Fittler was busy buying some extra strong nails and a jumbo hammer for a coffin with the headstone marked “my coaching career” it also emerged than the QRL are considering backing away from the plan to have rugby league run by one independent body.
The concept of streaming lining all the various RL’s that run the game is one that is long overdue.
However, getting blokes to hand in their passes to the gravy train with all the meals, hotels and tickets that come with it always proves difficult with self interest continuing to rule the day.
However, while it may be painful for some it is absolutely vital to ensure the game is run with greater efficiency and strategy and less self interest by clubs.
There is a lot to admire with the way the AFL board runs things, and while rugby league may not necessarily need a carbon copy of it what it does, there is the need to do away with many of the boards which clutter up the game and largely seem to be there to keep their board members well fed at half time.
What is more, wouldn’t an election for the independent board bring some entertainment!
I’d love to see many leading columnists have their names on the ballot paper, after paying off their mortgages with the advice on how to run the game wouldn’t it be great to see the scribes putting their hand up.
On a more serious note, it would also be a great way to bring in some leading former players onto the board and also the input of those leaders in the community with a passion for rugby league.
Doing away with boards populated by people whose ultimate interest is in the welfare of their individual club rather than the game as a whole won’t be easy.
But who wouldn’t want to see the minutes of a meeting between Gerry Harvey, John Singleton, Shane Webcke and Rebecca Wilson?
I’d back it would rival the opening ten minutes of Origin football.
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June 22nd 2009 @ 8:36pm
Mike said | June 22nd 2009 @ 8:36pm | Report comment
Steve,
Glad to hear it – that’s the sort of thing I would look at in assessing a coach.
On another note, assuming one believes the NRL crowd and ratings figures, don’t they contradict your proposal? If crowds, ratings and memberships are all up, then what need is there to change the governance of the code?
June 22nd 2009 @ 10:13pm
Steve Kaless said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:13pm | Report comment
Mike,
Yes I still argue there is a need for change, I’d argue these figures are in spite of the organisational structure not because of it.
Longer term growth and challenges could be better handled by a more independent system.
If in the long term we debate the viability of Sydney clubs surely it is better to have an independent board rather than people from the clubs making decisions.
It is also not just about getting rid of a fair chunk of the bureacracy, but the One RL board is also about removing News Ltd from the decision making process.
June 22nd 2009 @ 10:40pm
Midfielder said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:40pm | Report comment
Steve
All organisation’s need good leadership and well through out goals and ways to achieve their goals.. RL is no exception the call you are making is spot on and it scares me the apparent lack of goal setting and forward planning coming out of RL.
No more is this more evident than in the expansion plans of RL.. If you look at the AFL they have researched to death where to place the next teams set against pre set criteria that both the team and the area had to meet but within a broad national framework. The A-League has gone to unbelievable ends to pick its new sides with published criteria on where they wish to take the A-League but again like the AFL after extensive research on where to place a team. The much belittled RU management again is looking at where to place it’s next S14 team. RL to the best of my knowledge has no such planning or research just gut feel and lets see who pops up with what.
Without doubt the effect of News on the board is a major problem … as all decisions are made as I see it to best recover News investment in the Super League War …. and what is best for News is not always best for RL..
But the lack of forward planning without the forward planning being free from club bias is essential if decision making is to be effective.
June 23rd 2009 @ 8:29am
macavity said | June 23rd 2009 @ 8:29am | Report comment
Gallop is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
One board, and one Independent CEO – and we need it before the next media rights deals are negotiated.
June 23rd 2009 @ 11:17am
Mike said | June 23rd 2009 @ 11:17am | Report comment
Steve,
Getting rid of News Limited is a worthy goal. (On a personal note, I might still be a League supporter if News had never got involved in the game).
But is that the way it will happen?
Midfielder draws out attention to a piece of history – the set up of the NRL was manipulated by News Limited in an attempt to recover its lost investment in Super League. Why wouldn’t we expect that it will do its best to manipulate the set-up of a single RL board to achieve the same end?
June 23rd 2009 @ 12:41pm
Finno said | June 23rd 2009 @ 12:41pm | Report comment
Steve,
It seems to be right to say off the field leagues having a shocker but everything is rosy for league it seems, maybe any sort of media coverage is good media coverage. It would be interesting to see if league has a quite year off the field next year how the rating and fans will go. But it certainly seems that league is growing from strength to strength.
The league says crowds are up five per cent on the same time last year and have totalled 1,688,948 so far in 2009.
It says game one of the State of Origin series reached a record average of 2.322 million viewers across the five capital cities, 177,000 better than the previous best, for game three last year.
weekly tele ratings for NRL games are up 21.7 per cent in Brisbane and 14.2 per cent in Sydney.
And club memberships have grown 27 per cent with nine of the league’s 16 clubs achieving record numbers.
June 23rd 2009 @ 1:31pm
The man said | June 23rd 2009 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
Steve,
As Midfielder pointed out the combersome and questionably independent partnership structure that runs the game was another of the comprises arising out of the SL war.
Whilst I believe the goal of “one RL” would have already occurred if the ARL competition had continued free of the SL assault – given most of the people on the NSWRL, CRL and QRL were all amply represented in the ARL and it wouldnt have needed to maintain all these – I do agree that it is time to get “ARL” back in primacy and to eliminate the seemingly unnecessary other RL’s. This is a logical step to streamline development in the “Kids to Kangaroos” concept.
I do think the use of an AFL style commission – independent of the ARL would be good for an injection of professional management talent in addition to other stakeholders (players, fans, clubs, sponsors etc). I also think this would address News Ltd concerns and provide a more justifiable structure for their eventual exit from running the game.
As for goal setting, also mentioned by midfielder – I am sure this is being done behind the scenes and in many ways keeping future plans close to the chest could be useful in assisting the NRL in achieving its goals – for example undermining AFL’s WS18. Going out and publicly broadcasting strategic moves I think is distracting and I would rather they quietly got on with making it happen.
June 23rd 2009 @ 2:43pm
Greg said | June 23rd 2009 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
Mike
I am dumb founded by the idiotic views you have expressed. You are obviously a “fan” of Freddie’s, no problem there, but his conduct was outrageous for an NRL coach. Steve is right, Freddie is goooooooone.
June 23rd 2009 @ 3:52pm
Mushi said | June 23rd 2009 @ 3:52pm | Report comment
Steve the problem is that power is rarely willingly given up. We’ve got a system which basically requires either some cataclysmic event to force their hands or wait until they consolidate out of the goodness of their hearts.
June 23rd 2009 @ 4:18pm
Mike said | June 23rd 2009 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
Greg,
Be as “dumb” founded as you like (or just plain dumb, whatever).
You agree with Steve? Good, so do I. I thought Steve was saying that Freddie’s coaching career was gone because he had been on a bender, Steve has clarified that that is not so. As I posted (if you read posts), I have no problem with Steve criticising Freddie on the basis of things that are relevant to coaching.
But the mere fact that he got drunk on one occasion has nothing to do with it.
Of course, drunkenness may in some cases be a symptom (or indeed a cause) of other problems, but the plain fact of one bender proves nothing. In that respect, he broke the rules, he pays the fine, end of story.