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Has anyone else noticed David Gallop get tougher recently? I don’t mean in the Incredible Hulk sense, where he turns green and walks into NRL headquarters with a ripped shirt, but more verbally landing a right-hook on the chin of any opponent of change. What we used to get from Gallop were statements that could make watching the twilight movies interesting.
They were phrases from the good guide to management book and largely created little to no controversy.
Now he comes out fighting. He exposes the ludicrous, highlights the absurd, and uncovers the laughable claims of his rivals.
His handling of the latest mini drama to hit the headlines – agents and players being required to sign statutory declarations – is perfect evidence of this.
In the wake of the Melbourne Storm salary cap rorts, Gallop proposed players and agents sign statutory declarations along with their contract. He wants them to certify that everything is above board, that there’s no second contract locked in a secret lair with lots of extra zeros on it and that the two parties are playing by the rules.
The Rugby League Players Association came out swinging as soon as this tough new measure was announced, leaving Gallop less than impressed. He gave the RLPA 5 days to show why the rule shouldn’t be implemented, but in the mean time ripped them to shreds at a press conference.
“We’ll give the players’ association an opportunity to tell us why we shouldn’t have a system where the parties to the playing contract are prepared to say ‘this is what the player is really getting paid,” Gallop said.
“It is the fair dinkum contract amount – not some other amount that’s not in the playing contract, which is the situation we dealt with in Melbourne. It’s deeply concerning that they would object to that.
“The player agents have hijacked the situation and they’ve hijacked the players’ association effectively.
“We haven’t really heard boo from the player agents since the whole Melbourne Storm thing happened. We know that a number of them are still under investigation.
“If you’re not prepared to say ‘yes, this is the true picture’, then you’ve obviously got something to hide.”
Now, that’s a leader! It was almost as if the Melbourne Storm salary cap saga was the final straw – the last in a long line of bad headlines he could take.
On the surface it made no sense for the RLPA to reject this. Who doesn’t like transparency?
I rang RLPA chief executive David Garnsey to find out what the main objection was.
He said the RLPA’s biggest problem was that they simply weren’t consulted before the NRL decided to open players and agents up to far greater punishment than they currently face.
He wouldn’t and in fact couldn’t say if the RLPA would give their blessing to it, mainly because they hadn’t, according to Garnsey, had the chance to read it yet.
So it wasn’t an objection, as such. It was more the RLPA caught off guard.
Regardless, I believe NRL fans can now put their faith in Gallop to make the tough decisions. It’s slow progress, yes, but progress all the same.
The man still has his many critics, who argue that not just Gallop, but the NRL as a whole is too reactionary and not pro-active enough.
Still, this is a step in the right direction.
You can follow Luke on twitter @luke_doherty and on Sky News Australia
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