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Grant in no rush to find Gallop successor

Roar Guru
29th August, 2012
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Chairman John Grant has given the biggest indication yet that the ARLC’s chief executive’s role will be filled by someone outside of the sport.

With speculation mounting that AFL’s No.2 Gillon McLachlan will step into the role vacated by David Gallop, Grant did little to quell the rumours on Wednesday offering a “no, we don’t,” when asked if the commission saw a rugby league background as important for the role.

“But you’d like to think there is some sporting connections,” Grant said.

“You need to understand sport a bit for a position like this.

“When we’ve gone through and looked at the potential candidates, we’ve drawn them all through sporting administration.”

McLachlan is the heir apparent to AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and his reported current $1.3m salary, dwarfs the $750,000 paid to Gallop.

The 39-year-old is believed to have been earmarked for the role, with corporate headhunters Spencer Stuart understood to have drawn up a shortlist with McLachlan featuring on top.

Acting CEO Shane Mattiske and Racing NSW chief Peter V’Landys are amongst the other candidates.

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Grant refused to acknowledge publicly that McLachlan was in pole position for the role, but said the new man would not be in place before the end of the NRL season.

“Any candidate who does accept the role would have to serve some sort of notice period and that would be outside of the season,” Grant said.

“I am not about to indulge in candidate discussions outside of what we’re already having, it’s inappropriate.

“But suffice to say we will go through a process that’ll give us the right outcome.

“If we don’t get the outcome this time we will try again.”

Despite being armed with the new billion dollar broadcast deal, Grant said he won’t be held to ransom to get his man.

However, he said he’d be prepared to pay the going rate.

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“The price always has to be right,” he said.

“But right can mean a different thing. What is right for some person may not be for another.”

McLachlan is a law graduate from the University of Melbourne and has a bachelor in commerce from Adelaide University.

He is also a former pupil of the prestigious Melbourne Grammar School and mixes socially with Liberal Party heavyweights in the Victorian capital.

His identity may not fit in with the archetypal rugby league administrator, but his credentials tie in exactly with what the ARLC want from their new man.

“They have to have demonstrated a track of record of performance in a commercial point of view and a solid understanding of sport generally,” Grant said.

In addition to being a main player in negotiating AFL’s $1.25 billion broadcast deal, McLachlan is also behind the code’s expansion into the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney – two of rugby league’s traditional heartlands.

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V’Landys also has his admirers within the walls of Rugby League Central.

He took on and beat, corporate bookmakers in a landmark NSW High Court case that netted the racing industry $100 million in March.

And he was widely praised for his performance during the equine flu crisis in 2007, where he won $235m in compensation from the state government.

V’Landys was unwilling to comment when contacted by AAP on whether he was interested in the role.

Mattiske remained non-committal when quizzed about keeping the job permanently, but the 40-year-old would be seen as a safe pair of hands if a move to attract McLachlan fails.

McLachlan said on Fox Sports that “Sydney was a great town” and rugby league was “a great product”.

He refused to be drawn on the ARLC’s chief executive role but confirmed he would consider positions offered to him from other sports outside of the AFL.

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