Winning starts in the front office: NRL's top four was decided off the field

81paling you've made it clear over the past couple of years that you just hate Manly and are incapable of being anything other than objective when it comes to them. But still, your comments are all easy to respond to: Club gifted $15m - from where? Club has the best talent scout in Noel Cleal - wrong, he left at the end of 2011 with Hasler. Manly have done pretty well since then without him picking up their players...fourth, fourth and second on the table, and one prelim, one GF appearance and one semi appearance since then. Protected by a band of media personalities...protected from what exactly? And who are these media personalities? Bit of an ambiguous comment. Seeing as though every journalist in the land has been writing about the divisions in the playing ranks I doubt that could be interpreted as protecting the club. Looked after by Schubert in the salary cap department - hmm bit of a long bow here champ, if you honestly think any of Manly's squads since 2005 have been over the cap, you're wrong. It's called picking up good players cheaply and turning them into stars with good coaching and other good players around them. Hasler and Toovey do it better than most. State sports centre at no cost - that's called good resourcefulness by the club. Your Eels should try it sometime! Good luck winning another premiership, it's been 28 years since your last one - I'd say the Sharks have a good chance of winning one before you do.

Wouldn't say "arguably the best of the past 10 years" EagleJack, I would say definitely... The only club to appear in every finals series since 2005 and the only club to win multiple premierships. Four grand finals. No other club has such a high success rate. I'm not counting the Storm here. In a salary-cap controlled league, Manly's is a remarkable achievement.

Ricky, I think it is to do with the fact that the game used to be non-professional and was run by locals who loved the game. Somewhere in time, big money started to be generated by the game and the needs of the clubs changed and not all of the clubs woke up to that. You now need to have a different skill set other than just being enthusiastic and turning out for local A grade when you were a lad. Picking a CEO or chairman because they played in the front row for the Panthers or the centres for the Knights doesn't cut it any more. I'm not saying that ex-football players shouldn't be on the board, just that it needs to be balanced with business people with experience of marketing, financial management and in many cases (Panthers, Dogs, Broncos to name three) experience of the hospitality industry because the leagues club is an important source of revenue. Some of the clubs are big businesses with hundreds of staff and multi-million dollar balance sheets. The old committees made up of local small business people, ex footballers and the leagues club GM in most cases, just don't have the skills to deal with the demands of a modern sports business. A good example of this is Matt Gidley as CEO of the Knights. He retired from the game 4 years ago. Has he managed to cram in a business career in 4 years so he is qualified to be CEO? He has the job because he played for the Knights, not because he is the best person for the job. The Knights have put the future of the club in the hands of a novice CEO. Good luck with that.

Great article. But why are their so many defective and ineffective individuals running NRL football clubs. Is it a essential criteria at some clubs in order to be a CEO or board member?

Wish my team would stop the mafia like fighting and put the club and team first for once, it's a disgrace how one of the most popular clubs in the country in any sport is continually run so bad year after inglorious year. Get it right off the pitch for once Parra and the stuff on the pitch will come.

Apologies for taking myself too seriously :) I like a good rant from time to time as well. Let it out, you'll feel better.

Eagle Jack, fair enough the board has been a basket case for a while. But, as in business, the non-executive board do not run the club day to day (and thank god for that!). It is the executive management that run the club. Des Hasler, Geoff Toovey, the CEO (s) and their recruitment and training team are the guys who have kept them competitive for ten years while the board and owners carry on like spoilt kids. It speaks volumes to the focus of the executive management team that they have been able to ignore the board's shenanigans and build a winning culture. What the board does deserve credit (it could just be luck) for is taking time out from threatening each other to select a good executive team to run the club . This has let them have more time to fight each other and slag each other off. It depends on how you define the "front office". It includes the board but most importantly it includes the executive management team, meaning the CEO, GM operations, trainers, recruitment and contract management team. I think Manly have had it half right, because clearly they have been able to recruit well, retain the players they want and stay competitive. It is starting to look a bit shaky now, although losing a few of the older players like Stewart and Watmough is probably a good thing to keep the club fresh and invigorated (could have been done a little bit more smoothly though). I agree you need a great culture, but that isn't created by the board, they just aren't there often enough to make a difference and it is not their job. They are there to oversee organisational strategy, ensure the safe financial stewardship of the company, recruit for the key position of CEO and carry out the wishes of the shareholders (there are other things, but this is the just of it). It would be great if the board helped create a winning culture, but it is created by the CEO and his leadership group (the coach obviously being the most important in that regard).

Whilst you are correct george the reality is that it takes a bit of luck to win but, to get to the finals year after year requires a good front office. As far as the clubs mentioned here Dogs,Roosters & Souths have all been strong contenders for the past few years. As far as Penrith go they have always had the fundamentals of the wealthiest Leagues group backing of any sporting code in the country combined with the most juniors of any NRL franchise but were lead by people who were not demanding enough or controlling enough. With Gould they have that disciplinarian who demands control and will pull the club back into line. He will need to be replaced soon though as people get sick of being controlled and ultimately after time will not respond to it. As for those who defend Manly, the reality is they can live in denial but, when your club is gifted $15m, you have the best talent scout in the game in the form of Noel Cleal, are protected by a band of Media personalities associated with PBL, are looked after by Schubert in the salary cap department and use the state sports centre at Narrabean with it's world class facilities for virtually no cost some might say that you have been in a sheltered workshop. However now some of those advantages at least are going so the next 5 years will tell if the fracture's board of Manly can exist without being gifted everything that it has achieved over the past 10 years.

LOL! Classic!

I love how people always bring up this crap about Souths Leagues Club. What they fail to mention is the Leagues club hadn't contributed to the coffers of the football club since the mid eighties. It was the football club propping up the Leagues club not the other way around. Piggins sacrificed success on the football field in order to save the bottomless financial pit that was Souths Leagues Club. It was Souths Juniors that kept the Football side afloat through the 80's and 90's. As far as the Football side of things is concerned the Leagues club had been irrelevant for some time before it finally went belly up. Good riddance I say.

Write this article at the beginning of the season not the end!! Pretty easy to point this out when these teams are the last ones standing, I can tell you Thursday night powerball numbers on Friday if you want...

Nah - Tigers absolutely smashed them that night. A few late consolation tries changes nothing.

Wascally when you support the Tigers, A golden Point win by a wobby field goal is retold as a Hammering! Although you do support my point - A healthy Tigers (finished 12th) beat an Injury riddled Rabbits (Prelim Final team)

True Paul - Although with the greatest respect to those gentlemen, none of them are as critical to their team as Balin and Stewart are to Manly.

M Young, you said Wests Tigers " absolutely hammered " Souths early in the year before injury hit them. They beat Souths by 9 points, 25 - 16, and we had about 6 players out through injury. Wests Tigers outplayed us, yes, but hardly a hammering.

"the team they played had everyone on the park" = false. The Bulldogs played without Sam Kasiano, Lloyd Perrett, Chase Stanley, Tim Browne and Pat O'Hanlon, all out through injury.

yeah probably does start in the front office but who ever has the least injuries come final times go further . Take sbw cordner hargraves and friend out of roosters they be out the back door.Same with dogs take Graham ,Jackson,Eastwood and Ennis same thing. they re out

Broncos recruitment has been horrible and one of the core reasons, one of the best run businesses of the clubs perhaps (though arguable given their massive advantages) But their football front office post Bennett has been god awful as they targeted athletes over footballers.

Fair enough David we have to agree to disagree but I still think the front office/injuries get them the spot on the ladder and the 50/50 calls especially last week get you through the knockout games. Having Said all that David I think the point that most people are ignoring especially with Manly is Boardmembers for all clubs usually are elected and run their own agenda's and that it is common for the CEO to not agree with all of his employees. I just hope that the employee/s go not the CEO I believe that David Perry has done a great job.

"You mention Manly and focus on the ownership issues with the board. This has come into focus the last two years, but before that they have functioned well". This is not true Pomoz. Perhaps you have only recently taken an interest in the dysfunctional nature of the Manly board. But they have been fighting and bickering for a very, very long time. Not a year goes by without some sort of drama happening at board level. Yet, they haven't missed a finals series over the past 10 years (and only missed 8 finals series in 40 years). So, while the board is important in recruiting the right people for the right positions, to ensure the football operations run smoothly. In reality, to win a premiership you need a great culture and a lot of luck. Something the front office has very little to do with. Unless, of course, that Manly are the exception to the rule. Which could very well be the case.