Almost five months to the day after Dave Smith announced he’d had enough of the greatest game of all, Todd Greenberg – effectively Smith’s No.2 – has been announced as the NRL’s new CEO.
Good on ya Todd. While you were only announced a few hours ago, and won’t even get your feet under your new desk until Monday, you’re the best man for the job.
But if the best man for the job has been working at League Central since 2013, why the hell did it take almost half a year to give him the gig?
During the press conference announcing Greenberg’s appointment, ARL Commission chairman John Grant said that Greenberg had applied for the CEO’s position after David Gallop resigned in 2012.
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Grant said basically that they’d had their eye on Greenberg ever since. Then, to keep an even closer eye on him, they made him the NRL’s head of football in 2013.
So you’ve got a guy within the organisation who you not only know wants the top job, you actually think he’d be pretty good at it.
Did no one think that maybe it was time to take a leaf out of the AFL’s book and start grooming him to take over the top job?
It was broadly reported after David Gallop stood down in 2012 that the NRL were doing their best to poach then-AFL 2IC Gillon McLachlan. However, Gil turned them down, because he had more or less been promised the top job at Australia’s biggest winter sport as soon as Andrew Demetriou stood down.
Having missed their man, the NRL got the Welsh banker in, and while he did a good job at balancing the books, it was apparent from his ‘Benji Barba’ gaffe very early on in the piece that Dave Smith was not going to have a ten-year tenure like his predecessor.
Yet with their CEO on borrowed time, the NRL still decided to keep his qualified, competent replacement as part of the ‘executive team’, rather than doing what the AFL did with McLachlan and making Greenberg Deputy CEO.
And sure, we can talk about how other people in footy were in the running to be CEO this time around, like former NRL COO Jim Doyle, but apparently it boiled down to being a two-horse race for the job between Greenberg and some bloke who runs a hotel chain.
In a nutshell, Greenberg has been the favourite to take over since last October. Yet rather than giving him the role as soon as Dave Smith walked out the door – which, had Greenberg been his deputy, would have been logical – John Grant and the Commission went on some ridiculous, expensive, worldwide search.
Surprise, surprise, they found gold in their own backyard – exactly where they knew it had been the whole time.
East Bound & Down
Guest
Bring back the biff , that'll fix the crowds
turbodewd
Guest
Can Greenberg fix the crowds?
Charles NSW
Guest
Why make a general comment as a personal issue Barry! Grow up and stop putting your emotion into issues
East Bound & Down
Guest
Baaaaaaa Baaaaaaaa , the sheeple may believe there was an extensive search but a cynical person might just believe this guy was always steering the ship and now it official .
East Bound & Down
Guest
It's called " a smoke screen " This guy had the job from day one and had been pulling the strings the whole time , the NRL is treating the fans like fools.
Richard Maybury
Guest
Todd doesn't seem to be a bad choice. Hopefully he can get the clubs on side and move this game forward. A priority must be getting a presence in every major city in Australia and getting free to air RL games on tv everywhere. Channel 9's lack of coverage is a major major problem to the advancement of this sport in this country.
Richard Maybury
Guest
Its called "due diligence" and only someone who has never operated at a senior level in a major organisation would think it could be done much faster.
Squidward
Roar Rookie
So they said they were scouting all over the globe in an extensive search and ended up getting the guy across the hall
Squidward
Roar Rookie
Well played sir
In brief
Guest
Maybe his name had them spooked. "Todd" sounds like something smelly you'd find in your shoe at an end of season rugby league tour..
MAX
Guest
I can recall hearing or reading (SMH?) that Todd would be ideal in the position of CEO because he is a good politician but does not understand Rugby League. Therefore another person need be found to be the COO. Staggering to think that Todd would not understand the game (no evidence produced), politics had entered the world of Rugby League and he could not do both jobs. Five months is a long time in politics and RL. Todd is ambition writ large and was hungry for this job. Canterbury graciously released him to get his foot in the door. As a Canterbury man I applaud his appointment as CEO. I know he will succeed.
pete bloor
Guest
It also could have been getting time with the candidates was tough (as some one points out below) or as I've seen a few times you get your heart set on a candidate and you just don't get them so you need to restart the process. An old boss took about 10 months from initial call to telling us he was heading off to another role.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Pomoz - business at exec level doesn't shut down over Xmas, particularly if they were looking at overseas candidates. If Grant said he was shooting through for four weeks over Xmas while the CEO role was still vacant - well it wouldn't surprise me. I'm not suggesting that there aren't cases where exec recruitment can take five months (or longer), I'm saying that it doesn't necessarily have to take that long. I think it's pretty clear here that there was a lack of succession planning in terms of identifying potential candidates.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Here we go...let's hear about your extensive experience with executive recruitment Charlie boy.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Yeah I agree with all of that. I am assuming Grant didn't just wake up one day and decide "today's the day I'm going to bone Dave". But based on some of his public comments who knows. Unless it was on a whim there should have been time to start the process and if Greenberg had been identified as even a potential replacement there could/should have been a plan in place. I've worked for companies where the new exec has started prior to the old departing. But yeah the boning would have added time.
Charles NSW
Guest
Spot on Pomoz! Had they done it any different the same people complaining now would say we did not search far enough
Tom Rock
Expert
I would rather the NRL took their time and got it right rather than rush to appoint Greenberg before they were certain that he was their man. Not many well run companies only look in-house when a top job becomes available. Sure you would rather promote from within, but what do you lose by casting a wide net? Alls well that ends well.
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
It took five months because that is how long executive recruitment takes if it is done properly, especially if there is Christmas in the middle when business shuts down for best part of 4 weeks. Sorry The Barry, it's not a myth. That's not to say that executive appointments can't happen in under five months, but it is not an especially long time. It would appear obvious to me that Todd was not considered a certainty for the job and the board wanted to benchmark him against external candidates. To do that properly it takes time to arrange interviews and tests. Senior executives who are external candidates have to fit interviews in with their existing roles and could be travelling overseas. They have to do so with discretion so they don't get fired from their existing jobs.
pete bloor
Guest
I think it was the boning that threw it out of sync with regards to the succession plan. 5 months is a bit rough but a proper search and interview process does take a bit of time.
Michael gardiner
Guest
Great article Warren Pearce . I believe Todd Greenberg seems an excellent choice as CEO , I wish him all the luck in promoting rugby league and bringing it together. I can see tough times ahead because the self interest of clubs is more important to them than the big picture. The negative culture of RL over the years , not only by self interest administrators but journalists and commentators are to blame. I say to all these people please don't drag down RL by constantly searching for a mistake by the CEO. If you are not interested in the wellbeing of RL , then , get out and join another sport.