ARL commissioners throw their support behind John Grant

Gary Magpie... you are WRONG The South Sydney Juniors club at Kingsford DO pump in about $3M per year on Grassroots Rugby League. The Juniors also pump money into a lot of other local sports as well like Cricket and Netball for example.. there are 35 Intra clubs within our Junior's organisation. They are a part of the overall South Sydney Rabbitohs Family. The Rabbitohs NRL Club have many programs in NSW through our Souths Cares Organisation who primarily look after the Indigenous communities within NSW. We also have ties in the Coffs harbour Region. We also have ties at Mullumbimby just North West of Byron Bay. These are facts.

The commission HAS wasted a lot of money. If the players registrations are down, what have the 400 or so employees been doing to earn the very generous wages. Grant has been into empire building, stuff him

Rugby league is more than the districts of the current NRL clubs. Grassroots extends to Orange, Wagga, Toowoomba, Alice Springs, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Port Macquarie - North Sydney!

The workers at SPC voted to take a pay cut to keep the company alive. People outside Sydney get it.

Hmmm, "every club" you say. Well I guess that just proves my point. I was only suggesting the NRL clubs' boards - not the thousands of real rugby league clubs around our country. We need leaguies to back grassroots footy - not put money in the NRL clubs' directors' pockets.

I just don't understand why they stick with the amount of funding and get the clubs to do more grassroots work. Penrith do a lot as it is. Besides the 130% funding is not the only thing the clubs are bucking up about, its the kitty that they are being asked to set aside to prop up broke clubs.....

If your boss agreed to give you a raise and then you agreed to it, but after a while of revaulating he said nope, sorry that extra money we were going to pay you is going to go into research and development to grow the company, that would leave you absolutely estatic?

Yep great idea, lets get every club to remove their board, thats going to be the best solution isn't it! I can only see that being a great idea, it just overwhelms how it hasn't been thought of before. Completely ruining every board of every club just seems like the perfect way to go!

sadly I have an uncanny ability to spot worst case outcomes, even more sadly they are too often validated.

The Commission's argument, from what I read, is that circumstances have changed since the 130% was offered. Now, I do not know whether that is correct or not. If it is correct, what are the clubs going on about? If the circumstances change, you adapt - or die.

You have highlighted things the ARLC did wrong - and they're valid points and the NRL shouldn't have promised funds and then not delivered. That said, there was no dollar figure attached as it was 130% of the salary cap which isn't yet determined. So clubs should not have allocated any money as they didn't know how much money it was. Remember, the NRL is not proposing paying the NRL clubs less, just give them less of an increase. But what is worse - continuing on a path that underfunds grassroots or deciding that now is the time for a positive change?

That's right, DoubleDown, most punters are mindless zombies easily lead astray by the celebrity players backing their mates at the NRL clubs. John Grant is finally someone who wants to build rugby league - not just profit from it.

Yes, Mush. I remember your warnings that the constitution handed power to the clubs at the expense of the game ;-) but everyone thought you were wrong...

No, 3_Hats, you are incorrect. Rabbitohs do not pump in $3M to grassroots - but they do give more than the others due to their benevolent family orientation and financial backers. But the other clubs do not. You only have to ask the Sydney district junior boards how much, or how little, they receive from their NRL clubs and you'll find that it pays for an office desk and one staff member to do everything. Some junior associations receive even less than that from their NRL club (ie. not a cent). This is true for this year! But I agree with you, Parramatta probably contribute the least. I also agree that money has been wasted at RLHQ. I don't know about CRL but I doubt they have much to waste. QRL are a standout - both on and off the field. I also agree that it is the ARL's job to look after other areas - and guess what, they need resources to achieve that objective - and that is what John Grant and the ARL Commission are saying. That is the point of this whole week! The NRL clubs wanting more and more each year is for pure greed to look after themselves and their execs. And to want 130% of the salary cap when the salary cap hasn't yet been agreed is plainly a scam. No money was to be taken off them - just the increase being less than previously agreed. Everyone complains about the lack of resources going into grassroots - but that is forgotten when the NRL clubs wheel out the usual celebrity players and commentators to back their cause (typically the players that filled their bank accounts from the superleague era). How can you be pro-grass roots and not see John Grant's point? Now is the test for rugby league. It is time for us to stand up to the greedy NRL clubs and give back to the broader game.

That is exactly what I expect a Queenslander like you would say. Just blame everything on the NSWRL. Grant and his Cronies has wasted Millions of dollars over the past 5 years. The CRL has also wasted plenty. You are SO out of touch, it is the ARLs job to look after grassroots areas, not in direct control of the clubs. South Sydney pump in $3M per year into grassroots within our district. Easts, Canterbury, Manly, Cronulla and Melbourne don't contribute as much as they should. The Rorters contribute the least. Neither do the Queensland clubs as the QRL handle most of that. Souths, Parramatta, Penrith, Illawarra and Canberra do contribute plenty. I am not so sure about Newcastle. I imagine the Warriors don't as well as it is the auspices of the NZ Government.

Where I agree with the Commission that there is a need to fund grassroots, women, participation why was this not mentioned earlier rather than telling the clubs they will have an increase? My view is that funding for juniors, country, women,s footy and promotion in non NRL areas should have come first. The ARLC is to blame for not pushing these lines then.

I'd say he's been fair to middling. He does seem to be fast and loose with truth which isn't great for a commissioner as it is supposed to be a sagely grandfather type role and the debacle around Smith's departure is why the NRL has the worst CEO in the australian sporting landscape. But... he's got a bloody tough job so maybe fair to middling is a B+ on the curve

Is the voting on the no confidence motion by show of hands or secret ballot? A lot of pleading and dealing will be done in the next 21 days.

My worry was always that the ARLC was supposed to ensure that the whole of the game was looked after rather than just the professional comp, but when it formed I pointed out the governance structure essentially handed power to the clubs if they acted in unison and given their interests were more likely to be aligned that seemed obvious. Of course when i pointed this out my mental faculties were questioned as there was nooo way the clubs would ever colaborate. After all the competition itself isn't a colaboration of competitors for mutual benefit...oh wait. Mind you the same people did the same thing when I pointed out the debt to the titans development arm would undoubtably involve recourse to the club despite being seperate entities. I also wrote a letter earlier this year to this commisioners detailing that an aggressive shift from the NRL clubs was the only end game but it was ignored.

This is the first comments section about John Grant that actually is talking sense. I feel at peace... I feel like I've been in a constant battle with angry people who say "HE NEEDS TO GO" and then I say why and the reply with "he's destroying the game". From there I press a little further and no one can actually tell me why he's destroying the game and if the do its because he's either 'lied to the clubs about the money' which given he has re-evaluated based on research into the game as a whole I have no issue with. The other bit that seems to make them angry is he once had a slip of the tongue and mispronounced a team's name. Given he's been around league his whole life though the mistake was hardly a lack of knowledge about the game.