Cost restructuring begins at NRL HQ

It’s mind boggling. But it surprising that a nation that doesn’t value access to healthcare has seen this happen.

Sorry Train you are correct, 10 times. I must have just had trouble getting the head around the 500 times Covid totals the might US are racking up compared to Australia at present.

Fair point. I suppose there is remuneration deserved just for having to be torn apart by Paul Kent and Buzz Rothfield for doing nothing other than existing.

The USA has over 10 times the population. So 50x the salary seems reasonable given the greater footprint within that population.

But senior public servants don't have their reputations trashed by the media. Get the wrong person offside and you can find a public campaign to ruin your career and your reputation with future employers. There is a value to that.

No, I mean a public servant, not a politician. The deputy Secretary level would be ideal for this role. The public service isn't as wasteful as people think. And in this instance, they couldn't be. There is a finite level of revenue.

What like a former State Premier? Public servants have certain skills that are useful for an NRL CEO job, but making money to fund themselves in a competitive marketplace is not one of them. Government departments are funded by the treasury. They don’t have to make money. They might be effective at their jobs, but they are seldom efficient, particularly in relation to costs. They are just as if not more prone to budgetary bloat as private enterprise.

Australia has a population of 25 million and only 2 states possibly 3 million support Rugby League. The US have 100 times the population and NFL is a national obsession that multi national companies advertise on yet we compare pay packets? Like I said people would love to be running a Rugby League competition rather than a country.

All the more reason to engage a senior public servant to do the role...people who know government best. Goodell earns $70 million a year which is both ridiculous but also reflective of the fact that the NFL is obscenely profitable.

That said, it is less a financial role and more a political one because you have to deal with the clubs, players, media, governments and fans all under intense spotlight. It is a pretty unique skill set. The broadly equivalent role in the NFL is the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. He earns nearly $70m a year, more than any player.

Agreed. There are public servants who manage 3-4 times the amount of people Greenburg does, are responsible for gobsmacking amounts of money Greenburg manages and do it for a quarter/third of what Greenburg is on. I'd pluck any senior public servant and put them in the role. They are far, far more fiscally responsible. Funnily enough, the AFL bunker copped a lot of stick precisely cause it pays $200 a game.

Every club CEO should be sacked. It's simply embarrassing that these people - in roles where historically a CEO is charged with managing a profitable organisation, can preside over year after year of losses, where they depend almost exclusively on NRL handouts and poker machine revenue from the affiliated leagues club. Can you imagine a CEO of a non-football company that would be able to find employment at another company with that type of management record?

That period when Smith was CEO seemed to coincide with the Clubs deciding they were the real rulers of the game. I reckon you're right, Smith was excellent for the game but because he didn't see things the way the Clubs thought he should, they forced him out and the game's been poorly run ever since. Love that last sentence!

I realise I have early commented about players being a little narcissistic in their attitude towards money at this pandemic time but the fact many are paid double the PM’s salary 500k is probably ludicrous when you consider the job profile. Toddy Greenberg is apparently on $1.2 million dollars annually? This is exactly why the game is in financial trouble IMO. You could get 1000’s of people that would happily do what Todd a and other in the game are currently doing for 1/3 their current wage IMO. For instance I’d go and man the bunker for $200 a game doing a far better job than the seeing eye dog bunch that do it at present.

Agree. Player and coach contract pay outs are just bloody eye watering. Clearly too much money & too freely available money has made RL wasteful from top to toe. Let's see how their new found austerity lasts.

That’s interesting when you consider the fines handed out to clubs, players and coaches in that time. So who pocketed the fines? Gee it would be really handy if someone had of put it away. So that money is savings the game has magically lost.

I get what you are saying but surely those people would have an indication if they are at risk and be looking now. The problem being that other work will be unlikely in the current environment. My understanding is the Job Seeker is $565.70 P/f and the Coronavirus supplement $550. So $1,115.70 p/f. Surely receiving $1,500 p/f Job Keeper payments is better. Even if you pay Super, Fee-Help and income tax, that's still $1,217.86 p/f. And you will still have to wait to receive the job keeper payment now. The waiting period will be the same when job keeper ends.

I think history will ultimately show Dave Smith to be the best CEO the NRL ever had. He shook more money out of the broadcasters than anyone else. He at least set up a future fund, he had an eye for the long term future and financial stability of the code. It's the club geese that floored the NRL...people far too myopic and short sighted to see the bigger picture, and gutted the NRL of all the spare money, and kicked out Smith because he "wasn't a league man". Insanity. Greenburg has tried his best, but you can't pick club figures to be game administrators. And for the love of God, that means keeping Phil Gould as far away from the role as possible.

Keep them on JobKeeper for as long as possible until they can't. No one is going to be able to get a job at the moment anyway. I think there is a responsibility by the employer to care for the employee as long as possible.

well I suggest that it is not just the NRL itself. However Grant was throwing money around like confetti but we also need to remember this point made in this mornings Telegraph. Quote: "'As the NRL faces its biggest financial crisis in history, an investigation reveals the clubs have lost $396.7 million since 2000, money burnt on dozens of coach sackings, over-staffing of football departments, player contract payouts, salary cap fines, the peptide scandal and legal expenses."' No not all clubs have squandered money in this way but the clubs that have been prudently managed and managed to stay scandal free you could probably count on 5 fingers. Methinks the whole box & dice needs a big re-adjustment.