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Peter V'landys not walking despite NRL's return

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16th May, 2020
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Peter V’landys insists he has no intentions of leaving rugby league once the NRL returns to the field later in May.

ARL Commission chairman V’landys has shot down suggestions he will quit the sport once it returns from the coronavirus crisis.

V’landys has been in the sport’s top job for just over six months, but has overseen the game through its toughest period with the first-ever suspension of the NRL.

The code is set to become the first in Australia to resume on May 28, with V’landys also on the verge of securing an extended television deal reported to be worth $2 billion.

That will be significant, given V’landys claimed in March that the coronavirus shutdown threatened to have a “catastrophic” impact on the game’s finances.

It’s also come at a time where he has stayed on as chief executive of Racing NSW, where horses have also remained on the track during the global pandemic.

V’landys’ success in returning the NRL to the field had prompted the suggestion he could walk away from the game with nothing left to achieve, but he insisted that wasn’t the case.

“I’m not walking away from the game,” V’landys told The Courier-Mail.

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“What I have said is that I have an attitude that I owe the game a debt for what it has given me in my life.

“At some point in my time here, I will have repaid the debt, but that debt hasn’t been paid yet.”

His brief time in charge has also seen significant on-field change, with the move to one referee and the introduction of the captain’s challenge both coming from him.

V’landys labelled stabilising the game and resetting its cost structure as the goals he still wished to achieve.

Part of that will include appointing a new chief executive after Todd Greenberg was ousted last month.

V’landys and his board are in no rush to find a replacement, with Andrew Abdo still the front runner as the current interim boss.

V’landys himself has constantly said he has no interest in taking on an executive director role.

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