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Todd Greenberg has got to go!

Bezant

Juniors
Messages
178
Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
Harry Truman US President 1945-1953

Two major statements from NRL Todd Greenberg yesterday were, IMHO, deeply disturbing and are evidence that Rugby League does not currently have a leader who has the courage and skills to seize opportunities to change things for the better for the game. In fact if the statements are to be analysed in the context of recent events it seems as though Todd Greenberg has agreed to limit the games future opportunities. These are serious accusations to make of someone who’s specific role is to lead.

The two statements from Greenberg being put forward as displaying his lack of leadership are paraphrased below;
  1. Despite the recent RLWC proving that there is a strong interest in the broadcast of international rugby league and our nations captain and president of the players union asking for the NRL to get creative about including international games in the calendar, Greenberg responded to this great opportunity for additional growth/revenue by stating that we have existing contracts in place and that, due to concerns over player burn out, the NRL’s response would be limited...
  2. The great news about the new women’s NRL competition. Although very positive news I could not see anywhere any reference to the NRL potentially being paid for providing this additional media content. Is Nine getting this extra content for free?
The concern that Greenberg does not have the courage or skills to manage the undue influence that Channel 9 and some NRL power brokers have on the future of the game. Channel 9 would not at all be happy that the RLWC helped Channel 7 secure a ratings win over its competitors or that it was directly competing with 9’s cricket telecast. NRL power brokers would be concerned about player injuries rather that player burn out.

Sure, every business leader needs to understand and respect the concerns and interests of their major clients and management team. However, it is a leaders specific role to ensure that these interests do not damage the organisations ability to grow and thrive.

Greenberg’s statements, coming so soon after the end of the World Cup and those of Cameron Smith and at the same time as the announcement of the women’s competition seem predetermined, Ill considered and limiting. The do not exemplify an approach full of courage and skill.

My basic question is this; why has the leader of rugby league’s biggest competition so quickly foregone the opportunity to properly consider how we could generate additional revenue and growth from both the international and women’s games? What kind of leader either gives up or gives away two new exciting opportunities for their organisation in one day?

As an example of what can be done we only need to look at how cricket has grown from the inclusion of 20/20 (which 9 could not be happy about) and its women’s game.

The comment has been made on these forums and in the media time and again that rugby league has historically suffered from poor leadership. Surely, since we demand and are shown examples of exceptional courage and skill by professional rugby league players on a regular basis it should be expected that the games leaders also show these levels of courage and skill.

Mr Greenberg, listen to your players, like Cameron Smith, and the fans that support the great game that you serve. Get Creative! Use your courage and skill to grow the international and women’s games for the betterment of all rugby league, not just the NRL or channel 9, otherwise do the right thing and go! If you can’t get creative then let a more courageous and skilful person take up the leadership role the game deserves!
 

Stallion

First Grade
Messages
7,467
Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
Harry Truman US President 1945-1953

Two major statements from NRL Todd Greenberg yesterday were, IMHO, deeply disturbing and are evidence that Rugby League does not currently have a leader who has the courage and skills to seize opportunities to change things for the better for the game. In fact if the statements are to be analysed in the context of recent events it seems as though Todd Greenberg has agreed to limit the games future opportunities. These are serious accusations to make of someone who’s specific role is to lead.

The two statements from Greenberg being put forward as displaying his lack of leadership are paraphrased below;
  1. Despite the recent RLWC proving that there is a strong interest in the broadcast of international rugby league and our nations captain and president of the players union asking for the NRL to get creative about including international games in the calendar, Greenberg responded to this great opportunity for additional growth/revenue by stating that we have existing contracts in place and that, due to concerns over player burn out, the NRL’s response would be limited...
  2. The great news about the new women’s NRL competition. Although very positive news I could not see anywhere any reference to the NRL potentially being paid for providing this additional media content. Is Nine getting this extra content for free?
The concern that Greenberg does not have the courage or skills to manage the undue influence that Channel 9 and some NRL power brokers have on the future of the game. Channel 9 would not at all be happy that the RLWC helped Channel 7 secure a ratings win over its competitors or that it was directly competing with 9’s cricket telecast. NRL power brokers would be concerned about player injuries rather that player burn out.

Sure, every business leader needs to understand and respect the concerns and interests of their major clients and management team. However, it is a leaders specific role to ensure that these interests do not damage the organisations ability to grow and thrive.

Greenberg’s statements, coming so soon after the end of the World Cup and those of Cameron Smith and at the same time as the announcement of the women’s competition seem predetermined, Ill considered and limiting. The do not exemplify an approach full of courage and skill.

My basic question is this; why has the leader of rugby league’s biggest competition so quickly foregone the opportunity to properly consider how we could generate additional revenue and growth from both the international and women’s games? What kind of leader either gives up or gives away two new exciting opportunities for their organisation in one day?

As an example of what can be done we only need to look at how cricket has grown from the inclusion of 20/20 (which 9 could not be happy about) and its women’s game.

The comment has been made on these forums and in the media time and again that rugby league has historically suffered from poor leadership. Surely, since we demand and are shown examples of exceptional courage and skill by professional rugby league players on a regular basis it should be expected that the games leaders also show these levels of courage and skill.

Mr Greenberg, listen to your players, like Cameron Smith, and the fans that support the great game that you serve. Get Creative! Use your courage and skill to grow the international and women’s games for the betterment of all rugby league, not just the NRL or channel 9, otherwise do the right thing and go! If you can’t get creative then let a more courageous and skilful person take up the leadership role the game deserves!

Agree. Seems to be an orchestrated underwhelming comment from Greenburg.
 

Jim from Oz

Juniors
Messages
724
If you thought the NRL was gonna back out of its existing Premiership contracts you're delusional.
Exactly … Dave Smith signed a TV contract that provides for a 24-game season from 2018-2022 … nothing will/can change that.

HOPEFULLY for the next TV contract, it reverts to a 22-game season and more rep footy … but the NRL/the clubs/Greenberg/Grant etc are utterly myopic, visionless and inward-looking, so I'm not holding my breath …
 

Bezant

Juniors
Messages
178
If you thought the NRL was gonna back out of its existing Premiership contracts you're delusional.

No, the NRL could not and should not back out of its contracts. Never said that it should.

However adamkungl, leaving your assumptions about my state of mind aside, what I am very disappointed about with Todd Greenberg is that he has, without much consideration it would seem, dismissed the request from the president of the players union and a future immortal of the game to GET CREATIVE.

The RLWC has given the game a license to take advantage of opportunities in the Women's game, in the Pacific and for the Kangaroo's (with the performance of England/Bennett etc).

There are many ways that the NRL could be creative and still fulfill its responsibility to 9 and Fox while promoting more international RL. Offering additional content (teams 2nd Brisbane etc) for a small international window, adopting squads with maximum games per player across a season (as per other competitions), adopting creative formats a la Mal Meninga's 40/40 concept, getting the PM's XIII's to play more games, well designed short tours after the GF etc etc.

They've shown some creativity for the Women's game, playing it at the same time as the finals. However I would say that this is because it suits 9/Fox's agenda for content at that time and I am very concerned that they will just give it away for nothing (without getting a bid for it from 7) so that they and 9 appear to be good blokes. It should be remembered that had not the RLIF run a women's World Cup this time around the NRL would not be jumping up and down talking about how female friendly they are today.

9/Fox may say they are not interested; I suspect they've recently reinforced this view. In that case shouldn't we take an example from what Cricket did with the 20/20 format when they had an existing contract in place with 9 that they did not want to jeopardize. Tell them sure we'll do what we've agreed to but for this new content that we have we'll find someone who does value it! FFS the Brisbane Heat cricket team did not even exist a few seasons ago and now they play to a packed stadium regularly.

So my challenge to Todd Greenberg and the leadership at the NRL is the same as Cameron Smith's GET CREATIVE and capture the opportunities that the RLWC has opened up to us by working towards becoming a larger player in the Pacific (PNG, Tonga, Fiji etc) and building up the Kangaroos brand.

Otherwise go!
 

Robert B

Juniors
Messages
67
The author of a recent 7 Sport article (Steve Zemek) complained about 7 Sport twisting his story. He wrote this on Twitter...

"This is the third time in about a week the @7Sport account has tweeted out one of my stories with a take that bears absolutely no resemblance to what I’ve written. Greenberg did not say international rugby league is the lowest priority - quite the opposite."
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
No, the NRL could not and should not back out of its contracts. Never said that it should.

However adamkungl, leaving your assumptions about my state of mind aside, what I am very disappointed about with Todd Greenberg is that he has, without much consideration it would seem, dismissed the request from the president of the players union and a future immortal of the game to GET CREATIVE.

The RLWC has given the game a license to take advantage of opportunities in the Women's game, in the Pacific and for the Kangaroo's (with the performance of England/Bennett etc).

There are many ways that the NRL could be creative and still fulfill its responsibility to 9 and Fox while promoting more international RL. Offering additional content (teams 2nd Brisbane etc) for a small international window, adopting squads with maximum games per player across a season (as per other competitions), adopting creative formats a la Mal Meninga's 40/40 concept, getting the PM's XIII's to play more games, well designed short tours after the GF etc etc.

They've shown some creativity for the Women's game, playing it at the same time as the finals. However I would say that this is because it suits 9/Fox's agenda for content at that time and I am very concerned that they will just give it away for nothing (without getting a bid for it from 7) so that they and 9 appear to be good blokes. It should be remembered that had not the RLIF run a women's World Cup this time around the NRL would not be jumping up and down talking about how female friendly they are today.

9/Fox may say they are not interested; I suspect they've recently reinforced this view. In that case shouldn't we take an example from what Cricket did with the 20/20 format when they had an existing contract in place with 9 that they did not want to jeopardize. Tell them sure we'll do what we've agreed to but for this new content that we have we'll find someone who does value it! FFS the Brisbane Heat cricket team did not even exist a few seasons ago and now they play to a packed stadium regularly.

So my challenge to Todd Greenberg and the leadership at the NRL is the same as Cameron Smith's GET CREATIVE and capture the opportunities that the RLWC has opened up to us by working towards becoming a larger player in the Pacific (PNG, Tonga, Fiji etc) and building up the Kangaroos brand.

Otherwise go!

I agree with you.
As much as I dislike Greenberg though, he didn't really shoot anything down except shortening the NRL season during the course of the current TV deal.
 

Bezant

Juniors
Messages
178
I agree with you.
As much as I dislike Greenberg though, he didn't really shoot anything down except shortening the NRL season during the course of the current TV deal.

No sweat, hope you’re right and his comments were directed towards the length of the season only.

The way it’s been reported, including in the papers today, he’s virtually saying there is nothing he can do to arrange more tests over the life of the current TV Deal...

My response is based on decades of seeing RL waste away opportunities on the international level due to myopia and lack of leadership. Hopefully this time somebody does something worthwhile with the opportunities presented.

I never thought I’d be singing the Broncos praises but they seem to have taken the initiative and organized a trial in PNG :thumbsup:
 

Leigh Howlett

Juniors
Messages
661
Not sure what to make of Greenberg, we were on the same flight as him last Friday going up for the World Cup final, we were boarding around the same time as him, he was in Business Class of course and us in Cattle class and once he realised he's been recognised tried to be all incognito!.
 

insert.pause

First Grade
Messages
6,446
Easy for Smith to say the NRL should be more creative while as RLPA President he is blocking the number of games players play in a calendar year and expecting revenue increases while wanting less nrl club games.

If they want the big tv deal than they have to play the club games, if they want the extra breaks at the end of the year then they don't get to play rep games. Can't have it both ways.
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Easy for Smith to say the NRL should be more creative while as RLPA President he is blocking the number of games players play in a calendar year and expecting revenue increases while wanting less nrl club games.

If they want the big tv deal than they have to play the club games, if they want the extra breaks at the end of the year then they don't get to play rep games. Can't have it both ways.

Smith is the #1 reason the Kangaroos don't play more games.
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,356
Easy for Smith to say the NRL should be more creative while as RLPA President he is blocking the number of games players play in a calendar year and expecting revenue increases while wanting less nrl club games.

If they want the big tv deal than they have to play the club games, if they want the extra breaks at the end of the year then they don't get to play rep games. Can't have it both ways.

Agreed - and if they don't play the rep games and develop the international scene, they then can't complain that football (soccer) and rugby union players get to play in front of bigger crowds around the world and get better media attention.
 

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