NRL and clubs vow to improve communications after meeting avoids 'World War III'
The NRL and clubs have taken steps to improve communication after a four-hour meeting in Melbourne to discuss the future direction of the game and ways they can work together.
Buoyed by an announcement from NRL chief executive Dave Smith that the 491,000 Melbourne viewers for Wednesday night's Origin at the MCG was greater than the free-to-air figures for any AFL match so far this season, the chairs and other representatives of the 16 clubs were upbeat about the state of the game.
While some clubs are believed to be at odds with the NRL over funding, governance issues and the governing body's financial interest in Newcastle, Gold Coast and Wests Tigers, the meeting was described as "productive" and "constructive" by those in attendance.
"I had been to meetings prior to today and yesterday and at no stage did I see anything that led me to believe that World War III was coming or was imminent," said Melbourne chairman Bart Campbell, who has been appointed spokesperson for the clubs.
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"It is all part of the dialogue, people have different view points and different agendas but ultimately what we have tried to do is to distil them into a very narrow sub set, focus on those and move forward.
"The end goal is to engage with the commission to get better outcomes for the clubs in terms of the way they run our businesses going forward and that is across a whole raft of areas. It is everything from efficiencies to independence, and people have different views on where the boundaries cross over but ultimately what we wanted to do was make some progress and it was a really good meeting."
Smith also played down talk of disharmony among some clubs and said there had been good debate at the meeting.
"The communication lines are open and they need to be open because we're going to be stronger together than we are individually," Smith said. "If you want to see where the game is headed, have a look at last night, have a look at Origin, have a look at how the season is going.
"There was some very smart people around the table and there were some really good points of view. It was a good, wholesome conversation. There was no controversy.
"The game substantially changed a the start of this [broadcast] rights deal. It was a seismic shift in the game's ability to think about how it distributes the funds and starts to consider growth.
"I think what you're seeing is significant growth potential in the game. For example, in our non-broadcast income you have seen us grow from about 68 million in 2012 to about 120 million today. There will be lots more conversations. Sometimes you agree, sometimes you don't agree but not in a negative way, in a constructive way."
The NRL meets bi-monthly with the club chief executives and quarterly with the chairmen and chairwomen but Campbell said those gatherings may become more regular.
"We don't communicate well and I think one of the issues we are trying to address now is how we communicate and communicate more regularly on issues that matter both ways and it was good," he said.
