For those who think paying board members would attract top line candidates, you are being a little naive. The same argument is made for the pollies and how has that worked out?
Board members of clubs and pollies for that matter, should be paid sfa. If you think the right candidate needs to be paid by a football club so he/she can afford or be attracted to the job, well you are just plain kidding yourselves. As someone else has already pointed out, just take a look at the Easts board.
The "right" kind of candidate to join a NRL football board should be very successful person and therefore wouldn't need a couple hundred grand to motivate them to accept the post. What should be the primary motivation to run an NRL board is passion for that club or for football itself. End of story. Short of that you wouldn't want a board full of mercenaries who are just there for the perks and salaries. That will only lead to even more perks and higher salaries still, without necessarily doing anything to justify such great personal gain and prosperity.
If you don't believe that, just look at the massive and what should be illegal, benefits all pollies have voted in for themselves over the decades, with absolutely no justification what so ever. As for their quality of work and performance, well the coming budget is going to be another sick example of how badly we have all been let down and betrayed.
Like I have said before, when you hear of career politicians, think of a career full of life long opportunities for corruption. No matter how good intentioned anyone is going in, when given access to such power then eventually all men/women will succumb to it.
So my point is a person should only be interested in electoral office because they see a need to do better and to fix things and then once done, they get out to go back to their normal life and pass on the baton to the next guy.
It should be very similar for football club boards, with the difference being that if they are doing a great job, then the members will keep them there and rightly so, till they decide to step down themselves, retire or die at the post. Football clubs are hardly an all powerful and corrupting entity to powerful and successful people. An ego thing, yeah sure, look at Politis, but also look at what he brings to the table and for sfa when it comes to remuneration I'm sure.
