NRL boss Peter V’landys provides a leadership lesson
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Peter V'landys has boldly led the NRL into uncharted waters. Picture: Britta Campion
The NRL will resume in less than a fortnight. The AFL is only now getting its act together.
Rugby league has already begun the process of cutting costs to secure its future. Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett is demanding the AFL does the same.
The NRL has access to a line of credit for $250m if it wants or needs it. The AFL has had to put its hand out for a whopping $600m despite the rivers of gold that have flowed through AFL House.
Rugby league has blazed a trail for other Australian sports — and sports around the world for that matter. The AFL has watched on and seemingly struggled to get it right.
For years, the AFL and those involved in the sport have looked down their noses at rugby league. It seems fitting in the current environment, with The Last Dance anthology grabbing hold of the sporting public, to use a Michael Jordan analogy.
When Jordan was a youngster, his elder brother Larry was considered by many to have similar ability on the court. As Michael became a superstar, Larry was forced to live in his shadow.
He struggled to escape it, even in the moments they shared as brothers. Occasionally, they would play one-on-one matches.
According to the book by Roland Lazenby on Jordan’s life, Michael would pause, look down at Larry’s feet, and say: “Just remember whose name is on your shoes.”
At times over the years, rugby league fans could no doubt empathise with big brother Larry. The AFL has been a beacon for the footballing codes.
Rugby union dropped off as a serious contender years ago. Soccer keeps tripping over its own feet. The AFL was a monolith. It made a fist of a national competition. It smashed through the billion and then two billion barrier in broadcasting rights.
It formed a commission years before rugby league went down that route. Rugby league supporters could boast about dominating two states on the eastern seaboard. The AFL could respond by pointing out it had its roots planted in every state bar Tasmania, albeit at significant cost in Sydney and Brisbane.
Yet in recent months rugby league has shown what can be achieved when you have strong and determined leadership that charts a course and refuses to let anything stand in its way.
Former NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg would begin his days before his departure often in conversation with his AFL counterpart Gillon McLachlan.
ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys couldn’t give a hoot about what the AFL is doing. He has marched to the beat of his own drum, staring down governments, the players’ union, anti-vaxxers and now the head of the referees’ body.
He has juggled the competing interests of the broadcasters and, at least where the Nine Network is concerned, a very pubic propaganda campaign designed to drive down the value of the rights for this season.
He is on the verge of securing a long-term deal with Foxtel that will buy the game and Nine’s rivals — Seven and Ten — time to get their house in order and potentially make a bid to steal the commercial rights down the track.
Nine has been a favoured son of the NRL, but you get the sense that few tears would be spilt at Rugby League Central if Seven or Ten came to the table, such is the way rugby league has been browbeaten by its long-term partner.
The mere fact that
Seven has been linked with rugby league shows the tide may be turning between the winter’s biggest codes, given it is locked in to the AFL.
The NRL looks to finally have its act together under V’landys. He has pushed through change almost single-handedly, the latest example the decision to revert to one referee.
It may prove a disaster, but even those who challenge the decision acknowledge rugby league is finally being led in a way that gives the code a chance to close the gap to the AFL.
V’landys has worked tirelessly, at times to his own detriment. A couple of weeks ago, after another night of only one hour’s sleep, his voice was raspy and he sounded like a broken man.
This week, the spring was back in his step. In his book on leadership, former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson talked about the ingredients of a leader.
“As a leader you can’t run from one side of the ship to the other,” Ferguson wrote. “People need to feel that you have unshakeable confidence in a particular approach. If you can’t show this, you’ll lose the team very quickly.
“There is a phrase in football about players ‘not playing for the manager’. Once that happens, the manager is as good as dead, because he has failed in his major undertaking — which is to motivate the players to follow him.”
V’landys has never wavered. When others wanted to push the start back to early June, he insisted on May 28. When others suggested state governments would stand in the code’s way, he insisted that rugby league would stay the course. He has dragged the code and its participants along with him. The AFL and its leadership could learn a thing or two.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...n/news-story/7194b3402b0b79489812b6e9096f4f92
