Eels director says Geoff Gerard should walk way now
The Australian
12:00AM June 15, 2016
Brent Read
Senior sports writer
Sydney
Parramatta director Paul Garrard yesterday insisted he had no desire to walk away from the club as it emerged the Eels had claimed in their response to the NRL that crucial pieces of evidence were either missing or wrongly attributed in transcripts of recorded board meetings.
Garrard, responding to suggestions from director Geoff Gerard that the entire board should stand aside at a scheduled board meeting today, said he still had work to do as he and his fellow directors negotiate their way through the ongoing salary cap scandal.
Along with Tanya Gadiel and Andrew Cordwell, Garrard has played an influential role in formulating the club’s response to allegations of widespread cap rorting amounting to $3 million over the past four years.
The Eels are hoping their submissions, which were sent to the game’s governing body last Friday, will mitigate some of the proposed sanctions from the NRL — the club are staring at the loss of 12 competition points and a $1m fine.
It is understood that the Eels’ response suggested some of the evidence from the recordings of board meetings was attributed to the wrong club officials.
“I will resign after my period of election,” Garrard said.
“I have been elected for a period and that is it. If there is early board elections I will consider that when the time comes. If he (Gerard) wants to resign, if it is too hot in the kitchen, get out.
“Get out, we have work to do. We have put an answer to the breach notice last week. I think it is a very heady and well documented, factual statement. It would make great reading if it was public.
“It would answer a lot of the allegations.”
While Garrard is intent on staying put, the board is also under fire from at least two groups aiming to force an extraordinary general meeting in a bid to remove the existing directors — chairman Steve Sharp, deputy chairman Tom Issa and Peter Serrao are all suspended subject to a final decision from the NRL.
Garrard insists he is not concerned about the threat of an EGM and pointed to the work he and the board had done over the past 12 months in response to questions from the NRL over the club’s governance.
“I am trying to work out as reason why you would want to stand down,” Garrard said.
“I have been on the board with at least two other new people, we have worked our arse off doing a whole stack of stuff people were happy with.
“That all came about because of the initial fine last year. Three days after we came into power we had that fine put on us and we had to satisfy the NRL by introducing a governance review.
“I didn’t hear anyone say to sack us then. We worked our arses off. The problems you have now wouldn’t have happened had the governance happened in the past.
“If you want big decisions we have done that. Interesting that some people wish to resign — well they can do that. If they don’t want to participate in the hard work, they can do that.”
Asked whether he was disappointed with Gerard going public with his plans to step aside, Garrard said: “Politely I am. I thought there was an appreciation within the board that only the chairman would speak. That hasn’t happened. I have agreed to that and so did Geoff. Clearly Geoff is of another mind. I can see where Geoff is coming from as well as the other people who have come out.
“They need to look after their backside. I am there to resolve the issue of 12 competition points and $1 million fine. That has to be our principle focus at the moment, not this business about what what is happening next month.
“The people making the allegations publicly all seem to have a vested interest for wanting to get on the board, not the least that they missed out on election 12 months ago.”
As well as the NRL allegations, Parramatta is also facing an investigation by the Office of Liquor and Gaming, and the fraud squad.
