news hates him, which pretty much shows that he is doing an awesome job
I agree, he is negotiating hard with news, it is a slightly risky strategy but better than the Gallop era when the broadcasters called the tune and the NRL just took what we were offered.
It is early days in the Smith era and there are a lot of issues in the game that need to be addressed.
As a long time fan of league with a memory going back to the 70's most of the time the games central admin have been crap.
In fact the game has done very well to survive crap admin and the SL war. I put that down to the players and fans rather than the admin.
The admin of many clubs is still way below par and again that is nothing new.
That is been the case for about 50% of the teams in the comp going back to the 70's.
So while the jury is still out of Smith, we need to give him and opportunity to show what he can do and be patient.
I personally think Gallop was a total disaster in just about every respect, Smith is a already well ahead.
Regardless, the model of a strong central admin is the only way to run the game, anything else quickly degenerates to a shambles.
The one thing I will say in defense of Gallop is he never really had the power, there were too many powerful people setting the agenda. That is why he was reactive, rather than proactive.
