The full extent of the mistakes made by former NRL boss, Dave Smith, comes to light with each day he is absent from the corner office at Moore Park headquarters.
The worst blunder of all is the revelation that Smith refused to open talks with Israel Folau after the superstar fullback declared an interest in returning to the code from rugby union earlier this year.
The Daily Telegraph can exclusively reveal that the NRL?s football boss, Todd Greenberg approached Folau before he re-signed with the Australian Rugby Union. Greenberg is a close friend of Folau?s and saw him as the number one target for a return to the code, particularly after the superstar said he would be interested.
An experienced league hand, Greenberg knew the value Folau could deliver in two key areas ? crowds and participation at the junior level.
He is one of the top three most popular footballers in either union or league.
Although Greenberg refused to comment at length this week, he confirmed that he did speak to Folau. Greenberg approached Smith after the initial talks, who repeatedly told his senior executive that the only way he would entertain discussing a return for Folau would be on Smith?s prohibitive terms.
Smith said a flat no to allowing Folau to choose his own club. He said the NRL would choose the club at which he would play and that raiding the NRL?s war chest was not an option.
The Australian Rugby League Commission were not made aware of the interest from Folau but, given the current make up of the ARLC, the chances of the board seeing the value of Folau were minimal anyway.
The clubs Folau expressed an interest in returning to were the Broncos, the Storm, the Roosters, the Bulldogs or the Eels. Smith said a flat no to all five.
He insisted Folau?s return would only be considered if he agreed to play at one of the NRL?s four insolvent clubs ? the Gold Coast Titans, the Newcastle Knights, Wests Tigers or St George Dragons.
Smith named the Titans as the most likely winner of his signature, a notion abhorrent to Folau who wanted to play alongside former Queensland Origin team mates and in a high performance, elite environment.
The Titans are one of four franchises being underwritten by the NRL.
I understand Greenberg pleaded with Smith to reconsider, to allow the open market to determine where Folau might play league, but Smith was determined to select one of the four clubs, each of which Folau would not entertain.
Smith also refused to meet with Folau or his management, leaving the rugby union convert no choice but to re-sign with the ARU.
While there is no suggestion Folau is not happy with his new contract or his decision to play on in rugby, it is a savage indictment on Smith?s leadership that the biggest name in either code was allowed to slip through the net.
Smith made a similar error with Sam Burgess, refusing to intervene to keep the Souths star here after his initial approach from rugby union.
The Folau fumbling underlines the sad fact that the Smith tenure allowed rugby league to flounder to its very core.
The problems were huge and confronting: insolvent clubs with questionable new boards, executives on ridiculous salaries with little or no role to play in the day to day running of the game and 12 clubs who are so angry that a rebellion is not as remote a possibility as some may believe.
One staffer said this week that the NRL had completely lost its way, led by a board that is generally unaware of the internal problems that wrack the organisation.
?John Grant has taken charge and looks like he wants to stay here for a long stint but he was half of the problem in the first place,? he said. ?We are surrounded by people who have no idea about the core values of the game.?
Reflective of the issues confronting any new chief executive who takes charge is the rising anger and fear within club ranks that the allocation of funds is mismanaged and that the constitution of the ARLC denies all 16 clubs any say in the management of the game.
Without 14 of the 18 possible votes, no changes can be made to the make up of the ARLC, effectively allowing commissioners to continue to re-elect themselves for new, lengthy tenures.
The Daily Telegraph also understands that nobody from the recruitment firm or the ARLC has approached several obvious and highly regarded candidates for the chief executive?s job, including Warriors chief, Jim Doyle.
Little wonder then that Israel Folau ran for cover, now to be known as the big fish that got away.
