After NRL CEO Dave Smith’s resignation, ARL Commission chairman John Grant says he’s here for the long-term
PHIL ROTHFIELD SPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE
JOHN Grant insists he is going nowhere and is prepared to fight the political forces to save his job as the most powerful man in rugby league.
In a wide-ranging interview with Daily Telegraph sports editor-at-large Phil Rothfield, the independent commission chairman has declared he will be around for another two seasons, despite mounting pressure from the 16 clubs.
BUZZ: I sat upstairs with Dave Smith three weeks ago and he looked me in the eye and said he was going nowhere. He quit a couple of weeks later. What about yourself. Are you staying around?
GRANT: I don’t see myself not completing this term, which has got another two-and-a-bit years to run. So unless someone says I shouldn’t I don’t see anything changing. I love this role and I love the game.
I’m your classic grassroots guy. I started playing at school and went all the way through. It’s fair to say this role has got its challenges both internally and externally.
BUZZ: I think you need some new faces on the independent commission, not just a new CEO?
GRANT: We have three commissioners whose terms finish in February — Wayne Pearce, Ian Elliott and Chris Sarra.
BUZZ: You need people of the calibre of Katie Page and John Quayle.
GRANT: I don’t want to comment on that. Everyone’s got an opinion. We’ve already had two changes on the commission.
BUZZ: Will the next CEO at least know who Cameron Smith is and have a better rugby league knowledge and understanding?
GRANT: And Benji Barba. Let’s give due respect to Dave here. He was a great businessman and he adapted very well to football. The first stage for this commission was about getting the business fundamentals right and the building blocks in place with the finances and funding.
The next stage is moving the needle very much towards football. You can read into that that the next CEO should bring some sort of experience and capability in sport.
BUZZ: So you do want someone with more football knowledge?
GRANT: This game still needs to be run with significant business acumen. You need people with that nous but with a bias towards sporting experience and understanding that side of the business.
BUZZ: You drew up a strategic plan when the commission came into power. The goals aren’t being met. Crowds are the lowest in a decade.
GRANT: That’s one goal. There were a whole bunch of goals in that plan. We don’t really know why crowds have stayed flat for such a long period. What you can say is that the television product has got so much more attractive and the ability for people to watch rugby league has changed dramatically.
The facilities for people to come and spend their time and their money are another reason. ANZ Stadium was built as an oval in the late ‘90s. It hasn’t had a dime spent on it. Allianz is almost 30 years old.
People’s expectations have changed but our stadiums haven’t. You look at the club crowds during State of Origin and they just plummet. That’s why we’ve made changes with the Nine TV deal from 2018 where Origin won’t have such an effect on the comp.
BUZZ: I think there’s a perception out there that the NRL administration has lost touch with real people. We’ve had an eastern suburbs banker and you’re living in Brisbane. Do you have a grasp on the issues affecting fans in Sydney’s west. Why lobby to build a stadium in Moore Park and not out where the people are? Have you even been to Parramatta or Penrith this year?
GRANT: No I haven’t but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Look, my background is absolutely working class. I grew up in a family that had very little money and survived on a month-to-month basis. We had to work to buy our footy boots. Dave came from a similar background in Wales. His family was poor. He understood the western suburbs but we still need to get more conscious of it.
BUZZ: That perception I’m talking about — and I’ve got to ask you this question — should rugby league officials be getting around town in limos and hire cars?
GRANT: I need to go to Homebush for State of Origin and I don’t have a car in Sydney.
BUZZ: Dave Smith has a car though and lives here.
GRANT: I believe we’ve got to go to functions, talk to all the people and have a drink with all the people. You can’t drive after you’ve had a drink.
BUZZ: Let’s talk about the TV deal. Is it true you’ve apologised to News Corp and Telstra about the way they were snubbed in the deal you did with Channel Nine?
GRANT: I’m not going to go very far with this. I haven’t apologised to anyone for doing the best free-to-air deal this game has ever had. End of story.
BUZZ: Are you still going to get your $1.7 billion?
GRANT: I think that’s an understatement. Why would it be $1.7 billion? We haven’t set ourselves a target other than to maximise the value of our rights. We’re talking to News again but we’re in confidential discussions and I can’t really say much more.
BUZZ: When are you going to do some expansion?
GRANT: I don’t see expansion on the rise in the near future. We’ve made provisions in the next broadcasting deal for an additional 17th team during that five-year period. If you make an expansion decision you’ve got to understand you are diluting the number of players in the pool.
BUZZ: So we don’t have the depth of players?
GRANT: If you out two more clubs in you are diluting your players by 12 per cent. So you need a lot more players to get a competitive game at the top. We’re nowhere near that. At the moment we have a competition between the best of the best.
The competition is as close as it’s ever been. Every weekend fans turn up thinking their team can win. We never want to lose that. So diluting the player pool is a huge concern. The second issue is that there are still too many clubs that are not financially sustainable.
We’re supporting four of them directly. There are others who are just bouncing along the bottom. We need to get them to a much more sustainable position and that’s what we’re talking to the clubs chairs about at the moment.
BUZZ: So nine Sydney clubs isn’t too many?
GRANT: Well, there’s seven — I don’t consider Newcastle and Wollongong in Sydney. I don’t see it changing. I think it’s a big move to pull an NRL team out of a community that has supported an NRL team for a long time. We don’t want to drop anyone. We want to try to make them more sustainable.
Out of the next broadcasting deal we’re hoping we can give them a level of funding significantly better than what they’ve got and allow them to get into positive space. At the moment we need to help them get there.
BUZZ: But surely the game needs a second Brisbane team?
GRANT: I don’t think there’s any advantage of having one more team to make it 17 because you don’t get an extra game for television. You’ve got to go back to my point about the number of players we have. If we expand we need two new teams and I don’t think we have enough players.
BUZZ: OK, the Australia coaching job — Mal (Meninga) or Wayne (Bennett)?
GRANT: It’s really interesting watching the conversations going on in the media at the moment. To put it into context, where are our Kangaroos today? We’re ranked second in the world.
Do we like that? I don’t. So what have we done for the Kangaroos in recent times? We haven’t looked after them. We’ve now lost three games in a row to the Kiwis. So we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to put in place resources and funding for the Kangaroos and then to get a leader who everyone would say is the right man.
BUZZ: Does that mean a full-time coach?
GRANT: My personal view — and I can’t give a commission view because it hasn’t been discussed yet — I don’t see how you can have a national coach that’s not near enough to full-time. It’s got to be more about them just coaching the Kangaroos side. They should be providing direction and assistance to the Jillaroos, the Prime Minister’s XIII, right down through the ranks.
BUZZ: Like Laurie and Mal do with NSW and QLD.
GRANT: Yes and this person would work with the two Origin coaches.
BUZZ: It sounds like Mal is the hot favourite because Wayne’s got a full-time gig at the Broncos.
GRANT: This is only my opinion but that’s right. I want a national coach that’s fully connected to the grassroots and in charge of coaching development across the entire game.
BUZZ: What if Jarryd Hayne doesn’t make it in the NFL? He got dropped last week. Dave Smith once told us he had a discretionary fund that could be used to help clubs sign superstar players. Would you help a club get Jarryd back?
GRANT: Dave was given the authority by the commission for very rare circumstances if there was an opportunity to bring in players or athletes that would create a return for the game. Would that apply to Jarryd Hayne or Sam Burgess? Jarryd’s over there pursuing his dreams.
BUZZ: But what if it didn’t work out. Would you use the discretionary funds.
GRANT: It would depend on the circumstances at that time. That’s what it’s there for. I would have thought if it doesn’t work out, Jarryd’s going to come back to rugby league anyway. We’d want to have a discussion with him. It would be great to have Jarryd and Sam back.
