http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...r/news-story/428eca75ed20c89c5a2a46141270d717
John Grant faces axe after yet another failure to deliver
- The Australian
- 12:00AM December 9, 2016
- Dan Koch
Any hope ARL Commission chairman John Grant had of retaining his position at the helm of the game appears gone, after he failed to deliver on yet another promise to the 14 disgruntled NRL chairs, who are now intent on seeing through their vow to remove him from the commission’s top job.
Having initially hoped to avoid having to execute their threat to vote Grant out of his position at an extraordinary general meeting, which is scheduled for December 20, the group, which represents 14 of the 16 NRL clubs, yesterday committed themselves to seeing through the process after Grant withdrew yet another promise to deliver a revised funding model for their consideration.
The promise was made during Grant’s meeting with Melbourne Storm boss Bart Campbell in Melbourne on Monday, with the embattled ARLC head agreeing to have a new proposal for Campbell — nominated as the representative of the disgruntled clubs — to take back to his counterparts for their consideration.
Grant indicated he would be able to provide a model that would deliver funding “comparable” to the original offer made to the clubs as part of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed to late last year.
The annual grant to be provided to each of the 16 clubs was to equate to 130 per cent of the salary cap — a figure many of the game’s leading administrators doubted the game could deliver.
Those fears were well-placed, with Grant telling the club chairs the funding model outlined within the MOU was “unworkable” and was “off the table”.
His stance was backed by NRL boss Todd Greenberg and his main offsiders — chief financial officer Tony Crawford and head of strategy and investment Andrew Fraser.
And it was after consulting that trio again this week that Grant was forced to make another embarrassing reversal, cancelling a proposed meeting with Campbell where he was to present a revised offer to the clubs.
The news that no new offer had been made was greeted with bemusement by the 14 club chairs, whose scheduled meeting yesterday morning in Sydney instead turned into a collective promise to see an end to Grant’s reign as the inaugural ARLC chair.
A former teammate of Broncos and England coach Wayne Bennett during his playing days, Grant has little option but to fall on his sword or face the embarrassment of being voted out of his job in two weeks’ time. His plight is in contrast to Bennett’s, who, despite England’s poor showing at the recent Four Nations, is set to be made an offer to extend his time as England’s head coach.
“Although there is disappointment that we didn’t make the final, I think the five weeks that he spent with the players were invaluable,” Rugby Football League chief Nigel Wood said.
