sounds like Gus wants Turdles gone too
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...rant-and-dont-stop-there-20161203-gt3dud.html
Sack John Grant and don't stop there
Phil Gould
People have jumped on a statement I made during the week when I said,
"I'm not sure sacking John Grant will solve the issue", as me being supportive of his recent actions and suggesting I think he should stay on as Australian Rugby League Commission chairman.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
John Grant has to go.
He has presided over an NRL management team and administration that has created this financial mess and the damage this has done to the relationship with 16 NRL clubs. We now have this highly embarrassing situation where the clubs are forced to come together to remove the chairman of our game.
I can assure you such decisions are not made lightly. Right now 16 NRL clubs (forget that Gold Coast and Newcastle abstained from the vote) are absolutely united in the fact the NRL chairman's treatment of the clubs in a meeting two weeks ago was totally out of line and the attempts by the commission to renege on a memorandum of understanding signed 12 months ago will not be tolerated.
The clubs have rightly acted with the only power they possess under the present constitution and that is to vote to remove the commission chairman from his position. I agree 100 percent with their stance. I will go further to say that whenever I've been asked by NRL club chairmen for my opinion, I have said Grant has to go. It's not a personal attack on him, but as chairman we all believe he has to be held accountable.
Furthermore, the MoU on club funding that was agreed to and signed by the commission 12 months ago has to be honoured. That is non-negotiable.
The point I was trying to make in the brief radio interview I did this week, without wanting to create headlines or add any extra pressure to an already tense situation, is that the problem with the NRL does not stop with the chairman.
It is also a futile endeavour for NRL management to try and sway a couple of clubs to backflip on their decision and vote with Grant to retain his position. This would not be a win for Grant and it certainly would not be a win for the game.
But I will say again, removing Grant doesn't necessarily solve the funding issue with the clubs, especially if the other commissioners are still being influenced by the same people in senior management positions at the NRL.
Grant is going. That has been made loud and clear by the clubs. But that should not be the end of it.
Commissioners take their advice from the NRL chief executive and his management team. It's these people who make the policy and financial recommendations to the commissioners. These are the people who have placed the game in this financial dilemma, as well as recommending other programs and philosophies that I believe are potentially damaging to the future of our game. More on this another time.
The problems with funding the game and the frustrating relationship between the clubs and NRL management is not a recent phenomenon.
We have been trying to tell the NRL for at least three years they were heading down a dangerous path. Nothing about the current mess surprises me in the least.
The rapid and significant growth in size and cost of the NRL administration under former chief executive Dave Smith was irresponsible. It was always going to create financial problems for the game in the future. Even more important has been the creation of a culture within the NRL that the NRL owns everything and the 16 NRL clubs are merely suppliers of their product.
The big problem comes in the NRL's attitude towards the clubs.
It would appear that every time there is a shortfall of funding, the first people the NRL tries to screw are the players and clubs.
Even more annoying for the clubs is that the NRL produces media stories to discredit clubs in an attempt to somehow justify its own actions. Members of the NRL management team have also tried to turn the game's senior players against the clubs.
This political "election style" campaigning by the NRL has been extremely damaging to the relationship with the NRL clubs and it has to cease.
There is more than enough money coming into the NRL in 2018 to give the players and clubs what was agreed to in the MoU. The NRL is trying to claw money back from the clubs because it has mismanaged its finances over a number of years.
That's the NRL's problem. It's not the club's problem.
In very simple terms, if the commission was to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the players' association for a 2018 salary cap of say $10 million, under the terms of the MoU each NRL club would receive a funding package of 130 per cent of that figure, i.e., $13 million. Multiply $13 million by 16 clubs gives you a total of $208 million.
Given that the total revenue for the game will amount to somewhere between $450 million and $500 million a year, this means the commission will have anywhere from $240 million to $300 million to run the rest of the game. If they can't run the rest of the game on that amount of money and still have plenty left over to save and prepare for the future, then we have the wrong people on the commission and the wrong people in key management positions at the NRL.
The clubs and players are not being unreasonable or greedy here. You can dress it up anyway you like, but it's the NRL clubs and players who put on the show. When the NRL is selling our game to broadcasters and sponsors, it is the game created by the clubs and players they are selling. They are selling the emotion our fans feel for the logos, colours, rivalry and history of our game along with the brilliant talents of our elite players who are developed by the clubs over a long period of time.
The NRL sells the game. The clubs and the players are the game.
We could lock the doors on that building down there at NRL Central and I promise you the game would still go on. The clubs would make it happen.
The clubs and players must come first in any funding model. There is more than enough money left in the bin to service all the other needs and levels of our game throughout the country.
In summary then, the 16 clubs have drawn a line in the sand and said enough is enough. John Grant is now faced with a vote of no confidence and he will be removed.
I agree totally with this stance.
My point is that the problem doesn't end there. More changes are needed to ensure we get the right people working in the right jobs and that the working relationship between clubs and head office is significantly improved.
The future of our game depends on it.
Phil Gould is general manager of Penrith Panthers.
