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Anyone got the balls to post the article so the rest of us can avoid the website?
Righto, I'll take the hit.
Grant the NRL independent commission luck
Rebecca Wilson The Daily Telegraph February 11, 2012 12:00AM
LACK hats may not be altogether welcome at the rugby league boardroom table this week, but the celebrations and head nodding that have gone on around yesterday's rugby league handover ceremony must be tempered with some genuine concerns.
While the Fairfax media has heralded the new NRL commission as the greatest thing since Dally Messenger laced on a boot, sensible heads in Sydney league circles know better.
The new eight-member commission has many limitations, a genuine lack of league expertise and a brief that goes way beyond what it can possibly achieve.
Let me say from the outset that it is a very good thing that News Limited has withdrawn from the administration of the sport. Media organisations should never get involved in the management of anything but media. Moreover, News' involvement has merely served to provide those with already vested interests another excuse to blame anyone but themselves for all of the sport's woes.
These same doomsayers and critics will now realise that the real problems that beset league were not within News Limited's powers to solve. They go much, much deeper than that and the NRL commission is about to find out exactly how complex and troublesome they are.
The first massive hurdle the NRL Commission will face is the management of expectations from clubs, player managers, the players and the fans. There will not be an instant fix or a sudden influx of gold from coffers that do not exist.
The view that millions of dollars will all of a sudden be freed up for the game's stakeholders is a nonsense. Big talk surrounds the great new television deal. Yes, there will be more money. However, the pay day the struggling NRL clubs are sweating on is likely to fall way short of their expectations. Even if the deal hits the big billion dollar mark, none of it will be enough to save several clubs which are so badly in debt, and so poorly managed, they cannot survive.
Then, of course, there are the politics of league.
I have said many times no other sport polarises people like this game. The commission is about to find out that the factions have not gone away with the old names on the doors.
Powerbrokers with vested interests have already been lobbying the new commission chairman, John Grant, with a view to unsettling chief executive, David Gallop. They have accused Gallop of being a "News stooge", and the NRL of failing to meet their demands over the last decade.
John Grant has already shown insiders that he is very keen to adopt a high profile in his new role. Although he is an accomplished businessman, he has no inkling of what is in store and how to deal with the mafia-style backroom types who spend a lot of their time undermining the game.
Grant has told other commission members he is keen to take over "ceremonial duties" from Gallop. These apparently include the presentation of trophies. I wish him luck if that is how he prioritises the job because the troubles he now faces will require a lot more than a good handshake. He will need huge amounts of diplomacy, intelligence and integrity to deal with the minefield ahead.
The other seven members of the commission have been selected based on their business acumen and lack of ties to previous league boards, clubs or stakeholders. While outsiders view this as a fair selection policy, the commission lacks a real insider's view of the league landscape. Only Wayne Pearce has been there, done that. It remains to be seen if the Balmain legend has the mettle to navigate the rest of the board through the first 12 months.
My colleague, Phil Rothfield, yesterday outlined the 10 big issues he believes will be major issues in coming months. While mid-season transfers and poor club management are obviously up there, the really big problem is how to unite a fractured game that has been fraught with politics for more than a century. The details, the minutiae of league policy, will never be solved while the game remains an "us and them" deal.
Gallop knows only too well that being a great diplomat with bucketloads of common sense does not prevent you from being a regular target of malice and hatred.
Finally, Grant and co. must stand united behind Gallop and his team. The AFL model works because the commission backs head office and trusts the instincts of its paid managers.
To undermine, or denigrate, or overrule, will only serve to fan the extremists who have made rugby league their own Gaza strip in recent decades.
This is all indeed historic but so was the unification of the game under a joint ARL/News umbrella. Enthusiasm for change is commendable, but unless the snipers are removed league's war may last as long as the one in the Middle East.
Bosses of soccer moving goalposts
ANOTHER day at the soccer and another rort in public funding. Can someone please tell me when an inquiry will be launched into the Football Federation of Australia after it was revealed yesterday that soccer received a massive $8.6 million in government funding to bail it out of its 2011 debt? The lack of accountability from the nation's sports funding body, the Australian Sports Commission, is one thing but surely someone must look at soccer's governing body for some answers as well.
This mob received $45 million from the public purse to get a single vote for the 2022 soccer World Cup. Little wonder that the FFA did not reveal millions in secret funding allocated to it in its recent financial report. The government had demanded it rein in its spending. Instead, it has been given a squirrel fund and now refuse to tell anyone how it spent the $8.6 million. Someone in government is propping up a bleeding sport at the expense of other professional football codes and amateur sport. Soccer is a disgrace and has no idea how to manage its finances.
A heart of Gold: don't believe it
ONE last word on the NRL commission. Let it be known loud and clear that the Titans Michael Searle was NOT the architect of the newly formed governing body of league. The Gold Coast boss is overseeing a seriously financially troubled club at the Gold Coast (where some very questionable property deals have him under the microscope) but he has been very quick to make out he was the statesman who presided over bringing the parties together to form a commission.
The truth is that former News Limited executive Peter Macourt, a partnership committee member, and the ARL's John Chalk, along with several other senior officials from both sides of the spectrum, were the architects of the unification process. NRL boss, David Gallop, was also behind the conciliation that led to the new body.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sporrl/grant-the--independant-com7364
