NSW set to kick off hardball stance Greg Prichard
November 22, 2010
RUGBY LEAGUE will change forever today, when the board of the Australian Rugby League votes to accept the constitution that will become the independent commission's bible.
It will clear the last major hurdle to the commission becoming a reality, and hasten the process towards the game's co-owners - News Ltd and the ARL - relinquishing control and the game entering its brave new era.
Queensland Rugby League representatives on the board, who have stood in the way of the constitution being passed by proposing 30 amendments, have been summoned to an extraordinary meeting of the ARL in Sydney at 8am.
Its NSWRL counterparts hope the QRL will make the process simple by either dropping their demands completely or watering them down, but if they don't then the NSWRL representatives will pass the constitution along state lines - by six votes to four.
And that is regardless of whether the QRL representatives threaten to take the matter to court in an attempt to block the constitution proceeding, based on an ARL constitutional guideline, which, simplified, is said to give the two states one vote apiece on constitutional matters and ask for a 75 per cent majority before any proposed change can be adopted.
The Herald has learnt that legal advice sought by the NSWRL regarding constitutional guidelines is that the matter is not as simple as that, and that there is flexibility in the legal detail when it comes to voting on constitutional matters.
If the QRL is prepared to go to court over the issue, the NSWRL's stance will be: let them.
Major developments within the mechanisms of the NSWRL in recent weeks have led to a change in attitude up front.
Previously, the NSWRL members of the board have stopped short of playing hardball with the QRL.
That will end today.
It is the NSW NRL clubs, through their chairmen, who have largely driven the change. The Herald reported last Wednesday that Colin Love, chairman of both the NSWRL and ARL and a major negotiator with News Ltd over the commission, would not be seeking re-election to those posts, and that the chairmen of the 11 NSW clubs had met to discuss ways of using the NSWRL annual general meeting on December 3 to speed up the commission process.
On Friday, the Herald reported the clubs were planning a takeover of the NSWRL, with ambitions to sweep the boards of both the league and the NSW Leagues Club and fill all of the powerful vice-president positions. On Saturday, we reported that former internationals George Peponis, Terry Lamb, Geoff Gerard and Royce Ayliffe were among those being supported by the clubs for NSWRL board positions.
John Chalk, a long-standing and influential figure in the game, is the clubs' pick as the new chairman of the NSWRL, to help drive the changes home from here. Chalk, a former chairman of the NRL and Wests Tigers, is on the boards of the NSWRL, ARL and NRL.
The NSWRL sees John McDonald as a voice of reason among QRL members of the ARL board, and is hoping he, in particular, sees that change is inevitable and helps facilitate it without any bloodletting at today's meeting.
Once the ARL passes the constitution, it will be left to the ARL and News Ltd to finalise their agreement on its wording.
There will inevitably be some haggling over a few legal points, but News has seen the draft and generally supports it.
At the same time, negotiations over the appointment of commission members will get serious, with the commission to be put in place as soon as possible.
