Beardo thinks the game needs him
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...n/news-story/8e9de4b20f3f16e6fd3f62eaabddda30
John Grant rejects talk he sold out the game to save his skin
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman John Grant with Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga as they announce the team for the NZ Test. Picture: Gregg Porteous
- The Australian
- 12:00AM April 29, 2017
ARL Commission chairman John Grant has no time for suggestions that the deal he struck with club bosses late last year is responsible for the game’s financial quagmire. Nor claims, which some in clubland are happy to espouse, that he sold out the game to save his own skin.
“I have heard that, of course I have heard that,” Grant told
The Weekend Australian.
“Everyone has a point of view — they all come from different places. What is the reality? The reality is not that. The reality is we started the process of negotiation with the clubs in September 2015.
“That had a fault and was then resurrected and we came to an agreement. That agreement is a fair representation of all of the factors that need to be taken account of in terms of the whole funding available to the game.
“It was not my decision to come to that agreement. It was the commission’s agreement together with the clubs led by (Melbourne chairman) Bart Campbell.
“John Grant trying to save his skin, it’s just rubbish really. It was a commission decision, the commission entered the process of negotiation.
“Bart Campbell, working with a subset of the clubs, entered that negotiation with the intent of getting an outcome because an outcome was needed.
“That John Grant is still here as chairman is a good thing, certainly from my point of view and I think from most people’s point of view now. That wasn’t the way we went into that negotiation at all.”
Grant tells you this as he sits in the museum on the ground floor of Rugby League Central only moments after naming the Australian team for next week’s Test against New Zealand.
He is the most powerful figure in a game which, from the outside at least, is in some turmoil. The players and the governing body are locked in an increasingly acrimonious fight over funding from 2018, the player market descending into chaos as some clubs spend money with apparently little thought to a salary cap that is yet to be set for next year.
The clubs have already secured their share of revenue, although that agreement in part is being blamed for the stalemate in negotiations between the NRL and Rugby League Players Association.
“We’re going to reach an agreement,” Grant said. “There are three big foundations you have to put in place for the game every cycle. The first is broadcasting rights and the funding associated with that. The second is the clubs and the funding associated with that. The third is the players. You have to get those things right and they are all big negotiations because there is a lot at stake.
“Therefore you have to take time — you can’t draw lines in the sand and say they have to happen by a particular date. We’re working on the third aspect of those three. We need to go through the process of negotiation. We put an offer on the table for consideration by the RLPA. They are in the process of formulating a response to that.”
Some have suggested the deal struck with the clubs late last year, which guaranteed them a grant equivalent to 130 per cent of total player payments up to $13 million and ultimately ensured Grant remained as chairman, has hamstrung negotiations with the players.
Asked to respond to that claim, Grant said: “That’s wrong — that’s the way to respond to it. It is not a right assessment of the situation. As I said, this is a big negotiation.
“It is about five years from 2018 on. (RLPA chief executive) Ian Prendergast has come in, a new chairman, a new organisation trying to find their footing as well.
“It is a complex and detailed negotiation which takes time. When there are multiple parties involved, you can’t be the agent to push it. We’re all intent on getting an outcome and to take the time necessary to get the right outcome.
“It is appropriate for the clubs to understand how much money they have got. What we have agreed with the clubs is maximum we will pay them.
“I don’t see how there is any hamstringing of anyone in that process other than to say from the game’s point of view here is the amount of money we can afford on balance across grassroots, NRL operations, putting money in the bank. There is the amount of money the game can afford to pay — let’s go away and negotiate in that window. The more the players get, the less the clubs get. That’s the way it works.”
Grant’s term as chairman is due to end in February and amid the caustic negotiations with the clubs late last year, there was talk he would walk away after that.
He insists he is yet to make a call and ultimately it will be his decision, regardless of the push to alter the constitution to give the clubs and states more power.
That spat epitomises the at-times toxic relationship between some clubs and head office. Grant gave the clubs and states the power to reach agreement on constitutional reform, only for the talks to fall apart when they were unable to sort out their differences.
Somehow, even that was used as a chance to bash the chairman. “My term ends in February, but under the constitution — which won’t change under new governance — I can elect to stand again and if I do elect to stand again, the commission will either vote me in or vote me out,” Grant said.
“I don’t think we need to decide. We have a bunch of work to do this year — a pretty big year. I will focus hard on what needs to be done. We will just see — nothing ruled in and nothing ruled out.”
