It's all about staying on the island in rugby league Survivor
Roy MastersMarch 25, 2019 — 4.17pm
A “Lord of the Flies” mentality has enveloped rugby league – a mindset where everyone is
obsessed with voting someone off the island.
The Nobel Prize winning author William Golding’s book about a group of British schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island was probably the inspiration for the television series
Survivor. Their
disastrous attempts to govern themselves have become a script for the NRL and ARLC. It began with the concerted move by NRL clubs and the state leagues, with the encouragement of the “custodians of the code” (News Corp) to boot John Grant out as ARLC chair.
In more recent times NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has stood down three players – the Dragons’ Jack de Belin, Sea Eagles’ Dylan Walker and Panthers Tyrone May – for alleged behavioural breaches, effectively kicking them off the island.
Greenberg then set off a “which club will get the axe?” discussion when he resurrected the expansion debate last week. Manly, Cronulla and Wests Tigers have all been forced to explain why they should be allowed to stay on a 16-club island.
And the murderous talk will continue because the broadcasters want a second Brisbane team. When the three key men at the Broncos – chairman Karl Morris, chief executive Paul White and board member and club legend Darren Lockyer – make welcoming comments about a second Brisbane team, it would seem to be fait accompli.
After all, News Corp owns 67 per cent of the Broncos and is the majority owner of Foxtel, the television network which knows subscriptions and crowds will climb in Brisbane if there is a
game at Suncorp Stadium every weekend.
Meanwhile, the seditious talk amongst the club bosses and directors of the two state leagues has not abated with Grant’s fall from the cliff.
They are being stymied on constitutional reform by three clubs – the Bulldogs, Titans and Storm
– whose support would be needed to allow two club and two representatives from the NSWRL and QRL to join the ARLC board.
Grant’s successor as ARLC chair, Peter Beattie, is keen to propel NSWRL chair George Peponis onto another island - the International Rugby League Federation.
The IRLF currently has 10 members (two each from the rugby leagues of England, Australia,
New Zealand, Europe and the Pacific). Constitutional reform of the IRLF is set down for the AGM next month where it is proposed to have three independent directors, one of whom will be chair.
Beattie says: “We’ve been supporting the reform and we’re keen to get Dr George Peponis
up. Whether we get him up is a matter for the other nations.”
It is also a matter for Peponis. Asked by text whether he would accept his nomination by the ARLC, he replied: “Will depend on constitutional reform. Not if it involves standing down as NSWRL chairman.”
The proposed constitution requires independent directors to have held no governing role in rugby league in the previous 12 months.
Insofar as Peponis has indicated he will not stand down from his position on the big island (Australia), it means he is disqualified from joining the little one.
Beattie is aware of this, saying of Peponis’s NSWRL role: “He would have to give it up.” So why the push off the island for Peponis? It’s not as if Beattie does not consider him a worthy candidate, being a former captain of the Kangaroos, a medical doctor and chairman of the most recent World Cup.
Well, the ARLC is very keen to see the amalgamation of the NSW and Country Rugby Leagues. The relationship between the two bodies is not one that could be described as “trusting” and the CRL is not enthusiastic about Peponis being chair of the combined entity.
Should Peponis abandon his NSWRL role, it is unlikely the IRLF would accept him as an independent director. The new constitution requires 75 per cent of votes to bypass the 12 months “out of office” rule and there is simmering discontent over the last World Cup. It fell $3 million dollars short of revenue projections; Peponis took a chairman’s salary for two years and there was delay finalising the post-tournament reconciliation statements.
Some Sydney club chairmen are intent on installing Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys as Beattie’s successor. V’landys and Roosters chairman Nick Politis were both born on the Greek island of Kythera, which, given “Uncle Nick’s” 26 years as chair of the premiership club, demonstrates what you really need to be a “Survivor” on the dystopian island of rugby league.
