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wombatgc

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Former rugby league administrator Ken Arthurson tells NRL boss Dave Smith he must not lose common touch
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
April 23, 2013 12:00AM


LEGENDARY administrator Ken Arthurson yesterday offered some simple advice to NRL boss Dave Smith.

"You must never lose the common touch," Arthurson said. "I spoke to prime ministers no better than I spoke to garbos, especially if they were both fans of the game."

And right now, Arko can't quite understand why the former banker has closed his doors to the public by not making himself available to the media.

"I have never met Dave Smith and from what I hear he is supposed to have plenty of business acumen," Arthurson said. "But there is a bit more to running the game than just having business acumen.

"I know it is business, I understand that. But it is a peculiar type of business in that you are dealing with personalities.

"You don't run it as you would run a normal business.
"The media is the way you get through to the fans and let them know what you are doing and why you are doing it."

Arthurson also said he found it hard to argue with anything Ray Hadley has said in the wake of Sunday's City-Country crowd fiasco - where bush battlers were asked to fork out up to $50 for an open stand seat.

"When I was told the price of admission I bloody near fainted," Arthurson said. "Those prices are absolutely ridiculous. At the end of the day rugby league has always been recognised as the working man's game."

And Arthurson said he couldn't understand why the game has allowed itself to be held to ransom by the ASADA drugs investigation.

"It is absolutely disgraceful in my view the way the whole thing has been handled," he said.

"It has cast a shadow not only over all the footballers but all the sports people generally. I think it has been very, very badly handled, I honestly do."

Asked what he would have done if he was in charge today, he said: "I think we should have got on the front-foot more than we have.

"I really am in the dark like everyone else. I don't know what agreements the league may have made with ASADA and if they have I am reluctant to cut across anything they may have done. But as a person looking on, and at the risk of sounding corny, I do care about the game and I think they should be jumping in."
 
Did not take the tele long to get their agenda going

How lon was gallop in the job with little to no scrutiny ?
 
Smiths problem is there is so many problems as caused by previous administrations its hard for him to focus on one area.
Shows the incompetence we've had since the Super League war.
 
lsz said:
Did not take the tele long to get their agenda going

How lon was gallop in the job with little to no scrutiny ?


They were never gonna give gallop a hard time he was the former news ltd co worker. Where do you think the tele used to get all their exclusives from
 
lsz said:
Did not take the tele long to get their agenda going

How lon was gallop in the job with little to no scrutiny ?

The irony is that they are using the former ARL figurehead from the Superleague era as their stalking horse.

Another story along those lines in The American, sorry, The Australian.
 
Yes they are right on the beat up path. So sad that they don't have a direct phone line to the boss like they used to. Now they just have to trawl through fan forums for their hard hitting balanced journalism.

Rothfield Wilson and Hadley are three of the dimmest rugby league minds in the country. They are self promoters of the highest order. And are professional criticisers.
 
It is too early to say whether Dave Smith is a good or bad CEO. It has been a tough initiation.

But I must admit I agree with Hadley that the E squared thing is a wank, and I think the concern that Smith doesn't understand the culture of the game is valid.
 
I have never been able to cop Hadley. He puts on his angry face and talks loudly while sprouting the bleeding obvious as though the rest of us are unaware of what's going on. He always comes across to me as a blithering, self centred idiot hell bent on glorifying his own existence. He's the sort of bloke that would start his own fan club, then exaggerate the numbers in his fan base just so he could yell about how popular he is.
 
Hadley is a bully. He'd be more effective if he just had a quiet word. Then again, that's not how bullies operate. However I do worry about Smiths intention to take the game to big stadiums. That's a real concern, given we don't have one. On the criticism re Coffs Harbour. I've never thought of Coffs As being in 'the bush', so I couldn't see the rationale for siting that game there anyway Dubbo, Parks, Broken Hill? Yes, but not Coffs.
 
mozgrame said:
I have never been able to cop Hadley. He puts on his angry face and talks loudly while sprouting the bleeding obvious as though the rest of us are unaware of what's going on. He always comes across to me as a blithering, self centred idiot hell bent on glorifying his own existence.

Couldnt have said it better myself.
 
I agree generally that Smith has had his head down and is not putting it up. Probably frightened he'll get it shot off.

Here is where the NRL needs to get a five or ten year plan out there for fans and other interested parties to comment upon.

Stop treating the fans as something under your foot and actually listen to them. A lot of us may have varying amounts of intelligence. But we aren't all dumb.

But even if you see us as dumb, we do have one thing that seems to be lacking in other quarters - a love of the game.

Set out the representative games.

Set out an expansion plan and get give stability and direction.

Talk about other issues such as the salary c(r)ap and other things like a point system.

Talk about game-day prices and memberships.

Or in other words - leadership.

Prove to me a fan that the NRL doesn't stand for No Real Leadership.
 
Problem Smith has is the Sydney media is ****ing vicious. He got ripped a new one as soon as he got here because he didn't know who Cam Smith was.

I mean so what? I don't know many NFL or other sporting players etc and the one's I do know of I know because of a negative indiscretion.

Something needs to be done about some specific 'journalists' (I use that term lightly.) Journalistic integrity in rugby league reporting is non existent. When you have organization's like the DT who are constantly manufacturing problems for the game I think that is something that needs to be addressed, however the freedom of the press should not be infringed.
 
I'm cynical about the credentials of Smith. Reportedly he built a bank into a multi-billion business. Really? If so, he'd be on a salary of $10million or more (The outgoing head of BHP is reportedly getting a $45m 'handshake').
So, seriously, forget the crap about this new NRL job being a 'challenge' for Smith, WHY would he do it?
Methinks his business credentials are shakier than Jamie Coward's goal kicking preparation.
 
Have a look at the Telegraph article - soccer is surpassing cricket per Gallop's comments.

It makes one remember wistfully the work of DG??
 

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