An NRL story

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Budgie

In for the long haul.
Premium Member
2016 Tipping Competitor
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Without identifying the person, I spoke to someone last week who went for a reasonably high level job at NRL HQ. This person had never been involved in a more shambolic interview process and the glimpses this person got of how the job would work were so horrifying that, when given the job, he/she could not even consider it.

I'm really not surprised and it did give me a really good snapshot into why the NRL is in such a state. Dave Smith? Todd Greenberg? Get out!
 
Interesting. What kinds of things made it embarrassing interview process, did your friend say? Are you at liberty to say how high up in NRL management the interviewers were?
 
I think the most damming thing that repeatedly comes out of the NRL is their inability to grasp the most simple common sense when it comes to officiating the game.

All organisations have egos and conflict but it seems to me that the NRL is consumed by pettiness and indecision, aptly led by a guy who is out of his depth in Dave Smith who does not understand the grass roots of the game and his offsider Greenturd who has his own agendas.

They are damaging the game and its reflecting in the crowds that are attending, I think the penny has dropped with the fans that they are tired of the players not being the ones that decide games now.

There needs to be a shake up and someone has to lead the NRL that has the fans in their mind. There is too much power given to Nein and that reflects the crap scheduling that all clubs endure except an elite few.

There needs to be a complete overhaul of the match review committee as again illustrated this week by one club again benefiting from their lenient decisions.

I genuinley fear for the game at the moment. There are several clubs in big financial trouble and there is no attempt to deal with it.
 
Dave Smith doesn't have to be an expert in the game, you find many bosses of large corporations have little to no experience in the arena.

But what you find is they surround themselves with great people, the best marketers, the best legal minds, the best financial guru.

I had a mate once who found himself in charge of a large multi national agricultural firm, he admitted to me that whilst he had on the ground experience he was amazed he got the job.

But he managed, and pretty well, by having a good team around him.

So now lets move to the NRL, Dave Smith, surrounded by ????, bunch of lackeys running the MRC, the lunatic asylum running the referee's.

Enough said!!
 
I met mattiske at an exhibition opening. He was the guy who was acting manager before smith and toddy were appointed. He seemed really competent and was working on the community placement of the game, such as exhibitions featuring league players. He was aware of manly's work in schools and thought the nrl should expand this stuff.

He left soon after the other 2 started.
 
Mark from Brisbane said:
Dave Smith doesn't have to be an expert in the game, you find many bosses of large corporations have little to no experience in the arena.

But what you find is they surround themselves with great people, the best marketers, the best legal minds, the best financial guru.

I had a mate once who found himself in charge of a large multi national agricultural firm, he admitted to me that whilst he had on the ground experience he was amazed he got the job.

But he managed, and pretty well, by having a good team around him.

So now lets move to the NRL, Dave Smith, surrounded by ????, bunch of lackeys running the MRC, the lunatic asylum running the referee's.

Enough said!!

I think that's a good point. Dave Smith doesn't need to be someone ingrained with rugby league DNA, however I do think he needs to have some idea about the game. But good CEO's surround themselves with people that know their stuff and can provide sound advice regarding their areas. And that's the issue, and that's what I mentioned on another threat (about Greenburg being a failure). Since Smith knows little about the game he can be open to having a fairly slick operator in Greenknob worming his way into higher and higher levels of power.
 
They fail the biggest thing which is realising that footy is entertainment so you need to put forward a product that the fans want to see, not what is in line with Greenturds "grand vision". Fans want suburban grounds, Sunday footy, live free to air, less Brisbane on Friday night, consistency in reffing, a tad less blatant favouritism to the Bulldogs, stop cramming the "pride of the league" down peoples throats... You know - the basics...
 
@Loobs, the failing is they are telling fans what they want and not listening to what they want. This is never more evident than with the stadium issue.

The NRL need to pull it's finger out on this whole issue. I understand that tv is a MAJOR part of rugby league these days, but if you kill the product, no-one is going to be watching it. So there needs to be some thinking and planning about how we get crowds to games, incorporate both big stadiums and the surburban grounds. And schedule games when the fans want it.
 
Loobs is spot on. All the things mentioned and add to that the hasty removal of the shoulder charge and the mandatory binning for a scuffle. all things fans like me loved about the game before this. A Souths win will help these morons stay afloat so watch for it. Greenburg is as near sited as Ribot. fans are tribal and will walk and follow something else if their clubs are ignored. He only wants to listen to clubs with over 20,000 members, but it seems he underestimates the clout the smaller clubs have. NRL is really out of touch and its a real worry.
 
I haven't seen so much discontent from fans since the SL war. It possibly even eclipses that. Fans are losing interest at a rapid rate as each new decision demonstrates that the NRL either doesn't know or doesn't care what fans want.

If they were a government they would be voted out in a landslide for being so out of touch with their constituents. It's a shame the NRL is a dictatorship and not a democracy.

Like many others, I fear for what will happen to the game at the hands of these incompetents.
 
The NRL is a multi-million dollar business it is no longer a game and fans, managers, administrators and all and sundry should move on from the 'chook raffle' mentality.

From an ex-fan's point of view:

There appears to be no clear goals and there appears to be different rules for some and not others.

It appears to be the play-thing of certain personalities or groups and appears not to be recognised as a business.

It still has a hobby feeling about it rather than a business feeling about it. For example, if one could strap on a boot they must be better than the bloke who went to business college so we'll give him the job and hope he succeeds because he obviously loves the game (or more importantly his team) and would have the game's (or more importantly his team's) best interest at heart so he'll do a good job for the game as a whole.

Look, I have no other reason but to believe the NRL and those that run her are doing their absolute best for the organisation and the 'game' the 'business' promotes.

I suspect we fans and ex-fans alike would like to see changes happen but it aint gonna.

So either lump it or like it or go somewhere else to get enjoyment because this is where the NRL is losing it's heart and soul it is losing it's fan base and should have a very hard long look at it's structures and it's performance over the past decade.

Disclaimer - everything I have said is from an outsider's point of view I have no knowledge of the game nor the governing body and what I have said should not be taken as a criticism but as general conversation to promote debate. I have no reason to believe that the NRL is not professionally run with the greatest of integrity by those responsible for the management thereof.
 
The fact is, TV is the future, and as TV's get cheaper and better, fans are more inclined to watch from home, especially for a winter sport spread across 4 days each weekend. But Greenturd wants the TV money and to pander to the networks, but also to fill 80,000 seat stadiums every weekend. That won't happen! He fails to realise that people are time poor. Give us a Fri/Sat/Sun ONLY, if it's a suburban ground - Friday night or Sunday arvo - boom, I can lock it in in advance, you'll get it packed, atmosphere will be great and for those that can't fit in, live on telly. The game just isn't big enough to spread across sometimes 5 days and to be in huge stadiums. We will never be an international game and we don't have the culture of AFL in Melbourne so stop looking at them and getting jealous and demanding that the NRL can work in the same way and realise that footy is it's own thing with different fans who expect a different thing (which is actually a much simpler product) and work around that FFS!
 
You all laughed when I mentioned "virtual crowds", but don't laugh its coming.

They will stop mentioning attendances, and will "fill" the large empty areas with vision taken from other games.

All vision that's live will just be of the punters that are still attending, but as attendances fall it will be all virtual, and we will all be sitting at home watching the games.

Fast forward a decade and see how close I go.
 
If our sport is a 'business' and TV is the only consideration then it's no wonder crowds are flocking to AFL and soccer.
Unless the NRL gets some true fans of the sport into positions of power then decisions will continue to be made that alienates mainstream supporters.
It's not hard to find grassroot fans of Rugby League who also have business acumen to hire for management roles.
Hell, there may be even one or two of us on this Forum!
 
In 2009 I was nominated by the club to attend a "fan feedback day", 2 from each club.

Gallop in the chair, 32 fans, a few other NRL officials and a bunch of journo's.

Despite the plethora of ideas we floated only one ever saw the light of day, a fixed schedule (sort of).

And they admitted they knew it was an issue and promised to fix it with the next TV deal, which they sort of did.

Now the reason I mention this is, if Dave Smith really wants to know what's happening out there in fan land they would do this again.

If I was the boss of the NRL I'd do this.....just me and 32 fans, NO Journo's, NO other staff (and that's important as I would want to hear it straight).

I'd get a notebook and say, righto fans let me have it BUT note cannot promise anything to you however will write down all the issues and then before you leave today I want a show of hands to get the top 10 issues.

Now......how easy would that be to do, and what a fantastic bit of promotion for the game , AND most of all if Dave Smith wants to know the real stuff out there what a great way to do it.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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