See ya....
Todd Greenberg’s future as NRL chief executive could be decided as early as next week amid growing concerns about his position in the game.
Greenberg, who this week was forced to
defend the NRL’s revamp of the Tina Turner Simply The Best campaign, has several other issues affecting his leadership.
His relationship with ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has been described as having “friction”, while several club bosses are believed to be unhappy with his performance.
There’s also concerns around Greenberg’s stance on suburban grounds and the stadium rebuilds of Allianz and ANZ, as well as the no-fault stand-down policy.
“There’s enormous unrest among the clubs about his role. And not just necessarily coming from the (ARL) Commission.”
V’landys and his fellow ARL commissioners will meet next week where the main topic of discussion will be Greenberg.
“So the independent commission have to decide next week whether to take up that option or let him run his contract out in October.
“I have a feeling it’s going to blow up next week and they will not take up the option.
“So he’ll still be there — but he won’t have a long-term future in the game.”
Greenberg is keen to remain at the helm of the NRL, having steered the game through a number of controversial issues in the past four years.
Whether that’s enough to sway commissioners V’landys, Gary Weiss, Wayne Pearce, Tony McGrath, Megan Davis and Amanda Laing, remains to be seen.
“He’s been ringing chairmen, he’s been ringing chief executives, all the key powerbrokers in the game in recent days trying to shore-up support.
It’ll end up being a Commission decision — they’ll make the call.
“There’s a couple of options – they might just say ‘look, we’re not ready to extend at the moment, let’s have another look in October’ and quietly start looking around for other options. If there’s no better options they’ll sign Todd again.
“But it’s the clubs as much as V’landys, I’m told, are not happy with Todd at the moment, for various reasons.”
Weighing in Greenberg’s favour is the fact the NRL last week announced a second straight surplus of more than $30 million, part of which Greenberg attributed to its strong stance on player behaviour and how he believed the no-fault stand-down policy had protected the league’s image and revenue.
“The other important issue and it’s been in the media a lot lately, is suburban grounds.
“Peter V’landys is desperate to get rid of television matches at ANZ Stadium with 65,000 empty seats in the background.
“He wants suburban ground rugby league.
“Todd Greenberg is very tight with Darryl Kerry at ANZ Stadium. Todd Greenberg is very tight with the (NSW) Premier Gladys (Berejiklian).
