Berkeley_Eagle
Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
Rebecca Wilson
The Daily Telegraph
December 08, 2012 12:00AM
THE world of sports administration is full of what we in the media colloquially call "jock sniffers".
These are the types who earn their thrills by hanging around famous sportsmen - or, even better, becoming part of the sport itself by worming their way into head office or onto a board.
These (mostly) men invariably have pool rooms or private bars full of memorabilia (not theirs) and have no hesitation in sharing their always firmly held opinions on sporting performance with anyone who will listen.
Rugby league in its transition from suburban footy code played between blokes from warring working-class suburbs to a schmick professional business worth billions of dollars has found itself now managed by the "jock sniffers".
In recent months, the sport's administration has stumbled from one disaster to another.
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman John Grant is obviously star-struck. He has snatched the role of league leadership with a mixture of naivety born out of a business background completely unrelated to anything sporting.
John Grant has an IT background. He likes to remind his critics that he also played the game many moons ago. Grant represented Queensland and Australia. This was an attractive adjunct for the headhunters who sighted his CV more than a year ago but it would seem now that his long-forgotten playing days have had absolutely no impact on his ability to sidestep trouble.
Rugby league is in turmoil and not the sort of turmoil former boss David Gallop was used to confronting. This is not about badly behaved footballers, salary cap breaches or errant chief executives.
Grant's troubles are entirely of his own making and even the club chairmen who greeted the new era with great enthusiasm are already questioning his ability to handle a crisis. They will meet next week to discuss their growing problems and, no matter what some sycophants may say, John Grant is front and centre of their discontent.
Insiders claim Grant, and only Grant, selected the new chief executive, David Smith. The Welsh-born rugby union man was unable to recognise Australian league captain Cameron Smith, but that will be the least of his worries when he takes the chair in the new year.
Smith, a career banker, decided he wanted a sea change from counting money. He became interested in, you guessed it, sports management. Grant made his passage to the chief executive's role a smooth one and the rest, is history.These two blokes use words like brand and business model with gay abandon.
You seldom hear Grant uttering anything about grass roots, tribal rivalries or sport. His shoot- from-the-hip response to the shoulder-charge issue was a classic case of an administrator with little understanding of his code or its constituents.
No doubt Smith will love standing alongside Grant on the podium in front of 80,000 footy fans, glad-handing and patting backs. The chairman appears to have taken to the trophy distribution role with great relish - as you would if you had ever attended a tedious annual IT awards night.
The problem for the NRL rookie Smith will be that he will be picking up a hell of a lot of pieces when he takes office.
Under Grant's reign, the salary cap issue is unresolved, a player revolt over a bigger share of the television rights cash is under way and players like superstar Israel Folau have no place in the sport.
The handling of the Folau controversy was woeful. The league can carry on all they like about Folau's greediness. The bottom line was that, with a bit of discretion, the world's best winger would not have been lost to the Waratahs.
Several prominent club chairmen believe very little has been done to set plans in concrete after the league's television payday. They also look askance at the new decision-making process, a form of paralysis caused by a commission giddy with power, unwilling to allow head office managers to do their jobs.
For the clubs, it has become a case of wishing too hard for what they wanted. They hoped for a brand new independent commission, rid of the old politics, rid of the back-biting.
In fact, what they are left with are the same old questions marks, missed opportunities and broad unhappiness.
This is not going away. Unless the club chairmen rein him in, and start questioning the commission's lack of direction, league's new regime will soon become the laughing stock of sport.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/men-out-of-their-league/story-e6frext9-1226532447650
The Daily Telegraph
December 08, 2012 12:00AM
THE world of sports administration is full of what we in the media colloquially call "jock sniffers".
These are the types who earn their thrills by hanging around famous sportsmen - or, even better, becoming part of the sport itself by worming their way into head office or onto a board.
These (mostly) men invariably have pool rooms or private bars full of memorabilia (not theirs) and have no hesitation in sharing their always firmly held opinions on sporting performance with anyone who will listen.
Rugby league in its transition from suburban footy code played between blokes from warring working-class suburbs to a schmick professional business worth billions of dollars has found itself now managed by the "jock sniffers".
In recent months, the sport's administration has stumbled from one disaster to another.
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman John Grant is obviously star-struck. He has snatched the role of league leadership with a mixture of naivety born out of a business background completely unrelated to anything sporting.
John Grant has an IT background. He likes to remind his critics that he also played the game many moons ago. Grant represented Queensland and Australia. This was an attractive adjunct for the headhunters who sighted his CV more than a year ago but it would seem now that his long-forgotten playing days have had absolutely no impact on his ability to sidestep trouble.
Rugby league is in turmoil and not the sort of turmoil former boss David Gallop was used to confronting. This is not about badly behaved footballers, salary cap breaches or errant chief executives.
Grant's troubles are entirely of his own making and even the club chairmen who greeted the new era with great enthusiasm are already questioning his ability to handle a crisis. They will meet next week to discuss their growing problems and, no matter what some sycophants may say, John Grant is front and centre of their discontent.
Insiders claim Grant, and only Grant, selected the new chief executive, David Smith. The Welsh-born rugby union man was unable to recognise Australian league captain Cameron Smith, but that will be the least of his worries when he takes the chair in the new year.
Smith, a career banker, decided he wanted a sea change from counting money. He became interested in, you guessed it, sports management. Grant made his passage to the chief executive's role a smooth one and the rest, is history.These two blokes use words like brand and business model with gay abandon.
You seldom hear Grant uttering anything about grass roots, tribal rivalries or sport. His shoot- from-the-hip response to the shoulder-charge issue was a classic case of an administrator with little understanding of his code or its constituents.
No doubt Smith will love standing alongside Grant on the podium in front of 80,000 footy fans, glad-handing and patting backs. The chairman appears to have taken to the trophy distribution role with great relish - as you would if you had ever attended a tedious annual IT awards night.
The problem for the NRL rookie Smith will be that he will be picking up a hell of a lot of pieces when he takes office.
Under Grant's reign, the salary cap issue is unresolved, a player revolt over a bigger share of the television rights cash is under way and players like superstar Israel Folau have no place in the sport.
The handling of the Folau controversy was woeful. The league can carry on all they like about Folau's greediness. The bottom line was that, with a bit of discretion, the world's best winger would not have been lost to the Waratahs.
Several prominent club chairmen believe very little has been done to set plans in concrete after the league's television payday. They also look askance at the new decision-making process, a form of paralysis caused by a commission giddy with power, unwilling to allow head office managers to do their jobs.
For the clubs, it has become a case of wishing too hard for what they wanted. They hoped for a brand new independent commission, rid of the old politics, rid of the back-biting.
In fact, what they are left with are the same old questions marks, missed opportunities and broad unhappiness.
This is not going away. Unless the club chairmen rein him in, and start questioning the commission's lack of direction, league's new regime will soon become the laughing stock of sport.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/men-out-of-their-league/story-e6frext9-1226532447650
