Todd Greenberg is the raging favourite to be the NRL’s next CEO

TODD Greenberg is the raging favourite to be the NRL’s next chief executive, a position John Grant says must be filled by a person who loves rugby league.

NRL Allstar launch QPAC.Todd Greenberg NRL head of football..Pic Glenn Barnes

TODD Greenberg is the raging favourite to be the NRL’s next chief executive, a position John Grant says must be filled by a person who loves rugby league.

The Courier-Mail spoke to several NRL club chief executives on Wednesday who all believed Greenberg, currently head of football, already had one hand on the CEO role.

One chief executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he would be stunned if anyone other than Greenberg was appointed.

Interim CEO Grant said the position vacated by Dave Smith would not be filled before the season began.

Smith stepped down in October after botched television rights negotiations.

Grant confirmed the NRL had established a short list of applicants from inside and out of the code.

Greenberg is on the list while other potential candidates include Bulldogs chief Raelene Castle, former NRL head of integrity Jim Doyle and Broncos chief Paul White.

The issue for the NRL in appointing a person from the corporate sector would be their starting date. Typically, a senior official from the corporate world would have to give six months notice before leaving their position.

“Realistically it’s hard to see how we get to that short list before the end of February and then the process of getting from that to a final candidate will take at least a month,” Grant said.

“So you are looking at March, maybe even a little bit after that.

“Depending on the successful candidate there will be notice periods potentially if they are from outside the game, or even from outside the NRL.

“So it could be another two to three months after that.’’

Grant said the successful candidate would be a league lover, in comparison to Smith who came from the banking world and had a greater knowledge of union than league before starting in the role.

“We’ve got to set criteria and one of those is to have a love for the game of rugby league,” Grant said.

“There’s been some really good people step forward.

“I think rugby league needs to and can be the pre-eminent sport in Australia and every indicator says that it can be.

“We see NRL as an opportunity to launch rugby league more strongly into the world game.

“We’ve got 40 nations playing rugby league in organised competitions around the world now.”