Nick Tabakoff: Parramatta league chief Steve Sharp under pressure

THREE years after campaigning to get the job, Steve Sharp’s tenure as Parramatta’s chairman is increasingly being viewed as a disaster.

Steve Sharp new Parramatta chairman at North Sydney Oval .

WHEN he first campaigned to join the Parramatta board in the lead-up to the club’s May 2013 election, chairman Steve Sharp promised a new dawn of good governance for the embattled club.

“The members and supporters of the Eels deserve better and I am determined to push the club forward into a new era of stability and good governance,” he vowed.

Fast-forward three years, and Sharp’s tenure as the club’s chairman is increasingly being viewed as a disaster — and anything but “good governance”.

NRL boss John Grant is believed to have stressed the gravity when he issued a “please explain” to Steve Sharp, pictured at Parramatta Stadium.

My revelations this week of alleged systemic salary cap rorting at the Eels have shaken the team’s family of members and supporters to the core. They have also infuriated the NRL, which at best has been misled by Sharp and other Eels directors.

Most Parramatta fans would hope the penny is finally dropping for Sharp and his fellow longstanding directors, deputy chairman Tom Issa, Peter Serrao and former Eel Geoff Gerard, as well as current CEO John Boulous.

They have all been members of the club’s governing body during the events detailed in The Telegraph this week.

I understand NRL boss John Grant stressed the gravity of the situation on Thursday when he issued a “please explain” to Sharp.

The NRL is greatly concerned that when it fined the Eels $465,000 for previous salary cap breaches it was assured there had been a full disclosure by the club.

If Parramatta is found to have deliberately misled the NRL, it raises questions under the Corporations Act about whether directors and officers of the Parramatta National Rugby League Club lived up to their fiduciary duties.

Parramatta Leagues Club funds the Eels to the tune of $8 million a year. Picture: Adam Yip

The NRL is wasting no time in getting to the bottom of this issue, with a crack team of salary cap auditors, integrity unit investigators and forensic accountants ready to set up camp in the club, possibly on Monday.

If the directors are found to have been complicit in any deception, it raises questions about whether they can hold other board positions in the future — including their roles as directors of the more lucrative Parramatta Leagues Club, the pokies cash cow that funds the Eels to the tune of $8 million a year and last year generated revenue of $79 million.

The NRL has also insisted that Parramatta fix its overall corporate governance, which includes pushing for reform at board level.

Since my revelations I hear there is a push within the club to search for younger, more suitably qualified and independent directors for the board.

The NRL is seeking to professionalise the code at the highest levels to match the much more professional standards of corporate governance at the AFL.

Some of Australia’s leading business figures, including the likes of Tony Shepherd and David Smorgon, have headed up AFL clubs.

This calibre of chairman presents a stark contrast to that of many NRL clubs.

Sharp, as Eels chairman, and several of his board members, have had little or no business experience — which is extraordinary for what is in effect a company that turns over just under $80 million a year.

If the NRL is to have any hope of matching the credibility of the AFL in terms of the calibre of its board members then it must be seen to be taking rapid and determined action to improve the calibre of the directors and officers who are running its heartland clubs.

BACHELOR SET IS A BATTLEGROUND

AN all-out war between the Sydney paparazzi and one of the world’s biggest production companies has made sleepy old Glenorie feel more like Gaza this week.

The usually sleepy suburb in Sydney’s northwest is the location that Warner Bros has chosen to film this year’s The Bachelor, which Channel 10 announced this week will star Richie Strahan.

Strahan made the top three of last year’s season of The Bachelorette before fledgling radio jock Sam Frost sent him home.

New bachelor Richie Strahan might well be in the dark. Source: Richie Strahan Instagram

Strahan is no doubt blissfully unaware of the cloak-and-dagger shenanigans around the location of his upcoming starring role.

The sprawling Glenorie mansion has become a battle zone, where Sydney’s notoriously resourceful paps have been flying drones in an attempt to score the money shot.

We hear Warner Bros has deployed search lights to scan the skies above the set at night. There have even been unconfirmed reports of someone at the site trying to shoot one of the drones out of the sky.

No doubt Warner and Channel 10 want to ensure the first close-ups of the new set are seen on the Bachelor itself, not in gossip mags.

DOUBLING DOWN ON POLL

THREE weeks ago this column mentioned that some smart money was being punted on Malcolm Turnbull calling a double dissolution election when bookies still had it at $4 in the market.

Now the odds have changed dramatically.

Remarkably, Sportsbet has the “Double D” as favourite at $1.80, while CrownBet has it at $1.90.

What is really interesting is where the cash is coming from. CrownBet’s Rob Cumbrae-Stewart said there had been a flood of money in recent days — from, yes, Canberra.

“Almost 60 per cent of the money we hold is from punters in the ACT,” he says. “A political market hasn’t been crunched this much since mail that Kevin Rudd was gone as PM (in 2010) came through.”