ARL Commission boss John Grant drops hint on NRL’s new CEO

JOHN Grant has hinted where the next CEO of the NRL will come from and has hit back at accusations the game must do more to ­address player behaviour.

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ARL Commission boss John Grant has hinted the next CEO of the NRL could be “internal” and has hit back at accusations the game must do more to ­address the player behaviour ­crisis plaguing the code.

PLAYER BEHAVIOUR

The NRL could not even make it to February before having to deal with Mitchell Pearce’s Australia Day meltdown and Queensland’s Emerging Origin camp curfew controversy.

Player behaviour has been a never-ending battle for the game but Grant said it was not just the NRL’s problem.

“There’s always more that can be done. The question is who does it?” he said.

“Everyone looks at the NRL. What about the clubs? They actually employ (players).

“What about the RLPA? They actually represent them.

“What about the player agents? They earn money from them.

“At the end of the day we’re the governing body. We have to make the rules, police, monitor and penalise. We won’t walk away from that.

“There’s no doubt this game has to think a bit more deeply about the young men who play the game. In the main we do a fabulous job.”

John Grant has been at the helm of the commission since 2012.

NRL EXODUS

Questions have been raised about the NRL’s administration after a mass exodus of key personnel and news of an $18.7 million deficit last year.

Dave Smith resigned as CEO in October, while COO Suzanne Young left recently and will not be replaced.

Shane Richardson returned to South Sydney after a brief stint as head of strategy and marketing boss Lewis Pullen also pulled the pin.

Head of football Todd Greenberg is the frontrunner to replace Smith and Grant said the game would pay what was needed to get the best.

“I don’t see us replacing Suzanne with another COO,” Grant said.

“If it’s an internal CEO there’ll be less (change) potentially … whatever happens, the new CEO’s got the responsibility and authority to look at the organisation and make some decisions about how they want to run it and who does what.

“I’m doing the (CEO) job at the moment and can tell you it’s a complex business and needs really good people.

“To get good people you’ve got to give the right remuneration. Our salaries are not higher than any of the big clubs. Compared to previous years, our executive costs will stabilise or decrease because we’re making changes.’’

Todd Greenberg is the frontrunner to be named NRL CEO.

FOOTBALL CAP

The clubs must adhere to a $6.8 million salary cap for their playing roster but there are no restrictions on football department expenditure.

It is believed some clubs spend up to $6.5 million a year more than others on coaching, support staff and other avenues to seek a competitive advantage.

Exorbitant spending was a key factor in the clubs recording a combined loss of $42 million last year.

The clubs recently agreed to a new funding arrangement which will see them pocket an extra $1.5 million a year from the NRL.

Grant said a condition of that was to address the gulf in football spending.

“The only reason the clubs had the losses they did is because their football department expenditure climbed a lot faster than their revenue,” he said.

“The reason we’ve committed so much funding to clubs is because they’ve told us if we do that, they will be sustainable.

‘‘There will be no one going out of business.”

Crowds have been a constant battle for the NRL.

CROWDS

Putting bums on seats has been a constant battle over the past six years.

Last year’s combined attendance (3,247,234) was down more than 240,000 compared with the 2010 (3,490,778) season as fans opted to watch more games on television.

State of Origin and the NRL’s flagship events have grown into revenue-raising beasts and Grant said the clubs had to work on attracting fans during the home-and-away season.

“There is, of course, (room for improvement),” he said.

“Our mandate is not to drive the crowds at premiership games. That’s really the clubs’ mandate. Our responsibility is to drive crowds to big events.’’

THE FUTURE

The NRL has undergone dramatic changes since the commission formed in 2012 with Grant as chairman.

The game has $52.8 million in the bank and will soon see the benefits of a $2 billion broadcast deal from 2018.

“When you look back five years, there is almost no area that we are not significantly advanced,” Grant said.

CRASH AND COLMAN: Join Crash Craddock and Mike Colman for a look at the hits and misses of a big weekend in sport.

Originally published as ARL Commission boss John Grant drops hint on NRL’s new CEO