ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys opens up on dealing with public hate, Reece Walsh stardom, Western Bears, Wayne Bennett and more
In a rare personal insight, ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has opened up on the “extraordinary” hate directed towards him and the impact of his brutal workload on his wellbeing. He also talks Reece Walsh stardom, Wayne Bennett, Western Bears and more.
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ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys insists NRL expansion is not dead as he outlined plans for supercoach Wayne Bennett to head up another new franchise – possibly in Papua New Guinea.
In the second part of a report into the state of the NRL, V’landys vowed to protect Broncos superstar Reece Walsh and opened up about his own personal battle with the “haters”, admitting: “I’m a target.”
On the five-year anniversary of his appointment as ARLC chairman, V’landys also revealed the NRL bunker will undergo a review amid calls from Bennett for the technology to be axed.
As revealed by this masthead yesterday, the NRL is on track for a record $720 million in revenue this financial year, giving the code the financial bedrock for fresh growth in their masterplan for a 20-team league.
But the NRL’s strategic plan suffered a setback on Monday when this masthead broke the news that the ARL Commission had formally rejected an expansion bid from the Western Bears.
The bid, backed by the West Australian government, was the frontrunner to be named the NRL’s 18th team in 2027, with V’landys to hold urgent talks over the next 48 hours to save the Western Bears bid from total collapse.
THE PERSONAL TOLL
V’landys’ work ethic is peerless in Australian sport. He juggles the dual demands of running NSW Racing and presiding over the ARL Commission.
In a rare personal insight, V’landys opened up about the impact of the workload on his mindset and wellbeing.
“Sometimes it’s really hard,” he said. “I don’t expect sympathy because I put this on myself.
“I’m the one who decides what I do and how I do it. I can only blame myself if it does get hard. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get hard.
“I’m a target, there’s no doubt about that. Most of the people that target me have never met me and don’t know me.
“In any job with a high profile, you will be attacked, no matter who you are.
“There are people attacking me who I have never met, don’t know who they are. The hate that they have for me is extraordinary.
“They don’t know what I am as a person, but they hate on me.
“I guess you have to expect some backlash. There’s no doubt my family are a consideration.
“That’s why I assess it each year, because if it gets to a point where they are affected, I’m not going to do it anymore.
“Like Latrell Mitchell (Souths superstar) and Reece Walsh, we’re all human at the end of the day. I have the same emotions. There’s long working hours, they are really long.
“This morning I came in at 5.30am. I don’t switch off and that’s part of my problem.
“You can’t switch off. It’s impossible. Even at 3am, I wake up and I’m thinking about what has to be done. It’s a 24-7 job. There’s no rest.
“There’s always something happening. In January, I might get a bit of respite, but it’s very rare. It’s full-on.
“Your phone rings in the morning and you think, ‘God, what’s happened?’”
BAD NEWS BEARS
The addition of the Western Bears as the NRL’s 18th team seemed a fait accompli for the 2027 premiership. That is now in limbo after Western Bears bid chief Peter Cumins revealed the Perth consortium offered to pay “zero” in a licence fee to the NRL, who were seeking around $20 million for entry.
The ARL Commission was planning for 20 teams, possibly as early as 2030, and V’landys insists the Western Bears debacle will not scupper further expansion.
“It’s not a setback for expansion at all,” V’landys said.
“We were always dealing with the WA government and we will still deal with their government.
“The foundations of a (Perth) bid are there, it’s just a matter of picking things up with the government, so it could happen very quickly.
“My dealings have always been with the WA premier (Roger Cook) who is very passionate about having an NRL team and he has the will to do it, so I’m not concerned.
“I don’t think it (expansion) will be delayed too much, no.
“We will know soon enough. If we can’t get an agreement, we won’t go with anyone.”
The NRL was expected to make a formal announcement this month on the addition of two new teams, the Western Bears and Papua New Guinea, for 2027-28.
North Sydney chiefs are sweating on a resolution, fearing they could forever be killed off as an NRL entity, but V’landys stressed he wants the Bears to be back in the big league.
“The Bears haven’t happened yet because it’s all part of the expansion process, but if it eventuates that would be great,” he said.
“Since I’ve been in rugby league administration, every second person says to me, ‘When are you bringing the Bears back’.
“I never realised how many people were so passionate and tribal about the Bears.
“If it happens it will be fantastic for the game, but I’m making this clear – the business case for expansion has to stack up.
“We will consult the NRL clubs. They are important in this and we need them engaged in the process, to look at our business plan and see it’s good for the game.
“No bid team can take anything for granted.”
REECE WALSH
V’landys describes Broncos superstar Walsh as the code’s most marketable figure in almost 40 years since Cronulla’s Andrew Ettingshausen was the golden boy of the Winfield Cup in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Walsh is the NRL’s rockstar. The Origin sensation is the most popular NRL player on social media with 534,000 followers on Instagram, 100,000 more than Penrith champion Nathan Cleary.
But with the fame and fortune comes searing pressure.
Walsh requires personal security escorts to his car at Broncos training. It’s easy to forget Walsh has only just turned 22 and V’landys vowed to help protect his welfare and image.
“Reece Walsh is any administrator’s dream in regards to marketing of the game,” he said.
“He is bringing in demographics that we never dreamt of getting.
“When he gets the ball, you can see the anticipation in people where they get out of their seats and the attention is glued to him.
“He is one of those players who is charismatic. He is brilliant, a game-breaker and just an excitement machine. He is the complete package. He is bringing new fans to our sport.
“Every time I have contact with Reece I find him a real gentleman.
“In terms of a single player, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as popular as Reece. And one of his great attributes is how he looks after his young daughter (Leila) as a father.
“That shows the character of the man.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Reece, so we have to make sure we don’t put more pressure on him. He is a young man with enormous expectation and we have to understand that as a game.”
WHITE KNIGHT WAYNE
Supercoach Wayne Bennett is weeks away from formally moving back to Sydney for his second stint at the Rabbitohs.
Bennett has inked a three-year deal which expires at the end of 2027.
That makes the newly-minted NRL Hall of Fame coach a free agent when PNG are slated to enter the premiership as the code’s 19th club in 2028.
When the Dolphins were added to the NRL last year, a key condition of winning a licence was appointing Queensland legend Bennett as their foundation coach.
It remains to be seen whether Bennett would be prepared to move offshore to coach a PNG or proposed second New Zealand club, but V’landys says the 74-year-old’s experience in setting up new clubs is crucial.
“I’d love to see Wayne part of another new franchise,” he said.
“There is no one better in the game in my eyes than Wayne Bennett.
“He proved that with the success of the Dolphins, it had a lot to do with Wayne Bennett and that’s why we wanted him involved with an expansion club.
“Wayne’s knowledge of the game is the best I’ve seen, he is a rare commodity to say the least.
“He would be an asset for any new club.”
GROWING PAINS
V’landys has reached an in-principle agreement with Australia’s Federal government on a $600 million funding deal to launch an NRL team in Papua New Guinea.
It’s a historic move for the sport. But it’s not without logistical headaches.
Papua New Guinea has the second worst crime rate in the world and critics of the move have raised concerns about the safety of Australian NRL stars living in Port Moresby.
The Federal government will walk away from the PNG team after a 10-year investment, but V’landys scoffed at suggestions the PNG plan is destined for failure.
“It’s not a huge risk,” he said.
“You have to have a can-do attitude. Naturally there will be teething problems and concerns we will have along the way.
“But I am confident we can do this in a safe manner. That’s our aim. We will do everything we can do to ensure that the PNG team is successful.
“It’s a new frontier. It’s never been done before by this sport. It’s extraordinary.
“There’s more than 10 million people in PNG and that’s a completely new audience and market. Eventually it will grow and become a more prosperous nation in years to come.
“This is the start of it. PNG is a major opportunity for the game in so many ways.
“A lot of the money is going to the pathways, it’s not just for the rugby league team. The whole success of PNG will be if we can set up the game in schools and local competitions and help with education programs in their country, that will be the measure of success.”
BUNKER WARFARE
The NRL Bunker is under siege. Bennett is its biggest critic and wants the NRL Bunker scrapped completely.
The multimillion-dollar technology is unlikely to be scrapped but V’landys confirmed there will be a League Central review into the operation of the NRL Bunker.
“We review every aspect of our operations and, yes, that will include the Bunker,” he said.
“We will be reviewing it. We do a post-mortem of the season, we look at every aspect of it and the bunker will be included in that.”
THE FUTURE
Given the stresses, it would be understandable if V’landys wanted to call retirement, play golf and visit his relatives in Greece. But the son of Greek migrants says his desire to make the NRL an unstoppable sporting and commercial juggernaut has not waned.
“I assess it every year, as I have done for the last five years,” he said.
“The most important thing to me in my life is my family, so it’s got to correlate with that and if it doesn’t, I have to weigh things up.
“The chairmanship is elected each year.
“I got a three-year term as a board member from last year, so I’m into my first year of my three-year term on the board. The board then elects the chairman every year.
“I will assess things at the end of this year, but I haven’t lost my passion for the job or the will for it.
“Rugby league has always been resilient but it has come close a couple of times and we don’t want to go to the edge again.
“I would like to leave a legacy where rugby league is indestructible.”
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