Dragons great Mark Coyne appointed to ARLC Commission
FORMER St George captain and Queensland State of Origin hero Mark Coyne will join the Australian Rugby League Commission as part of another shake-up to the games executives.
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FORMER St George captain and Queensland State of Origin hero Mark Coyne will join the Australian Rugby League Commission as part of another shake-up to the games executives.
Coyne will step onto the commission in February after Chris Sarra opted against seeking reappointment. Sarra was one of the original commissioners — appointed when the commission formed in 2012.
“I’m very excited to be joining the Commission and contributing to the game that has given me so much,” Coyne said.
Former Balmain player Wayne Pearce and Gary Weiss — who has been entrusted with crafting an investment plan for the game — have been reappointed for another three year term. Peter Beattie has had his chairmanship extended 12 months.
But the most interesting development is the arrival of Coyne onto the board. The 51-year-old has had a distinguished business career since his decorated playing stint ended in 1999.
Coyne, for the past seven years, has been chief executive of Employees Mutual Limited and before that he spent seven years as an Suncorp executive.
He had been slated as a leading candidate to replace outgoing St George Illawarra chief executive Peter Doust before ruling himself out of contention. There was a push for Coyne to join the commission as far back as 2012 when it was first formed.
He has also been mentioned in parts as a potential replacement for NRL boss Todd Greenberg but now Coyne could be earmarked for the biggest position in the game.
He enjoys close relations with a host of powerful Sydney clubs while Queensland fractions could also potentially back one of their own if Coyne wanted to make a tilt for the top job.
NRL club bosses were notified of the move yesterday afternoon following the ARLC commissioners’ two day Blue Mountains summit.
Coyne has maintained a close link with rugby league since retiring with 222 games for the Dragons, 19 games for Queensland and nine Tests. He served as a judiciary panel member for many years while he spent six years as chairman of the NRL and Rugby League Players Association education and welfare committee. He has also had a rolling role with the Queensland side during the past decade.
In 2016, he returned briefly to his former club as part of a four-person rugby league performance committee.
The arrival of Coyne completes a dramatic changing of the guard on the commission. Beattie is just one season into his chairmanship while Racing chief NSW Peter V’landys and media executive Amanda Laing only joined the board in March.
It is understood Beattie considers Coyne, Laing and V’Landys as viable options to replace him. Beattie has indicated he did not want to be in job as long as his predecessor John Grant who stepped away earlier this year after six years.
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