New Sharks chairman on ASADA, the future and why the Sharks are finals bound

CRONULLA chairman Damian Keogh explains how the club will not only survive the ASADA scandal, but possibly even win a premiership this year

Damian Keogh

DAMIAN Keogh is well equipped to handle the pressure of a good old-fashioned sporting stoush.

The ex-Sydney Kings star, who represented Australia at three Olympics, was recently elected chairman of the embattled Cronulla Sharks. In his first interview since the leaking of the Trish Kavanagh report, Keogh explains how the club will not only survive the scandal, but possibly even win a premiership this year.

I've been critical of this club for not having a chief executive. If Cronulla had proper leadership, would this have happened?

You'd like to think it possibly wouldn't have happened, although you look at a club like Essendon. They're one of the more professional football teams in Australia and they're going through a similar situation. While I don't think it happened because there wasn't a CEO, the glaring issue was there was a lack of clear direction about who reported to who, what were the protocols involved, what were the rights and responsibilities. When there is confusion around, it is very easy for things to go unchecked. One of our priorities as a new board is to ensure we put in place the personnel, policies and procedures to ensure that we're sticking to the rules of the competition to the utmost and doing the right thing by our players.

Four staff members were sacked including the highly respected medico Dr David Givney. Will any of them get their jobs back? From the small part of the Kavanagh report I've seen, I can't find anything that Dr Givney did wrong.

The new board indicated as part of our election platform that we would review these decisions. That review is under way. It is not straightforward. There are legal considerations and other potential implications that need to be considered.

The Trish Kavanagh report has been leaked in parts to The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph. It's quite damning of the club. Is this a legitimate report?

Yes, it's legitimate. Trish Kavanagh is a highly credentialed person to do an inquiry like this one. She was the deputy chair of ASADA and she was commissioned by the former board. I've had a look at the report and I guess in terms of a version of events involving a number of key people at the club, it gives a timeline of some of the events that went on. It is missing a couple of key elements. Some of the key personnel at the centre of the issues were not spoken to.

Would you have done the Kavanagh report if you were in charge or would you have waited for ASADA to investigate?

I would have done things differently. I don't want to be too critical of the former board, but they certainly fell on their sword. The report was leaked to News Limited and I think it's unfair to make some of that information public.

Are the players co-operating like they should be? There has been a lot of criticism that they are not co-operating.

It's a very difficult issue and to be honest, from a board and administration perspective, there has been criticism levelled at us. All the players do have legal advice. This is separate from the club. The club is not in a situation where we can demand or require the players to do things in a certain way. There was a lot of criticism around the Wade Graham interview with ASADA, but it's my understanding that interview went for a couple of hours. That's a long interview.

Wade Graham looked like he was turning up to a 21st birthday party. Was that inappropriate?

Yes, it was inappropriate. All the players were advised to dress correctly. He has apologised for it. He's learnt from his mistake. It was a good learning experience. With Paul Gallen's injury in recent weeks, he's captained the team. It was great to see him at the presentation speaking to the fans on Sunday after beating Canberra and seeing how grown up he is as a leader. It was very encouraging and he shouldn't be judged on that one mistake.

What's been the cost to the club? I'm talking legal fees, hiring a PR crisis company and loss of sponsorship.

It's probably in the vicinity of half a million dollars.

Does the club have that money?

If we were to choose ways of spending half a million dollars, this issue would be very low on the list of how we'd like to be spending it.

What do you think of the NRL and ASADA's handling of the crisis?

I don't think we can be too critical. In the history of Australian sport, nothing like this has ever arisen. If you go back to the Australian Crime Commission and ASADA's joint announcement, they were roundly criticised, but the reality was, it was based on a lot of stuff the crime commission had uncovered. We're dealing with issues here related to a synthetic human growth hormone that potentially wasn't on the banned list, couldn't be tested for, and the fact they were illegal and being controlled by crime gangs. So it's a very difficult situation. I don't think anyone knows how shallow or how deep any of this is. The shades of grey are very significant.

Okay, what if evidence does come up in the next two or three weeks and Cronulla lost 10 players on drug suspensions. Could the club put a team on the field?

It's not something we'd like to be thinking about, but if it did happen, there are contingencies in place. It's in the club's interests and the NRL's interests and fans' interests that regardless of what happens, the club puts a competitive team on the field. We'll find a way to do that.

What are the contingency plans?

There have been some discussions, but I can't share the details of what the plan might be.

Are you concerned about the legal ramifications? If it's found the players were unknowingly given banned substances, some of them even for horse-use only, are you concerned about a possible class action from the players? Is there insurance to cover it?

There are insurance contingencies and we have taken advice on some of the legal implications, but there's been no indication at this stage that it's a pathway they are going down.

It's been suggested Cronulla is on shaky ground in the Shire and this is possibly a chance for the NRL to fill a hole in Adelaide or Perth. Could this drug issue force something like that to happen?

This drug issue won't determine if the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks move forward as a viable franchise. The board, the staff, the players and the supporters have to demonstrate to the NRL that we are a viable and sustainable franchise. We are in a heartland of rugby league, there are 300,000 people living in the Shire. We have a very vibrant and affluent area of Sydney to support a rugby league team. But we need to ensure that our supporters are showing their support and that we're financially sustainable.

You're competing with nine Sydney clubs. You're up against one-team-one-town clubs with $25 million turnover like the Broncos - how do you see it?

Interestingly, it's got a little bit easier with the NRL's TV deal and the increased handouts from the centralised NRL finances. If the NRL commission and the senior NRL management do a good job investing a lot of that revenue and building more centralised revenue, it will get easier in that regard as well. Our focus has to be on increasing our revenue sources into the club via sponsorship, gate receipts and business from the leagues club.

There's a famous old saying that waiting for the Sharks to win a premiership is like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt. Can you see a title in the next 10 years?

Absolutely. There's a number of key goals for the new board. We hope to start with what we call a high-performance culture from the board to the senior management to the staff, the coaching staff to the players. There's no reason why we won't be able to compete fiercely for a premiership, not sometime in the next 10 years, but given the team we have on the field this year, it's probably the best side we've had in more than 10 years. We had a slow start but we're aiming at making the finals. If we hit form from there, we have the calibre of players who could do some magic things this year.

Win a comp this year?

We could win this year, absolutely.