Peter V’landys slams critics of Phil Gould’s NRL move
The move to bring Phil Gould into the NRL as a troubleshooter has been widely criticised since News Corp revealed the news - Peter V’landys a blunt message for those same critics.
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Peter V’landys has come out swinging in defence of his decision to head hunt Phil Gould to take on a “Mr Fix-it” role at the NRL, telling his critics to “judge me on the end result”.
As exclusively revealed in News Corp on Sunday, the ARL Commission chairman is set to parachute Gould into a senior consultancy position to troubleshoot a wide range of issues ranging from grassroots and Pacific Island development to attacking NRL specific issues like the Bunker and referees.
V’landys said he had copped plenty of criticism following the revelation but he was making no apologies.
“You know me, if you ask me a question I will always answer it honestly,” V’landys said.
“I am not going to tell you bulls***. I have had discussions, nothing has been agreed. We’ve only had casual conversations. Now he has probably doubled his price.”
But V’landys said the fact was Gould has a wealth of knowledge probably unrivalled in the sport, and he says he would be mad to pass up a chance to use that experience to fix problems like the ones that exist in match officiating, especially the Bunker.
“The thing is we have a problem and you’ve got to acknowledge we have a problem,” V’landys said.
“So we need to fix it. I will do everything I can to fix it.
“Let’s listen to him.
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“Not everyone is going to agree with my decisions. I got hammered on Sonny Bill Williams because they all think I am favouring the Roosters.
“But the thing is, they didn’t look at the history early on when I knocked the Roosters back on a number of massive issues (including the new NRL schedule).
“The six-again wouldn’t have been introduced if we didn’t take that stance. They didn’t want me to restart the comp.
“Nothing would be done.
“If you are going to be here to make popular decisions you shouldn’t be here.
“You have to make decisions you believe are right and not everybody is going to agree.
“I have got a few people off-side but I have to do what I believe is the right thing.
“At the end if I make a blunder you blokes will attack the sh** out of me.
“But I don’t care. Judge me on the end result is what I say and I still believe he is the right man for certain functions.”
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While at this stage any talk has related mostly to development, V’landys conceded right now the referees and bunker controversies required urgent attention.
“Look, it wouldn’t hurt to get a set of fresh eyes over it,” he added.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to accept all of his recommendations either.
“But no one can argue the bloke hasn’t got experience that no one else has. He has been in every facet of the game.
“So you have to harness and harvest that.”