Peter V’landys does not trust NRL CEO Todd Greenberg with the most important job in the game
When the very existence of the NRL was on the line, Chairman Peter V’landys turned to someone other than the game’s CEO and that exposes a real problem for Todd Greenberg writes PAUL CRAWLEY.
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The fact Peter V’landys appointed Wayne Pearce as Project Apollo chief exposes the real problem for Todd Greenberg.
And the blame game that is going on behind the scenes between the NRL and its clubs should not muddy the waters when it comes to Greenberg being made accountable for the job he has done as NRL chief executive for the past four years.
Colleague Phil Rothfield wrote an excellent column in Monday’s The Daily Telegraph that highlighted some of the outrageous spending habits of clubs in recent years – uncovering the millions wasted sacking coaches, players and senior staff.
But this does not excuse questions that are legitimately asked of the NRL’s own spending habits that have occurred on Greenberg’s watch – as well as the equally ridiculous waste on excessive salaries that are paid to the NRL’s top executive team.
It is absurd that Greenberg is paid $1.2 million and on top reportedly still pockets $300,000 in bonuses.
If this is close to true, how does Greenberg justify being paid significantly more than any of his superstar players? While many of his senior team are also on outrageous salaries.
And this is on top of the fact the NRL employs more than 400 staff which, to put into context, is more than double that of the English Premier League who has less than 160 staff.
Only now is Greenberg talking about cutting numbers because the NRL’s spending habits came to a head during the recent fight with the players about their pay cuts.
Yet Greenberg says he will not walk away?
It really puts the ARL Commission chairman in a tough position because there is genuine unrest among some clubs.
But the major problem for V’landys is that he has to find a way to get the best out of Greenberg and the executive team because he simply can’t get the job done unless he has them all pulling in the same direction in this time of crisis.
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It probably buys Greenberg some time because the NRL needs to be at least seen as stable right now.
It seems it still hasn’t stopped V’landys bypassing Greenberg when he can.
For instance, why is Pearce leading the Project Apollo team and not Greenberg?
V’landys has publicly stated he chose Pearce because of his ‘can do attitude’.
But if V’landys thought his chief executive was the man for the job you’d imagine he would have had Greenberg taking charge of what is arguably the most important project in rugby league’s history.
Instead V’landys has left it to Pearce who he obviously trusts to stand up for the game and do everything in his power to get the competition restarted, instead of coming up with more excuses.