Graham Annesley: Inside the Gold Coast Titans rollercoaster and how the club was saved
GOLD Coast Titans CEO Graham Annesley has opened up about how the NRL club nearly closed, the Daly Cherry-Evans fiasco and life after Jarryd Hayne.
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TITANS chief executive officer Graham Annesley at training yesterday morning made the shock announcement to players that he will be leaving. He will return to Sydney in October as NRL administration as ‘Head of Football — Elite Programs’. Reporter Paul Weston asks him about a rollercoaster five years on the Gold Coast.
Gold Coast Bulletin: You were a former NSW politician, and an NRL administrator and in October 2013 you were appointed Titans CEO. Do you remember your reaction to that?
Graham Annesley: I was still sports minister in the NSW Parliament. It came quite unexpectedly. It’s very unusual for a politician to resign midterm unless there’s been a scandal. I knew that would create an enormous amount of public angst. I felt it was the right thing to do at the time. Although I regret the public angst it caused, I don’t regret the decision.
GCB: You arrive here, the club has been $25 million in debt and near bankruptcy, the tradies are furious after losing millions in the Centre of Excellence fiasco. The club has won the wooden spoon. What blue skies did you see?
GA: I think the primary reason I was attracted to the role was that I was at the NRL when the Titans were granted their licence. I thought it was the right decision for the game because of the incredibly fertile rugby league landscape that exists here on the Gold Coast. I didn’t want to see it fail. I felt if I could somehow make sure that didn’t happen, then it was a task worth undertaking. I probably didn’t realise when I accepted it that it was quite as dire as it was. We had some very difficult times over the first 12 months or so, times where frankly we were on a couple of occasions confronted with the prospect of closing the doors. It was only ultimately when the NRL stepped in 12 months later that we had security of tenure and they had agreed to underwrite the club until such time as it was ready to be sold back to private interest.
GCB: You basically went through the club’s financials and its books, and you contacted the NRL integrity unit at one stage. Did you want a clean slate?
GA: It didn’t quite happen that way. I mean I did contact the NRL but that was over a contractual issue after I arrived here. There was an issue about a contract that we had no record of at the club. Certainly I could find no record of. My attitude since I’ve been here has always been the moment we find anything out of the ordinary we adopt the attitude of self reporting.
GCB: We then see a period of quite large change, foundation coach John Cartwright leaves, and owner Michael Searle also leaves. The club leaves Robina. What are your memories of that period?
GA: None of these things are ever easy. There was a board, and I don’t make these decisions in isolation, they’re made at board level to which I contribute obviously. They’re tumultuous decisions to make. They affect individuals. You have to be aware of the impact on people. But you always have to override that in what is the best interests of the club. They’re traumatic things to do and I don’t think anyone takes pleasure in doing them.
GCB: You would have had some sleepless nights during this period I imagine?
GA: Oddly enough, and I don’t know why I never really suffered from taking my work issues home with me. They’re always in the back of your mind but I just have some kind of innate ability to walk out of here today and say “whatever is the issue it will still be there tomorrow morning”. It’s that sort of attribute you need to get through some of those things.
GCB: Did you have that calmness in 2015 when Daly Cherry-Evans backs out a strong financial deal or were you furious about that.
GA: Oh look, I was pretty upset about that. Not so much because he changed his mind. It was the timing of it and the fact that we had made other recruitment decisions and retention decisions based on the amount that we had committed to Daly. To have it go pear shaped at the eleventh hour left the club in a pretty difficult position in terms of its roster. I think we were all a little annoyed about that — but having said that, it’s a minor set back in the scheme of things and no sooner had he told us that he wasn’t coming, we were sitting down with the coach and working on who we were going to get to replace him. And you know in hindsight we probably wouldn’t have Ash Taylor here, we probably wouldn’t have recruited Nathan Peats, Konrad Hurrell, Jarryd Hayne who all followed that decision by Daly not to come to the club.
GCB: In terms of low points then is the cocaine saga where you had high profile players like Greg Bird and Dave Taylor arrested — it’s a lengthy court period — was that a more difficult situation to deal with in terms of sponsorship, how the team was perceived?
GA: They are the more difficult issues to deal with always. Football issues — will a player come, won’t he come, those things are the business of rugby league. But when you have external issues like allegations of that nature they are very difficult to deal with because they impact on the club in so many different ways. Obviously the initial media interest in it, the impact on sponsors, members, future prospects of maintaining corporate support. And of course people facing allegations like that are entitled to have their day in court. That’s the real balancing act for high profile people in those situations.
GCB: The club then buys Jarryd Hayne, you get a lot of sponsor interest back, you have fans standing on their feet at that first game applauding him. And how do you see that now, did that work or not work for the club.
GA: Well it depends how you measure it. Did Jarryd work out for us on the field. No he didn’t. Is that why we bought him? Primarily that’s why we signed him, yes. We wanted him to add to the depth of our team and to give us a marquee player who would hopefully win us matches. But Jarryd’s very unique in that he brings with him a whole raft of other benefits. Commercial benefits that we saw the immediate impact of. The money that we had to pay him for to play those remaining three or four games of the first season he was here, we more than recouped in additional gate receipts and corporate interest. In many ways Jarryd wasn’t the success we hope for on the field but off the field he did provide us with a whole different market to tap into.
GCB: Jarryd goes and Neil Henry goes as well. Were you at any point then thinking when will this Gold Coast rollercoaster kind of even out for you or at least feel good.
GA: (Laughs) I never really view things like this. My approach is to deal with what you are confronted with at the time. You know being a CEO of any organisation is not easy, otherwise they wouldn’t need you. You have to make calls in the best interest of the organisation, sometimes those calls are unpopular and will not be supported publicly. But people outside the organisation are never fully aware of all of the facts. Sometimes you have to ride those things out. I never at any stage got in the mindset of “oh no, not other issue” because to me that was just my job.
G CB: You’re now leaving the club. The club is almost at break even point financially.
GA: Yes.
GCB: You have strong benefactors here in the Frizelle’s and the Kelly’s.
GA: Yes.
GCB: How do you see the financial future for the Titans.
GA: I think it’s really bright. Clearly the new broadcasting deal the NRL signed and the great distribution of proceeds of that to the club this year has significantly helped a lot of clubs. But the real trick in running a football club is to make sure that when you’re revenue increases your costs don’t increase at a greater rate. Unfortunately this game has a history of as revenue goes up so do losses. So the discipline required to take the additional revenue and maintain strong control over costs is the key factor which will stand this club in good stead going forward.
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GCB: To that end do you think the club should remain open to a new stadium deal if there was a boutique stadium built.
GA: Well, competition never hurt anybody. We’ve got a deal that we’re satisfied with Stadiums Queensland. We’re grateful to the government to landing us in a position where we are at least satisfied. We’re committed to them contractually for the next few years. If we can have a successful footy team we will always need a stadium the size of CBUS Stadium. A boutique stadium is not going to handle the sort of crowds that we are going to see this weekend. If we have success, I’m sure CBUS Stadium will be our long term home.
GCB: How big a crowd do you think you could have got this weekend (with a bigger stadium).
GA: Difficult to answer but we still have demand for tickets. We are at capacity. We could have gone close to 30,000.
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GCB: You’re from Sydney originally, you’ve been a referee, what is your take on Gold Coast fans.
GA: I think they’re amazing, to be quite frank. Last weekend was members’ appreciation round. We went into the members bar, they were all positive. They were all looking forward to not only the game but next season. They are very stoic. They back up year in and year out. I would love nothing more than for those people that have been supporting this club from day one, and those who joined us recently to see the kind of success that their support deserves.
GCB: I get the feeling you think the Coast might sneak into the top eight next year.
GA: I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t. I think the calibre of team we’ve assembled over the last couple of years and with the additions we have next year there is absolutely no reason why we can’t be a top eight team and even go further than that. We’ve got a squad most other NRL clubs would be happy to take.
GCB: Your new job, you’ll be keeping an eye on referees, what’s your message to fans about referees.
GA: Firstly, they will always make mistakes. Like each and every one of us in our daily lives. I’m not the referees coach. They will be part of my responsibility. My job will be to make sure the coaches (of referees) are doing their job and they are delivering upon the games’ policies and practices. To give them whatever assistance and support I can. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the field. So I’m not going to be standing there telling them how they should be referring games. I will be telling the people responsible for coaching them what the game requires of our referees and hoping that they can deliver on that.
GCB: Would you like to retire here and become a Titans supporter full time.
GA: You know I’d like to think — I’ve already said to (club owners) Darryl (Kelly) and Rebecca (Frizelle) — when I’m done in Sydney (laughs) or Sydney is done with me, whatever comes first, I would. I consider this home now. I don’t have a property in Sydney. I would like at some point in the future come back and help the continued growth and development of this club whether it be at board level or on a voluntary level. I think this club is so important to the future of the game that everyone needs to contribute in every way they can.
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