How Peter V’landys became the saviour of rugby league in the sport’s darkest hour
Peter V’landys has been a fighter his whole life, and it’s what makes him the only man who could steer the NRL through the coronavirus pandemic.
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When Peter V’landys was three, he planted an almond tree with his grandfather in the Greek island of Kythira, population 665, slightly larger than the 480 full-time players who inhabit the National Rugby League.
Some 55 years later, the tree still stands. It is a fitting metaphor of the narrative of resilience that drives V’landys, and why he will not be bent or broken as he spearheads the fight for rugby league’s survival.
“I remember my grandfather saying to me, ‘Peter, this tree will be here long after me and you are gone’,” V’landys recalls in his most extensive interview since being appointed ARL Commission chairman last September.
“When I went back to Kythira the first time some 25 years later, the tree was the first thing I went looking for.
“It was massive.
“It’s still standing to this very day, although it’s not looking as good as it used to.”
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The description could easily be a succinct summation of the explosive growth and drastic decay of rugby league.
Five years ago, the NRL was basking in the glory of a record $1.8 billion broadcast deal. Dollars were flowing as freely as the backslapping. The code seemed impervious to any threat of insolvency. The gravy train hit fifth gear.
Now, here we are, in the code’s unfathomable, chilling annus horribilis, the coronavirus pandemic having ripped the financial guts out of a sport facing a potential loss of $470 million this season.
If there is any Australian sporting administrator regarded as the man for a crisis - a COVID-19 crisis - it is V’landys.
He once charmed former Prime Minister John Howard into providing racing with a $235 million financial aid package during the equine influenza outbreak in 2007.
A year later, as NSW Racing boss, he butted heads with controversial cardinal George Pell, labelling him a “bully” when the Catholic Church sought the use of Randwick racecourse to celebrate World Youth Day.
V’landys successfully clinched a $40 million compensation deal. Amen.
When the TAB tried to raise the minimum bet in racing from 50 cents to five bucks, V’landys fought the fight for the pensioners and socio-economic battlers - and won again.
It is a nod to the veneer of humility traced to his working-class ethnic roots and the 18-hour days his father plied at the Wollongong steelworks to feed his family.
The message is compelling. V’landys has the hot hand and is not easily defeated. If you are a betting man, put 50 cents on the migrant kid-turned-ARLC chairman to resurrect the NRL on May 28.
“The thing I never forget is that I’m this little wog kid from Wollongong,” he says.
“If you forget where you came from, you have nothing. I have great empathy for the blue-collar people in rugby league and racing.
“A little migrant kid who got bashed up in the schoolyard is now chairman of the Australian rugby league.
“I am a walking example that you can achieve things in this country if you try hard enough.
“I’ve got nothing to gain from self-interest in this crisis. I am not doing this for any popularity. I never thought I would be in this position during the coronavirus pandemic. To be honest, I feel I am repaying the debt to rugby league for what the sport gave me.”
Which debt exactly?
“Well, the game was my salvation,” he says. “Growing up as a migrant kid, I was seen as a wog. I started school at four. My parents couldn’t afford child care. I was a tiny kid and I was bullied and bashed up in the playground.
“I hated going to school. But it made me tougher, more resilient.
“I needed to find a way to get away from being picked on and playing rugby league was the currency. It made me accepted by the Aussie kids and it made me determined to be good at it.
“You wouldn’t believe this ... the kid who got me into rugby league was called Wayne Pearce. Not Wayne Pearce the Balmain legend (and current Project Apollo chairman). It was another kid called Wayne Pearce.
“We went to school together and played rugby league and he was the kid who opened the door for me.”
Soon, V’landys became besotted with rugby league.
“Growing up, I had two heroes,” he says. “I loved Graeme Langlands (St George’s Immortal fullback) and I looked up to ‘Rocket’ Rod Reddy.
“I’d sneak away to Kogarah Oval. I would catch the train to Central Station for away games and they had the best bloody pies at Central which made the trip worth it.
“I aspired to be a Dragons player and play for Australia.
“But how do you explain to your parents you don’t want to be an accountant ... that you want to be a rugby league player?”
In the end, V’landys found the craft that appealed to his eye for detail and pragmatic style.
“I wouldn’t say I’m great with numbers,” he explains. “But I’m good with the use and application of numbers.
“Some people are born with a gift to build houses or to be great artists. I was a failure in all of that. I couldn’t change a light bulb to save myself. I’m the only kid from Keira Boys High School who failed woodwork and metalwork.
“I was bloody hopeless.
“But we all have a skill set and I believe my skill is in accounting and managing a business. It’s probably the only thing I’m good at.
“In business, everything comes back to profit and loss and you have to do whatever it takes to make that profit.”
V’landys’ arrival in rugby league, then, may be as serendipitous as it is critical.
With the NRL now scrambling for its next billion-dollar TV deal, the kid from Kythira is at the nerve centre. Money doesn’t grow on Greek almond trees, but if there are revenue streams to be found in the coming months, V’landys will stop at nothing to find them.
“The truth is there was always going to be a train crash at some point for rugby league,” he says.
“It was ready to happen - and the coronavirus crisis accelerated it.
“The cost structure of the game is not sustainable. You only need one little variation like the broadcast revenue going down and the whole thing crashes. We had nothing to fall back on.
“It’s important you never forget where you come from. That’s my motto. Rugby league has a great history ... but if you sell out your roots, you are left with nothing.
“We haven’t put money away for a rainy day, but I want that to change.
“I’m determined to future-proof the NRL.”
Originally published as How Peter V’landys became the saviour of rugby league in the sport’s darkest hour