Noyce shocked to be no longer ruling Roosters

STEVE Noyce had no idea yesterday's meeting with club supremo Nick Politis would end his career at the Roosters.

STEVE Noyce had no idea yesterday's meeting with club supremo Nick Politis would end his career at the Roosters.

He walked in to the morning meeting with Politis and Easts Group CEO Scott Bennetts as the chief executive of the troubled club, and left it without a job, just a month after head coach Brian Smith was dismissed in similar circumstances.

"I don't know how I'm feeling," Noyce said yesterday. "I think there are exciting things in store for the club in 2013. Obviously I was keen to be part of that."

In a shake-up at the Bondi club, former chief executive Brian Canavan returns in the restructured role as chief operating officer of football, while Roosters marketing general manager Ted Helliar steps up as chief operating officer of commercial.

Both Canavan and Helliar will answer to Bennetts, who takes on a more powerful position under Politis's watch.

Rookie Trent Robinson is the club's new head coach.

Noyce is one of rugby league's longest serving and most respected administrators.

Politis said in a statement yesterday that he regards Canavan as "the most experienced football administrator in the country" - and it is going to take all that experience to put some discipline back into a club that has stumbled from one disaster to the next in a rapid fall since the 2010 grand final.

The long list of controversies includes the rise and demise of Todd Carney, the sacking of Nate Myles and most recently the dumping of Brian Smith, who had fallen out with the players, most notably Mitchell Pearce.

To his credit, Noyce refused to take a swipe at the club yesterday and said poor results on the field played a major factor.

"Clearly the performances over the last couple of years (have played a part)," Noyce said. "Professional sport is about making semi-finals, so we are all under that pressure. You accept that.

"I'm really lucky I have a lovely wife (Kerry) and a fantastic family to support me. As long as you have those foundations in your life that is the most important thing.

"I have been here four years. It has been a privilege and an honour to be the CEO of a proud foundation club like the Roosters."

The tough task for Canavan is to bring back discipline to a playing roster that is short on maturity and will be led by a rookie coach in Robinson next year.

Canavan is experienced in working under Politis's rule and at Bondi Junction it's always important to keep rugby league's longest serving major sponsor in mind.

In July when the foundation club was celebrating its Hall of Fame dinner, there was one notable absentee.

While the who's who of the Roosters' high society fan club gathered at the Sydney Cricket Ground to induct club legends Ron Coote, Ray Stehr, Dick Dunn and Kevin Hastings into the Hall of Fame, stuck overseas on business was one very angry man.

Unfortunately, someone had forgotten to make sure the Hall of Fame event worked in with Politis's busy schedule.

Even if it wasn't Noyce's job to arrange the date or the dinner, a well-informed identity remarked yesterday that the powerful boss wouldn't have been impressed: "Nick would have been filthy to miss that night."

Politis, with an estimated fortune in the hundreds of millions, has been paying the bills at the Roosters since the late 1970s and nothing gets done without his approval.

There were rumblings early this year that Noyce was living on borrowed time at the club. Even so, when the call arrived yesterday it struck the long-serving and well-liked administrator like a thunderbolt.

Canavan was at the Roosters in the early 2000s when they made four grand finals in five years under former coaches Graham Murray and Ricky Stuart.

And just two years ago Canavan was charged with the job of reviewing the entire NSW State of Origin set-up.