Cold comfort: NRL executive pay lags well behind the AFL

Buried deep in the AFL’s financial report is a series of figures that provide some comfort for the NRL during this cold and dreary time.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has looked increasingly isolated in recent weeks Picture: Getty Images

Buried deep in the AFL’s financial report for last season is a series of figures that provide some comfort for the NRL during this cold and dreary time.

Amid calls for the NRL executive to have its cloth cut as the game grapples with an unsustainable cost base, The Weekend Australian can reveal the pay packets of the AFL executive leave its league counterpart in the shade.

Headlined by chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s salary — believed to be upwards of $2m a year — the AFL spent more than $10m on its key management personnel last year.

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The salaries of its executive team average out in excess of $800,000 — only two, possibly three, members of the NRL’s executive are believed to be on that sort of money.

The AFL brings in over $700m a year in revenue and its executive team are well paid. Exceptionally well paid.

As COVID-19 savages sports across the country, no one seems to be calling for their salaries to be savaged when the codes regain their feet.

The clubs aren’t crying foul, no doubt in part because chief executives at the AFL teams are well remunerated in comparison to their NRL counterparts.

The disparity across the country’s major footballing codes speaks more to the enmity that has developed between Rugby League Central and its clubs.

The NRL argues it has done a good job in building revenues to the point where the game is now raking in more than $500m a year.

The game’s leaders have been richly rewarded in recent years. Over the past five years alone, NRL key management personnel have shared more than $30m.

They would no doubt suggest they deserve it given the market rates set by the AFL and the boost in the game’s coffers.

That isn’t necessarily the gripe from the clubs. Their angst is with the money that has been spent across all areas of the business and the perceived lack of respect that comes their way from head office.

A day of reckoning is coming, most likely once the game has fulfilled its promise to return on May 28. Once the hurdles have been cleared and rugby league is back to satiate their fans, attention will turn to changes that need to be made to ensure the game has a more secure future.

Clubs and players will be asked to rip apart their cost base. The salary cap could be reduced by anything up to 40 per cent.

The respective football departments at clubs are expected to be hit as well.

Coaches will feel the pinch as much as the players, those on seven-figure salaries likely to suffer the most.

NRL boss Todd Greenberg will be in the crosshairs. He has been for some time amid a deteriorating relationship with clubs. In recent weeks, some have been alarmed at the stasis at NRL headquarters.

The Warriors made their feelings known this week when they basically accused the NRL of ignoring them and their plight.

Other clubs are asking when the game’s governing body is going to begin the work that needs to be done to work out the salary cap for next season.

Greenberg fumbled the ball in negotiations with the players, only agreeing to the same pay cut as them after he was publicly called out. Then there has been mixed messaging over Greenberg’s involvement in broadcasting talks. The Nine Network has insisted on speaking to ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys and V’landys alone. Initially it was thought Greenberg would also be sidelined for negotiations with Fox Sports. He eventually took part in the conversation but V’landys has taken charge of putting the finishing touches on a deal with the networks.

Talks have taken place behind closed doors and no one outside the trio involved — V’landys, Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany and Nine Network boss Hugh Marks — is aware of what has been said.

The talks are too sensitive. Too much is at stake. Until those talks are resolved, player negotiations are on hold.

Tough conversations will need to be had but the sooner they are carried out, the sooner the game can move forward.

Perhaps the toughest conversation will be between Greenberg and V’landys.

Greenberg looked in all sorts of trouble a month or so ago. He seemed a chance to redeem himself as he stood tall when COVID-19 first gripped the code. In recent weeks, he has appeared lost.

V’landys has done all the heavy lifting and Greenberg has become a forgotten figure. The sense is that when the gloom has lifted and the game is back on track, the axe will fall.

Funnily enough, Greenberg and McLachlan have been speaking regularly about the plights of their respective codes throughout the fight with coronavirus.

As the heads of the country’s major footballing codes, they are kindred spirits during a time of crisis. Yet when it comes to job security, they could not be further apart.