If I was Grant Mayer – and it's a good thing I'm not, for his sake as much as anything – this is what I'm doing last Friday.
I'm dragging Robbie Farah into my office, telling him to take a seat, and shutting the door.
"Right, Robbie," I tell him. "Let's get something straight: I run this club, not you. Don't you ever, ever speak to me again as you did last week, when I approached you after training and asked you to have a coffee to sort this mess out.
Get this straight … legendary Canterbury CEO Peter Moore. Photo: Tim Clayton
"I don't care if you're the captain. I don't care if I've been here five minutes. See this business card here? See how it says 'chief executive' under my name? That means I'm your boss. You might want to remember that."
Then I am calling Steve Roach into the office.
"G'day, Blocker," I tell him. "I know you're a club legend. I know you bleed black and gold. I know you speak your mind. But when you publicly say there's no leadership here, that Wayne Pearce should replace me, that I've got no balls, it means you have undermined my authority.
"So here's some balls, big fella ... You're gone."
Someone, at some stage, will grab control of the Wests Tigers and stop the insanity. If first grade's 64-6 loss to the Cowboys on Saturday night is any indication, it needs to happen pronto.
Will it be Mayer? Will it be chairman Mike Bailey? Will it be one of these mysterious independent directors the NRL says will lead the joint venture out of the wilderness?
Either way, the mess at the Tigers illuminates the distinct lack of leadership that has infected many clubs and indeed the game.
It's easy to view the past through rose-tinted schooner glasses, but could you ever envisage the likes of Peter "Bullfrog" Moore, Ken Arthurson, John Quayle and even as far back as Frank Facer at St George gobbling up what Mayer has been dished out from his own employees in the past few weeks? To that end, could you ever imagine them making the mistakes that Mayer has?
The late Moore had a favourite saying, and it still resonates at Canterbury: "A club is not about the four walls surrounding us. It's about the people the four walls surround."
They don't make them like Bullfrog any longer.
He famously called his rival club bosses to have a Chinese feed in the late 1970s. They hadn't reached the main course when they realised the man who organised the lunch wasn't there.
Instead, he was stepping off a plane in England, about to sign Andrew Farrar, who was the hottest young player in the game and on tour with the Australian Schoolboys side.
Do you think Moore would ever have allowed any of his players to undermine the coach? To cop a spray on The Footy Show from his captain? To allow "player power" to determine who stays and who goes?
Let's make it clear: the game is loaded with some gun administrators, who would have no truck with what's going on at the Tigers.
Shane Richardson has done wonders at South Sydney, which has become a powerhouse of Australian sport off the field and is now on the verge of premiership glory on it. Nick Politis always gets what he wants at the Roosters. The success of that club cannot be disputed. The Bulldogs have a board with similar resolve, headed by chairman Ray Dib.
Meanwhile, at Penrith, Phil Gould and Warren Wilson have taken a footy and leagues club on the precipice of insolvency and developed a side two points away from the top of the ladder and a club on the rise.
Yet there is much weakness across much of Club Land. Some of it comes down to the chief executive giving the coach too much say in the pursuit of a premiership. Some are undermined by a board where egos and the blind pursuit of power is king.
The Sharks are a mess. So, too, the Knights. The last time Manly wasn't fighting with itself, Geoff Toovey had hair. The Titans. The Dragons ...
Parramatta is only just getting it right, but with one of the most powerful brands in the game, in the sprawling mass of Sydney's west, it should be far stronger. Five chief executives since Denis Fitzgerald – "The Emperor" – departed says it all.
Corporate governance in clubs is an issue NRL chief executive Dave Smith identified within seconds of getting his desk.
He and executives from head office have attended club board meetings, discussing his desire to have independent directors injected into each board. According to the NRL, a set of "minimum standards" is being developed for clubs to adopt.
In some cases, it is clearly needed. But some of the stronger clubs are firmly against the idea, knowing they are travelling along just nicely.
Those who reside on club boards do so because they ride the wins and losses like any fun. They have passion.
But when it comes to leading the club, chief executives needs more than that. More than anything, they need strength. They need to make it clear who's boss.
They need to be strong enough to call a captain or club legend into their office, shut the door, and remind them of that fact.
Then again, if they are strong enough to begin with, they probably wouldn't be having the conversation.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/grant-mayer-needs-to-show-whos-boss-8211-and-fast-20140811-102scy.html#ixzz3A5gTYsJk
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I'm dragging Robbie Farah into my office, telling him to take a seat, and shutting the door.
"Right, Robbie," I tell him. "Let's get something straight: I run this club, not you. Don't you ever, ever speak to me again as you did last week, when I approached you after training and asked you to have a coffee to sort this mess out.
Get this straight … legendary Canterbury CEO Peter Moore. Photo: Tim Clayton
"I don't care if you're the captain. I don't care if I've been here five minutes. See this business card here? See how it says 'chief executive' under my name? That means I'm your boss. You might want to remember that."
Then I am calling Steve Roach into the office.
"G'day, Blocker," I tell him. "I know you're a club legend. I know you bleed black and gold. I know you speak your mind. But when you publicly say there's no leadership here, that Wayne Pearce should replace me, that I've got no balls, it means you have undermined my authority.
"So here's some balls, big fella ... You're gone."
Someone, at some stage, will grab control of the Wests Tigers and stop the insanity. If first grade's 64-6 loss to the Cowboys on Saturday night is any indication, it needs to happen pronto.
Will it be Mayer? Will it be chairman Mike Bailey? Will it be one of these mysterious independent directors the NRL says will lead the joint venture out of the wilderness?
Either way, the mess at the Tigers illuminates the distinct lack of leadership that has infected many clubs and indeed the game.
It's easy to view the past through rose-tinted schooner glasses, but could you ever envisage the likes of Peter "Bullfrog" Moore, Ken Arthurson, John Quayle and even as far back as Frank Facer at St George gobbling up what Mayer has been dished out from his own employees in the past few weeks? To that end, could you ever imagine them making the mistakes that Mayer has?
The late Moore had a favourite saying, and it still resonates at Canterbury: "A club is not about the four walls surrounding us. It's about the people the four walls surround."
They don't make them like Bullfrog any longer.
He famously called his rival club bosses to have a Chinese feed in the late 1970s. They hadn't reached the main course when they realised the man who organised the lunch wasn't there.
Instead, he was stepping off a plane in England, about to sign Andrew Farrar, who was the hottest young player in the game and on tour with the Australian Schoolboys side.
Do you think Moore would ever have allowed any of his players to undermine the coach? To cop a spray on The Footy Show from his captain? To allow "player power" to determine who stays and who goes?
Let's make it clear: the game is loaded with some gun administrators, who would have no truck with what's going on at the Tigers.
Shane Richardson has done wonders at South Sydney, which has become a powerhouse of Australian sport off the field and is now on the verge of premiership glory on it. Nick Politis always gets what he wants at the Roosters. The success of that club cannot be disputed. The Bulldogs have a board with similar resolve, headed by chairman Ray Dib.
Meanwhile, at Penrith, Phil Gould and Warren Wilson have taken a footy and leagues club on the precipice of insolvency and developed a side two points away from the top of the ladder and a club on the rise.
Yet there is much weakness across much of Club Land. Some of it comes down to the chief executive giving the coach too much say in the pursuit of a premiership. Some are undermined by a board where egos and the blind pursuit of power is king.
The Sharks are a mess. So, too, the Knights. The last time Manly wasn't fighting with itself, Geoff Toovey had hair. The Titans. The Dragons ...
Parramatta is only just getting it right, but with one of the most powerful brands in the game, in the sprawling mass of Sydney's west, it should be far stronger. Five chief executives since Denis Fitzgerald – "The Emperor" – departed says it all.
Corporate governance in clubs is an issue NRL chief executive Dave Smith identified within seconds of getting his desk.
He and executives from head office have attended club board meetings, discussing his desire to have independent directors injected into each board. According to the NRL, a set of "minimum standards" is being developed for clubs to adopt.
In some cases, it is clearly needed. But some of the stronger clubs are firmly against the idea, knowing they are travelling along just nicely.
Those who reside on club boards do so because they ride the wins and losses like any fun. They have passion.
But when it comes to leading the club, chief executives needs more than that. More than anything, they need strength. They need to make it clear who's boss.
They need to be strong enough to call a captain or club legend into their office, shut the door, and remind them of that fact.
Then again, if they are strong enough to begin with, they probably wouldn't be having the conversation.
\
\
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/grant-mayer-needs-to-show-whos-boss-8211-and-fast-20140811-102scy.html#ixzz3A5gTYsJk
_Posted using RoarFEED V.4_
