I agree to some extent with Josh, I am not a Greenberg fan but the reality is that people have been dissatisfied with the CEO's (or equivalent) performance since rugby league existed.
Rugby League has been squandering opportunities and dealing with in-fighting since 1908, and it wasn't going to change on Greenberg's watch.
His main failing I think is that he was easy to dislike. Your average mug punter wouldn't honestly have any clue whether or not Greeberg was a good CEO, they wouldn't even know what the CEO's KPIs were and how he was performing against those. Mug punters only absorb the "at surface" items like "I didn't like the bunker" or "refs are doing a bad job" and then pointing back at the CEO.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a mug punter too, but I won't claim to know if Greenberg was actually any good at his job. All I can say is he lost the popularity contest.
All this other stuff, e.g. the cost of running the NRL - that's just reality of big income. Sure head office could have been more cost-effective in squirreling away funds, but that is true of any management and most of them spend within their means (i.e. if their means grow, so do their spending).
Similarly look at any given club and how much money they spend on non-player salaries since the salary cap was bumped up over the last 2 broadcast deals.
This latest report about missing funds, we are talking very small sums here. Certainly the accounting needs to be 100% accurate, but it's not enough to topple a CEO, and I'd challenge anyone to be certain that no other missing funds ever occurred within rugby league headquarters or any other state branch.
So keep in mind this almost excessive "fan celebration" in regards to Greenberg in 3-4 years when the next bloke has gotten his hands dirty and rugby league hasn't magically been fixed or cured of it's historical ills.
"Small sums of cash" might well sum up his latest stuff-up but where the hell is this $500 000 A DAY ending up? That is an astonishing figure. I'm willing to bet he's been skimming money for a while now, that's why he seems happy enough to walk away quietly before a real investigation into this exhorbitant spending got underway. He got off lightly IMO, very lightly.
Where has this 500k a day number even come from? NRL’d administration cost last year was $60k a day on average. To even get close to 500k a day you have to add game day costs, sponsorship, player welfare etc.
$500k a day is yet another thing being pushed by the media who wanted him out.
That is exactly what they did, they have even included match day hospitality for sponsors which cost $102m but brought in $205m last year.
Exactly mate. Looking at the number $500k a day without knowing the whole context is pointless. It’s a throwaway stat posted by the media to get Todd out.
I’m not even a fan of the bloke just think he’s copping some crap unfairly. If you look at the actual money he’s brought to the game it’s been good. Revenue in almost every area has gone up since he’s been in charge + has introduced the women’s game, international footy has grown and state of origin is growing nationally.
Biggest problem is that he didn’t have money put away for the virus - something a lot of businesses also didn’t do. It was never planned and now they’ve had to take a loan out because of it which isn’t good. Plus the Inglis and Cameron Smith stuff just looks bad as well.
Not having a proper CEO when the business could collapse due to the virus also doesn’t seem like a good idea to me
How has international footy grown?
How has State Of Origin grown nationally?....crowds are down for Origin, especially in NSW.
Not having a go at you mate, people who think Greenberg has been unfairly targetted aren't really stating much of a case for their arguments. Most people are of the opinion that the game has nosedived rapidly and considerably in many areas during Greenberg's reign.
More international games with more viewers than ever, there’s been more interest in international footy since a long time.
State of origin taken to other states with sold out crowds growing the game nationally plus women’s state of origin a big success.
I’m not even a fan of the bloke but the amount of people calling him the worst ever based off channel 9 articles (who wanted him gone) is laughable
I'm not basing my opinion of him being the worst RL CEO ever off of channel 9 articles. I'm basing my opinion of his tenure on his demonstrated inability to do his job properly. Nearly every decision he has made has been bad IMO. Getting paid over a million dollars a year to made continued poor decisions, blatant favouritism, demonstrated double-standards etc is laughable. He should never have got the job, his time at Canterbury wasn't exactly stellar and without dubious decisions involving some very important issues.
What decision of his didn’t you like? Besides the obvious ones like Inglis and Smith, which business decisions didn’t you like? That is what a CEO does after all.
He got appointed CEO because at the time he was considered the best club CEO. His issue at dogs was covering up the Ben Barba issues
You just answered your own question. Do you think what he did at the Bulldogs re: Barba's actions meant he should've been immediately scrapped as a potential candidate for the NRL CEO position? Yep. So do I.
That should of been done deal at that point right there.
You still don’t have an actual answer of what business decisions of his you didn’t like. Besides stuff that has nothing to do with actually making money you don’t know what he did
It's been answered a few times..but here goes again Committee's after Committee's to over see elements of the game that could be done by 1 person ..Refs, Bunker, Judiciary, Rules, Whole of Game, amount of air in ball etc etc..seeing a front office of 470 staff when one of biggest sporting organisations in the World EPL has about 170..
Holding off on paying into the players superannuation for 3 years leaving the NRL a debt that there was no need for as if you believe the NRL was making money in those years..
Crystal Balls and diamond rings for Mr and Mrs Cammy... testimonial games for a bloke who is still playing 2 years later..yet others nothing..
Personal References for some not others..
Fair but not equal in his opinion in relation to the No fault Stand down rule that was rushed through in a reactionary fashion rather than pro-active..
I hope you understand rule changes aren’t solely made by him. There are too many staff in front office I agree but they are making money. If there was no bunker people would complain about refs getting it wrong regardless.
No fault stand down was needed because players can’t stay out of trouble that’s their fault.
The other stuff is a bad look at face value but end of the day he made money and expanded the game. He wasn’t amazing but to say worst CEO ever not knowing what business he actually did is laughable.
V’landys seems like he’s happy to do whatever fox and channel 9 say which is a scary prospect for the game
I don't understand your reasoning.
* How did the game expand under Todd Greenburg? No new teams joined, what actually expanded?
* How did they make money? Is it profit you are referring to? The last tv rights deal? Wasn't there funds which have not been paid, like the super fund? Wasn't there a claim by the clubs as reported in the newspaper that Todd had underpaid the clubs by certain amounts and they then went over Todd to V'landys who straightened it out?
* The No fault stand down was needed? It was only applied to individual players when Todd felt like it should be applied, much too subjectively, he even brought it in saying anyone facing a sentence of 12 years or more will be stood down when there was the outstanding case of De Belin who was facing a 12 years sentence. So it hasn't even really been implemented uniformly, just when he wanted, as he wanted, to whom he wanted.
* How can you say that he can't be judged as the worst because we don't know what business he actually did, yet defend him for that same reason? Yes, we don't know what he physically did behind the scenes, what decisions he actually made as opposed to V'landys or other people - all we can see is what has been made public. So then how do you know he was responsible for the good things you claim he did? How do you even know he was the chief negotiator for the tv rights deal? How do you know he was responsible for whatever money you claimed they made? How do you know he was responsible for expanding the game?
All we saw, was him giving him a diamond ring, having a testimonial dinner and a testimonial game all for Cam Smith, with Todd defending those actions and playing them down in the press. We saw the No fault policy be applied to some players, sometimes, whilst also we saw Todd (previously) writing a letter of reference for Inglis for a court matter involving speeding and a DUI away from a rugby league carnival where Inglis was supposed to be representing the game. We saw Todd himself say when questioned about this No fault stand down policy that it would be fair but not equal.
You're right that we don't see or know everything that happens, but I saw enough that happened with him at the helm to rate his appointment as toxic for the game.
State of origin, international footy Both grew, clubs playing games in regional areas is expanding the game, NRLW and more female participation in junior footy is growing the game.
Check above photo about how they made money.
No fault stand down isn’t perfect and I’m a big critic of it, it’s a massive grey area but something needed to happen about players breaking the Laws and being allowed to play and it’s a step in the right direction. The Inglis thing was bad for sure.
I’m defending him for the business I do know which again refer to the above photo. He wasn’t amazing but people act like he’s done nothing which isn’t true. To pretend the CEO has no part in making money for the game is ridiculous it’s literally his job.
He did plenty wrong, all I’m saying is saying he’s the worst ever and did nothing good is wrong and is exactly what the media wanted you to believe
