High Flyers

He became CEO of Football Federation Australia after a decade as head of the scandal-plagued National Rugby League. The law yer and sports fan understands the benefits of doing what you love – as long as it’s hard to do.

When you were a teenager considering university, your first instinct was to study sports administration.

I started doing a sports administration course and dropped out after a couple of weeks. Like a lot of young people, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was at and, ultimately, I did a law degree. It’s somewhat ironic that I ended up in sports administration.

Was sport at the core of your childhood?

In the ’60s and ’70s, Canberra was a great place to be young; there were plenty of sports facilities in that rural Australian tradition. My dad [former Supreme Court judge John Gallop] played rugby union and rugby league and he was a good cricketer. I played soccer at school and always followed the game. [The late soccer star] Johnny Warren coached Canberra.

It was your introduction to John Ribot – later CEO of Super League – that opened the door back to sport.

I played cricket with Peter Jourdain, who ended up being the CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys. He introduced me to John Ribot, who was looking for an in-house lawyer. For a young lawyer interested in sport, it was a fascinating period because there was a lot going on for rugby league, both in and out of the courtroom. There were significant peaks and troughs for the game in those years and it was a good part of my career.

Your leadership style has been described as thoughtful, fair and straight-talking. Do you attribute some of that to your legal training?

Being a lawyer definitely helps in sport. You’re running a mini system of government, really, with rules and processes, obviously building a sustainable business but also managing competing interests. Legal training is certainly helpful in that regard.

In 2002, six months in to your tenure as CEO of the National Rugby League (NRL), the Bulldogs salary cap scandal blew up. How do you reflect on that time?

It was challenging. There were heart-rending conversations with coaches and players but it did give the NRL – and me, personally – an opportunity to put a line in the sand about something fundamental to the business of sport. The salary cap had never been strictly policed and the nature of the breach — deliberate concealment — was so significant that there was little option in terms of penalty. There were innocent victims, such as the fans, but there were also people who were culpable for putting the club in that position.

What do you remember wanting?

An even playing field and a system that would keep the clubs financially viable was dependent on the salary cap. It was an opportunity to send a message of deterrence. When detection is difficult, penalties need to be significant.

Do you still think the salary cap is the most efficient model?

The salary cap is more important in Australian sports than in countries where there aren’t so many professional clubs – or sports – trying to get hearts and minds. Fans need to believe that on any day their team has a chance to win.

It was big news when you left as CEO in 2012. What did you learn?

On that occasion, I learnt that you won’t always be recognised for all the challenges you face in these jobs. Ten years is a long stint and the game was regenerated in that period. I’ve learnt that, as a CEO, the buck stops with you but you must put in place a strong senior team because you’re there to conduct the orchestra, not play all the instruments yourself.

When you became the CEO of Football Federation Australia (FFA) later that year, what did you initially notice?

You have to manage a level of restlessness because people look at what happens overseas and sometimes lose sight of the uniquely competitive environment in Australian sport. Things that can happen overseas easily can’t happen so easily in Australian football. One of my core beliefs is that, although football should celebrate being a global game, it needs to concentrate on its place in Australian sport.

In 2015, FFA set out a 20-year vision that had much to do with spotting elite talent in kids.

[American industrialist] Jean Paul Getty said you only need to do three things to be successful: “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” In Australian sport, finding oil is turning sixand seven-year-old boys and girls on to the sport and keeping them into their adulthood.

“You must put in place a strong senior team because you’re there to conduct the orchestra, not play all the instruments yourself.” DAVIDGALLOP

There’s a hugely competitive market to do that in Australia, lots of opportunities and lots of choices. Football has recently been announced as the No.1 club-based participation sport in the country. One of its growing areas is over-35s and over-45s competitions because football is a game you can play for decades, whereas participation in contact sports has a limited window. Football is safe, simple and skilful for men, women, boys and girls. It embraces the multiculturalism of the country like no other sport and it has a massive base. The challenge is connecting that huge base to the professional tier of the game.

Also in 2015, the media published names of banned spectators. How did you work through that issue?

Recognising the passion and emotion but not getting caught up in it was important. We ended up with a much better system and a united approach across the clubs when previously it had been quite combative.

The Lowy family came in at a time that made a huge difference to the code but there’s the issue of FFA board election processes.

We will evolve with changes in the structure that will give wider representation across the game. The need to do it in a considered way that brings stakeholders along with us is paramount. It’s part of the growth of the sport, from needing total reform 12 years ago to now needing to evolve beyond a structure that was put in place when it was effectively on its knees.

Refinements are more difficult to effect than when a business is on its knees.

It’s a sign of the growing commercial value of the sport that the many hungry mouths that need feeding have to be managed. One aspect is growing the value of our current licences for owners who’ve invested significantly over 12 years and making sure the asset they’ve invested in increases in value.

In football, we‘re seeing good crowds but not the extraordinary licence arrangements. Is that the next challenge?

Broadcast revenue is the goose that lays the golden egg for sport. Football recently did a six-year deal that doubled its subscription in television. We need to connect all levels of the game in an effort to grow the numbers and increase the value of those rights. Part of rugby league’s success is that it’s an excellent game to view on television, with player focus in a relatively small area of the field. Cricket is also highly watchable on television because of where the batsman and the bowler are, as opposed to AFL where viewers tend to get out to the game to appreciate all that’s going on on the field.

What’s your advice for those bright-eyed boys and girls who want your job?

Look for something you love doing but find challenging. There’s great satisfaction in seeing something you like grow but also great satisfaction in solving the hard-to-solve.