NRL textbook case of inept

One day, in the not too distant future, students around Australia and New Zealand might be studying the NRL’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It could become one of those case studies, used in marketing and business classes, and maybe even on MBA courses. Unfortunately it won’t be pretty. Such “learning from mistakes” scenarios often include the launch of “New Coke” in 1985, Kodak’s failure to anticipate the digital revolution and Nokia’s fall from grace in the mobile sector.

All those episodes were unique but had common threads: muddled leadership, poor internal and external communication and an inability to see the big picture.

Michael Burgess

The NRL’s bungled handling of its competition restart, while not on the same scale as the stories above, has some similar themes.

Tomorrow will mark five weeks since the competition was suspended, after round two, played in empty stadiums.

In that time, the NRL have lost chief executive Todd Greenberg to an ugly resignation, seemingly lost any semblance of a close working relationship with Channel Nine and Foxtel, lost the trust of the players over revelations about nonpayments into welfare funds, and on several other occasions, lost their way.

There has to be some sympathy. The NRL are dealing with an unprecedented situation that was impossible to predict and the precarious financial state of many clubs has added a level of desperation not present for other sporting codes.

But their handling of it all has been very poor. The Channel Nine scenario was impossible to understand, as the broadcaster was seemingly left out of planning for a revised competition, until they kicked up a fuss.

It’s like negotiating in earnest to buy a house — and even talking to builders and architects about renovation plans — when you