Warriors boss the best choice for NRL
THEN-NRL chief executive Dave Smith throws his hands in the air and says he’s had enough, just weeks after telling all concerned he’s going nowhere. All on his terms, apparently.
I’m still searching for a single person in the game who reckons he wasn’t pushed – although some much closer to the situation report that ARL Commission chairman John Grant did ask Smith to stay on for another year.
While Smith and Grant are holding a confected media conference, news is breaking that former Bulldogs star Hazem El Masri has been charged with the domestic assault of his wife.
No. Surely not. Not Hazem. The former White Ribbon ambassador pleaded not guilty to the charges when he appeared in court on Thursday.
So which brave or deluded soul now wants to plop down in the director’s chair and call the shots of the greatest soap opera this side of Ramsay Street, with its actors and extras and bit players rarely following the script?
The ARL Commission needs to throw the bank at Jim Doyle, drag him back to League Central and give him Smith’s corner office. Forget about paying a recruitment agency truckloads to embark on an expensive ‘‘worldwide search’’. The best option is right under its nose.
Doyle quit as chief operating officer in June last year to become chief executive at the Warriors.
Like anyone who has left League Central in the past three years, he went quietly. He was angry when this column suggested at the time he had grown tired of working under Smith and a dysfunctional administration.
You’d expect a man like Doyle to say as much. Those who worked closely with him at head office say otherwise.
But now the ‘‘position vacant’’ sign has gone up and it is understood Doyle has support amongst some commissioners, some of whom were unhappy to see him leave last year.
Club bosses spoken to in recent days say they would embrace him. ‘‘He’s one of us,’’ offered one. ‘‘But would the commission want someone who will tell them some hard facts?’’ And that’s the thing. Panthers Group boss Warren Wilson is being touted all over the place, but he’s realistically a long shot because he would not be afraid to tell the commission some home truths. He is also too close to Phil Gould, who sparks much paranoia at League Central with the mere mention of his name.
Doyle returned to New Zealand – where he was once boss of the NZRL – to be closer to his family. He is independently wealthy. Would he want to take control of the soap opera?
As others wildly speculated about a possible replacement for Smith, Doyle’s name was quietly gathering momentum among those who matter.