{"id":702916,"date":"2026-05-29T20:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702916\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:37:19","slug":"peter-vlandys-inside-the-audacious-idea-of-one-man-ruling-the-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/702916\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter V\u2019landys: Inside the audacious idea of one man ruling the NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Former premier Barry O\u2019Farrell once said Peter V\u2019landys is a man \u201calways more than three steps ahead\u201d. He\u2019ll need to be if the sporting supremo hopes to pull off an audacious bid to become executive chairman of the NRL.<\/p>\n

If O\u2019Farrell\u2019s assessment is correct, V\u2019landys will have spent months, if not years, considering how to handle the make-or-break moment which arrived on Monday when NRL chief executive officer Andrew Abdo called it quits.<\/p>\n

Abdo\u2019s departure was not a surprise; there had been persistent talk he wanted out, and V\u2019landys says his chief executive kept him abreast of a potential defection to Tennis Australia for some time. The real test of smarts and strategy lies in the battle over how Abdo is replaced.<\/p>\n

\"NRLNRL chairman Peter V\u2019landys has a big decision to make.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys has refused to deny that his endgame is to wind up his two-decade tenure as Racing NSW chief executive officer and focus on league by merging his existing role of Australian Rugby League Commission chairman with the newly vacated role of chief executive officer.<\/p>\n

Unorthodox doesn\u2019t go close to describing the idea of an all-powerful NRL executive chairman \u2013 all other major Australian sporting codes are governed by a partnership between a chair and a CEO \u2013 but V\u2019landys is not shy in challenging tradition.<\/p>\n

The polarising \u201cPVL\u201d has many descriptors: Australia\u2019s best sporting administrator, the most influential man in Sydney, hard taskmaster, disruptor, mad genius, hero and saviour of racing and league. Master strategist is on the list too, or, as O\u2019Farrell would describe it, someone always a few steps ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys\u2019 ascension to the role of executive chair is not yet a given, and he would need to lobby hard to make it happen. It is a potential high-risk, high-reward option for V\u2019landys personally and the league more broadly. It might also just be a thoroughly bad idea which runs counter to good corporate governance. \u201cThis is actually not about whether people like or hate Peter,\u201d one senior league figure said. \u201cThis is about whether it\u2019s sensible to give one bloke two distinct jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only six years ago, V\u2019landys thought such an idea should never fly. When Todd Greenberg\u2019s disastrous tenure as CEO came to an end in 2020, there was speculation that V\u2019landys might have a stab at an executive chair role. He wasn\u2019t interested at the time and even argued that a merged role would be problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate,\u201d he said of the concept of an executive chair.<\/a> \u201cThere needs to be a segregation between the board and management. I\u2019ve always believed in proper corporate governance, so it would be hypocritical to do anything other than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years later, V\u2019landys won\u2019t rule out a tilt at such a role. While his loyal NRL board will endorse any run, he has told those close to him that he hasn\u2019t made his mind up about what to do because he\u2019s focused on securing a lucrative new broadcast rights agreement. He may also avoid putting his hand up if he gets a sense that clubs and other stakeholders won\u2019t support his elevation. Why enter a fight you know you\u2019re going to lose?<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Peter<\/a><\/p>\n

If he ultimately decides to go for it, the next few months of his life will be dictated by three key numbers: 16, two, and $4 billion.<\/p>\n

Sixteen is the number of clubs needed to seal a change to the Australian Rugby League Commission\u2019s constitution, which currently states a director can\u2019t be chief executive. Some clubs love the idea of King V\u2019landys, and see it as a chance to keep pushing the boundaries of what league can achieve. O\u2019Farrell, who is now the Wests Tigers chair, told the Herald earlier this week<\/a> that elevating V\u2019landys \u201cmakes a lot of sense\u201d and could only further enhance the game. Sydney Roosters\u2019 billionaire chairman Nick Politis, Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp, and Gold Coast Titans owner Rebecca Frizelle have also publicly endorsed the idea.<\/p>\n

There are 17 clubs in the league. The need to have 16 of them vote for a constitutional change means any bid by V\u2019landys could be sunk by just two unhappy clubs voting no. Much has been written about the at-times fraught relationship between Souths and NRL HQ, for instance.<\/p>\n

One senior league figure said on Friday that while most clubs had no problem with V\u2019landys personally, placing too much power in one man\u2019s hands was fraught with danger and bad for corporate governance.<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys\u2019 second crucial number, two, represents the state leagues: NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League. Both must support any constitutional change for it to be successful. V\u2019landys and NSWRL have had a particularly fraught relationship; the ARLC and NSWRL faced off in the Supreme Court four years ago, and all sides have argued among themselves over funding levels and how it is spent. Despite the past disagreements, both state organisations could still sign up if they think it\u2019s in the best interest of the game.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Abdo announces his departure from the NRL as chairman Peter V\u2019landys looks on.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n

The final key number may make any difficulty with getting clubs and state leagues on board magically evaporate. Four billion dollars is the price V\u2019landys is seeking for a new five-year broadcasting rights deal. The notoriously hard negotiator has become obsessed with striking a deal larger than the mammoth $4.5 billion, seven-year agreement the AFL inked with Foxtel and Network Seven in 2022.<\/p>\n

In an era where the commercial television advertising market is challenged and a crackdown of gambling advertising imminent, $800 million per year for broadcast rights is an outlandish ask. But he may well get it. Nine, the owner of the Herald, has lobbed an aggressive bid to broadcast all the games on free-to-air television and Stan, and global streaming giant Amazon is also interested.<\/p>\n

The bid is high-stakes for Nine because not only are the costs huge, it would edge Foxtel \u2013 currently a co-rights holder \u2013 off the field, and potentially trigger a merger down the line between Stan and the Kayo Sport platform.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The stakes are even higher for V\u2019landys. If he can emerge from the negotiations as league\u2019s Four Billion Dollar Man, it would be harder for detractors to argue against his elevation to executive chair.<\/p>\n

V\u2019landys is not to be underestimated. He is driven by a desire to win, fuelled in part by a challenging upbringing in Wollongong defined by language barriers and schoolyard bullies.<\/p>\n

But he is also more vulnerable than he\u2019s used to. For the first time in a long time, he is not running his own race, and his fate rests in the hands of others.<\/p>\n

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\"BevanBevan Shields<\/a> is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-702916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}