In a casual chat with the former NRL club chief executive and long-serving chairman, he spoke about continued success.
“Do you know what those clubs at the top often look like?” the former club boss asked. “Money.”
It’s interesting, considering that every club spends the same amount on players below the salary cap, less than $12 million a year.
What the former CEO was referring to was the establishment of these clubs: centers of excellence, sports science and access to medical experts, facilities in general, support staff in charge of payroll and youth development, coaching staff, etc.
And while every club is structured differently, there are definitely haves and have-nots.
I tested the CEO theory and crunched the numbers over the last 10 seasons to see how many times teams made the finals. Making consecutive finals is a definite KPI for clubs.
At the top of the list is Melbourne – who played all 10 – followed by the Panthers, Roosters and Sharks with nine games. There were four winners.
The Raiders and Broncos follow with six games each, then the Rabbitohs on five games, Manly, Parramatta, Cowboys and Newcastle four times, Canterbury and Warriors three games, Titans two, Dragons and one and Wests Tigers zero.
For the purposes of this exercise Dolphins, being new, are exempt.
If you analyze the list, money is not the only factor. It is important, but leadership is even more important.
And when you have both – money and strong leadership – you have a powerful combination.
The combination is seen in Melbourne, Roosters and Panthers.
Melbourne is owned by an active consortium led by online betting multi-billionaire Matt Tripp, the current chairman, who created Sportsbet, Beteasy and Betr.
The calmness and leadership drive flows through to head coach Craig Bellamy and football manager Frank Ponissi, who are the best in the business.
The Roosters are very similar, where financier and chairman Nick Politis is surrounded by other business heavyweights like Mark Bouris. They run the club with an iron fist and deep pockets and are never shy about their desire to win the premiership.
Coach Trent Robinson has been at the helm for three major league victories in the past 13 seasons. They are as solid as Harbor Bridge.
Penrith is a little different. Their wealth comes from a large group of Panthers clubs, the largest of which is their headquarters in Penrith with a large clubhouse, numerous restaurants, two hotels, a convention center and an entertainment complex.
For many years it was run by CEO Brian Fletcher and a strong board that was the first to build a quality football facility. After Phil Gould made the foundation, coach Ivan Cleary and his son and captain Nathan went to work turning a large base of young talent into a foundation. prime ministerial winner.
The winners of the four most successful finals teams in the last decade are the Sharks. There is not much money, they have a low base but they are passionate and they play outside worst academic field in the nation – Shark Park, also known as Portaloo Park.
club development it has been a financial disaster.
Despite this, they won the title in 2016 and have reached the final nine times in 10 seasons. It is a great effort and a testament to the leadership off the field and the coaching and playing group.
Canberra’s success is down to leadership too – particularly CEO Don Furner and coach Ricky Stuart. It is the club’s DNA. Attracting players in the long winter in Canberra is not easy and keeping them is difficult. They are dealing with a dud local government with no compass and strive in the decaying field.
The Broncos should be more successful than they are simply because of their size, health and fever of 70,000 members. Arguments and anger outside the field it has set them back, although one premiership and six finals appearances in ten seasons is a milestone.
In the underachieving department are Parramatta and the Bulldogs. The ’80s rock duo have struggled over the past decade despite the benefits of the league’s richest clubs.
Both the clubs have been in session feuds for decades and it has cost them dearly.
Southerners has incredible ownership and a passionate leadership team. Chairman Nick Pappas and CEO Blake Solly are as good as they come, but getting 50 percent of the playoffs in a decade is probably a bit of an underachievement. You can argue that luck played a part, but you make your own luck.
The man is impossible to get a handle on. Owners of the wealthy Penn family don’t run the same club as Politis at Majogoo. It’s static and you need to send a search party to get interested. From the golden era of 2008 to 2011 with two premierships and a big final appearance, nothing happened except the emergence of the Trbojevic brothers and the constant dismissal of coaches and general directors. Des Hasler went back and left and charged, Geoff Toovey did his best, outfielders Trent Barrett and Anthony Seibold were tireless and now Kieran Foran is part-time.
More disappointing for Manly have been the Dragons. The most historic club in the competition, it has been in cricket since the 2010 premiership under Wayne Bennett. Getting to the finals only once in 10 years is sad.
Manly and Dragons have gone from big clubs to small clubs this century. Which is a shame and a shame.
The Titans are well-run, well-equipped, a great home ground and have a strong ownership team under chairman Rebecca Frizelle, but on the field the playing group can never seem to get it together. Then again, two finals is one more than the Dragons. Go to the statistics.
Then there are the Wests Tigers. A general disaster for two decades. They are owned by the Holman Barnes group which controls many clubs including the super-rich Wests Ashfield.
But they have disaster board and it flows through to the football club. Not reaching the final since 2011 says it all. No amount of money can compensate for bad leadership.
The great Jack Gibson said it best: “Winning starts in the front office.”
Neil Breen is a national sports editor and a Walkley Award-winning journalist.Connect through X.
