Can money buy NRL success? No. There’s a much more important ingredient
Opinion
In a casual discussion with a long-time former NRL club chief executive and chair, he talked about sustained success.
“Do you know what those clubs consistently at the top have in common?” the ex-club boss asked. “Money.”
It’s an interesting point, considering every club spends the same amount on players under the salary cap, just under $12 million per year.
What the former CEO was referring to is the set-up of these clubs: the centres of excellence, the sports science and access to medical experts, facilities in general, support staff overseeing the salary cap and junior development, coaching staff, etc.
And while each club is structured very differently, there are definitely haves and have-nots.
I put the CEO’s theory to the test and crunched the numbers over the past 10 seasons to see how often teams made the finals. Making the finals consistently is a definite KPI for clubs.
At the top of the list is Melbourne – who made all 10– followed by the Panthers, Roosters and Sharks with nine appearances. They were the four stand-outs.
The Raiders and Broncos are next with six appearances each, then the Rabbitohs on five, Manly, Parramatta, Cowboys and Newcastle on four, Canterbury and the Warriors on three, the Titans on two, Dragons with one and the Wests Tigers on zero.
For the purpose of this exercise the Dolphins, being new, are excused.
If you analyse that list, money is not the only factor. It’s important, but leadership is more important.
And when you have both – money and strong leadership – you have a potent combination.
That combination is evident at Melbourne, the Roosters and the Panthers.
Melbourne is owned by an active consortium led by online wagering multi-millionaire Matt Tripp, the current chair, who created Sportsbet, Beteasy and Betr.
The stability and drive of the leadership flows down to head coach Craig Bellamy and football manager Frank Ponissi, who are the best in the business.
The Roosters are very similar, where benefactor 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 ambition to win premierships.
Coach Trent Robinson has been at the helm for three premiership wins in the past 13 seasons. They are as stable as the Harbour Bridge.
Penrith is slightly different. Their wealth comes from the mighty Panthers group of clubs, the biggest of which is their headquarters in Penrith complete with a giant club, multiple restaurants, two hotels, a convention centre and entertainment quarter.
For years it was run by CEO Brian Fletcher and a strong board which was the first to build a football centre of excellence. After Phil Gould did the groundwork, coach Ivan Cleary and his son and captain Nathan went to work on turning the enormous junior talent base into a premiership-winning juggernaut.
The outlier among the four most successful finals teams of the past decade are the Sharks. There’s not much money, they have a low but passionate supporter base and play out of the worst professional ground in the nation – Shark Park, also known as Portaloo Park.
The club’s redevelopment has been a financial disaster.
Despite that, they won the title in 2016 and have made the finals nine times in 10 seasons. It’s a mighty effort and a testament to off-field leadership and the coaching and playing group.
Canberra’s success comes down to leadership too – mainly CEO Don Furner and coach Ricky Stuart. They are the club’s DNA. Attracting players to long winters in Canberra is not easy and keeping them is hard. They deal with a dud local government with no vision and do their best at a decaying stadium.
The Broncos should be more successful than they are simply because of their size, health and feverish 70,000-strong membership. Off-field brawling and angst has held them back, although one premiership and six finals appearances in ten seasons is a borderline pass mark.
In the under-achievement department are Parramatta and the Bulldogs. The two giants of the ’80s have fumbled their way through the last decade despite the advantage of rich leagues clubs.
Both clubs have had boardroom brawls for decades and it has cost them dearly.
Souths have unbelievable ownership and a leadership group dripping with passion. Chair Nick Pappas and CEO Blake Solly are as good as they come, but making 50 per cent of finals series over a decade is probably a slight under-achievement. You could argue luck has played a part, but you make your own luck.
Manly is impossible to get a handle on. Owners the wealthy Penn family don’t run the club in the same way as Politis at the Roosters. It’s passive and you need to send out a search party to find the passion. Since the golden era of 2008 to 2011 with two premierships and a grand final appearance, nothing much has happened apart from the emergence of the Trbojevic brothers and the routine sacking of coaches and CEOs. Des Hasler left and came back and left and sued, Geoff Toovey did his best, outsiders Trent Barrett and Anthony Seibold never quite gelled and now Kieran Foran is interim coach.
More disappointing than Manly have been the Dragons. The most historic club in the competition, it’s been crickets since the 2010 premiership under Wayne Bennett. To only be in the finals once in 10 years is pitiful.
Both Manly and the Dragons have gone from being big clubs to small clubs this century. Which is both a shame and shameful.
The Titans are well run, have good facilities, a great home ground and have a strong ownership team under chair Rebecca Frizelle, but on field the playing group can never get it together. Then again, two finals appearances is one more than the Dragons. Go figure.
Then there’s the Wests Tigers. A total disaster for two decades. They are owned by the Holman Barnes group which controls many clubs including the mega-rich Wests Ashfield which is dripping in poker machine riches.
But they have a disastrous board and it flows down to the football club. Not making the finals since 2011 says it all. No amount of money can make up for poor leadership.
The great Jack Gibson said it best: “Winning starts in the front office.”
Neil Breen is the national sports editor and a Walkley Award-winning journalist.Connect via X.