Ground zero for under-fire rugby league

A review into rugby league by the godfather of New Zealand business and sports administration, Sir John Anderson, argues for a "put a broom through the place", an insider says.

Anderson was called in by the government four months ago to fix the mess at the New Zealand Rugby League and a report insider said his review committee is tipped to recommend sweeping changes to the game.

Anderson was due to deliver a preliminary report last Wednesday. It's yet to arrive, mainly because of the depth of his investigation and the wide-ranging changes he will recommend. It's thought the report won't be made public until February.

The Sunday Star-Times has obtained the official "Project Plan" for the report, which indicates the depth of concern for the sport's health at Sparc, the government sports body who are paying for Anderson.

In the six-page plan, Anderson is tasked with asking a long series of questions about the sport's governance and management, its development plans and high-performance strategy. It's thought around 30 people have been interviewed and many more made submissions.

The Sunday Star-Times understands Anderson has found evidence of past mismanagement and will suggest major structural changes to head office and in the regions.

Another source said Anderson had gone back through years of the league's financial records and found more work to do than he had originally anticipated.

Some league people, impressed at Anderson's efforts, have even petitioned him to consider becoming the sport's next chairman.

Among those Anderson has interviewed for the report is Wellington league chairman Stephen Franks (who stood for parliament yesterday for National).

He said: "I thought that it was just great to have a kaumatua like him who can come in and just instil a sense among people that someone is going to have the power to do what they would like to see done. It is amazing, people are much more constructive when they have someone like that doing something.

"There are some pretty hard things being asked, but he has such a good reputation and such experience that people might accept from him things that they might not accept elsewhere."

Anderson was chief executive of both the ANZ and National banks, chaired TVNZ and New Zealand Cricket and this year was appointed chairman of the Capital and Coast District Health Board. The government also used him as a troubleshooter to sort out problems at the Hawkes' Bay DHB.

Anderson's involvement in league marks a power shift in the sport away from league's old-school, colourful, grassroots administrators and towards big business and government, typified by the presence of former New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Murray McCaw as league's interim chief executive.

Sparc is certainly deeply concerned about league. Their plan says the sport "lacks a formalised strategic plan", yet hopes to add 10 percent more players, 10 percent more spectators each year and to win 75 percent of all test matches played by the Kiwis.

It also underlines the NZRL's awful finances, noting they have budgeted to receive only $300,000 in poker machine grants in 2008. Last year, they budgeted for $2.4m in grants, and collected only $1.2m, contributing to a $1.7m loss.

The plan says the "immediate financial position has been further impacted through the lack of international tests in 2008". it's made worse by the fact Kiwis won't receive any World Cup profits, their only income from the tournament being prize money. The bulk of the revenue from the world cup has been targetted at the game's development world wide so the major nations are the ones to miss out.

The plan's schedule is for Anderson's report to be adopted by the NZRL board next month and presented to league stakeholders at a special general meeting in February.

While he will only offer recommendations, rejecting them would come at a price. With Sparc funding his work and the gaming trusts backing the move, there could be a huge financial penalty if the sport baulks at a few home truths.

- © Fairfax NZ News