So the NRL Referees have used Brad Fittler to get around their bosses, Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper, to contact NRL CEO David Gallop and tell him they no longer have confidence in Harrigan and Raper.
Hmmm…
Firstly, what is David Gallop doing even sitting down at that meeting. Aside from the fact that Brad Fitter apparently had David Gallops audience at will, Gallop effectively undermined Harrigan and Raper by entertaining Fittler and the referees at all.
What it should have prompted was a visit from John Grant. He should have brought all the referee’s in, sat down at his desk, and then called the NSWRL and QRL and ask how many referee’s are available if he needed to call them up into the NRL this weekend. They would both have given Grant a large number. At that point Grant would than them, hang up the phone, and then told everyone in the room that the next time they want to waste his time with their petty bullshit, that he will fire two of them.
None of this has happened though, and the reason is pretty clear why it hasn’t happened.
The game still is lacking leadership. No one has taken charge of this situation and killed it off before it could turn into the current circus.
The referees don’t have confidence in their bosses? Really? I didn’t see him out there making so many mistakes. Poor old Bill Harrigan had to step in and take the heat after State Of Origin one for a terrible video referee decision. He took all the criticism and was willing to be the focus of all the outrage.
Why?
Because he is the referees boss, and that is his job. He saw a major issue, stood up for the referees, and took the bullet on their behalf.
The sooner we get some real leadership in this game, the better. The sooner people realize that their whinging and petty games will amount to nothing but having the boss come in and sort you out, the sooner the game will be able to move forward and standards at every level will improve.
What can not be over looked is that David Gallop is making more and more decisions that are less than stellar. That can’t be allowed to go on for much longer. There is talk that Gallop is a bit over his role as the NRL’s CEO. If that is the case he should man up, step up and resign from his job.
As for John Grant, where is he right now? This should have been killed off straight away with one call by Grant. Yes, he has a wide ranging job description, but surely he could have taken two minutes of his day to sort this high profile mess out.
Then again, maybe we could just let Brad Fittler run everything….
