Tigers chair O’Farrell backs V’landys for all-powerful rugby league job

Wests Tigers chairman and former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell has endorsed Peter V’landys becoming rugby league’s executive chairman as the future of the influential administrator grips two sports.

V’landys, the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission and chief executive of Racing NSW, will take long-service leave from his day job for four months from July to cover for departing NRL CEO Andrew Abdo.

A highly unusual situation approved by the state government-appointed Racing NSW board, V’landys’ move has heightened expectations of him making a full-time switch from racing to rugby league in a newly established post in which he would have absolute power.

In practice V’landys already functions as an executive chairman but for it to be formalised – and for him to be paid an executive salary as well as heading the board – would require a change to the ARL Commission constitution.

Much hinges on the outcome of negotiations for the NRL’s new broadcast deal but if V’landys can deliver the $4 billion rights windfall he has set his sights on, it would give him a strong bargaining chip.

“While it’s a decision for the independent NRL commissioners to determine, I think appointing Peter V’landys as executive chair makes a lot of sense and could only further enhance the game,” O’Farrell said on Tuesday.

“He’s shown as chair a remarkable ability to broaden the game’s reach and clubs have certainly benefited from increased revenues flowing from decisions V’landys has driven.”

O’Farrell is a former chief executive of Racing Australia, which Racing NSW has a 35 per cent stake in.

Sydney Roosters’ billionaire chairman Nick Politis also welcomed V’landys’ greater involvement in the sport.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Politis said. “It couldn’t be better for the game. After what he’s done, he deserves to be there for life.”

Melbourne Storm co-owner and chairman Matt Tripp has also supported V’landys being made executive chair while another NRL club boss said they would also back it.

Several other club figures raised governance concerns about someone holding such dual roles even though V’landys had overseen an era of unprecedented success for the code, saying it would require serious consideration.

As well as 16 of the 17 clubs, V’landys would have to get the NSW Rugby League and Queensland Rugby League over the line. They were at odds with him over funding two years ago in a dispute that reached the NSW Supreme Court and the NSWRL sued the ARL Commission in 2022 during a separate row about board elections in which their management of the Blues State of Origin team was threatened.

Relations have picked up from that point, but it’s yet to be seen how the states would view V’landys being both chairman and effectively chief executive.

“We haven’t even discussed it as a board yet,” QRL chairman Brian Canavan said. “The constitution directs the process.”

NSWRL chair Carolyn Campbell was contacted for comment.

There are also major implications for the multi-billion dollar racing industry in V’landys taking long-service leave to fill in for Abdo who will remain at the NRL until July 15 before becoming the chief executive of Tennis Australia.

“Mr V’landys has made this application so he is not spending more time on the Australian Rugby League Commission while performing his chief executive duties at Racing NSW,” Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke said in a statement.

“Having carefully considered Mr V’landys’ application, the Racing NSW board unanimously supported the professional approach that Mr V’landys has taken.”

V’landys hopes to have the new broadcast deal completed by the time Abdo packs up his desk and while he has said he would consider his future in racing at the end of the year, the increasing belief is this will be the last of his 23 years running the industry.

His long-time deputy at Racing NSW, Graeme Hinton, said on Tuesday he would want the job if it became available.

“I’ve been in my job for quite a long time and I’ve certainly done a good apprenticeship,” Hinton told SEN radio.

“It’s an industry I care deeply about. I’ve grown up around racing and followed it and been a punter and an owner. Once it’s in your blood it’s hard to shake.”

Hinton will take the reins when V’landys is on leave – a period that includes the flagship Everest spring carnival – providing a runway for him to be elevated as permanent chief exeutive.

The chess pieces are falling into place with Racing NSW’s powers under government-commissioned review by former state health minister Brad Hazzard and as its feud with the Australian Turf Club returns to court on Thursday.

V’landys has also been in negotiations with Tabcorp chief and former AFL supremo Gillon McLachlan over the betting company’s pursuit of a new national totaliser pool.

The Racing Reform Group, whose steering committee includes prominent racehorse breeders, said in a statement V’landys taking long-service leave to run the NRL “raises further serious questions about the governance of Racing NSW”.

“It is highly unusual for a CEO to take leave to act as an interim CEO at another competing organisation, so we question why Saranne Cooke and the rest of the board of Racing NSW approved it,” the group said.