Sunday 5th of May 2024
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superleague...

superleaugue

Former Prime Minister John Howard is being scouted as a potential leader of a new independent commission to run rugby league in Australia, newspapers reported Wednesday.
Howard, who was prime minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, has been approached to be inaugural chairman of a commission to govern the sport which has a complicated administration involving the Australian Rugby League and the National Rugby League, Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

The 70-year-old Howard, who supports NRL club St. George Illawarra, was traveling in the United States and declined to comment on the reports.

"Mr. Howard has no comment to make other than to say that he has always been interested in rugby league and has the best interests of the game at heart," a spokesman for Howard told the Telegraph.

NRL chief executive David Gallop said he supported the idea of the former PM getting involved.

new goal posts....

 

FORMER prime minister John Howard has been secretly approached by league officials to become the game's most powerful figure.

As part of a radical blueprint to overhaul the current structure of the game, Mr Howard has been asked to be inaugural chairman of an independent commission to run the NRL.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Mr Howard, 70, was sounded out recently by Gold Coast Titans boss Michael Searle, who is leading an NRL club committee to establish the commission with eight directors.

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beer carpet, pokies and broken glass...

From Half Truths, SMH:

Scene: Outside the offices of the new independent commission of high-profile Australians set up to run rugby league. To the right lounge two bottle-blonde cheerleaders, round-shouldered, pale and somewhat bruised, dressed in red rubberised sport brassieres with blue-and-white flounces, sequinned white boy shorts slit to the waist, and blue boots. They hold lit cigarettes down near their thigh, between the occasional drag. On the steps to the left sits a man dressed as the back half of a bronco. He is very drunk. As we watch he slowly keels over, collapses face first onto the footpath, and stays there.

A limousine pulls in to the kerb, and the rear door opens. The former prime minister, John Howard steps gingerly out, and over the half bronco. He greets the cheerleaders with a cheery wave, and a twinkling ''Heh heh heh". They eye him coldly and turn back to their conversation.

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read more of Half truth. see toon at top.

torpedoed by a diehard...

A PUSH to appoint John Howard to a senior position administering rugby league has been torpedoed by the federal Labor minister and South Sydney Rabbitohs diehard Anthony Albanese.

The Herald can reveal that Mr Albanese was instrumental behind the scenes in lobbying the NRL against giving the former prime minster a role on the code's new independent commission.

Mr Albanese sprang into action on October 7, after News Ltd reported that Mr Howard had been approached by league officials to become chairman of the commission.

The minister rang the NRL chief executive, David Gallop, as well as other league officials to tell them it was ''a stupid idea''. Mr Albanese also marshalled officials from the Rabbitohs, of which he was once a board member, to help kill off the idea.

''Nobody I spoke to thought it was a good idea,'' Mr Albanese said.

The intervention has ended any chance of Mr Howard chairing the commission although it may be possible for him to take one of the eight board positions.

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Now, if there were an ambassadorship position for American Antarctica....

See toon at top.