League Express editor Martyn Sadler reacts to RFL CEO Ralph Rimmer’s recent media conference
RFL Chief Executive Ralph Rimmer spoke to the collected Rugby League media on Friday.
You can find the transcript of the press conference here.
I would encourage readers to read the whole article and draw their own conclusions.
Ralph has been widely criticised for his recent absence from public view, which is an undeniably justified criticism.
His response, as you will have seen on page 3, was that he was working hard behind the scenes and he, quite frankly, didn’t have much to say.
The problem is that when you read through the transcript he still didn’t have much to say that was specific rather than general.
His comments are meant to persuade us that the game has a great future if it all comes together under his leadership.
But unfortunately there is nothing there to persuade us of that possibility.
As a general rule, if you are going to hold a major press briefing with journalists, it’s a good idea to have something new to announce.
Unfortunately anything new was only distinguished by its absence on Friday.
Unfortunately there is a lot of negativity around Rugby League at the moment.
That tends to happen in any organisation when it feels as though it’s losing ground and its income is declining.
During the conference I asked Ralph how he was going to change this mood.
You can read his response and see whether you find it convincing.
The one thing we can surely say about Ralph is that he is a great believer in consensus.
In order to try to achieve it, he consults people endlessly.
But a consultation process can only take you so far.
At some point we want to see strong leadership, taking the game forward and bringing everyone along.
That’s not to say that being in charge of Rugby League is an easy job.
Managing the diverse characters and personalities within the game certainly isn’t straightforward,
But at some stage we need to know that Ralph is taking us towards the sunny uplands.
I would love to think that he was able to do that.
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