Standing up for myself and other former Parramatta board members might not be popular. My efforts so far have been met with appalling vilification on social media.
I've been called a whore mouth, brothel keeper and it has been suggested that condoms with my face on them be sold at Pirtek stadium on one website.
The NRL claims to want more female board directors, and I wish them luck.
I have been dragged into NRL and NSW government investigations and, to my knowledge, I have not been found guilty of anything. I was also asked to stand aside from an area health board I served for five years.
All of this happened despite there being no findings against me and no suggestion of any impropriety at all.
Indeed, I am yet to face an allegation of any kind.
Yet here we are – elected board members effectively sacked, though we have not breached rules or been subjected to any negative findings.
It seems mine is guilt by association with the so called "gang of five". Five men who were determined guilty and pilloried publicly before being able to answer the charges against them.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg occupies a powerful position: he is judge, jury, executioner, media commentator and now it seems a political lobbyist who can take out boards he is not happy with. He was also a personal referee for former Eels employee Scott Seward, whose as-yet untested statement was the prime evidence used against his former employers.
The untold story is that of a potentially unreliable witness, less than due process, a decision to ignore all of the governance reform work undertaken by the board and a public flogging.
There is a truckload of evidence to support this proposition.
Full evidence of the extent of the alleged fraud at the Eels was not revealed to the board until the NRL preliminary breach notice was issued and access granted to some of the incriminating statements and transcripts gathered by the NRL.
It was upon seeing this that the board itself duly referred the matter to the NSW Police.
There was a text message provided to the Eels in which a senior staff member of the NRL suggested the NRL integrity unit had breached confidentiality, resulting in a leak to the media while the investigation was under way.
This revelation wrecked the relationship between the club and the NRL.
The club continually asked for procedural fairness and was denied.
Worse still, directors who hadn't breached the rules were subject to a scathing public commentary from Greenberg.
So what, some may say. It's a tough game and that's the way the world works. I disagree. People's reputations and livelihoods are at stake. So is the great Parramatta brand. And who's to say who the NRL will next decide to take aim at?
The Eels board was also not given any credit for implementing more than 100 recommendations for improving governance from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Nor for the fact that the administrator has inherited a financially sound club with a blueprint for reform that's already under way.
The board also hired Australia's foremost salary cap expert Ian Schubert, who told the board that the breaches in the cap were nowhere near the scale suggested by the NRL.
Engaging independent auditors and experts and making referrals to police are hardly the acts of people not committed to good governance.
These efforts were ignored. Instead, people who were reforming the club were given the option of resigning or being sacked.
The board is still to see all of the evidence the NRL had gathered in its investigation into the club. There are several transcripts from former Eels employees which the NRL refused to provide. It is not known why that is.
The state government, in responding to the shrill cries of some media and the NRL, has taken the unprecedented step of appointing an administrator to a financially secure club.
In the final week of the board's existence numerous indirect approaches were made about dropping the appeal.
Surely now, the right thing to do is allow the NRL appeals committee chairman Ian Callinan to review the Greenberg decision.
Allow the former High Court justice to investigate the concerns about Greenberg's relationship with Seward and his choice not to recuse himself from the investigation.
Allow the NRL's own process to take its course.
There should also be a formal independent review of the NRL's decision
The administrator must support this to demonstrate that he has the club's best interests at heart.
Since the great game is built on fairness and respect, the administration of the game and the clubs within it must have the very same foundation.
My experience indicates the NRL has a very long way to go in achieving this.
Tanya Gadiel was a short-term Parramatta Eels board member and a former state MP and deputy speaker.
Replies
Surely those unkind words didn't come from this website?
As Gould would say --- WOW!
If ever a can of worms has been opened, its now out, & its not an old15gram pecks paste can but more a 15gallon one fish & chips shop oil.
I will be very interested in seeing the NRL's response to this, would likely go something along the lines of "we have no comment to make at this point of time but it has been referred to our legal department'.
Looking over what she has said without any thoughts to the past & many feelings about her, & I was never one to like some of the name calling of her, but then again she was fairly good at replies in those events any way, so very much a case of drawn match at full time for me. There is no doubt thouth that the old board needing to go, but in this release she has raised a heck of a lot of issues, not known here, but more so those that many or most of us have been asking regarding the right of the board to appeal.
Many others here including myself have asked what were the charges against the board, & she is correct in her assessment of Greenburg acting as judge, jury & the like, the revelation that information was leaked from the integrity commission also answers other questions, as does the NRL not permitting the board to have access to all the transcripts. The other aspect is, & if I read correctly is that some of these matters have gone to the police for investigation.
Her comments that refer to the way that Greenburg is using his power as CEO to exert power over the club & not just the eels but to ensure they have power & control over all clubs is in my opinion true. The process that began with the Titans, Newcatle. Wests, & Sharks takes on another step with the eels the next & biggest bird in the pecking order of control of the game.
I applaud the appointment of Max Donnelly & the way things are progressing especially with the things he has said, which means the club will be a democratic one & working towards the separation of the two clubs, & I hope that nothing happens to stop that process, however I would still like to see answers to the issues that Tanya Gadiel has raised especially the leaking & lack of transparency by witholding of transcripts from the previous board members.
Brissy, the last paragraph is the key to how this ends up.
Interesting that this was not published in the Murdoch media but the other one, which also has one of the best if not best investigative journalists working for them, maybe what Gadiel says is the result of what has been published by her in the past & Gadiel is providing further information & areas of needed investigation, especially regarding who leaked the info from the integrity side of the NRL & any agenda with that, much of what came out in the leaks went to both main newspapers but also different ones to the other as well.
Very well said brissy - measured, balanced - - great post mate :)
I'm glad the club is moving forward and am happy with Max's appointment, but I sure as shite don't believe a word that comes out of Greenberg's mouth, and don't have a single ounce of respect for the NRL's current administration.
Well said Brissy I agree.
As much as I disliked the board and how they were running the joint, I dislike Greenberg even more and believe this prick needs to be exposed for what he is - a master of deception.
Parra should move on but I'm all for Greenberg having to answer some hard questions.
don't really have a big problem with most of what Tanya is saying above re NRL process in the whole thing from the get go last year and mostly with the manner of hushing up the NRLs own appeal process (which TG openly discussed as being open to the club but later did everything possible to thwart it).
It's pathetic that the NRL doesn't want to see its name cleared in many many fans eyes. TG is an arrogant corrupt sleaze bag and his unwillingness to be legally scrutinised only help confirm that view for the vast majority of fans in NRL land.
Col, I think you will be waiting a while to hear from the NRL. If the police are investigating the truth may eventually come out, but I don't think the NRL will say anything. Their head is still in the sand after all.
Whether any of that is true or not the only question to be asked is "Are we better of now than where we were before?" Lets move forward.
MC Theoretically we are better off & I have already indicated that, & yes we are moving forward, thing is though this news does not mean that process will be stopped.
Longfin. Agree it will take some time to hear anything from the NRL, but for me I just want to see truth come out, even if its likely to be just truth & not the whole truth. Head in sand, for sure, but it might take a Tsunami like this to wash the sand out from their heads, & not just around it.
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