- June 20, 2015
Steve Sharp arrives at the NRL chairmen’s meeting in Melbourne. Picture: Andrew Tauber. Source: News Corp Australia
Parramatta chairman Steve Sharp has dismissed suggestions the club is in crisis and revealed a board meeting next week will determine whether the Eels begin an immediate search for a chief executive or wait until a review of the club’s administration structure is complete.
Following the resignation of Scott Seward, the Eels are operating under an interim structure, with chief operating officer John Boulous as chief executive and head of football operations Daniel Anderson in charge of football-related activities.
Amid suggestions the club was reeling from one crisis to the next — the Eels were recently sanctioned by the NRL over breaches of the salary cap — Sharp said there was no rush to replace Seward.
“It’s business as usual at the moment,” Sharp said. “We will commence our search with a board meeting next week to determine which way we’re going to go — whether we go forward with a search for a CEO now or whether we wait until the end of the year and look at a review of our structure.
“I don’t see how it is too much of a drama. Scott resigned for personal and family reasons. It’s an opportunity to look at where we want to go with the structure of our business.”
Sharp confirmed the club had lodged an appeal late last week against the sanctions it had received from the NRL for breaches of all four levels of the salary cap.
As well as receiving a fine of more than $500,000, the Eels were ordered to undertake an independent review of their governance structure.
“The appeal was lodged,” Sharp said. “We have had no feedback yet from the NRL but we’re confident they will receive it well.”
Meanwhile, suspended NRL players Sandor Earl and Martin Kennedy will be forced to wait until August to appear before an NRL anti-doping tribunal.
Earl has been patiently waiting to learn his fate after being provisionally suspended by the NRL more than 20 months ago over the alleged use and trafficking of banned substances.
Kennedy was provisionally suspended earlier this year after the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority gained possession of incriminating text messages as part of its investigation into supplement use in Australian sport.
Both players attempted to head off sanctions by taking their case to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Those appeals were ultimately dismissed and the NRL has been preparing briefs of evidence against both players with a view to having them appear before the tribunal.
However, tribunal head Ian Callinan QC is unavailable next month, meaning the players will be forced to wait until August to learn their fate.
Replies
SANDOR EARL - BOOM, ive been saying since he was booted this is the bloke we should be giving a life line, hes a bloody good player and great competitor.
And we are not in bloody crisis.
Come on Snake, how can you cheer for a bloke named Shandor???
If we aren't in crisis i'd hate to see what a club is crisis looks like then.
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