Doyle and Castle tipped for top NRL job

Former New Zealand Netball chief executive Raelene Castle. Photo / Dean Purcell

Australian media outlets are campaigning for Kiwis Jim Doyle and Raelene Castle to replace outgoing National Rugby League boss Dave Smith.

Doyle and Castle, the chief executives of the Warriors and Canterbury Bulldogs respectively, feature strongly in weekend newspapers across the Tasman today as Aussie media speculate on who should replace Smith who announced during the week he intends to stand down after three and a half years in one of the toughest jobs in world sport.

Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald led the charge for Doyle, who was Smith's right hand man as chief operating officer at the NRL before leaving to return to New Zealand and take the helm of the Warriors, with a major push for the Kiwi-based Scotsman.

"The ARL Commission needs to throw the bank at Jim Doyle, drag him back to League Central and give him Smith's corner office," wrote the paper's chief sportswriter Andrew Webster. "Forget about paying a recruitment agency truckloads to embark on an expensive "worldwide search". The best option is right under its nose. Doyle quit as chief operating officer in June last year to become chief executive at the Warriors.

"Like anyone who has left League Central in the past three years, he went quietly. He was angry when this column suggested at the time he had grown tired of working under Smith and a dysfunctional administration. You'd expect a man like Doyle to say as much. Those who worked closely with him at head office say otherwise.

"But now the "position vacant" sign has gone up and it is understood Doyle has support amongst some commissioners, some of whom were unhappy to see him leave last year. Club bosses spoken to in recent days say they would embrace him. "He's one of us," offered one."

But News Limited's Sydney Daily Telegraph took a different tack and, in an editorial in its Sunday Telegraph edition today, claimed Castle is a worthy successor to Smith and his $NZ1 million plus annual salary.

The paper claimed Castle, the former boss of Netball New Zealand, was once "sounded out" to become chief executive of New Zealand Rugby but knocked it back to take over at the Bulldogs two years ago. Since then the Bulldogs have been commercially one of the top-performing clubs in the NRL.

"In a male-dominated game, the appointment of a female could put lots of egos out of place," the Sunday Telegraph proclaimed. "But who cares? Castle's credentials are as good as anyone else.

"She is a strong and tenacious leader who has worked alongside some tricky characters including Bulldogs coach Des Hasler and high-profile Bulldogs directors."

The paper claimed that outside of Castle, Panthers chief executive Warren ¬Wilson has solid support for the job but "so too does Warriors CEO Jim Doyle who did a fantastic job as NRL chief operating officer before returning home to New Zealand".

But also writing in the Telegraph, longtime award-winning journalist Richard Hinds suggested Castle shouldn't hold her breath waiting for a call to replace Smith, predicting she would be unfairly held to higher account than any female appointee.

"There is more chance the NRL will appoint a first meerkat chief executive than a first female," Hinds wrote.

"Never mind Raelene Castle who is proving at the Bulldogs something that should require no practical demonstration - that a woman can run an NRL club. Smith couldn't identify (Australian skipper) Cameron Smith. If a potential female NRL boss couldn't tell reporters whether the grass upon which Clive Churchill scored his first try was poa annua or perennial rye-grass she would be mocked, ridiculed and run out of the game.

"What we really need is someone to rise above the mundane self-interest that continues to retard the progress of an ever-improving game. We need to hold Smith's replacement to account by reasonable standards, not reflexively kick him - or her! - to death."

Webster also wondered if the game's politics might put Doyle off.

"Would he want to take control of the soap opera?" he asked.