Jim Doyle: NRL funding decisions the 'right outcome'

New Zealand Warriors chief executive Jim Doyle. Photo / Greg Bowker

Warriors CEO Jim Doyle says the NRL funding decisions reached on Tuesday - which ended a bitter impasse between the clubs and the governing body - were the "right outcome for the game".

After a month of feuding, which was prompted by Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman John Grant's back tracking on a previously agreed funding model, the clubs and the ARLC averted a crisis by reaching agreement on Tuesday evening.

Doyle described the revised agreement as "very close" to the terms of the original deal.

The main debate was over how the proceeds of the next broadcasting deal - worth A$1.8 billion ($1.89 billion) - would be be carved up.

It had been previously agreed in principle that the clubs would receive 130 per cent of the salary cap (possibly up to A$13 million [$13.62 million]), but Grant and the ARLC pulled that arrangement in November, saying that more money was needed for grassroots league.

Representatives of all 16 clubs convened at NRL headquarters on Tuesday morning in Sydney, with the possibility of an Extraordinary General Meeting where Grant's position could have been put to the vote.

That didn't eventuate, and after more than six hours of negotiations, league's latest civil war was at an end.

"It went backwards and forwards all day, especially with the legal people involved but we got the right outcome for the game," Doyle told the New Zealand Herald. "It will ensure the sustainability of the sport going forward at a time when the majority of the clubs are losing money."

Doyle wouldn't go into details of the agreements ("it's commercial and in confidence") but said the new agreement was very similar to the original deal pulled by Grant in November.

"It's very close to that deal - that's why the clubs have accepted it," said Doyle. "We worked through a process and eventually got there. I think the NRL realised their [previous] position was the wrong one."

The Warriors CEO said it was never the aim to remove Grant from his position, but the clubs had been forced into a corner.

"The clubs didn't have too many options," said Doyle. "They just wanted to get a reasonable outcome and this is what has been achieved."

Grant also didn't provide specific figures but said the package included a significant increase in club payments over the next five years, a special fund to assist financially distressed clubs and a 65 per cent increase in funding.

"Under this agreement, the clubs will have the long term financial security they have been seeking," said Grant, who is likely to remain in his post for one more year.

"Clubs will be funded more than they've ever been and the grassroots will receive more funding than in the clubs' history," added NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said. "It's a good outcome for everyone across the game. It took some time to get there but we got there."