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Total football: Peter V’landys just got even more powerful · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 2: It's Friday, September 25, 2026. How did an open AI
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: bot hack into Australia's Medicare system? And how did the
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: government miss the breach? A new front opens in Anthony
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Albanese's love-hate war with tech giants.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And we're covering it.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Live at theaustralian.com.au. He's blown up racing and revved up
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  Speaker 2: rugby league and now Peter Villandis is cementing his authority
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  Speaker 2: as the most powerful person in sport by becoming the
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  Speaker 2: National Rugby League's first ever executive chairman. Today, our columnist
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Webster on the take no prisoners titan of the
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  Speaker 2: toughest game of all.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Please welcome Tones and I.
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  Speaker 2: CHEERING It was a brutal dumping. Pop singer Tones and
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  Speaker 2: I was in talks to play the NRL Grand Final
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  Speaker 2: on October 4, but she reportedly didn't want to play
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  Speaker 2: her monster hit Dance Monkey.
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  Speaker 3: People come to our game for our game, for the
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  Speaker 3: entertainment of rugby league.
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  Speaker 2: The most hard-headed man in Australian sport, Peter Volandes, said
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  Speaker 2: there'd be no performance and he'd donate a million dollars
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  Speaker 2: to charity instead.
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  Speaker 3: If you want to go to a pop concert, you
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  Speaker 3: buy a ticket to go to a pop concert.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Tones and I says it was all about scheduling
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  Speaker 2: and not about the song, but it was a classic
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  Speaker 2: Volandes power move.
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  Speaker 1: We're done negotiating.
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  Speaker 4: I have been covering Peter Volandes for a hell of
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  Speaker 4: a long time.
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  Speaker 1: This is Andrew Webster, a columnist with The Australian.
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  Speaker 4: I remember actually talking to him yesterday when I was
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  Speaker 4: a young reporter of the Border Mall newspaper in Albury-Wodonga
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  Speaker 4: in the late 90s, when he was the head of
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  Speaker 4: Harness Racing New South Wales. And we've been rocking and
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  Speaker 4: rolling ever since. Yeah, I have been calling for him
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  Speaker 4: to either choose between racing and rugby league. And I'm
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  Speaker 4: so glad it's only taking him eight years to decide
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  Speaker 4: to become executive chairman of the game. It's so weird.
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  Speaker 4: We've been talking about this in rugby league for so
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  Speaker 4: long about him basically playing the role of executive chair
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  Speaker 4: with whoever's been CEO. First, it was Todd Greenberg and
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  Speaker 4: then Andrew Abdo, who was a loyal and trusty lieutenant
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  Speaker 4: in many respects. But no one's really surprised that this
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  Speaker 4: day has come. I suppose people are just surprised that
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  Speaker 4: it took this long.
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  Speaker 3: We've got the greatest game of all. There is no
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  Speaker 3: better game than rugby league. So being number one, that's
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  Speaker 3: where we should be because it's the greatest game for all.
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  Speaker 2: His first really kind of stunning move when he came
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  Speaker 2: into the game of rugby league was saving it from
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  Speaker 2: the COVID lockdown. He came up with something called Project Apollo,
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  Speaker 2: this very ambitious restart back in 2020 when most sports
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  Speaker 2: couldn't even imagine coming back to live play.
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  Speaker 3: And the Eels have defeated Brisbane 34 points to six.
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  Speaker 2: Did that surprise you at the time and did that
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  Speaker 2: sort of set the tone for what he was going
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  Speaker 2: to do to the sport?
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  Speaker 4: No, I remember the press conference when the NRL had
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  Speaker 4: to ground their competition. And I remember sitting in the
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  Speaker 4: front row of that press conference and I asked him
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  Speaker 4: point blank, I said, when do you expect to be back?
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  Speaker 4: And he said, May 28th. I said, really, that's ambitious.
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  Speaker 4: And he winked and he said, we're a can-do organization.
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  Speaker 4: I remember after that press conference, Claire, being in a
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  Speaker 4: meeting with a handful of select journos with Peter Volandis
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  Speaker 4: and Todd Greenberg, who was still the CEO of And
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  Speaker 4: I said to him, what if your biosecurity expert says
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  Speaker 4: it's going to be later than May 28? And he laughed.
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  Speaker 4: He said, we'll get a new expert. And the reason
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  Speaker 4: why I did is because he could see the game's
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  Speaker 4: finances were in the toilet. Without that broadcast money coming in,
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  Speaker 4: the game was going to be insolvent sooner than later.
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  Speaker 4: But he got the game back on May 28. The
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  Speaker 4: AFL and every other major code in this country had
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  Speaker 4: to follow his lead. And without that, who knows where
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  Speaker 4: Australian sport would have been in 2020 or throughout that pandemic.
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  Speaker 4: But that really cemented his legacy in rugby league in
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  Speaker 4: many ways. And from there, he has been able to
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  Speaker 4: generate record TV deals, an asset base of more than
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  Speaker 4: $ 500 million, and basically brought some security to the game
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  Speaker 4: that it's never had before.
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  Speaker 2: He's also overseen some pretty dramatic kind of rule changes
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  Speaker 2: aimed at speeding things up and making rugby league more unpredictable,
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  Speaker 2: more dynamic. The two-point field goal, the six-again rule, which
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  Speaker 2: was designed to speed up play in the ruck. Do
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  Speaker 2: fans like Peter Volandis?
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  Speaker 3: You know what?
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  Speaker 4: It's funny, Claire. As I said, I've been covering him
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  Speaker 4: for a long period of time. He and I have
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  Speaker 4: a really weird relationship because what's the best way to
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  Speaker 4: describe this? Gernot and a lot of columnists are very
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  Speaker 4: reluctant to criticise him. And people seem to think it's
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  Speaker 4: because he gives them tickets to the director's room at
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  Speaker 4: Royal Randwick or the chairman's room or trips to Vegas
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  Speaker 4: or whatever. The reason he gets so much great publicity
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  Speaker 4: from a lot of journalists is that he's very accessible.
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  Speaker 4: Someone from the Muscle Book Chronicle could call up Peter
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  Speaker 4: Volandis and he'll give them 20 minutes on the phone.
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  Speaker 4: That's why he's so lauded by the media. In terms
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  Speaker 4: of his public perception, I think it was through the
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  Speaker 4: roof after getting the game through the pandemic. I think
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  Speaker 4: it was through the roof with the Vegas concept.
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  Speaker 2: Las Vegas' famous Fremont Street turned into rugby league heaven today,
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  Speaker 2: flooded by thousands of fans ahead of Sunday's NRL season openers.
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  Speaker 3: We never thought it'd be this big, but not only
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  Speaker 3: here in America, but back at home in Australia. It's
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  Speaker 3: given us momentum we've never had before.
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  Speaker 4: But I do certainly feel a change in the last year,
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  Speaker 4: this year in particular, about the the enforcement of the
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  Speaker 4: six-to-go rules, and just the constant changing of the rules
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  Speaker 4: and interpretations. And, you know, I've made this point in
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  Speaker 4: the past in columns with the Australian. You know, fans,
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  Speaker 4: they can respect what he's done for the game commercially,
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  Speaker 4: but once you start playing with the fabric of the game,
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  Speaker 4: that gets fans offside because that's the thing that matters
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  Speaker 4: the most. PVL likes to call rugby league an entertainment business.
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  Speaker 4: And I get what he's talking about. It is in
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  Speaker 4: many ways. It's an entertainment business for him. But for
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  Speaker 4: the fans out there, it's a sport. And if you
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  Speaker 4: play with the fabric of the sport, then you're going
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  Speaker 4: to get blowback. And I think there's a bit of
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  Speaker 4: a reckoning for PBL in the off-season with how the
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  Speaker 4: game's officiated and just the interpretation of the rules.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we're coming into very much the business
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  Speaker 2: end of the season, of course. And so, as always,
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  Speaker 2: there are big dramas about refereeing, decisions that went against
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  Speaker 2: some fans. The power of the bunker, another referee that
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  Speaker 2: is sitting in a room watching everything on video and
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  Speaker 2: making calls on the field.
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  Speaker 1: Is that just the normal.
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  Speaker 2: End of year kind of drama when fans are getting
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  Speaker 2: very passionate? Or is there actually something going on with
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  Speaker 2: refereeing and with the bunker that's a serious problem?
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  Speaker 4: Fans will whinge about referees and video technology every year
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  Speaker 4: or year round. But this is different. This is different.
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  Speaker 4: This is a change in the fabric of the game,
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  Speaker 4: particularly in terms of the speed. The concern, I think,
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  Speaker 4: for a lot of supporters is it's a manufactured result,
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  Speaker 4: that there's an ability there with those set restarts to
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  Speaker 4: get a team back into the contest. And that shouldn't
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  Speaker 4: be what it's about. The referee should be there to
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  Speaker 4: apply the rules of the game, not sort of to
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  Speaker 4: hit a metric of 3.5 seconds for a play of
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  Speaker 4: the ball. It's a nonsense. Apply the rules of the
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  Speaker 4: game and that's all it should be. It isn't just
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  Speaker 4: the fans that have complained about it. It's the players themselves.
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  Speaker 4: We're talking about You know, some of the best in
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  Speaker 4: Australian players like Cameron Munster and Harry Grant, who Peter
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  Speaker 4: dismissed a few weeks ago and then backtracked and said,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I should be listening to what they have
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  Speaker 4: to say. Let's hope that that happens in the offseason
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  Speaker 4: a little bit more. But as I said, I think
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  Speaker 4: there's going to be a bit of a reckoning about
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  Speaker 4: how the game's officiated. And now Peter Volandis as executive
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  Speaker 4: chair is the man that's got to lead that.
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  Speaker 2: He seems to be out in front of the rugby
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  Speaker 2: league community on some issues.
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  Speaker 1: One is head trauma.
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  Speaker 2: I remember going to visit him with our colleague then
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  Speaker 2: Jess Halloran when we were doing a podcast called Head
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  Speaker 2: Noise about head trauma. That was right at the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of the conversations about whether rugby league was catastrophically damaging players'
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  Speaker 2: brains along with other contact sports. He really listened. He
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  Speaker 2: didn't make the changes that we were asking for then,
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  Speaker 2: which was reduced contact in training and stuff. But you
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  Speaker 2: do now see a much greater awareness, I think, on
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  Speaker 2: the field of head injury assessments and so on. The
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  Speaker 2: other one is Women's Rugby League, Webby. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: catch the Women's NRL every so often on TV and
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  Speaker 2: there's nobody in the crowd and the TV audiences are
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  Speaker 2: just not there yet. It feels like Australians are not
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  Speaker 2: quite ready for a full Women's NRL competition yet.
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  Speaker 1: Is that your sense too or do you think differently?
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  Speaker 4: I love the NRLW. I think the level of professionalism
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  Speaker 4: in the last few years, you can see just in
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  Speaker 4: the physicality and the skill level in the women's game
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  Speaker 4: is getting stronger. I think the NRL doesn't know what
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  Speaker 4: it's got in terms of the women's game. And if
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  Speaker 4: you talk to almost anyone in the women's sport space,
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  Speaker 4: they will tell you that the NRLW is far ahead
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  Speaker 4: of probably every other women's football code in this country
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  Speaker 4: in a lot of ways.
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  Speaker 1: Women's Rugby League can't stop making history. Wonderful scenes.
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  Speaker 2: What a great night this is for the game.
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  Speaker 1: What about the crowd?
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  Speaker 4: I just think the NRL needs to get serious about
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  Speaker 4: when they play it, how much they pay the players.
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  Speaker 4: If you can get a doubleheader with an NRL game,
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  Speaker 4: that's always going to make sure that people are watching
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  Speaker 4: that sport and the banks of empty seats that you see.
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  Speaker 4: And I think Peter Villandis understands that. In terms of concussion,
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  Speaker 4: I would dare say that the NRL are light years
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  Speaker 4: ahead of the AFL on this issue. And I think
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  Speaker 4: that's really improved in the last couple of years. So
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  Speaker 4: in terms of concussion, I think PBL deserves a pat
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  Speaker 4: on the back for taking it the right direction. I'm
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  Speaker 4: not saying that the NRL is perfect at all. I'm
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  Speaker 4: not saying that a lot of major sports in this
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  Speaker 4: country are perfect when it comes to head trauma, but
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  Speaker 4: they're getting better. And I think the NRL is he's
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  Speaker 4: pretty much at the front of the field.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, what's horse racing without Peter Volandis?
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  Speaker 2: He's expanding the game east and west. There's going to
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  Speaker 2: be a new team in Papua New Guinea and a
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  Speaker 2: new team in Perth. In PNG, of course, there's a
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  Speaker 2: ready-made audience for that.
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  Speaker 4: In Perth, I'm not so sure.
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  Speaker 2: The PNG team is a kind of tool of Australian
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  Speaker 2: diplomacy now in the Pacific. How much of that is
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  Speaker 2: Peter Volandi's creation and how much is he just sort
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  Speaker 2: of a willing participant in what the government already wanted
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  Speaker 2: to do?
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  Speaker 4: I think he's definitely a willing participant. He's got a
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  Speaker 4: very close relationship with Anthony Albanese. It was Anthony Albanese
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  Speaker 4: and the government that came to Peter Volandis with this idea.
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  Speaker 4: And I know this for a fact because Volandis told me,
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  Speaker 4: he said as soon as he heard that they were
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  Speaker 4: going to tip in $ 600 million of DFAT money, he said, well,
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  Speaker 4: I'll jump at that. I don't know about P & G.
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  Speaker 4: I really don't. I understand there's a captive audience there
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  Speaker 4: with it being the national sport. In Papua New Guinea,
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  Speaker 4: I just wonder how many players are going to get there.
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  Speaker 4: I know they've got these tax-free incentives and players are
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  Speaker 4: going there, and it's only going to ramp up from
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  Speaker 4: November 1 when the PNG chiefs can talk to whoever
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  Speaker 4: they want that's coming off contract. But I just wonder,
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  Speaker 4: after a couple of years, and particularly after the DFAT
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  Speaker 4: money ends in 10 years' time, whether that's going to
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  Speaker 4: be a bit of a money bonfire for the NRL,
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  Speaker 4: who are going to have to fund it. I think...
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  Speaker 4: The federal government's on the record saying when they announced
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  Speaker 4: the deal in the first place that they won't be
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  Speaker 4: putting in any money beyond the 10 years. I do
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  Speaker 4: think that it goes beyond just China. I think it's
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  Speaker 4: seen as an agent of social change in that country,
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  Speaker 4: in the Pacific. But in terms of Perth, again, I
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  Speaker 4: think he's rushed that through with a partnership with Roger
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  Speaker 4: Cook and the WA government. The big concern is, and
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  Speaker 4: they're going to bring in a third team, either it's
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  Speaker 4: going to be in the west of Brisbane or in
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  Speaker 4: New Zealand, just where all the bloody players are going
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  Speaker 4: to come from. There's three teams being introduced in the
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  Speaker 4: space of three years, and that's the concern in rugby
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  Speaker 4: league circles about where are the players going to come from.
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  Speaker 4: But these are the big issues that Peter Volandis is
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  Speaker 4: going to have to deal with as executive chair.
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  Speaker 2: Just finally, Webby, he will have a little bit more
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  Speaker 2: time now because he's not going to be directly involved
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  Speaker 2: with racing anymore. He blew up the sport of racing
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  Speaker 2: by creating the Everest and billing it as the richest
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  Speaker 2: race ever and parading around the opposition turf with the
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  Speaker 2: Everest trophy. Will racing be the worst without him?
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  Speaker 4: That's the big question. He has been a force of
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: nature in that sport for a long time. He's brought
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  Speaker 4: in riches for owners and trainers and jockeys that we've
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: never seen before. Everyone thought that the Everest, particularly down
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  Speaker 4: in Melbourne, particularly the VRC, thought the Everest would be
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  Speaker 4: a flop and it's turned out to be a raging success.
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  Speaker 4: He calls himself a disruptor. He wanted to disrupt the
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Spring Carnival, which Victoria's had a stranglehold of for decades,
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  Speaker 4: and he's done that. He's made the Caulfield Cup basically
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  Speaker 4: secondary to the Everest. Whether you like him or not,
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  Speaker 4: whether you like the way that he goes about business
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  Speaker 4: or not, you can't deny that he's successful in pretty
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  Speaker 4: much everything that he's done.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Webster, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks, Claire.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Webster is a columnist with The Australian.