BY JOHN DAVIDSON
AND JUST like that, Ralph Rimmer is gone.
Yesterday the announcement of his impending departure, and that of executive director Karen Moorhouse, by the end of this year was made. Rimmer’s five-year reign at the top of the RFL will be over in a few months.
How do we rate his time in charge? Not well, to be blunt, and that is no surprise because he never should have gotten the job in the first place.
As I wrote for the i-Paper in 2018, which you can read here, Rimmer’s CV made for uninspiring reading. He was CEO of the Sheffield Eagles when they went bust in the late 1990s and was part of the failed ‘Shuddersfield’ merger.
He was Nigel Wood’s right-man at the RFL for many years, and involved in dubious decisions including the collapse of the Crusaders, the Bradford debacle, the Toronto Wolfpack episode and so on. There’s no doubting his passion for rugby league, but at a time when the sport needed something different and new, they went with more of the same and stuck with the old boys network.
The press release on Monday announcing the exits was instructive.
In it, chair of the RFL Simon Johnson said: “Ralph and Karen are both stepping down, able to declare ‘mission accomplished’ as Rugby League moves to an exciting new era with a newly aligned governance structure and a long term partnership with IMG.
“Ralph has been an outstanding leader of the RFL. His passion, commitment, combativeness and vision has led the sport through Covid and into its new era. It was Ralph who secured the first, fastest and innovative Government support, which became a model for the rest of the industry throughout Covid.
“He has been a vital leader in the International environment, and a trusted liaison with Clubs at all levels. He is a popular and respected figure at clubs around the game and he will leave after the World Cup with the game able to enjoy the fruits of Ralph’s leadership over the last five years.”
They are comments that somewhat belie belief.
Mission accomplished? In what way, pray tell, is it mission accomplished? Popular and respected figure?
Rugby league in the UK is in a sorry state.
Income in the sport has shrunk. The TV broadcasting deal has almost halved. Participation has not grown, attendances have not increased. Most clubs are struggling financially. The majority of fans are not happy, about a huge number of issues. Media coverage of the sport on a national scale is almost non-existent. The Bradford fiasco rolls on. Marketing and media engagement is poor. Clubs continue to play too many games, and player welfare is a joke. There has been no significant action taken on the concussion/dementia dilemma, with a lawsuit in action. In-fighting amongst clubs continues and unity is rare.
You get the drift.
The sport is clearly not in a better state than it was in 2018.
If it was, IMG would not have been appointed to change and improve the state of the game. They have been handed the reins as the RFL can’t arrest the decline. They have waved the white flag and said ‘IMG please help, we can’t stop the rot’.
The narrative that the RFL and Rimmer want to spin is that “the time was right” and that it’s “job done”.
Don’t swallow it.
The smart money is that Rimmer is going because the realignment between the RFL and Super League requires a reduced executive team. The RFL is cash-strapped and there isn’t the money there for so many executives.
With the creation of RL Commercial last month, the new company created to drive rugby league’s commercial development as part of the realignment of the sport’s governance, Rimmer and Moorhouse have been squeezed out.
Frank Slevin has been appointed chair of RL Commercial, with IMG Media’s head of sport Ed Mallaburn joining him on the board. They are hiring four more directors, meaning cuts at the RFL had to be made. Expect cuts at the executive level at Super League to be made as well.
But back to Rimmer’s tenure.
Dedicated, loyal, but simply not the right person for the role. In any other sport he wouldn’t have risen to a comparable position. Rimmer has been tainted by his relationship and connection to Wood. Instead of cutting that friendship off, he has let it linger and the issues with Bradford, Ottawa and now the weird creation of Cornwall have rolled on.
Under Rimmer we had the disastrous loss-making return of Great Britain, where they did not win a game. That tour lost money and saw the exits of both Wayne Bennett and Kevin Sinfield.
Under Rimmer we had the academies bungle, where the RFL decided to bin several academies, then backflipped because of the outrage. This was an instance where the decision was actually right, although difficult, but it was communicated poorly and they then showed no backbone on its stance. They backflipped quickly. Included was the infamous ‘kids cry’ quote on Sky.
That TV interview showed Rimmer up as not being up to the job or the scrutiny. He rarely did media interviews, with print or TV, and refused to be the spokesperson the sport needed.
Under Rimmer we have seen no new sponsors come into the sport, with the reliance on BetFred growing and growing and growing.
Rimmer did secure loans from the government during Covid, but so did every other sport. And comparatively, rugby league has received a pittance. During his tenure the women’s game has grown, as has the wheelchair, PDRL and LDRL components. That is an achievement, but challenges with the women’s game remain and have not been addressed.
As much as he would like, he can’t take credit for the World Cup. That has been run by a separate organisation. And we can’t properly evaluate the success or non-success of the World Cup until after the tournament.
The reality is that Ralph Rimmer achieved very little, and that his leadership of the RFL has ended with the sport arguably in a worse spot than it was five years ago.
Two decades ago Rimmer was manager of the Irish national team. That is some journey upward.
The fact that he has risen to the top of the British game since then tells you a lot about rugby league in the UK, where it is now and why change is desperately imperative.
