If JO'N goes, then who should replace him?
So far only David Gallop has been mentioned. Are there any other possibilities?
You're actually onto something here, HJ, except that you're not joining the dots correctly. Your question as to who should replace JO'N if [when] he goes is hardly worth answering. The position is on offer to Totality Tony McGahan should he consent to take it. There is a bit of a work-through going on at the present time with TT assessing whether he could combine Robby's and JO'N's roles and still enjoy a leisured Sydney lifestyle. Thus far all the indicators are positive.
You mention David Gallop but with the utmost respect you have got the direction of movement completely arse-about. My mail - and it's totally reliable - is that Gallop was garbage-bagged out of the NRL specifically so that our man O'Neill could be shoe-horned in. The mungoes were massively impressed by the work that JO'N did in setting up the A-League during his short sojourn with Australian soccer. Perhaps John's most significant achievement there was in persuading his billionaire Chairman Frank Lowy that he should award the sole franchise in Sydney to Lowy's son. There were some snide suggestions of nepotism at the time, the theme being how could you possibly fuck up a monopoly sporting franchise in a wealthy city of five million people - but of course the Waratahs have since shown just how easy it is.
The A-League has of course since gone from strength to strength, in common with all of JO'N's other initiatives.
When he assumes command of the NRL even I will take a keen interest, not of course in the actual games, but fascinated by the thought of the very patrician O'Neill being summoned from the royal bedchamber in the early hours on sundry nights of the week to hear of the latest escapades of the code's legion of midnight ramblers.
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