Out of the frying pan and into the fire. That has been life of new Sydney Roosters chief executive John Lee, who added to Russell Crowe’s infamous Book Of Feuds by walking out on South Sydney just weeks before the start of the NRL season to join the Rabbitohs’ bitter rivals.
His first order of business was working through the Mitchell Pearce incident with the club, the NRL and Pearce’s family. Lee was at the airport to meet Pearce when he returned from a rehabilitation clinic in Thailand and he was on the front line when the time came to hash out a punishment with the NRL.
The league eventually settled on an eight-game suspension and an unprecedented fine of $125,000. “You cop your medicine in sport,” Lee tells Guardian Australia. “You always think there are mitigating reasons why the penalty should be less. Is it fair? We don’t really know yet. As long as there’s consistency, there is no complaint.
Pearce will return to training this week as he prepares for his round nine comeback. His focus will hardly be just football though. “Mitchell has taken that medicine quickly,” Lee says. “The countdown is on to his return and the club needs him.
“There’s a series of welfare and education issues he has to comply with for both the club and the NRL including some education courses. He is undertaking a mentoring course. He has ongoing counselling.”
With his return slated just weeks before Laurie Daley names his NSW Origin team for game one, the incumbent Blues No6 will no doubt come into reckoning for state selection. And the Roosters certainly won’t be pushing for Pearce to stand down from representative duty. “It’s a bit early to think about Origin,” Lee says. “Mitchell has played Origin before and nobody would want to limit his potential.”
With the Pearce penalty determined, Lee’s focus had to shift onto Shaun Kenny-Dowall and the allegations of domestic violence that were being aired in court. “It’s never nice when private relationships become public,” Lee says. “The relief was real. He isn’t going to talk about it but he thanked the club for its support and he has learned some valuable life lessons. There were a lot of hours involved in protecting Shaun.”
While Lee was not at the Roosters when the Kenny-Dowall allegations came to light, or when NSW Premier Mike Baird called for the league to stand down the outside back, he understood the pressures placed on all involved.
“When the head of the state in which you live makes comments about what should or shouldn’t happen and when that person is the custodian of the judicial system, it is hard to stand up against,” Lee says. “But the club did and ultimately it was proven right.
“Presumption of innocence is a very important element in our society and that should not be forgotten. The court of public opinion is very quick to judge. This is a credit to Nick Weekes and the NRL integrity unit, who believe in a dedicated cooling off period after incidents like this. They aren’t jumping to conclusions.”
Baird will have a bigger influence on the Roosters than just Kenny-Dowall though, with funding for Sydney stadiums and where it is allocated to have a huge impact on the club.
“The club is concerned about being shut down for four or five years during the build,” Lee said of the possibility that the Sydney Football Stadium will be knocked down to build a new ground at the Moore Park precinct. “That’s what happened [in the 1980s] when they shut down the [Sydney] Sports Ground.
“There are also concerns that a 65,000-seat stadium is too big for the club. We think the stadium size could be around the 45,000-mark. As soon as you get above that, the viewing quality declines.”
It has been a whirlwind ride for Lee since moving from Redfern, hardly helped by the walloping the Rabbitohs dished out to the Roosters on Sunday. “The last week has been the strangest week of my professional life,” Lee laughs. “To be at the [Auckland] Nines and wearing a Rabbit when they played the Roosters and then round one to be up against the team you spent the whole offseason working with is strange.”
While the move, particularly the timing of it, is a unique one, Lee has taken comfort in the similarities between the clubs and the odd familiar face.
“There’s something similar about working for clubs that are one of the top six in the game,” he said. “The pillars of a good club include an excellent chairman and board, a smart coach, resource for high performance and all the commercial components that give the club reach. The Roosters have that. There are elements that are similar from nutrition to prehab to rehab to psychology to strength and conditioning. They are virtually like-for-like.”
That familiarity is heightened by Lee’s relationship with Roosters head coach, Trent Robinson, who he coached in Harold Matthews in the early 1990s. “He has always been a high achiever, not a loud achiever,” Lee says about his new coach. “He has a very special way about him. He had an adult’s brain in a boy’s body and now he has a PHD in his game. “
Lee may have lost his first battle against his former employers but it won’t be his last. And with his new club regathering, another charge at the title can only further earn the ire of Souths and the true believers of the Book of Feuds who neither forgive nor forget those who swap the cardinal and myrtle for the red, white and navy blue.
