John Ribot - Rugby League Administration

Rugby League Administration

• CEO Brisbane Broncos 1988–1995
• CEO Super League (Australia) 1996–1997
• CEO Melbourne Storm 1997–2003

After his retirement from football, he became Queensland Rugby League Development Manager and the first Chief Executive Officer of the new Brisbane Broncos club when they were introduced to the New South Wales Rugby League Premiership in 1988. While Ribot's talents as an administrator were reflected in the club's success during the 1990s, he was continually at loggerheads with the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) administration, which he saw as leaden-footed and Sydney-centric, so detrimental to the future expansion of the game. The turning point was the decision by the NSWRL to sack him from its Premiership Policy Committee in 1993 when he proposed shifting the grand final to Brisbane.

An exponent of national and even international expansion of rugby league, Ribot found News Ltd a willing participant in forming an elite, rival competition in the mid-1990s. Resigning from his position as the Broncos' Chief Executive, he became CEO of the organisation known as Super League in the war for rugby league in Australia. Ribot partially realised his 'vision' in getting the competition up and running in 1997 then resigned as Super League chief executive on 24 June to help facilitate a peace deal being reached with the ARL. He secured the franchise to form a club in Melbourne for the re-united competition in 1998. The Melbourne Storm won the 1999 grand final in only the second season of the club's existence. In 2000 Ribot was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. Ribot's single-minded battle for acceptance in an Aussie rules-dominated city saw the Storm part company with premiership-winning coach Chris Anderson in 2001.