sport news Why NRL boss Peter V'landys' bid to blackmail the NSW Government over ... trends now

Two years ago, rugby league boss Peter V'landys was being called 'The Messiah'. Nowadays he's known as 'The Miser'.

After steering the game through the pandemic, V'landys could do no wrong. He was the darling of the media and the sports community, but by using the NRL grand final as a pawn in an attempt to pressure the NSW Government into spending $800million to upgrade three suburban grounds, he has shot himself in the foot.

'Pressure' is one way to describe what V'landys has tried to do. TV host Karl Stefanovic described it as 'almost bribery'. Social media bloggers have gone further, calling it 'blackmail'.

All three terms are equally suitable.

While he might say that all he has been trying to do is hold the NSW Government to a deal to upgrade the home grounds of the Sea Eagles, Tigers and Sharks for the good of rugby league, V'landys appears to have badly misjudged the mood of the people.

Where once he seemed popular enough to get elected prime minister on a wave of rapturous support, right now his approval rating is only marginally higher than that of on-the-nose ex-PM Scott Morrison.

To the diehard Sydney rugby league fan perhaps V'landys has done nothing wrong. Certainly, long-suffering supporters of the Sea Eagles, Tigers and Sharks would applaud his tactics if it meant their antiquated home grounds got a multi-million-dollar facelift.

As they would say, all he did was try to keep the government to its word. The fact that he threatened to back down on his part of the agreement – to play the NRL grand final exclusively in Sydney until at least 2046 - and used the biggest match on the footy calendar as a bargaining chip, is immaterial.

Who cares if the government now needs the money to help flood victims, they'd argue, a deal is a deal.

Which is one way to look at it. The self-interested way.