Gow returns from exile to save Sharks
Gow returns from exile to save SharksMelbourne Herald Sun, AustraliaGow, who helped save
Cronulla from receivership in 1993, has returned to join forces with some of Sydney's most powerful businessmen and experienced
rugby league minds to form a Sharks survival committee. It was only the second time he has been at the
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Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/nrl/story/0,27074,25588986-5016549,00.html
Peter Gow returns from exile to save Sharks
EXCLUSIVE by David Riccio
June 05, 2009 12:00am
Return ... Peter Gow at Cronulla Leagues Club yesterday. Photograph: Sam Ruttyn / The Daily Telegraph
ARMED with a manila folder of scribbled notes and bundled papers, former Cronulla Sharks president Peter Gow returned to the embattled club yesterday, leaving 10 years of animosity at the door.
Gow, who helped save Cronulla from receivership in 1993, has returned to join forces with some of Sydney's most powerful businessmen and experienced rugby league minds to form a Sharks survival committee.
It was only the second time he has been at the club in 10 years.
The group was formed to attract new sponsors, inject immediate revenue streams and overhaul the battered Cronulla brand.
The Daily Telegraph captured this exclusive photograph of Gow entering Sharkies Leagues Club yesterday for a two-hour boardroom meeting with fellow members of the "Means and Ways Club".
Local millionaires - including Shimano boss John Dunphy, former head of Toyota John Conomos and property investor Malcolm Greer - as well as league identities Ron Massey and former Cronulla club doctor Peter Malouf have mobilised alongside Gow.
"We're all mature blokes who agreed that egos and old animosities were to be left at the door . . . that was the only way forward," chairman of the committee Malcolm Greer said.
"Fundamentally we're striving to achieve not only the survival but overwhelming success of the club."
It is believed their first order of business is to convince the Cronulla board, which remains unsettled following the resignation of chairman Barry Pierce and director Don Anderson, to lure marketing guru and former Sydney Roosters general manager Richard Fisk to the club.
Fisk, who was appointed by Gow as marketing manager of the Sharks in the early 1990s and still lives in the Sutherland Shire, is the man Cronulla powerbrokers believe can make an immediate impact.
However, with rival clubs and codes circling, the Cronulla board must react quickly to secure Fisk's expertise, prompting Greer to call for his immediate signature.
"I've spoken to Richard about it," Greer said yesterday.
"When Gowy was the president of Cronulla, I got him to employ Richard before he was then head-hunted by (Nick) Politis at the Roosters. I'd support his appointment no end.
"And probably the most important thing is that Richard's up for the challenge."
After standing down in 1999 - for cutting up a St George jumper and having an altercation with former international Barry Beath at the Sharks Leagues Club's Chinese restaurant - Gow, 69, has never felt fully welcome at the club.
However, the father of supermodel Elle Macpherson said he had never stopped supporting the Sharks and spoke passionately about helping resurrect the club's fortunes.
"It was a really good meeting. This club will go ahead as a result of the opening up of the communication process," Gow said.
"There's no personalities or egos. We're all here for the one reason, to help turn this club around.
"Whatever the board needs we hope to help them. It was only the second time I've been at the club in 10 years, after the local derby two weeks ago, so it's great.
"Some extraordinary things will come because of this, and certainly not just because I'm involved, but it was just a fantastic opportunity to compare notes for something were all so passionate about.
"But at the end of the day, I'm just one of many like-minded good people that want to see the club do well."
