Former Parramatta Eels CEO Scott Seward has emerged as a likely candidate in the North Ballarat Roosters’ search for a chief executive officer.
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Seward has only been at the club for a couple of days but has been working closely with interim CEO Mark Lennox, who stepped into the role following Bill Mundy’s departure in April.
Seward has a wealth of experience in the sport industry, having worked at the Western Bulldogs, Canterbury Bulldogs and Melbourne Racing Club over his 20-plus years.
But in recent time he has been embroiled in the Eels’ salary cap scandal. The major breach of the salary cap, over four years, saw the club fined $1 million and docked all its points at that stage of the 2016 National Rugby League season, the first nine rounds.
Seward was handed a two-year good behaviour bond without conviction for his role in the scandal when the sentence was handed down in July.
Seward has put the matter behind him and is excited to play a role, in what capacity is still to be decided, in rebuilding the club’s standing in the region. And Seward believes having a presence in the VFL is an important component to that.
“Ballarat deserves a VFL team,” Seward said.
“The club deserves to get back to where it was and better than where it was and Ballarat needs the club to be better than it was – there’s an untapped potential here.
“The club’s obviously been through a fair bit so it’s good to get in here and have a look.
“I think we should be doing everything to work in partnership with everyone to make sure VFL is back in Ballarat. It’s an exciting opportunity that’s here (and) hopefully (we can) get things back on track.
“That’s my role at the moment, to give Mark a hand...and try and work out where the next steps are for the club as a whole.”
The Roosters will sit out of the VFL competition in 2018 after being stripped of its licence over governance issues. They remain hopeful of returning to the competition in 2019.