WITHOUT even mentioning his name, Panthers supremo Phil Gould has taken an almighty swipe at NRL boss Todd Greenberg and his right-hand man.

The Channel 9 rugby league guru has taken a shot at Greenberg’s NRL administration for wasting “millions and millions of dollars” on corporate strategies that have amounted to little.

Gould’s shot at the Rugby League Central headquarters of the ARL Commission comes in response to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, which reported the game has designed an emergency $100 million strategy to improve rugby league participation numbers in western Sydney.

The report stated the $100 million rescue package is designed to correct a 15 per cent drop in junior rugby league participation numbers in the rugby league heartland.

Gould is not happy that the game’s response to fix a series of poorly designed strategies is to blow more cash on forming a new strategy without consulting key figures on the front line in the war for hearts and minds of football fans in western Sydney.

The Sunday Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield reported Junior NRL registration numbers in Parramatta, the western suburbs and Canterbury are down more than 10 per cent as a result of a number of harmful developments.

A mixture of parental concern about the physical nature of the game as well the increased threat of AFL in the area since the arrival of the GWS Giants and the ongoing growth of junior goliath soccer in western Sydney has created a decline in rugby league participation in western Sydney.

Gould refutes that the situation is as dire as was reported on Sunday — especially in the Penrith District Junior Rugby League zone — but his biggest concern is the game’s outlined plan to combat the decline.

Gould said the NRL officials in charge of developing the game have failed to speak to key figures responsible for managing the development of the game in western Sydney in a flawed attempt to develop a strategy to increase junior participation in rugby league in western Sydney.

Newly appointed deputy chief executive officer of the NRL Nick Weeks assumed responsibility of strategy, game development and community when he was promoted in February.

He now has the job of trying to appease Gould on the game’s vision for western Sydney.

“Before the NRL goes spending any more money on so-called “strategies” to increase participation at the Junior League level, they really need to talk to the people who work in this space every day of the week,” Gould wrote in a column for Wide World of Sports.

“The NRL’s game development division has been an abject failure ever since its inception. We warned the NRL they were on the wrong track from the very beginning.

“They have spent millions and millions of dollars in a flawed strategy. Having now admitted that what they’ve been doing isn’t working, they want to conduct a wide-ranging review and throw another truckload of cash at the problem.

“Please, can we just put a hold on all spending for the moment, until we get the right people in the right positions to make these decisions. The NRL has wasted so much money in recent years on worthless and flawed pursuits.

“It’s a major part of the reasons why the NRL finds itself under such financial stress at the moment. This wasted spending can be mirrored across all sections of the NRL head office operations.”

In a clear shot at Greenberg, Gould did little to mask an apparent public call for the NRL to consult with him on their next move to confront the issue.

“A lot more can be done in both our area and other areas as well,” he said.

“It is vitally important that the NRL does not waste any more money in this space without talking to the people who know exactly where it needs to be spent.”

Greenberg admitted on Sunday the game’s current strategy on junior participation “isn’t working”.

“Our participation rates are growing in Queensland and country NSW so we know young people want to play our game,” he said, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

“Now we have to increase our efforts in the Sydney metropolitan areas and that means doing things smarter.

“Our future depends on building a strong grassroots game. So we need to work more closely with the NSWRL to make the game more appealing to teenagers.”