Experience and dignity: John Quayle has the right credentials to become the ARLC chairman. Credit:Marina Neil Quayle and Roosters' chairman, Nick Politis, are "family", owning a Hunter Valley vineyard together, yet they have polar opposite views on where rugby league money should be spent. The "Canon", whose father was a frugal Anglican clergyman, is a fan of future funds; Nick, a billionaire clever businessman, believes the future is now. The Roosters' chairman, along with the Bulldogs' Ray Dib (who has begun to dress like Nick), and the Storm's Bart Campbell, are strong supporters of clubs receiving 130 per cent of the salary cap, a not surprising position given its inbuilt inflation. After all, it means that if the players get more, so must the clubs, the reverse of the historic master-slave rugby league relationship where clubs tried to curb player payments.

At the beginning of the Super League war in 1995, Quayle, as NSWRL chief executive, built a nest egg of close to $25 million. Twenty years later, NRL chief executive Dave Smith proudly proclaimed a $50m profit. Who knows what the ARLC's future fund is now, but if it's near zero, then a long document – the 2015 NRL Benchmarking, issued to all clubs on March 31 – indicates they are at fault. Between 2012 and 2015, NRL club revenue from sponsorship, membership, game-day income and merchandising has grown about 2 per cent, equal to inflation. Over that period, average profitability has declined by $100,000 per club, per year. While revenue has increased marginally, clubs are making less money because they are not growing their businesses.

In fact, the average loss has blown out from $1.5m in 2012 to $3.5m. Meanwhile the grant per club from headquarters has increased from $3.85m to $8.2m. In the same period, payments to players, measured by the salary cap, has increased per club from $5.45m to $7.7m. Admittedly, there are some payments to players outside the cap but the grant from headquarters has more than doubled, while player income has increased only 40 per cent. So where has it gone? Hiring staff to sell more sponsorships, memberships and merchandising? Attracting more fans through the gate?

No, the money has gone in football department spending. And it's a radical uplift – from $1.8m average per club in 2012 to $6.5m now. No wonder the NRL boffins are looking at a football department spending cap, a mechanism that the AFL has had in place the past few years. The Bulldogs are squabbling again and it's over football department spending, with coach Des Hasler installing multiple cameras at Belmore Oval to monitor training and chief executive Raelene Castle accused of not reining him in. It's not as if football department spending correlates with premierships. When the Rabbitohs won in 2013, they were in the bottom four of NRL clubs for expenditure. The 2015 premiers, the Cowboys, were middle of the spending ladder, while the triumphant Sharks had the second-lowest spending.

Nor is it fair to accuse RL Central of wilful spending. Administration costs will increase 6 per cent annually from 2013 to 2017, while revenue will grow from $181m annually to $350m. Some of the necessary programs would be ignored by clubs. RL Central's budget for education and welfare is $7m and the NRL now has more players with university degrees than the AFL. Rugby league's pioneer administrator, James Joynton Smith, a very successful businessman, once said."There is no task in business which a man conducts that should be beneath him." Quayle left rugby league headquarters in 1996 as a peace offering during the Super League war. He then became in charge of amenities at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and later advised Middle Eastern, African and South American countries on how to run major events. Yet he has also cleaned out abandoned wells and planted olive trees at his Hunter home. He has maintained a dignified silence as speculation builds on Grant's future. Loading

Joynton Smith also said: "Dignity resides in the way you do your work – what you bring to it. "Dignity is not confined to the top jobs." Quayle has had top and bottom jobs and dignity is what the game needs now.