Contrary to the widely held perception of the club's financial situatiuon, Doust said St George Illawarra were not broke but had gone to the NRL in 2013 seeking assistance to ensure the club would be strong in the future, and their business plan forecasts a profit in 2017 - something only two clubs achieved last season.

Passionate fan base: Dragons fans at WIN Stadium. Credit:Getty Images

However, the club was open to change and has been looking at alternative governance models, includng that of South Sydney, which is 75 per cent owned by Russell Crowe and James Packer, with members controlling the other 25 per cent.

"Of the 16 clubs in the NRL and all of their membership programs, there is only one club that has member voting rights and that is South Sydney," Doust said. "We have been looking at that but there are various ways of doing it. There is the Brisbane Broncos model, we could develop a community-based model, there is the clarity of the Souths experience, and there is a modification of what we have now that would see St George and the Steelers have a place in the future as well. How it all fits together with the best interests of the game and the brand, we have been doing some due diligence on that, and that includes the voting rights of the members.

"This is not new, we are doing it because we saw some 12 months ago ... that the time was right to review our governance model because the stability and the consistency of the joint venture agreement in the past had delivered us to a certain point. We believe we need to have a more contempary model and if it involves members as such we are looking into the way that can be achieved to provide independent qualifications to our board and our stewardship to make sure it is representative of our stakeholders, but it protects the traditions and the history of this club into the future."