When Nine had its first crack at the NRL, via a withering statement that could only have been stronger if it had been typed with the caps lock depressed, it was doing Peter V’landys a favour.

Not only did it give the ARLC chairman further ammunition to spear a chief executive he had fallen out with, it also gave him a mandate to slash costs at a “bloated head office” that had spiralled out of control.

What’s more, Nine boss Hugh Marks, as recently as Monday, described V’landys as “very impressive” in an interview on Nine radio.

The negotiations had been cordial until 6:45pm on Thursday, the moment Nine – the publishers of this masthead – issued another statement, declaring the NRL’s proposed May 28 return date was “premature”.