Neil Whittaker

Neil Whittaker(born 10 September 1956) is an Australian former professionalrugby leaguefootballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s forBalmainin the NSWRL competition. Whittaker was also thechief executive officerof theNational Rugby Leaguefrom 1998 to 1999.

Neil Whittaker

Personal information
Full name	Neil David Whittaker
Born	(1956-09-10)10 September 1956 Crookwell,New South Wales,Australia
Playing information
Position	Hooker
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1979–85 Balmain 118 11 0 1 56
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1988 Huddersfield 1 0 0 1 0
Source: As of 12 March 2019

Background

Whittaker was born inCrookwell,New South Wales,Australia

Playing career

Whittaker made his first grade debut for Balmain in Round 6 1979 againstNewtownatHenson Park.Over the following 7 seasons, Whittaker became the club's first choice hooker and captained the side. Towards the end of his playing career, Whittaker mainly played from the bench after the emergence ofBenny Elias.Whittaker retired from playing at the end of 1985.

Post playing

In 1994, Whittaker became chairman of Balmain and was one of the backers behind the club changing its name and location to become more marketable. It was decided in 1995 that Balmain would change their name to the "Sydney Tigers" and play their home games atParramatta Stadium.The move started in the same year that theSuper League warhad begun. By the end of 1996, Balmain reverted to their original name and returned to playing atLeichhardt Ovalfor the 1997 season as the "Sydney Tigers" experiment was deemed a failure.

In February 1997, Whittaker was appointed John Quayle's successor as Chief Executive of the NSWRL. In July 1997, Whittaker was one of the main stakeholders that began talks with theParramatta Eelsas Balmain were looking to merge with another club.

At the end of 1997, Whittaker helped broker the deal that led to the reunification of the game in January 1998 as the ARL/Super League war was declared over. One condition of the peace agreement between the ARL and News Limited was that there would be a 14 team competition in 2000. The 20 clubs that played in 1998 would be assessed on various items such as sponsorship, crowds, on-field success and the like. It was also announced that clubs that merged would receive a large sum of money, as well as a guaranteed position in the 2000 NRL Competition.

As NRL CEO, Whittaker oversaw clubs such asHunter Mariners,South Queensland Crushers,Adelaide Ramsand theWestern Redsculled from the competition. Whittaker was also NRL CEO at a difficult time when foundation clubs such as Balmain andWestern Suburbsmerged to form theWests TigersandNorth SydneyandSouth Sydneybeing axed from the competition.

Whittaker resigned as NRL CEO at the end of the 1999 season.