Dave Smith has established the Parliamentary Friends of League to improve the NRL's relationship with governments NRL CEO Dave Smith during the Dally M Awards. FAMED director Frank Capra made a move called "Mr Smith Goes To Washington." The NRL is working on its own version titled "Mr Smith Goes to Canberra." At Parliament House in June about 130 federal politicians watched Origin 2 on a big screen. They ate pies, wore scarves and, for once, traded insults on state rather than party lines. This was the latest gathering of the Parliamentary Friends of League, a group established last year to improve the NRL's relationship with governments. Dave Smith has established the Parliamentary Friends of League to improve the NRL's relationship with governments. Source: The Sunday Telegraph The PFLs have played touched football, held social gatherings and, most importantly, become acquainted with the key officials of a sport that was, for a time, political poison. In April, NRL chief executive David Smith appointed former Premier Barry O'Farrell's deputy chief of staff James Boland-Rudder to lead a group improving the game's government relations. Boland-Rudder is one of the ""anonymous suits"" the game's sniggering old guard tell you wouldn't know Wally Lewis from his left testicle. The blokes from the big end of town who are ""ruinin" the bloody game"." The jockstraps either don't know or conveniently forget Boland-Rudder's job is to identify the treasury official with the greatest pull in the Premier's office and detect which way the wind is blowing on funding issues. Not appoint the refs for Sunday's big game. Recently, Smith negotiated successfully with the Federal Sports Minister Peter Dutton to have changes in Medicare benefits that affected elite athletes backdated by three years. It was a relatively minor outcome. But the NRL had provided a solution for a sports-wide problem, not wailed in the media about the unfairness of it all. This went down well with Dutton. The NRL's timing is good. The AFL has extracted billions of taxpayer dollars for stadia and other projects from federal, state and local governments. But former boss Andrew Demetriou was cast as an ALP man and the AFL's mishandling of the ASADA scandal has it on the nose in Canberra. Recently Smith had lunch with the Prime Minister. He didn't turn up with a begging bowl. He was invited. The difference is significant. NRL Boss Dave Smith announces the new West Tigers board at Concord Oval. To those who bemoan Smith's costly ""faceless men"," this is what the NRL is getting for its money. The executive has worked diligently over the past 20 months to improve its government relations. Last week the NSW state government confirmed it would spend $600 million on improving Sydney stadiums. The NRL has had a significant say in the amount allocated and will help determine how it is spent. Thus the NRL will have a chance to redress a great scandal - the manner in which the AFL to plucked hundreds of millions of dollars from under the noses of the entrenched codes to ensure the SCG, ANZ Stadium, GWS's Spotless Stadium and the now virtually abandoned Blacktown Olympic Park were improved/configured for its relatively limited needs. An announcement about substantial ground improvements in Townsville is also imminent - also heavily government funded. NRL CEO, Dave Smith introduces the NRL's new Chief Operating Officer, Suzanne Young at League Central. It has been reported that anonymous NRL heavyweights are disenchanted with the Smith administration. Their concerns should be heard. The NRL's tardy response to the Kirisome Auva'a domestic assault case was cause for concern. This was the kind of behavioural issue that once prompted politicians to run away from the NRL faster than a speeding winger. But among those second-guessing Smith's acumen are the same feudal war lords who, before the imposition of a commission, ran what should have been multi-million dollar ventures like corner shops. Having worked to maximise the NRL's revenue, Smith is replacing this chook raffle mentality with standard business practices. This includes executives who spend more time working with governments and corporate entities than complaining about the video refs. This is not to trivialise the game's everyday operations. Events on the field are its lifeblood and to ignore the wishes of the fans is to risk diminishing the passion that keeps that blood pumping. But while Smith has made mistakes he has rightly challenged the entitled mentality of those who place their own position in the game above the interests of their clubs and the competition. The malcontents use the game's weekly media ""boom or bust"" cycle as a potent weapon. It is far easier to start a mumbling campaign about botched judiciary decisions than explain the intricacies of government lobbying or media rights deals and sponsorships worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But Smith's administration will be best judged by time. If he can provide improved stadia, ensure the financial viability of clubs and keep a sport in a cutthroat market ahead of its rivals, he will leave a lasting legacy. But, of course, nothing will stop some disenfranchised backroom mumblers sharpening their blades. ON Thursday night, after writing an obituary for Phillip Hughes, I attended my 16-year-old son's school presentation night. It was the usual production. The school band played what you might call an enthusiastic melody of songs from Les Miserables. There were earnest speeches from dedicated staff and students. A parade of over achievers received certificates for academic and sporting excellence. Tributes left for Phil Hughes outside SCG members entrance. As always, the students seemed so young, enthusiastic and full of promise. In the light of the day's events, they also seemed a bit more vulnerable. On the same night, the AFL held its national draft where the names of kids with schoolboy heads attached to musclebound bodies were called. The usual preposterous prognostications were made: "He's just what the Swans need"," "Melbourne have scooped the pool here with a group of once-in-a-generation players"" and so it went. But, despite the hyperbole, on this night you could not help but be struck by their glowing potential. The blush of youth. Mere kids with the whole world at their feet. I didn't know Phillip Hughes well. Just a few chats in the foyer of team hotels and at the nets on last year's Ashes tour. But that's what I'll remember about him. Players and fans have paid tribute to Phillip Huges before the Sydney derby. Hughes was 25 and had made a mountain of runs. But he was still much like a student at a presentation night or a young footballer picked in the draft. He had the innocent enthusiasm of a man who believed the best was yet to come. Remember to cherish every moment and hold them close. Unfairly, the future holds no guarantees. SPORT or hobby? I've often argued surfing was the latter. But I'm not the one, like Stephanie Gilmore, risking my safety beneath enormous waves while performing incredible manoeuvres on a thin piece of polyurethane covered in slippery fibreglass cloth. So, congratulations to you Stephanie on winning a sixth world title. And also to fellow Australians Sally Fitzgibbons and Tyler Wright for pushing you all the way to Hawaii. Stephanie Gilmore has won a sixth world title. Originally published as Hinds: Dave Smith goes to Canberra