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John Ribot interview, Part I: Toenails, bullets & death threats in Super League intimidation tactic
In the first of an explosive two-part interview, former Super League CEO John Ribot opens up on depraved fans’ antics, Kerry Packer’s threat and the Ray Hadley ‘ambush’.Dean Ritchie
April 2, 2021 - 6:53AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
John Ribot knew he had become the most hated man in Australian sport.
Nothing, though, prepared him for this.
Bullet casings arriving in the mail, along with envelopes full of toenails in between death threats sent by people he simply called “nutters”.
In an explosive interview, the former Super League CEO reveals for the first time, the level of anger towards him from fans loyal to the Australian Rugby League in the bitter dispute over control of the game.
In 1997, the game was split in two as eight disenfranchised clubs joined a 10-team Super League breakaway, while 12 clubs remained loyal to the ARL competition.
It divided fans and Ribot, the face of Super League, wore the brunt of their fury.
John Ribot knew he had become the most hated man in Australian sport.
Nothing, though, prepared him for this.
Bullet casings arriving in the mail, along with envelopes full of toenails in between death threats sent by people he simply called “nutters”.
In an explosive interview, the former Super League CEO reveals for the first time, the level of anger towards him from fans loyal to the Australian Rugby League in the bitter dispute over control of the game.
In 1997, the game was split in two as eight disenfranchised clubs joined a 10-team Super League breakaway, while 12 clubs remained loyal to the ARL competition.
It divided fans and Ribot, the face of Super League, wore the brunt of their fury.
John Ribot, former Super League, Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm CEO, in Brisbane this week. Picture: Liam Kidston
The outrage got so bad it forced his employer, News Ltd — now News Corp, publisher of The Daily Telegraph — to place two security guards inside his Brisbane home and post a further two out front in a car.
Ribot, now 66, also reveals the conversation he shared with Rupert Murdoch where the News Corp executive chairman expressed concerns over ARL-aligned Kerry Packer’s powerful influence in Sydney.
Murdoch told Ribot, “If we had Kerry off shore we could fix this up very quickly.”
Ribot also details how he believed Channel 9 sabotaged him during his infamous on-air spat with Sydney radio’s Ray Hadley during a segment on The Footy Show in September, 1995.
BULLET CASINGS AND TOENAILS
Ribot and his then young family lived at The Gap in Brisbane, when four security guards appeared at the front door. Two walked inside, the other two took up positions out front. It was a frightening moment when Ribot realised just how much some fans hated him and Super League.
Although under siege from multiple sides, Ribot remained resilient. He never worried about himself, but did have concerns for his family’s safety.
News (Ltd) was very good, they protected me really well,” Ribot said.
“At its peak, we had security people – a few of them — in my house in Brisbane and in cars out the front. Half of the time I didn’t know what was going on but I knew News had my back.
“I remember my daughter saying ‘There’s people inside our house, Dad, what’s going on?’
“The security guards had their moments but they were very respectful. They didn’t expect to sit down and have dinner with us.
“The only thing that frightened me was more around my family. The last thing I wanted was for them to get embroiled in it. My daughters were very young then and they didn’t totally know what was going on. They just knew there was someone in the house. It just wasn’t pleasant.”
The security guards were seen as a necessary measure, given the worrying lengths people were going to in order to get at Ribot.
“I had a few death threats, they came through the mail,” Ribot said.
“There was this bloke who used to send me toe nails. I don’t know what that was all about.
Another bloke used to send me bullet shells. It was a bit crazy. That used to come through to our offices in Elizabeth Street (in Sydney).
“I also had a few phone calls but they were just nutters on the other end.
“My skin is thick and I knew that once I did something I believed was right then the only thing that was going to cure it was time.”
Even his Wikipedia profile says Ribot is “generally regarded as the most hated man in Australian Rugby League fraternity due to his involvement in the Super League war, which almost destroyed the game.”
“Luckily there was never a close call where I thought, ‘Jesus, thank God that didn’t happen’,” he said.
“The closest call was when we were playing a game at QEII Stadium and I was sitting next to the Brisbane Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley. A security call came through that they had just found footage where a bloke had come through the gates with a rifle.
I thought, ‘Bloody hell’. It was a guy who went to the rifle club – would you believe this — and just thought it was normal to carry a gun into the ground. It was a little unsettling.
“I knew (I wasn’t liked) and understood that. I understand their dislike because you’re taking something away from a family that has probably sat there for two or three generations. Then they see things decimated in front of them and then they think, ‘Wow, what’s going on here’. I get all that.”
