Ex-Warriors boss stripped of life membership: ‘I just want to clear my name’

Tuesday, 25 March 2025

He poured his life into rugby league - now one of the sport’s heavyweights is fighting back, saying he’s a victim of a “hatchet job”. Steve Kilgallon reports.

Cameron McGregor just wants to clear his name.

He has devoted his life to rugby league, and for 15 years, he chaired one of the country’s richest sporting organisations, Auckland Rugby League (ARL).

But last year, ARL stripped McGregor - also a former chair of the Warriors NRL franchise - of his life membership, amid accusations of a $7.2m overspend during his reign.

McGregor, however, says a critical report by consultants PwC was a poorly-timed “hatchet job” designed to silence him - so he’s personally paid a forensic accountant to study the books again.

That report, by Covisory’s Mike Bradley, claims “there is no substance” to allegations made against McGregor in the PwC report.

The allegations focused on his role in ARL’s 2017 purchase of the Warriors - a sale the organisation later cashed out of to businessman Mark Robinson at a substantial loss.

But McGregor says the league should never have sold up, saying ownership, while a potential financial drain, was good for the game.

Bradley’s report says that PwC wasn’t thorough enough in its inquiries, writing on one point that “the process of investigation on this matter failed to meet the necessary standard of professional judgement”.

The report said claims by PwC that McGregor hadn’t properly briefed his board on the purchase and had substantial conflicts of interest were never made out - and no substantive link was made to the $7.2m headline figure.

Crucially for McGregor, it says: “This report clearly shows that there is no substance to this ‘wrongful spending’ allegation.”

McGregor says the Covisory report shows PwC “reached conclusions they should never have reached” without the evidence to support them.

He believes he now has a case for defamation action.

When approached for comment, PwC partner Stephen Drain, who led the PwC inquiry, told Stuff he would have to consult the company’s communications department. PwC spokeswoman Louise Poppelwell then responded: “We don’t comment on client matters.”

McGregor now wants his life membership back - and ARL to take steps to restore his reputation.

He claims he was targeted for asking questions of more recent administrators and says the over-spending actually happened during the reign of recently-departed ARL chief executive Rebecca Russell, pointing to a huge increase in outgoings in the league’s 2023 accounts.

“I was unfairly singled out because I was the one who was strong enough to ask the questions they couldn’t answer or didn't want to answer,” he says.

McGregor wasn’t the only league stalwart ousted during Russell’s tenure - three directors, Pat Carthy, Greg Whaiapu and Sel Pearson, were kicked off the board. Carthy had his life membership revoked, and Pearson may have also had his cancelled.

ARL has since had a major overhaul of leadership, with Russell, the board secretary, board consultant and the head of finance all departing.

Interim chair Shelley Kopu, an employment lawyer, leads an entirely-new board. In response to questions from Stuff about the finances, McGregor and the three former directors, Kopu said the new board was “ working in a measured and professional manner to address the issues facing ARL, a number of which are the subject of your questions. In the course of addressing those issues, we anticipate a number of the questions you have raised will be addressed”.

Russell declined to comment. Last year she told the New Zealand Herald her approach was to fix an “incredibly toxic” environment at an “ organisation that had no processes, no procedures and no standards … things didn’t smell right”.

It’s understood New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) hopes the arrival of the new ARL board will allow them to reach amicable settlements without protracted legal debate.

Because the matters were sub judice, NZRL chief executive Greg Peters said he was limited in what he could say. “We are really enthused and excited by the opportunity that is presented by a new, really strong [ARL] board and management team that is focused on the important things of club rugby league and the community game.”

The NZRL’s independent appeals panel has held three separate hearings so far into ARL’s internecine conflict.

McGregor has had one win, when he raised multiple concerns over ARL’s governance.

The panel, chaired by sports lawyer Aaron Lloyd, found ARL acted unlawfully in suspending the three directors and thus, according to its judgment, every decision since was invalid. It found the league’s AGM was unlawfully scheduled, and that ARL had refused to answer reasonable questions McGregor raised about its finances. It said ARL had shown a “distinct lack of financial transparency” to its members. “There is a certain irony that ARL is claiming that there is a need for a thorough investigation of historic financial irregularity, whilst at the same time keeping financial information from its membership.”

The panel also ruled on an appeal taken by Whaiapu and Carthy against their suspensions, saying they were unlawful and breached natural justice; it referred it back to ARL, which ended up sacking them and Pearson. The panel noted that ARL “has simply ignored” its findings and said continued obstinance would lead it to question if that amounted to “misconduct” on ARL’s part.

The panel has still to hear McGregor’s case for the restoration of his life membership.

Whaiapu and Carthy, who have already declined financial settlements, are headed to a specialist sports mediation service to resolve their grievance, which dates back to their suspension in September 2023 (and subsequent dismissal) after PwC investigators said there was“behaviour that brought or may have brought the game into disrepute”.

The three directors had been considered negligent because they held senior roles during the years in which a long-serving staff member - who has since left the country - had taken up to $285,000 of the league’s money by cash advance, credit card payments and direct deposits. The staff member allegedly obtained the password of a second staff member to authorise transactions. When the men were allowed to see the PwC report in April 2024, it said there was “no evidence” anyone else was aware of the staff member’s alleged thefts.

ARL is due to release its 2024 accounts in the next fortnight and sources said it was expected to again show significant losses.

It’s understood during the tenure of Russell, there was a significant increase in staff costs, the cost of television coverage and over $1m on external advisors.

One insider said ARL had spent big on salaries, branding, TV coverage and the external reports, “trying to be something that they’re not, and never will be. If you’re going to spend all that money, you’ve got to have a plan”.

At one point, ARL had five investigations running, with lawyers Lane Neave and consultants PwC: one into the money taken by the errant staff member, one into the relationship between Pearson and pokie machine providers, one into Carthy, one into potential conflicts of interest, and one into the sale of the Warriors.

McGregor believes his expulsion was an attempt to silence him. “They have attacked me because I have challenged them on that spending,” he says. “You have to wonder why it was done like that, rather than a proper, forensic examination of ARL over the last 20 years and the issues arising during that time.”

Much of the inquiry into McGregor was historic: part of one report analysed his role in a deal struck by ARL and NZRL to buy an Auckland pub, the Duke of Wellington, in 2002; a deal examined in a Sunday Star-Times story back in 2007.

In particular, he was at loggerheads with ARL over the assets of the Carlaw Heritage Trust, a subsidiary he founded to care for the assets of the league’s sale of its ancestral home of Carlaw Park.

McGregor claims there was a “cash grab” where ARL propped up its own balance sheet by dipping into the CHT’s cash reserves, taking $5m in 2023. He says ARL expenditure rose from $3.8m in 2022 to $6.8m in 2023 on reserves of $736,000. “They have left an awful financial and governance mess.”

There’s more than a century’s involvement in the game from the four who’ve been exiled. Of the three banned directors, Whaiapu, a former chair of the league’s biggest club, Manurewa Marlins, was ARL’s chief executive from 2017 to 2021; Carthy, a former Kiwis manager, held senior ARL roles from 1994 to 2022 and Pearson was an ex-NZRL chair and chief executive.

Whaiapu signed a non-disclosure agreement and can’t talk. Pearson declined to comment, citing serious health issues, but no longer has any involvement in the sport.

Carthy also didn’t want to speak publicly, but it’s understood he’s deeply hurt and bitter about his treatment and doesn’t want any further involvement with Auckland Rugby League after 35 years as an employee and volunteer.

But McGregor does want to come back: he’d like to return to the CHT to guard the sport’s nest egg.

His dad Ron was a Kiwi in 1947 and later NZRL president; his grandfather was a Richmond Rovers player and coach and he recalls kicking a ball around Carlaw Park as a six year old.

McGregor first played junior league for Richmond in 1961. He joined the ARL board in 1996, and was chair from 2001 to 2013 and again from 2016 to 2018. He won life membership in 2011 and an MNZM for services to the game in 2013. When NZRL also made him a life member, their citation said he had 'dedicated his entire life to the great game of rugby league”.

“The McGregor clan have all been a part of rugby league, we’ve been steeped in the game,” he says. “It’s in my blood.”