Former Binda schoolteacher Lyall Gorman’s career in sport has followed a path none of his colleagues (in education or on the sporting fields of Crookwell) could have predicted in his time here in the 1970s.
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From the one-teacher status of Binda Public School, Gorman has come to be regarded as a brilliant sporting administrator, with outstanding success in both soccer and rugby league circles.
He played both rugby league and soccer at Crookwell before being transferred, and his organisational skills found him not long after appointed as the founding chief executive of the Central Coast Mariners soccer club.
Sun-Herald’s Jamie Marcuson wrote admiringly of Gorman’s success in both soccer and rugby league in Sunday’s edition. In particular, he acknowledged the turnaround in fortunes at the Cronulla Rugby League Club after Gorman’s appointment as group chief executive.
Marcuson wrote: “In the immediate aftermath of the ASADA scandal, the Cronulla board had a crucial decision to make. Financially near-destitute, abandoned by sponsors and with a fan base reeling from the prolonged drugs saga, the club was in dire straits.
“But what they did next may prove to be one of the best decisions in the Sharks’ 49-year history. The board hired Lyall Gorman as group chief executive. And less than two years on, Cronulla’s position is the envy of many in the NRL.”
Marcusson traced Gorman’s sporting administrative career from his initial appointment as founding chief of the Central Coast Mariners soccer club, which became an “enormous success”, before taking over the reins as head of the whole A-League Soccer machine.
“He left that role when the Football Federation Australia asked him to build a new A-League side in western Sydney. The Wanderers flourished under his guidance. But the Sharks were a different kind of proposition. Gorman knew it would take a significant amount of work off the field to repair the problems.
“He differs from many traditional sporting administrators in this aspect. For him on-field success is just another measurement. He is far more broad in his philosophy to sporting administration.
“When Gorman took over the Sharks he immediately brought in Tim Thorne, who had been with him at his three successful football roles. Thorne is his right-hand man and Gorman knew he could bring the community back to the Sharks after the lows of the ASADA scandal.
“With one eye on the long-term future, Gorman believes the club is now ready to take on the mantle of the best in NRL, on and off the field.”
