John Ribot

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John Ribot (née John Ribot-De-Bresac) is an Australian sports administrator and former rugby league player.

1 Rugby league playing history
2 Rugby league administration
3 Football (soccer) administration
4 Other boards
5 Sources

[edit] Rugby league playing history

Australia 1981-85: 9 Tests - 9t, 2g (34pts)
Queensland 1977-85: 10 games - 3t, 2g (14pts)
New South Wales 1978-81: 2 games - 2t (6pts)
Newtown 1978-79: 31 games - 19t, 7g (71pts)
Wests 1980-81: 36 games - 26t, 11g (100pts)
Manly 1982-83: 52 games - 33t (112pts)

John Ribot played club football for the Newtown Jets (in 1978 and 1979), the Western Suburbs Magpies (in 1980 and 1981), the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (in 1982 and 1983), and the Redcliffe Dolphins (in 1984 and 1985).

Before the introduction of State of Origin selecton rules Ribot represented both Queensland in 1977, then New South Wales in 1978 to correspond with the state in which he was playing his club football. He went on to represent Queensland in 8 State of Origin matches between 1982 and 1985, the Brisbane representative team in 1984 and Australia from 1981 until 1985, playing in 9 test matches. Ribot was the winner of the Queensland Rugby League Press Writers' Player of the Year Award in 1985.

[edit] Rugby league administration

After his retirement from football, he became Queensland Rugby League Development Manager and the first Chief Executive Officer of the Brisbane Broncos. While Ribot's talents as an administrator were reflected in the club's success during the 1990s, he was continually at loggerheads with the New South Wales Rugby League. The turning point was the decision by the NSWRL to sack him from its Premiership Policy Committee in 1993.

Ribot found News Ltd a willing participant in forming an elite, rival competition, with the Bronco Chief Executive leaving Brisbane to lead the organisation known as Super League (Australia) in the war for rugby league in Australia. After partially realising his ‘vision’ in getting the competition up and running in 1997, he secured the franchise to form a club in Melbourne for the re-united competition in 1998.

While the Melbourne Storm won the 1999 grand final in only its second season in existence, Ribot’s single-minded battle for acceptance in an AFL-dominated city saw the Storm part company with premiership-winning coach Chris Anderson in 2001.