Latest news with #AnthonyDeCeglie
News.com.au
22-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Scandal-plagued Burgess frontrunner for new coaching gig at Perth Bears alongside former Seven news boss Anthony De Ceglie
The Perth Bears' newly appointed CEO Anthony De Ceglie will have to continue his work on corporate culture when he starts his new NRL job. Having pitched himself as a cultural 'change agent' at Channel 7, the leadership manifesto of the recently departed Seven West Media news boss will be put the test by the players, fans, agents and administrators associated with the nation's third oldest and most scandal-plagued football code. A return to his old stomping ground of Perth, home to Ben Cousin's West Coast his Eagles and his new toughest critic Kerry Stokes, his boss until last week, is guaranteed to bring fresh scrutiny. De Ceglie may soon be enforcing his hard-line stance on conduct – one that last year saw him sack a valued Channel 7 reporter for sharing an animated image depicting a fully clothed former female colleague who hadn't complained – alongside 'Slammin' Sam' Burgess, the former Souths Sydney league star now hotly favoured to become the Perth Bears' inaugural coach. Record-setting NRL coach Wayne Bennett perhaps said it best in 2021 when asked about the challenges of recruiting players to the new NRL team Redcliffe Dolphins, which Bennett was preparing to coach. 'Culture, every time,' said Bennett when asked how he would choose players for the Dolphins. 'The talent will come, we'll grow the talent, we'll find the talent, but it's who we are and what we stand for that's important within clubs.' Along with any top tier highly paid coaching role at the Perth Bears comes responsibility for establishing – and maintaining – club culture. The role of being the cultural envoy to the Bears in the nation's affluent but small western capital could test 'Slammin' Sam' whose idea of culture has to date been a weekend's blokey bonding session around the BBQ in Russell Crowe's off-the-beaten-track backyard at Nana Glen in northern NSW. The West Yorkshireman, along with former Queensland great Mal Meninga, are considered the frontrunners to coach the NRL's newest club which makes its debut in the NRL competition in 2027. Publicity magnet Burgess, who is currently coaching the Warrington Wolves in the British Super League and off contract in 2026, is said to have the backing of the NRL's key powerbrokers for the Bears' gig. They're likely the same powerbrokers who handed Burgess his NRL Hall of Fame Award in 2024 making him the first English international player to receive one, a distinction which upset homegrown league stars. Burgess's award raised fresh questions about the NRL's commitment to improving the code's scandal-plagued culture and its long and chequered history with alcohol and drug abuse which it maintains it is cleaning up. For the past two years – count 'em... one, ahhh, two – Slammin' and Jammin' Sam has been portrayed within the NRL as a posterboy for rehabilitation. Burgess's image overhaul began in 2023 – the same year he left his beloved Sydney Sydney Rabbitohs – and Australia – to take up his new coaching role in the UK. Half a world away from Sydney and the destructive influences that repeatedly saw Burgess fall foul of the law – the confessed drug and alcohol abuse, the questionable mates and more questionable role models – Burgess began to reinvent himself. Should Burgess be appointed inaugural coach of the Bears, De Ceglie, like the rest of us, will be asked to believe that the scandal-prone Burgess, who in 2022 was fined $30,000 by the NRL for breaching its code of conduct by taking illicit drugs in 2018, for driving with cocaine in his system in 2021 and for threatening a player, is a changed man. Allegations a Souths team doctor had administered liquid Valium to calm the player after a days-long bender with older brother Luke and a $20,000 club fine to Souths for failing to report the allegations to the NRL's integrity unit could even be overlooked. The public was expected to accept Burgess's lifestyle – along with a swag of poor driving offences (driving an unregistered vehicle, driving on a suspended licence, driving under the influence …) and claims of a lewd 2018 sexting scandal, which he denied – was just standard, and therefore accepted, behaviour in rugby league. Burgess would address his drugs and alcohol problems – and a 28-day stint in rehab – during a high profile stint on TV show SAS Australia in 2021 during a break in his coaching career brought on by investigations into his conduct. He would win his season on SAS prompting TV insiders to claim Burgess's victory over rival competitors including Jana Pittman, Dan Ewing and John Steffensen, was contrived to deliver Channel 7 a redemption story that would garner maximum publicity. Burgess duly spilt his guts on the show and profited handsomely, $1 million was estimated, for doing so. Although the sexting allegations and infamous bender with brother Luke had taken place in 2018 when he was still playing, his comments suggested his abuse of drugs and alcohol began after he started coaching. 'I started coaching again … We started doing well. I got given the head coaching role (at Souths) … consequently I had to stand down from both roles so I lost it all again,' he said. 'Since then, there's been a police investigation into me about some behaviour that (was) claimed. I turned to drinking, taking drugs.' Anyone looking to revive Burgess's career locally, would be remiss in dismissing the comments' and the implied timeline. For rookie CEO and first-time sports administrator De Ceglie, the flashy short-lived TV boss purportedly tasked with the culture clean-up at Channel 7 after the network's Spotlight program became embroiled in claims involving sex workers, massages and cocaine enjoyed by alleged Brittany Higgins' rapist Bruce Lehrmann, it should at least be a potential red flag.
Sydney Morning Herald
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
Bear trap: Why new NRL team caused a sudden spike in Perth gay club membership
Yes, friends, since the announcement of the NRL's newest team, the Perth Bears, the existing – and don't you forget it – Perth club for Bears has had a few people getting their wires crossed – though mercifully not, as yet, worse. It has been so frustrating that members of 'The Cave – the Perth Bears Supporters Group' has had to share a notice from Bears Perth on Facebook: 'Rugby Fans Take Note: Bears Perth is a social group for men, established in 1993 and incorporated as 'Bears Perth' in 1997,' the post read. 'We are NOT associated with the newly announced NRL club called 'Perth Bears'. Please do not sign up for membership if you are here to join the rugby club. 'ELIGABILITY (sic): Bears Perth is a social club for male and male presenting people over the age of 18.' You've been told. Gotta love that city! Is new Bears chief out of his league? As to this week's news that Anthony De Ceglie, the boss of News and Current Affairs at Channel Seven, is leaving the network to return to Perth to be CEO of the Bears it is ... interesting, to say the least. He's a good man, who I know a little, and there is no doubt he is one of the best connected people in WA, bonded big-time with the people who run the show over there. But, background in that curious beast that is rugba leeg, capable of understanding the nuances of the game? Zero, that I can see. Clearly, he will be needing a crash course in what the leaguies in general are pleased to call their 'culture', and specifically in what the Bears are all about. His challenge will be to work out how to re-activate and grow what is a still remarkably devoted Bears fan-base in Sydney, bring enough people in Perth on board to ensure the crowds won't be embarrassing and make Australia's first pan-national professional sporting club a success. De Ceglie has not yet taken up his role, but when I bumped into him this week, he sounded nothing if not upbeat and at least told me: 'My most important job is making sure I respect the hard work of the Bears supporters and NRL fans in WA who have been waiting so long for this to happen ... More than anything right now, I want to listen to them and hear from them so they know how much I respect them and want them to own this journey. Up the Bears!' I suspect by 'them', his true point is ' not you, Peter' but I have a lot of advice to offer anyway! Game's a bogey How, I hear you ask, could anyone in the White House even contemplate replacing Air Force One – a symbol of prestige and power, wherever it lands in the world – with a $US400 million jet given by Qatar, personally, to Donald Trump, allowing him to keep it when his presidency is mercifully over? Well, Trump himself provided his own answer mid-week, with a curious sporting anecdote. 'There was an old golfer named Sam Snead,' Trump said. 'Did you ever hear of him?' Go on, we're absorbed. 'He had a motto', Trump continued. 'When they give you a putt, you say, 'Thank you very much'. You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say, 'No, no, I insist on putting it'. Then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.' Oh. NOW we get it! Making America Great Again – no, but seriously – now includes their President accepting a gift worth half-a-billion dollars, and not blinking. Air Force One will now become a symbol of naked graft and corruption. Even many of Trump's supporters have called it out as unacceptable. What They Said Martin Luai, father of Jarome, on Instagram, after the Tigers succumbed 64-0 to the Storm, in an appalling performance: 'Get out clause activated.' Surely not, when Jarome is the 'Mr Team First' of Sydney? Betoota Advocate headline on Monday: 'Sydney Therapists Find Themselves Learning A Lot About Wests Tigers Rugby League Club This Week.' Rory McIlroy playing with house money now that he clinched the career grand slam: 'I have achieved everything that I've wanted. I have done everything I've wanted to do in the game. I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors. I've done that. Everything beyond this, for however long I decide to play the game competitively, is a bonus.' Pope Leo XIV is a keen tennis player and a fan of AS Roma soccer club, according to Father Joseph Farrell, Vicar General of the Augustinians: 'He's a regular tennis player. He would come up and play on our grounds once a week at least. He's (AS) Roma all the way.' Interesting. God himself, of course, is known to be a very keen sports follower, given how often he is personally credited with allocating goals, tries, medal and great victories. PETA vice president Mimi Bekhechi called for the Broncos to send their much-loved live mascot – an actual horsie – Buck, to pasture: 'We'd like to ask you to retire the live horse mascot, Buck, and move away from imagery such as bucking broncos, which glorifies rodeos. You could even change your name to something far more inspiring, perhaps the Brisbane Boomerangs ...' Former AFL player/commentator Luke Darcy on why he stopped commentating: 'I just felt like there were some other chapters of passion I wanted to pursue. Can I buy back all that time? Would I regret not calling another 100 AFL games? No. Would I regret not jumping into that pond and having a crack … bit of the unknown, stuff I love, trying to build something I've been working on. It's nice to do it on your own terms. You don't get to do that too often in that space. You normally get sacked.' Virat Kohli on retiring from Test cricket: 'It's been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It's tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I'll carry for life . . . I've given it everything I had, and it's given me back so much more than I could've hoped for.' Ange Postecoglou on his team making next week's final of the Europa Cup, whatever that is: ' I could be sitting here fifth last year [in the Premier League], fifth this year and OK, maybe people wouldn't be waiting for the white smoke to see if it's my last one but they'd still be saying 'that's great but it's been done before – until this club wins something you haven't made an impact'. I knew that is what my tenure is going to be judged and measured on.' Loading Former Kiwi Test forward Elijah Taylor: 'A lot of people are asking me what's wrong with 'Madge' [Michael Maguire], what's wrong with the Broncos. One, his intensity. I've never seen a coach ride the game so hard. After a win, the world is a better place. After a loss, you're off to a funeral and someone will be getting cooked at the video session. Two, training methods. Ninety-five per cent of the time on the field it's full contact. Three, time efficiency. Let's have a meeting for a meeting for a meeting. I'd get home from training and the kids don't know who I am any more. Hardly home.' One of the Broncos players, Marty Taupau, liked the post on social media. Smoke expected to appear from the Broncos roof, shortly. Taniela Tupou to the Herald's Jonathan Drennan: 'Sometimes, I go out there, and I finish the game, and I'm like, 'F--- me, do I know how to play rugby any more, or what?'' Taniela? Go back to the weight you were at Twickenham in November. That day you were the best in the world. Team of the Week
The Age
16-05-2025
- Sport
- The Age
Bear trap: Why new NRL team caused a sudden spike in Perth gay club membership
Yes, friends, since the announcement of the NRL's newest team, the Perth Bears, the existing – and don't you forget it – Perth club for Bears has had a few people getting their wires crossed – though mercifully not, as yet, worse. It has been so frustrating that members of 'The Cave – the Perth Bears Supporters Group' has had to share a notice from Bears Perth on Facebook: 'Rugby Fans Take Note: Bears Perth is a social group for men, established in 1993 and incorporated as 'Bears Perth' in 1997,' the post read. 'We are NOT associated with the newly announced NRL club called 'Perth Bears'. Please do not sign up for membership if you are here to join the rugby club. 'ELIGABILITY (sic): Bears Perth is a social club for male and male presenting people over the age of 18.' You've been told. Gotta love that city! Is new Bears chief out of his league? As to this week's news that Anthony De Ceglie, the boss of News and Current Affairs at Channel Seven, is leaving the network to return to Perth to be CEO of the Bears it is ... interesting, to say the least. He's a good man, who I know a little, and there is no doubt he is one of the best connected people in WA, bonded big-time with the people who run the show over there. But, background in that curious beast that is rugba leeg, capable of understanding the nuances of the game? Zero, that I can see. Clearly, he will be needing a crash course in what the leaguies in general are pleased to call their 'culture', and specifically in what the Bears are all about. His challenge will be to work out how to re-activate and grow what is a still remarkably devoted Bears fan-base in Sydney, bring enough people in Perth on board to ensure the crowds won't be embarrassing and make Australia's first pan-national professional sporting club a success. De Ceglie has not yet taken up his role, but when I bumped into him this week, he sounded nothing if not upbeat and at least told me: 'My most important job is making sure I respect the hard work of the Bears supporters and NRL fans in WA who have been waiting so long for this to happen ... More than anything right now, I want to listen to them and hear from them so they know how much I respect them and want them to own this journey. Up the Bears!' I suspect by 'them', his true point is ' not you, Peter' but I have a lot of advice to offer anyway! Game's a bogey How, I hear you ask, could anyone in the White House even contemplate replacing Air Force One – a symbol of prestige and power, wherever it lands in the world – with a $US400 million jet given by Qatar, personally, to Donald Trump, allowing him to keep it when his presidency is mercifully over? Well, Trump himself provided his own answer mid-week, with a curious sporting anecdote. 'There was an old golfer named Sam Snead,' Trump said. 'Did you ever hear of him?' Go on, we're absorbed. 'He had a motto', Trump continued. 'When they give you a putt, you say, 'Thank you very much'. You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say, 'No, no, I insist on putting it'. Then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.' Oh. NOW we get it! Making America Great Again – no, but seriously – now includes their President accepting a gift worth half-a-billion dollars, and not blinking. Air Force One will now become a symbol of naked graft and corruption. Even many of Trump's supporters have called it out as unacceptable. What They Said Martin Luai, father of Jarome, on Instagram, after the Tigers succumbed 64-0 to the Storm, in an appalling performance: 'Get out clause activated.' Surely not, when Jarome is the 'Mr Team First' of Sydney? Betoota Advocate headline on Monday: 'Sydney Therapists Find Themselves Learning A Lot About Wests Tigers Rugby League Club This Week.' Rory McIlroy playing with house money now that he clinched the career grand slam: 'I have achieved everything that I've wanted. I have done everything I've wanted to do in the game. I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors. I've done that. Everything beyond this, for however long I decide to play the game competitively, is a bonus.' Pope Leo XIV is a keen tennis player and a fan of AS Roma soccer club, according to Father Joseph Farrell, Vicar General of the Augustinians: 'He's a regular tennis player. He would come up and play on our grounds once a week at least. He's (AS) Roma all the way.' Interesting. God himself, of course, is known to be a very keen sports follower, given how often he is personally credited with allocating goals, tries, medal and great victories. PETA vice president Mimi Bekhechi called for the Broncos to send their much-loved live mascot – an actual horsie – Buck, to pasture: 'We'd like to ask you to retire the live horse mascot, Buck, and move away from imagery such as bucking broncos, which glorifies rodeos. You could even change your name to something far more inspiring, perhaps the Brisbane Boomerangs ...' Former AFL player/commentator Luke Darcy on why he stopped commentating: 'I just felt like there were some other chapters of passion I wanted to pursue. Can I buy back all that time? Would I regret not calling another 100 AFL games? No. Would I regret not jumping into that pond and having a crack … bit of the unknown, stuff I love, trying to build something I've been working on. It's nice to do it on your own terms. You don't get to do that too often in that space. You normally get sacked.' Virat Kohli on retiring from Test cricket: 'It's been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It's tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I'll carry for life . . . I've given it everything I had, and it's given me back so much more than I could've hoped for.' Ange Postecoglou on his team making next week's final of the Europa Cup, whatever that is: ' I could be sitting here fifth last year [in the Premier League], fifth this year and OK, maybe people wouldn't be waiting for the white smoke to see if it's my last one but they'd still be saying 'that's great but it's been done before – until this club wins something you haven't made an impact'. I knew that is what my tenure is going to be judged and measured on.' Loading Former Kiwi Test forward Elijah Taylor: 'A lot of people are asking me what's wrong with 'Madge' [Michael Maguire], what's wrong with the Broncos. One, his intensity. I've never seen a coach ride the game so hard. After a win, the world is a better place. After a loss, you're off to a funeral and someone will be getting cooked at the video session. Two, training methods. Ninety-five per cent of the time on the field it's full contact. Three, time efficiency. Let's have a meeting for a meeting for a meeting. I'd get home from training and the kids don't know who I am any more. Hardly home.' One of the Broncos players, Marty Taupau, liked the post on social media. Smoke expected to appear from the Broncos roof, shortly. Taniela Tupou to the Herald's Jonathan Drennan: 'Sometimes, I go out there, and I finish the game, and I'm like, 'F--- me, do I know how to play rugby any more, or what?'' Taniela? Go back to the weight you were at Twickenham in November. That day you were the best in the world. Team of the Week
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Karl Stefanovic eyes off hosting game show The Floor
Karl Stefanovic, a future game show host? That's the hot mail from inside the Nine bunker where sources claim Stefanovic has let slide his ambitions to emulate his one-time role model and former Nine star Eddie McGuire and become a game show host. With his contract negotiations on the table it seems a desperate Stefanovic is looking for ways to secure the million-dollar salary bump given him by former CEO, and chum, Mike Sneesby. With his dreams of becoming a talk-show host fast turning to seed, he is said to have set his sights on the role of hosting Nine's popular new game show, The Floor. We hear Stefanovic rates himself as being better suited to the program than Doctor Doctor actor Rodger Corser, who eventually secured the gig. Stefanovic brought his best fist-bumping Larry Emdur exuberant energy to a recent promo for the show which saw him face off against his Today show co-host, Sarah Abo, in a mini duel. Corser looks nonplussed in the segment, which is, we understand, how Nine management viewed Stefanovic's expressions of interest in Corser's role. UNSETTLED NERVES Anthony De Ceglie made a lot of promises during his brief 13 months at the helm of the Seven West Media newsroom. There'd be 'no dickheads' on his watch, no game playing, more doers, less delegators, more positivity, less focus on ratings, more whiteboard slogans, and, though not a promise, far fewer seasoned reporters. But as he packs up his desk and steps aside for an older and more experienced TV successor, Ray Kuka, who starts Monday, what De Ceglie leaves in his wake at Seven is, rather than a slate of transformative achievements, a refreshed though youthful national news leadership team full of recently promoted and hired staff now reeling in shock at the speed of the heralded 'change agent's' need for personal change. Insiders at Seven say the 39-year-old is headed back to WA to tick a personal goal off his bucket list, that goal having been to become a CEO by age 40. He will be the inaugural CEO of the NRL's newest rugby league team the Perth Bears, and very much at the beck and call of titular NRL boss Peter V'landys, one imagines. Also, it's said, he has quit Seven because his wife Sarah, a lawyer, hates living in Sydney – and possibly because he's rather sensitive to this writer's well-documented criticisms. The first task for incoming news and current affairs director Kuka will be to settle his troops, including those who were promoted under De Ceglie's watch. Among them are recently appointed executive producers of Spotlight, Sunrise, The Morning Show and Weekend Sunrise, as well as key news director appointments around the nation. These notably include Spotlight executive producer (EP) Gemma Williams, who moved to the helm of the embattled current affairs flagship program last year; Sunrise EP Jake Lyle, whose program's lead (five city metro) over Today has shortened; The Morning Show's EP Chloe Flynn, Weekend Sunrise EP Holly Fallon and Sydney news director Sean Power whose 6pm news bulletin has been weakened by the decline of the 5pm game show lead-in, The Chase, as well as the loss of veteran reporters including Robert Ovadia. Power is rumoured to be headed to Melbourne so perhaps De Ceglie's departure will have less bearing on his future. Others new in their roles are national newsdesk director Hugh Whitfield, director of news operations Gemma Acton, Melbourne news director Chris Salter, Adelaide news director Mark Mooney, and Brisbane news director Erin Edwards. Acton, we hear, may soon be transitioning to a new role. Then there's the struggling digital division, which has seen massive turnover under De Ceglie and, since March, has been headed up by director of digital news Natalie Wolfe. Sydney news anchors Mark Ferguson and Angela Cox may also be wondering if further change is on the horizon with Seven chairman Kerry Stokes said to prefer a solo newsreader over a double act. BLINK AND MISS IT Anthony De Ceglie's departure from Seven has improved the stocks of the broadcaster's director of morning television Sarah Stinson. In a densely worded two-page press release issued by Seven on Thursday to belatedly confirm the departure of news boss De Ceglie and appointment of his replacement Ray Kuka – and choc-a-bloc full of glowing endorsements from CEO Jeff Howard and chairman Kerry Stokes concerning both – there appeared, in the last line, a tiny acknowledgment of Stinson. ' … In addition to Ray's appointment we have taken the opportunity to bolster our executive team to ensure we continue to deliver our strategic objectives and future ambition. To that end, we are also excited to announce that Sarah Stinson … will join the SWM executive team.' Those who remain faithful to the Seven news team's old guard and its former director Craig McPherson are of the view Stinson was hands-down the obvious pick to replace McPherson, her mentor, when he stepped down in 2024. Stinson has consistently delivered for Seven and managed to steer breakfast show Sunrise through a series of major recent upheavals including the departure of executive producer Michael Pell in 2022, popular host David Koch in 2023 and, previously, Samantha Armytage in 2021. She is also responsible for the production of around 40 hours of consistently solid television a week. Her appointment to the SWM executive is seen as belated recognition of that fact and her oversight. Meanwhile in news that is likely to irritate De Ceglie, Kuka, or so we hear, has managed to persuade Seven's senior executive he can fill the outgoing news bosses shoes while commuting to and from Perth. His wife, like De Ceglie's, is apparently no fan of Sydney. DINNER DATE Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has a soft spot for Potts Point noshery Fratelli Paradiso – 'great people, great mood, great food …' – and makes a beeline for the restaurant whenever she's in Sydney. On Wednesday the British celebrity turned heads when she and fellow woman trailblazer Celeste Barber dropped in for a meal. Funny woman Barber is newly returned from her smash comedy tour of UK, Europe and Dubai, Backup Dancer, while Lawson has ventured to Sydney for the Vivid Sydney light festival which opens next week. The previous week Lawson was spotted at a private Federal Election party hosted by Sydney husband-and-wife media power couple Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons. History doesn't relate how and when Lawson and Barber met but close observers noted the two looked to be getting on famously on Wednesday while bonding over a shared love of beef. The acclaimed food writer, who is known for her love for sumptuous rich meals, and Barber apparently had little problem finishing off a 1kg T-bone steak, a Fratelli Paradiso signature dish, served along with an assortment of side dishes which the women, and a male friend, made short work of. Lawson is curating a series of dinners in a newly opened pedestrian tunnel in Martin Place during Vivid. ON THE MOVE A year after winning a coveted job on Nine's 60 Minutes Adam Hegarty has relocated to Melbourne from Sydney. The move has raised questions about Hegarty's future with the program, which is based in Sydney. According to network sources Hegarty recently broke up with his girlfriend. Hegarty was dating fellow Nine staffer Amber Johnston in 2024 and into the early months of 2025. Hegarty, about 38, was fast-tracked onto the 60 Minutes reporting team in January 2024 along with colleague Dimity Clancey as Nine moved to attract younger viewers to the show with younger reporters.
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Seven's audacious TV fail as Anthony De Ceglie exits wobbly network
Anthony De Ceglie's appointment as head of Channel 7's news division will surely go down as one of the splashiest and most audacious fails in recent television history. By lunchtime Thursday, while staff within Seven's incredulous national newsroom were still being brought up to speed on De Ceglie's quickie departure from the role after 13 tumultuous months, the outgoing news chief was busy updating his LinkedIn profile to include the announcement of his appointment to the role of inaugural CEO of rugby league team the Perth Bears. The Bears will be affiliated, through existing sporting rights, to Seven's main rival, Nine. One shudders to think what Seven chairman and AFL diehard Kerry Stokes makes of his protege's appointment. Stokes is renowned for his opposition to the NRL and De Ceglie's new job with the code appears a flagrant slap in the face to the Seven chairman. Shortly before his self-congratulatory LinkedIn post, De Ceglie addressed his Sydney newsroom – though not its national affiliates - to confirm he was moving on following a chaotic year. In a short address he spoke, say eyewitnesses, rapturously about his exciting new career adventure. 'He didn't talk about the future of the still in-shock and shattered newsroom, or the Seven leadership team going forward,' said one astonished news veteran. 'He spoke of how this was too good an opportunity to pass up. How he couldn't wait to build a sports team in his home state from the ground up ... and the pull to go home to WA.' The NRL's press release frames De Ceglie's new role as the 'highly experienced and credentialed De Ceglie ... (bringing) a wealth of executive leadership experience and a history of business innovation' to his first-time CEO role. It's a little different to how Seven staffers saw him. Television sources have told chairman Stokes is 'livid' with the way De Ceglie's television apprenticeship unfolded after he personally tasked veteran Adelaide producer Andy Kay with the job of mentoring De Ceglie. Stokes himself personally took the 38-year-old under his wing - and into his confidence - after signing off on the appointment. The drums have been beating for the rookie TV news boss for months with some insisting he came under pressure eight weeks into his tenure when Seven started losing the 6pm news hour (five city metro, total people demo) to Nine. His departure from Seven follows a series of failed news experiments in 2024, notably the introduction of a weekly satire spot with comedian Mark Humphries and an astrology segment. Staff morale also took a hit as experienced reporters and newsreaders were shed to cut costs. De Ceglie has long talked a good game though, and plainly seized the opportunity to do so while keeping company with Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V'landys, the architect behind De Ceglie's new job. De Ceglie's appearance at V'Landys side during the NRL chief's Las Vegas promotional tour in February initially fanned speculation about Seven's interest in the code. Why would the news boss of Seven, which has the broadcast rights to the nation's opposing football code, AFL, be colluding with the chieftains of the NRL and rubbing shoulders with media affiliated with that code? Rumours quickly took hold that a courtship was underway. Few imagined the courtship would not more broadly involve Seven than De Ceglie, personally. His absence from the Sydney newsroom at Easter, in the lead-up to the Federal Election and as preparations were underway for Pope Francis' funeral, also troubled Seven executives and staff unaccustomed to a Seven news boss working from home - and from the other side of the country - during major news events. By the time Seven confirmed the appointment of 20-year industry veteran Ray Kuka as De Ceglie's replacement at 3pm Thursday, De Ceglie was out the door and on his way home. In a long and generous press statement on Thursday afternoon Seven confirmed Kuka will take over from De Ceglie on Monday. No doubt the rookie will be satisfied with having pulled a bear out of a V'Landys' hat.
