Searle, who heads the committee of NRL club executives pledged with negotiating a restructure, is confident the ARL and News Ltd will vote themselves out of office.

"We've been meeting News Ltd and ARL people and the general consensus is an independent commission is the best model moving forward," he said. "Getting agreement on corporate governance with both has been important."

Roosters chairman Nick Politis, one of the ARL's three representative on the powerful NRL partnership committee, would meet News Ltd senior executive Peter Macourt, one of the media company's trio of representatives, shortly, Searle said.

Politis, a key deal broker, could not sit on the commission if he retained his club position. "He's fully committed to the process," Searle said.

Ribot praised the QRL's commitment to structural reform by its introduction of three independent directors to sit beside three representatives of state divisions. "It has shown the lead in the process to an independent commission. They've made change at a cost to themselves. This is a huge step forward for the game in Queensland and maybe the NSWRL can go the same way."

Ribot inferred change could be harder to achieve with the NSWRL's antiquated structure, while throwing a few stones at critics of his appointment, such as Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald, whom he likened to the knight in The Life of Brian , fighting a war that is long over.

"Maybe Denis's aim in life is to become a vice-president of the NSWRL," he said. "They've cut off both his arms and both his legs but he's still there on the bridge, spitting at people. Meanwhile, Queensland has moved on."

Ribot also fired a barb at News Ltd newspapers, which ridiculed his role in the costly Super League war, while not once mentioning the media company funded it.

"I can't ever recall my accountant or bank manager coming back and saying, 'You've just blown $400m of your money"' he said.

NRL boss David Gallop praised Ribot's role in the conflict.

"For all the trouble it caused, Super League was borne out of a belief in the game. 'Reebs' loves the game and wanted to see it change. Big ideas often have problems when implemented, from player salaries and after-footy benefits to centralised merchandising and a judiciary panel of ex-players. Reebs was a true believer. Unfortunately, when you make an omelette, you break a few eggs."

The existing peace treaty between the ARL and News Ltd has the media company exiting the game in 2018, or earlier if its investment is repaid, although the wording of the agreement is vague. One senior NRL official argued the ARL could wait out the period, aware News Ltd's core business is not being the co-owner of a sport.

However, News Ltd's half ownership would revert to the 16 NRL clubs, not the ARL, meaning any future structure would still see the ARL sharing power.

"The ARL would have to restructure for the independent commission to happen," Searle said, while conceding it was critical the new body was not the existing NRL partnership in disguise, with News Ltd and the ARL organising their representatives to sit on it.

"It's important we don't have a gerrymander. It still has to be agreed with the ARL and News Ltd what the legal entity is.

"It would be a non-profit-making entity but the process of appointment of commissioners has to be resolved.

"The model we are proposing is a hybrid of America's National Football League, but not to the extent where the clubs determine who the commissioners are. It is closer to the NFL model than it is to the AFL Commission where the clubs don't have the weight we would want them to have in our system. We've got to get it right. It's got to be a model which works for the next 100 years."

Ribot, who began his administrative career as assistant to long-term QRL chief executive Ross Livermore, said he was very impressed with his first QRL board meeting last Friday.

"I felt humbled to be sitting at the table as representative of the Queensland clubs," he said. "I tried to put up a few road blocks to my appointment, asking them to find someone else and inquiring whether it was unanimous but they just kept ticking all the boxes. I'm very honoured. It was like coming home."