Peter V'landys.

Over the past two months, the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission has pushed on with plans to resume the competition. Even when the odds of a May 28 restart seemed insurmountable he continued to move forward, determined to see the competition return as planned.

Yes there have been plenty of others who have played a role in the NRL's successful resumption, but ultimately, V'landys was the man driving the game forward.

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Throughout this period, the chairman has butted heads with broadcasters, politicians, health officials and, most recently, referees to ensure the NRL became the first professional team sport in the country to return to the field.

While his rise into the public spotlight has been rapid in recent months, the former Keira Boys High School student has been on a steady trajectory to the top of the sports administration world for much of his career.

A former chief executive of the NSW Harness Racing Club and the current CEO of Racing NSW, a role held since 2004, V'landys has long been highly regarded within the industry after delivering a surge in popularity.

But if you go back even further, those who knew the child of Greek migrants while he was growing up in Wollongong believe he was always destined to become one of the most powerful men in Australian sport.

"You can see someone's personality from a young age," St George Illawarra recruitment manager Ian Millward said.

"Peter ran some businesses when he was pretty young, he ran a restaurant in Wollongong, he went to Harold Park and ran harness racing.

"I remember when he got that job I thought it was a big job, but he didn't just do well, he was very successful. Obviously he hasn't been a one-trick pony."

Millward's ties to V'landys run deep, the pair grew up in the same street, they both attended Keira Boys High School and they played rugby league together for Wests Illawarra.

Among the highlights of their playing days was a Wests Under 18s team filled with talented players. While many of those youngsters, including Garry Jack, went on to higher honours, V'landys opted to pursue a career in business.

"He was really hard working," Millward said. "He wasn't overly tall for a backrower, but always hard working with good leg speed. He was a good player.

"Peter could have been a very good player, but it wouldn't have given him a good chance to get the business acumen and education that he needed. He knew that was more important in the long term."

While a commerce degree from the University of Wollongong may have provided him with vital business skills, V'landys recognises he wouldn't be where he is today without the experience of playing rugby league.

"One thing rugby league does is it creates friendship and mateship," V'landys said. "I was now one of them, it brought me into the fold. I was no longer the wog.

"When you're a young kid, that's important. Self esteem when you're growing up is important, so playing rugby league was very important for me.

"If I hadn't, god knows where I would've ended up. My confidence levels would've been bad, my opportunities and chances would have been substantially less."

Given the way rugby league helped a young V'landys gain popularity in the classroom and laid the platform for a successful career, the ARLC chairman always had a desire to give back to the sport that gave him so much.

"I wanted to pay back what it did for me my whole life. It gave me an aspiration as a young kid.

"I wanted to play for Australia, wear the green and gold. It made me determined to be someone and I wanted rugby league to help me get there.

"I never got there, my parents, being migrants, they didn't think rugby league was a career. So I went to uni and got into business, took a different path.

"But I never forgot what rugby league did for me. When the opportunity to pay it back came, I took it up. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. It's purely to repay the game."

V'landys' exploits on the sporting field weren't confined to rugby league, the backrower was also a member of Illawarra Blue Stars athletics club.

Having watched him juggle multiple sporting and school commitments as a teenager, V'landys' athletics coach, and current Blue Stars secretary, Valmai Loomes said those time management skills have served him well throughout his professional career.

"A lot of people can't juggle," Loomes said. "They give up their trade to focus on sport or vice versa. Peter had that knack of juggling things.

"When he was running, he was aligned to both the academic side and also his sport. But he never seemed to allow the academic side to overrun, or the sport to overrun. He was pretty well-balanced as a person."

V'landys' time management skills haven't been the only quality on display throughout the past few months, with his determination and desire to succeed shining through during the NRL suspension.

Such qualities have long been known commodities for V'landys, the administrator repeatedly taking on numerous high-profile challenges to promote and protect the sports he runs.

The father of three famously drew a $235 million rescue package out of then-Prime Minister John Howard during the 2007 equine influenza outbreak.

He took on the corporate bookmakers for race field fees, the battle going all the way to the High Court, which ruled in Racing NSW's favour.

Such was the magnitude of the decision, it made international headlines. Millward, who was coaching in England, still remembers the day his old friend featured in the British newspapers.

"The greatest thing was when I was overseas and reading newspapers about how he took the betting operators on," Millward said. "Knowing his personality, when he grits his teeth, he always finds a way. When he won it, I was super proud of him.

"If racing had lost, we wouldn't have racing as we do now. It would be a minor sport with low prize money."

The determination shown during the bookmakers battle has also been on show during his reign as chairman of the ARLC, V'landys taking on numerous parties to ensure the NRL returned this week.

While this drive to succeed has been on display throughout his career in sports administration, Loomes could see the early signs of such a mindset in V'landys' teenage years.

"He's a worker," Loomes said. "I don't think things have come to him easy. Peter used to work hard.

"There are some talented people who don't work hard and some less gifted people who work really hard, Peter was that second group. He's worked hard and it's showed in his career."

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V'landys achieved his goal of returning the NRL to the field, however, his behaviour throughout the current crisis has drawn a mixed response from the wider community.

Plenty of question marks were raised when he declared back in April the NRL would return this weekend. And even more question marks were raised each time a bold declaration was made throughout the past six weeks.

Loomes hasn't been surprised by the way V'landys has handled himself of late. But she reinforces he isn't the intimidating force he can sometimes resemble.

"He's the kind of man in his own mind who wants to make a mark, but wants to make a mark the right way.

"He's saying it all now, he wants to get rugby league back on to the field because there's so much money at stake, so many people's lives are at stake. He's gone hammer and tong to a certain degree, but he hasn't gone over the mark.

"He knows when to stop and start and he was like that as a kid. He was determined, but supportive of others at the same time. He was a very likeable young man."

With the NRL back, sports fans and journalists have spent the week singing V'landys' praises. A souvenir poster even ran in a Penrith newspaper.

But while he has emerged as a national hero for many rugby league fans, V'landys remains true to his roots.

"The thing I'll never forget is I'm a Wollongong boy through and through," V'landys said. "That is what I'll always be."

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