PAUL Osborne will walk into his office at Parramatta Leagues Club on Monday morning with a plan to return the club to its glory days.

Looking ahead … new Parramatta CEO Paul Osborne. Photograph: Mark Evans

A few short months ago he was desperate to walk away from the game, fed up with explaining the poor behaviour of players to his nine children.

But an unexpected chance to return Parramatta to an NRL superpower after a 23-year premiership drought has renewed his enthusiasm.

One of his first tasks is to sign NSW Origin star Jarryd Hayne.

The former Canberra premiership-winning prop said he wants to establish a culture at the club, like Jack Gibson in the 1980s, where players are looked after beyond football.

“I want to make it clear that as long as I’m in charge, Nathan Hindmarsh will have a job for life at this club,” he said. “I want Parramatta to be a club that looks after its best players and never loses them again.

“Signing Jarryd Hayne to a longer term deal will be one of the first things I address. I also went to meet with Krisnan Inu’s manager and get to the bottom of why he hasn’t been at his best. Krisnan is a wonderfully talented player.”

But Osborne is aware he is heading straight into the middle of a salary-cap investigation and a period of instability at the club.

“It’s important to be as co-operative as possible. We always need to be open and transparent,” Osborne said of any NRL inquiry.

“Obviously there are questions that need to be answered and that’s happening now. I’ve worked closely with (NRL salary cap auditor) Ian Schubert during my time at the Player Agent Accreditation. If this matter is not resolved by Monday, I’ll be giving him as much assistance as he needs.

“I’ve been briefed on it, but I don’t have an intimate knowledge. But I am confident it will be resolved quickly.”

Perhaps the key part of his charter is “re-engaging with the fans” – making them proud to wear the blue and gold jersey.

To that end, he will have the players out in the community, “with open training sessions in suburbs like Blacktown and Castle Hill”.

“At the moment we’ve got around 3500 members, which isn’t anywhere near what we should have given Parramatta, in my view, is the biggest supported club in Sydney,” Osborne said.

“I think there’s a tendency for teams supported by a big leagues club to overlook that area.

“We’re also a western Sydney club, so we have a duty to promote rugby league in an area that’s under attack from AFL.

“I’m also keen to return tradition to the jersey and emblem. I’d love them to go back to the old designs from the club’s glory years in the 1980s. It really infuriates me to see jerseys change every couple of years – the AFL doesn’t do that. But ultimately I want to look after the players beyond football, help them with their lives like the great Jack Gibson did.”

As a committed Christian and non-drinker, Osborne knows the challenges facing the game. He doesn’t – and won’t – shy away from that.

Like most people in the game, it hurts him when unsavoury headlines undo so much of the good work that goes unnoticed.

“I’d had a gutful of all the negative headlines, explaining to my children why their heroes were in the headlines for the wrong reasons,” he said. “If people want to drink, they will find a way to do it. It’s about educating them about the consequences of going overboard and making them responsible for those consequences.”