If you can't be successful at the biggest, most successful club the game has ever known for the last 100 years then you aren't very good at business.

A better test would be for the said Chairman to take over Doncaster or Sheffield or even Castleford. If he did that and made any one of them as successful or even half as successful as Wigan then I would second the accolades you are bestowing upon him.

Being a successful chairman at Wigan does not really have much degree of difficulty to it.

It's kind of like being Michael jordan's coach.

You do know the state we were in with this guy took over dont you?

You do know we were making big losses? Had umpteen foreign players? Weren't promoting youth players? Were breaking the salary cap?

All that on top of winning nowt.

Proper easy job.

It's the support of these people who you so denigate that has sustained and nourished this game since it's inception both here and in Australia.

The fact that the demographics of the game's supporters are changing somewhat to a more affluent social strata is proabably due to the sons, daughters and grandchildren of these original supporters who have become upwardly mobile due to their own efforts and the support of their parents and are taking their sporting preferences with them as they rise.

As a descendant of the denizens of a former mining town which was destroyed by the Grantham grocer who has ammassed a certain wealth, I would rather live there than Tunbridge Wells. The qualities of decency and moral fairness are so much better.

Given that you had a ready made supporter base around 14,000 and were gifted a brand new stadium by DW and are located in the middle of the most prolific group of amateur teams in the country, he was hardly starting from the depths of where, let's say, Featherstone, have had to build from.

Not easy, but one of the easier, clubs to lead to success than most. As I said, let me see him hand over Wigan to someone and take on a struggling team and transform it to a top class organisation and i will eat humble pie and bow to his leadership acumen.

It seems this debate is now the refuge of those who were hoping and praying for the down fall of the WC.

Now that's in the clear, it seems hoping and praying for the downfall of RL in the UK is the next best option.

The main sabateur of the WC would appear to be the said Lenagan with his ill timed rebellion getting the headlines just as the WC ticket sales and marketing and media efforts are getting into full flow.

Well Ken Davy took over tier 2 Huddersfield who have since 2006 reached 2 CC Finals + been in play offs for 5 years + produced 2 Man of Steels since2009 + won the league leaders shield shares ILs view. As does Hdgell who took HKR from tier 2 to 4 (?) consecutive play offs. As does McManus a very successful owner, As does Moran taking perennial under achieving Wolves to 3 CC wins + 2 GFs and LLS. Plus others!

There won't be a breakaway.
What there might be is a "Super League" corporate body, similar to the Premier League in soccer. They oversee the League and market it too.
IL and his colleagues believe SL can produce far more revenue than the RFL have been doing the past contracts with braodcasters, mostly SKY.
To set up a "Super League" with obvious links to the RFL seems the obvious way to go. Surely the RFL can't say they have done well in promoting RL and SL as the idea is preposterous. Whether IL and his fellow chairmen can improve the deals and revenue remains to be seen.
It does seem pretty improbable that Mr & Mrs Hetherington will be joining the other SL chairmen who want to improve the game.
They can't do any worse than the RFL has done in the past and probably will do very much better.

That is completely unfair, the so called rebel clubs could hardly raise concerns before recommendations were made, the timing of the release of the recommendations was down to the RFL, the a majority of SL clubs have raised concerns with seven putting their names to the Lenaghan letter. That does not make the staus Quo correct, but it does mean a different solution is required.

Despite stating they would say no more until after the World Cup the RFL have published the recommendation document, you should read it. I have read it and was surprised at the lack of reference to supportive data to findings and the number of unsupported opinions and speculation, often utilising phrases to the effect of "it can never be determined, however it is believed" with regard to key issues. Those opinions may be right or wrong, but in my work (with a US owned multi-national) we would never be allowed to make significant decisions based upon opinion rather than data.

I have always taken with a pinch of salt stories of RFL incompetance, but given the importance of the decision to be made I find that report unfeasibly poor, it simply does not stand up to scrutiny. I would add that lack of evidence does not make the recommendations wrong, it makes them unsupported opinions.

Frankly proper data is required, I think the best way forward would be an interim arrangement next year of 1 up 1 down whilst competant professionals are commissioned to collate reliable data and resulting proposals brought through at the end of the following season.

I repeat the RFL report is very poor and provides no compelling evidence to support any option.

He's had to make profits out of a club that don't win a stadium and therefore don't get revenue from hospitality, a supporters club, bars, food outlets etc.

He had to put up with several overpaid players on long terms contracts taking up a huge chunk of salary cap space whilst other, more deserving players were being underpaid.

He's made so many positive changes its been incredible and whilst it may be a big club doesn't make it an easy club to manage. The pressure of expectation sees to that and in a lot of ways its more difficult then running a team like Fev (your example).

This guy is a shrewd businessman and whilst everyone may not back him, if he'd been in charge of the RFL for the past few years the game would be in a far better position. He wouldn't be able to please everyone but he'd not try to please every man and his dog and he wouldn't let the clubs that contribute the least call the shots like has been allowed to happen for too long.