Quote: knockersbumpMKII "His nose in the trough and agreeing/backing up the over the recommended pay rises (by an independant panel) by themselves highlights how they were on the gravy train for years.
He did the bare minimum at times and ultimately in his tenure the sport has not progressed in relative terms to other sports.
Bradford Northern 1964 and all the shenanigans, Crusaders inclusion and failure, London/SE regions not being given enough support - Schools not entering comps anymore (nor having any RL teams at all) round these parts and certainly no new schools running RL /
UK participants have dropped, funding from Sport England has dropped massively (38% last time) and the vast majority of the last lot of funding is mainly because there is a ladies comp that started out (£7M out of the £10.7M), we'll see how that goes as it is a small positive but decades behind other sports.
2009-13 - £27.6m
2013-17 - £17.5m
2017-21 - £10.75M
TV deals accepted that are shown to be undervalued, Stobart debacle which effectively reduced the headline SL sponsorship deal to zero in terms of monetary value to the clubs, failure to engage the media (see the insider article from before christmas as to how mickey poor), did I mention Bradford-gate.
NW is/was the CEO, he was the boss as well as being paid for his IRLF 'work', the buck stops with him, he has failed and yet still troughed himself and his mates to the hilt. Disgusting, greedy, feckless and good riddance.
Sally Bolton, Blake Solly and Ralph Rimmer have all been named as candidates, someone from outside the sport would be better, someone who gives a turd and is competent.'"
Like I said, Wood had/has many faults and failings. I don't think he has been good for the sport, but I also don't think that his departure in any way solves some of the crucial challenges in the game.
Wood was not the reason why clubs like Salford and Huddersfield can't sell tickets without handing out more discounts than DFS.
He's not the reason why Wakefield have handed in their notice to their landlord for the past two seasons.
He's not the reason why certain clubs have made a huge contribution to the business insolvency industry in recent years.
He's not the reason why clubs haven't diversified their business models to rely less on supporter and matchday income.
He's not the reason why clubs aren't developing talent, or engaging with amateur and young players in their community as much as they should be.
He's not the reason why clubs have voted to enforce real-terms reductions to the salary cap.
He's not the reason why clubs are incapable of marketing themselves to audiences that advertisers and broadcasters want to reach.
When Wood hands in his keycard at Red Hall, those problems will still persist.
