He's certainly the only one who knows what it takes to build a professional RL club from scratch and get it into a position where it can go on to win a Challenge Cup final.

Not that this kind of experience is in any way relevant to a discussion about the future of rugby league, unlike building a property business or being a concert promoter for example.

It's all well and good Hetherington stating he has been at SL meetings for the last 17 years... but SL has never been any good at commercial dealings. Surely he needs to take some responsibility over that.

I give him huge credit for what he has done at Leeds, but if he is such a guru and forward thinker - why is the RFL and rugby league in general in such a bad commerical state.

Hetherington, along with all the SL Chairmen AND the RFL need to take blame for the state of the game.

the 6 teams that left the meeting have clearly stated that any review needs to take into account a review of the commercial side of things - it seems that isn't on the cards - otherwise they wouldn't have left the meeting.

It's a sorry state - but blame is on all corners for this.

I would imagine successfully running a tiny RL club, successfully running Britain's biggest RL club and seeing pretty much everything in between is a pretty good background when it comes to commenting on how to run RL.

Very few of these famed so-called businessmen appear to have shown themselves adept at running RL clubs with anything like Hetherington's success. The SL sponsorship is to me something of a side issue given how little it would earn any particular club but Wigan's continued poor performance in the area of primary sponsors is worthy of note.

are you just starting to make things up? or do you truly believe all that?

As I stated on another thread, on radio humberside Neil Hudgell stated he supports 12 teams, promotion and relegation and possibly reducing number of teams in the play offs.

Left unsaid....

Funding
RFL compitence
Possible excemption for London

He didn't agree with the half season split though, and denied the clubs were looking to break away. It was more about the finer details.

All these men are professionals and were probably left with no option but to walk when the RFL tried to sneak the vote into a standard SL meeting. The RFL had to try but it backfired and the are now playing the political game in the press.

As for kicking the 6 out? They would form their own league, possibly joined by a couple others. If that happened Sky would pull out. There is no version of this where the Red Hall wins. They will have to capitulate, at least on some areas of the proposals.

Yes I know he sold the Eagles in 96 to millionaire businessman Thompson and then a couple of years later with a coach appointed by Thompsons people they did win a C Cup under John Kear.

So a fair bit of good ol Gary's experience is likely to be useless re taking the game forward (though I am sure it provides GH with plenty of twee anecdotes loved by flatcappers). As GH has not built a large multi million pound organisation from scratch in a variety of sectors then maybe he could possibly, and I stress possibly', learn a thing or two from those who have?

I think everyone needs to take a step back from this dickswinging contest to be honest. The stuff coming out in the press, people walking out of meetings, both sides seem to be talking up the dispute rather than trying to bring it down.

There is obvious problems in the game and this power struggle isn’t going to get us anywhere. Im not sure what the rush is to get this structure in place for 2015. Our TV deal doesn’t run out until the end of 2016 we have some time.

What I hope happens here is that all sides see the bigger picture. It doesn’t matter what we do and when, if it doesn’t have buy in from all clubs it wont work. Lets see a mature leadership take this opportunity to stop and start again. If at the end of that process we have the same conclusion, so be it. If we find something better, so be it.

There can be no doubt that issues regarding the governance and commercial performance issues need to be addressed, forcing this re-structure through without addressing these issues will simply ensure the scapegoat for failures in governance and commercial performance is this structure and not the actual problems. Just as the failing to address certain issues was blamed on licensing, even ones which were irrelevant to it.

We need this restart because what we are seeing is the game descending to the my chairman is better than your chairman nonsense we are seeing here. Gary Hetherington took a nothing club and made a solvent SL club out of them. He took a loss making massively in debt success starved club and made them the biggest, most successful business in the game by a country mile. What he says matters and what he says should be listened to. Ian Lenegan is a successful business man, as is Ken Davy and Simon Moran, im sure what they have to say is just as pertinent and important.

However nobody is discussing what they are saying about the state or future of the game. We are having a ing contest about whose chairmen is the best, its stupid.

Imagine what you like. If the thinking needed to take RL forward exists outside GH's bubble - and it probably does - then his creation of a small team in Sheffield (that won when later owned by a multi millionaire) and his managing a club owned by another multimillionaire may not be as essential as some think.

The owners of these clubs are not ' so called businessmen'. They appear to be first generation guys who have built their businesses from scratch. They put substantial amounts of their own money into a game that they love.

I am sure GH has a contribution to make. However other people are now making theres and GH does not seem to like it.

Whilst a contribution can be made by all, in the end they have to come to some agreement.

Walking out does nothing to add to any discussion.

If the meeting ended in a stalemate then fair enough, but walking out is hardly the mature response you would expect.

Also regarding the Bizzare turn around from Saints, there is nothing of the sort. The Saints owner clarified his support to the initial rebellion. He is also professional enough to know how to voice his objections and was voicing them years before IL decided to jump on the bandwagon. IL voted for the Stobart deal don't forget.

Saints still have objections but are not going to walk out on talks, even when our point of view has not been the dominant one, we have accepted that SL is a democracy of chairmen and voice the opinion but agree to go with the majority.

The 6 that walked out may well have backing from Saints on some points, but Saints are not going to hang onto IL coat tails even on points they do not agree on.

I'm not going to play the whose the most successful business man game. But as IL's point was that the SL chairmen should decide more of RL's issues, it not a great example of how SL will be run if he gets his way, walkouts and stomping of feet, is that the professional image that we can look forward to?

this isn't the 6 v red hall, majority of clubs decide Rugby League policy , they walked when they knew they would lose the vote. I would love to see them kicked out , no way could they form a rival league get sponsorship or tv deals, that's it they are finished!

One, the reason the 6 walked out is partly due to the fact that the RFL said the new meeting to discus the problems was after the world cup so why did the RFL try to bring it in before the cup, and has for the 6 getting kicked out( grow up ) do you think sky would continue with their deal no they would not

Catalans our only real foothold in France, Huddersfield the current LLS winners, Hull FC 10K+ fans and CC finalists, Wigan 10K+fans who are the current SL champions and CC winners, Warrington 10 fans, Hull KR 7-8K fans.
Yeah replacing them with the likes of Leigh (Sorry Leigh fans) is going to turn the game into a golden age of Saints Vs Leeds in every final.Then there is the situation that the SkY sports subscriptions will fall and I doubt they would be happy to keep being involved.
I assume you are on the RFL board with logic like that.