Garry Schofield is all over this headline on twitter

Kath Hetherington....?

my general outlook on life is that if Garry Schofield says something it must be wrong.

He is a cretin of the highest order.

I'll do it.

Reckon even in this harsh economic climate I could get a sponsor onboard for a little more than he managed.

Seriously, for the most he's done a fine job (FA's post is spot on) - but seems to have been some dreadful decision making where Crusaders were concerned.

Probably time for a change.

on the sponsorship issue, he will undoubtedly take some criticism - but the clubs agreed on the Stobart deal, with * apparently* another cash offer on the table.

Regardless of how much personal involvement he had in the Crusaders shambles, is definitely the low point in his RFL career and he (and others) were lucky to come out of the whole thing unscathed.

That’s actually a pretty good question. Knowing the package on offer would be a good indicator as to how serious the RFL are to attract a top class talent

I wonder if it will be advertised or whether it will go out to a head hunting firm to target potential candidates

Kath Hetherington!

I've e-mailed him to thank him for his service and wish him well for the future.

Others on here (Roy Haggerty, Code 13, Ferocious Aardvark) have pretty well summed up my views on Lewis and his contribution to making our game what it is today. My only hope is that we can attract someone of equal or possibly better ability and for what it's worth, I'd much rather we looked to someone with no current or past connections to the sport, rather than a parochial, flat-capped "fan".

Richard Lewis may not have hogged the limelight during his tenure but no one (with half a brain) could deny the hard work he put into making the sport a success.

Only because Hudgell hasn't attended a meeting for nearly two years. It's his fault, not the game's

You're as much away with the fairies as Hudgell, if you seriously believe that his bleating lewtter had any bearing on Lewis re-joining the All England Lawn Tennis Club

according to pa sport....

Manchester United director Maurice Watkins will take over as interim chairman when Lewis leaves.

Watkins, a prominent sports lawyer and senior non-executive director of the RFL, will hold the reins until a new chairman is appointed.

Wise move, Watkins is certaily no fool and seems a good pair of hands in the interim

Fantastic news that Lewis has gone, just need Wood to go next. After all their failings and fiasco I,m surprised they have lasted so long., can,t see any loss to the sport with these two gone.
Our stature in sport has been going backwards for the last 10 years, time to fully load up with aggressive marketing and media prescience. Hopefully the club chairmen will form a working group to create a model for the future of the sport.

The only model club chairmen would create would be of the sewer the sport will disappear down, if they get anywhere close to the train set

There is no train set, the rails dissapeared years ago. If these had carried on we would have struggled to be a minority sport in the descriptive.

Only been following the game a few years so bear with me on this, since Lewis has been in post

the game is generating more money (including an increase in Sky contract)
record people watching and attending games
Internationals making money

the only thing I don't know is whether more clubs went bust in the same amount of time preceding his tenure, what else could the guy have done?

He could have taken over each and every club, run it at a profit, improved all the stadiums, improved youth development at every club, beat the Aussies and Kiwis in every game for the last 10 years, increased investment in to the sport to such an extent the minimum players were earning was a million pounds per year, he could have increased attendances to 30k averages and bought each and every supporter a pie and a pint.

But Halifax and Leigh arent in SL so that would still be a failure.

I can understand why some fans may want to criticise Lewis and especially Wood over certain issues, but I can't understand why people would post complete falsifications like this. Are you so deluded that you are can't see how much the game has progressed? It's funny reading some of the posts on this topic and on other forums because I know for a fact that the same criticisms will be hurled at the next administration no matter what they do, the only thing that will change is the names. What threads like this do is expose a large proportion of RL fans as backwards, moaning idiots.

Lewis not been perfect but he has done a good job.

Some of the bitching in here from people is embarrassing!

You're such a bellend Smokey. You certainly mustn't read mine or Starbugs posts properly because we don't think either of our clubs are equipped to go anywhere near Super League. We don't have a reliable backer. Neither did Wakey, Widnes, Celtic, Bradford blah blah blah. Still, good to see Lewis' franchising net weeded out the crap eh?

I'd love to read your justification for this gem.

a suit jumping before the knives come out and take out all the red hall management and tarnish cv's

first few years in role very effective - been on a downward slope for the last 3 years - time for a serious clear out

Being head-hunted by The All England Tennis Club is hardly indicative of anyone feeling their position was under threat. Lewis cam in to do a job and has never given anyone the illusion he was here for life, it was always on the cards that he would move on to something better. Given the attitude of flat-cappers on here and some of the numptie club chairmen, I'm amazed he stayed so long.

Coddy - your blow up doll shaped mouth must be aching and dry. A dyson vac couldn't suck up as much as you. Pass me my flat cap and a sick bag.

Whilst i'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you have thought it through and you seem honest enough to admit Halifax's position, Starbugs claims that his anti-RFL, anti-lewis, anti-wood, anti-franchising nonsense arent tied up in his jealousy and regret that Leigh cant function as an SL side are more transparent than one of Andrew Glovers windows.
Lewis has done a fantastic job, he really really has. It is obvious he has. It is so obvious that he has done a fantastic job that the only reason the anti-lewis faction exist is because some clubs have been left behind by the growth he has played such a big part in.

Nobody has said the job done and the decisions made were perfect but he has taken us a long way, and it is all the more impressive because of those within the game who work not only in the cause of naked self-interest but some times support things which are actively damaging to the game if they are relatively positive for their club.
Im personally of the feeling that we would be further on as a game had we supported Lewis and Wood more, and been more committed to the project. We would have had less of the compromises and half-dness of some of the things they have tried but unfortunately the game has struggled to be dragged out of the dark ages.