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.

tickles me how the only fans defending the clown lewis are the new to the sport pop corn munching franchise fairies,you don't see the damage he as done to clubs outside of super league were HIS daft ideas for our game as destroyed the sport in our towns.

Were once clubs were vibrant and the talk of the town they are now tescos and asda, and these clubs stumble along with out any of this pot of gold he keeps for the top table.

This is the same great man who under his great leadership cannot fill out wigan or huddersfield for internationals even with tickets being given away for nowt,aye tricky dicky as been a god send for rugby union in this country.

As someone said in the usual non heartland veiw they will properly appoint someone from the heartland and retreat well I hope we do and we start to rebuild these great old clubs who only need a fraction of the money HE as wasted wandering around wales and bloody london to make them strong again and have a vibrant competition with one up one down,none of your inventing franchise nonsense to save a team who were wandering around wales and one currently roaming around london.

Its our sport and yes we are waving our flatcaps proudly in the air tonight

So do us all a favour and follow lewis out the door if you don't like our flatcaps...its our sport after all

Could that cap be flatter?

This, This is what I mean. The flatcaponlymyteammattersifyouwerenchingparishesplayeachotherin1901withonemanandhisdoginaholestadiumdrinkingmildandeatingpiewhileshoutingforrardafteradayin'tmineyouarentarealfan idiocy that the game has to put up with.

Being head hunted??? Seriously the guy is a former Tennis player isn't he? Hardly casting the net too far were they, oh hello old boy, look our school ties match what a coincidence. Fancy a F***off big payrise rah rah rah snort snort.

Give it a few years wimbledon will only be available and Sky.

Bugger me I need a flat cap and a whippet.

Rich sick to death of hearing if you don't agree with all these numpties who only started watching it in the last 5 years think they know best for our sport and if you don't tow the line your a flat capper....well guess what us flatcappers are made up he as gone


And guess what when they have drifted off to watch under water snooker or super crown green bowling us flatcappers will still be watching our sport without the fairies and there stupid ideas

I started to type a long reply to this but I won’t bother – call me a cynic but I don’t think you would be open minded on the subject

What I will say is that I had a season ticket at Central Park for over decade and played my amateur rugby in Ince so I’m not one of the “new to the sport pop corn munching franchise fairies” you mention. Lewis is a massive loss to our sport but you can’t blame him taking the job in SW19... it will be fantastic for him

Oh, and there is a Tesco now where my beloved Central Park used to be... although I don’t think that was Lewis’s fault

And you know what the game was better for it,we had contessed scrums we had tackling we didn't have you franchise fairies fluttering around with your pie in the sky nonsense,and cheering becuse a bloody hooker as ran 10 yards sorry metres from a play the ball.

Watch the door doesn't hit you on the way out if you don't like us flatcappers its our sport and we want to reclaim it brother

When he took the job was the Challange cup on the BBC under threat? Seriously if RL wasn't on the BBC when i was a kid i doubt i'd ever have got interested in the game.

Just cracked open a can of mild to celebrate the news may take the whippet out for a walk once I have emptied the coal out of the tin bath and boiled some water

I think Lewis has been arguably the best administrator the sport has had.

Sadly in the last few years he has been taking more of a back seat role, and we have seen IMO the somewhat erratic influence of Mr Wood.

He took over what was a bankrupt joke of an organisation and has made it into a large money spinning operation that is highly respected within UK sport. Lets remember the clubs themselves were having to give the RFL their money in order to keep it afloat. Now the RFL is handing out £30 million a year to the professional clubs to help keep them afloat.
He was instrumental in relaunching international RL. This was despite the opposition from many within the game both here and abroad.
He has done the impossible and brought about the re-unification of amateur and professional arms of the game.
He managed to implement the salary cap and introduced franchising guidelines, which are looked on with envy by other sports.The franchising criteria in particular have forced clubs into modernising their business operations rather than being happy to merely exist.
He oversaw a huge expansion in the numbers playing the sport nationally. This has allowed the RFL to tap into massive sources of Government grant aid to grow the sport. Something in the past they never benefited from.
He oversaw the sponsorship portfolio move from one of Beer and Fags to one of highly respected brands such as the Cooperative, Gillette, Valvoline, Stobart, Heinz.

Ultimately the biggest compliment that can be made of his tenure is that he has been in demand from elsewhere, and has finally gone back to the sport he loves Lawn Tennis.