I think the problem is, and this is coming from someone who has seen what real gender inequality in the work place is (I worked in Advertising, it's a boys club, and I saw how my female counterparts were treated up until very recently), that some NRL clubs are still of the mindset that you need to have an old head/mind in charge.

Raiders are guilty of it when it comes to coaches (Look at the list, it is essentially old club founders and players), and it the Tigs, I think it is the a lot of fans are baffled as to why you put someone who knows very little about the game as Chairperson.

Her gender has nothing to do with it as far as I can tell, if some bloke named Bruce with a beard had called Laurie Daley something like Luke and didn't know much about the game, questions would be raised aswell.

However, I do believe Go is the right person for the job, in a sense that her job is to create revenue and stability in the board, her job is not to recruit or coach etc. that being said, I don't know if she can do those two things, but if she can, she is the right person. Bringing in some old player who barely can manage their own bank balance without an accountant or understand how varying assets work etc is not going to make any better of this bad situation.

It's why Smith was in fact a great NRL Head, he made the game the most profitable it has been for AGES, but people couldn't stand that he came from the banking sector (he worked on multi billion dollar asset portfolios, the guy knew how money works).

The NRL always speaks about how they want to get to the AFL money or how they are taking lessons from the NFL and so forth and so on, well you know what? Apart from like Mark Davis, most of the NFL owners/leaders know shit all about play calling and past players, but they do know how to create profitable systems.

Raiders have Don Furner Jnr in charge who never played, where as his brother was head coach and former prem winner with the club, but Donny got top job because he knows how to make sure the wallet keeps growing and grass keeps growing.

In short, I don't think her gender has shit to do with the flak she is coping (it may with some of the toothless and ruthless fans who remember a day when you sparked up a durry at halftime) but rather with the fact that many die hard fans and 'league old heads' don't like having someone who isn't from that mould leading the way.

My boss has a doctorate in Synthetic Chemistry and never worked in sporting industries and doesn't really care about sport, but he is smart and can forecast profit/loss/stock/demand for 24 months like nobody else, so he is the best man for the job.