ST HELENS have announced that Mike Rush, their long-serving chief executive, has left the club.
Rush has been with Saints for 27 years, beginning his time as a development manager and eventually being appointed to the top job 13 years ago.
During that time St Helens won four Super League titles in a row, as well as the World Club Challenge in 2023.
“This has been the hardest decision I have ever taken,” said Rush.
“The club has been such a huge part of my life for nearly three decades, but I believe now is the right time to step aside.
“Life in professional sport is 24/7. It is relentless, demanding and all-consuming. After 27 years, I am both emotionally and physically exhausted.
“I have sacrificed a great deal over that period, as has my family, and I feel it is time to put them and myself first as I step away.
“This club will always hold a special place in my heart. It has shaped my life in ways I could never have imagined.”
St Helens say the search for a new chief executive will begin immediately.
The news comes days after their former player Jon Wilkin launched a significant critique of the club on Sky Sports after their 24-14 defeat by Warrington Wolves at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night.
Wilkin had been angered by the way he perceived the club’s former coach Paul Wellens had been treated in his final year at the club, while he also criticised its treatment of one of its current stars Mark Percival.
“The club needs change, and there will be change at a top level in the club,” said Wilkin.
“I look back to last year, the Paul Wellens sacking and how that was dealt with.
“They ran Paul down to the death and then told a legend of the club that he’s going, when they knew he was going in summer.
“They told him if he got to the Grand Final, he would have a job, and I don’t believe that to be true. I believe that there was already decisions being made to bring in a new coach.”
Wilkin also claimed that a contract that had been agreed with Percival last summer has now “gone missing”.
“Mark Percival signed a contract in August last year that’s gone missing,” alleged Wilkin. “All of a sudden now he’s on the out.
“Things need to change at that club if that’s how they’ve operated and look after their people, and it’s not good enough in any workplace.
“Mark Percival is a man who’s put his body on the line for the club, and has been one of the legends of this club, and I just think they need to look after their people better.”
Percival is now being linked with Huddersfield Giants.
League Express understands that St Helens officials reject Wilkin’s criticisms in relation to both Wellens and Percival, suggesting that Wellens was kept fully informed of all the club’s actions in relation to its coaching position and denying that any other coach had been contacted before Wellens’ departure. They eventually appointed Paul Rowley.
Sources have also told League Express that Percival received a verbal offer of a new contract from a club official that hadn’t been approved by the St Helens board and that no written contract had been agreed.