His brash behaviour was hard to miss as he sought to make Sydney racing more than a sideshow to its counterpart in Melbourne.

His fearless promotion of The Everest - a sprint race with an innovative entry system made folk look up and take notice especially when its prizemoney soared past that of the revered Melbourne Cup.

But it went further as both the spring and autumn carnivals took on a new look, and gained new respect.

There was more than just a beating of drums about the power balance in the administration of racing nationwide.

It was however with a degree of scepticism that in April other sports and the media greeted his bold plan that the NRL competition would resume on May 28.

There were plenty of blips along the way but that it did, with the clubs, players and referees all brought into line, and perhaps most significantly, with a new broadcast deal for the next five years.

It may yet come a cropper within the great unknown of the impact of COVID-19 but V'landys has proven yet again he's a doer.

Right now he's the focus of a huge cheer squad within the rugby league family, and it would appear rightly so.

Just how many casualties there have been and how many disappointments there will be if and when normal transmission of the whole sport is resumed is another matter.

When asked at the National Integrity Forum last Tuesday why the top competition had been his sport's primary focus to date, V'landys' current right hand man Wayne Pearce was emphatic. The former star of the game said it was all about securing the funds to open up the rest of the sport.

Here of course is the great challenge for all professional competitions, and will provide plenty of focus on whether they are administering a sport or running a league or two.

In the NRL's case even if the new broadcast deal is top notch, the revenue from it has to be sufficient to administer a resumed headquarters operation and provide enough support to the elite clubs to continue, to some degree, in the style to which they had become accustomed.

That support will need to be significant while the clubs are unable to source revenue from spectators and fans.

And then there's the small matter of the salary expectations of players and match officials.

Whether that leaves much left over as Pearce would hope to re-charge the rest of the sport is a big question. And it's not just about the cash - but about time, person-power and residual energy.

It's pretty clear that the real reason the major leagues are first to resume - and why they have managed to get some semblance of the all-clear from even the most cautious of the state and territory governments - is that it's possible to ring fence them.

It would be nigh on impossible to apply all the conditions imposed on the NRL, the AFL and their clubs at any other level.

The financial cost of compliance must be substantial, and the attention to detail required to implement it only possible with significant paid staffing resources.

Having imposed all of that on the elite, it poses the question of how by comparison the way back for lower level leagues and community sport is to be managed.

Leagues, clubs and a fair swag of the participants themselves will be cash-strapped in any case by the economic downturn.

Any expectation of additional costs to meet return-to-play guidelines might be a bridge too far.

Flexibility and a preparedness to do things differently will be critical.

In closing, it is appropriate to find some words for the late Shane Yates - to recognise his contribution to Tasmanian sport. In later life he is perhaps best known for his roles in Tasmanian racing and with the Devonport Football Club but as a younger man his impact was arguably more significant.

Following in the footsteps of David McQuestin and Ray James, he was one of the last tele-journalists to be able to cover local youth and community sport in a major way.

He did so with knowledge and enthusiasm and was appreciated for it then as he should be now.