Wests Tigers chair Marina Go with new coach Ivan Cleary. Credit:Edwina Pickles In a short space of time, Go has attracted her fair share of critics: because of her gender; because she likes dumping old-school beliefs firmly on their arse; because of her naivety at how it all works. She's never hidden from the fact she's a female walking tall in a male-dominated sport. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review two years ago, she actually boasted about it, claiming her Tigers role worked to her advantage with men in the business world. "By chairing a club board in a male sport, I was almost parachuting right into their heart, into their line of visibility, which is the most important thing," she said.

As she told me on Monday: "I am a few things that challenges the old guard. I am a woman and I am an independent director." I phoned Go because she took a reasonable swipe at the weekend at two powerful corners of rugby league – club chairmen and the media – and their attitude towards women. Asked why she received so much media attention, she told the rugbyleaguehub.com website: "Because I am a woman. Let's call it for what it is. Most of the commentary is plain ignorance." Asked if it was difficult being a "female leader" in rugby league, she said: "A small section of the media is tedious. A minority of the other chairmen are tedious. For example, in my first rugby league season during the Women in League round, a group of the club chairmen got together for a meeting and the two female chairs were excluded." In some respects, Go is right: rugby league, like many male-dominated sports, often has its head buried in another time.

On a regular basis, I witness sexism, racism and homophobia and the tough choice is whether to call it out or let it slide. Go refuses to let it slide. That takes courage and it deserves respect. The problem that she has, though, is that her issues as the leader of the Wests Tigers don't have anything to do with gender. It comes down to performance. It comes down to competence. It comes down to the calamity of the last two-and-a-half years on her watch. If the club loses James Tedesco and Aaron Woods after already losing Mitchell Moses, the Tigers faithful won't be tearing down Concord Oval because Go is a woman. They'll be tearing it down because of the running joke their club has sadly become.

To be fair, Go is on a board of which she really has no control with five Wests directors now holding the balance of power. How much say she actually had in Jason Taylor's sacking as coach after just three rounds remains unclear and a source of much speculation. If that is the case, she should resign. In the meantime, she wants it known that when she talks about the game's outdated views she's talking about a minority; that she doesn't feel a deep-seated misogyny in the game is holding back her or the Tigers. "I don't want anyone to think I'm bothered by it," she said. "It's just important to call out behaviour. At the first ARL Commission AGM, I stood up and said, 'there's no gender balance, we need another female on the commission'. I'm very thick-skinned." Thick-skinned, yes, but also naive of the world in which she now operates.

She doesn't seem to understand that the cut and thrust of footy is very different to the cut and thrust of her previous roles in publishing and on the board of Netball Australia. Rugby league is ruthless. It always has been. If you're not tough enough, you'll be chewed up and spat out. "We've had dramas but so have other clubs," she said. "The other club chairmen … people don't call for their sacking." Well, that's not right. The media, members, fans, former players … they call for boards and chairmen to be sacked all the time. "I look at Geoff Toovey [who was sacked as Manly coach in 2015] and nobody called for the sacking of their board."

Well, there have been calls for Manly chairmen and directors to be sacked for years. People call for chairmen of other clubs to be sacked when it's warranted. "Which chairmen have you called to be sacked?" she asked. How long have you got? "I didn't see any other chairs on the back of the paper last year when a club loses Daly Cherry-Evans, Jarryd Hayne," she continued. "Other players have left clubs and the chairman hasn't been blamed for it. I'm not suggesting we're doing all the right things. All I'm suggesting is that the attention that's given to me is personal." Maybe. Rugby league is full of hate and agenda but if you look and listen carefully enough you'll see that most chairmen very rarely put their heads up, are rarely quoted.