By Dave Woods

Ian Millward celebrates victory in the 2002 Grand Final with Chris Joynt

If Ian Millward hadn't existed in Super League, someone would have had to invent him.

Colourful, controversial, spiky, spontaneous and above all supremely talented as a coach, he is one of the great characters of the game.

Outside St Helens - not least in Wigan and Bradford - he excites emotions not seen since the last days of witch-burning.

He sometimes says and does the outrageous things, and yet backs up his position with wide-eyed innocent logic.

But he gets himself, his players and the game talked about.

And he has made his side one of the most entertaining rugby league teams of the last 30 years.

Millward showed himself to be a canny operator in turning round the fortunes of Leigh after his arrival there in September 1998.

He joined them as a side languishing near the foot of the first division and left them 18 months later pushing for promotion.

MILLWARD FACTFILE 1960: Born in Wollongong, New South Wales, on 22 August 1982: Joins Illawarra Steelers after representing New South Wales schoolboys 1983: Retires as a player after breaking his neck in a match against North Sydney 1998: Joins Leigh in September with the club bottom of the First Division 2000: Appointed coach at St Helens on 13 March. Wins Super League Grand Final 2002: Signs a new five-year deal with Saints after rejecting an offer from Wests Tigers 2005: Suspended on full pay by Saints on 4 May

It was still a bit of gamble by St Helens to appoint him as their new coach as replacement to Ellery Hanley in March 2000.

But any doubts among the fans were quickly extinguished when he led the club to a Grand Final victory over Wigan in his very first season.

But it is not just the trophies - he has won five as Saints coach - that define him.

It is also the personality he brings to the game and the way he tests the boundaries.

Three years ago - and one week before a Challenge Cup final against Wigan - he took a weakened side to Bradford for a Super League game.

His claim was that most of his regular players were injured.

The common belief was that they were simply being rested for the trip to Murrayfield the following week.

Lo and behold, all the 'injured' stars were back for the final, which Saints lost, by the way.

Last year, in a repeat performance, Millward picked another woefully understrength side for another match at Bradford, again claiming the rigours of an Easter weekend had left his squad massively depleted.

There were howls of derision and, as a direct consequence, two of his star players, Martin Gleeson and Sean Long, were banned for their part in betting on their own team to lose against the Bulls.

Millward lifts his first Super League trophy in 2000

Along the way there have been several other colourful incidents.

His after-match press conferences are always good fun, whether he has picking on a poor journalist who has asked the wrong question, poking fun at the referee or ranting about this issue or that.

The incident that possibly lies behind this suspension relates to a match at Warrington earlier in the season, when Millward was told that he had to hold his after-match chat in the stands at the Halliwell Jones Stadium because no suitable room was available.

He made an obvious target for a handful of Warrington fans who had enjoyed a night's hospitality and a row began between him and the Warrington press officer Gina Coldrick during which Millward is alleged to have sworn at her.

And so if Millward leaves St Helens, where next? Well, several Super League clubs would certainly be interested.

But the wise money would be on a return to St George-Illawarra, an NRL club that has been struggling under young coach Nathan Brown.

Illawarra was Millward's team as a player before injury cut his career short. He was also assistant coach there under the likes of Graham Murray and Andrew Farrar.

His dad, Bob, still holds high office at the club, too.

Millward has never made a secret of wanting to coach in the NRL at some stage of his career.

You just wonder whether the timing is now right.