Taking a wrecking ball to the club! (Recent Media Reports)

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Hargreaves said:
There is a lot of misinformation and confusion on this site about what is going on here. The facts are pretty straightforward. The HBG under the Chairmanship of Andreacchio and with the support of Gilbert and Wayde initiated the review which resulted in the dissolution of the former WT Board and the removal of Hagipantelis as Chair and Pascoe as CEO. Note that this cost these 3 directors their own positions at Wests Tigers but they were happy to support this for the good of the Club). The new CEO, Shane Richardson was appointed and O'Farrell was appointed as Chair. The Review also required the rapid appointment of a high quality Board of independent directors. Then fairly soon after this there I believe that there was a coup at the HBG Board and Romero was appointed Chair and Burgess Deputy. While Romero made statements that she supported implementation of the Review's recommendations, the fact that it has taken all year to appoint the 'high quality independent directors' and it still hasnt happened, does not give you much confidence that she and Burgess are supportive of such quality independent Board appointments. (In fact, I understand that the previous executive search firm put forward several high quality names many months ago, but the process was constantly delayed and deferred. And just recently they started again from scratch on a search process). Andreacchio's comments about 'people who are upset about losing their blazers' is a clear reference to other board members. There have also been some suggestions that Chairman Fedora may somehow be involved in this whole situation behind the scenes in order to get revenge and that Romero and Burgess may be beholden to him - however so far there is no evidence to support this. The whole 'investigation' into misbehaviour by Andreachhio, Wayde and Gilbert appears to clearly be a sham designed to have them removed from the HBG Board, so that the HBG Board can introduce other people who align with certain directors' interests - and that would almost certainly be highly detrimental to the Club's future. The structure of the ownership of the Club is broken - the whole debenture situation is ridiculous, archaic and actually from a legal standpoint highly questionable. The Constitution obviously needs to be rewritten to bring it, and the ownership structure of the Club, into line with 21st century business practices and proper governance.

The losers are the members and fans. We finally have a CEO who is highly professional, works incredibly hard, is highly respected in the NRL community and has achieved more in less than 12 months than previous administrators achieved in 12 years. We have the highest quality Chairman in the NRL. We need to appoint genuinely high quality independent directors with business acumen and intelligence. We are finally getting the recruitment right in terms of talent, structure and terms of the contracts. We are finally attracting very high quality sponsors and treating them with respect. We are finally doing something about capturing our vast junior areas and developing them. And we are finally engaging professionally with the south-west Sydney corridor. All in 12 months!! These are remarkable achievements. In summary, we are no longer a 'basket case' (which is how many very senior NRL officials referred to the club under previous administrations). We are finally earning respect. We finally have an administration and Club set-up that quality players wish to join. We finally have something to look forward to. We finally have hope!

And yet the clear suggestion is that some directors appear to want to tear it all down simply because their egos are bruised. Seriously?!! If these people care about this Club, as they claim to do, they themselves would step aside, let Barry O'Farrell and a professional executive search firm finalise the appointments of high quality genuinely independent directors and let the Club finally move forward.

For the sake of the long-suffering members, the fans, the players and the Club.
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I appreciate what you are saying, but also there's a lot of speculation and assumptiom being made in your post, when you initially say the "facts are pretty straightforward".

Perhaps more correctly: there aren't that many facts at all.
 
cochise said:
There is 100% a desire to roll back the recommendations of the review, this is a real issue and not just a media beat up.

The dysfunction of the HBG board highlights why these recommendations are so crucial to allow the Wests Tigers to operate as a modern professional sporting organisation.
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Cochise, what is the likelihood of the current HBG board rolling back their support and implementation of the review findings. Obviously they couldn't do it now after just endorsing their support for the recommendations, though once this board room issue between the three who were kicked out is sorted, if the current board members win and the three who were kicked are removed then what stops HBG from doing whatever they want. Atm the board have to agree to the recommendations or what's going on in the board room would just look way too obvious as a powerplay to retake control of HBG and the Wests Tigers. Once the dust settles if Romero and her mob win they could do whatever they wanted couldn't they. I'd imagine while this is going on at HBG we won't be able to appoint our indipendant directors, or am I mistaken and are they appointed solely by the current Wests Tigers board.
 
Staged? - three long serving Wests directors under investigation( including former chair who was ousted after supporting the review) banned and under investigation per current chair/ board for what is reportedly minor incidents.. and 12 months after the review still no independent directors appointed by new appointed chair/board and a whole lot of finger 👉.... classic WTs management hidden behind the veil of we are all for the cause.
What problem..?
 
Lestronge said:
Not really ! The club died 25 years ago

It’s not click bait. It’s been a year ! The findings still haven’t been implemented !
And Romero and Burgess in particular , wete booted from the wests tigers board as per the reviews recommendations , and then politic through the HBG archaic board structure, to find Burgess back on . When the review specifically said that the board members needed to be replaced .
And now through multiple people at the club , it’s revealed , what people on here who actually know these people mentioned when the Romero HBG ticket got in , that this type of rhetoric would rear its ugly head again . Ie . “WetS BwInG BaCk Da MaGgIeS”.
It’s everyone’s greatest fear . Maybe it is hyperbole , and rabble rousing . But to imply it has no basis in reality , is just not true !
I personally hate the fact the club is run this way ! Both Balmain and Wests and anyone who pines for the old days , honestly needs to at best watch from afar !
This club with the amount of quality that’s come through the joint both in coaching , support staff and playing group , should never have ever been in this position.
But yet here we are arguing on a forum about how shit the club is , in 2024, because for pretty much the clubs inception neither Balmain , wests Cambo , and more recently and totally the HBG , are more worried about where thier seat is in the corporate box , than the actual club being successful . At least wests Cambo , had the integrity to remove themselves .
The best clubs in world sport , nearly all of them barely break even , or run at a loss . Why ? Because the ownership group has a win at all costs mentality , and enable to club to go out and do what it takes.
At what point ever in this club , has anyone at these levels ever had that mentality ?
And that’s the issue . And it absolutely sux .
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I'm not disputing the fact that the HBG board are pathetic and Romero in particular is a back stabbing piece of work. I also agree that even though they are at arm's length from WT their constant in fighting is damaging the WT brand. What I am disputing is whether the HBG board ever suggested a move back to the magpies. Until I see some evidence other than a text where someone who has his nose out of joint said he fears this could happen then I don't see why I should be worried about it.
 
Ron Brodrick's Spirit said:
Eloquent.
Crafting reasoned responses is difficult I know, particularly when confronted with exposure of your true self.
Feel free to go ahead and defend your good friend separating supporters into "My Balmain brothers and sisters"............and despised others.
Balmain are gone, its time to move on and stop trying to divide the club.
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I think most posts by Cochise and others originally pursuing the review was balanced and supportive of the future of ‘Wests Tigers’ and critical of the INCOMPETENTS in power.
I am from the Balmain side (since 1966) of the joint venture but they are gone, just as the magpies are gone.
I will SUPPORT Wests Tigers only
HBG has proven they are a debacle and yet there is nothing that can be done, unless hopefully the review is fully implemented without any manipulation by HBG
 
tigertragic said:
I think most posts by Cochise and others originally pursuing the review was balanced and supportive of the future of ‘Wests Tigers’ and critical of the INCOMPETENTS in power.
I am from the Balmain side (since 1966) of the joint venture but they are gone, just as the magpies are gone.
I will SUPPORT Wests Tigers only
HBG has proven they are a debacle and yet there is nothing that can be done, unless hopefully the review is fully implemented without any manipulation by HBG
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Your background is identical to mine as are your views in this matter
 
diedpretty said:
I'm not disputing the fact that the HBG board are pathetic and Romero in particular is a back stabbing piece of work. I also agree that even though they are at arm's length from WT their constant in fighting is damaging the WT brand. What I am disputing is whether the HBG board ever suggested a move back to the magpies. Until I see some evidence other than a text where someone who has his nose out of joint said he fears this could happen then I don't see why I should be worried about it.
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Yea fair enough ! I’m not worried about that per se , I’m worried about how just the mention of it , can cause huge ripple effects . I’m worried that simply just the mention of it can galvanise people , not to completely get anything over the line , but rather , cause soo much disharmony , that the club never achieves the heights it should .
And that’s on both sides of the merger . I guarantee right now there’s pockets of Balmain diehards trying to see what can be done . Obviously nothing , but the destabilisation could be catastrophic. And that’s scary .
 
Tito Santana said:
All these old board members trying to stay relevant in life. Should be hanging out at the coffee club or in food courts hanging out and being old and useless.
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oh dear, the poor old darls would probably end up hanging out in the wrong food court. 🤣
 
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Ron Brodrick's Spirit said:
By the way, as far as I can tell your posting history is that you are dead silent on any issue except management of the club.
It's crickets in every other thread.
You only turn up to parties like this with your noisemaker and streamers.
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He has a podcast hahaha . What are you talking about ? And a forum he set up . Three plenty of posts on there to go through . There’s a whole forum !
Cochise can defend himself but man , wtf ? Educate yourself ..
 
I saw a recent statement regarding HBG and the Magpies returning. There was no quote but the content was along the lines of (we are not interested in bringing back the magpies, this current issue is about reviewing the West Tigers currently as a whole).

Are HBG conducting their own review of the club?
 
Needaname said:
I saw a recent statement regarding HBG and the Magpies returning. There was no quote but the content was along the lines of (we are not interested in bringing back the magpies, this current issue is about reviewing the West Tigers currently as a whole).

Are HBG conducting their own review of the club?
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I haven't seen that statement, I would be interested in seeing it though.

The Holman Barnes Group should be conducting a review into their governance.
 
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