Clubs regulator puts Wests Tigers owners on notice after board sacked
Adrian Proszenko/SMH
The state’s liquor and gaming watchdog has put the majority owners of Wests Tigers on notice following the latest boardroom dramas engulfing the club.
The Holman Barnes Group, the Tigers’ 90 per cent shareholder, has sacked four independent Wests Tigers directors including chairman Barry O’Farrell, a move that has clouded the future of chief executive Shane Richardson.
The developments have piqued the interest of Liquor & Gaming NSW, the body that sacked the Parramatta Leagues Club board in 2016 for ceasing to become an effective governing body. They were the same directors who had sat on the Parramatta Eels club board when the club was embroiled in a salary cap scandal.
“Liquor & Gaming NSW is not currently investigating any matters involving Western Suburbs Leagues Club or the Holman Barnes Group,” said a spokesperson for Liquor & Gaming NSW.
“However, we are monitoring these latest developments involving the board.
“Registered clubs must operate with the highest standards of integrity in the interests of their members as required under the Registered Clubs Act.”
Only 24 hours earlier, Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne, who was pivotal in securing state and federal funding for Leichhardt Oval upgrades, called for Liquor and Gaming NSW to “investigate and intervene” in the club’s administrative issues.
Pointing to the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s previous investigation of disharmony and board directors being dismissed, Byrne said: “If this doesn’t demonstrate that there is a problem with governance in that organisation, then nothing will.”
The dramas come at a time when the Tigers are attempting to convince star players Jarome Luai and Jahream Bula to commit to the club long term. Sources not authorised to speak publicly have told this masthead that club powerbrokers were confident both would stay, although the situation could change after the latest string of adverse headlines.
The NRL has vowed to launch an investigation into the actions of the Holman Barnes Group after O’Farrell, Annabelle Williams, Charlie Viola and Michelle McDowell were sacked as independent directors of Wests Tigers.
They were only appointed to the board at the start of the year as part of sweeping recommendations arising from an independent review.
“We have been approached by a number of parties to look into the situation and we will,” Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys said. “We will look into it. I’m not saying they have done anything wrong, but naturally we are concerned.
“A number of parties have expressed concerns and we want to safeguard the Wests Tigers fans. That’s my prime aim. We are looking at it at the moment. I’m not saying we will do anything, but we’re reviewing what’s gone on …
“The people making these decisions must understand Wests Tigers fans are paramount – not politics.”
O’Farrell has labelled HBG’s actions as a “brain fart”, while Gary Barnier, the co-author of a 2023 report on the Wests Tigers’ governance which led the HBG to recruit the four independent board members in January of this year, called on the game to appoint an administrator “to protect the NRL’s ambition to be a global game”.
“As a distant observer, it seems to me there is a continued desire to bring back Wests Magpies at all costs, including the destruction of Wests Tigers if necessary,” Barnier said on Tuesday.
