Agree with much of what you're saying here, H. And you say it without being a smart arse !
My constant return to the demise of Balmain is for all those who kick start their HBG argument whenever something that is even 1% negative to WT happens. Just to remind them why HBG are in charge.
Are HBG perfect ? No, of course not.
They have done things that make me cringe, but at the end of the day:
1. They are our current owners.
2. They were the only ones who dipped their hands deep into their pockets to pay out Balmain's defaults on debts, and I would imagine that since then they have had to shoulder the financial burden without any $$ input from Balmain's half of the JV.
While all this happened years ago, it is still important to the issues today.
I really don't want to go down the Magpies vs Balmain road . . . but, how do I put it . . . it seems the old Magpies people are complaining much less about HBG than the old Balmain people.
And in reality anyone that is too young to have magpie or tiger loyalty, that is complaining about HBG's antics . . . needs to understand how HBG came to being in charge.
HBG's debenture system is of their own doing. It seems out of touch with modern ways . . . but it's the method used by the club that saved WT from going down the shitter when Balmain defaulted.
Same goes for their boardroom shenanigans.
Of course, they can't get a free ride forever, and burn us to the ground just because they saved us financially all those years ago.
I must have a romantic set of values that believes we owe them a degree of respect for what they did to save our club years ago, and are still doing.
The answer lies somewhere in between.
But every time this business rears it's ugly head, all I can think about is the Monty Python skit about the Judean People's Front.
"Ok . . . apart from roads, sanitation, law and order, education, irrigation, medicine, wine, and of course the aqueduct . . . what have the bloody Romans ever done for us ?
Or is it the People's Front of Judea ?
