Batmans Parents
Well-known member
Yes, I’m sure your knowledge of the type writer and wick lighters is extremely impressive.
HBG, Independent Directors Sacked
- Thread starter BlackWhiteGold
- Start date
Yes, I’m sure your knowledge of the type writer and wick lighters is extremely impressive.
DONT tell me to grow goolies RHS.
I'll have you know I have had goolies since the day I was born 👊.
Tom Shines
Well-known member
Those original diggers from WW1 must be a bit old now
Is there a petition yet to sack these bozos? I’m not normally one for doing so but I’d sign that one.
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
Some of them must be running around Gallipoli in nappies.
Rock Hopper Steve
Well-known member
Well, have an opinion on the HBG matter, or since the day you were born they didn't grow any bigger.
Tigerwould
Well-known member
This morning SMH article has been updated. 
Tigerwould
Well-known member
‘We’re going to protect Wests Tigers fans’: NRL to launch probe into boardroom bloodbath
The NRL has vowed to launch an investigation into the events that resulted in four independent Wests Tigers directors including chairman Barry O’Farrell being axed from the board and left the future of chief executive Shane Richardson under a cloud.O’Farrell had called on the NRL to intervene after describing the sackings – which were announced by the Holman Barnes Group, the club’s 90 per cent shareholder – as a “brain fart”.
“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.”
Under the club’s convoluted ownership structure, Wests Tigers fans have no mechanism to affect change at board or management level.
“We are there for the fan, and we’re going to protect Wests Tigers fans,” V’landys said. “The people making these decisions must understand Wests Tigers fans are paramount - not politics.”
The views of O’Farrell were echoed on Tuesday morning by Gary Barnier, the co-author of a 2023 report on the Wests Tigers’ governance which led the Holman Barnes Group to recruit the four independent board members in January this year.
Barnier called on the game to put in place an administrator “to protect the NRL’s ambition to be a global game”.
cochise
Well-known member
The club has to meet certain conditions in their NRL licence. Some of those relate to corporate governance.
diedpretty
Well-known member
Thats not true - Newcastle were owned by Nathan Tinkler - when he went broke he relinquished the licence and the NRL managed it until a buyer could be found. The NRL didn't just move in and take back the licence. Parramattas board was sacked for inappropriate payments to players by the Liquor and Gaming Authority who placed an administrator in control until a new board was selected and proper governance was put in place. The only involvement the NRL had with Parramatta at that time was to fine them and deduct points for salary cap rorting. They did not do anything with their licence.
Tigerwould
Well-known member
“This behaviour is not consistent with that, in my view,” Barnier told this masthead. “I don’t say it lightly, I say it because of my concern that this will disrupt Wests Tigers so fundamentally that it will put them back for another decade.
“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 he was not speaking based on anything he learnt in the review but on what he had seen since as a Tigers supporter and during the events of the past 24 hours.
“From a supporter’s position, it seemed to me that the independent board and management had been making good progress, and it’s been reported that because of a miscommunication around a jersey and stadia policy the whole thing has been swept away. To me, that shows an inability to properly govern an NRL club,” Barnier said.
Wests Tigers have been plagued by dysfunction at the boardroom level since the merger between Balmain and Wests in 1999. Hagipantelis confirmed he had encountered a push for the Magpies to supersede the Tigers in the joint-venture.
“One thousand per cent,” Hagipantelis said. “It was admitted to me by a fellow who is now a director of the Wests Magpies that the ultimate aim is to return the Magpies to the NRL.”
HBG chairman Dennis Burgess, one of the organisation’s representatives on the Wests Tigers board, did not return calls on Tuesday.
On Monday, HBG chief executive Daniel Paton said the club owners had been left out of the loop on commercial announcements – including the colour scheme of the Tigers’ home jersey next season, which was deemed to be too orange – less than a year after the board’s restructuring as part of an independent review.
The immediate future of Richardson, who has been closely allied to O’Farrell, has also come into question, with Hagipantelis predicting he won’t survive into the next NRL season.
Following a statement by the four deposed directors, former NSW premier O’Farrell told ABC Sydney Mornings with Hamish McDonald that he was baffled by HBG’s latest move, and forecast potential NRL intervention at the embattled club.
“For reasons I suspect relate to antics within the Holman Barnes Group and the desire for people to get to the top there, we’ve had yet another brain fart affecting the club,” O’Farrell said.
“A year ago, they replaced their chair (Julia Romero) after the best returns Holman Barnes had ever received. And here we are a year later, they’re replacing the board of West Tigers at a time when, on all the indices for the first time in many years, we’ve done well.
“We’ve achieved our first profit, I think, in more than a decade. And at that moment, the owners, as they’re able to, have decided to take this action.”
O’Farrell, who first joined the Tigers as interim chairman in December 2023, foreshadowed the NRL stepping in to sort out the club’s governance issues. The NRL made governance restructuring, including the appointment of independent directors and key performance targets, a condition of loan commitments to the Tigers in 2013.
“If it continues to go to hell in a hand basket, I have no doubt that the NRL will do what the NRL would always do, which is seek to protect the image of rugby league,” O’Farrell said.
nner 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 that “if this doesn’t demonstrate that there is a problem with governance in that organisation, then nothing will.”
Asked if he felt Richardson wouldn’t be in his position for the start of next season, Hagipantelis told SEN radio: “I agree … Richardson had, not an unfettered discretion, but a very wide discretion reporting to Barry, as opposed to all the board for a lot of the decision-making that had to be made in relation to the running of an NRL club.
“That level of delegated authority, it’s very hard to bring back, to restrain or to constrain. There will be some issues of concern there, and Richardson will have to think as to whether he can operate now as to how he did previously with the new board.”
It has been speculated that Richardson had negotiated clauses in his contract that would result in a payout if there were changes at board level.
“I think that would be very much likely,” Hagipantelis said. “I’ve heard those suggestions as well, that the contract was created in such a fashion where his position was solidified in writing and with delegated authority also.
“And that if there was a change, then it could actually prompt termination on grounds favourable to him.”
“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.”
As first reported by this masthead last December, and reiterated by ex-chairman Lee Hagipantelis on radio on Tuesday, concerns exist among some club directors that HGB powerbrokers want Balmain to be removed from the joint-venture.
Barnier said he was not speaking based on anything he learnt in the review but on what he had seen since as a Tigers supporter and during the events of the past 24 hours.
“From a supporter’s position, it seemed to me that the independent board and management had been making good progress, and it’s been reported that because of a miscommunication around a jersey and stadia policy the whole thing has been swept away. To me, that shows an inability to properly govern an NRL club,” Barnier said.
Wests Tigers have been plagued by dysfunction at the boardroom level since the merger between Balmain and Wests in 1999. Hagipantelis confirmed he had encountered a push for the Magpies to supersede the Tigers in the joint-venture.
“One thousand per cent,” Hagipantelis said. “It was admitted to me by a fellow who is now a director of the Wests Magpies that the ultimate aim is to return the Magpies to the NRL.”
HBG chairman Dennis Burgess, one of the organisation’s representatives on the Wests Tigers board, did not return calls on Tuesday.
On Monday, HBG chief executive Daniel Paton said the club owners had been left out of the loop on commercial announcements – including the colour scheme of the Tigers’ home jersey next season, which was deemed to be too orange – less than a year after the board’s restructuring as part of an independent review.
The immediate future of Richardson, who has been closely allied to O’Farrell, has also come into question, with Hagipantelis predicting he won’t survive into the next NRL season.
Following a statement by the four deposed directors, former NSW premier O’Farrell told ABC Sydney Mornings with Hamish McDonald that he was baffled by HBG’s latest move, and forecast potential NRL intervention at the embattled club.
“For reasons I suspect relate to antics within the Holman Barnes Group and the desire for people to get to the top there, we’ve had yet another brain fart affecting the club,” O’Farrell said.
“A year ago, they replaced their chair (Julia Romero) after the best returns Holman Barnes had ever received. And here we are a year later, they’re replacing the board of West Tigers at a time when, on all the indices for the first time in many years, we’ve done well.
“We’ve achieved our first profit, I think, in more than a decade. And at that moment, the owners, as they’re able to, have decided to take this action.”
O’Farrell, who first joined the Tigers as interim chairman in December 2023, foreshadowed the NRL stepping in to sort out the club’s governance issues. The NRL made governance restructuring, including the appointment of independent directors and key performance targets, a condition of loan commitments to the Tigers in 2013.
“If it continues to go to hell in a hand basket, I have no doubt that the NRL will do what the NRL would always do, which is seek to protect the image of rugby league,” O’Farrell said.
nner 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 that “if this doesn’t demonstrate that there is a problem with governance in that organisation, then nothing will.”
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Richardson’s role at the club is the next key question, with fears one of the most experienced administrators in the game could become collateral damage.Asked if he felt Richardson wouldn’t be in his position for the start of next season, Hagipantelis told SEN radio: “I agree … Richardson had, not an unfettered discretion, but a very wide discretion reporting to Barry, as opposed to all the board for a lot of the decision-making that had to be made in relation to the running of an NRL club.
“That level of delegated authority, it’s very hard to bring back, to restrain or to constrain. There will be some issues of concern there, and Richardson will have to think as to whether he can operate now as to how he did previously with the new board.”
It has been speculated that Richardson had negotiated clauses in his contract that would result in a payout if there were changes at board level.
“I think that would be very much likely,” Hagipantelis said. “I’ve heard those suggestions as well, that the contract was created in such a fashion where his position was solidified in writing and with delegated authority also.
“And that if there was a change, then it could actually prompt termination on grounds favourable to him.”
TigerNeddyK
Well-known member
No mate, they did the equivalent of proudly demanding a pissing contest that us thousands of fans have witnessed! and ithas absolutely made it clear to us thousands of WESTS TIGERS fans that the HBG and the wig wearing fraud that leads it are adolescent imbeciles occupying a position they do not deserve making selfish infantile decisions to the detriment of the wests Tigers and all of their supporters. If the NRL are unable to extricate the club from that board then us supporters need to protest vocally until we are heard …loud and proud that we choose Richo and his vision and the HBG can go the way of the dinosaurs… we have had enough of their BS
BAGNF05
Well-known member
Keep the pressure on the NRL people. We are stakeholders who pay their bills. The crooks running our club need to be booted.
Great reply TS, thanks 😀.
Gave me a chuckle also GNR.
TigerNeddyK
Well-known member
The podcasts should reunite and organise an actual boots on the ground protest that all the fans that care can support with the agenda that the HBG group need to go and the WESTS TIGERS members can vote on a path forward that is best for the football club … anything better than the aholeS that have led us to the failures of the last 15 bloody years.. make it clear that we are behind Richo and the independent board and HBG is redundant … to hell with Burgess and his chook raffle debenture holding never wasses
Chunk
Well-known member
What about some picketing in front of the club or wherever they work? Get the press there and sticks microphones in their faces.
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