tigertragic
Well-known member
Or HBG had just been on the front foot by being honest and transparent
But we hear crickets
HBG, Independent Directors Sacked
- Thread starter BlackWhiteGold
- Start date
But we hear crickets
Tucker
Well-known member
Mate I’ve been banging on about the owners for over a decade - mostly to deaf ears until the past few years.
I’m not as outraged by this as others are for a couple of reasons:
Firstly I’m not surprised. This is how they behave. They don’t have a clue. They don’t seem to care about the team being successful. They felt disrespected in some way and acted…again there’s a history of this happening.
Secondly, I don’t have this over the top relationship with Richo that most on here do. I think he was doing a great job with the financials but an average job with operations.
Thirdly, this is a distraction. Our real issues are captain, halfback and coach. None of them are good enough in their roles. Fans saying this has destroyed our season are making excuses. It may well galvanise the group and those 3 I mentioned may all step up.
FTR I believed the current squad should make the finals this year. This admin squabble shouldn’t affect that….certainly not to the extent that a lot on here think it will.
liltiger
Well-known member
Yeah, my theory is they think they'll be able to do something. They'll be horribly mistaken. Just like Pasco, Hagipentalis, Cleary, Maguire, Sheens, Richardson, the other members of HBG who are serving 8 year bans. Like Julie Romero who now has an 8 year ban. The same lady that was chair when the other 3 members were given 8 year bans. We have had winners and extremely successfull and very competent people within our club who have not been able to do anything because of the boardroom garbage. Even O'Farrell coming back is great news but what did he achieve in his first go.
hammertime
Well-known member
I actually wouldn't care if they weren't, they just need to fix that debenture structure. It's not the HBG company itself, it's the squatters in the debentures.
HBG drawing 5 seats from a pool of 20 unqualified randoms, who has have shown their incompetence, will never work. Even if we get WT back to independence, theyll never stop making dumb decisions and can always dissolve the board again.
Open those hbg seats up for member vote and at least we'll then have accountability
liltiger
Well-known member
Same afternoon it was reported the players were going if Benji was. Same morning there were reports they had Brad Arthur as a replacement if they had to let Benji go. Amature hour.
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Bula
Well-known member
Mad Hatter's Tea Party vibes.
pawsandclaws1
Well-known member
Cash talks and $12m of NRL money means the NRL has influence.
liltiger
Well-known member
Just wish the N.R.L did appoint an administrator and our 25 years of drama was over.
liltiger
Well-known member
This, there was a bust up over something HBG decided Richo and the independants have to go.
mikey
Well-known member
Absolute joke. NRL - hang your head in shame.
liltiger
Well-known member
It's what Vlandys does to pretend he actually gives a 💩
Put It Away Denny
Member
This week we have seen PVL come in and *solve* the problem by agreeing HBG reinstate a minority independent board to appease the fans and a new female board member which is unrelated to any concerns raised… The NRL is seemingly accepting ownership that does not prioritise NRL success, and are subsequently not advocating for Wests Tigers fans.
By allowing this situation to exist is among other things a failing in the terms of the licence agreements. If the NRL suggest they don’t have the power to act, that is on them, there are more interested club owners than licences, the licence agreements should protect the fans.
By allowing this situation to exist is among other things a failing in the terms of the licence agreements. If the NRL suggest they don’t have the power to act, that is on them, there are more interested club owners than licences, the licence agreements should protect the fans.
pawsandclaws1
Well-known member
I notice US Customs is proposing that visitors to the US will be required to provide 5 years of their social media data before being granted entry. 😁
Tired Tiger
Well-known member
When John Singleton was engaging with the Bears to take over management rights of NSW’s Central Coast stadium after their joint venture with Manly collapsed, he bemoaned to me: “Where’s the strongman over at North Sydney I can negotiate with?”
NRL club Wests Tigers, another joint-venture club formed following the Super League war, has the same problem.
As Brian Cook, a Western Suburbs player during my time coaching at the Magpies, said of the fragile relationship with fellow 1908 foundation club Balmain, “There’s no JR Ewing running the show” – a reference to the fictional character in the US sitcom, Dallas.
Wests Tigers is 90 per cent owned by the Magpies’ licensed club, Wests Ashfield, whose parent company is the Holman Barnes Group.
That group also owns licensed clubs at Flemington Markets and Croydon, and will control one planned for Rozelle on the site of the old Balmain Leagues Club.
The choice of the name, Holman Barnes – after former Wests halfback Keith Holman and former Balmain fullback Keith Barnes – is designed to reflect the equality of the joint venture, despite Balmain owning only 10 per cent.
Barry O’Farrell, Charlie Viola and Michelle McDowell were appointed as chair and independent directors of Wests Tigers in January.Credit:Steven Siewert
Wests Ashfield, after settling all Balmain’s debts, gifted them their share and fund their junior teams.
It’s not as if the HBG directors are opposed to a strongman “running the show”. There have been overtures to John Coates, the former 30-year chair of the Australian Olympic Committee and a recently retired senior vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, to be drafted in as boss.
Coates is a lifelong Magpie but respects the Balmain legacy. His roots are so strong that he recently made a rare visit to Sydney from the Gold Coast, where he now lives, to attend a 60-year reunion of the Waratah Shield-winning team of his alma mater, Homebush Boys High School.
However, Coates’s battles with ill health and his need to be close to planning for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics forced him to decline. “I’d love to see the club do well, particularly with our vast catchment area of talent,” he said.
Wests Tigers have received $34 million in subsidies from the licensed clubs in the 25 years since the joint venture was formed. Basically, the Holman Barnes Group directors want to be consulted on commercial decisions in return.
This resulted in the move last week to oust four independent directors of the NRL club, including chairman Barry O’Farrell, a former NSW premier, ahead of a board restructure. The HBG directors were particularly riled at having been shut out of stadia policy decisions and details of the contract of the now former Wests Tigers chief executive, Shane Richardson.
On Thursday, O’Farrell and fellow directors Annabelle Williams and Michelle McDowell agreed to return to their posts after an intervention by Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys. The fourth, Charlie Viola, is not expected to return.
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Wests Ashfield directors learnt of a whistleblower complaint against Richardson only after V’landys met with HBG chief executive Daniel Paton following the board sackings. A frustrated Richardson resigned from his post, unable to work with the owners.
The dismissal of the independent directors was ridiculed across NRL land, particularly with two Wests-aligned directors – HBG chair Dennis Burgess and Magpies general manager Leo Epifania – sitting on the Wests Tigers board.
Epifania insists they were not privy to some decisions. He cites a 15-year agreement to play games at an upgraded Leichhardt Oval.
“The south-west corridor is one of the biggest growth areas in Australia,” he said. “While important progress has been made, we would like to see the bigger picture and map out how a rugby league gold mine can provide Wests Tigers with long-term success.”
Epifania acknowledges Richardson negotiated a $50 million upgrade of Campbelltown Sports Stadium with Campbelltown City Council and launched a junior Centre of Excellence with Macarthur University to help develop the rich seam of football talent in the region.
Epifania, who played 117 games for the Magpies, including 24 in first grade, insists there has never been an agenda to oust Balmain from the joint venture. “There is no intention for Wests Magpies to return as a standalone club in the NRL. It’s never been discussed,” he said.
Former Holman Barnes Group director Tony Andreacchio with current chair Dennis Burgess back in 2021.Credit:Edwina Pickles
“The only contention that regularly arises is the fact Wests Magpies have never been respected in the joint venture and always tainted as the bad guys. An opportunity to discuss a fairer representation would go a long way in ending 25 years of war.”
Epifania rejects any notion that Burgess, a board member of Wests Ashfield for 20 years, is a devious, Machiavellian character, responsible for sacking rivals. In November last year, long-term Wests Ashfield directors Rick Wayde and Tony Andreacchio, as well as Dave Gilbert, were sacked, followed by chair Julie Romero.
The three directors were punted for “not acting as directors,” a nebulous catch-all crime equivalent to the NRL’s “bringing the game into disrepute”.
With his long, platinum hair and background as a bass guitarist with rock band The Masters Apprentices, Burgess doesn’t look like some shadowy puppeteer.
He is one of 20 debenture holders who control HBG via a constitution that demands five of the debenture holders hold seven of the board seats at Ashfield. The 1956 founders of the club deliberately structured it this way to ensure the club continued to propagate rugby league, particularly the Magpies brand.
Debentures are held for five years, with the 20 holders voting directors on and off the island.
Epifania, a recent debenture holder, says, “There have been many attempts to tamper with the debenture system, but it would just cause more damage than good. The club is very clear on its purpose, and most debenture holders understand that life and people change, so they must always be open-minded about the direction the club is heading.”
Mick Liubinskas, another HBG director who has been a debenture holder since 2009, played 122 top games for Wests and spent one season at Balmain (1979). He backs Epifania’s comments, saying: “Debenture holders with personal interests, or who are motivated in securing power and votes, are not acting in the best interests of the club. It’s a system that needs to be protected.”
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He points out the Magpies football club and licensed Ashfield club have “never been more united”.
Essentially, the debenture system is little different from the system at the ARLC, where directors vote themselves back on. The difference, of course, is that the ARLC has a strongman in chair V’landys, who is acceptable to stakeholders, while HBG does not.
Given the obligation Holman Barnes has to its 20 debenture holders to propagate rugby league, it’s difficult to see the directors agreeing to a Wests Tigers board that does not have them controlling the purse strings.
Sound financial stewardship has seen the group hold over $30m in cash, including the revenue from the successful Markets club – which, ironically, was once owned by Balmain.
O’Farrell is returning as chair for a third time – another irony considering Wests Tigers have been mired in political turmoil for a quarter-century. Meanwhile, the club will presumably await the arrival of a coat of only three colours: black, white and a gold that isn’t too close to the old Balmain jumper.
NRL club Wests Tigers, another joint-venture club formed following the Super League war, has the same problem.
As Brian Cook, a Western Suburbs player during my time coaching at the Magpies, said of the fragile relationship with fellow 1908 foundation club Balmain, “There’s no JR Ewing running the show” – a reference to the fictional character in the US sitcom, Dallas.
Wests Tigers is 90 per cent owned by the Magpies’ licensed club, Wests Ashfield, whose parent company is the Holman Barnes Group.
That group also owns licensed clubs at Flemington Markets and Croydon, and will control one planned for Rozelle on the site of the old Balmain Leagues Club.
The choice of the name, Holman Barnes – after former Wests halfback Keith Holman and former Balmain fullback Keith Barnes – is designed to reflect the equality of the joint venture, despite Balmain owning only 10 per cent.
Barry O’Farrell, Charlie Viola and Michelle McDowell were appointed as chair and independent directors of Wests Tigers in January.Credit:Steven Siewert
Wests Ashfield, after settling all Balmain’s debts, gifted them their share and fund their junior teams.
It’s not as if the HBG directors are opposed to a strongman “running the show”. There have been overtures to John Coates, the former 30-year chair of the Australian Olympic Committee and a recently retired senior vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, to be drafted in as boss.
Coates is a lifelong Magpie but respects the Balmain legacy. His roots are so strong that he recently made a rare visit to Sydney from the Gold Coast, where he now lives, to attend a 60-year reunion of the Waratah Shield-winning team of his alma mater, Homebush Boys High School.
However, Coates’s battles with ill health and his need to be close to planning for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics forced him to decline. “I’d love to see the club do well, particularly with our vast catchment area of talent,” he said.
Wests Tigers have received $34 million in subsidies from the licensed clubs in the 25 years since the joint venture was formed. Basically, the Holman Barnes Group directors want to be consulted on commercial decisions in return.
This resulted in the move last week to oust four independent directors of the NRL club, including chairman Barry O’Farrell, a former NSW premier, ahead of a board restructure. The HBG directors were particularly riled at having been shut out of stadia policy decisions and details of the contract of the now former Wests Tigers chief executive, Shane Richardson.
On Thursday, O’Farrell and fellow directors Annabelle Williams and Michelle McDowell agreed to return to their posts after an intervention by Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys. The fourth, Charlie Viola, is not expected to return.
Loading
Wests Ashfield directors learnt of a whistleblower complaint against Richardson only after V’landys met with HBG chief executive Daniel Paton following the board sackings. A frustrated Richardson resigned from his post, unable to work with the owners.
The dismissal of the independent directors was ridiculed across NRL land, particularly with two Wests-aligned directors – HBG chair Dennis Burgess and Magpies general manager Leo Epifania – sitting on the Wests Tigers board.
Epifania insists they were not privy to some decisions. He cites a 15-year agreement to play games at an upgraded Leichhardt Oval.
“The south-west corridor is one of the biggest growth areas in Australia,” he said. “While important progress has been made, we would like to see the bigger picture and map out how a rugby league gold mine can provide Wests Tigers with long-term success.”
Epifania acknowledges Richardson negotiated a $50 million upgrade of Campbelltown Sports Stadium with Campbelltown City Council and launched a junior Centre of Excellence with Macarthur University to help develop the rich seam of football talent in the region.
Epifania, who played 117 games for the Magpies, including 24 in first grade, insists there has never been an agenda to oust Balmain from the joint venture. “There is no intention for Wests Magpies to return as a standalone club in the NRL. It’s never been discussed,” he said.
Former Holman Barnes Group director Tony Andreacchio with current chair Dennis Burgess back in 2021.Credit:Edwina Pickles
“The only contention that regularly arises is the fact Wests Magpies have never been respected in the joint venture and always tainted as the bad guys. An opportunity to discuss a fairer representation would go a long way in ending 25 years of war.”
Epifania rejects any notion that Burgess, a board member of Wests Ashfield for 20 years, is a devious, Machiavellian character, responsible for sacking rivals. In November last year, long-term Wests Ashfield directors Rick Wayde and Tony Andreacchio, as well as Dave Gilbert, were sacked, followed by chair Julie Romero.
The three directors were punted for “not acting as directors,” a nebulous catch-all crime equivalent to the NRL’s “bringing the game into disrepute”.
With his long, platinum hair and background as a bass guitarist with rock band The Masters Apprentices, Burgess doesn’t look like some shadowy puppeteer.
He is one of 20 debenture holders who control HBG via a constitution that demands five of the debenture holders hold seven of the board seats at Ashfield. The 1956 founders of the club deliberately structured it this way to ensure the club continued to propagate rugby league, particularly the Magpies brand.
Debentures are held for five years, with the 20 holders voting directors on and off the island.
Epifania, a recent debenture holder, says, “There have been many attempts to tamper with the debenture system, but it would just cause more damage than good. The club is very clear on its purpose, and most debenture holders understand that life and people change, so they must always be open-minded about the direction the club is heading.”
Mick Liubinskas, another HBG director who has been a debenture holder since 2009, played 122 top games for Wests and spent one season at Balmain (1979). He backs Epifania’s comments, saying: “Debenture holders with personal interests, or who are motivated in securing power and votes, are not acting in the best interests of the club. It’s a system that needs to be protected.”
Loading
He points out the Magpies football club and licensed Ashfield club have “never been more united”.
Essentially, the debenture system is little different from the system at the ARLC, where directors vote themselves back on. The difference, of course, is that the ARLC has a strongman in chair V’landys, who is acceptable to stakeholders, while HBG does not.
Given the obligation Holman Barnes has to its 20 debenture holders to propagate rugby league, it’s difficult to see the directors agreeing to a Wests Tigers board that does not have them controlling the purse strings.
Sound financial stewardship has seen the group hold over $30m in cash, including the revenue from the successful Markets club – which, ironically, was once owned by Balmain.
O’Farrell is returning as chair for a third time – another irony considering Wests Tigers have been mired in political turmoil for a quarter-century. Meanwhile, the club will presumably await the arrival of a coat of only three colours: black, white and a gold that isn’t too close to the old Balmain jumper.
mikey
Well-known member
Smarm job. I would have just laughed at him.
Wow these boomers really cannot understand majority of fans do not care about magpies.
Wests tigers only. The bickering will never stop
www.smh.com.au
Wests tigers only. The bickering will never stop
‘25 years of war’: Wests Tigers need a strongman to take charge
The boardroom bickering that has bedevilled the joint venture since its inception in 1999 will only come to an end when the club appoints a real leader to run the show.
Tired Tiger
Well-known member
HGB friendlies in the press again. We are epically screwed while these muppets remain in charge.
The are openly saying what they have been whispering in the shadows.
Our only hope is they stuff up again and the NRL takes control. Because with these Arsehats involved we are well and truely stuffed .....
The are openly saying what they have been whispering in the shadows.
Our only hope is they stuff up again and the NRL takes control. Because with these Arsehats involved we are well and truely stuffed .....
mikey
Well-known member
No chance in hell of that unfortunately.
mikey
Well-known member
Many a boomer can understand. It's a few ones in their pissing panties and dotage who don't.Wow these boomers really cannot understand majority of fans do not care about magpies.
Wests tigers only. The bickering will never stop
‘25 years of war’: Wests Tigers need a strongman to take charge
The boardroom bickering that has bedevilled the joint venture since its inception in 1999 will only come to an end when the club appoints a real leader to run the show.
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