The architects of the Wests Tigers review banned for a combined 15 years
January 1, 2025 — 6.24pm
The three Holman Barnes Group directors who were the driving force behind the independent review that forced significant change at the Wests Tigers have been banned by the club’s majority owner for almost 15 years combined.
Tony Andreacchio, Rick Wayde and David Gilbert were all hit with significant bans on New Year’s Eve for a range of alleged misdemeanours dating back several years.
Board members at the HBG – which runs the rich and powerful Wests Ashfield club and is also the majority owner of the Wests Tigers– have been at loggerheads since an external review of Wests Tigers operations was conducted last year after the side’s second successive last-placed finish.
Andreacchio, Wayde and Gilbert were the chief instigators of the review, which was conducted by businessman Gary Barnier and former NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford.
Their banishment throws into doubt whether the recommendations of the Barnier-Crawford report will now be implemented in their entirety.
On Wednesday, Wayde and Andreacchio both expressed dismay at their predicament.
“The tragedy is the club is in great shape through the work of the CEO and the executive team. The remaining directors are only worried about self-interest and winding back the review which is a problem for the Wests Tigers,” Wayde said.
“In the short-term, Shane Richardson and Barry O’Farrell are doing remarkable despite the interruptions. If the Gang of Four get away with this movement, they’ll be intruding even more. That’s the major concern for the Tigers.
“I fear that already they will be interfering with the appointment of the independent directors.”
“This is clearly a star chamber decision,” Andreacchio said.
“How can 18 people in a 30,000 membership have this much power? Rick Wayde and I are the only two elected by the membership and we’ve been discarded by the star chamber.”
Some of the recommendations of the review have already been adopted, including that Shane Richardson should replace Justin Pascoe as Wests Tigers CEO and Barry O’Farrell should replace Lee Hagipantelis as Wests Tigers chairman.
O’Farrell was subsequently asked by the HBG to reapply for his position although sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity due to confidentiality said he was on the verge of being reappointed.
“We are launching this action because we do not have faith in the current governance of the majority shareholder of the Wests Tigers, the Holman Barnes Group (HBG),” the petition statement said.
“This action commenced after the HBG board continued to drag its feet over introducing and adopting the full recommendations from the 2023 external review into the governance of the Wests Tigers.”
The banning of Andreacchio, Wayde and Gilbert related to a range of alleged misdemeanours dating back several years, including “a number of whistle-blower disclosures and complaints”, according to the disciplinary committee findings obtained by this masthead.
He has also been asked to undertake an anger management course as a prerequisite for a potential return in eight years’ time.
Former HBG chairman Andreacchio, who also previously served on the Wests Tigers board, has been hit with a six-year ban. Gilbert has been issued a six-month ban.
While a number of allegations against Wayde were unsubstantiated, the disciplinary committee found that:
- He engaged in unreasonable conduct towards a fellow director at a board meeting, including personal attacks against the person resulting in requests by other attendees for him to “back off”;
- He engaged in intimidatory, threatening and/or otherwise unreasonable conduct towards other board members, both alone and acting in concert with Andreacchio and Gilbert, in an attempt to coerce the board members into supporting Andreacchio to continue as chair;
- He made comments to a fellow director to suggest he was personally responsible for Andreacchio’s defeat in the board election. Wayde is alleged to have said: “You’ve got to be joking. You don’t know how bad your name is at Wests Tigers” after learning of a fellow HBG director’s appointment onto the Wests Tigers board.
Allegations against Andreacchio, who has also been asked to undertake an anger management course, include:
- That he yelled at a fellow HBG director, calling him a “f---ing suck” approximately 10 times in front of other board members in an aggressive manner. Andreacchio repeated the comments later on despite being told words to the effect, “You can’t do this”, “Enough’s enough, we’re
one team. Calm down”;
- That he allegedly became red in the face and made abusive comments to a fellow director in a threatening tone;
- That while waiting for a taxi after a function for the West Tigers launch of the 2024 NRL season he approached a fellow director and stood close to him and made a comment to the effect: “You f----- softie”;
- That at an HBG board meeting last September he engaged in aggressive behaviour towards a fellow director, calling him a “parrot” in a raised voice
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ex...gers-civil-war-laid-bare-20241223-p5l0eb.html
The allegation against Gilbert was in relation to comments and actions made to a fellow director concerning his allegiances on the board.
The banned trio fell out of favour after current HBG chair Julie Romero led a coup in March which overthrew Andreacchio at the helm of the HBG board. Documents recently obtained by this masthead show that Romero had previously expressed “grave concerns” about the review.
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The documents and emails also showed that Romero threatened legal action against Tigers chairman O’Farrell should he hold a Tigers board meeting without her blessing.
