Taking a wrecking ball to the club! (Recent Media Reports)

[Tigerdazz2]

Seriously. I worked direct to very powerful politicians so don't play that card. I can't explain the anti-HBG hysteria without reference back to Balmain's failure. I might be wrong in your case but that sentiment exists on this forum. I went to a school where the 3 teams supported were Wests, Balmain and Canterbury. A lot of my mates are ex-Balmain and some are on this forum. They hate Wests Ashfield with a passion and reminded me plenty of times in the early years how Balmain carried Wests, and they did. When roles reversed they became very bitter indeed.

It was VERY toxic on this forum in its first few years and then again after 2011-2012 when our clubs on field performances declined.

It's true that a lot from the Balmain side of the venture kept banging on that Balmain had "saved" Wests arse, that Balmain should have more say than Ashfield, that WT should play more games at Leichhardt and less at Campbelltown, complaining about poor crowd sizes when Campbelltown was actually getting allocated more out of town teams & teams whose fans didn't travel.

Magpie fans were getting their back up, complaining that the best juniors where being taken from the Magpies NSW Cup side and put in the Balmain side instead (a decision made by Tim Sheens) Magpie fans (including me at the time) continually knocked Leichhardt Oval as a venue citing the notorious overflowing toilets and lack of amenities. Then when the Magpies became majority owners some from the Magpies side called for WA to have total control or even for the WT brand replaced by the Magpies.

Early on in the constant back & forth I actually got banned (in my previous iteration as just "Tigerdazz" by a notorious pro Balmain now ex Mod) not for anything nefarious like attacking other members or using foul language etc. I got banned after actually bringing up crowd stats, facts & figures and pointing out errors & misleading "facts" in his and a few other's posts.

After a few years absent I returned as Tigerdazz2, the Mod I previously mentioned was either no longer on this forum, had changed his name or may have even died. I noticed things had changed. There was a lot less infighting, less Magpies v Balmain posts & members seemed to be getting on a lot better than prior to my previous banishment.

The whole situation with the HBG board should be UNITING us, not being used as an excuse to reopen old wounds.
Attacking someone's former allegiance, accusing others of being "pro this" or "anti that" is not productive in any way shape or form.

We should all want HBG's (WA) financial support BUT we need HBG to take a step back when it comes to running the Wests Tigers. The Wests Tigers need to be run separately, not by the very same people who have, successfully I might add, run Wests Ashfield, Croydon Sports & the Markets Club. Sure they should have a director or two on Wests Tigers board but not have over arching control over how the Wests Tigers are run.

We all need to stop the infighting now!

We should be supporting positive changes at board level, getting ready for a hopefully bumper 2025, getting ready to then only argue over our clubs wins & losses, over who were the guns who were the duds, who should be dropped which player plays what position, which players WT should chase, how the coaching staff & CEO are going and which refereeing decisions we thought were rubbish.

That's my wish.

 

[gallagher]

I don’t actually care who or how at the end of the day someone be it the owners &/or board did their job and did it well - they showed action which was going to create sizeable change. They actually showed leadership at the top instead of pushing it all down field.

Great post mighty. Things have been on the up since then

 

[Merlot]

Here's a hypothetical for you - WT get the independent board that everyone believes will magically transform the club to a multi premiership winner. Lo and behold the club still struggles because the independent board is pretty crap and needs to go. Who has the power to get rid of them - should it be the members of WT or the owner of the club.

assuming Barry is reappointed, wouldn't he make a strong recommendation of the preferred outcome of the next meeting

 

[coivtny]

It was VERY toxic on this forum in its first few years and then again after 2011-2012 when our clubs on field performances declined.

It's true that a lot from the Balmain side of the venture kept banging on that Balmain had "saved" Wests arse, that Balmain should have more say than Ashfield, that WT should play more games at Leichhardt and less at Campbelltown, complaining about poor crowd sizes when Campbelltown was actually getting allocated more out of town teams & teams whose fans didn't travel.

Magpie fans were getting their back up, complaining that the best juniors where being taken from the Magpies NSW Cup side and put in the Balmain side instead (a decision made by Tim Sheens) Magpie fans (including me at the time) continually knocked Leichhardt Oval as a venue citing the notorious overflowing toilets and lack of amenities. Then when the Magpies became majority owners some from the Magpies side called for WA to have total control or even for the WT brand replaced by the Magpies.

Early on in the constant back & forth I actually got banned (in my previous iteration as just "Tigerdazz" by a notorious pro Balmain now ex Mod) not for anything nefarious like attacking other members or using foul language etc. I got banned after actually bringing up crowd stats, facts & figures and pointing out errors & misleading "facts" in his and a few other's posts.

After a few years absent I returned as Tigerdazz2, the Mod I previously mentioned was either no longer on this forum, had changed his name or may have even died. I noticed things had changed. There was a lot less infighting, less Magpies v Balmain posts & members seemed to be getting on a lot better than prior to my previous banishment.

The whole situation with the HBG board should be UNITING us, not being used as an excuse to reopen old wounds.
Attacking someone's former allegiance, accusing others of being "pro this" or "anti that" is not productive in any way shape or form.

We should all want HBG's (WA) financial support BUT we need HBG to take a step back when it comes to running the Wests Tigers. The Wests Tigers need to be run separately, not by the very same people who have, successfully I might add, run Wests Ashfield, Croydon Sports & the Markets Club. Sure they should have a director or two on Wests Tigers board but not have over arching control over how the Wests Tigers are run.

We all need to stop the infighting now!

We should be supporting positive changes at board level, getting ready for a hopefully bumper 2025, getting ready to then only argue over our clubs wins & losses, over who were the guns who were the duds, who should be dropped which player plays what position, which players WT should chase, how the coaching staff & CEO are going and which refereeing decisions we thought were rubbish.

That's my wish.

And that is a very good post, sir.

 

[coivtny]

There's definitely a lot that are anti HBG. Some are due Balmain bias but most are due to their performance since taken over ownership. I've been anti HBG in the past as much as I was anti Pascoe. But in the last 12 months they've stood side and given Richardson free reign and are appointing an independent board.
Can we not just take a step back and let wests tigers management continue on the road they've set forward?
The battle was won last year.

Your last sentence is spot on.

 

[coivtny]

That’s your own echo chamber that you’re in , and I’m pretty sure you’re of a certain age ie. above 65?
You’re exactly in the demographic that is most likely to never get over these allegiances as you’d formed them well before wests tigers as an idea was even floated . Many of us were still in school when the merger happened , and as such whilst we have roots in one foundation club or another , we’ve spent in most cases twice the amount of time as wests tigers supporters than which ever foundation club you followed initially .
Every single person I’ve seen play the Balmain v magpies nonsense debate is retirement age or there abouts.
This club wests tigers future is the kids, and thier parents .
They’re the ones buying merch , flags , face paint forming memories , and I’m so sick of this narrative driven by people who simply never really got past Y2K , whether they begrudgingly follow the child of those 2 clubs - wests tigers .
The petition both of them mind you , has 1 real goal and the people behind it .
Making the wests tigers become the best team in the league. Where we should have been after 2005 through 2011 , when we had 2 of the top 7 or 8 players in the world putting our jersey on.
This revolution and accountability of people making decisions at the club has been a long time coming .
If your concern is how big a bird is on the sleeve , or how much Orange is in the jersey , or picking up people for calling the club wests or tigers , then no matter how much you advocate for yourself on here . You are the problem . You’re perpetuating a tired narrative.
I have very little memories of Balmain as a kid whose family was from Gladesville.
But I have infinite memories and fondness of wests tigers highlights and lowlights .
This victim complex is toxic and a relic of a bygone era .

Mate, I have said many times on this forum that I support the total independence of the WT board. I can't keep saying it. It has been promised after the initial review and again by Richo earlier this week. But we still have plenty on here piling in to HBG even after what we want has been promised and I believe will be delivered. It is not an age thing. I don't expect younger WT supporters to have fond memories of Wests or Balmain but I do. Those feelings don't stop me from wanting WT to be a success and to believe that Wests Magpies should only exist in the junior clubs they currently field, Same for Balmain.

 

[coivtny]

The issues raised about HBG are raised because of the abject and utter failure they’ve been when in charge of the Wests Tigers.

They turned the Tigers from a 9th placed laughing stock into an embarrassing, abysmal, pity inducing, shamble that culminated in three straight spoons. This put us in the esteemed company alongside the Knights and Sydney Uni as the only other teams since 1908 to win three or more consecutive wooden spoons.

HBG majority boards allowed Pascoe to fudge membership numbers, saw Taylor, Cleary, Madge and Sheens sacked. Replaced Madge with Kimmorley who had t coached in five years or so, and allowed Hagipantelis to basically use the club as his personal media platform making us a complete and utter joke.

Since then, there’s been backroom squabbling, Julie Romero’s concerning directions to the Wests Tigers board, unexplained delays to the review implementation

On top of that they’ve changed their rep on the Wests Tigers from Gilbert who’s far and away the most competent HBG board member to Dennis Burgess, who’s greatest accomplishment was being in a band in the 60s. How this qualities him to be on the Wests Tigers board is beyond me.

That is why people have issues with HBG. Not because of some saltiness they are now majority owners of the club.

Then by all means go on hating HBG. Just own it for what it is.

 

[coivtny]

As I said on a previous comment, HBG is Balmain. It's more Balmain than Balmain now. They are jointly named after a Tigers and Magpies great and they fund a lot of the Balmain groups.

They are the path we need to get to. Where we are 1 team. Piss balmain off - not sure how many times I need to say it without still being called pro-balmain. I feel like a broken record.

HBG should be the only club based board seat we have in my opinion. They are where we need to get to. But to do that, we need to be secure in good governance.

If you work in politics, then great. I think you should be able to see my interpretation of the conference then. If HBD had been smooth sailing till now, then sure. I wouldn't question it. But they haven't been, so I am. There are several observations I could bring up, but I do not want to.

We must give HBG the chance to complete the review.

Mate, I worked with politicians not in politics and it was a few years ago now. And as a breed I don't have a high regard for them but there are always exceptions e.g surprisingly for some, Michael Costa.
I think I said in my last post I may have got you wrong.
We can skip the rest because, on your last sentence, we are 100% in agreement.

 

[hank37w]

They turned the Tigers from a 9th placed laughing stock into an embarrassing, abysmal, pity inducing, shamble that culminated in three straight spoons. This put us in the esteemed company alongside the Knights and Sydney Uni as the only other teams since 1908 to win three or more consecutive wooden spoons.

You forgot to give the Parra-sites credit for their 6 in a row from 1956-1961. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

 

[TigerJunior4]

Then by all means go on hating HBG. Just own it for what it is.

This is exactly what I’m talking about in previous posts.

I give specific, lengthy reasons for being critical of HGB and then you try and turn it into an anti-magpies conspiracy.

It’s absurd.

 

[TigerJunior4]

You forgot to give the Parra-sites credit for their 6 in a row from 1956-1961. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

😂 I had no idea about that.

 

[Lestronge]

Mate, I have said many times on this forum that I support the total independence of the WT board. I can't keep saying it. It has been promised after the initial review and again by Richo earlier this week. But we still have plenty on here piling in to HBG even after what we want has been promised and I believe will be delivered. It is not an age thing. I don't expect younger WT supporters to have fond memories of Wests or Balmain but I do. Those feelings don't stop me from wanting WT to be a success and to believe that Wests Magpies should only exist in the junior clubs they currently field, Same for Balmain.

Mate it is an age thing though . To say it’s not is simply not true .
I sit around with mates my age and the conversations are around the tigers being shit , and run by muppets , and we really should be a juggernaut .
I sit around at family gatherings with parents , uncles etc , and the narrative is , they never should have merged ; threw away all that tradition. Etc.
Same thing if I’m sitting in a pub , it’s those conversations followed by some rhetoric about super league ruining the sport .
Sure it’s not everyone .
But much like how our music taste , movies etc are pretty much whatever you were listening between the ages of 17-25 , so is other interests like movies , and sport .
So if you were in the plus25 bracket prior to the merge , then the transition is going to be huge for you .
It’s like when the swans make the GF , the talk is all about them being the bloods , and go South Melbourne etc. they moved in the early 80s…..
At some point the team has to be left to the younger generation to pave the way .
Whether you personally are or the people around you are , if the conversations are about Balmain or wests , than that is just your own bubble mate .
80% of fans don’t give a shit about those things mate . I’m 40 , and was a tragic Balmain fan as a kid . Used to watch re runs that my grandfather taped of games when we visited him , sometimes of things like the mid year competition from the 80s. I was like 6 maybe 7.
But that kid might as well have been another person , because I don’t relate to that much anymore outside of nostalgia of hanging around with my grandfather . (Actually great grandfather ) .
So if I feel like that , and most people my age feel like that , then anyone younger than that , is going to have even less of an attachment to the foundation clubs , moving into now where there’s no attachment to any kids.
Which is why in all that I say , you are in an echo chamber mate if you’re hearing bring back Balmain/ magpies .
Everyone on here has been anti HBG , because the team has been an abomination for a long time . That’s not a wests and Balmain thing , it’s actually a wests tigers thing .
It’s kind of sad you can’t make that distinction.

 

[coivtny]

This is exactly what I’m talking about in previous posts.

I give specific, lengthy reasons for being critical of HGB and then you try and turn it into an anti-magpies conspiracy.

It’s absurd.

I'll give you absurd. I didn't mention Magpies in my last post, you did. I concede you're entitled to be anti-HBG, just get over it and move on. Give them until the end of the month to insert the independent board members and then (hopefully) we've all got what we want.
I'm just sick of reading "I don't believe them", "did you see Simon Cook's body language" etc etc. That's absurd.
We all better hope like hell, though, we get good board members from this process or else we all go back to square one.

 

[TigerJunior4]

I'll give you absurd. I didn't mention Magpies in my last post, you did. I concede you're entitled to be anti-HBG, just get over it and move on. Give them until the end of the month to insert the independent board members and then (hopefully) we've all got what we want.
I'm just sick of reading "I don't believe them", "did you see Simon Cook's body language" etc etc. That's absurd.
We all better hope like hell, though, we get good board members from this process or else we all go back to square one.

You can’t just make a statement saying go on hating HBG then but call it for what it is. Especially given the context of what we were debating so don’t play the victim here.

If you’d bothered to read my post earlier I mentioned that I thought it was a positive HBG committed to implementing the review and having independent board members by the end of the month.

I did say I’ll wait until it actually happens because historically, the club has been all talk, no results.

I didn’t say anything about body language though.

Agree about board member quality too which is why I’m waiting and seeing before commenting.

 

[coivtny]

Mate it is an age thing though . To say it’s not is simply not true .
I sit around with mates my age and the conversations are around the tigers being shit , and run by muppets , and we really should be a juggernaut .
I sit around at family gatherings with parents , uncles etc , and the narrative is , they never should have merged ; threw away all that tradition. Etc.
Same thing if I’m sitting in a pub , it’s those conversations followed by some rhetoric about super league ruining the sport .
Sure it’s not everyone .
But much like how our music taste , movies etc are pretty much whatever you were listening between the ages of 17-25 , so is other interests like movies , and sport .
So if you were in the plus25 bracket prior to the merge , then the transition is going to be huge for you .
It’s like when the swans make the GF , the talk is all about them being the bloods , and go South Melbourne etc. they moved in the early 80s…..
At some point the team has to be left to the younger generation to pave the way .
Whether you personally are or the people around you are , if the conversations are about Balmain or wests , than that is just your own bubble mate .
80% of fans don’t give a shit about those things mate . I’m 40 , and was a tragic Balmain fan as a kid . Used to watch re runs that my grandfather taped of games when we visited him , sometimes of things like the mid year competition from the 80s. I was like 6 maybe 7.
But that kid might as well have been another person , because I don’t relate to that much anymore outside of nostalgia of hanging around with my grandfather . (Actually great grandfather ) .
So if I feel like that , and most people my age feel like that , then anyone younger than that , is going to have even less of an attachment to the foundation clubs , moving into now where there’s no attachment to any kids.
Which is why in all that I say , you are in an echo chamber mate if you’re hearing bring back Balmain/ magpies .
Everyone on here has been anti HBG , because the team has been an abomination for a long time . That’s not a wests and Balmain thing , it’s actually a wests tigers thing .
It’s kind of sad you can’t make that distinction.

Don't be patronising. I haven't patronised you. I don't disagree about HBG but some on here take a virulent anti-HBG stance because of their Balmain background. How do I know that? Because I have ex-Balmain mates who do exactly that. My mates and I can agree on being critical of HBG but when it's followed up by "if Balmain

 

[twentyforty]

Filtered it's way into the public arena? Yeah, by the petition!
They're appointing , largely, an independent board so I don't give a crap about a leagues club board.
God help us if they raise the price of a schooner.

They’re appointing, largely, an independent WT board are they? Their words and their actions haven’t given that impression to anyone but their most ardent admirers who, for a decade, have been thinking miracles can happen any day now.
The petition is a cry for help, by those who can clearly see that by doing nothing WT will die in agony.
The last time I looked at the WT board it appeared to have 1 Balmain, 3 Magpies, and HGB have been investigating if the Chair is independent.
This started in December ‘23.

 

[Lestronge]

Don't be patronising. I haven't patronised you. I don't disagree about HBG but some on here take a virulent anti-HBG stance because of their Balmain background. How do I know that? Because I have ex-Balmain mates who do exactly that. My mates and I can agree on being critical of HBG but when it's followed up by "if Balmain

And how old are those people mate ? Be honest with yourself ! I wasn’t being patronising by the way . I was being pretty genuine.

 

[twentyforty]

I think the WT board has not been appointed because Romero, Burgess and co. haven’t appointed the Chair. Barry O’Farrell’s interim appointment expired more than 6 months ago.

 

[Ron Brodrick's Spirit]

Another day of analysing what Richo really meant ahead of us I guess.
Let me clear it up. He meant what he said and he said what he meant.

The war is over gentlemen. How about we just take Richo's advice and forget all this nonsense and just have fun.

 

[coivtny]

And how old are those people mate ? Be honest with yourself ! I wasn’t being patronising by the way . I was being pretty genuine.

I found parts of your reply patronising. Of course it’s an age thing. I’m 73, my mates are the same vintage. Your attitude to life reflects your experiences, so does mine. I loved watching the Magpies at Pratten and Lidcombe, but I wanted the JV with Balmain more than anything because it was the only way we would survive but not as the Magpies but as a new entity with two great histories as our foundation.
My one and only point here was to have a go at the posters who despite the Richo et al podcast the other day want to continue sniping at HBG saying they don’t believe them and how bad HBG have been, If we just wait until end January, we’ll know and if they don’t deliver snipe at them by all means. One scary thought for us all is that an independent board doesn’t guarantee a good board, Let’s all hope they choose well.