The hardest task in sport is to convince officials to surrender their blazers. Yet the board of Wests Tigers has done that, resigning in order for a more skills-based directorship to drag the club out of the NRL cellar. In fact, the board of the rich Wests Ashfield Leagues club, which owns 90 per cent of the NRL licence has, on the surface, ceded power to an interim board half controlled by two directors affiliated with Balmain, which owns only 10 per cent.
Barry O’Farrell, a former NSW premier and stalwart Balmain fan, along with Danny Stapleton, chairman of Balmain Tigers, will take two places on the interim board of four. Former cricketer and administrator Dave Gilbert, a Roosters supporter, will be Wests Ashfield’s sole representative while Wests Magpies will nominate a director.
Magpies loyalists like Rick Wayde and Tony Andreacchio have resigned from the Wests Tigers board yet have been prime movers of the restructure since September, endorsing the return of O’Farrell as chairman. They have retained their places as directors of Wests Ashfield, suggesting the club with all the money and power has handed control to the one whose debts it paid off.
No wonder Balmain great Benny Elias enthusiastically endorsed the new board, while former Magpies greats stared forlornly into the bottoms of their schooners.
But perhaps the old axiom – never commission a review unless you know the outcome – applies.
When the Holman Barnes Group (essentially the Wests Ashfield board, whose chief executive Simon Cook is one of the smartest operators in licensed club land) ordered a review following fan unrest, perhaps someone anticipated the outcome.
It’s been a rough two years for the Wests Tigers.Credit: NRL Photos
The review’s recommendations, by former NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford and businessman Gary Barnier, effectively leave Wests Ashfield in control.
Crawford-Barnier have recommended Wests Ashfield separate out reserve powers for the benefit of their 90 per cent ownership of the NRL franchise. The powers hived off are considerable, with Wests Ashfield controlling the purse strings and directorships.
The new board will increase from four to seven after six months, with the appointment of three independents. It cannot borrow money; it can’t sell the business or change the terms of the licence.
Wests Ashfield retains hire and fire rights of the directors of the NRL franchise, meaning under-performing ones are replaced.
Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell.Credit: Simon Alekna
But the ultimate board of seven will potentially have far more skills than the previous board. The independents can be drawn from past players and those with backgrounds in finance, marketing, health and diversity.
Committee members in days past stuffed party pies in their pockets after meetings and, while versed in the history of the club, knew more about the geography of the boardroom fridge. Boards with independents can be more strategic and operational; less likely to be reactive to irate fans and gossip over player movement.
With O’Farrell as chairman and Stapleton the only director retained from the old Wests Tigers board, it signals the divide between the 1908 foundation clubs is dead. Wests retains control but trusts the Tigers to run the interim show. Old Magpies doubt whether Balmain would have been as magnanimous if the tables had been reversed. The same Wests loyalists would prefer the whole joint venture to be dissolved and the club rebadged Magpies. But the NRL would never consent to this and, in any case, a whole generation of fans has grown up knowing the club only as Wests Tigers.
The danger with the new board structure is the choice of independents.
Wests Tigers have had independent directors before, under chair Marina Go when the club was in debt to the NRL.
Independent directors invite the traditional fan complaint that sport is now just a business. Somehow more disturbing is if the business people see a football club directorship as a bridge to a more highly paid corporate position elsewhere.
After all, if you snap the multicoloured braces of a corporate, a sports metaphor spills out, such as the eternal curse – “winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing”. NRL players wear suits to games; some of their directors wear sneakers. Failed businessmen “fumble the ball”.
The objective of the interim board of Wests Tigers is to put in place the 50-plus recommendations of the Crawford-Barnier review and recruit three independents with diverse skills and a passion to succeed.
Outgoing Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis was highly critical of his axing, but fans have been saying for years that the NRL club needed to do something. And now it has. Good luck to you.
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