There is a serious rift between two key figures at the Wests Tigers and the blowtorch has been put on the club’s leaders for failing to fix it.
Reports claim recruitment boss Scott Fulton and assistant coach Benji Marshall have been feuding for the last month.
Fulton was hired without Marshall, fellow assistant Robbie Farah and head coach Tim Sheens knowing. He has also reportedly criticised Marshall’s coaching ability — and that has gotten back to the Tigers’ coach-in-waiting.
Fulton and Marshall’s relationship soured even more when the former’s godfather, Peter Peters, suggested Marshall had a share in his management company, which is why he wanted to sign a certain player looked after by that company.
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However, Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis shut down those claims in an interview on NRL 360, calling them “erroneous and defamatory.”
As the Tigers face the very real possibility of a second wooden spoon in as many years along with tension between Fulton and Marshall, Fox League’s James Hooper slammed the lack of involvement from CEO Justin Pascoe.
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“Where’s the CEO in all of this? The bloke hasn’t been sighted off Nobbys, it’s left for Lee Hagipantelis in the fedora indoors at night time,” Hooper said on NRL 360.
“He’s been everywhere, Lee, and credit too him he’s fronted up… But where’s Justin Pascoe?
“Hasn’t been sighted off Nobbys while Concord is burning. The club is an inferno, everyone’s taking shots at them, there are serious major issues going on in terms of internal conflict among employees and this bloke hasn’t even got the two of them in a room together. He’s just let it slide.”
Rugby league legend and co-host of NRL 360 Gorden Tallis questioned how Marshall could possibly work with a recruitment boss “that’s going around bagging you.”
Hooper declared “the trust is gone”. And to make matters worse, the Tigers’ senior leaders know about Fulton’s comments.
“The Tigers officials are aware of those comments,” News Corp journalist Michael Carayannis said on NRL 360.
“They know what’s been said and who’s said it.
“How can you sell the message of hope and optimism and ‘come and play for this coach’ when deep down you don’t actually believe he’s a good coach?”
Hooper put the spotlight back on Pascoe, who he believes is the man that needs to repair the relationship between Marshall and Fulton.
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“It’s up to the paddle-pop lion CEO that went and signed Scott Fulton in the first place without having consulted Tim Sheens, Benji (Marshall), Robbie (Farah) — any of the coaching staff… It’s up to him to fix it,” he said.
“Where is he? He’s no where, he’s invisible, he’s under the desk in the foetal position hoping it all blows over.”
However, Balmain Tigers legend Benny Elias believes Hagipantelis deserves to wear some of the blame for the Tigers’ woes.
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He sees Hagipantelis “conflict of interest” as the “start” of the Tigers’ problems and also called out the chairman for saying “the buck stops with the board” when he is on it.
“I thought he put the board of the directors under the bus,” Elias told NRL 360.
“I thought when he found a corner he reverted back to the board — he’s part of the board. He’s the chairperson of the board. So he’s got to have a real good look in the mirror himself.
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“I find it very disheartening when the major sponsor, Bryden’s Lawyers, who he is the principal — he has a conflict of interest immediately. There’s no one on that board that’s going to challenge the chairman when you’re at a meeting and they’re big decisions.
“I think we’ve got a real good array of players and I believe we’re a top eight team by no means of the imagination with what we’ve got right now with our players.
“Our issues obviously start and finish in the boardroom and our chairperson, if he says something, how can you challenge him as a director? Because he’s going to say ‘I’m going to take my $1 million off the table and walk away’ and then that’s going to put us in a big hole.
“I find that is the start of our problems.”
