The Tigers have been called out for using John Bateman, an Englishmen, to model their controversial commemorative jersey.
The merger club announced they would be redesigning the jersey on Wednesday after they used a stock image of American soldiers instead of Australian or Kiwi troops.
The Tigers released a statement, stating they were “deeply sorry” for any offence caused by their botched design, however a new aspect of the fiasco has caught the eye on the NRL360 panel.
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With several players with Australian and New Zealand heritage within their squad, the Tigers opted to use Bateman in the jersey’s initial launch images.
“What I don’t understand, can someone explain to me why John Bateman, an Englishmen, fronted the unveiling of this jersey?” The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis said.
“For the ANZAC jersey, that for me sums it up, I can get the error that’s been made but to come out, and with all due respect to John Bateman, there’s a lot of Kiwis, a lot of Aussies in that Tigers side.
“South Sydney wouldn’t have an indigenous jersey and just send Damien Cook.”
Fox League’s James Hooper called the Tigers’ administration and chief executive Justin Pascoe out for the oversight.
Kenty reveals Tigers’ ANZAC jersey lie! | 05:28
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He also pointed to another big blunder that was missed in the design of the club’s $78 million Centre of Excellence.
The facility, hailed as the best rugby league training base in the world, showcased club legend Benji Marshall’s achievements with the club.
But instead of showcasing his premiership at the Tigers in 2005, it stated he lifted the premiership trophy with the Dragons.
“The Tigers front office at the moment is a complete rabble, you can go to this jumper, you can go to last year there was a lot of pomp and ceremony about the unveiling of the $75 million Centre of Excellence,” Hooper said.
“They stuffed up on one of the walls, they had Benji Marshall winning a premiership with St George Illawarra, how does that happen?
“So to Justin Pascoe’s cheer squad with the pompoms, who always champion the fact ‘oh no, in terms of the profit and loss sheet he is doing a wonderful job, he’s not responsible for the football department’.
“Well surely this falls under his imprimatur, this is the front office, this is the finite detail that a CEO and the CEOs at all the good clubs are across.
Kenty reveals Tigers’ ANZAC jersey lie! | 05:28
“This doesn’t happen on anybody else’s watch.”
Meanwhile, Tigers officials have also come under fire for failing to front up for their mistakes, instead leaving players to answer questions regarding the ANZAC blunder.
“Another thing too, once again they sent the players out today to basically try and explain it away,” NRL360 co-host Paul Kent said.
“When it is clearly an administrative problem, like the chairman and the chief executive at some point should have come out and said we are deeply sorry, we made a mistake.
“Other than try and spin a little bit of truth that probably wouldn’t have been discovered, that they had checked it out.
“They sent the players out to give their version of what happened there.”
Both Hooper and Kent went on to slam the club after they were caught out for lying in their apology statement.
The Tigers explained they had collaborated with Holsworthy Army Barracks who gave the jersey the tick of approval.
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But instead, according to Kent, the Defence Force were never consulted by any officials from the Tigers.
“It is dangerous and I think it is symbolic of a lot of things that are happening at the club as far as their attention to detail and what they believe people should know,” Kent said.
“Their version of events, I think they initially got caught out where they realised they had the wrong image on the jersey. They have tried to move away from that and not link it to ANZAC day.
“The Tigers are still not being forthcoming with what happened. I think they have tried to massage and minimise the damage around this and unfortunately for them because of the delay in getting things confirmed it has come back to bite them.
“The Defence Force has shot down what was basically their last straw of hope that they had collaborated with Holsworthy Army Barracks, which the Defence Force said they clearly did not.”
“No matter which way they try to massage it or spin it, it is an ANZAC insult,” Hooper said
.
“To me what it underlines is the fact that the Tigers are as bad off the field and in the front office as they are on the field which is a very sad state of affairs.”
