‘Fans in revolt’: what’s next after Tigers’ rally rage
Rob Forsaith |
The prospect of a Leichhardt Oval match-day protest looms over crisis-stricken NRL club Wests Tigers as frustrated fans push for governance reform, having aborted a planned march for safety reasons.
The joint venture have been engulfed by turmoil in recent weeks.
Chairman Barry O’Farrell was ousted then invited to return, after the NRL urged club owners Holman Barnes Group (HBG) to reconsider, while chief executive Shane Richardson quit before coach Benji Marshall was handed a five-year extension.
The Tigers’ besieged board is set to meet again on Monday.
But Saturday’s rally, at which local mayor Darcy Byrne launched a new grassroots organisation Wests Tigers Unite, marked the first chance for supporters to formally voice their fury.
The event, organised by Byrne and attended by a 1000-strong crowd that included Balmain Tigers legend Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach, was originally billed as a march from Pratten Park to Wests Ashfield Leagues Club.
A modest police presence was at the leagues club but the call to action unfolded entirely at the original home of the Western Suburbs Magpies.
“I want to say something that some people won’t be happy about. We’re not going to march to the leagues club,” Byrne said in his six-minute address to fans.
“The people at the club have expressed some safety concerns.
“I think they might be a little bit overstated, but I don’t want to give them any excuse to take away from the incredibly positive message of seeing so many Wests Tigers fans in revolt against what they’re doing.
“We are going to do something that they are going to like even less.”
Wests Tigers Unite is set to push the NRL and state government to investigate the governance of HBG, although the latter declared later on Saturday it would not intervene in the saga.
“Politics is hard enough without us jumping into the Wests Tigers,” NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters in Newcastle.
“I wish them all the best, but they’re going to have to sort it out.”
NRL supremo Peter V’landys is likely to adopt a different approach with HBG, who hold the Tigers’ NRL licence and own 90 per cent of the club that hasn’t featured in the NRL finals since 2011.
Byrne noted Wests Tigers Unite would draw from “successful examples around the world of fans associations in different sports that have been set up when this sort of situation occurs”.
“When fans get cut out of decision making,” he said.
“When their voices aren’t listened to.
“We will set a better example than what’s happening currently by making this organisation transparent and democratic and accountable to fans.”
The Tigers, fresh from a relatively positive on-field season, are slated to host Penrith in a pre-season clash at Leichhardt Oval on February 20.
“If the problem hasn’t been fixed (by then), if we don’t have real independent governance, well guess what? We’re going to protest again … out the front beforehand,” Byrne said.
Brett Kimmorley, who served as the NRL team’s interim coach in 2022 then NRLW coach from 2023-25, lamented how things had been “disastrous for a long, long time”.
“Players, fans, members and sponsors, they want all this off-field drama gone,” Kimmorley told the Seven Network.
“They need to stop it.”
Kimmorley added the “rubbish going on in the background” would have a major effect on players.
“You might lose players you want to keep and sign long term because they have no faith and no trust in where the club is heading,” he said.
AAP
