Barry O’Farrell predicts NRL intervention at Wests Tigers after more boardroom upheaval

1 week ago 8

Deposed Wests Tigers chairman Barry O’Farrell has described the sacking of himself and three fellow directors by the club’s majority owners as a “brain fart” and predicted the NRL may step in to prevent further upheaval at the joint venture.

The Holman Barnes Group, Wests Tigers’ 90 per cent shareholder, confirmed on Monday that a removal notice had been issued to the club’s four independent directors: O’Farrell, Annabelle Williams, Charlie Viola and Michelle McDowell.

(from left), Barry O’Farrell, Charlie Viola and Michelle McDowell.

HBG chief executive Daniel Paton said the club owners had been left out of the loop on commercial announcements – including the colour scheme of the Tigers’ home jersey next season, which was deemed to be too orange – less than a year after the board’s restructuring as part of an independent review.

The immediate future of Tigers CEO Shane Richardson, who has been closely allied to O’Farrell, has also come into question, with former chairman Lee Hagipantelis predicting he won’t survive into the next NRL season.

Following a statement by the four deposed directors, former NSW premier O’Farrell told ABC Sydney Mornings with Hamish McDonald that he was baffled by the Holman Barnes Group’s latest move, and forecast potential NRL intervention at the embattled club.

“For reasons I suspect relate to antics within the Holman Barnes Group and the desire for people to get to the top there, we’ve had yet another brain fart affecting the club,” O’Farrell said on Tuesday morning.

Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson (left) and O’Farrell.

“A year ago, they replaced their chair (Julia Romero) after the best returns Holman Barnes had ever received. And here we are a year later, they’re replacing the board of West Tigers at a time when, on all the indices for the first time in many years, we’ve done well.

“We’ve achieved our first profit, I think, in more than a decade. And at that moment, the owners, as they’re able to, have decided to take this action.”

O’Farrell, who first joined the Tigers as interim chairman in December 2023, foreshadowed the NRL stepping in to sort out the club’s governance issues. The game’s governing body made governance restructuring, including the appointment of independent directors and key performance targets, a condition of loan commitments to the Tigers in 2013.

“If it continues to go to hell in a hand basket, I have no doubt that the NRL will do what the NRL would always do, which is seek to protect the image of rugby league,” O’Farrell said.

Meanwhile, Richardson’s role at the club is the next key question, with O’Farrell’s predecessor Hagipantelis predicting he won’t survive into next season.

Richardson is one of the most experienced administrators in the game, but could become collateral damage in the latest power play at the Tigers.

Richardson hasn’t yet commented publicly on the situation, but former Tigers chair Hagipantelis predicts he could soon be the next to go.

Asked if he felt Richardson wouldn’t be in his position for the start of next season, Hagipantelis told SEN radio: “I agree … Richardson had, not an unfettered discretion, but a very wide discretion reporting to Barry, as opposed to all the board for a lot of the decision-making that had to be made in relation to the running of an NRL club.

Former Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis.

“That level of delegated authority, it’s very hard to bring back, to restrain or to constrain. There will be some issues of concern there, and Richardson will have to think as to whether he can operate now as to how he did previously with the new board.”

It has been speculated that Richardson had negotiated clauses in his contract that would result in a payout if there were changes at board level.

“I think that would be very much likely,” Hagipantelis said. “I’ve heard those suggestions as well, that the contract was created in such a fashion where his position was solidified in writing and with delegated authority also.

“And that if there was a change, then it could actually prompt termination on grounds favourable to him.”

Wests Tigers have been plagued by dysfunction at the boardroom level since the merger between Balmain and Wests in 1999. Hagipantelis claims some HGB powerbrokers want Balmain to be removed from the joint-venture.

“One thousand per cent,” Hagipantelis said. “It was admitted to me by a fellow who is now a director of the Wests Magpies that the ultimate aim is to return the Magpies to the NRL.

“There were some quiet discussions not too long ago about extracting Balmain from the Wests Tigers and returning them to the State Cup.”