Explosive emails, allegations and threats: Wests Tigers civil war laid bare

A series of explosive emails and documents have led to calls for the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to step in amid a bitter dispute between warring factions at the Wests Tigers.

Directors at the NRL club’s majority owners, the Holman Barnes Group – which runs the rich and powerful Wests Ashfield club – have been at loggerheads since an external review of Wests Tigers operations was conducted last year after the side’s third successive last-placed finish.

That review, undertaken by businessman Gary Barnier and former NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford, issued a series of recommendations, including that Shane Richardson should replace Justin Pascoe as Wests Tigers CEO and Barry O’Farrell should replace Lee Hagipantelis as Wests Tigers chairman.

After the review was delivered, current HBG chair Julie Romero led a coup in March which overthrew Tony Andreacchio at the helm of the HBG board. Documents show that Romero had previously expressed “grave concerns” about the review.

Now the fallout has spilled onto the Wests Tigers board, with Romero recently threatening legal action against O’Farrell should he hold a Tigers board meeting without her blessing.

Critics of Romero say it is just one example of HBG’s reluctance to follow through on all the recommendations of the review and to give the Wests Tigers board the autonomy to run its affairs.

There have also been calls from a Balmain director – Garry Leo – for the foundation club to break away from the Wests Tigers and push for its own team in the NRL in response to growing concern that the Romero-led HBG board is hoping to split the joint-venture side and bring back the Western Suburbs Magpies.

Romero last week issued a statement denying any plot to resurrect the Magpies. She also said the Holman Barnes Group slogan was “be true to the review”.

However, this masthead has obtained documents that show her strong opposition to the review and to the implementation of the recommendations put forward by Crawford and Barnier last December.

Romero’s opposition to the review

On December 6, 2024 – five days before the review was due to be signed off by the HBG board – Romero sent an email to her six fellow directors, saying she had “grave concerns about the reviewers, the report and the recommendations”.

She also said that media leaks from the review, which compounded her concerns over the independence and relevance of the work conducted, were grounds for the HBG to consider commissioning a second review.

“I know it is terribly late in the process, however, I would query why we didn’t seek tenders from professional organisations who specialise in business reviews?” the email said.

“We quite easily could have had three such businesses present to the board and then made an informed decision on who is best to run the review. The scope of work and desired outcomes should have been discussed and agreed by the whole board, along with the persons to be interviewed.

“This could have been assisted by support and advice from the appointed business review organisation. A timeline for completion and/or implementation could have been agreed at the outset.

“My biggest fear is that we have rushed this exercise. Once again acting reactively and not with any great forethought as to what the outcomes might look like and, by doing so, have put HBG in a precarious position. We must not allow ourselves to be forced into any decision or action, that will only complicate matters further and potentially publicly embarrass HBG.”

Romero’s concerns included:

• A perceived lack of independence of reviewers Crawford and Barnier;
• A fear that recommendations were based on opinions, not fact – and changes shouldn’t be made on opinion;
• That a large portion of people interviewed were not from within the Wests Tigers, raising questions over the relevance of their opinions;
• That key people (including Romero, former Wests Tigers and Balmain director James Myatt, then Wests Magpies chairman Shannon Cavanagh, Tigers employees, sponsors and the No.1 ticket holder, (Peter Binet of Binet Homes) were not interviewed.
• That discussions of potential replacements for Pascoe and Hagipantelis were premature;
• That the decision to not scrutinise the football operations of the Wests Tigers, which was the key area of ongoing failure, was a significant omission from the scope of work.

The fight against O’Farrell

When the Wests Tigers appointed O’Farrell as Hagipantelis’ successor, it was to a six-month interim role to help the transition into what was meant to be a board that would ultimately comprise seven directors (four independent and three owner-representative directors from HBG, Balmain and Western Suburbs Magpies).

A year has now passed and the initial interim board of four – which included a representative from each of the owners and O’Farrell as the independent – remains.

Danny Stapleton is the Balmain representative, while the Romero-aligned Dennis Burgess (HBG) and Stephen Montgomery (Wests Magpies) have since replaced David Gilbert (HBG) and Geoff Squires.

A key hold-up in the process to form the new seven-person board has been HBG’s refusal to allow the Wests Tigers to select the recruitment company to undertake the process of selecting the independent directors.

After rejecting the recruitment company selected by the Wests Tigers, the HBG undertook its own process to determine which firm should be given the task.

The outcome of the HBG process was that the same company that had been initially engaged by the Wests Tigers was given the role. It is expected that the recruitment company will recommend O’Farrell is kept on as chair despite HBG making him reapply for the role instead of assuming the title full-time.

Romero sent an email to O’Farrell on July 14 and copied in a number of key stakeholders, including a member of the HBG human resources team and a legal representative from Clayton Utz law firm.

The email raised a number of concerns over issues at the Wests Tigers, including the appointment of Enrichd – the company part-owned by Richardson and his son Brent – to conduct a marketing review of the club.



“Dear Barry, I would like to remind you of West Tigers and West Tigers directors’ obligations under the current shareholders agreement and constitution,” the email from Romero to O’Farrell said.

“Under these documents, Wests Magpies Pty Ltd (and Holman Barnes Group) controls the appointment and removal of you and two other members of the board. With regard to the Wests Tigers board meeting scheduled for Monday 15 July 2024, Holman Barnes Group and Wests Magpies Pty Ltd hereby instructs Wests Tigers the following:

1. No discussion is to be had;
2. No board papers, or papers of any nature, are to tabled by any party; and/or
3. No resolution, and/or resolutions, is/are to be put to the board with regard to any and all of the Holman Barnes Group independent review recommendations (referred to commonly by Wests Tigers as the ‘Crawford/Barnier Review’).”

The email went on to outline a number of outstanding matters that required clarification, but added that HBG had “no desire or intent to delay and/or interfere in the progress of the Wests Tigers’ business operations”.

The issues included:

• The re-engagement of Crawford by the Wests Tigers. According to sources speaking under condition of anonymity, the Wests Tigers approached Crawford in July to conduct an audit of the club because one of the key recommendations of the review was that “the Wests Tigers board should undertake a one-year review to confirm the implementation of these recommendations”. The HBG opposed Crawford’s appointment.
• The recruitment of independent Wests Tigers directors. HBG argued that O’Farrell should reapply for his job and said therefore the club would need to appoint four, not three, independent directors.
• Concerns over the split of which stadiums would host games in future, pending investment into Leichhardt Oval.
• The appointment of Enrichd to conduct Wests Tigers’ marketing review
• The lack of communication and/or consultation with the owners (HBG) in regards to these issues.

The recommendations in the review

For the first time since its completion last year, this masthead can reveal the contents of the 27-slide review that was presented to the HBG.

The review included interviews with 46 stakeholders, including two members/fans, 13 directors (respective owners and Wests Tigers), seven current or past senior Wests Tigers leaders, seven major sponsors, four past players, two leaders from other NRL clubs, three community representatives and three journalists.

Despite an undertaking by the HBG to implement all the recommendations, there are a number of outstanding items 12 months on.

Under the labels “observations” and “high-level observations”, the Crawford-Barnier review found that:

• Wests Tigers governance issues are impacting the harmony, cohesiveness and effectiveness of the HBG board. There is real potential for Wests Tigers governance issues to interfere with the execution of HBG strategy;
• There are severe communication issues between directors and between HBG, Balmain, Wests Magpies and Wests Tigers that need to be addressed urgently;
• There is a lack of trust between Wests Tigers management and its owners that manifests in disruptive and counterproductive engagement between the parties;
• The Wests Tigers board is not independent of the governance of its owners. This makes decision-making slow and cumbersome, has an impact on clear communication and creates uncertainty as to the ability of the Wests Tigers board to set a firm strategy and its authority to implement that strategy;
• The Wests Tigers Board needs to be strengthened to add diversity, skills in governance, strategy development, risk management, advocacy, community engagement, people development, and building a winning culture. It should become a skills-based board;
• Directors of the owners and Wests Tigers directors engage management and football department leadership in a way that distracts them and creates confusion;
• The effectiveness of the Wests Tigers CEO role is being negatively impacted by director overreach (as previously discussed), unclear accountabilities and a lack of key resources;
• The divisiveness of the foundation club “cultural warlords” has been a major distraction from the opportunity that is Wests Tigers. Resolving this distraction involves properly respecting the heritage of the foundation clubs and deeply embedding their DNA in Wests Tigers.
• Important strategic opportunities, particularly south-west Sydney, are not being addressed and resolved due to Wests Tigers operational challenges and focus of the Wests Tigers Board and management.
• Wests Tigers members feel they do not have a voice or a say in running the club.

The Balmain v Magpies power play

Recently, there have been rumblings of a split between the partners in the joint venture as disgruntled directors begin to lose trust in one another.

In August, Leo said Balmain had “lost faith in them [Magpies]” and “the time has come for us to step aside and resurrect the Balmain Tigers”.

Leo subsequently resigned from the Balmain board after threats that a private investigator would be brought in to conduct a forensic audit into how an email chain involving all the Balmain directors, which came into the possession of this masthead, revealed Balmain directors had described the Wests Tigers majority owner HBG as “incompetent”, “Machiavellian” and a “bunch of tin pots”.

While Balmain chairman Danny Stapleton told News Corp he had spoken to every single Balmain board member at the time and that they had a “wonderful working relationship with Holman Barnes” and were “as solid as a rock”, the email correspondence in the 48 hours prior shed a different light on how other Balmain directors felt.

“It has been long enough to see the utter incompetence of our ‘so-called’ partners in running the Wests Tigers and why the club struggles to reach the heights it should have already achieved,” one director said to his fellow board members in an email sent at 3.59pm on Thursday, August 29.

Another director said: “Someone needs to expose in full disclosure the Machiavellian behaviour of this so-called current Wests Tigers, Wests Ashield (sic) dominated board”.

The grievances were in response to HBG’s decision to ask O’Farrell to reapply for his job and a perceived backflipping on the independent review. It was also provoked by fears that at least one board member was trying to revive the Magpies.

Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity said a high-ranking Wests Tigers official had even approached Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys with the same concerns.

The official contacted V’landys after learning that HBG director Dennis Burgess, who now holds a position on the Wests Tigers board, had been talking of an intention to bring back the Magpies in the NRL.

The allegations raised with V’landys included a claim that Burgess had told Stapleton at a game this year: “We’re bringing back the Wests Magpies.”

The factions inside Holman Barnes Group

A text message sent by former HBG chairman Andreacchio to several club members and seen by the Herald outlined his concerns over the direction of the organisation in charge of the Wests Tigers.

Andreacchio, one of three board members currently suspended and expected to be removed as early as this weekend after facing a disciplinary hearing over alleged misconduct, has moved to try and expose the internal power play that could rock the foundations of the NRL side.

“If the plan devised by these … individuals unfolds as expected later this week, our removal as directors will be finalised and our club membership will be banned indefinitely,” the text message sent by Andreacchio said.

“Consequently, the HBG will fall under the control of a cabal of four, supported by an outdated debenture holder system (currently comprising only 18 individuals). Their misguided ambition is to see the Western Suburbs Magpies replace the Wests Tigers in the NRL competition.”

The HBG, formerly known as the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club Group, is currently split into two factions. The faction on the outer consists of Andreacchio and directors Rick Wayde and David Gilbert, all of whom were once on the board of the Wests Tigers.

They are under investigation for what Wayde last month described as “trivial” allegations made against him and two other board members, among them not sitting with other directors at functions, calling an official’s wife “darl” and telling another she was in the wrong corporate box at a game.

Other allegations against one director include that he referred to fellow board members as a “f—ing softie”, a “f—ing suck” and “parrots” in a raised voice.

It was further alleged that Andreacchio was in breach of his constitutional duty after he opposed attempts by a fellow director to change the Western Suburbs Magpies jersey to black and white in the lower grades, because he believed all teams should play under the Wests Tigers banner, including NSW Cup.

The trio of suspended directors were the driving force behind the implementation of the independent culture-and-governance review that led to the exit of former Wests Tigers CEO Pascoe and chairman Hagipantelis.

Since then, Andreacchio has been overthrown as HBG chair, with Romero and Burgess replacing the duo at the helm of the powerful HBG board in March thanks to the backing of fellow directors Stephen Montgomery (recently added to Wests Tigers board) and Vincent Tropiano.

The HBG has over 27,000 members. The board consists of seven members, two of whom are elected by general members and five of whom are elected by the remaining 18 living debenture holders. The constitution makes it difficult to effect significant change at a board level.

One of the recommendations of the Crawford-Barnier review was a means to deal with the cultural factions of the two foundation clubs.

The review recommended that:

• The heritage deed should be renegotiated between the owners and Wests Tigers as a priority. This renegotiation should be supported by an external facilitator agreed to by the parties;
• The refreshed heritage deed should set out the values and behaviours that all parties will display. It should also set out the ways in which the foundation clubs and past players will be honoured in return for the future strategic freedom of Wests Tigers;
• This is an opportunity for the factions to put their “weapons down” and come in behind Wests Tigers and support its plans in a way that has not been previously evident.

This recommendation is yet to be implemented.