Glenn Jackson | June 12, 2009
IT IS said that nothing happened at Balmain without the consultation of Kevin Humphreys. And now, nothing will happen at Wests Tigers without the word of his son, Stephen, who will be the new chief executive of the merged club.
As one club loses its chief executive in disgrace, another has found a candidate that oozes nostalgia. Stephen Humphreys, a former Balmain player turned successful businessman, has beaten a field that included English football bosses as well as the former state Liberal Party leader, John Brogden, for the position.
Stephen played fullback for the Tigers, but after retirement was hugely successful in the airline industry. He worked for British Airways but most recently has been the managing director of tourism company the Stella Group in New Zealand. Humphreys has commuted to Auckland every Sunday, returning to Sydney on Fridays, to hold that position.
"I would think there's two things bringing him back. One is his family. The other is the club that his family loves," a family friend said last night. "To think he's following his father's footsteps is bloody marvellous."
His father, Kevin, is one of the game's most revered administrators, at Balmain as well as the NSWRL, although he was forced to resign as head of the latter after the airing of corruption allegations involving the former NSW premier Neville Wran on the Four Corners program in 1983. In its bitter aftermath, the late Murray Farquhar became the first Australian magistrate to be convicted and sentenced in a criminal court after being found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice and sentenced to four years' jail for attempting to influence magistrate Kevin Jones to discharge Humphreys in committal proceedings in 1977.
The Four Corners story, by Chris Masters, also provided an expose of Humphreys's gambling debts to the Balmain Leagues Club.
Kevin Humphreys remains a life member of the club, and was visionary enough during his time as an official of the game to be the instigator, along with the late Queensland senator Ron McAuliffe, of the State of Origin series. Humphreys also spoke emotionally at the vote that led to the merger of Balmain and Western Suburbs.
His son will lead the Tigers in less turbulent times, however the club has had little success on the field since their premiership win in 2005.
The Tigers hired a headhunting firm to seek candidates for the position vacated by Scott Longmuir in April after a bitter spat with staff members, including coach Tim Sheens, and senior players including halfback Benji Marshall. Humphreys will inherit some factionalism within the club from the Balmain and Wests sides of the merger, the best example of which came with the club employing acting chief executives after Longmuir quit.
Humphreys will take over from Tim Camiller, the boss of Balmain Leagues Club, and Andy Timbs, general manager of the Western Suburbs Leagues Club in Ashfield.
Humphreys, though, also has support from those who bleed black and white rather than black and gold, bringing both brain and rugby league brawn to the position.
While the Tigers had been prepared to look well outside rugby league, their best candidate was one of their own, a gutsy fullback with one of the game's most famous surnames.
The appointment of Humphreys is expected to be confirmed in the next 48 hours. He has beaten executives with the Coventry City and Fulham football clubs in Britain, as well as Brogden, who resigned from the leadership of the state Liberal Party in 2005.
There were also suggestions of interest from Manly chief executive Grant Mayer as well as the former Sydney FC boss George Perry.
Humphreys impressed many influential league characters, including former Tiger Keith Barnes and Immortal John Raper, at a lunch hosted by John Singleton for his ailing father earlier this year.
It will be a welcome boost for Kevin, who remains in a Drummoyne nursing facility after suffering two strokes, as well as his wife Joan, who cares for him religiously each day.
