SO how will Nathan Tinkler be *remembered after his failed foray into rugby league? To be perfectly frank about it, as a complete tyrant.
And if this wasn’t a family newspaper I would be using much more colourful *language.
Just because you’re a flash Harry who turned $500,000 into almost $500 million overnight by taking a massive punt in the mining industry doesn’t give you the right to treat *people like rubbish.
That’s Nathan Tinkler’s biggest downfall. For a supposedly blue-collar bloke who started out as a sparkie in the Hunter region, I would have thought the failed Knights owner would understand the importance of treating people with some respect.
Unfortunately, everything Tinkler touches seems to be layered with ego, arrogance and a horrible bedside manner. From the Newcastle Knights to the horse racing industry to his smug appearance down at the Independent Commission Against Corruption last week, this bloke just comes across as an A-grade arse.
Sure, you’ve made and lost a lot of money. You know what Nathan, I couldn’t give a rat’s. It doesn’t give you the right to promise to get Darius Boyd a $200,000 third-party deal, not deliver and expect him to just suck it up.
Then there’s the fact that *Tinkler’s phone was used to bombard poor Jarrod Mullen, one of rugby league’s nicest blokes, with text messages criticising his teammates and the very proud Newcastle club.
Trying to deal with Tinkler and the Hunter Sports Group over the past three years hasn’t been easy.
The sky would appear it was *collapsing, with players and staff being paid late again. Yet Tinkler, through his Hunter Sports Group rep Troy Palmer, would be telling the rugby league community it was all blue skies and sunshine — business as usual.
I almost dropped my phone when Palmer tried telling me the Newcastle players “loved Nathan” on Thursday. Please. Talk to people in the Hunter about Tinkler and you’ll be flat out *trying to find anyone who’ll say a good word about him, particularly the Newcastle players.
The people who I really feel for out of Tinkler’s collapse are the Newcastle supporters. All they want is a team they can be proud of, but the way the Hunter Sports Group has conducted itself over the past three years has grossly eroded their level of trust. I feel for Matt Gidley and Paul *Harragon, two icons of the Hunter who should *always be remembered as the wonderful rugby league players they were and for the premierships they helped *deliver the Knights.
Gidley and Harragon, more than anyone else, got sucked into the *Tinkler vortex of promises and myths but have now been spat out as collateral damage. I hope the new ownership model of the club sticks by them.
All they ever wanted was for the Knights to be successful. They didn’t grasp the truth of how Nathan Tinkler does business. Who could have?
As Matty Johns outlined on Thursday, Tinkler’s privatisation of the Knights back in 2011 was a no-brainer.
A cashed-up billionaire who was a Knights supporter wanting to pour millions into the club to turn them into a superpower.
Of course the members had to go for it. But ex-Newcastle chairman Rob Tew and ex-chief executive Steve *Burraston smelled a rat.
They did their background checks on the mining magnate and found so many skeletons in his cupboard that they made Tinkler sign a $20 million bank guarantee, now a $10.52 million Westpac cheque, and write in a clause about the club’s members being able to buy the club back for $1 if it all went belly-up.
Today, the Newcastle supporters should be lining up to buy them a beer.
Good riddance, Nathan. Please don’t ever darken the doorstep of *Australian sport again.
