Split in league ranks as Wests Tigers chair Marina Go attacks Dave Smith challenge
by: Phil Rothfield
June 07, 2015 12:00AM
THIS is the scathing email that proves the split between NRL-aligned franchises and stand-alone clubs on the future direction of the game has never been wider.
The Sunday Telegraph has been leaked a copy of an email Wests Tigers chair Marina Go sent to Canterbury chairman Ray Dib and her counterparts about a story in The Daily Telegraph revealing moves to challenge CEO Dave Smith on a number of big funding issues.
Go is a Smith appointee on the Wests Tigers board as part of the NRL’s $2 million cash loan bailout last year.
The email was sent on Wednesday at 11.10am and was titled NRL Club Chair Meeting Notes [CONFIDENTIAL].
“I have just read the article which I find utterly appalling and at odds with what you have just claimed to want to achieve regarding an inclusive approach,” Go wrote.
She then boasts of having connections in the media to find out who leaked the story to The Daily Telegraph rugby league journalist Dean “Bulldog” Ritchie.
“Ray, surely you would know that as I am a journalist the journalists tell me who informs,” Go wrote.
[BREAKING: Your columnist can’, post: t recall the last time Ms Go actually broke a story."]
“To suggest that some clubs are aligned with the NRL and others are not is ignorant at best.
“St George is no longer aligned due to only a loan but Wests Tigers is apparently still aligned even though the loan is to one of my shareholders, not actually to my club?
“And how we vote is being watched? Is it time to start behaving professionally?”
Footnote: Ms Go might be a journalist but her spelling is either bad or her writing careless.
She signs off on the email as Marina Go, Chair, Wets Tigers.
The Tigers are one of four clubs funded by the NRL — along with the Titans, Knights and Dragons. Hence the trust issues with stand-alone clubs and their fears of them being too close toSmith and the independent commission.
