‘Incompetent, Machiavellian, tin pots’: The explosive emails at heart of Tigers-Magpies feud
By Michael Chammas
August 30, 2024 — 6.22pm
Balmain directors have described the Wests Tigers majority owner, Holman Barnes Group, as “incompetent”, “Machiavellian” and a “bunch of tin pots” in a series of private emails that threatens to tear apart the joint venture club.
After this masthead revealed on Thursday that at least one Balmain director, Garry Leo, wanted to immediately cease ties with the Western Suburbs side of the merger, this masthead has also obtained a confidential chain of emails between the Balmain directors which highlights the angst towards the HBG.
While Balmain chairman Danny Stapleton told News Corp on Thursday he had spoken to every single Balmain board member and that they had a “wonderful working relationship with Holman Barnes” and were “as solid as a rock”, the email correspondence during the past 48 hours sheds a different light on how other Balmain directors feel.
“It has been long enough to see the utter incompetence of our “so called” partners in running the WT (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.
“I fully understand the situation we found ourselves in and the lifeline given to us to remain alive BUT this does not justify the treatment and disdain shown to this board, the Balmain Tigers history and the importance of the Balmain Tigers fan base to the Wests Tigers success.”
The email chain, titled “Unbelievable CONFIDENTIAL”, was instigated after this masthead reported on Wednesday that interim Wests Tigers chairman Barry O’Farrell was being asked to reapply for his position and was considering walking away from the job as a result.
The news came as a surprise to the Balmain directors, who wanted answers from Stapleton – the Balmain representative on the Wests Tigers board – as to what was happening with HBG’s hesitation around the reappointment of O’Farrell.
“Someone needs to expose in full disclosure the Machiavellian behaviour of this so-called current wests tigers, wests Ashield (sic) dominated board,” another board member wrote on Thursday at 3.33pm.
“Who initiated the review? Them. But it is clear now as we all knew [that] the silent minority around that west Ashfield table were not happy!
“To eject our current chair and throw out the report findings (which is what west Ashfield is heading I think) is a disgrace and the wests Ashfield board should be answerable to the wests tigers members.”
When contacted on Friday about the email chain, Stapleton said: “This is highly confidential information.”
In response to his board’s concerns, Stapleton sent an email to Balmain directors as part of the chain saying: “the split on the Board is real and decisive” and that Balmain had “challenges on our hands with the unrest at HBG board level”. Stapleton also stated:
“My understanding, and I have not been told formally, is that the controlling faction at HBG Board now wants to unwind the outcomes and recommendations of the review process and take back the control and running of Wests Tigers.
“One would ask, that this is hard to believe and why we underwent the Review process in the first place.”
“Barry is the best person to Chair the Club through these times and his tenure should be extended without question. The club needs stability and credibility and Barry provides that in spades … I think it is a no brainer that Barry would be selected and given the independent chair role. In saying that HBG may have other ideas. I don’t know.”
Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity told this masthead that a high-ranking Wests Tigers official has recently approached the NRL with concerns over the decisions being made by the HBG.
There is a concern that the HBG will not follow through on the key recommendation of last year’s Crawford-Barnier report, which is the selection of four independent directors.
The directors were meant to be appointed by May, but a change of leadership on the HBG board has stalled the process. Julie Romero replaced Tony Andreacchio as chairman of the HBG, with the leadership resulting in a change of the shareholder-appointed directors on the Wests Tigers board in recent months.
O’Farrell and new Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson – who Leo previously said was the biggest positive to come out of the review – had selected a recruitment firm to undertake the process of appointing four independent directors.
The job was handed to Jonathan Harris from Elevate Talent, who recommended the reappointment of O’Farrell as chair as well as the appointment of three independent directors (including two women).
The HBG, which is under new leadership after the previous powerbrokers were rolled at elections earlier in the year, suspended the process and are now trying to execute a deed that will outline the criteria required to appoint the four vacant independent director positions.
The approach to the NRL from a high-ranking Wests Tigers representative also raised concerns over rumours of a growing push to revive the Magpies brand at the expense of the Tigers despite a heritage deed prohibiting the club from doing so until at least 2030.
Tension between Balmain and the Holman Barnes Group escalated on Thursday night after Leo said he wanted the foundation club to remove itself from the joint venture in a bid to stand alone amid concerns over the running of the merged entity.
“I really believe the time has come for us to step aside and resurrect the Balmain Tigers,” Leo, who played for Balmain in the 1960s and ’70s, told this masthead from hospital, where he is recovering from a broken leg.
“We’ve got more of a following than the Wests side of the merger. To be honest, we have lost faith in them. We’re getting Leichhardt Oval upgraded and we could play there every second week. If we can find the right backers we want a shot at returning to the NRL.”
Balmain owns 10 per cent of the Wests Tigers, with the other 90 per cent owned by the Holman Barnes Group – of which 30 per cent is owned by the Western Suburbs Magpies.
HBG acquired 15 per cent of Balmain’s previous share in 2019 when it agreed to pay off Balmain’s $3.2 million debt to the NRL, handing Balmain its 10 per cent share without charge.
In an email chain titled “Unbelievable CONFIDENTIAL”, Balmain directors have taken aim at the majority owners of Wests Tigers – contradicting their chairman’s description of the relationship as “solid as a rock”.
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