Maybe we are gutting the team because we just can't afford to pay any of our good juniors on potential, got rid of a few big dollar players like ice, bateman and klemmer and have not replaced them...have shit depth and cant compete in NSW cup. We are all blaming Richo and Benji, perhaps HBG threw their toys out of the cot when they were punted and we got an independent board. As petty retribution they have turned off the $$ tap.....it all starts to make sense.
With respect, @lorenzo, I don't think HBG can just choose to deny cash to a franchise as a form of retribution, when that franchise operates in a competitive sporting competition where gambling on match outcomes is legal.
If that was the case, smarter people than you and me at NRL HQ, would be aware and intervening. As for the independent board members, who are they and what clout do they actually have?
GWS has membership/match day revenue double ours
Anyone who thinks our lack of funds outside the NRL handout doesn’t affect football operations/results has rocks in their head.
And it's another reason that Richo has his hands tied in some regards and our staffing levels (eg coach assistants) are below par.
With respect, @lorenzo, I don't think HBG can just choose to deny cash to a franchise as a form of retribution, when that franchise operates in a competitive sporting competition where gambling on match outcomes is legal.
If that was the case, smarter people than you and me at NRL HQ, would be aware and intervening. As for the independent board members, who are they and what clout do they actually have?
This is the board mate, Board of Directors | Wests Tigers
With respect, @lorenzo, I don't think HBG can just choose to deny cash to a franchise as a form of retribution, when that franchise operates in a competitive sporting competition where gambling on match outcomes is legal.
If that was the case, smarter people than you and me at NRL HQ, would be aware and intervening. As for the independent board members, who are they and what clout do they actually have?
This is the board mate, Board of Directors | Wests Tigers
Montgomery is no longer on the board.
In memory of Geoff Chisholm (1965-2022)
@mercy-rule Good points. Just to be clear I'm not saying the HBG have turned the tap off completely, what I'm saying is they were underinvesting to start with and are probably not happy that they were exposed by the fans through the whole petition incident so potentially a hostile environment for Richo to seek more investment. Hence the penny pinching, the corporate $ focus, the shedding of high paid players, letting juniors leave early for transfer $ etc...
I was thinking about the culture of Wests Tigers, and I think the overhaul of it will take longer than we all thought. By now all the power brokers at the club have left so we can't blame Lee Hagipantellis or Justin Pascoe anymore. We also can't blame Tim Sheens, Michael Maguire, Jason Taylor or any of their assistants. Also, let's stop blaming Luke Brooks, Russell Packer etc.
With such an overhaul, why does our loser culture still persist? We can probably all agree that 2025 has been some improvement (particularly with Luai) but there's something very Wests Tigers about how the team opted not to win on Friday night. Manly were appalling but our team seemed to think it not part of their job description to ... win. This is a cultural issue, not a technical one.
What if the cultural problem is not coming from the upper echelons of the organization but from the lower ones? Imagine for example a junior or lower grade player comes into the WT system and at match or training session they see something that lacks excellence (as Steve might say) but because they're new, they don't call it out, they look around at the others. They see someone else glance in their direction with a half-smile. Another person rolls their eyes. It could be a trainer, a manager, a player or anyone but no-one calls it out. Instead, the new person realizes that this is how we handle our failures at WT. We laugh about it. The new player knows he won't ever get much of a shot at first grade but because the whole salary cap has to be spent every year, he knows there will be enough money sloshing around to look after his needs.
It's better in many ways to be a mediocre player in a terrible club because you will always get picked in the 17 (because the players after you are even worse) so you'll soak up the same sort of salary as someone at a better club. When our talented juniors come through (Stefano, Galvin, Tallin) they know they have a bright career ahead, so they get out as soon as possible. We think we can compete on salaries but essentially the salary cap has made all salaries the same across the NRL, the difference is between clubs who want to win and clubs who are happy to lose.
Given that players can spend years going through the lower grades and coaches and managers can spend a long time there, it could be many years before all those who embody this culture have left. Since we struggle to attract players at the top who can change the culture, maybe we need to attract people at the bottom who have a better attitude? The kind of person we want is someone who calls out a bad attitude, who'll send an underperformer back to park footy if they aren't taking training seriously. The kind of people we want are perhaps those who are not destined for the topflight and they know it but who can tell a losing attitude from a winning attitude. These kind of lower grade coaches, managers and captains needs to be empowered and treated as an integral part of the club even while they never get seen on tv.
@earlwood-tiger That's a really interesting take on where WT find themselves at the moment, but it is based on an "imagine, for example ...." assumption that what you write about actually exists. I've had enough of imagining and wishing and hoping for a competitive WT NRL franchise. I'm more confident in pointing to previous and current Board, CEO, and current NRL coaches (i.e. those at the upper echelons of the franchise) as being responsible for the dire situation WT are in, yet again.
I was thinking about the culture of Wests Tigers, and I think the overhaul of it will take longer than we all thought. By now all the power brokers at the club have left so we can't blame Lee Hagipantellis or Justin Pascoe anymore. We also can't blame Tim Sheens, Michael Maguire, Jason Taylor or any of their assistants. Also, let's stop blaming Luke Brooks, Russell Packer etc.
With such an overhaul, why does our loser culture still persist? We can probably all agree that 2025 has been some improvement (particularly with Luai) but there's something very Wests Tigers about how the team opted not to win on Friday night. Manly were appalling but our team seemed to think it not part of their job description to ... win. This is a cultural issue, not a technical one.
What if the cultural problem is not coming from the upper echelons of the organization but from the lower ones? Imagine for example a junior or lower grade player comes into the WT system and at match or training session they see something that lacks excellence (as Steve might say) but because they're new, they don't call it out, they look around at the others. They see someone else glance in their direction with a half-smile. Another person rolls their eyes. It could be a trainer, a manager, a player or anyone but no-one calls it out. Instead, the new person realizes that this is how we handle our failures at WT. We laugh about it. The new player knows he won't ever get much of a shot at first grade but because the whole salary cap has to be spent every year, he knows there will be enough money sloshing around to look after his needs.
It's better in many ways to be a mediocre player in a terrible club because you will always get picked in the 17 (because the players after you are even worse) so you'll soak up the same sort of salary as someone at a better club. When our talented juniors come through (Stefano, Galvin, Tallin) they know they have a bright career ahead, so they get out as soon as possible. We think we can compete on salaries but essentially the salary cap has made all salaries the same across the NRL, the difference is between clubs who want to win and clubs who are happy to lose.
Given that players can spend years going through the lower grades and coaches and managers can spend a long time there, it could be many years before all those who embody this culture have left. Since we struggle to attract players at the top who can change the culture, maybe we need to attract people at the bottom who have a better attitude? The kind of person we want is someone who calls out a bad attitude, who'll send an underperformer back to park footy if they aren't taking training seriously. The kind of people we want are perhaps those who are not destined for the topflight and they know it but who can tell a losing attitude from a winning attitude. These kind of lower grade coaches, managers and captains needs to be empowered and treated as an integral part of the club even while they never get seen on tv.
it’s pretty clear that “Jobs for the boys” benji coaching crew has been a mistake.
also I find it bizarre that Richo is in the press today saying he let TDS go because he’s a good bloke and he wanted to keep his word. What the hell? He hasn’t even signed Api yet???? What on earth is going on
I think if he was a "Good Bloke" he would have seen out his contract and not asked for a release.
But only my opinion.
So when TDS is killing it for Parra, we can sit comfy with the knowledge that Richo was a good bloke to him. The precedent has well and truly been set now that any player wanting out will get it as soon as they want it
Reminder: the fact that you don’t need to pay a player that leaves is not a “benefit to the club” if that player could contribute to wins in our colours. Galvin and TDS combined were on about 700k for 2026 and both would have been in our starting 17. They will need to be replaced so we have gained nothing from their early release.
Get away from the Wests Tigers NRL club HBG. You are an inept and useless organisation. To bastardise a famous Australian quote, you are a lucky club, run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck. Lucky that you managed to find an equally horribly run club in Balmain Tigers in 1999, lucky that Benny Elias stole the Balmain Leagues club from members and drove that club into the dust so that you have complete autonomy to run our club.
Lucky that you happen to be one of 20 odd geriatrics invited to be a debenture holder. I hate you HBG and your terrible ineptitude is the only thing left to change that can change our direction as a club.
We have changed the coaches, the players, the NRL club board. You are the only thing that has stayed constant through our decade + of abject failure. I do not care one iota that you were part of the league in 1908, I’ve never wanted to support the Magpies.
I support the colours of the Wests Tigers and the fact that you small-minded baffoons get off playing in front of 150 people at Lidcome oval in the black and white of an extinct club tells me everything about your motivations.
The WT NRL club have 10k members. We want you gone, we want to be sold to a professional entity, one that drives results, heck I wouldn’t even care if the clubs is moved as long as we play in our colours and are successful.
I am sick and tired of spending my time and money supporting this football club when it is being dragged down by a group of absolute baboons.
HBG out
@TigerTownSFS, congrats on finding the words that I've been struggling with. I was going to say it's the post of the year but it's possibly the post of the decade. To think that those of us who love this club (and Balmain or Wests before it) can be beholden to buffoons of the calibre of HBG is beyond demoralising.
100%. Most other teams have owners who love their club and will do all they can to make the club successful.
Our Owner is happy to run licensed clubs profitably with a new bistro and bar every so often and still support the past with 100 of their mates at Lidcombe Oval.
