It just seems incredible on 2025 wests Ashfield is allowed to run what is effectively a private cabal funded by public poker machine licenses. If you are running a club based on NSW government granted poker licenses how is it that you aren’t subject to proper corporate governance to ensure that you are a right and proper person. Gambling is a highly regulated industry and yet Wests Ashfield is run by a boys club of old magpies tragics. The rolling board coups over the last couple of years alone should disqualify this mob from being allowed to oversee such a large gambling entity. These demented debenture holders do not own the club, they are just custodians of the club license
It just seems incredible on 2025 wests Ashfield is allowed to run what is effectively a private cabal funded by public poker machine licenses. If you are running a club based on NSW government granted poker licenses how is it that you aren’t subject to proper corporate governance to ensure that you are a right and proper person. Gambling is a highly regulated industry and yet Wests Ashfield is run by a boys club of old magpies tragics. The rolling board coups over the last couple of years alone should disqualify this mob from being allowed to oversee such a large gambling entity. These demented debenture holders do not own the club, they are just custodians of the club license
Yes, it is definitely an odd situation. The club exists to serve members and the wider community. It is not a privately owned business. It seems weird that a small number of people can get a say, but the same entitlement to control/governance of the club isn’t open to members or the community that the club is meant to serve.
Wests Tigers Podcast - Talking everything Wests Tigers since 2018!
The HBG act as if it is still Western Suburbs Magpies vs Balmain Tigers. It’s not. They think putting Benny Elias as Chair will placate the Balmain side. They totally ignore 26 years of Wests Tigers.
It’s Wests Tigers vs Western Suburbs Magpies/Balmain Tigers. It’s been the Wests Tigers for 26 years now.
It’s Wests Tigers
Not Balmain Tigers
Not Western Suburbs Magpies.
Enough is enough, it’s Wests Tigers in the NRL and will be forever. Let’s have an independent Wests Tigers board who’s sole focus is Wests Tigers success.
@mike I don’t even think it’s wests tigers vs wests magpies. It’s literally , Balmain , wests magpies Campbelltown , the nrl , people with partial interest in nrl , wests tigers vs wests Ashfield .
It needs to be stated that these people didn’t want to bring back the wests magpies of Campbelltown,they were looking to bring back the one that went bankrupt , and had to be forced to move to the south west . The lidcombe variety . Basically almost 40 years of supporters , and their opinions means sweet FA. It’s mental to me .
@
wests magpies Campbelltown
These are still Western Suburbs Magpies. I know I followed them to the end, from Pratten Park, Lidcombe Oval and all the way out to Campbelltown.
Make no mistake I believe this is who the HBG/Wests Ashfield represents.
It’s time for Wests Tigers focus with an independent Wests Tigers board.
First time posting, hello everybody, shocking month for the club… really depressing really.
are there plans for WT unite to meet with PVL and/or the new CEO?
First time posting, hello everybody, shocking month for the club… really depressing really.
are there plans for WT unite to meet with PVL and/or the new CEO?
Welcome Teddy.
A lot of the Wests Tigers Unite people already have a working relationship with Shaun, I would expect there to be ongoing discussions as he maintains the interim position (I’m also tipping he gets the job fulltime).
Not sure about the optics of meeting with PVL, or if that would be on offer.
Wests Tigers Podcast - Talking everything Wests Tigers since 2018!
Bloke in a bar latest episode seemed to capture the WT/HBG scenario pretty well
@tiger5150 I get where you’re coming from mate re. Not wanting to replace people with no idea , with another group of people with no idea .
But corporate governance that allows for a select members representative/s would simply be more in line with most other clubs who are run by ta leagues club.This is simply not true. There are zero clubs in the NRL run by the leagues club. Three clubs are run by football clubs that are funded by leagues clubs. Souffs is a 4th club with some fan input into the football club (not leagues club) but they are minority share.
Football clubs, run by members and funded by Leagues clubs is what got Balmain and wests to the point they had to merge to survive.
and to be fair I can’t see members voting for a representative to be Joe Bloggs , tyre fitter from minto who has a passing interest in footy , but his real passion is rotary cars..: the people being nominated would be people with law degrees , background in business , even policians like Darcy , who have not only a love of the club but a background that would aid the club Zac not be an anchor around its neck.Rubbish this is 2025. They would vote for their favourite podcaster.
Leave the fans the hell away from running the club, fill it with competent people who have business/RL experience. Also get HBG the hell away.
Well this exact model has been how the Panthers are run and it has been pretty successful.
Just saying.
Its also the exact model that drove Balmain and Magpies to extinction.
....just saying.
I wonder what is the washup from the HBG board meeting yesterday?
I'd bet we get confirmation of the new WT board appointments. I wonder if a particular skills matrix is followed? 
https://holmanbarnesgroup.com.au/application-form/our-directors/ I wonder where they will find a woman if PVL has requested that they appoint one?
Silence to date, unless it has to be run past PVL first 🤔
@mike I’m just pointing out the fact that not only are these wests Ashfield guys against traditional Balmain , but also the magpies fans who followed the team out to Campbelltown and accepted that move . It’s literally like time stopped for that guys in 1988. For me my first ever memory of footy was sitting on the fence at Campbelltown sports Ground watching tigers v magpies . For me it was a natural union of my family history of the inner west a the acceptance of the south west where we now lived . I honestly had zero idea as a kid that wests was an inner city club by tradition , and geographically the closest to Balmain . It honestly didn’t even register until Campbelltown pulled out of the merger , and I realised the complexity of not just wests and Balmain but , wests magpies history itself . Especially when you realise that Balmain and wests Campbelltown had become simpatico in the 2010s with a lot of their ideas a voted in alignment . To me that’s telling , as both of them , who had juniors and actual constituents with direct relation to football , as in juniors and seniors , both were at odds with a group of really Gambling den overseers .
Back then I really didn’t care about the wests tigers politics and assumed it was like most to be honest , a wests v Balmain thing .
I’ve now come to realise it’s probably more of a traditionalist v futurist issue . If which whatever your background is .. serves no real relevance . Outside of forming your baseline for your beliefs .
I’d dare say Balmain die hards would have more in common with wests Ashfield die hards than the majority of the fan base of wests tigers . In a weird way it would be easier for these guys to break bread with each other , than for either with the majority wests tigers fan base. That’s how much Father Time has passed them by.
whatever sliding doors moment happened where for the rest of us we became wests tigers fans , and no other fan , for them it just missed them. And they have zero understanding that that moment even happened , let alone the causation of it.
@lestronge thanks for that it's good for people that don't realise that the Wests Ashfield people are doing this to the Wests Magpies fans based in Campbelltown as well as the Balmain and Wests Tigers fans under 30 who would have no recollection of pre-merge teams.
Sorry guys can someone please confirm
HB/Wests Ashfield club is not ‘owned’ by the Holman Barnes debenture holders
HB debenture holders/board ‘manages’ HB/Wests Ashfield club on behalf of members
HB board is not wholly elected by its members to manage the club (other than 2 minority member elects -if they don’t get punted)
HB debenture holders/board is a select group who pay a nominal amount to be a debenture holder and control who can join them as a debenture holder or board member (other than 2 minority member elects)
if all the above is generally correct there is no ‘real’ government governance/oversight
I just can’t understand the lack of L&G or ASIC or NRL intervention, purely on the basis of fair and transparent governance of member assets.
