Tigers great Benny Elias has teed off at his former club and Lee Hagipantelis, who will remain chairman at the club for another three years after being re-elected at a board meeting on Monday
The news, which was first reported by The Daily Telegraph, comes after another turbulent season for the club which ended with another wooden spoon finish.
Elias, known for rarely pulling punches, couldn’t hide his frustration with the news, noting that Hagipentelis had been re-elected despite an external review of the Tigers having yet been completed.
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“This review has just started, because I’ve been involved in this review, they’ve asked myself and 50 other people,” Elias said on NRL 360.
“Not after what I saw this afternoon when they signed chairperson now for a further three years. How do we reward someone who has two wooden spoons? Let’s sign him up for three years. Wow.
“I don’t know where that decision came from. This is the bloke that has a conflict of interest, who is the major sponsor from Bryden Lawyers. This is the bloke, when he looks at the people in the boardroom being the major sponsor, how are you going to vote against him?
“This bloke spends more money than any other bloke at the club and there’s no way you’re going to challenge him. All of a sudden he’s bought his way into this club and has absolutely zero, zero impact on what’s happening off the football field.
“This is the bloke who only said a couple of weeks ago that there are certainties in life — taxes, death and one thing is for sure: Tim Sheens will be coaching the club next year in 2024. This is the chairperson that just got re-elected for three years… he said it himself the buck starts and finishes with the board.”
Despite Elias’ obvious disappointment, Hagipentelis is here to stay after gaining unanimous support from the board and will now remain at the Tigers until at least the end of the 2026 season.
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Fox League’s James Hooper sung from the same hymn book as Elias, revealing his shock at how Hagipantelis can stay on as chairman with the club picking up the last two wooden spoons.
“I like and respect Lee but fans have had a gutful, seriously. On the back of two spoons, how many coaches they’ve sacked, how many local juniors they’ve let slip through the cracks, something has got to give and change,” Hooper said.
“To reappoint the chairman for three seasons on the back of collecting a second wooden spoon… who is coming up with these decisions? They [the board members] are koala bears. Nobody can touch them. They are untouchable and Lee has admitted that.
“Lee has said, ‘Yes, in a sense, we are a protected species’, because the way the club is structured members have no say. It’s why you have fans showing up at games rolling out the (Tigers CEO Justin) Pascoe Fascoe banners, they’ve had a gutful. They’re over it.”
The Tigers are undergoing somewhat of a reset with Benji Marshall replacing Tim Sheens as coach.
The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis didn’t go as hard at the Tigers and Hagipantelis as Hooper and Elias, believing the Benji Marshall era will define the chairman and the current front office.
“It is interesting considering there is a review going on right now as well into the management and structure of the club and this is done before that review happens. I think Lee will now be defined by the choice of Benji Marshall as head coach,” Carayannis said.
“If I’m a Wests Tigers fan I’m sitting there going, ‘Is this really the right direction to be heading in?’ considering if you look at the runs on the board, they’re not there.
“But I know Lee is determined and has the right intentions to turn this thing around.”
“Is he the right man to lead the club forward? Well I guess that is the debate that Tigers fans will have,” The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie said on ‘NRL Tonight’.
“No doubt it will be a difficult sell. You’ve just won back-to-back wooden spoons, to try to sell the fact the chairman has signed a three-year deal will be difficult. Fans no doubt will be jumping on social media right now, questioning how and why this was allowed to happen.
“Lee Hagipantelis is a very intelligent man. He loves rugby league and certainly his dedication and passion towards the Wests Tigers cannot be in question.
“I guess the only question mark I would throw forward is do we need to sign a chairman for three years? I would have thought it would have been a one or two-year deal, CEOs perhaps a little bit longer but I thought the chairman might have been a little less.”
Hagipantelis was quoted by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday saying that the appointment was “confirmation that as a club we believe that we are heading in the right direction”.
Ritchie though was sceptical of that claim given results in recent years.
“I’d love to think that,” Ritchie said.
“I’m still yet to be convinced though, as sad it sounds to Tigers fans who’ve had enough of waiting and enough of being told to be patient. I’ve yet to be convinced that there’s anything that I’ve seen inside the four walls at Concord that will change for next season.
“I think there’s another year or two of pain left out there for the joint venture club before perhaps some success might finally land on their doorstep.”
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When asked why members and fans should trust the CEO and board to make the right decisions, Hagipantelis told foxsports.com.au the club as a whole is “heading in the right direction”.
“We’ve got 400,000 people who identify as members and fans of this club,” he said back in August.
“All of them are entitled to their view and their opinion and we take it on board. But I think people can see for themselves the club is heading in the right direction. Look at the performances of this team over the last three to four months in particular.
“There’s been a few anomalies of course and an aberration here or there but generally speaking the performance of this team has been very, very good. I don’t think we’re far away from being incredibly competitive.
“There’s a few challenges in our roster which are being addressed. Once those final pieces of the puzzle are added in this team could be anything. Don’t forget the Broncos collected the wooden spoon in 2020 and in 2023 they’re competing for a premiership. It can turn and it can turn very quickly.”
While Hagipantelis’ role at the club is now locked in, there is still an element of uncertainty surrounding the vacant head of football position with Michael Cheika the latest candidate to be linked to the role.
Robbie Farah is another who has been brought up as a possible replacement, with Chris Heighington and Mark O’Neill also floated as potential solutions.
Hagipantelis addressed the speculation surrounding the vacant role earlier this week but was more disappointed than anything that news of possible candidates was being discussed in the media.
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“I’m told he’s (Cheika) a very impressive character and people speak very, very highly of him, but as to the Wests Tigers and the Head of Football role, all the applicants and candidates are being considered on a strictly confidential basis,” Hagipantelis said on SEN Radio.
“Again, here we are talking about things being reported in the paper to my consternation. It’s just beyond me to explain this.
“We are going through the process at the moment but there are a number of qualified applicants that have put themselves in the picture, we had a board meeting last night and had discussions but there’s also a review going on as well.
“The board last night resolved just to sit back for the moment and allow the review process to go through, because there might be a bit of overlay between the two in terms of governance, so we are just going to sit back at the moment.
“We’ve been warmly humbled by the quality of the candidates and those who have shown interest in the role.”
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