Benny Elias has described the Wests Tigers’ decision to sack their entire board as the club’s “greatest step forward in a decade”.
The embattled club followed the recommendations of an independent internal review and the board was dismissed on Tuesday afternoon.
Controversial duo, chairman Lee Hagipantelis and chief executive Justin Pascoe, have both departed after months of calls from supporters for them to leave.
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Tigers legend Elias, who has been pushing for change at board level for years, praised the stunning decision from the struggling club.
“It’s fantastic, great news for the club. They’ve had the courage to make a massive decision which is the club’s greatest step forward in the past decade,” Elias told foxsports.com.au.
“It was definitely time for a massive change, an upheaval. They’ve had the courage to do it and congratulations to them.
“This has got to be the turning point and now they’ve got to replace (the board) with credible people. They need to do a thorough recruitment process of the people that are going to take it on from here because it’s a big job.”
Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell will become the chairman and ex-Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson will replace Pascoe, both on an interim basis.
The board clean-out followed an independent review that was ordered by the Holman Barnes Group, who are the club’s major shareholder alongside Wests Magpies and Balmain Tigers.
Elias took part in the review that was undertaken by former NRL chief financial officer Tony Crawford and Gary Barnier.
“I’d love to see it. I participated in it so it would be nice to see the outcome but from what I can see from a macro point of view is they’ve made the right decision,” Elias said.
“It’s almost spot on (to what I recommended), I’m very pleased. There needed to be change at the top, that’s exactly what they needed and they’ve done it, it’s great. They’ve listened to the review. I’m very excited.
“It’s the best news I’ve heard out of the Wests Tigers in a long, long time. Thank god.”
The Tigers have collected the past two wooden spoons and Elias said the major development would help rookie coach Benji Marshall heading into 2024.
“It should make Benji feel a lot more comfortable moving forward,” he said.
“Hopefully he’ll have governance and all the required support off the football field and I believe that will ooze onto the paddock.
“This gives all Wests Tigers supporters great hope. We’ve got a great coach at the helm and I believe the interim people in control of the club now know exactly what needs to be done. They’re two very credible and very reliable people to steer the ship to start with.
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“I think the players will be very optimistic about it. If I was a player I would be optimistic, it needed to be done and it has been done.
“I think what we’ll see is it’ll ooze through to the players and the performances of the kids on the paddock. This time of experience off the field will ooze onto the field.”
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