‘We’ve lost faith in them’: Balmain consider shock exit from Wests Tigers merger
The Balmain board is set to call a crisis meeting to discuss removing the club from the joint venture with Western Suburbs in an ambitious bid to go it alone that could spell the end of the Wests Tigers.
In a move that will send shockwaves through the NRL, frustrated Balmain directors are preparing to call a vote on their involvement in the merger amid concern over decisions being made by the club’s majority owner, the Holman Barnes Group (HBG).
Balmain director and former Tigers first grade player Garry Leo told this masthead on Thursday he and his fellow board members had “lost faith” in HBG and was calling on fellow directors to endorse the end of the troubled joint venture 25 years after it was established.
“I really believe the time has come for us to step aside and resurrect the Balmain Tigers,” Leo, who played 156 games for Balmain in the 1960s and ’70s, told the Herald.
“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.
“I don’t think the NRL would continue to allow the Wests Tigers to operate with the Tigers name without any involvement from Balmain. I really do believe the NRL competition needs a Tigers team. And not the Wests Tigers.”
The current licensing agreement between the NRL and its clubs expires at the end of the season.
Balmain see it as an opportunity to put forward a proposal that could force the NRL to choose between the Balmain Tigers and Wests Magpies if the NRL team is unable to keep the Tigers name without Balmain’s involvement.
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