Boardroom dramas could cost the Tigers their star duo. Fans should be marching in the streets

Wests Tigers fans would have rolled their eyes when news broke of the latest boardroom dramas to beset their club.

Who cares, they would have thought. Just tell us which players we are keeping, which players we are chasing, and how early we should meet at the pub before the first home game at Leichhardt.

Are you with me?

Well, those Tigers fans should be concerned because the Holman Barnes Group’s decision to torpedo four independent board members, including chairman Barry O’Farrell, has now delayed – and potentially jeopardised – what should have been two good news stories.

Jahream Bula is one of the most exciting fullbacks in the game, and one of the sweetest movers the Tigers have had on the books since coach Benji Marshall was strutting his stuff.

Bula also happens to be a free agent, who has been linked more than once to western Sydney rivals Canterbury. He even popped up at a Bulldogs game last season to cheer one of his best mates, Lachie Galvin.

Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed the Tigers were close to announcing a new deal for Bula that would have locked him in long-term.

Confirmation that Bula was staying put would have been the ultimate early Christmas gift for the true believers, but the good news would not have stopped there.

The same sources suggested Jarome Luai was ready to scrap the much-publicised escape clause from his five-year mega deal, guaranteeing he would remain a Tiger until the end of 2029.

Luai has always spoken about family and loyalty. How on earth can the bloke commit to an organisation that has shown absolutely no love or loyalty when it comes to its board, and now left their CEO, Shane Richardson, weighing up whether to walk?

The first thing Richardson did when he was appointed to the top job at the Tigers at the end of 2023 was make the Luai deal happen. He parked the brief pursuit of Addin Fonua-Blake, and threw the kitchen sink at the four-time Penrith premiership winner.

Now, rather than celebrating Bula’s new deal, and Luai’s decision to ditch the clause, we’re now talking about the Tigers and their board, whether Balmain will remain a part of the forced marriage with Wests Magpies, and whether there is too much orange in the playing strip for next year.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne, who is as passionate as they come when it comes to the Tigers, is urging fans to gather on Saturday, December 13 at Pratten Park, one of the old spiritual homes of the Western Suburbs Magpies, and march to the nearby Wests Ashfield Leagues Club to demand the Holman Barnes Group resign.

It is a big call by Byrne who, like all Tigers fans, has had enough. Just to rub it in, fans should wear orange.

Richardson has been in the game 32 years and never been sacked. He is determined to get things done, and in the past 12 months, has helped the club’s revenue increase by $3m, secured $110m in funding for stadium upgrades, and witnessed crowds lift by 45 per cent.

The Tigers need Richardson. They need Bula and Luai. They need passionate supporters in influential positions like Byrne. They need a decent human being like O’Farrell.

They needed a feelgood story. And they had two ready to roll.