NRL could strip Wests Tigers owners’ licence after fresh board ructions

The Holman Barnes Group, which has a 90 per cent share in the Tigers and holds the balance of power on the joint-venture board, was again in turmoil after an emergency board meeting at the club’s Wests Ashfield base on Wednesday night. Paton, who had been chief financial officer for nine years before becoming CEO in August 2025, was abruptly placed on leave.

It is understood Paton was made to wait in the corridor as HBG chairman Dennis Burgess arrived with a lawyer and told fellow board members that allegations had been made against the CEO. The claims were not shared during the meeting, leading two HBG directors to abstain from a vote to stand Paton aside. It is believed Paton has also not been made aware of the nature of the allegations.

The development is the latest in several years of turbulence at the $100 million licensed club operation. The bloodletting and dysfunction has now reached a level where the NRL may contemplate intervening. At the extreme end of possibilities, it could weigh up stripping HBG of its licence to run an NRL team.

HBG is effectively the Western Suburbs side of the merged entity formed in 1999 between Balmain and the Magpies. It is rich with poker machine takings but has overseen an NRL team that has not made a finals series for 15 years. The Tigers are run separately to HBG, but they are inextricably linked, with HBG reclaiming control of the board last year after dispensing with an independent-run board less than 12 months after it was put in place. That episode cost the Tigers their seasoned CEO Shane Richardson, who resigned only 18 months into a four-year contract.

Just days after HBG regained control, coach Benji Marshall was re-signed for three additional seasons until the end of 2030, reportedly without provisions that allow the club to part ways without a full payout, leaving the Tigers facing the prospect of a multi-million dollar settlement should their fortunes not improve and they decide to replace him.

Behind the scenes at HBG, there is friction over the organisation’s shift into soccer, in particular its backing of the A-League’s Central Coast Mariners. Paton was the driving force behind the deal, under which HBG has assumed control of the Mariners’ women’s team and become a minority investor in the men’s side, effectively rescuing the women’s side from oblivion. The spending of HBG resources on another code has angered Magpies loyalists, who believe it is money that should be directed towards Wests and rugby league. HBG also bought a stake in APIA Leichhardt FC.

The conflict at HBG could be played out in the NSW Supreme Court in coming months after ousted director and former Tigers board member Tony Andreacchio and his wife Denise launched legal action three weeks ago.