Barry O’Farrell speaks out after Wests Tigers chair sacking

Former New South Wales premier Barry O’Farrell has broken his silence on ABC Radio, telling host Hamish Macdonald he was blindsided by his removal as chair of the Wests Tigers football club and questioning the rationale behind the decision.

O’Farrell said the official explanation – a claimed “lack of communication” – did not match his experience on the board or the conduct of the club’s major shareholder, Holman Barnes Group, which owns 90 per cent of the joint venture. He noted that two directors of the Wests Tigers football club, including Holman Barnes chair Dennis Burgess, also sit on the Holman Barnes board, and that no concerns had ever been raised in meetings about his communication or leadership.

“There’s been no issues within our board. There’s never been a vote on our board. It’s always been unanimous,” O’Farrell told Macdonald, adding that the minutes of board meetings did not reflect any Holman Barnes representatives raising concerns about a lack of communication. For O’Farrell, that made the public justification for his removal “interesting” at best and deeply disappointing at worst.

O’Farrell told ABC Radio the saga was especially frustrating given the reform path the club had embarked on after the Crawford–Barnea report, which Holman Barnes had commissioned more than a year ago. That report called for stronger governance, more professional conduct and clearer accountability at the joint venture.

“It needed to get fingers out and start behaving professionally,” he said of the report’s findings, explaining that its recommendations had sparked significant change. A new board was appointed, long-time rugby league administrator Shane Richardson was brought in as chief executive, and O’Farrell said a strong executive team had been assembled to drive cultural and operational improvement.

While the club still finished at the bottom of the ladder on the field, O’Farrell argued key indicators were moving in the right direction off it. He pointed to higher crowd numbers in 2024 and sponsorship revenue exceeding pre-reform levels as evidence that the long-term strategy was starting to bear fruit, even if results had not yet translated into wins.

In that context, he questioned how his removal could be framed as a matter of “good governance”. “If this is about good governance, does this bode well?” he asked, suggesting the decision risked undermining the very reforms that Holman Barnes had set in motion through the Crawford–Barnea process.

Despite the circumstances, O’Farrell told Macdonald he remained hopeful the Wests Tigers would stabilise under their new arrangements. “I’m confident that it’ll be fine,” he said, before warning that if the situation “continues to go to hell in a hanging basket”, the NRL would ultimately step in to protect the broader image of rugby league.

For now, his departure adds a fresh twist to the ongoing saga at the joint venture club, raising new questions about how power, governance and accountability are balanced between football operations and the leagues Club owners behind the scenes.