Wests Tigers, focus on fixing the footy team first

Like most Wests Tigers fans here in Campbelltown, and no doubt at Balmain and Leichhardt, the arrival of Shane Richardson lifted our hopes that it was the beginning of a beautiful new era at the club we all love.

We saw “Richo’’, as everyone calls him, as the perfect can-do, proactive leader who would lead us out of the NRL wilderness.

Sure, the club suffered its third NRL wooden spoon in 2024, but there were signs of green shoots, so fans remained loyal, and patient.

The footy team started the 2025 season in a positive way, and we began to dream the impossible dream of the Wests Tigers still being alive in September.

But as had been documented in the past few weeks, the club is once again in disarray, and the footy team seems to have returned to its bad old ways.

Seventeen rounds into the season it has won just five games – and lost the past six.

Only a miracle will save their season; help them avoid a fourth wooden spoon.

To most reasonable observers, it would seem the club’s main focus should still be on getting the footy team right via an appropriate recruitment strategy – in other words better than one employed in the Galvin and Da Silva sagas.

So, one is entitled to ask, why is Richo sending Campbelltown Council ultimatums that unless they upgrade their stadium at Leumeah the Tigers will be saying bye-bye?

Just what is the hurry that he needs an answer now?

As far as we know the NRL hasn’t said that Campbelltown Stadium is no longer fit for the purpose of first grade games.

Yet on April 9, the Tigers CEO sent the letter to council, explaining that:

“By June 30 this year, Wests Tigers will need to lock in a long term plan for our future growth and commercial support from our stadium partners. If that commitment cannot be given, we must reconsider our commitment to the stadium.’’

Now Richo is a smart man, and he even has a Commerce degree from Queensland University, so he would know that on April 9 the NSW Budget would have been just about put to bed so there was no chance council could have got a commitment from that area.

Federally, we were in the middle of an election campaign, so enough said about the chances of a local council interfering by asking for millions of dollars for an upgrade to their stadium.

To reiterate, there were two chances of quickly getting the $100 million required: Buckley’s and none.

It’s worth noting that nobody denies the need for an upgrade of Campbelltown Stadium.

However, Campbelltown Council has not covered itself in glory over the past 10-11 years, both on an upgrade and the way it has treated the Wests Tigers.

It should have shown more leadership in both areas, by having a long term plan to upgrade the stadium, including putting its hand in its pocket.

Even this week’s offer of a $10 million contribution was ridiculous.

The other factor in all of this – and maybe Richo is unaware of it – Campbelltown Stadium is located within the outer South Western Sydney region, which basically means we get three fifths of bugger all when it comes to important infrastructure funding from both the state government and the federal government

To wit: Penrith, whose stadium was in even better condition than Campbelltown’s, is undergoing a $300 million knockdown/rebuild.

The State Government forked out nearly as much for the new football stadium at Parramatta, and pretty close to $1 billion for the Roosters’ home ground.

That’s well over $1 billion for footy stadiums in less than a decade, but Premier Chris Minns says he can’t find $50-$100 million for Campbelltown, which obviously is rubbish.

Finally, the fans out here: Go to our Facebook and X pages where all our stories are published and read their comments and weep.

I very much doubt the joint venture would be stupid enough to walk away from the place where half its supporters live.

But I have been wrong before, so we’ll see.