{"id":334665,"date":"2025-12-08T09:58:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334665\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T09:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T09:58:17","slug":"wests-tigers-ceo-shane-richardson-quits-club-holman-barnes-group-on-administration-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/334665\/","title":{"rendered":"Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson quits club, Holman Barnes Group on administration drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

HBG was not thrilled that Richardson, with 32 years in the business, called his own press conference after the four independent directors he championed, including chairman Barry O\u2019Farrell, were removed<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Several of Richardson\u2019s comments pointed to the constant brawling and bumbling in the boardroom forcing him out the door, though he insisted none of the dirtiest laundry would be aired, and it wasn\u2019t \u2013 presumably with those lucrative exit clauses in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had my go at [working alongside the Tigers owners], and I haven\u2019t been able to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Shane Richardson is walking away 18 months into his lucrative Tigers deal.Credit: Dylan Coker<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s up to the shareholders, the club and the NRL to move forward on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On the prospect of an NRL integrity unit probe into a potential conflict of interest<\/a> regarding the Tigers\u2019 use of the Enrichd Group \u2013 a company Richardson part owns with his son Brent \u2013 for marketing, branding and digital consultancy services, he was emphatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no qualms whatsoever, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with my decision,\u201d Richardson said, responding publicly to this masthead\u2019s report for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even a sleepless minute, and it had nothing to do with my decision. It makes no difference in my contract in any way, shape or form but, more importantly, I\u2019ve got no concerns whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with declaring rugby league has not seen the last of him, Richardson said he would have no issue talking to the NRL should an investigation take place.<\/p>\n

Sources not authorised to speak publicly have told this masthead that the HBG is considering launching its own probe into the matter.<\/p>\n

Meantime, general manager of football Shaun Mielekamp is set to take over from Richardson in an interim capacity. There are strong suggestions the former Central Coast Mariners CEO will land the job full-time ahead of external options such as Manly\u2019s Tony Mestrov, ex-Dragons boss Ryan Webb and former Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher.<\/p>\n

Richardson was effusive and optimistic about Mielekamp\u2019s ability to remove exit clauses from Jarome Luai\u2019s $1.2 million deal, and to extend the contract of rising fullback Jahream Bula<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More praise came for Marshall: \u201cI\u2019m really proud of how he\u2019s grown as a coach. He\u2019s grown from a novice coach, not knowing much except being a wonderful talent and understanding the game, to a quality human being and man manager in that time \u2026 Just stick with Benji Marshall\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Business<\/p>\n

Business as usual: Tigers players head to training after Richardson\u2019s exit.Credit: Dylan Coker<\/p>\n

Richardson made special mention of numerous front-office staff as well in pointing to the progress the club had made in attracting fans to games and in finalising a long-term stadium strategy. Of O\u2019Farrell, he put him on a par with former Rabbitohs chairman Nick Pappas as the best he has worked with.<\/p>\n

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In response, HBG chief executive Daniel Paton<\/a>, in a carefully worded statement, thanked Richardson for his service.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis resignation paves the way for a new path forward for the football club \u2026 ,\u201d Paton said. \u201cWe again wish to reassure our fans and the broader NRL of our commitment to the joint venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend for everyone to move forward together as one, and will be driving this reality through a new CEO and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, make of that what you will. Two years ago, Richardson and O\u2019Farrell had been charged with that exact remit.<\/p>\n

As he walked away from the Tigers for the final time, Richardson joked that he and the ex-NSW premier \u201cmight just break out a Yellow Tail\u201d bottle of wine to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

Fittingly for a tenure with everything good, bad and Tigers to it, Richardson\u2019s exit had a bit of everything to it. Dead magpie and all.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HBG was not thrilled that Richardson, with 32 years in the business, called his own press conference after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-334665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}