Wests Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis was spectacularly ditched from the club’s board yesterday and didn’t go quietly. Hagipantelis, who is also the club’s major sponsor through his role as Principal at Bryden’s Lawyers, has fired back at the Holman Barnes Group (HBG) that controls the club with two lengthy interviews in both the Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph, outlining his anger at the day of boardroom bloodletting. The dismissals were part of a sweeping review into the club that has been undertaken as a result of continued poor performances, with Hagipantelis angered that the review took place at all. He also suggested that the dismissal of the board could cause issues in recruitment, with the club having high profile deals for Jarome Luai and Addin Fonua-Blake in the works. Hagipantelis also insisted that he was on the brink of turning the club around after years of failure and expressed concern about the future of the football department.
