NRL 2024: Shane Richardson signs four-year deal to stay on as Wests Tigers CEO, sets sights on premiership
After rejecting the lure of Russell Crowe and the Rabbitohs to ink a fresh deal with the Tigers, Shane Richardson has set his sights on ending the club’s premiership drought and retaining one of their top stars.
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Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson has set his sights on ending the club’s premiership drought after spurning interest from South Sydney to extend his stay.
Richardson was appointed as the Tigers interim chief executive late last year and has been locked in talks with the club over a permanent deal.
This masthead revealed on Friday morning that he had agreed to stay for a further four years, determined to finish off the work he has started with Tigers coach Benji Marshall since joining the club late last year.
Even the lure of returning to his beloved Rabbitohs - co-owner Russell Crowe is believed to have sounded him out over a potential job at Souths - wasn’t enough to convince Richardson to reject the Tigers as he sets about turning one of the game’s sleeping giants into a perennial force.
“The opportunity to take the Wests Tigers from the bottom of the ladder back to a grand final was too good to refuse,” Richardson said.
“I am really looking forward to working with Benji and the team we have around us. In the end, it became an easy decision.”
Asked what he wanted from the next four years, Richardson said: “Win a premiership. Wherever I have gone I thought it was feasible.
“We got close to Cronulla, and got close at Hull. We did it at Penrith and we did it at Souths. It is always feasible but the old story, if you don’t make the top four, nothing is feasible.
“The opportunity to try to take another club from last to first at the end of my career was too good an opportunity to turn down.
“I just want to see it through to the end now.”
Richardson’s more pressing priorities are to sort out the club’s playing future and secure prop Stefano Utoikamanu’s commitment to the club.
The Tigers currently share their games between Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Stadium but Richardson has held talks with Venues NSW this week as he weighs up consolidating the majority of their games at one of the city’s bigger stadiums.
Accor and Commbank Stadiums seem the most viable options as the club looks to increase membership and generate more revenue from home games.
“I would like to think that by the end of May we will know where we are going,” Richardson said.
“We’re gathering all the information, putting all the finances together and then putting together a plan for the next three years.”
As for Utoikamanu, his signature on an extension is a priority. The Tigers prop has an option in his contract which will be eradicated if he plays two more State of Origin games, or the club qualifies for the finals.
Richardson plans to meet Utoikamanu’s manager next week.
“I don’t think he wants to go anywhere and we don’t want him to go anywhere,” he said.
“I think it is a different world now with the Tigers … because people wanted to know where the club was going.
“I always say the first three months here was stopping the bleeding on and off the field. We have done that.
“Now it is more about planning for the future. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t believe in Benji and Barry, and what we can do in the future.
“It is a big challenge but it is not as big as Souths (when I was previously at the club).
“Not only were they on the bottom of the ladder, but they were in financial disarray. We have a lot more in place here to do it a lot quicker because we have the finances in place, magnificent training facilities, magnificent juniors.”
Marshall hailed Richardson’s decision to stay as a landmark call for the club.
“I love working with him, he has been great to deal with, and from a club’s perspective it’s a great move for all of us,” Marshall said.
“I think the front office and the footy office, there has to be some similarities in things you do, and I like the feeling of everyone being on the same page no doubt.
“But when it comes to the business side of things, that’s not my job, that’s Richo’s job, and when it comes to the footy side of things that’s my job.
“We don’t blur those lines, and we work really well together, and that’s exciting for me as well.”
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