Wests Tigers timeline: re-live rollercoaster six months in Concord

As interim Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson warns the winds of change continue to blow in Concord, take a look back at six months of chaos that engulfed the club.

Interim Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson has flagged further changes at the club over the coming month following the axing of recruitment boss Scott Fulton.

Richardson explained Fulton, as well as two other staff, were cut as a part of a restructure of the football department which will no longer require a recruitment manager.

“We’ve made a few changes in how we want to move forward as a club. Scott’s not the only change we’ve made, and it’s nothing to do with Scott, it’s just that I won’t require a recruitment manager as such,” Richardson said.

TIMELINE: SCROLL DOWN TO RE-LIVE SIX MONTHS OF CONCORD CHAOS

“It’s a structure I’ve put in place for the long term of the club.

“It’s unfortunate that Scott doesn’t fit into that, but it’s nothing to do with him as a person or an operator.

“It’s just a different way we’re going to be doing a lot of things in football.”

The changes at the joint venture under the new management structure didn’t stop with Fulton after the Tigers also let go head of wellbeing and education Alan Thompson, as well as a gear steward.

Wests Tigers have parted ways with former recruitment boss Scott Fulton

The Tigers accepted the findings of an independent review, announced last December, which resulted in CEO Justin Pascoe resigning and being replaced in the interim by Richardson while former NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, took over from Lee Hagipantelis as chairman.

Richardson sees the next few months as crucial for turning around the embattled NRL club.

“There’ll be more changes over the next 30-40 days, this is just one of them,” Richardson said.

“Time will tell (if it will be a success) and they’re all hard working people. These are decisions I hate making but for the betterment of the club we’ve got to make calls on what the structure looks like commercially and on the football side, and that’s what I’m employed to do, so we’ll do that over the next period of time.”

However, Fulton was disappointed his time was cut short.

He spoke exclusively to this masthead about the decision after he received a phone call from Richardson on Tuesday morning to say his services were no longer required.

“It’s disappointing because I had such high hopes for the Wests Tigers and the direction we were heading in with recruitment,” Fulton said.

“But I really enjoyed my time under the previous management and what we were able to achieve in a short period.

“These things happen in rugby league and we’ll move on and look for the next opportunity.

I wish the club all the best.”

Wests Tigers new chief executive, Shane Richardson. Picture: David Swift

Fulton was a controversial appointment by previous management because both former head coach Tim Sheens and new coach Benji Marshall were kept in the dark over his recruitment to the club.

His relationship with Marshall has been strained for several months.

Fulton, however, is a huge loss for the Tigers.

He has a tremendous contact network with player managers and has delivered the highly rated Fainu brothers, Latu and Samuela, from Manly and Jayden Sullivan from St George Illawarra for 2024 season.

The club also signed Panthers superstar Jarome Luai on a five-year deal, $6 million deal from 2025, because the Penrith playmaker had confidence in the roster rebuild that Fulton was overseeing.

Before joining the Tigers last year, Fulton played a key role in building the Sea Eagles roster by securing the likes of Haumole Olakau’atu and speedsters Tolutau Koula and Jason Saab to Manly. 

He knocked back offers from two other NRL clubs to join the Wests Tigers because he was excited about the future of the club and the nursery in Campbelltown.