Brent Read: Inside the Wests Tigers implosion and the man pulling the strings
It’s official, the Wests Tigers are a disaster. After imploding following a season of great promise they no longer deserve any column inches devoted to them, writes BRENT READ.
I can’t claim to be a Wests Tigers fan but I have drunk the club’s Koolaid on a few occasions in recent years. Even suggested they would be finals contenders a year or two back.
That column didn’t age well. Not sure this one will either because I am putting a line through the club. After this week, this column will become a Tigers-free zone.
They no longer deserve any column inches devoted to them given the way they have imploded after a season of great promise. The Tigers are a disaster zone.
They have gone a decade without finals and if their behaviour off the field is any indication, that may be the least of their problems.
• Key questions answered: What Tigers coup means for Luai
• Draw dilemma: Streaky schedule to test Wests Tigers in 2026
This is a club that has mastered the art of taking two steps forward and three steps back steps back. Self-sabotage is now in their DNA. It seeps out of the woodwork at Concord Oval. Mediocrity barely does it justice.
Coach Benji Marshall must be pulling his hair out. This is a guy who made a career out of being brilliant. The Tigers were a force on his watch. Now, despite his best efforts, they are a joke thanks to their antics off the field.
Remarkably, the most powerful man at the Tigers right now – on paper at least – is a former bass guitarist for Aussie pop band The Masters Apprentices. According to Wikipedia, Dennis Burgess – better known as Denny – played with the band for one year in 1972.
He also played for The Throb and The Whispers – good luck if you remember them – and has been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Got an OAM a couple of years back as well for his services to performing arts and the musical industry. When it comes to music, Denny is Aussie royalty.
As far as rugby league is concerned, from what we have seen so far, Denny appears to make a good bass guitarist. Yet here he is, the man in the hottest seat as the Wests Tigers lurch from one crisis to the next.
Most Tigers fans wouldn’t know him from a bar of soap. It seems like a stunning rise but in actual fact, it has been a slow and steady ascent. Burgess has been in and around the game for a long time.
He started as a director at Wests Ashfield Leagues Club in 2000 and the Western Suburbs Magpies in 2004. He has been a director at the Tigers since 2007, serving on the board on an intermittent basis.
He has been there for many of the big decisions of the club for nearly two decades. Truth be told, the Tigers have been a disaster for much of his watch. Just when they looked to be turning things around, Denny and his fellow Holman Barnes Group board decided to blow the joint up.
One of the suggestions has been that he and his fellow HBG directors want to revive the Western Suburbs Magpies at the expense of the Tigers. Again, take a look at his social media account and you quickly realise that the Magpies are Denny’s first love.
Pictures of him in Tigers apparel are few and far between, which only serves to heighten the view that the Magpies are flexing their muscles.
When it comes to social media, among the 4572 pages his Instagram account follows are more than 200 adult content creators.
While some of the people his account follows may be a bit loose, let he who is without fault cast the first stone, I say. Occasionally we all stray off into areas we probably shouldn’t.
Denny was asked for comment about his personal choices by this column but didn’t respond. That said, this column didn’t start out as a personal attack on Burgess and it won’t end there either.
It does rightly ask the question about how he seems to be pulling such powerful strings at the club and whether Tigers fans should be concerned.
According to people close to the club, Burgess is no puppet. He doesn’t say a lot but he knows who to work a backroom. He may not get around in Tigers clobber but he is a visible presence at their games, shuffling in and out of the dressing room after matches and keeping largely to himself.
We’re told he can be ruthless when he needs to be. We have seen that this week as Holman Barnes Group have turned the Tigers on their head. Their fans are up in arms. The NRL is pulling its hair out.
The Tigers are one of the game’s sleeping giants but they have been comatosed for an eternity. This column – and so many of their supporters – have had enough.
++++++++
Loved watching Rory McIlroy stroll in this week and take over Melbourne. For those of us with long memories, it was like the halcyon days of Tiger Woods when he jetted into the country and played a couple of Masters.
Tiger was in his pomp back then, on and off the course. From memory, it was one of those trips that helped start the spiral in his personal life that ultimately led to him coming apart at the seams off the course.
Tiger had snuck one of his harem into the country and the press were hot on his tail. the jig was up. No such dramas with Rory. The only criticism aimed his way has been his reaction to Royal Melbourne but the course got its revenge on Thursday as he struggled in the opening round.
Golf is one of those sports that ignites Australia for about a fortnight each and every summer. Sadly, not in Sydney though and it is about time the NSW government dipped into their pockets and secured one of the big events for the state.
Some of the best courses in there country are in Sydney. They, and fans of the sport, deserve the chance to get some big-time golfing action.
The huge crowds flocking to Royal Melbourne this week have highlighted that the fans will turn out if you can be bothered investing and enticing big names to these shores.
Imagine McIlroy striding down the fairways Royal Sydney or The Australian. Even better, how about Scottie Scheffler. The NSW government need to have a crack.
More Coverage
Originally published as Brent Read: Inside the Wests Tigers implosion and the man pulling the strings
The many stories behind Ezra Mam’s epic premiership tattoo
