Knights Battle To Save Backer

[~Wild Child~]

Knights battling to save backer

By Barry Toohey
February 02, 2007
THE explosive boardroom coup which ousted Newcastle chairman Mike Tyler and saw director Paul Harragon storm out has thrown doubt over the club's financial partnership with The Wests Group.

Tyler lost a no-confidence vote on Wednesday night and immediately resigned as chairman with the decision to get rid of him the climax of more than 12 months of tension and bickering among board members.

Ironically, it was during that period the Knights, bordering on financial ruin, were thrown a lifeline with the powerful Wests League Club aligning itself with the club.

But that partnership was on shaky ground yesterday with Wests chief executive officer Phil Gardner claiming the move could cause more corporate damage to the Knights than the fallout from the behaviour of players at a Bathurst University dormitory two years ago.

Gardner indicated the Wests board may decide to review its partnership with the Knights following the Tyler coup but new acting chairman Peter Corcoran hit back at that suggestion.

"Phil seems to be extremely upset by the personalities in all this,"he said.

"The agreement that the Knights have with Wests is between Wests and the Knights - not the individual personalities involved."

Tensions between Tyler and a number of board members have been simmering for almost 12 months after the plug was pulled on a bid to oust him as chairman at the last minute prior to the club's annual general meeting last April.

They intensified three months ago after Tyler and club chief executive Ken Conway had a major falling out.

The pair had been close allies since Tyler's election as chairman in April 2005, but they have not spoken to one another since last November.

The relationship is understood to have begun to sour after Conway was given a dressing down by Tyler following the chief executive's alleged criticism of Knights star Andrew Johns in Townsville last season.

The falling out saw Tyler align himself with a faction on the board which, with the rumoured backing of Wests League Club, wanted Conway's head. After failing to entice the CEO to resign, the issue went to a vote of the nine-member board just prior to Christmas with Conway narrowly surviving five votes to four.

A bloc vote of the four Newcastle rugby league-aligned directors on the Knights board - Vince Murphy, Kevin Smith, Trevor Crow and

Kevin Parker - along with the support of deputy chairman Peter Corcoran, saved Conway. It was those same directors who voted on Wednesday night to get rid of Tyler.

The explosive meeting lasted around 45 minutes and followed a sometimes heated debate between Tyler and board member Vince Murphy regarding the chairman's expense account.

During the row and well before the vote of no-confidence was brought up, a fired-up Harragon, frustrated at the ongoing bickering within the board ranks, stormed out of the meeting along with another director Mark Fitzgibbon.

Fitzgibbon, general manager of NIB Health Funds, a leading Knights sponsor, is understood to have made a beeline for Conway's office, and within hearing distance of a number of other administrative staff, allegedly angrily accused the CEO of involvement in the latest spat.

With Harragon and Fitzgibbon absent, the no-confidence vote was carried five votes to two.

The club is expected to call a board meeting early next week to appoint a replacement director and officially install Corcoran as chairman.

[Titanium_BD1103]

Michel, please check before posting stuff... this was posted 2 days ago.

http://www.titans.com.au//forum/showthread.php?t=8231