Mergers have always been a tricky business – balancing the history and tradition of two proud clubs and brokering equality is a tightrope act that takes a great deal of diplomacy.
So over the course of their 13 seasons, the Wests Tigers have had their share of conflicts between the Wests and Balmain factions of the merger. However, the tensions have boiled over.
Last month, the wealthy Wests Campbelltown Leagues Club pulled their financial support of the NRL club, forfeiting their vote on the NRL board (both sides of the merger had five votes).
With Balmain Leagues club floundering under a $6.8 million debt, the Wests Group had offered to cover some of Balmain’s share of funding, in exchange for a deciding vote. This request was denied, and Wests Leagues shot through.
This raises the question; will the day soon come when the Balmain faction acquiesces from the merger? Without the funding provided by Wests Leagues Club, there is no obvious incentive for the Tigers to continue to play out of Campbelltown.
Crowds in the area are down on recent years, and beyond the S.G. Ball (Under 18s) competition, the Magpies have no senior football teams wearing the black and white, with the exception of the third-tier Ron Massey Cup.
In the frantic rationalisation period of the late 1990s, the Wests Tigers seemed to be the best equipped of the three merged clubs. It was a fair dinkum joint venture, with colours and home games split down the middle. Both teams still had stand-alone reserve grade sides and junior rep teams.
They struggled early, before striking gold with the likes of Robbie Farah, Scott Prince, Benji Marshall and the like. But the tempers are fraying; the old wounds are being re-opened.
The old Magpies and the ancient Tigers have long memories, and tensions remain between the two proud foundation clubs.
The Campbelltown and Macarthur regions have traditionally been a source of great strength in terms of juniors. Seven of the players who played in last Saturdays courageous win over Melbourne played their junior footy in that area. For the Wests Tigers to abandon the area would be a serious folly.
The intrusions of the AFL, which has invested heavily in promoting the GWS Giants in that area, and the rise of the Western Sydney Wanderers pose a serious threat to the traditionally rugby league dominated area. The presence of a first grade club is crucial in such a rapidly expanding area is crucial not only to the continuing prosperity of the club, but of the game itself.
The situation is further exacerbated by the looming abandonment of suburban grounds. While the atmosphere and tradition of suburban grounds contributes to the rugby league fan experience, the abandonment of the ancestral homes of rugby league is coming.
It will not happen next season, or the season after, but in five 10, 15 seasons’ time the ARLC will hand down a mandate declaring the extinction of the Campbelltown Stadiums of the world.
Can the fragile merger handle the strain? Is a Wests Tigers team that plays exclusively out of ANZ Stadium or the SFS truly representative of the Western Suburbs?
It’s easy to say such a situation is impossible, but it is not with precedent. The other merged entities have experienced a similar rocky history.
The ill-fated Northern Eagles merger saw archrivals Manly and Norths cannibalise each other until the tensions saw Manly re-emerge as a standalone club. The Dragons might have the word Illawarra on their badge, but for all intents and purposes they are a St George team with an expanded junior catchment area.
As the seasons tick by, the number of fans who were Balmain tragics or Magpie diehards will dwindle, and one day the fan-base will be made up of fans who have no memory of the old days.
When this happens, and the old feuds from the past diminish, the incentive to hold up the merger will dwindle.
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