The whole Wests Tigers set-up really is a bit of a seven-ring clown show, isn’t it?

Directors axed, Barry O’Farrell apparently almost ready to rise like a phoenix from the ashes. And that perennial question, of whether a magpie could peck the eyes out of a tiger.

On paper, those sentences read with such arch idiocy, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that this all concerns a professional sports franchise, with an eight-figure annual budget.

It’s at the same time perplexing and intriguing to an outsider like me. I’ve no skin in the game. But for those who do, these multitudinous existential crises and attacks on the prosperity of the joint venture club matter greatly.

Evidently, there’s a core of Wests Tigers supporters whose entire mood is dependent on the performance of their team.

If nothing else, the Wests Tigers saga is representative of a flashing red light, with a siren screaming about the systemic failures of self-governance in Australian sport.

Wests Tigers fans gather in Ashfield last Saturday to call for better governance.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

But that calamity is hardly isolated.

The Australian Professional Leagues’ mismanagement of the A-Leagues – the APL’s only job, just quietly, is to run those leagues – and the torching of the whole of the $140 million, trousered merely four years ago from a part-sale of the APL to private equity, is shameful.

The APL appointed a new CEO this week. Good luck.

Spinning off the A-Leagues from Football Australia’s ownership and control was intended to be a watershed moment for the clubs’ self-determination. It was, but for the wrong reasons. Only the rusted-ons know it still exists.

The damage inflicted on the game in Australia and New Zealand is magnificent and sad.

And finally, and for good measure, whether Racing NSW’s attempts to sack the whole board of the Australian Turf Club to install an “administrator” are proper steps taken by a statutory regulator, or matters relating to some other type of conniving, is at least questionable.

The ATC’s publicly accessible audited accounts for the period ending July 31, 2025, record that the entity has $22 million in the bank and a net asset position of $300 million.........

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