The Changing Face — and Culture — of the Panthers Board

John Bateman, a Penrith solicitor, joined the board in 1995. He had previously stood unsuccessfully for the Board and his patience was rewarded when a vacancy occurred between elections. He was a local councillor. The Board considered he would be a valuable addition to the expertise available on the Board.

Around three years later, another seat became available on the Board, and Greg Evans was also invited to join. He owns a local newspaper, the Western Weekender. He had also served on council. He had stood for the Board two years in a row and had been unsuccessful. He confided in Barry Walsh, then a member of the Board Executive, that he could not afford to fail a third time. Walsh advised him that there was a vacancy coming up and that the Board would probably invite him to fill that. 

So, a solicitor and a local businessman had been invited to fill vacancies on the Board – both experienced in local government – should have strengthened the board. Both were also sponsors of the rugby league team, and so were well known to the club management.

Four of the directors who became the Footy Five were actually invited to join, rather than securing their seats through a members’ vote.  Craig Terry and Dennis Coffey joined In the latter part of 1998 and early 1998. Terry’s credentials were in accountancy and it was thought he would be a suitable replacement for the retiring Leigh Mawhood, also an accountant. Terry, too, had also stood unsuccessfully for the Board a couple of times.

The 90s saw Merv Cartwright back on the board after a hiatus of many years. Some of Cartwright’s history with the club is already documented, including the cancellation of his membership. When his sons began playing for the Panthers, he wrote letters to the Board asking that his membership be reinstated. He gave a written undertaking that he had no interest in becoming a director, and would not take any part in club politics. 

The Board relented, and Cartwright was a member again. Soon after readmission he stood for the Board on a platform that criticised Cowan. When he eventually decided to stand down, he pushed for his son-in-law, Dennis Coffey, as his replacement.

Coffey is an ex-rugby league player for Penrith, and founder of Coffey Engineering, a successful Penrith-based industrial engineering company. He was a popular choice with all board members to fill the vacancy. Cartwright’s son John, one of the players in the 1991 premiership winning team, had married Dennis Coffey’s daughter.

Geoff James had been a director for several years as part of what had been a reasonably cohesive and productive board. James had a friendly relationship with chairman Leo Armstrong. They had been next door neighbours for many years and used to look after each other’s homes if one was away.

When Craig Terry arrived, he and James quickly established a good rapport.  Cowan and the other managers came to believe an alliance was forming between them and Bateman, Coffey, and Evans. From that time, the dynamic on the board totally changed.

The situation in the boardroom began to deteriorate to become what has been described as ‘horrific’.

There is a lot of evidence of Cowan’s efforts – through Board management seminars, recommendations to Board meetings, and the employment of consultants to get the Board to clarify what it wanted from him and the management team.

Greg Evans says that members of the alliance of five were trying to get Cowan to ‘come under the direction of the board, and to work within the parameters that they set’.

He denies there was a hidden agenda, but says,

He’d been the boss for so many years, and things were going OK. Boards got used to going along with him. He always felt that his way was the right way; he just wanted to get things done. Any questioning by the board was just a nuisance, so he used to get impatient.

But Evans does not identify any of the ‘parameters’ that the Board wished to impose. The real problem was that the main protagonists in this drama saw their role – and the others’ – very differently.

It was a clash in values that caused me to walk out of a meeting in June 2000. I was angry that people saw nothing wrong with breaking a contract when it suited them.

I could not understand how they could even consider reneging on the amalgamation deal with Newcastle. It took more than a year to get the Board to make a decision about amalgamations. It is true that I used to get impatient. How can it take 12 months to make a simple decision about amalgamating with another small club? I could see great advantages for Panthers and I wanted to get started.

While we were talking around in circles we failed to take advantage of an opportunity to amalgamate with Kingswood Bowling Club and Eastern Suburbs snapped it up. Panthers’ management could see some big potential for that club but it was almost impossible to get the Board to look at proposals rationally and objectively.

Management and Board both have an important job to do. If I do a bad job, then the Board has to step in, but there has to be a line between Board and management, and that applies in any business.

 I always insisted from the moment I started on that three month trial in 1965 that I would be totally in charge of all staff matters, all the hiring, firing, and all the discipline. It would be my responsibility. The Board was not to interfere in any of it. And they agreed with that.

It ultimately evolved into a strong part of the Panthers culture.  As long as staff matters were my responsibility, I was able to oversee the day-to-day running of the place. I do know of some other clubs where board members interview and employ staff. They are even able to fire them.

In that kind of environment, the sailors are not taking their orders from the captain of the ship. They’re being told what to do by the owners of the shipping line.

Roger Cowan says the culture of an organisation is what sets it apart, and to be effective, it must be strong at all levels – from the chairman, all the way through to casual employees.

People have to know where they stand and feel good about the contribution they are making. He and most of the other managers were disappointed that the strong culture that had been built over many years was being eroded.

The problems in Panthers’ boardroom were exacerbated by the rugby league merger issue. Rumour had abounded about Cowan’s alleged plan to merge with Parramatta. Claims in Ray Hadley’s radio show that it was a ‘done deal’ added to the tension. Alliances that were initially tenuous now became solid.

The time was now right, says Cowan, and the group – Bateman, Coffey, Evans and Terry – made their move to unseat the chairman, Leo Armstrong.

Leo had been chairman for 14 years and was generally acknowledged as a fine figurehead for Panthers. He was respected and admired by the other directors and by management and staff. He was popular with the members and the general public, who recognised him from public appearances, and as the person who often presented cheques to community organisations on behalf of the club.

Leo often became quite angry with Bateman in Board meetings. But removing Leo was a problem for the Bateman camp. He had the support of four directors, and with his own vote could hold his position. They would need to shift the balance. 

When Geoff James accepted the dangled carrot of the deputy chairman’s job, the die was cast. 

Somehow the group managed to convince Geoff James to move against the chairman. Once Armstrong was removed from the chair, James moved into the position of Junior Deputy Chairman.¹

Becoming a deputy chairman would automatically elevate him to the Board Executive. More importantly, even though many executive matters were supposed to be confidential, his appointment could open new doors for the alliance, and thus give it an added measure of power.

James would later admit faxing confidential executive material to John Bateman –an action questioned by Ian Temby in the Inquiry.

Once they knew that the alliance was solid, Bateman made his move. He first approached Keith Rhind, a deputy chairman at the time, telling him the Leo Armstrong was to be removed as chairman, and asking Rhind to take over the chair.  Rhind refused the offer.

Bateman then went to deputy chairman Barry Walsh, making the same offer. Armstrong was going whatever happened, Bateman said. If Walsh also refused the chairman’s job, Bateman would take it himself.

Walsh, like Rhind, was a loyal Armstrong supporter. It was a terrible decision to have to make. Walsh opted for the lesser of the two evils and agreed to stand.

Preferring to avoid the ignominy of being voted out, Armstrong stood down. Cowan says he was bitterly disappointed to learn that his trusted neighbour had turned against him.

Cowan has some theories as to the motives of the group in putting Walsh in the chair instead of Bateman, who would be the logical choice.

They may have wanted to avoid the impression of a coup if both Armstrong and Walsh were deposed in one hit. Both were well known in the community, and popular with members, supporters, staff and management.

Also, there was the friendship between Barry and Bateman. Barry was godfather to one of Bateman’s children. Maybe Bateman hoped that that friendship would give his faction another supporter. I suspected it was just an interim measure.

Walsh stepped into the chair, but in many ways, he lacked the power of the position. In a very telling comment in the 41X inquiry, he told Department of Gaming & Racing (DGR) counsel Vickie Hartstein, ‘I never had control of the Board’.

The five had the numbers, and they used them.

Panthers’ group CEO Glenn Matthews described the board meetings as dysfunctional.

It often seemed that some of the Footy Five were being deliberately obstructive. They’d ask you for the same information again and again. Meetings usually went on till after midnight. I used to cop personal abuse all the time. Many times, I was called names, frequently a liar, in Board meetings. Often, we had the most trivial things to be approved by the Board, and they questioned every single item. Yet I can remember one night when they voted to spend over $100,000 on a player in some deal. There was no rhyme or reason. It was a nightmare.’

One night Craig Terry’s usual barrage of illogical, petty comments and accusations got the better of me. I became totally frustrated and in anger I hurled the papers I was holding in his direction. Later I was with John Wilson as we waited for the meeting to finish. I was regretful about losing my cool and I said to John, “I’m in for trouble when the boss gets out of the meeting. He is not going to like what I just did.”

One night Craig Terry’s usual barrage of illogical, petty comments and accusations got the better of me. I became totally frustrated and in anger I hurled the papers I was holding in his direction. Later I was with John Wilson as we waited for the meeting to finish. I was regretful about losing my cool and I said to John, “I’m in for trouble when the boss gets out of the meeting. He is not going to like what I just did.”

The meeting broke up and Roger came over to us. He said,

“Glenn, next time you throw something at Craig Terry make sure it is heavier than paper and make sure you aim better.”

We all laughed, and I was off the hook.

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1. The Temby Inquiry records that in 1999 Leo Armstrong was replaced as Chairman by Barry Walsh and Geoff James became a member of the Board Executive. Temby noted that, according to Roger Cowan, these changes had been engineered by the group Cowan saw as opposed to him and had caused Armstrong “bitter disappointment”. See Ian Temby QC, Penrith Rugby League Club Inquiry: The Report, Chapter 2, “A Power Struggle”, p. 8. ↩︎

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