HAVING grown up in Tamworth, the West Tamworth League Club is a place that if I was not attending the raffles on a Saturday with my grandmother, I was being told stories of how my father and uncles used to go and kick the football around on Scully Park Oval No. 1 and then as a teenager attending NRL football games where I met my teenage crush Andrew “Joey” Johns.
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My involvement with Wests only continued to grow as I too grew.
At age 19 I started working at the Wests site during the annual Country Music Festival and used to work in the ticket box office while on my university holidays and for the last five years I have been employed full time by Wests Entertainment Group.
I find the comment made in The Northern Daily Leader (Thursday, October 31) by sports editor Geoff Newling that he feels “sorry for the many workers at WEG” highly offensive and this comment appears to simply be Geoff’s personal opinion as no staff were contacted by The Northern Daily Leader to be asked their opinion before this article was printed and published that I am aware of.
However, what I find the most offensive about Mr Newling’s “opinion” piece is what appears to be a personal attack on our CEO Rod Laing. Whilst I strongly support people presenting their personal beliefs on community matters, I don’t think that name calling (‘Rod-Rot’) is helping the matter.
In my role at Wests Entertainment Group I work closely with Rod on such things as members’ publications and promotions and it is through both researching the club’s history and working closely with Rod on such milestones as the Wests 50th Anniversary (celebrated in 2011) that I truly understand Rod’s strong vision in both promoting the club’s history but also preserving its future.
To accuse Rod of not ‘protecting history’ is an inaccurate and uneducated opinion that appears to be fuelled by emotions. Walking into Wests is like walking into history itself, directly behind Wests reception is an honour board dedicated to life members of the club, to the left down the main walkway the First cabinet is dedicated to Wests Football Club and as you move further into the club you pass the Dennis Condon Room and through down into the Chillingworth Room (named after Ken Chillingworth, known as the “founder of Wests”) and the list goes on.
Wests has always been a part of my life and I am very proud to be a part of the Wests Entertainment Group team and I have no hesitation in saying that the CEO and board has and will continue to make the best decision in both preserving the club’s history and also growing and developing it with the future so that the name lives on.
Whilst opinions are of course welcome, let’s keep this discussion a fair one that does not result in name calling or bringing innocent parties into it by speaking on their behalf.
Rachel Goodman
Entertainment and promotions
Wests Entertainment Group
