Private word
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday March 22, 2011
OUTSPOKEN Newcastle Knights member Jim Thornton said he felt appeased after a meeting with the Tinkler Sports Group yesterday but would reserve judgment on whether to vote for or against privatisation.Thornton was responsible for a series of full-page advertisements in the Newcastle Herald last week advising Knights members to consider the so-called patrons' trust and status quo as an alternative to a Nathan Tinkler takeover at a historic privatisation ballot on March 31.Thornton is the secretary of the Newcastle Knights Supporters Club, an organisation he estimates once contained 600 members but is now down to about 10.He and supporters club colleagues Marilyn Edwards, David Turrell and Bill Gray were invited to meet yesterday with TSG executive chairman Ken Edwards and chief executive Troy Palmer.Knights skipper Kurt Gidley and former players Steve Simpson and Bill Peden also attended.Thornton said Edwards and Palmer had "presented themselves very, very well" and allayed at least some of his concerns."I wouldn't say I'm in favour but they've convinced me on quite a few things that troubled me, put it that way," Thornton said.Thornton said he felt it was important that somebody provided some "opposition" to Tinkler's privatisation bid."You can't let people just walk in and take over," he said. "There's pros and cons for both sides . . . but on paper it looks very attractive."Once they put it on paper you can only hope, if they're successful of course, they go through with everything they say."Asked whether he would vote for or against Tinkler, Thornton was non-committal."Like us all, I've got until the 31st to think which way I'm going to go," he said."We don't know what's going to come out in the next eight or nine days."He did not expect the club would run any more advertisements, which he said last week had been partially funded by the patrons' trust - a claim denied by patrons' trust figurehead Andrew Poole.Continued Page 52Fans group meets with TSG repsFrom Page 56"As far as we're concerned, they're done," Thornton said.TSG has already met with the Once-A-Knight Old Boys group and the Knights Nannas and plans to address the Carlson Club and Excalibur Club this week, before a members' information night next Monday."It went well," Edwards said of yesterday's meeting. "We had a chance to listen to each of the issues they wanted to discuss and give them a good, honest view of what our proposal is really about, rather than what they had heard it was about."We think they received that information in a really positive manner."Edwards urged all members to make their vote count on March 31."It's very important that members don't just assume it's a fait accompli," he said."Our message to members is to make sure you vote, either by being at the meeting on March 31 or by proxy. Be part of the vote and be a part of history."Tinkler will need a 75 per cent majority at the ballot to assume ownership of the club.
© 2011 Newcastle Herald
