Neil Whittaker

Durable Balmain hooker, originally from Crookwell, captained the Tigers in the early 1980s. Whittaker played for the Institute of Technology in the University Cup competition before trialling with Balmain in 1979. He originally failed to be graded but was allowed to train on and eventually won a contract through his perseverance and tenacity - qualities he readily showed on the football field. A lean, wiry competitor, he was the club's top rake until the arrival of Benny Elias in the early 1980s. In 1994 Whittaker emerged as one of the movers behind the club's change of direction which resulted in a new name, the 'Sydney' Tigers, and the shift from Leichhardt Oval to P’matta Stadium. In February 1997 he was appointed John Quayle’s successor as Chief Executive of the NSWRL and helped broker the deal that led to the reunification of the game in January 1998. As Chief Executive of the newly formed NRL he had the difficult brief of rationalising the code into an elite, 14-team competition by the year 2000. That done - following the exclusion of Souths and the merger of Wests and Balmain and Norths and Manly - Whittaker resigned his post at the end of 1999.