Blue Wiggle Anthony Field reveals he wants to buy NRL club West Tigers and split it in half

The Blue Wiggle’s Anthony Field has opened up about his dream of owning his beloved Wests Tigers, revealing that he would like to break up the merged club again: on one condition.

The 60-year-old star happily admits he ‘lives in the past’ when it comes to footy, and has been a Balmain Tigers tragedy since he was a young boy in the 1960s, and is regularly seen at footy cheering fanatically at the now-merged club.

Before merging with Wests Magpies to create the Wests Tigers in the NRL, Balmain was one of the most successful clubs in the league. They were a foundation club in 1908 and won 11 premierships before merging in 2000.

Field says ‘the world would have a better pace if Balmain came back’, especially considering the Magpies own 90 per cent of the NRL licence, thanks mainly to club giant Wests Ashfield, one of Sydney’s most profitable playing venues.

Field, the only surviving original member of supergroup The Wiggles, says he’d like to complete a “fairy tale” and join the club — and it’s not exactly a fanciful idea, either.

Field (second from left) and Purple Wiggle John Pearce (second from right) met Tigers legends Robbie Farah (left) and Benji Marshall (right) after a game recently

Field, who lives nearby, plays a game at Leichhardt Oval with his son in a traditional Balmain jersey (center)

Musical supergroup The Wiggles is worth more than $50 million since its formation in 1991

A majority owner of the Wiggles, an amazing money spinner around the world, it is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million with the group itself being worth more than $50 million.

With that fortune he would love to become one of only five private owners in the NRL – yet he admits he needs an even bigger pile of cash to make the whole dream come true and leave Balmain standing. on it’s own.

“All my money is now invested in the Wiggles, and it would be a fairy tale, but one day the Wiggles might be sold somewhere… If the Wiggles were to be sold for a ridiculous amount of money one day, I certainly would do,” Veld told the Daily telegram of the only condition that would see him buying into the NRL.

‘Meanwhile, I buy lottery tickets every week in the Italian lottery. If you win, it’s $250 million, and with that kind of money I’d go to West’s Ashfield and respectfully ask them to row their own boat again.”

While he clearly loves supporting the Wests Tigers, Balmain is where his heart is.

He lives nearby, as a boy he used to walk all the way from Glebe to the club’s spiritual home at Leichhardt Oval to watch games and recently came close to buying a house next door.

A grassroots club, the Balmain Tigers were one of the most successful teams in the league before merging with Wests and featured legends like Paul Sironen (pictured)

Field (right) competed in a Tigers v Broncos game last month with Pearce (the purple Wiggle, second from left) and met current Broncos star Marty Taupau and Magpies and Tigers legend John Skandalis (second from right)

With football legends like Wayne Pearce, Paul Sironen and Garry Jack donning the famous orange and black jersey, Field aims to restore the former glory of the club, which has been swallowed up by the Magpies at elite level.

The area around Balmain and Leichardt is still passionately attached to the now-merged club, Field explains.

“I’m all for the Wests Tigers, but seriously, the community in Leichhardt is all Balmain and when you go to Campbelltown, all the hardcore people are in Wests jerseys and that’s great,” he said.

And he wants to go all the way back to the past, long before sponsorship footy jerseys came to dominate, as the designs continue to change every year, becoming more modern and further away from their history.

‘I would like to get sponsorship from the jumpers so that it would be a pure Balmain jumper. It’s absolutely beautiful. In America they respect the jumper. You could still have sponsors and take care of them,” Field said.

Field, his son, friends and family, and Wiggles members are often seen together in games

Field said he knew he had found the love of his life, future wife Michaela Patisteas, while at Leichhardt Oval for a Tigers game

A one-time Cleo Bachelor of the Year, the bubbly Wiggles superstar is married to long-term partner Michaela Patisteas, and the couple share three children – who can often be seen by his side in Tigers Guernseys at football games.

It was fitting during a game when Field realized he had found the love of his life.

“And I remember taking my current wife (Michaela) to a game, she was from Victoria and had no concept of competition, one time at Leichhardt Oval,” he explained of one of the couple’s first dates.

“We watched the Tigers get completely demolished and she had a few drinks and fell backwards off one of the couches and I thought, ‘This is the girl I’m going to marry.’