It comes a week after Hagipantelis fired a shot at sections of the media over the reporting of Bateman’s absence,using his pre-match address to more than 200 guests inside the Centurions Lounge at Leichhardt Oval last week to defend himself and the club against suggestions the Tigers were misleading people over Bateman’s fitness.

“It did not take long for the club to become the target of slurs by a section of the media more intent on generating clickbait,” Hagipantelis said in his speech.

“If any section of the media has evidence to establish that what I have said publicly is false or misleading,then I would invite them to provide[the] same to me. I would also caution anyone to suggest publicly that I have lied or misled our supporters. Some may construe such remarks as defamatory.”

Bateman impressed in his first game for the club on Sunday. He added plenty of starch to a vastly improved forward pack,but was unable to help the Tigers break their duck for 2023.

“It’s pretty hard. Different people play differently,” Bateman said of his ability to adjust to his new teammates.

“I play a lot differently to people so it’s about understanding people. That’s the hard thing. We’re building combinations and I probably had my first proper week this week at training where I was actually doing things without being flogged.”

Bateman left the Raiders to return to England at the end of 2020. He said he struggled with the travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I made the decision to leave because I didn’t see my family for 12 months,” he said. “It was my decision to go back home to see my family because like anyone at the time,no one knew what was going on in the world.

“My family weren’t allowed to come back to Australia so I had to make a decision. The opportunity for the Wests Tigers to bring me out here[motivated me] and I feel like I play my best rugby out here because the game probably suits me a little bit more.

“I just wanted to come back with the Wests Tigers because I liked what Sheensy was talking about with what he wanted to build. When you get here you realise how big the club is,and we need to go places. Sheensy and the backroom staff and what they do for the club,that’s what we want to do. We need to go places and we need to build on that.”

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