Official: Three Life Members to lead coaching succession plan

We're all Australians regardless of our heritage. I thought the Lebanese community through Benny, John Elias, Robbie, Adam Doueihi, Alex Twal etc would be more aligned to WTs. Alex Twal is one of my favourite players - he does the hard work every week without complaint and goes unnoticed except by his team mates.

Hate is a strong word and no I don't hate. I want more Australians of Lebanese heritage aboard WTs.

I want more talented players and i have never cared about a man's racial or cultural heritage.We just need to get better in what we do
 
Picking a random coach on the market hasn't worked in the past decade for us. The club are now trying something outside the box with people you know want the club to succeed. Once they decided it was going to be Sheens appointed as head coach it had to involve a rookie coach to take over as a succession plan.
Sadly, not just random coach, but also random players!
It reminds me on "Alice in wonderland" story, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there".
 
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Anyone that doesn’t like this idea needs to have a good look at themselves. Tim Sheens to mentor Farah and Marshall for 2 years and than Marshall takes over WOW am I pumped for that. Benji is earning very good money what he is doing now, why would he take a risk and become a coach? You want to know why Benji knows he will be great at it Benji is confident,Benji will try things,Benji is not scared, Benji will attract players and Benji is Benji. NEVER BACK A PERSON AS CONFIDENT AS BENJI. The Three Kings have come together and has given me some belief

Get off the wine man...
 
The 360 interview did it for me.

"I'm backing myself & we are backing ourselves."

That's something I've always said about myself in my professional life.

That's a winners mentality.

Benji's always backed himself...
That's his biggest problem!!

If he was a horse that hot and cold - you wouldn't back him....
 
Apologies, I haven't read the whole thread - has anyone mentioned this or brought this up? "So now we see why he sacked a coach, so he can become THE COACH?"

I have no idea whether to be excited or just laugh. Anyway, good luck to us fans again. Wests Tigers till I die and I probably would die first before I see us win the comp again.
 
Imagine.

Robbie will be involved with the Cedars for world cup.

Maybe we can unearth the next Kiraz or get in the good players ears.

People always expect me and @PJ_ To be doggies fans.... what a stereotype. But Tigers are home of the GOAT Cedar Boys - original, Farah & now the young kings - Twal and AD + the future, Tannous.

I know some of yas quietly hate us but this should be explored. We are the club the doggies wish they could be. Like South's to the indigenous we could be like that but for the middle eastern players / youth / fans.
Yeh bro, screw the doggies. Gotta heap of cousins that love em, been trying to swing em to the tigers for yrs. Like anything, ppl tend to support the team where they grow up. The more lebo players we have in the squad will end up bringing their fam too.
Would love to see it 🇱🇧
 
I'm not sure about what happened in the background after Ciraldo and testing the water with other coaches; however, I expect it would have taken some time for Benji to unravel his current contractual commitments before the club could announce the plan. I don't buy that it hasn't been thoroughly considered. What I am sure of is that there is a lot of marketing behind this move, with a plan to change the image of the the club and attract some talent.

I watched the Benji interview on 360 last night and what he said resonates with me. However, there are some limitations.

Firstly the new Wests Tigers won't be playing with as much structure - shifting the ball to meet what is in front of them. Benji and Robbie will be working on the attacking side of the house. This shows that they get the need to mesh the 6,7 and 9 (I expect this will also result in the 1, 2 and 5 pushing up around the ruck). The upside - great news and something we have been sadly lacking under Madge. The downside - AD is more of a tuck the ball under the arm sort of player as opposed to an eyes up creative type. Not sure that he is suited to this style of play. We will have to see. Hastings is probably being looked at as a ball playing 13. Does this means that Brooks gets a lifeline? I will be watching this weekends game very closely as I expect what we may see is embryonic 2023 play.

Benji and Farrah, working as attacking coaches, means that they will either maintain Cayliss or have a plan to bring in someone new for that role. We all know that Benji wasn't the greatest defender. I'm sure Tim, Farrah and Benji all recognise this. I look at it as both a strength and a weakness. As a weakness, I can see them taking a gamble on a creative type down the track that has some defensive problems As a strength, I expect that they will understand the situation and develop a plan to cater for it.

Farrah also having an admin role. He has an economics degree and has other business interests so it will be interesting to see what this role is and where it leads. Are we seeing some succession planning for the board?

The thing that struck me most during the interview was Benji was prepared to stick up for the club and outlined how his last several years were about him mentoring and developing players around him. I think that is they key to a successful FG coach. He may not have the experience that others do on the coaching front, but he will not be without support.

My overall take is that this move has risk; however, there is plenty of immediate, and potential long term, upside. This is now about building the team, and the support staff, to make it work. As hard as it is to take as a Tigers fan, it is yet another development path. Success is a little down the track.

We aren't placed too badly though. Madge laid a foundation based on individuals being the player that everyone else wants to play with. I understand, from the limited team access I have, that the playing group have bought into this philosophy (I could be wrong).

Sheens is a strategic planner, so I expect that we will see more of the deadwood cleared and the right players and support staff start to be announced to shore up our weaknesses and exploit the strengths. I trust this move rings in a period of football prosperity.

I'm optimistic.
 
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Anyone that doesn’t like this idea needs to have a good look at themselves. Tim Sheens to mentor Farah and Marshall for 2 years and than Marshall takes over WOW am I pumped for that. Benji is earning very good money what he is doing now, why would he take a risk and become a coach? You want to know why Benji knows he will be great at it Benji is confident,Benji will try things,Benji is not scared, Benji will attract players and Benji is Benji. NEVER BACK A PERSON AS CONFIDENT AS BENJI. The Three Kings have come together and has given me some belief
Wow. Anyone who does like this has a firm, rearview mirror, black white and gold blinkered view of this club. This is simply a, keep the fans happy, poorly thought out decision to stall till they finish the script for the next WT mockumentary. Because that's all this mob is good for. Cant play football but we can still be stars.
I will be more than happy if I'm proven wrong, but we'll see. In the meantime keep smiling.
 
I know some of yas quietly hate us but this should be explored.

I love your post but I ain't no racist. No culture is immune from what I call racism as well. I remember speaking to some Lebo's and I said I thought you were greek. They told me that was offensive as they hate Greeks. They also told me Lebanon was ruined via the Arabs moving in.
 
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I'm not sure about what happened in the background after Ciraldo and testing the water with other coaches; however, I expect it would have taken some time for Benji to unravel his current contractual commitments before the club could announce the plan. I don't buy that it hasn't been thoroughly considered. What I am sure of is that there is a lot of marketing behind this move with a plan to change the image of the the club and attract some talent.

I watched the Benji interview on 360 last night and what he said resonates with me. However, there are some limitations.

Firstly the new Wests Tigers won't be playing with as much structure - shifting the ball to meet what is in front of them. Benji and Robbie will be working on the attacking side of the house. This shows that they get the need to mesh the 6,7 and 9 (I expect this will also result in the 1, 2 and 5 pushing up around the ruck). The upside - great news and something we have been sadly lacking under Madge. The downside - AD is more of a tuck the ball under the arm sort of player as opposed to an eyes up creative type. Not sure that he is suited to this style of play we will have to see. Hastings is probably being looked at as a ball playing 13. Does this means that Brooks gets a lifeline? I will be watching this weekends game very closely as I expect what we may see is embryonic 2023 play.

Benji and Farrah working as attacking coaches means that they will either maintain Cayliss or have a plan to bring in someone new for that role. We all know that Benji wasn't the greatest defender. I'm sure Tim, Farrah and Benji all recognise this. I look at it as both a strength and a weakness. As a weakness I can see them taking a gamble on a creative type down the track that has some defensive problems, as a strength I expect that they will understand the situation and develop a plan to cater for it.

Farrah also having an admin role. He has an economics degree and has other business interests so it will be interesting to see what this role is and where it leads. Are we seeing some succession planning for the board?

The thing that struck me most during the interview was Benji was prepared to stick up for the club and outlined how is last several years were about him mentoring and developing players around him. I think that is they key to a successful FG coach. He may not have the experience that others do on the coaching front but he will not be without support.

My overall take is that this move has risk; however, there is plenty of immediate, and potential long term, upside. This is now about building the team and the support staff to make it work. As hard as it is to take as a Tigers fan it is yet another development path and success is a little down the track. We aren't placed too badly though. Madge laid a foundation based on individuals being the player that everyone else wants to play with. I understand, from the limited team access I have, that the playing group have bought into this philosophy (I could be wrong).

Sheens is a strategic planner so I expect that we will see more of the deadwood cleared and the right players and support staff start to be announced to shore up our weaknesses and exploit the strengths. I trust this move rings in a period of football prosperity.

I'm optimistic.

Well thought out post,i certainly don't agree with it all but i hope you are right
 
Yeh bro, screw the doggies. Gotta heap of cousins that love em, been trying to swing em to the tigers for yrs. Like anything, ppl tend to support the team where they grow up. The more lebo players we have in the squad will end up bringing their fam too.
Would love to see it 🇱🇧
Nearly got bashed when we beat the dogs in a boilover at the showground, with Hassan Saleh and Ahmed Bajouri playing well for once. I let every doggies fan around me know, in Arabic and English. Myth of a club, the original Penrif - home of the wannabe gangsta.

As much as we suck, I'm still glad everyday that I don't support another Sydney team, all scum.
 

HOW VETERAN JOURNALIST’S QUESTION SPARKED WESTS TIGERS’ COACHING PLAN INTO ACTION​


BY LACHLAN GELEIT

t’s official. Tim Sheens will coach the Wests Tigers in 2023 and 2024 with club greats Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah his assistants.

From 2025, Marshall will take over from Sheens in a coaching handover where he’ll take the reigns for at least three seasons until the end of 2027.

With the Tigers’ coaching plan locked in for the next five years, the club has put to bed speculation about which direction they’ll take in the future, but how it came about is an equally interesting story.

As the decision came from left-field, it’s been revealed that the plan was hatched at an inner-west Sydney restaurant a few weeks ago.

While the meeting was planned to simply be a lunch at Grappa restaurant in Leichhardt between Tigers powerbrokers and journalists, it soon evolved into something far more important.

Present at the table was News Corp’s Phil Rothfield, Michael Carayannis, Brent Read and David Riccio, plus club CEO Justin Pascoe, Chairman Lee Hagipantelis and head of football Tim Sheens.

According to Riccio, the idea of having Sheens return to a coaching role was originally floated by Rothfield.

“This unfolded about three weeks ago now,” Riccio said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“I was invited to a lunch with Tigers Chairman Lee Hagipantelis, CEO Justin Pascoe, head of footy Tim Sheens, myself, Phil Rothfield, Michael Carayannis and Brent Read was there as well.

“It was generally just to catch up, it was a Tuesday afternoon, midway through the Origin series, halfway through the year and we do it a lot with a lot of the clubs.

“Clearly the Tigers are a hot talking point, they needed a coach at the time.

“‘Sheensy’ was sitting at one end of the table and it was Buzz (Rothfield) who raised the question, ‘Sheensy, would you consider stepping in?’, and Tim certainly didn’t deny his interest.”

Riccio says the guests were initially surprised by Sheens’ willingness to take on the job, but that the club clearly took on the idea in recent weeks to workshop how a succession plan could work.

“I must say, it took the table by surprise, notably Justin Pascoe who needed some convincing that the Sheens/development model with Benji Marshall needed some workshopping,” Riccio said.

“Clearly that has happened over the last few weeks and Benji, the club’s greatest player, will become the club’s next head coach after Tim Sheens.

“It was an interesting lunch.”

Interim coach Brett Kimmorley will remain in the head role for the remainder of the 2022 season.

The Tigers next face the Panthers at CommBank Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

 
Well thats done me....I would rather donate my membership to the homeless and continue on my golf journey instead of waiting excitedly for the next WTs game...If the club has to stoop so low as to get old "BOYS CLUB LEGENDS " in to fix the joint after these guys were the ones who started the rot then all I can do is wait for one of the players to publicly say ""Benji,Robbie and Sheens cant coach""...I mean it worked for Farah to get rid of Potter and low and behold the place is in the exact place it was when Farah spoke his crap and cost us a coach and a lot of credibility...
But then again we still have the same CEO who is spared the axe because he has his head burried up so many arses he gets a pass...
Enjoy the next few years guys and gals ....I will look on and hope you can have a decent team to follow because you love league and the WTs ...
I just cant stand the garbage the joint feeds us year after year and we still dont play finals like other teams do.I mean deadset 12 years without finals,complete and utter joke...
Love you all and its nothing personal to any of you great people buy really enough is enough....cheers guys...
You along with Jirskyr, WesTahger and Geo have usually never been too critical of the club and have stuck up for them. Says a lot really that even you are feeling this way.
 
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