jirskyr
Well-known member
You don't know any of that to be true Earl. Don't fall into the trap that so many people have made in the past, of bothering to guess or assume what the value of the contract is.
The real question is - are Tigers actually going to land Bateman, and if yes, will be be an asset? I thought he was average at the back-end of his last Raiders season, but it was also under difficult personal circumstances (the issue with his ex-partner and kid, and the way the new Raiders deal played out in the media - I think Ricky Stuart defeated him in the press).
I consider there are two ways to look at it:
(1) Tim Sheens is the coach now and you have to let him do his thing for 2 years, same as Madge. Maybe he will get some results, or maybe he won't and we have another rebuild in 2025.
and
(2) Tim Sheens has proven himself to be pretty good at identifying and grading talent, even if he hasn't always achieved consistent finals success.
On #2, Sheens basically had 4 runs in his original decade with the Tigers.
The first run was the Sattler / Hodgo / Richards / Prince / Benji / Farah recruitment strategy 2003-2005, which obviously worked out great in 2005. That run fell away when Prince was stolen by Titans and Benji was out injured for the most of several seasons with shoulder issues.
The second run he made an error (or was limited in his options) by trying to get quality halfback play out of John Morris. Farah was in career-best form, but that wasn't true for several key players for the second run of 2006-2008.
Third run was the Gareth Ellis / Galloway / Tuqiri / Fulton / Gibbs / Tuiaki / Rob Lui / Chris Lawrence roster 2009-2011, which was in genuine finals contention for 3 years and really should have netted a 2nd premiership in 2010 or 2011, but for some bad luck.
The fourth run was his last one, a little desperate perhaps, where Sheens added Blair / Woods / Koroibete / Tedesco / Simona. I still think that roster had the makings of finals football, but after 10 years the club grew tired of these runs of 3-4 seasons with 1 or 2 finals appearances. They grew tired of the defensive inconsistency of the team especially against powerful sides. They didn't let him finish what he started.
There is also the argument that Sheens lost the confidence of the players in that final period, especially when he moved on Fifita and Gibbs. But he had other setbacks - Ellis was injured then asked to be released to go home. Tuiaki was a revelation and should still have had a longer career, same with Simon Dwyer. It wasn't Sheens' fault that Rob Lui assaulted his partner, and he couldn't fashion an acceptable replacement out of Moltzen, Humble or Jacob Miller. We will recall he ended up trying Ayshford and Curtis Siro at #6, then finally Farah at halfback (which was probably one step too far).
The whole Blair thing turned out badly, but also recall that Sheens only had 1 season with him before being sacked.
We also shouldn't forget that in Sheens' last year he debuted Tedesco and had lined up Brooks, Moses and Nofo as the next set of juniors to take a run at the finals. Whatever mistakes Tim Sheens made, I can't think of many players being stolen under his watch (really only Prince and Laffranchi, which are understandable), or a lack of strategy / long-term roster planning. I don't recall huge amounts of dead wood that we needed to shift, or terrible over-priced contracts that we were stuck with. It was Sheens' replacements that made huge roster mistakes, and we've been digging ourselves out of these holes since 2013.
I don't think it's any surprise then that we've entirely failed to make the finals since Sheens was sacked.
But despite this essay of mine, the point is: I think my argument shows that Sheens knows what it takes to build a roster, and typically it's a roster of fairly good quality. He typically has a good mix of experience and youth, and typically does not sign megastars from other clubs . The success of a Sheens roster usually hinges on injury tolls and an eternal lack of depth, which has always been a financial issue for the club as much as anything. Sheens had to deal with a lot of internal politics and a general lack of money for football ops, famously painting the changing sheds himself.
Tigers are spending a lot more on the football department in 2023 vs 2003, so hopefully Sheens has more financial capacity to achieve his means.
So I think - if Sheens thinks Bateman is worth it, then he probably is.
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