Benji seems to me like the kind of dude who has the attention span of a gnat. Like he woke up one day and thought “I might give that coaching thing a try”. But the bigger idiots are the club. I don’t think there are words to accurately describe how irresponsible and dumb his appointment is. It’s a publicity stunt on steroids.
Hypothetically we sack Benji……. who’s your pick to take over? I can’t think of anyone who I’d have confidence can get the job done that’s on the market right now.
What I’m seeing is that this club over the last 10 years have lacked an identity/DNA. Overtime it has translated into a very poor culture which has been lingering around this club ever since which inadvertently really stuffed up our ability to recruit and improve as no one wants to join a club with no clear vision/culture. Whilst also being the main reason to continued failing seasons.
Where we’re in luck is the one thing we’ve lacked and struggled to implement which arguably is the hardest attribute to have as a coach - the ability to create a vision that the players can buy into and set a culture around that to make sure we hit our goals to get to the level we’re striving towards. Well this is the one thing that comes so naturally to Benji. Which is why everyone can see the clear potential he has as a coach. Combine that with the respect he’ll command for his players in terms of what he did for the badge and surrounding himself with former Wests Tigers legends like Farah, Heighno, Morris etc and we’re building towards a implementing a Wests Tigers DNA.
Look at what we’ve done….. Api re-signing, Stef getting rid of his clause, Ice reaffirming he wants to stay and Bula inking a new deal. That’s just retention related. Usually someone’s asking for a release post season - yet this season it’s the opposite.
After the year we’ve had why are all these players still so committed to this club - because of Pascoe? Sometimes I don’t understand the Benji hate, I really don’t. The problem is far bigger than Benji, it’s clear we have some issues that are higher than him that we need to address - whenever we do that then we can really start to put the foot on the pedal and see what we can do as a club.
I understand the year we had wasn’t ideal - however I’m not as bothered as some as I saw some really good signs when fit. Unfortunately having Brandon Wakeham and Will Smith as our halves at some points in the year….. well as much as we expect to win we’re already fighting a losing battle. Next year should be different.
Not all the time it’s about who’s the best coach - it’s more so who’s the best fit for that particular club and where they’re at. Personally, I think the fit is perfect.