Benji 2025 and Beyond

GNR4LIFE said:
It’s the same script every year. “We look much stronger on paper next year”. Yet we never are. Our losses and gains are pretty interchangeable outside of Luai. I mean, how are journeymen like Bird and Tururva, who has been blessed to be on the end of the backline of the best club in the modern era going to make? Royce Hunt is good, but he’s negated by the loss of Stefano and Ice.
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Turuva was born in 2002 my guy 😂 journeymen ?! Cool down for a few days
 
yeahcaz said:
Yeah not sure where you’re trying to land with this but good for you
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If you can’t can’t comprehend that, comprehend this. He‘s the one responsible for the players going out and dropping balls cold, missing tackles, giving away stupid penalties etc. If he’s not taking responsibility for that, then the role of a coach would cease to exist.
 
Needaname said:
I’m not convinced though. I mean we were supposed to have recruited extremely well for the start of last season and again for this season.
These signings are better again, but will it change anything?
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Agree but I do think next seasons signings have been younger and better than the usual WT bargain basement buys and players coming in for the last cheque before retirement call in seasons past. Yes, there is Bird but I'd put him in not quite in the last cheque lot. The other thing WT need is some experience to balance the youth coming in.

Theoretically with Klemmer, Bateman, Papallii. Tamou and Brooks we had that in this and previous seasons but that brings on the next CLUB weakness- we lack/lacked professional recruitment management and getting the right player with right attitude- all to often the rejects WT got in the bargain basement sales had the wrong attitude or were past it in the game. Now I reckon we have turned that corner Api, Laui, Turuva, Royce, Bird and Olam. We have taken a chance on medical fitness with Olam and Bird but Im assuming/hoping that is based on medical assessment of conditions being managed or remediated eg Olam and his knee surgery aand that we can have more on field time than off.

Coaching of course is the elephant in the room - getting the basics right- catching, passing, running, general defensive and offensive plays / actions and very good coaching support and medical and conditioning staff and assistant coaches. An on call psychologist to gee up the boys. An a professional coach with good use of bench, selection of best players and done who drops immediately badly performing players. Benji has many skills and merits but Im dont see these things as yet- mind you previous WT coaches were same criticisms- Sheens, Maguire etc.

We now have a professional headquarters with a CEO who knows his stuff not show ponies for Chairman and CEO. I hope we make good use of him.

WT and Richardson must get the coaching and support staff up to speed with the new NRL standards expectations for us to be able to compete. I do see improvements, I do see young up and comers, I do see the start fo a balance of youth and experience BUT I dont see a properly coached team- the basics are lacking, coaching support staff in defensive and offensive basics are lacking to non existant. If Benji wants to remain head coach for 2025 he has to be ruthless too and get rid of some of the mates if theyre not working as assistants (work with Richo and his input) and get in new assistants more in touch with needs. If he doesnt he wil be gone very soon and for god sakes properly use of bench selection and game rotation, selection of best players and drop immediately badly performing players.
 
Kelce68 said:
100%.

This place melted down big time last night.

Once Api was binned, the game was long gone and they played like it. It's a miracle it wasn't gone sooner tbh. The harder they tried, the worse it got.

They were putrid. Poor teams have putrid games.

It did sum up the season perfectly though, right up to and including Latu's goal hitting the post at the end. Couldn't have been more accurate.

Put that game, that season and hopefully a decent chunk of that squad behind us and focus on next year.
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Champion @Kelce68 - thank you for saying what we each feel today.
 
GNR4LIFE said:
If you can’t can’t comprehend that, comprehend this. He‘s the one responsible for the players going out and dropping balls cold, missing tackles, giving away stupid penalties etc. If he’s not taking responsibility for that, then the role of a coach would cease to exist.
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Comprehend that its a coaches job to teach grown men and professional athletes the 2 things you’re taught from 5 years old, catching the ball and tackling ? Bro cool off 😂 I’ve seen numerous games this year with teams of melbournes quality making 10 plus errors and not once has the coach taken responsibility for poor handling. If you’re trying to argue that by Benji telling these kids to just “play football” is what caused a stupid amount of handling errors then to that I say this exact same team has done the same thing playing a slow and structured brand of football. I get not rating the coach and I personally don’t rate him either but this is eyes wide shut kind of stuff
 
GNR4LIFE said:
GNR4LIFE said:
I called Bird a journyman, not Turuva
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It’s the same script every year. “We look much stronger on paper next year”. Yet we never are. Our losses and gains are pretty interchangeable outside of Luai. I mean, how are journeymen like Bird and Tururva, who has been blessed to be on the end of the backline of the best club in the modern era going to make? Royce Hunt is good, but he’s negated by the loss of Stefano and Ice.
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how are journeymen like Bird and Tururva
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Grammar is really not that difficult
 
yeahcaz said:
Comprehend that its a coaches job to teach grown men and professional athletes the 2 things you’re taught from 5 years old, catching the ball and tackling ? Bro cool off 😂 I’ve seen numerous games this year with teams of melbournes quality making 10 plus errors and not once has the coach taken responsibility for poor handling. If you’re trying to argue that by Benji telling these kids to just “play football” is what caused a stupid amount of handling errors then to that I say this exact same team has done the same thing playing a slow and structured brand of football. I get not rating the coach and I personally don’t rate him either but this is eyes wide shut kind of stuff
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The whole reason pathways exist is so players arrive in first grade with solid fundamentals. Head coaches responsibilities are far more complex than some would have you believe. I think the players themselves would own that display if you asked them. Just poor.
 
marzie said:
Sacking Benji after 1 year considering everything I said is pretty crazy honestly. I think that would be a mistake.

I have confidence that we'll improve quite a bit next year with Benji as head coach, a better squad and hopefully some more experienced assistant coaches to help him out.
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If we are being honest, Benji has really had 2 years, and little progress has been made. However, the kids love him by the sound of it, and it will be interesting to see whether he can actually coach. There are some very dumb actions on the football field at the moment.
Getting an experienced coach to assist Benji could be very hard as there would not be too many coaches who could take a coach with Nill experience, getting all the credit for their work. Morris might find it awkward if things do start to work.
We have no alternative than to wait until mid 2025 to even consider who will coach the Tigers for the year 2026.
 
tonza said:
If we are being honest, Benji has really had 2 years, and little progress has been made. However, the kids love him by the sound of it, and it will be interesting to see whether he can actually coach. There are some very dumb actions on the football field at the moment.
Getting an experienced coach to assist Benji could be very hard as there would not be too many coaches who could take a coach with Nill experience, getting all the credit for their work. Morris might find it awkward if things do start to work.
We have no alternative than to wait until mid 2025 to even consider who will coach the Tigers for the year 2026.
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Last year he was rolling out Daime Laurie & Wakeham in the halves, they wouldn’t win in English SL.

This year it’s a kindergarten team.

We’ll learn if Benji can coach next year.
 
Tom Shines said:
Ok .. just be prepared for Galvin to have moved on by then though
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It's a serious risk that I'm afraid off.

But we're still bot a strong team in 2025.

Retaining benji and stability will help the Galvin situation.

We need to win more than 6 games each year
 
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