Coach Benji 👑

[NT_Tiger]

@Lestronge "I genuinely think these guys secretly love it this way. The wests lunatics love the whole identity of a battling club , plus they the idea of driving the tigers into a distressed asset , so they can’t rebrand .
Forgetting that literally at most that’s probably less than 1000 people who would support that ."

I agree. I speculated about this sort of thing a few days ago.
If, all of a sudden, we miraculously transformed into the magpies, equally suddenly the owners would show an interest in results and the funding would flow. That scenario, although impossible, wouldn't surprise me one bit.

 

[Flippedy]

I genuinely think these guys secretly love it this way. The wests lunatics love the whole identity of a battling club , plus they the idea of driving the tigers into a distressed asset , so they can’t rebrand .
Forgetting that literally at most that’s probably less than 1000 people who would support that . That in itself would destroy the joint venture , both as an entity and as, but also the actual license .
And the Balmain guys …. Please spare me . You didn’t win shit . We lost 2 gfs in a row 36 years ago . You failed as well , so we can stop with this holier than thou - Balmain equals excellence rhetoric . Because I distinctly remember being a kid having to sift through Balmain squads with Ben duckworth , mick Gillette , laloa Milford , and behaving like these guys were elite . When they clearly weren’t . ( they’re all legends in my eyes though ) . So the 90s leading up to the merger was below mediocre for Balmain as well .
The fact we went from a board of 40-60 year olds across diverse industries like finance , politics , corporate management and sports management to once again a board filled with geriatrics from a pokies den …. And that’s the holistic changes the club needed ? On what planet .
Don’t get me wrong though , I genuinely think HBG has sweet FA this season to do with the players underperforming . That’s all factional bullshit , racial undercurrents , and general power manouvering with the squad .
I’ve said it before, only a complete regeneration of the leadership group and coaching structures aRound Benji will Change our culture . Simply put the old guys unfortunately have a “here we go again demeanour when we lose , which infects the squad . It leads to bickering. Loss of focus , and lack of accountability both individually and as a club .
Benjis gravitas and aura can only go so far , ultimately on the field the leadership group have to lead . And as Gordon Tallis said , you’re not much of a leader if no one will follow you . Which is outside Api exactly where the vacuum is currently at our club . The talent is there , just the wrong voices to guide them .

Great post!

 

[mtd#2]

Have you seen his defence? Honestly it’s putrid.

I don’t care that he played well for 7 weeks. He constantly stunts our attack as a fourth tackle hit-up merchant, can’t roll up the sleeves and win the ruck and has atrocious lateral movement.

Add to that he’s poor and soft in contact. He’s not worth $300,000 on current form let alone the $800,000 we’re reportedly paying him.

So he's had a purple patch of form after carrying the forwards for a season and a half, whilst also playing 70+ minutes a game, yet he has still maintained a 97.9% tackle efficiency. Go figure.

Blaming a prop for stunting the attack on the 4th tackle says more about the halves than the prop. The generals tell the forwards where they should be and when they should be getting the ball. If terrell gets it, then our spine arent doing their job.

FYI, at the roosters he was an impact prop. Many people thought he was unlucky not to make origin last year too.

In my opinion, you are making him a scapegoat for what is a much bigger problem.

 

[king_sirro]

I genuinely think these guys secretly love it this way. The wests lunatics love the whole identity of a battling club , plus they the idea of driving the tigers into a distressed asset , so they can’t rebrand .
Forgetting that literally at most that’s probably less than 1000 people who would support that . That in itself would destroy the joint venture , both as an entity and as, but also the actual license .
And the Balmain guys …. Please spare me . You didn’t win shit . We lost 2 gfs in a row 36 years ago . You failed as well , so we can stop with this holier than thou - Balmain equals excellence rhetoric . Because I distinctly remember being a kid having to sift through Balmain squads with Ben duckworth , mick Gillette , laloa Milford , and behaving like these guys were elite . When they clearly weren’t . ( they’re all legends in my eyes though ) . So the 90s leading up to the merger was below mediocre for Balmain as well .
The fact we went from a board of 40-60 year olds across diverse industries like finance , politics , corporate management and sports management to once again a board filled with geriatrics from a pokies den …. And that’s the holistic changes the club needed ? On what planet .
Don’t get me wrong though , I genuinely think HBG has sweet FA this season to do with the players underperforming . That’s all factional bullshit , racial undercurrents , and general power manouvering with the squad .
I’ve said it before, only a complete regeneration of the leadership group and coaching structures aRound Benji will Change our culture . Simply put the old guys unfortunately have a “here we go again demeanour when we lose , which infects the squad . It leads to bickering. Loss of focus , and lack of accountability both individually and as a club .
Benjis gravitas and aura can only go so far , ultimately on the field the leadership group have to lead . And as Gordon Tallis said , you’re not much of a leader if no one will follow you . Which is outside Api exactly where the vacuum is currently at our club . The talent is there , just the wrong voices to guide them .

Can you point me towards the Balmain holier than thou and Balmain equals excellence rhetoric you speak of?

 

[Tigerdazz2]

I have a plan to get the boys really firing in season 2027. A plan that'll all but ensure a place in the top 8, neigh....make that top 4.

All we have to do is tell them, anything below 4th and they'll have Alan "Gloria"Jones as coach for season 2028!

That should get them motivated! 😉

 

[Tigerdazz2]

How’s this for a thought … split the Wests Tigers licence in two. Sell half to Easts Brisbane Tigers and half to Souths Logan Magpies. The new teams will be in Sydney regularly as visitors so local fans will be able to see them. As part of the deal some games would be played at Leichhardt and Campbelltown. Thoughts?

I can see a time in the future when the NRL regret their decision to expand the competition without further amalgamations of the Sydney based teams.

I can see a time when they reduce the number of Sydney teams to as little as 4 or 5. The ONLY fair way to do that would be to dissolve ALL the Sydney based clubs and put out an invitation for consortiums or very high wealth individuals to put in bids for say one of four franchises.

Existing clubs would have to join forces if they wanted to keep having skin in the game.
The remaining clubs could just return to their state based competitions which could be still used as either a reserve grade or even a 2nd Division.

Mark my words, the talent pool isn't big enough to fill 20 x thirty man squads, that's 600 elite NRL standard players + juniors, back up/depth players. They WILL at some point in time let's just say, do a little pruning.

They won't kill off any expansion clubs outside Sydney with the possible exception of the Gold Coast. They will though say they NEED to cull clubs "in the name of the game" so exactly the same reason for Super League, same reason Sydney clubs were either kicked out or were forced to merge, same reason the expansion clubs have HAD TO come in, dating back to the Steelers & the Raiders, same reason the Rams, the Mariners, the Reds, the Chargers, the Giants had to go, why the Chiefs are coming in, why the Bears are coming back.

Yes all done for the good of the game be it adding or subtracting. Thank *crow call* that they haven't tried dividing "in the name of the game".

 

[Bellend]

I think it was when Newcastle was just about to come into the competition, there was a future team listing made up and please correct me if i am incorrect.
1 North Qld
2 Brisbane
3 north coast-titans
4 Newcastle
5 central coast
6 penrith
7 Parramatta
8 Roosters
9 Manly
10 South Coast-Steelers
11 Macarthur-Group 6
12 ACT
13 NZ warriors
14 Nz Christchurch
15 Perth- has always been on the drawing Board
16?? could not remember it i have got the article somewhere in my house

 

[Tomatosoup912]

I genuinely think these guys secretly love it this way. The wests lunatics love the whole identity of a battling club , plus they the idea of driving the tigers into a distressed asset , so they can’t rebrand .
Forgetting that literally at most that’s probably less than 1000 people who would support that . That in itself would destroy the joint venture , both as an entity and as, but also the actual license .
And the Balmain guys …. Please spare me . You didn’t win shit . We lost 2 gfs in a row 36 years ago . You failed as well , so we can stop with this holier than thou - Balmain equals excellence rhetoric . Because I distinctly remember being a kid having to sift through Balmain squads with Ben duckworth , mick Gillette , laloa Milford , and behaving like these guys were elite . When they clearly weren’t . ( they’re all legends in my eyes though ) . So the 90s leading up to the merger was below mediocre for Balmain as well .
The fact we went from a board of 40-60 year olds across diverse industries like finance , politics , corporate management and sports management to once again a board filled with geriatrics from a pokies den …. And that’s the holistic changes the club needed ? On what planet .
Don’t get me wrong though , I genuinely think HBG has sweet FA this season to do with the players underperforming . That’s all factional bullshit , racial undercurrents , and general power manouvering with the squad .
I’ve said it before, only a complete regeneration of the leadership group and coaching structures aRound Benji will Change our culture . Simply put the old guys unfortunately have a “here we go again demeanour when we lose , which infects the squad . It leads to bickering. Loss of focus , and lack of accountability both individually and as a club .
Benjis gravitas and aura can only go so far , ultimately on the field the leadership group have to lead . And as Gordon Tallis said , you’re not much of a leader if no one will follow you . Which is outside Api exactly where the vacuum is currently at our club . The talent is there , just the wrong voices to guide them .

Just a fantastic accurate representation of the current state of the club. Brilliant post.

 

[Pringle Gold]

So he's had a purple patch of form after carrying the forwards for a season and a half, whilst also playing 70+ minutes a game, yet he has still maintained a 97.9% tackle efficiency. Go figure.

Blaming a prop for stunting the attack on the 4th tackle says more about the halves than the prop. The generals tell the forwards where they should be and when they should be getting the ball. If terrell gets it, then our spine arent doing their job.

FYI, at the roosters he was an impact prop. Many people thought he was unlucky not to make origin last year too.

In my opinion, you are making him a scapegoat for what is a much bigger problem.

Agree he’s been an impact prop at the Roosters but has been a different player with us.

Last year I thought he was overrated. You look at some of the defensive efforts in the middle and the gaps that open up around him particularly at the back end of his game time. Part of that is Benji playing him for longer minutes than he should but if May wants to play those mins he needs to make the tackles.

Also disagree with it being the fault of the halves with fourth tackle hit ups. He gets involved too many times when they’re shifting the ball. It’s an issue with his positioning and you can’t always blame that on the halves.

 

[Tiger Stripes]

Agree he’s been an impact prop at the Roosters but has been a different player with us.

Last year I thought he was overrated. You look at some of the defensive efforts in the middle and the gaps that open up around him particularly at the back end of his game time. Part of that is Benji playing him for longer minutes than he should but if May wants to play those mins he needs to make the tackles.

Also disagree with it being the fault of the halves with fourth tackle hit ups. He gets involved too many times when they’re shifting the ball. It’s an issue with his positioning and you can’t always blame that on the halves.

Is it our attacking coach or Benji?
Surely a few words like "Decoy Only" in the red zone would help.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

Agree he’s been an impact prop at the Roosters but has been a different player with us.

Last year I thought he was overrated. You look at some of the defensive efforts in the middle and the gaps that open up around him particularly at the back end of his game time. Part of that is Benji playing him for longer minutes than he should but if May wants to play those mins he needs to make the tackles.

Also disagree with it being the fault of the halves with fourth tackle hit ups. He gets involved too many times when they’re shifting the ball. It’s an issue with his positioning and you can’t always blame that on the halves.

I tend to agree. He can get pushed back in tackles too often for mine…not a trait of an elite forward.

Having said that, with great support he could form part of an elite pack. We just don’t have the players around him to bring this out. Come to think of it, this is a common theme for the tigers.

 

[mtd#2]

Agree he’s been an impact prop at the Roosters but has been a different player with us.

Last year I thought he was overrated. You look at some of the defensive efforts in the middle and the gaps that open up around him particularly at the back end of his game time. Part of that is Benji playing him for longer minutes than he should but if May wants to play those mins he needs to make the tackles.

Also disagree with it being the fault of the halves with fourth tackle hit ups. He gets involved too many times when they’re shifting the ball. It’s an issue with his positioning and you can’t always blame that on the halves.

We our last proper halfback was aiden sezer. We dont have a true #7. The one before that was moses. Before that lui.

Its no coincidence that we have been so shit for so long whilst trying to make 6's 7s. It started with benji. Now here we are and douhei is doing the same thing..

Everything centres around the halves, more so, the #7.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

We our last proper halfback was aiden sezer. We dont have a true #7. The one before that was moses. Before that lui.

Its no coincidence that we have been so shit for so long whilst trying to make 6's 7s. It started with benji. Now here we are and douhei is doing the same thing..

Everything centres around the halves, more so, the #7.

The 3 years we have played finals were the only seasons we had true halfbacks.

 

[MotoG]

Do we really know the whole story when it comes to what it’s like to be a WTs coach?

Only can be speculated from the outside looking in
However I would suggest that Mick Potters below statement might shed some light

"I found it to be a different club to any club I’d been with. It was a political hotbed. I knew the first day I went in there it was going to be a tough gig. I went in there to coach, not be a politician. It was conflicted.""


Doesn't matter that much whether Potter was a great coach or a shit one. His win / loss percentage at Wests was 35% which puts him pretty close to the clubs overall win / loss percentage

What matters is what he was revealing with that comment

🙏

 

[twentyforty]

The 3 years we have played finals were the only seasons we had true halfbacks.

It’s hard to get a decent half without having a solid forward pack.

 

[innsaneink]

It’s hard to get a decent half without having a solid forward pack.

Thats true but lately weve really not had a problem getting down to.the red zone...

 

[Vicious]

Sadly as I have said before Benji is the last hope for this rabble. If the Benji experiment fails then the club must be folded asap, no other coach that is decent is going to come here FACT! No beginning coach would risk his career and reputation here FACT! If the experiment fails we lose a shedload of players yes some are not pulling their weight at the moment but the alternatives are far worse so we have no other option but to weigh in behind Benji and hope the club gets a set and provides him with decent help or the 15 year drought will become a famine if we are lucky to be around in another five years time. The NRL won't tolerate losers of this calibre too much longer when expansion is the key FACT!

On current t form, how many players would you be devastated about leaving?
Currently it’s really only the Fainu brothers, KPP, Fonua Pole, Taylan May and the emerging Javon Andrews that we desperately need to keep on their current wage and potential.
The rest are all either being overpaid or are easily replaceable.

 

[twentyforty]

Only can be speculated from the outside looking in
However I would suggest that Mick Potters below statement might shed some light

"I found it to be a different club to any club I’d been with. It was a political hotbed. I knew the first day I went in there it was going to be a tough gig. I went in there to coach, not be a politician. It was conflicted.""


Doesn't matter that much whether Potter was a great coach or a shit one. His win / loss percentage at Wests was 35% which puts him pretty close to the clubs overall win / loss percentage

What matters is what he was revealing with that comment

🙏

It sounds like such an effort to go to work each day with all that crap distracting from individual's goals.
If and when key people leave, we don't hear much criticism about the poor culture because they sign NDAs. Must cost the club heaps?
Following the Doueihi business, the WT's CEO had a stern message that leaks will not be tolerated. I think the leaks to media are a symptom of a far greater problem. It's the problem that should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
When Madge was coach, he was constantly dragged in for a performance review resulting in HBG wanting more control in recruiting his coaching staff.
It's baffling to say the least that they would get a guard dog only to do all the barking themselves.

Potter had a 50% win record before coaching the 2 spooners WT and Dogs.

 

[Tim Sheens]

Thats true but lately weve really not had a problem getting down to.the red zone...

Then comes the monotone prioritised playing to a position for another run of the mill final play, which is almost always on the back of slow play the balls and facing a set defensive line. The effort running of Pole and then the Doueihi upon offloads tries came from points of difference to our normal attacking structures against Parramatta, after constantly failing to take advantage of overlaps created on our right through misdirected passes and grubbers.

WT need coaching to play what is in front of them much more often upon arriving there, and particularly on the initial play/s against a retreating line.

 

[MotoG]

It sounds like such an effort to go to work each day with all that crap distracting from individual's goals.
If and when key people leave, we don't hear much criticism about the poor culture because they sign NDAs. Must cost the club heaps?
Following the Doueihi business, the WT's CEO had a stern message that leaks will not be tolerated. I think the leaks to media are a symptom of a far greater problem. It's the problem that should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
When Madge was coach, he was constantly dragged in for a performance review resulting in HBG wanting more control in recruiting his coaching staff.
It's baffling to say the least that they would get a guard dog only to do all the barking themselves.

Potter had a 50% win record before coaching the 2 spooners WT and Dogs.

I think that almost all workplaces have some degree of drama, politics etc - Some just have more than others.. Potters comments were an interesting reveal though. Seeing as how he wasn't really affiliated with the club beforehand. He was a proper outsider in that way

The leaks to the media are definitely symptoms of a bigger problem. Over the course of time, it would seem that there have been many..

That type of media leakage coming from inside would suggest to me theres people inside the organisation that are undermining it in some way.

That could happen if there people inside who want to pull the clubs direction back towards either extreme.

Whether its Wests Magpies or Balmain Tigers. Although given the current ownership structure and position of both clubs, one is probably more likely to be taking place, than the other...