Yearly review

How do you rate the Wests Tigers' 2026 season under Benji Marshall

  • Pass: We avoided the spoon, blooded great young talent, and showed genuine promise.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Neutral: A mixed bag—the 5–2 start was awesome, but the second-half fade-out was painful.

    Votes: 13 21.7%
  • Fail: Ending up 15th with heavy losses is unacceptable, regardless of the early-season flash

    Votes: 47 78.3%
  • True enlightenment: I have achieved complete numbness. 15th feels exactly like 1st to me now.

    Votes: 4 6.7%

  • Total voters
    60
Season review -

Wests Tigers players are injury prone
Bula is a lazy shit
Maka cant tackle for shit
Jerry is shit without Cleary next to him
Forwards were shit
Marshall is a shit coach surviving off the fumes of a flick pass 20 years ago.
Next year will be just as shit

5 second review is all the time this shithole club deserves

End of review.
 
Iam not sure how this club will ever be able to compete with the better clubs consistently over a season while we have the HBG running the show. We are so underfunded it is laughable.

Of course our roster just doesn’t have the skill and speed to play PVL football. The Dolphins would have 8 players quicker than our quickest, the Warriors would have 8 forwards bigger and faster than our best and so on. The good teams play the game with power and speed, we plod in comparison.

Our big hope is Latu and Javon can add the magic we don’t have at present. Anyway years ago a bad year would have me spitting the dummy big time, now it’s water off a ducks back
 
The whole development club is a myth. Strong clubs pick off players where ever they come
from without having to up and move to Campbelltown. We have allowed our image to become so bottom of the barrel only a complete overhaul of the place will change anything
The cutting of coaches and rebuilding of rosters is not working because no one is buying what we are selling. Benji was a draw card for hot minute but once he is gone there is very little that makes this club appealing to any player let alone quality ones.
 
Priority 1a - NRL assistant coaches & coaching structure to support Benji
Priority 1b - Extensions for Samuela & Latu Fainu
Priority 2 - Strength & conditioning adjustments to address apparent drop in fitness from R10 onwards
Priority 3 - Extension for Fonua Pole
Priority 4 - Doeuihi to commit to being a #13 or free to depart
Priority 5 - Recruitment of an additional 3-4 experienced NRL players to compete for 1-17 spots
Priority 6 - Coaching development & greater support club-wide from Andrew Johns Cup to NSW Cup
Priority 7 - Retaining & recruiting juniors who fit the athletic & skill profile of future NRL players (i.e. size, leg speed, acceleration, IQ)

FYI, just looking at football here not admin.
 
Season highlight....this morning realising its over

Trying to be objective, we had 3 gears this year

Top gear is the best we've seen from the club in the last 5 years or so (scant praise). Roosters game and some of the early season wins, especially warriors for me. Not enough of this, but I think we nudged our ceiling a little higher.

Middle gear same old tigers....lose winnable games, seem almost switched on then concede 3 quick tries....way too much of this but happens to everyone occasionally

Bottom gear....some absolutely pathetic capitulations that rival anything we've seen in any other years, and for me these were worse than previous years because the team as a whole showed they could do better.

As long as we have these bottom tier games in us, we will never return to the 8. The club is too weak for a single performance like this to not spiral into 5 plus losses in a row.

Don't be fooled by any apparent positive from me. Pathetic season and totally unacceptable.
 
It’s amazing how people see things differently.
Saukuru has started really well? I don’t think I’ve seen a less deserving player in first grade since Makasini earlier this year. These kids cannot tackle nor catch. They are miles away from being first graders who actually contribute. They are way, way…way out of their depth.
Bula has had an unfair amount of chances. He does not play with the courage nor the commitment of an NRL player. He just jogs around like a lazy bastard, always a step too late. If we had anyone else who could catch a bomb…which is the only thing he does well…I’d say piss him off - this off season.
You would give Benji a slight pass this season? Why exactly? He has no balls at the selection table. He holds no one to account who is a part of his circle jerk. A player refused to play for him this year and after the team got flogged, Benji picked him the very next week. The bloke is an astonishingly poor coach with a ridiculous record who never gets better. He is a good talking head and that’s it. Same as his lovechild Luai. The two clubs who featured worse than us this year had coaches sacked recently and are rebuilding. Benji is the worst performed “settled” coach in the NRL and this club will not see success until he is removed. The evidence is as clear as day.
I agree. Most of our players, assistant coaches and our head coach are on their L plates. Saukuru and Bula are very gentle type people who would not hurt a soul. Bula defence has always been very passive and was not much different yesterday. He is always Johnny come lately in his defence and even then, it is very soft. Saukuru appears to be following in his footsteps. What weapons they could be if they just had some bite in their bark.
Nothing will change until we get some experience in a lot of areas. That unfortunately is a long way off.
 
Looking at our best 17 for next season (assuming an off season of hard training and coaching for deficiencies), IMO we currently would have:
Bula
Maka
Averillo
May
Tupou
Latu
Madden (replaced with Andrews when he’s ready)
May
Api
Twal
KPP
Sam F
AD (if he is fully committed to 13 only)

Bailey
Pole
Seyfarth
Hunt

Above depending of course on who else we bring in - personally I think AD can leave and we find an experienced middle or 13.
To improve us to the next level we need a quality, hard, starting prop and another NRL quality edge player.
We also need at least one other express fast outside back with some real skills.
Understand that the above are all not easy to find of course.

In my opinion Players who we can let go:
AD
Mason
Murray
Herbert (T and T deal?)
Saukuru
Hope
Lanyon
Craig

Looking at the above we still would struggle if we lose key positions to injury through a season - which is inevitable in today’s game.
 
Priority 1a - NRL assistant coaches & coaching structure to support Benji
Priority 1b - Extensions for Samuela & Latu Fainu
Priority 2 - Strength & conditioning adjustments to address apparent drop in fitness from R10 onwards
Priority 3 - Extension for Fonua Pole
Priority 4 - Doeuihi to commit to being a #13 or free to depart
Priority 5 - Recruitment of an additional 3-4 experienced NRL players to compete for 1-17 spots
Priority 6 - Coaching development & greater support club-wide from Andrew Johns Cup to NSW Cup
Priority 7 - Retaining & recruiting juniors who fit the athletic & skill profile of future NRL players (i.e. size, leg speed, acceleration, IQ)

FYI, just looking at football here not admin.
And all priorities to occur concurrently!
 
I dropped this in another thread but worth a spot here. It really highlights where our weaknesses lie atm & some hidden gems (i.e. Fonua & Royce).

 
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