AN EMOTIONAL Benji Marshall has opened up on his rollercoaster rugby league career & the return “home” to Wests Tigers

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What are people's thoughts on playing him at dummy half?

He can play there for a bit. I view Benji as either in ISP or off the bench as a utility player at the start of the season but he will put pressure on Reynolds and Brooks.
 
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Sorry I can't get that picture on that fateful Saturday with Benji in his Auckland Blues jersey and his lacklustre performances in 2012 and 2013

It might be all warm ,cuddly and feel good , but it makes no rugby league sense to me

It makes perfect sense to me: An able back up half, great experience helping out the younger guys, an excellent football brain - and probably not a hell of a lot of coin tied up.
What doesn't make sense?

It's 2017 not 2005

His tank is empty and we wasted some salary cap on being feel good ,nicey nice

Fine put him on the coaching staff if you want , but don't waste valuable salary space on a has been

We can't compete as it is with the other teams and we go and put ourselves further behind the eight ball

Pretty much the way I see it to. Great marketing tool, probably a good mentor and football brain, but as a player he has about 30 good minutes a month in him at best and his cap space probably could have gone elsewhere. As for being on modest money, I think most people would be very surprised at what sort of money we are paying him.

Further beinhd the 8 ball would be playing someone like Littlejohn in the halves for mine.

We saw how that worked last year and it wasn't pretty.

This is called smart coaching, building depth in key positions.

If it was good enough for Brisbane last year I fail to see how it isn't good enough for us.
 
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The NRL should replicate American sports, where if a member of the crowd catches the ball, they get to keep it.
If that was the rule, Benji organising our team could bring additional fans through the gate, hoping that they would leave with a souvenir

great idea, but do u really think the greedy players like ( smith, cronk and co ) would let the NRL waste money on balls when they could get there hands on it. lol
 
Is weird how things turn out sometimes. Would not surprise me if he ends up playing a major role . The pressure on Brooks could be good for him and the side. Hard to think of a better 2nd halves option
 
lol how used to these headlines are we.

think it's a good signing but for once just wish he'd leave some talking for on the field.
 
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Is weird how things turn out sometimes. Would not surprise me if he ends up playing a major role . The pressure on Brooks could be good for him and the side. Hard to think of a better 2nd halves option

smokey i think could be gamble, think he could be a good signing.
 
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What are people's thoughts on playing him at dummy half?

Don't think his body would be able to keep up with that much defensive work. I'd rather Reynolds at 9 and Benji at 6 if we were to swap them around.
 
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Sorry I can't get that picture on that fateful Saturday with Benji in his Auckland Blues jersey and his lacklustre performances in 2012 and 2013

It might be all warm ,cuddly and feel good , but it makes no rugby league sense to me

It makes perfect sense to me: An able back up half, great experience helping out the younger guys, an excellent football brain - and probably not a hell of a lot of coin tied up.
What doesn't make sense?

It's 2017 not 2005

His tank is empty and we wasted some salary cap on being feel good ,nicey nice

Fine put him on the coaching staff if you want , but don't waste valuable salary space on a has been

We can't compete as it is with the other teams and we go and put ourselves further behind the eight ball

Pretty much the way I see it to. Great marketing tool, probably a good mentor and football brain, but as a player he has about 30 good minutes a month in him at best and his cap space probably could have gone elsewhere. As for being on modest money, I think most people would be very surprised at what sort of money we are paying him.

Finally some common sense , of course its Supercoach

Benji was done and dusted the minute he lost that yard of pace of the mark that made him special
 
O oh Happy…Benji is home..
Marshall: "This is home to me"

Michael Chammas, Chief Reporter, NRL.com

Fri 24th November, 06:30PM
A A
Benji2
BENJI Marshall knows what people think of him.

“They think I’m cocky. They think I’m arrogant,” he told NRL.com on his first day of training back with the Wests Tigers on Thursday.

“They think I’m not good for culture of teams.”

It’s for this reason Marshall orchestrated his return on his own. This has been almost two years in the making. Two years since he picked up the phone and began plotting his homecoming.

Marshall knew it couldn’t be done through a manager - that would send the wrong message. It had to be about what he could do for the Tigers, not the other way around.

“People have a pre-conceived idea of what sort of person I am,” Marshall said.

“Because I play with confidence, people think I’m arrogant. Because I play so out there, people think that’s arrogance. The way I come across with the confidence, people mistake that. The common thing I hear going to new clubs is ‘oh, man I thought you were so different to what you are’. I hear it at every club I go to.

“People are genuinely surprised. That spins me out. The Tigers said this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t reach out. They didn’t know me. I think they might have judged me before they met me. After meeting them, I think they were a bit shocked as to how I was coming across because of what they thought.”

Marshall called Cleary not long after he joined the club. The Tigers entertained the idea of bringing him across from the Broncos mid-season as a replacement for Mitchell Moses, but Wayne Bennett didn’t want to release him.

The Kiwi veteran didn’t give up. He organised to have a coffee with Cleary while the Broncos were in Sydney during the season.

It’s then he outlined how he could contribute to the change Cleary was implementing. That despite a perception he may have been toxic for team culture, he in fact could provide the very thing the coach wanted from his senior players.
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Marshall spoke about leadership and culture. He spoke about the guidance he could provide the young halves and the advice he could pass down.

“Those are my biggest assets. I came up with a plan of where I would fit into the team in terms of those things,” Marshall said.

“But I also made it pretty clear that I don’t just want to be here just for that.”

It’s what the Tigers wanted to hear. They didn’t want a player whose main concern was about coming home to restore his own legacy and build a life after football.

Yes, the Tigers realised the off-field potential his signing would have on the organisation, but it was always about football.

Marshall was given no guarantees. That’s the way he wanted it.

But he did make a guarantee of his own, vowing to do everything he could to convince the coach he was worth a spot in his side.

“I said ‘mate, at the end of the day you’re the coach and I just want to be part of the team,” he said.

“I said ‘mate, at the end of the day you’re the coach and I just want to be part of the team."
“I don’t care where that is. If it’s in the 17 it is, and if it’s not, then I’ll force my way in there somewhere. Ivan was pretty clear in the first meeting. He told me that he’d promised Josh [Reynolds] and Brooksy [Luke Brooks] that they would be the halves to start the season. I have no problems with that. I also have no problems playing reserve grade. I did that in Brisbane and actually enjoyed it. If it happens here, it happens.

“There were probably times in my career when I was here before that I needed to do that and go down to reserve grade to find a bit of confidence. If Ivan feels like I need to be there and don’t deserve to be in the 17 then that’s fine. But I’m going to push him to pick me.”

Bennett did for Marshall what very few before managed to do. He was honest.

He told Marshall what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear.
Marshall knows there were times throughout his time at the Tigers when that wasn’t the case.

“For other people, I don’t think there was a lot of honesty back then,” Marshall said.

“I thought I was going better than what I was but no one here was telling me that I wasn’t. Wayne was great for me.

“He encouraged me to throw flick passes and chip and chase and play how I want to play. I think the few years before that some people wanted me to play a bit more structured, but that wasn’t really me.”
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Marshall’s exit from the Tigers was one of the darkest days in the joint venture’s short history.

The poster boy that led the club to its only premiership in 2005 was out the door after falling out with club management.

“The thing I was frustrated with was that I agreed to a contract here for five years,” Marshall said.

“After that the CEO moved on and the new CEO didn’t want to honour that contract. That was probably the hardest thing to take for me. In saying that, I needed the change. I needed to grow up and get out of here. I feel like I’m in a good place now and happy to be back.

“When it comes to the club, I always still supported the club and it always held a place in my heart. I never ever actually hated the club. It was just some of how I was treated that frustrated me. But I think everything happens for a reason and I had to go through all those changes to find my feet again and find a bit of motivation.”

One of Marshall’s biggest regrets about how he left the club in 2013 was his decision to announce his signing with the Auckland Blues wearing their jersey while still having another month to play with the Tigers.

“I’d probably do a lot of things different,” he said.

“The whole kerfuffle of wearing the Auckland Blues jersey when I left was probably the biggest regret the way that played out. Looking back, I can see why people were so angry about it. I don’t regret going to union, though. It gave me a chance to get away from here. You can get comfortable somewhere and I think that happened the back end of my time here.

“But this is where I’m from. I walk in here and feel like I belong here. I don’t walk here and feel like I’m new. The other day they played a video of the club’s history, and I was in that video.

"This is home.”
http://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2017/11/24/marshall_this_is_hom.html
 
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O oh Happy…Benji is home..
Marshall: "This is home to me"

Michael Chammas, Chief Reporter, NRL.com

Fri 24th November, 06:30PM
A A
Benji2
BENJI Marshall knows what people think of him.

“They think I’m cocky. They think I’m arrogant,” he told NRL.com on his first day of training back with the Wests Tigers on Thursday.

“They think I’m not good for culture of teams.”

It’s for this reason Marshall orchestrated his return on his own. This has been almost two years in the making. Two years since he picked up the phone and began plotting his homecoming.

Marshall knew it couldn’t be done through a manager - that would send the wrong message. It had to be about what he could do for the Tigers, not the other way around.

“People have a pre-conceived idea of what sort of person I am,” Marshall said.

“Because I play with confidence, people think I’m arrogant. Because I play so out there, people think that’s arrogance. The way I come across with the confidence, people mistake that. The common thing I hear going to new clubs is ‘oh, man I thought you were so different to what you are’. I hear it at every club I go to.

“People are genuinely surprised. That spins me out. The Tigers said this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t reach out. They didn’t know me. I think they might have judged me before they met me. After meeting them, I think they were a bit shocked as to how I was coming across because of what they thought.”

Marshall called Cleary not long after he joined the club. The Tigers entertained the idea of bringing him across from the Broncos mid-season as a replacement for Mitchell Moses, but Wayne Bennett didn’t want to release him.

The Kiwi veteran didn’t give up. He organised to have a coffee with Cleary while the Broncos were in Sydney during the season.

It’s then he outlined how he could contribute to the change Cleary was implementing. That despite a perception he may have been toxic for team culture, he in fact could provide the very thing the coach wanted from his senior players.
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Marshall spoke about leadership and culture. He spoke about the guidance he could provide the young halves and the advice he could pass down.

“Those are my biggest assets. I came up with a plan of where I would fit into the team in terms of those things,” Marshall said.

“But I also made it pretty clear that I don’t just want to be here just for that.”

It’s what the Tigers wanted to hear. They didn’t want a player whose main concern was about coming home to restore his own legacy and build a life after football.

Yes, the Tigers realised the off-field potential his signing would have on the organisation, but it was always about football.

Marshall was given no guarantees. That’s the way he wanted it.

But he did make a guarantee of his own, vowing to do everything he could to convince the coach he was worth a spot in his side.

“I said ‘mate, at the end of the day you’re the coach and I just want to be part of the team,” he said.

“I said ‘mate, at the end of the day you’re the coach and I just want to be part of the team."
“I don’t care where that is. If it’s in the 17 it is, and if it’s not, then I’ll force my way in there somewhere. Ivan was pretty clear in the first meeting. He told me that he’d promised Josh [Reynolds] and Brooksy [Luke Brooks] that they would be the halves to start the season. I have no problems with that. I also have no problems playing reserve grade. I did that in Brisbane and actually enjoyed it. If it happens here, it happens.

“There were probably times in my career when I was here before that I needed to do that and go down to reserve grade to find a bit of confidence. If Ivan feels like I need to be there and don’t deserve to be in the 17 then that’s fine. But I’m going to push him to pick me.”

Bennett did for Marshall what very few before managed to do. He was honest.

He told Marshall what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear.
Marshall knows there were times throughout his time at the Tigers when that wasn’t the case.

“For other people, I don’t think there was a lot of honesty back then,” Marshall said.

“I thought I was going better than what I was but no one here was telling me that I wasn’t. Wayne was great for me.

“He encouraged me to throw flick passes and chip and chase and play how I want to play. I think the few years before that some people wanted me to play a bit more structured, but that wasn’t really me.”
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\
\
\
\
Marshall’s exit from the Tigers was one of the darkest days in the joint venture’s short history.

The poster boy that led the club to its only premiership in 2005 was out the door after falling out with club management.

“The thing I was frustrated with was that I agreed to a contract here for five years,” Marshall said.

“After that the CEO moved on and the new CEO didn’t want to honour that contract. That was probably the hardest thing to take for me. In saying that, I needed the change. I needed to grow up and get out of here. I feel like I’m in a good place now and happy to be back.

“When it comes to the club, I always still supported the club and it always held a place in my heart. I never ever actually hated the club. It was just some of how I was treated that frustrated me. But I think everything happens for a reason and I had to go through all those changes to find my feet again and find a bit of motivation.”

One of Marshall’s biggest regrets about how he left the club in 2013 was his decision to announce his signing with the Auckland Blues wearing their jersey while still having another month to play with the Tigers.

“I’d probably do a lot of things different,” he said.

“The whole kerfuffle of wearing the Auckland Blues jersey when I left was probably the biggest regret the way that played out. Looking back, I can see why people were so angry about it. I don’t regret going to union, though. It gave me a chance to get away from here. You can get comfortable somewhere and I think that happened the back end of my time here.

“But this is where I’m from. I walk in here and feel like I belong here. I don’t walk here and feel like I’m new. The other day they played a video of the club’s history, and I was in that video.

"This is home.”
http://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2017/11/24/marshall_this_is_hom.html

Short memory Benchy

Mick Potter tried to tell you what you needed to hear when you he benched you , but you didn't have you hearing aid switched on did you
 
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Benji is a champion isn't he.

Much like Farah , he was a champion

Then he chose to spit on my club

I support a team not players , Benji pooed on my team sorry

WTFL :sign:

How did either of those guys spit on the club?

I consider Farah had amongst the strongest black, white and orange blood of all of WT's existence - could not be far wrong.
 
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Benji is a champion isn't he.

Much like Farah , he was a champion

Then he chose to spit on my club

I support a team not players , Benji pooed on my team sorry

WTFL :sign:

How did either of those guys spit on the club?

As previously stated Benji came out the day after a Friday night game wearing an Auckland Blues jersey and then after telling all and sundry how he had bled for the club when all could see he definitely wasn't from 2012 onwards that he got slack at the Tigers when he signed with Brisbane ….

But that's OK it's Benji , he produced a flick pass in 2005 , he has proven like other superstars like Cam Smith ,Cronk , Slater ,Thurston ,Gallen that age hasn't affected him in anyway shape or form :unamused:
 
Wearing the jersey was childish but not crapping on the club for mine. If anything he was crapped on as was farah.
 
I think he's matured since he left, and his failure in Union, being low balled by the Dragons and being 3rd string halfback at Brisbane has probably humbled him too. I'm not expecting much from him on the field, but I believe he'll be a massive asset off it.
 
Benji admits his mistake in relation to wearing that jumper and called up Cleary and wanted back in. He always showed respect to the club and the fans and considers himself a Tiger. Robbie may have had some issues but he gave his all for the Tigers.

Then you look at the prima-donnas like Tedesco who never showed the club respect and acted like complete and utter muppets.

Interesting the guy who tried to justify Tedesco's actions is on here crucifying Benji who led us to a premiership and was a driving force behind a period of time when we were a solid club. Benji made some mistakes but overall he has added so much to our club.
 
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Benji admits his mistake in relation to wearing that jumper and called up Cleary and wanted back in. He always showed respect to the club and the fans and considers himself a Tiger. Robbie may have had some issues but he gave his all for the Tigers.

Then you look at the prima-donnas like Tedesco who never showed the club respect and acted like complete and utter muppets.

Interesting the guy who tried to justify Tedesco's actions is on here crucifying Benji who led us to a premiership and was a driving force behind a period of time when we were a solid club. Benji made some mistakes but overall he has added so much to our club.

Tedesco is ancient history , as is Woods and Ava

Won't be easy to replace

I hope we kick every one's butts in 2018

Talking about Ava , funny how you never slated Ava like you did Woods and Tedesco

But hey , we are all different , takes all types to make the world go around
 
Ava more or less said "I've got a better offer, I'm moving on, thanks for the memories" - addressed to the fans on twitter

Woods and Tedesco had different versions of "my inferior colleagues aren't good enough to get me to the finals, which I'm entitled to!! Plus, the club refused my request for gold plated toilet paper, how else will Joe wipe up the crap that comes from my mouth and make me feel good again". Addressed to newscorp.

Exactly the same. Good luck selling that one mate.

Edit - just read the other thread taken over by the Hapster. I'm seeing a trend here, were you in a Nike ad recently mate? Just take a chill pill, dude. We will all put the boot in if we suck again, until then enjoy the hope you claim to have.
 
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