Yeah Freeman was forced out to accommodate Smith. Jones being Jones he had his favourites and guys like Freeman and Jack (voluntarily got forced out).
What happened? The club was never wealthy but Barnes was an effective administrator. 89 we should have won the comp, 90 we made the finals. Then Jones comes in. 91 we don't win a game for the first 7 or so rounds. After that we got going but it was too late. 92 and 93 the Jones effect hits. He can't coach a RL team and it shows. His tactics are poor, his game knowledge non-existence. The team effectively coached itself. 94 he's replaced by Junior. All Jones' favourites go and most of the old guard have retired or moved on. Only Siro and Jack returning from England. 94 we run last and never had the cash to turn to around. Keep in mind the comp goes to 20 teams so it's harder to get talent with new clubs spending money. Then Super Lesgue hits and it's downhill until the JV.
Good account.
Tigers may have had a star pack in the late 80s, but the club wasn't able to bring in new stars in the 90s as the older guys started winding up. Junior Pearce was replaced in 1991 by John Elias. 93 had Blocker in 93 by Derek McVey and Garry Jack by Morvin Edwards; Mark Geyer that year totally did not work out. Elias retired in 1994 and was replaced by Stephen Scahill (who? indeed).
We were already last in 1994 and then the ARL introduces 4 new sides.
I can't clearly recall the strategies of Alan Jones, I was only a teenager, but I remember clearly the gradual attrition of star players. I remember running out some really really ordinary teams, and the odd Paul Sironen-class player wasn't going to change the result against star-studded teams like Broncos.
I also remember in 1997 when they were talking about re-merging the two league comps, and there was an account in the paper about what each team had to offer the new NRL, because they had to cut teams. For Balmain, the only positives were Tim Brasher and Leichhardt Oval - and that was the same year he mucked about with his contract and ended up going to Souths.
Panthers had a similar sort of problem, from 1st to 9th 91-92, then only making 1 finals in the following 7 years. Raiders on the other hand won in 94 and were able to rotate in pretty good replacements for their retiring stars. I think it helped a lot to be a dominant team in that period 94-96, when all the best players and sides got the preferences, and all the poor teams stayed with the ARL, playing with ordinary players and a half-arsed comp at the bottom end.
Elias was supposed to be replaced by Michael Brown (this is straining my memory) who was his understudy for years but when the spot opened up he couldn't cut it.
Jack was a simple replacement by Brasher. My memory of Morvin Edwards is him being an ordinary Kiwi who'd occasionally play 5/8.
John Elias was there in the 80s I think. He was half decent. Good footwork.
Spot on with Brasher. He stuffed around and the contract pulled. But we had Shannon Nevin coming in and he was just as good right?!!
Then there was Steve Edmed who just couldn't step up without the support.
Jones was an idiot. His only idea was running the ball. The side wasn't as good but a decent coach could have made the finals.
Yeah Michael Brown didn't cut it, I remember there being high hopes. He even had the same taped head as Benny. It was weird for me being a young teenager, because the side was really quite good, and I expected it to always be so, expected there to always be stars.
Then one by one they all retired or moved on, until suddenly it's 1994 and we are the worst team in the comp. That's how I still don't entirely get the expectations and entitlement of some Wests Tigers fans, because bottom line is I love the team and through that football passion I experience the highs and lows, but bottom line is I'm happy enough with a team that competes every week and makes me proud, even if they don't bring home all the trophies. Balmain were sooooo bad for basically 10 years, I take nothing from the Wests Tigers for granted.
Re Brasher, yeah he replaced Jack, but who replaced Brasher? There were all these nuffies like Edwards, David Bayssari, Jamie Corcoran, Graham Lyons, Wes Patten, Nathan Wood etc. Some of them had decently long careers, but just weren't at the level needed to keep the side at the top. Marty Masella cleans houses now, but I think he's doing fairly well for himself with his cleaning business, met him a few times.
Then Will Robinson and Jacin Sinclair - I thought these blokes were going to be the real deal, and esp Jacin Sinclair I thought he was going to play lots of rep footy, but just didn't work out, injuries and off-field playing a part. Funny how many of these blokes also ended up at Souths, we seemed to keep trading average footballers.
