Benji 2025 and Beyond

[Tucker]

Is Benji doing any worse than the previous 2 premiership winning coaches that were before him? he’s building the culture & the players are clearly playing for him & until that stops he’ll continue to get my support. He has things that he needs to improve on definitely (his use of the bench & our red zone attack) but this roster is still a bottom 4 roster even with all the new recruits we’ve had this season. Other than the Melbourne game we haven’t been blown out like we have in previous years & other coaches are complimenting the boys saying they’re showing a different fighting spirit this season.

lol Yes he is.
He has had better squads at his disposal than the previous coaches had and produced far more terrible results.
As for the roster not being great or “bottom 4” as you have labelled it, that’s on him. He built it and has made decisions applying to recruitment and retention since 2022.
Only the one blow out this year….just a 64 to nil thrashing…it’s all good!
As for building the culture…that doesn’t look great either.
He has got to go.

 

[Bigscreentv]

I don’t think he has to go. Before the Galvin debacle the team was doing much better. They now need time to build combinations between Luai and Latu.
The players play for him and this is something players didn’t do for Madge or Sheens.
Once KPP comes in, Makasini or May comes in and there’s a bit more depth in lower grades the team will be where it needs to be.

Couple of things I can’t reconcile:
- why he insists on the stay in the game first half, Then play expansive second half.
- what he doesn’t use his full bench. There could be method to madness, but I think ultimately he needs to show more trust in all his players.

I do think they probably need another attack coach, but as a leader Benji is what the club needs.

We need to remember this rebuild was always going to be harder than the bulldogs. When Ciraldo got there Gould had already been there 2 years. We have improved out of site, and we are still a young team.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

lol Yes he is.
He has had better squads at his disposal than the previous coaches had and produced far more terrible results.
As for the roster not being great or “bottom 4” as you have labelled it, that’s on him. He built it and has made decisions applying to recruitment and retention since 2022.
Only the one blow out this year….just a 64 to nil thrashing…it’s all good!
As for building the culture…that doesn’t look great either.
He has got to go.

Sheens and Warren Mcdonnell went and promised a bunch of juniors that they’ll be guaranteed top 30 spots which is the reason why our depth outside our top 17 is poor. Under Benjis tenure we’ve been able to recruit the likes of Luai & Terrell May who’ve been pivotal in terms of culture & standards off the field. Now we just need to fill little gaps in our squad and strengthen our depth & we’ll see major improvements hopefully.

 

[Tucker]

Sheens and Warren Mcdonnell went and promised a bunch of juniors that they’ll be guaranteed top 30 spots which is the reason why our depth outside our top 17 is poor. Under Benjis tenure we’ve been able to recruit the likes of Luai & Terrell May who’ve been pivotal in terms of culture & standards off the field. Now we just need to fill little gaps in our squad and strengthen our depth & we’ll see major improvements hopefully.

This is Benji’s roster. No one was signed or let go without his agreement. If he lands in the bottom 4 this year, it’s a disastrous failure…again.
What is the culture these two are driving? Playing garbage music and talking shit on social media? At least May is leading by example on the field I guess but I do not see a unified squad on the field.
Disjointed is a kind way to describe them.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

This is Benji’s roster. No one was signed or let go without his agreement. If he lands in the bottom 4 this year, it’s a disastrous failure…again.

A lot of the juniors were promised Top 30 deals before Benji was even appointed as a coach so no that’s not true.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Drives me nuts when people think a coach should get a pass cos the roster isn’t his. Oldest excuse in the book.

 

[Tucker]

A lot of the juniors were promised Top 30 deals before Benji was even appointed as a coach so no that’s not true.

Were they given those deals? Did they sign them?

 

[Tucker]

Drives me nuts when people think a coach should get a pass cos the roster isn’t his. Oldest excuse in the book.

It is such a cop out.
Especially in this instance where everything has been done to ensure he had the best chance at succeeding.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

It is such a cop out.
Especially in this instance where everything has been done to ensure he had the best chance at succeeding.

Has he tho? the team was well on track to make something of this season before a player decided to publicly bag his coach through his manager.

 

[Tucker]

Has he tho? the team was well on track to make something of this season before a player decided to publicly bag his coach through his manager.

They were looking ok. The team was winning because the new blokes, with the exception of Luai, were all playing well.
I would argue only one of those guys has maintained that level of play.
As for that player…a good coach and administrator would have seen that coming and mitigated the effect on the season.
I don’t blame Benji too much for this, Richo let him down.

 

[TIGERS]

lol Yes he is.
He has had better squads at his disposal than the previous coaches had and produced far more terrible results.
As for the roster not being great or “bottom 4” as you have labelled it, that’s on him. He built it and has made decisions applying to recruitment and retention since 2022.
Only the one blow out this year….just a 64 to nil thrashing…it’s all good!
As for building the culture…that doesn’t look great either.
He has got to go.

Disagree. He's got better squads because he can convince better players to join. He started his coaching career with an accursed spoon side run by a nutcase Chairman and CEO, he's also had to deal with agents and tampering and bullsh1t as well. He's had a baptism of fire instead of an apprenticeship, and one thing you can't take from Benji is that he can own a WT press conference better than anyone. Look at Billy Slater if you want to see the flip side of those skills.

He hasn't been a rampaging, overwhelming success in the time he has had so far. But to be fair he hasn't used up the time that other NRL coaches got in comparable gigs to be successful. It's just too early to tell Tuck.

I'm concerned that we are on a terrible losing streak with something close to our starting side. That's legit not good. That was my barometer for this season and it's not looking great. I feel like this team has way more wins in it but it just needs to find a way to not leave it up to the refs or a valiant comeback. Those are fine margin things that I think most people here are really reading into a lot right now. I feel like if the coaches can just find that extra 5% focus/smarts/concentration on match day, we will be well and truly up and running.

 

[Tucker]

Disagree. He's got better squads because he can convince better players to join. He started his coaching career with an accursed spoon side run by a nutcase Chairman and CEO, he's also had to deal with agents and tampering and bullsh1t as well. He's had a baptism of fire instead of an apprenticeship, and one thing you can't take from Benji is that he can own a WT press conference better than anyone. Look at Billy Slater if you want to see the flip side of those skills.

He hasn't been a rampaging, overwhelming success in the time he has had so far. But to be fair he hasn't used up the time that other NRL coaches got in comparable gigs to be successful. It's just too early to tell Tuck.

I'm concerned that we are on a terrible losing streak with something close to our starting side. That's legit not good. That was my barometer for this season and it's not looking great. I feel like this team has way more wins in it but it just needs to find a way to not leave it up to the refs or a valiant comeback. Those are fine margin things that I think most people here are really reading into a lot right now. I feel like if the coaches can just find that extra 5% focus/smarts/concentration on match day, we will be well and truly up and running.

I’m less forgiving mate. He’s been here since 2022 planning with Sheens before earning spoons in 23 and 24 as a large part of the coaching setup, preparing squads he built. I do not agree we have a bottom 4 roster this year. Had our halves managed victory in even 3 of those 5 games we shouldnt have lost so far, we’d be top 6.
This squad should play finals footy this year….especially in this crazy comp where there’s really no standout top 4 who are beating everyone to a pulp. If we come bottom 4 again, he has to go.

 

[innsaneink]

I wouldnt be punting him.
I didnt expect a top 8 finish this year...thought wed get about 14th-12th or thereabouts though what i thought doesnt really matter...same.for everyone here.

Ive seen a positive improvement in attitude and defense...still lots to work on and the current TDS drama has me concerned as did Galvin (do any of us here know the full stories?)
He is appearing to be quite stubnorn to the point of it affecting team performances - tds sitting for 80- but with the current statenof coaching positions vacant and again dumping a coach early to me seems like yet again 1 or 2 steps forward then 3 or 4 back.
I always thought the "get the defense right and attack will follow" mantra was true but its not always especially with us but id give him next year.
Some more decent assistants wouldnt go astray but apparently we run on an oily rag and the owners are a bunch of tight arses so i doubt thats out.
People get the arse and not replaced just moved and the poor sucker at the end of the chain ends up doing two jobs

 

[Kelce68]

I’m less forgiving mate. He’s been here since 2022 planning with Sheens before earning spoons in 23 and 24 as a large part of the coaching setup, preparing squads he built. I do not agree we have a bottom 4 roster this year. Had our halves managed victory in even 3 of those 5 games we shouldnt have lost so far, we’d be top 6.
This squad should play finals footy this year….especially in this crazy comp where there’s really no standout top 4 who are beating everyone to a pulp. If we come bottom 4 again, he has to go.

It's easy to forget also, we are two dropped balls away from being 7 - 7, rather than 5 - 9.

Its been that close this year. Learning to execute on those close games is something that many middling teams take a long time to learn. Luai should've owned one or two of the them. But there's been plenty. Weve lost multiple games on goal kicking.

I think we're a couple of bounces of the ball away from not even having this conversation. Whilst that doesn't change the output, it's worth considering.

 

[Glenji95]

I do think Benji will get a crack next year but if not I have at least 4 things I want in the next coach

1. The coach can’t be apart of the 05 winning squad so that rules out Hodgo and Payton (though not available yet). Also no to Morris as he seems to be apart of the boys club in the coaching staff currently.

2. The coach has to have been a NRL head coach before we can’t go a rookie again even if he’s been an assistant for many years we can’t give the job to someone that’s never been one before

3. The coach has to have a decent record in making the finals don’t necessarily care if they’ve won a premiership although that would be a bonus so the best one available would be BA if we do make the move to cut Benji

4. The coach can’t be a former head coach of the club (although if Potter was interested I’d make an exception for him as I felt he got shafted pretty badly due to the players and upper management at the time, even though he didn’t make finals)

I’ll be pissed if the job is given to Walters, Barrett, Griffin and even Des as sadly he’s passed it as for the other 3 their records are proof enough that they can’t take the club back to finals footy and it’ll end up setting us back even further if any of those 4 take the job in terms of player development and recruitment. We could be on our last legs in terms of recruiting coaches, we go through them like a used condom.

 

[Tucker]

It's easy to forget also, we are two dropped balls away from being 7 - 7, rather than 5 - 9.

Its been that close this year. Learning to execute on those close games is something that many middling teams take a long time to learn. Luai should've owned one or two of the them. But there's been plenty. Weve lost multiple games on goal kicking.

I think we're a couple of bounces of the ball away from not even having this conversation. Whilst that doesn't change the output, it's worth considering.

Every side has sob stories about the bounce of the ball or a ref mistake.
The fact is, we havent taken these instances out of the equation.
We have dropped 5 games we should have won, had the "best spine in the comp" executed plays in the opposition red zone. Like I said, we win 3 of those, we are top 6. Win them all we are top 4. The good clubs, year after year after year win a good percentage of those tight games. We are winning games that we are dominating such as Rounds 2.3.6 and 9 and have also won an arm wrestle game against the Sharks. So weve been involved in 6 arm wrestles and lost 5 of them. Thats why we sit in the bottom 4 instead of the top 8.
Heres the worst part. We look clueless in the red zone. We are having no trouble getting down field, but dont know how to execute to score consistently. With the amount of highly rated attacking players in the squad, thats not good enough. Last year we had 4 or 5 of these games, the year before even more. We need to improve in this area.

 

[batboy]

Disagree. He's got better squads because he can convince better players to join. He started his coaching career with an accursed spoon side run by a nutcase Chairman and CEO, he's also had to deal with agents and tampering and bullsh1t as well. He's had a baptism of fire instead of an apprenticeship, and one thing you can't take from Benji is that he can own a WT press conference better than anyone. Look at Billy Slater if you want to see the flip side of those skills.

He hasn't been a rampaging, overwhelming success in the time he has had so far. But to be fair he hasn't used up the time that other NRL coaches got in comparable gigs to be successful. It's just too early to tell Tuck.

I'm concerned that we are on a terrible losing streak with something close to our starting side. That's legit not good. That was my barometer for this season and it's not looking great. I feel like this team has way more wins in it but it just needs to find a way to not leave it up to the refs or a valiant comeback. Those are fine margin things that I think most people here are really reading into a lot right now. I feel like if the coaches can just find that extra 5% focus/smarts/concentration on match day, we will be well and truly up and running.

Every side has sob stories about the bounce of the ball or a ref mistake.
The fact is, we havent taken these instances out of the equation.
We have dropped 5 games we should have won, had the "best spine in the comp" executed plays in the opposition red zone. Like I said, we win 3 of those, we are top 6. Win them all we are top 4. The good clubs, year after year after year win a good percentage of those tight games. We are winning games that we are dominating such as Rounds 2.3.6 and 9 and have also won an arm wrestle game against the Sharks. So weve been involved in 6 arm wrestles and lost 5 of them. Thats why we sit in the bottom 4 instead of the top 8.
Heres the worst part. We look clueless in the red zone. We are having no trouble getting down field, but dont know how to execute to score consistently. With the amount of highly rated attacking players in the squad, thats not good enough. Last year we had 4 or 5 of these games, the year before even more. We need to improve in this area.

I shudder to think what's going to happen when the novelty of signing under the Benji Marshall 'Legend' starts to wane and the reality of Signing under Benji Marshall the Coach takes effect.
I'm hoping by then, He was some idea of what he's doing and some more metal behind him backing him up.

 

[Terry T.Nuts]

Benji should be judged on next year's finish. He will then have had a season hopefully with Luai/Latu together barring injuries etc. Hopefully we will have a few more quality signings at this stage the side is still not strong enough to be solidly in the 8, making the 8 this year would've required a miracle with the cattle we have, Seyfarth, Sukkar, Twal, Staines, Doeuhi etc.
The signs have been promising we haven't had the luck of the football gods but with more class in the squad I see the team turning those close loses into wins and we should be a top 5 side next year, then judge Benji. Too fire him now would be insanity.

 

[innsaneink]

Its frustrating...this play what you see style is exciting from deep in our own end...but if were caught in the red zone i dont know how many time i think to myself "what do they do at training" in this scenario.

He needs to settle on his halves and go with that for the rest of the year come what may...and work on attacking plays from there.
Too often players getting the ball standing still...
players getting in the road as decoys or whatever...
breaks made and more often than not its the slowest guy out there backing up.
Pressureless kicks.

Too many wasted opportunities

 

[tig_prmz]

I really wanted Benji gone at the start of the season. I hated the 5 year plan, I hated the fact that Benji was hired in the first place. I keep saying the same thing that if Benji wanted to take coaching seriously, he would've gone to the grassroots and did coaching there.

Look at Darius who's almost the son of the best coach ever doing it with U19s.

Now, with two new clubs coming in and looking for coaches, I'm going to change my tune and Benji is the best shot we have at getting close to a consistent team.

Need to chuck as much support behind him as possible.