Benji 2025 and Beyond

[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.

 

[Tucker]

Benji should be judged on next year's finish.

Thats what you all said last year.
"2025 he'll have a competitive team for the first time...blah blah blah....".
This guy is being given a free ride because of who he is, not what he has done.

 

[Flippedy]

I think Benji is getting there as a coach, but it’s taking a bit longer than we all would’ve liked.

I hoped at the start of the season with the team we had that we’d finish maybe 12th? Now I’m just praying we don’t get the spoon again! We could still finish 12th or even higher, but it’s highly unlikely now. Bottom 4 is almost certain and the spoon beckons, once again.

That said, there has been a marked improvement in the team’s performances and attitude over the season. Apart from not turning up against Melbourne, they are competing and not just folding in games like they used to when things get tough. They seem to be actually playing for each other, but they just lack the talent and finesse of the good sides to overcome the hurdles.

Like him or not as a coach, I think we need to stick with Benji for another 2 years at least. He is building something and the last thing we need is another change of coach. We’ve gone through more coaches than undies in the 10 years, and its done us no good at all. It’s time for some stability in that area, imo.

 

[Tim Sheens]

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.

Yeah, not utilising your only big man and punch on the bench one match, instead debuting another journeyman and then wasting a strike hooker on Friday, with both games there to be won. Whether method, madness or a combination of both, bottom line is we lost both and our bench use has been an issue for a decent while now for mine.

5 losses on the trot now, and the blame doesn't lay solely at the feet of the squad, nor the Galvin kerfuffle, as we won a couple in a row following the only real disturbance leading up to the second encounter against the eels. Benji still has my support, though it is wearing thin.

 

[Tucker]

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.

You are correct that Benji should never, ever have been hired as the coach. Its the worst appointment in NRL history....but at least he had a mentor with him.
Sacking Sheens before he had even spent a competition year with Benji is one of the worst decisions of the NRL era, closely followed by the decision not to find him another mentor to complete his induction.
The guy was still in nappies when Sheens left. Hes close to taking the training wheels off now.
In another 5 to 6 years, he'll be approaching good coach status.
How do we expediate that?
He needs help, its as simple as that.
Id rather see him gone than continue as is.

 

[Jolls]

You are correct that Benji should never, ever have been hired as the coach. Its the worst appointment in NRL history....but at least he had a mentor with him.
Sacking Sheens before he had even spent a competition year with Benji is one of the worst decisions of the NRL era, closely followed by the decision not to find him another mentor to complete his induction.
The guy was still in nappies when Sheens left. Hes close to taking the training wheels off now.
In another 5 to 6 years, he'll be approaching good coach status.
How do we expediate that?
He needs help, its as simple as that.
Id rather see him gone than continue as is.

Absolutely agree with your frustration around the appointment — throwing a rookie coach like Benji into the deep end of a club in crisis was always going to be risky. It was a poor decision to appoint him so early in his coaching journey, especially without a solid and sustained support system in place.

But I don’t think the solution is to sack him now. That just repeats the cycle of instability that’s crippled the Wests Tigers for over a decade.

Instead, we need to support him properly — and for mine that starts with appointing a strong General Manager of Football or Director of Coaching to align all of the grades, to mentor/support Benji (and the other coaches) and run the football department professionally.

Some names that come to mind: Brian Smith – divisive, but deeply experienced and has done mentorship work before and Neil Henry – calm, tactical mind, could help shape Benji’s coaching without overshadowing him.

Benji has the makings of a great coach — he connects with players, he sees the game well, and he wants to learn. But no one becomes a top coach without guidance. Even Wayne Bennett had mentors early on. If the club is serious about long-term success, they need to stop making emotional decisions and start building a stable, professional football structure around Benji — not just leave him out there alone to sink or swim.

Let’s break the cycle — not Benji.

 

[Tucker]

I think Benji is getting there as a coach, but it’s taking a bit longer than we all would’ve liked.

I hoped at the start of the season with the team we had that we’d finish maybe 12th? Now I’m just praying we don’t get the spoon again! We could still finish 12th or even higher, but it’s highly unlikely now. Bottom 4 is almost certain and the spoon beckons, once again.

That said, there has been a marked improvement in the team’s performances and attitude over the season. Apart from not turning up against Melbourne, they are competing and not just folding in games like they used to when things get tough. They seem to be actually playing for each other, but they just lack the talent and finesse of the good sides to overcome the hurdles.

Like him or not as a coach, I think we need to stick with Benji for another 2 years at least. He is building something and the last thing we need is another change of coach. We’ve gone through more coaches than undies in the 10 years, and its done us no good at all. It’s time for some stability in that area, imo.

This is the best squad talent wise weve had in decades. It needs to perform.
We stuffed up our first 16 rounds being 5 and 9. Our last 11 rounds will be tough. Theres no doubt that the last 10 games are harder that the first 14 were. Therefore the competitive opportunity to bank wins has passed. We now need to really bust our arses to get them.
Should this occur and we go on a run falling just short of the 8 or even securing a finals berth, I will join the bandwagon behind Benji and argue for his continued inclusion as coach. It will be a huge effort worthy of reward. However, if we drop most of those games as expected, we will finish bottom 4 and with this squad that will be a huge failure.
We need 50%...5 wins + our third bye = 26 points and a finish just outside the finals.

 

[Kelce68]

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 think we're talking the same language.

Partly, the point I'm trying to make is, like you said, the good teams win those tight games, but should WE be expecting to win those? We are not a 'good club', we are aiming to be, meaning we're trying to build to a position where we can win more of those, but as we all know, we're coming from a long, long way back.

Point is, we're putting ourselves in a position so often to win so many more games than we have in the past. Formerly, we were lucky to be in half of our contests. The next step, which separates the quality sides, is nailing the chances.

I actually think the fact we've been underwhelming for most of the year, particularly in the red zone, whilst frustrating, has some positives also. We're in and winning games in spite of being seemingly in 1st gear for most of the year.

Time and minutes together in a relatively new squad will improve this by default. Hopefully coaching standards/expertise improving all the will add to this over time too.

If they're beating opposition teams whilst looking disjointed, it stands to reason that as combinations develop, we will (hopefully) improve on the small areas that help make those 9 losses into a few more wins.

Improvement isn't linear.

 

[upthetigers]

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.

Very positive signs people saying we should drop Skelton for one bad game are bonkers though

 

[upthetigers]

Thats what you all said last year.
"2025 he'll have a competitive team for the first time...blah blah blah....".
This guy is being given a free ride because of who he is, not what he has done.

Please refer to our performances against Penrith and Canberra. We matched them our attack is clunky but we have talent across the park. Plenty to be excited about! Upgrade the top 30. Make sure reggies is winning games and have players demanding selection and keeping pressure on NRL players

 

[Tucker]

Instead, we need to support him properly — and for mine that starts with appointing a strong General Manager of Football or Director of Coaching to align all of the grades, to mentor/support Benji (and the other coaches) and run the football department professionally.

Some names that come to mind: Brian Smith – divisive, but deeply experienced and has done mentorship work before and Neil Henry – calm, tactical mind, could help shape Benji’s coaching without overshadowing him.

Benji has the makings of a great coach — he connects with players, he sees the game well, and he wants to learn. But no one becomes a top coach without guidance. Even Wayne Bennett had mentors early on. If the club is serious about long-term success, they need to stop making emotional decisions and start building a stable, professional football structure around Benji — not just leave him out there alone to sink or swim.

Let’s break the cycle — not Benji.

Why havent we done it?
Heres an anlogy...lets compare the head coaching role to a construction project manager.

So you have a talented foreman who wants to step up into project work. You know what his strengths are, whilst being well aware of his inexperience. You are cognisant of his leadership traits, has some knowledge of contracts, can easily converse with the stakeholders and is a thorough communicator when it comes to monthly reporting. However he has never worked with PM software, never constructed a programme of works nor a budget, doesnt understand risk management, and has only remedial understanding of whats involved with quality amd procurement management. More importantly, he has never setup and planned a project, executed one nor closed one out. You talk to him about how different and stressful the job is and he is still interested, so you green light the promotion.
He obviously requires help, so you start him as an assistant PM and pair him with a hugely experienced senior PM and you send them off to knock over a $85M job due in 16 months. Once completed, you do a review (lessons learned) and acknowledge his progression but identify areas of improvement. You decide he is worth persisting with and set him up with a big project of $250M value where he will be paired with your best senior PM. 2 years later they conclude that and hand it over. He has proven his worth, has had exposure to two very different high pressure jobs with 2 excellent mentors. Time to have a crack. You hand him a small $8M job, over seen by a senior PM but he is responsible for it. Once this is completed, you reassess and determine its time to break the shackles and send him out into the world. His 3.5 year development is complete to the stage that he can stand on his own and be trusted, and youll provide further training as required to keep him up to date.

Now compare this to Benji's journey. He has been setup to fail. He has not progressed anywhere near as fast as hoped. He is showing clear signs of fatigue. You question whether his heart is still in it and whether that enthusiasm is still present. Yes he needs help. They should never have released Sheens without providing a replacement mentor. Benji should not have had a say in this.

 

[Tucker]

Please refer to our performances against Penrith and Canberra. We matched them our attack is clunky but we have talent across the park. Plenty to be excited about! Upgrade the top 30. Make sure reggies is winning games and have players demanding selection and keeping pressure on NRL players

Please refer to the performances against Brisbane and Melbourne.
Also have a proper squiz at the Newcastle, Warriors, Rabbits, Cowboys, Panthers and Raiders games that we lost. Yes we were competitive in those games...what else did you notice?

 

[Terry T.Nuts]

Thats what you all said last year.
"2025 he'll have a competitive team for the first time...blah blah blah....".
This guy is being given a free ride because of who he is, not what he has done.

Don't remember saying that at all. Anyone who thought this side at the beginning of the year was finals bound was delusional. The side last year was horrific and showed nothing, the roster has been improved this year but we still have a big chunk of KOE quality players, who I mentioned earlier. This time next year judge the man, with a settled roster who have had time together and hopefully some more quality NRL players.

 

[Tucker]

Don't remember saying that at all. Anyone who thought this side at the beginning of the year was finals bound was delusional. The side last year was horrific and showed nothing, the roster has been improved this year but we still have a big chunk of KOE quality players, who I mentioned earlier. This time next year judge the man, with a settled roster who have had time together and hopefully some more quality NRL players.

I predicted finals and I dont think that was delusional. Hopeful yes, but with a few sliding doors this year we would be currently sitting 6th or better with 10 games to play and thats despite Luai still finding his feet and the loss of Galvin and the distractions that caused.
It was not outside the realms of possibility at all.

 

[Jolls]

Why havent we done it?
Heres an anlogy...lets compare the head coaching role to a construction project manager.

So you have a talented foreman who wants to step up into project work. You know what his strengths are, whilst being well aware of his inexperience. You are cognisant of his leadership traits, has some knowledge of contracts, can easily converse with the stakeholders and is a thorough communicator when it comes to monthly reporting. However he has never worked with PM software, never constructed a programme of works nor a budget, doesnt understand risk management, and has only remedial understanding of whats involved with quality amd procurement management. More importantly, he has never setup and planned a project, executed one nor closed one out. You talk to him about how different and stressful the job is and he is still interested, so you green light the promotion.
He obviously requires help, so you start him as an assistant PM and pair him with a hugely experienced senior PM and you send them off to knock over a $85M job due in 16 months. Once completed, you do a review (lessons learned) and acknowledge his progression but identify areas of improvement. You decide he is worth persisting with and set him up with a big project of $250M value where he will be paired with your best senior PM. 2 years later they conclude that and hand it over. He has proven his worth, has had exposure to two very different high pressure jobs with 2 excellent mentors. Time to have a crack. You hand him a small $8M job, over seen by a senior PM but he is responsible for it. Once this is completed, you reassess and determine its time to break the shackles and send him out into the world. His 3.5 year development is complete to the stage that he can stand on his own and be trusted, and youll provide further training as required to keep him up to date.

Now compare this to Benji's journey. He has been setup to fail. He has not progressed anywhere near as fast as hoped. He is showing clear signs of fatigue. You question whether his heart is still in it and whether that enthusiasm is still present. Yes he needs help. They should never have released Sheens without providing a replacement mentor. Benji should not have had a say in this.

100% agree - but it is what was done and they haven't supported him properly. I can only assume that they thought Morris could be that influence. It is wider than just Benji though - where is the development plan and structure for the entire coaching staff, where is the development process to get our juniors into FG instead of being thrusting them in early due to poor depth. There is still a lot of work to do to turn us into a top 4 club.

Sacking Benji now though is, in my mind, not the right approach. While there is risk with having hi continue his development while in the role to key is to have someone that can work with him. Brian Smith is probably too divisive and may not develop the right relationship with Benji - Neil Henry though is more conseevative and probably has the right temperament. Richo needs to manage that realtionship shoudl he choose to do that.

 

[Tucker]

100% agree - but it is what was done and they haven't supported him properly. I can only assume that they thought Morris could be that influence. It is wider than just Benji though - where is the development plan and structure for the entire coaching staff, where is the development process to get our juniors into FG instead of being thrusting them in early due to poor depth. There is still a lot of work to do to turn us into a top 4 club.

Sacking Benji now though is, in my mind, not the right approach. While there is risk with having hi continue his development while in the role to key is to have someone that can work with him. Brian Smith is probably too divisive and may not develop the right relationship with Benji - Neil Henry though is more conseevative and probably has the right temperament. Richo needs to manage that realtionship shoudl he choose to do that.

Id be happy for a Neil Henry type to come in.
Benji on his own moving forward....no thanks.

 

[Terry T.Nuts]

Id be happy for a Neil Henry type to come in.
Benji on his own moving forward....no thanks.

Neil Henry! Can just imagine the quality signings he would provide us with, and then we could have a halves combo of Fall and Douehi when everyone else has pissed off.

 

[Tucker]

Neil Henry! Can just imagine the quality signings he would provide us with, and then we could have a halves combo of Fall and Douehi when everyone else has pissed off.

Everyone pisses off? Why would that happen? How is that vastly different to whats been going on here over the past 18 months?

 

[GNR4LIFE]

when everyone else has pissed off.

We’re not used to that are we?

 

[Terry T.Nuts]

We’re not used to that are we?

I would be shocked if May, Luai, Latu and his brothers along with Bula and a fair few others will piss off if Benji stays. Galvin was always going to piss off and TDS well he is deluded. For once I firmly believe the majority of the players are here for the long haul, every club loses players but I think we will end up keeping the ones we need.