Clubs win premierships when they bring their juniors through.”
Those were the words of Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson on the club’s podcast when he officially started in the role 18 months ago.
“We’ve got to make this really clear to everybody out there: we are not a recruitment club, we are a development club,” he went on to say.
Yet this week – just a month after boom 19-year-old five-eighth Lachie Galvin left to join the Bulldogs – the Tigers watched another of the club’s best young talents walk out the door, when Tallyn Da Silva was allowed to leave to join Parramatta immediately.
Only last year, Richardson criticised the previous Tigers regime for “letting players go away seven years ago, and we’ve never recovered”. Is history about to repeat itself?
The pressure is mounting on Tigers coach Benji Marshall and CEO Shane Richardson.Credit: Michaela Pollock
Da Silva’s departure caused none of the acrimony that surrounded the departure of close friend Galvin. In fact, it was so amicable the Tigers all but held the door open for him.
“It would have been wrong of us to hold him back,” Richardson said this week as he explained the decision to let the young hooker go.
So what happened?
Da Silva wanted to stay, and was willing to see out the next 18 months of his deal – even if the Tigers prioritised the retention of current hooker and captain Api Koroisau. Da Silva’s manager was even happy to entertain a loan deal with a rival club.
Tallyn Da Silva scores a try against Cronulla.Credit:Getty Images
But the Tigers still chose to usher him out of the club immediately, getting absolutely nothing in return.
Initial talks had centred around a player swap that would have seen Da Silva head to Newcastle and Tigers recruit Kai Pearce-Paul arrive at the Tigers six months ahead of his 2026 start date.
The Tigers were happy for it to happen, but Da Silva’s agent, Mario Tartak, required permission in writing.
The formal correspondence Tartak received gave Da Silva general permission to negotiate with other clubs, rather than being specific to the situation with Newcastle.
Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson.Credit:Oscar Colman
That opened the door for Parramatta to enter the equation, and Tartak took the opportunity to keep Da Silva in Sydney.
Even then, the Tigers could have refused to release Da Silva. Now, though, they have lost a hooker for the future and handed Koroisau’s agent more leverage in the ongoing negotiations over a contract extension.
Again, the question is why. Sources at the Tigers, talking on the condition of anonymity, say Richardson had wanted to prioritise keeping future star Da Silva at the club. Benji Marshall, however, favoured Koroisau, and Richardson let his coach have his way.
A similar thing happened in the off-season, when Richardson’s preference was to bring in Paul McGregor in as an assistant coach.
Marshall, however, wanted 2005 premiership-winning teammate Brett Hodgson to partner fellow ex-teammates John Morris and Chris Heighington on the coaching staff following the departure of another former teammate, Robbie Farah.
The coach won that battle, too.
A matter of loyalty for Marshall
As a player, Marshall had a circle of friends that he kept close. They all but ran the team.
Marshall has shown the same traits as a coach, rarely looking beyond those he has shared a dressing room with when appointing assistant coaches and staff.
Benji Marshall and Api Koroisau celebrate a job well done in a rare victory this year.Credit:NRL Photos
He also has a strong sense of loyalty towards Koroisau, which clearly runs both ways, with the co-captain staunch in his support of Marshall when his coaching ability was called into question during the Galvin saga.
Marshall’s prioritising of the veteran hooker also made sense in the context of the Tigers having lost their past six games. Marshall needed to look after the here and now, not the future of the club. If he didn’t, he might not have been there by the time Da Silva was ready to be the Tigers’ first-choice No.9.
Still, the decision to let Da Silva go has done little to ease a growing feeling in the dressing room that the coach favours certain players over others.
His relationship with the senior players is as strong as any coach could ask for, but sources speaking on the condition of anonymity said some players felt they were on the outer and that different cliques had developed at the club.
Benji Marshall at training.Credit:Wolter Peeters
Richardson has given Marshall everything he wants, even if it has sometimes backfired – the latest example being Royce Hunt, who is coming off the bench in NSW Cup just six months into a lucrative three-year deal that was pushed by the coach.
In backing Marshall, have the Tigers compromised the long-term prospects of the club? Only time will tell, but one thing is certain – the Tigers have supported their coach so strongly that he will inevitably bear the brunt of criticism if he can’t turn things around.
What happens if the Tigers finish bottom of the ladder for the fourth consecutive season, which would be Richardson’s second consecutive spoon and Marshall’s third as a member of the coaching staff?
The whispers around Willie Peters, coach of Super League high-flyers Hull KR, are getting louder.
The problem is that any change of coach could well result in the departure of star recruit Jarome Luai and even Koroisau, given their strong ties to Marshall. That would make the departures of Galvin and Da Silva an even more difficult pill to swallow for Tigers fans.
‘One of the boys’
There’s no doubt Marshall has significantly improved the Tigers in 2025. They certainly haven’t been as bad as their 5-10 record suggests, and performances have left fans optimistic about the future.
However, on the back of six straight losses, and with a tough draw ahead during the next month, there’s a genuine fear the bad old Tigers of old are set to make an unwelcome return.
Marshall is under no immediate pressure to save his job, but a string of poor results and major off-field distractions have raised questions over his approach to NRL coaching.
Tigers utility back Adam Doueihi.Credit:Steven Siewert
What many say about Marshall is that he still harbours a desire to be “one of the boys”.
Maybe that was evident a couple of weeks ago when things got heated between Marshall and centre Adam Doueihi at training in the lead-up to the round 16 match against Canberra.
The pair exchanged words and the situation became aggressive, according to onlookers, after Marshall allegedly tackled Doueihi while defending against him.
Marshall often injects himself into training sessions, running with the opposing team against his players.
Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall.Credit:Getty Images
It’s easy to see why that could be a good thing. But it also blurs the line between coach and player, especially when Marshall’s swagger comes out on the paddock. Some observers are concerned his confidence could belittle his players in front of their peers.
The altercation did not go unnoticed by other Tigers players, some of whom were already worrying that they were not part of the coach’s trusted inner sanctum.
It’s not the first time Marshall has been accused of an inability to distinguish behaviours acceptable as a player but not as a coach.
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When Galvin’s manager, Isaac Moses, presented a dossier of grievances to Richardson at the height of the storm around the five-eighth’s rejection of a contract extension at the Tigers, he raised an alleged comment made by Marshall that had offended his client.
As Moses detailed the complaint, Richardson interrupted him and accused him of using the situation around Galvin to launch a character assassination of Marshall, who he had not liked for a long time.
Marshall previously had verbal run-ins with Brent Naden and former Tigers John Bateman and David Klemmer.
With every loss and every questionable decision, some at the Tigers are becoming increasingly frustrated. There is a growing level of unrest at the club. Tigers fans have seen this movie before.
A win can’t come quick enough.
