Coach Benji 👑

crazycat said:
Going to critique this a bit.

2024 Benji was kinda horrible as a coach. We had Bateman basically not buy-in and our team flounder. I suspect it was due to Benji being a rookie coach and not learning how to carry himself.


2025 was a minor Miracle. Terrell May being offloaded from the Chooks, after being extended made no sense at all. We lost 4 forwards and had May not arrived we would have been 16-17.

Likewise Luai and Turuva changing the attitude of the team.
Our defense was CRAP! Our backline defenense sucked and our center/wings would leak tries every game. Yet when Luai left Penrith suddenly calls of "will Luai do anything without Cleary" became "can Cleary do anything without Luai".

Now Benji hunted Luai and got him across, Turuva IMHO has been absolutely critical in changing our backline... But we had lost our entire forward pack. Terrell May picked up the slack of 4 forwards with 2 being Origin level! THAT's INSANE!

^leaving the team in that state is NOT good coaching.


2026 We see the team moulded as Benji wants.

A big help has been the faster NRL rules and the game moving in a direction that agrees with Benji's style of football.

It seems that KPP has lived up to the hype. There is no reason why he wouldn't be another Bateman signing, we did not know that Adam Obrien was the problem at Newcastle.

Bunty however hasn't lived up to the Hype.
So far Jack Bird and Bunty Afoa have been Benji's picks and they have both failed too add to the squad. This hasn't derailed us, it does show Benji's recruitment has been hit n miss and we are lucky that our hits have been very good hits.

I really don't know if Benji has moulded our team into the team he wants, or if he just "did a homer" and happened to end up with the right players. Terrell May has been the best luck this club has ever had.
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What I'm talking about is Marshall learning on the job. I absolutely agree that he wasn't ready when he first got the job and clearly he made mistakes: if you want to look at my post history you'll see how critical I was of the Bateman signing from before it was even official. Getting rid of that contract may be Shane Richardson's crowning achievement at the Tigers.

I'm not sure what point you're making about Terrell May. Yes, of course he was incredibly important to the pack going from embarrassing to competent last year, and we were lucky that he became available. This was a team in the middle of a massive roster overhaul: the main priority was getting rid of the dead wood, which they accomplished extremely well. They signed a good player when he became available - this is a good thing.

I don't know what "hype" you're talking about with Bunty Afoa but I certainly wasn't seeing any. He's a backup/bench prop who hasn't been needed yet because other players are in better form - if you thought we were signing Payne Haas that's on you. Not having to use all your depth immediately is generally known as a good thing. I'm sure he'll be needed at some stage and hopefully when he is he does a decent job, but that's all he's there for.

I hated the Jack Bird signing as well but, again, he was a pretty cheap signing at a time when we needed to fill a roster because we were deeply lacking in first grade standard footballers. The mistake was giving him two years but Jack Bird being on our roster in 2025 wasn't the problem - the problem was that the roster was bad enough that it wasn't inconceivable that Jack Bird would improve it. That's clearly not Marshall's fault.

My point is that he inherited a mess at a time when he wasn't ready as a coach, and it's taken less than two years to completely rebuild a roster and learn enough about his trade that we are, at least, competitive. Has every single signing worked out? Of course not. But, as I've said, we more or less had to refill the roster from top to bottom - some of the lower level imports not delivering huge upside is very much to be expected.

Fundamentally, if you're not impressed by the turnaround and the pace at which it's been achieved you're a bloody harsh marker.
 
2041 said:
What I'm talking about is Marshall learning on the job. I absolutely agree that he wasn't ready when he first got the job and clearly he made mistakes: if you want to look at my post history you'll see how critical I was of the Bateman signing from before it was even official. Getting rid of that contract may be Shane Richardson's crowning achievement at the Tigers.

I'm not sure what point you're making about Terrell May. Yes, of course he was incredibly important to the pack going from embarrassing to competent last year, and we were lucky that he became available. This was a team in the middle of a massive roster overhaul: the main priority was getting rid of the dead wood, which they accomplished extremely well. They signed a good player when he became available - this is a good thing.

I don't know what "hype" you're talking about with Bunty Afoa but I certainly wasn't seeing any. He's a backup/bench prop who hasn't been needed yet because other players are in better form - if you thought we were signing Payne Haas that's on you. Not having to use all your depth immediately is generally known as a good thing. I'm sure he'll be needed at some stage and hopefully when he is he does a decent job, but that's all he's there for.

I hated the Jack Bird signing as well but, again, he was a pretty cheap signing at a time when we needed to fill a roster because we were deeply lacking in first grade standard footballers. The mistake was giving him two years but Jack Bird being on our roster in 2025 wasn't the problem - the problem was that the roster was bad enough that it wasn't inconceivable that Jack Bird would improve it. That's clearly not Marshall's fault.

My point is that he inherited a mess at a time when he wasn't ready as a coach, and it's taken less than two years to completely rebuild a roster and learn enough about his trade that we are, at least, competitive. Has every single signing worked out? Of course not. But, as I've said, we more or less had to refill the roster from top to bottom - some of the lower level imports not delivering huge upside is very much to be expected.

Fundamentally, if you're not impressed by the turnaround and the pace at which it's been achieved you're a bloody harsh marker.
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Hey 2041,

All good.
I treat this site as a Football forum. Some people seem to take this WAY too seriously and I am the total opposite.

Happy to trust that you were critical on Bateman and yes it was an early blunder. Even I don't have a life that pathetic that I would go back through someone's posts 😉 My point: we take a football site WAY too seriously here sometimes.


My main point is how much is deliberate and how much is accident?
2025 we lost 4 forwards and by luck we get Terrell May and then Taylan May.
Sure Luai is kinda Benji's plan, Turuva was a critical signing IMHO (as he really upgraded our backline) but not a planned one by us.
 
crazycat said:
Going to critique this a bit.

2024 Benji was kinda horrible as a coach. We had Bateman basically not buy-in and our team flounder. I suspect it was due to Benji being a rookie coach and not learning how to carry himself.


2025 was a minor Miracle. Terrell May being offloaded from the Chooks, after being extended made no sense at all. We lost 4 forwards and had May not arrived we would have been 16-17.

Likewise Luai and Turuva changing the attitude of the team.
Our defense was CRAP! Our backline defenense sucked and our center/wings would leak tries every game. Yet when Luai left Penrith suddenly calls of "will Luai do anything without Cleary" became "can Cleary do anything without Luai".

Now Benji hunted Luai and got him across, Turuva IMHO has been absolutely critical in changing our backline... But we had lost our entire forward pack. Terrell May picked up the slack of 4 forwards with 2 being Origin level! THAT's INSANE!

^leaving the team in that state is NOT good coaching.


2026 We see the team moulded as Benji wants.

A big help has been the faster NRL rules and the game moving in a direction that agrees with Benji's style of football.

It seems that KPP has lived up to the hype. There is no reason why he wouldn't be another Bateman signing, we did not know that Adam Obrien was the problem at Newcastle.

Bunty however hasn't lived up to the Hype.
So far Jack Bird and Bunty Afoa have been Benji's picks and they have both failed too add to the squad. This hasn't derailed us, it does show Benji's recruitment has been hit n miss and we are lucky that our hits have been very good hits.

I really don't know if Benji has moulded our team into the team he wants, or if he just "did a homer" and happened to end up with the right players. Terrell May has been the best luck this club has ever had.
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Bunty is depth why are you writing him off without even playing a game? He was good in the trial.
 
This is on the coach sorry. Everyone on here. Could see in the first 15 minutes Douihie and Luai don't work. Cha ges it after 67 minutes. Rubbish.

Why is not one coach telling Makasini to palm with his right arm?? My god
 
SeanT said:
We beat the warriors because the NZ coach brought Metcalf back into awinning side. They got eaten easily

Same as Benji has done. Changed a winning side and this is what happens.
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I was more concerned with some of the interchanges. They were weak in the middle and thought using both Latu and Madden was a mistake when more grunt in the middle would have been more effective.
 
upthetigers said:
Bunty is depth why are you writing him off without even playing a game? He was good in the trial.
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Bunty surely did not travel across the ocean just to be a bench warmer.

With the extended bench he should be pushing for that spot.
Hey if he is good and better players are in front of him, sure. I really struggle with that considering last year we were SCREAMING for forwards.

Maybe I just don't get it. after 7 games I would have thought he would have made the side.
 
crazycat said:
Bunty surely did not travel across the ocean just to be a bench warmer.

With the extended bench he should be pushing for that spot.
Hey if he is good and better players are in front of him, sure. I really struggle with that considering last year we were SCREAMING for forwards.

Maybe I just don't get it. after 7 games I would have thought he would have made the side.
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He's depth we have one of the best packs in the comp he's behind good players.
 
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