I reckon John Strange would give coaching in the NRL red hot crack.
Coach Benji 👑
- Thread starter LeichhardtBoy
- Start date
Tiger-ferret
Well-known member
Who picked the assistants? I genuinely have no idea but the narrative is that it’s Benjis call.
Jolls
Well-known member
Let me start by stating that the current setup has failed.
However, if you take a step back you put all of the pieces together you can see what they were trying to achieve.
The club as a collective has a stink about it and has lurched from one mismanged disaster to another. There is nothing to build from, no standards, (and I hate this reference) no Wests Tigers DNA, and no direction.
The "Clown Show" brings Sheens back in who has a left field idea and hires Benji to train as his successor to try and lure some talent to the joint.
Sheens is not successful so the Clown Show punt him and sign up Benji up as the Head Coach. The review is done and an independent board under Richo is installed. Richo (and Benji) come up with a grandios plan to save the club starting with building a foundation. This is a plan that briefs well to the board and with Richo's independence and cut throat attitude possibily had a chance of success (ie he would cut his losses if it wasn't working). The plan is to build a foundation based of Wests Tigers DNA - bring in a bunch of 05 legends and "recruit in" some winning standards. This would be the building block to rebuild.
Richo is sacked, the performance improves but is not outstanding and we roll into the next crisis and sack Richo - the board panics and resigns Benji with a buch of stupid clauses and we roll into 2026.
While we can pick holes in the coaching staff the two assistants may be nepotistic appointments (by choice) but I doubt they were selected entirely on merit; they were selected to establish a foundation to build on that was about a team of winners (coaching staff) and a new culture (Luai/Taruva/Api etc). Hodgo and Morris may not be work beaters but they do have coaching experience, and as assistants they don't need to be brilliant, they needed to be pragmatic and dogged in their pursuit of standards.
.... And it was working; until it broke! Tiger forever, Batman, was no longer a Tiger forever and the culture and brotherhood that was building, failed because we were building the house while the concrete was setting. The "new age" family first system was all based on putting the Tiger's family first and when the glue holding it together bailed the brotherhood fell apart.
Those within the four walls will know exacty where the cracks are and the problem children that caused them, and like any cancer, there has been an internal struggle between factions to see who comes out on top. Blame Benji if you like, but I suspect that the standards that he had set, with the team, were pushing us in the right direction. The drop off in form, the AD dummy spit and the subsequent lack of action are symptoms of the issues at hand, not the causes.
So, definitely, the current coaching setup is an abject failure from a results perspective. It was based on a concept that briefed well, but needed a stern hand to execute.
So where does the blame lay? Benji, Hodgo and Morris have something to answer for; but it isn't a problem they caused. They were selected based on a longer term plan. A longer term plan what was heading in the right direction. The blame lies at the hands of HBG, sobotaging yet another plan early in its execution.
No one can say for sure that Richo would have been able to keep Luai and hold the "brotherhood" together. But, Luai was the glue that failed the organisation.
I highly doubt that any NRL coach, past or present, would have been able to hold the group together given the chain of events. So while Benji and his coaching staff aren't blameless; to label them clueless is an injustice.
Clueless does not have us playing the brand of footy we were executing at the start of the season. Clueless does not have the opposition struggling to get out of their third of the field.
Cclueless does not have AD, Twal and May being touted for blues call up.
Clueless sacks an independent board and then offers the postions back after the CEO, that was a key part of the plan, walks.
Benji, while not a great coach, has eaned a season without turmoil to see what he can do. He, and his staff had a plan that was working, and were then stabbed in the back.
We can't be seen to be doing nothing, so I expect at least Hodgo has to go from the coaching staff and the cancer withing the playing group needs to be excised. Pick whatever side of the playing group you want gone; it really doesn't matter. What matters is that come pre season 2027 we are all rowing in the same direction. If it was my decsion though, it would be AD, and whatever faction he has around him, moving on.
However, if you take a step back you put all of the pieces together you can see what they were trying to achieve.
The club as a collective has a stink about it and has lurched from one mismanged disaster to another. There is nothing to build from, no standards, (and I hate this reference) no Wests Tigers DNA, and no direction.
The "Clown Show" brings Sheens back in who has a left field idea and hires Benji to train as his successor to try and lure some talent to the joint.
Sheens is not successful so the Clown Show punt him and sign up Benji up as the Head Coach. The review is done and an independent board under Richo is installed. Richo (and Benji) come up with a grandios plan to save the club starting with building a foundation. This is a plan that briefs well to the board and with Richo's independence and cut throat attitude possibily had a chance of success (ie he would cut his losses if it wasn't working). The plan is to build a foundation based of Wests Tigers DNA - bring in a bunch of 05 legends and "recruit in" some winning standards. This would be the building block to rebuild.
Richo is sacked, the performance improves but is not outstanding and we roll into the next crisis and sack Richo - the board panics and resigns Benji with a buch of stupid clauses and we roll into 2026.
While we can pick holes in the coaching staff the two assistants may be nepotistic appointments (by choice) but I doubt they were selected entirely on merit; they were selected to establish a foundation to build on that was about a team of winners (coaching staff) and a new culture (Luai/Taruva/Api etc). Hodgo and Morris may not be work beaters but they do have coaching experience, and as assistants they don't need to be brilliant, they needed to be pragmatic and dogged in their pursuit of standards.
.... And it was working; until it broke! Tiger forever, Batman, was no longer a Tiger forever and the culture and brotherhood that was building, failed because we were building the house while the concrete was setting. The "new age" family first system was all based on putting the Tiger's family first and when the glue holding it together bailed the brotherhood fell apart.
Those within the four walls will know exacty where the cracks are and the problem children that caused them, and like any cancer, there has been an internal struggle between factions to see who comes out on top. Blame Benji if you like, but I suspect that the standards that he had set, with the team, were pushing us in the right direction. The drop off in form, the AD dummy spit and the subsequent lack of action are symptoms of the issues at hand, not the causes.
So, definitely, the current coaching setup is an abject failure from a results perspective. It was based on a concept that briefed well, but needed a stern hand to execute.
So where does the blame lay? Benji, Hodgo and Morris have something to answer for; but it isn't a problem they caused. They were selected based on a longer term plan. A longer term plan what was heading in the right direction. The blame lies at the hands of HBG, sobotaging yet another plan early in its execution.
No one can say for sure that Richo would have been able to keep Luai and hold the "brotherhood" together. But, Luai was the glue that failed the organisation.
I highly doubt that any NRL coach, past or present, would have been able to hold the group together given the chain of events. So while Benji and his coaching staff aren't blameless; to label them clueless is an injustice.
Clueless does not have us playing the brand of footy we were executing at the start of the season. Clueless does not have the opposition struggling to get out of their third of the field.
Cclueless does not have AD, Twal and May being touted for blues call up.
Clueless sacks an independent board and then offers the postions back after the CEO, that was a key part of the plan, walks.
Benji, while not a great coach, has eaned a season without turmoil to see what he can do. He, and his staff had a plan that was working, and were then stabbed in the back.
We can't be seen to be doing nothing, so I expect at least Hodgo has to go from the coaching staff and the cancer withing the playing group needs to be excised. Pick whatever side of the playing group you want gone; it really doesn't matter. What matters is that come pre season 2027 we are all rowing in the same direction. If it was my decsion though, it would be AD, and whatever faction he has around him, moving on.
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