Halbrowne61
Well-known member
Yes, an apprenticeship under Benny is something money can’t buy.
I’d say if the Benji and Woolf tenures reversed we’d be in the finals for sure.
Coach Benji 👑
- Thread starter LeichhardtBoy
- Start date
I’d say if the Benji and Woolf tenures reversed we’d be in the finals for sure.
Watched a replay of westst game against the cows at the start of the season. Wow! Before all our injuries the boys were playing great football. KPP was fantastic, in both attack and defence. Same for AD. May was enormous in the front row. (What happened to him?). Turuva, Makisini, JL was terrific. Benji had them really humming. My takeaway was that Benji can coach and our players can play. Barring injuries, we will go ok next year.
wstigers11
Well-known member
We have to look at our conditioning too we were so fit then, need to work out how to be like that all year long
Injuries are unavoidable in a contact sport
Its also easier i think to look better at the start of a season than the end of the season when things start to get really serious and teams.are attempting to time their runs to finals.
The game changed too heaps of 6 to goes in the first half which suited us, after.origin...they put it away
The start of this season though is something to build.on, hopefully Latu has good unjury free 27
Its also easier i think to look better at the start of a season than the end of the season when things start to get really serious and teams.are attempting to time their runs to finals.
The game changed too heaps of 6 to goes in the first half which suited us, after.origin...they put it away
The start of this season though is something to build.on, hopefully Latu has good unjury free 27
Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan
Well-known member
At the start of the season the good teams like the Roosters accept losses in the name of honing their style. After 3 rounds Roosters had made a million errors and weren't looking that flash. But they stuck to their processes, improved, and they had a great season.
The physical week to week grind is part of the game that you have to be prepared for. We failed at that this season. Our players were cooked by about round 12.
“It's a pretty thankless job sometimes, where you got to give a lot of energy, time, effort, and you have to also give a part of yourself away to the team and the club that sacrifices your life,’’
Surely the $1 million per season does'nt hurt. That's what he gets paid for. Just has no idea on coaching skills.
He needs more than help. He needs divine intervention!
Tired Tiger
Well-known member
He is too soft on the team and too matey with the players.
Luai should have been in the 14 brining injuries as soon as he fled to PNG and AD should have played out the season in cup as soon as he refused to play.
It's the same old shit year after year at this club, the players hold the power and if they don't get what they want they either threaten to leave or they do leave ....
What was Beji doing for 3 months when it all went to hell and why did the effort only somewhat return for the last month.
It's a piss weak culture and until the club and the coach grow a pair history will continue to repeat itself.
Benji won't ever be successful, doesn't take advice from anyone and surrounds himself with yes men. A recipe for disaster....
Going on players blogs and allowing their pranks in team meetings is sure aging well.
The players need leadership, boundaries and professionalism from their head coach not a mate. Benji has his priorities ass about !
Luai should have been in the 14 brining injuries as soon as he fled to PNG and AD should have played out the season in cup as soon as he refused to play.
It's the same old shit year after year at this club, the players hold the power and if they don't get what they want they either threaten to leave or they do leave ....
What was Beji doing for 3 months when it all went to hell and why did the effort only somewhat return for the last month.
It's a piss weak culture and until the club and the coach grow a pair history will continue to repeat itself.
Benji won't ever be successful, doesn't take advice from anyone and surrounds himself with yes men. A recipe for disaster....
Going on players blogs and allowing their pranks in team meetings is sure aging well.
The players need leadership, boundaries and professionalism from their head coach not a mate. Benji has his priorities ass about !
GNR4LIFE
Well-known member
What are we basing this on?
I got the impression that Marshall relied on Richo to be the bad guy who cracked the whip. Thats what allowed him to be all palsy with the bros, which I think is his genuine perspective. Richo left and destroyed that dynamic.
orange&black
Well-known member
Honestly I look at the teams in the top 8 and compare our individual players in each position in relation to their natural ability, skill level, fitness, strength and size, mental attitude- and there is simply no getting around the facts. Our guys are just not at the same standard.
The posts in here about early in the season when this player or that player was firing - realistically, match them up player for player, across the season. Blame Benji if you like but in my mind it’s blatantly clear we just don’t have the types of players to compete with the best clubs.
Winning games like those on the weekend when both teams have 17 players who are all at the top of their game and putting in 100%, comes down to elite players who can make something from the smallest break or create something from nothing. We simply don’t have those guys - not even one, yet teams like the Panthers or Roosters or Phins have 5 or 6.
I’m not saying we can’t make the finals because we certainly could but winning the comp - that’s going to take a different group of players.
The posts in here about early in the season when this player or that player was firing - realistically, match them up player for player, across the season. Blame Benji if you like but in my mind it’s blatantly clear we just don’t have the types of players to compete with the best clubs.
Winning games like those on the weekend when both teams have 17 players who are all at the top of their game and putting in 100%, comes down to elite players who can make something from the smallest break or create something from nothing. We simply don’t have those guys - not even one, yet teams like the Panthers or Roosters or Phins have 5 or 6.
I’m not saying we can’t make the finals because we certainly could but winning the comp - that’s going to take a different group of players.
Leck
Well-known member
We've been saying this for the last 15 years. The Wests Tigers club has been systematically pulled apart by 20 HBG debenture clowns.
My family and I have not spent a cent at their Ashfield leagues club for the last six years, and we have not bought a membership or any gear since then too.
They do not represent the incredible values of both Holman and Barnes, nor their values and gameplay that influenced how the game is played.
I feel sad, especially because both my little girl and 8 year old little man want to both follow the Chooks.
TigerNeddyK
Well-known member
lol 😂.. Benji likely wrote it .. anyway, I’m really annoyed that Morriss is the fall guy as the defence was good when the team had its first 20 playing, The attack shapes and support play was terrible all season and yet somehow Hodgson is the golden boy..cannot believe it,, Morris is a sports science graduate and has the experience and ambition to become excellent, I don’t think Hodgo has the same experience, skills pedigree or even runs on the board..
TigerNeddyK
Well-known member
Latu and Andrews,,, madden cannot tackle
This whole woe is me bullshit is beyond exhausting to read .
The players are as good as these other teams . Most of our team is filled with guys who were far better than thier counterparts parts in younger grades . The issue ? The leadership vacuum from being a club full of mercenaries for 10 years from 2012-2022 .
Because of this , and the first gen guys like Matamua and Tumeth failing to launch , there’s a gap now . So whilst the top 19-21 are top 8 , what we experienced this year was even though we have the talent , and nearly to a man either here or somewhere else I’m confident all these players will have long careers , they simply arnt ready yet . They can do it dor short periods or like Saukuru can attack can’t defend , but they simply haven’t ruggedised their minds or theier body’s to the 27 round grind of nrl . So they drift in and out , their form goes up and down and ultimately the team rides that wave as whole . Especially when injuries hit . Throw in 2 guys out of the 4-5 “leaders” doing long periods of pretty much the opposite , and it means it’s really hard to get all the guys rowing in the same direction.
I read somewhere we used 40 players this year . 2-3 more than the next team . Which was Melbourne.
The team is good enough . Talent wise , the issue is the mental physical exhaustion of 27 rounds and how to manage this . This is what the issue as this year .
We actually have the talent in the club . For the first time in a long time . It’s now about raising each and every man’s floor so that when they do dip , and then inevitably of the nrl season kicks in , the form drops arnt 7/8 out of 10 to 3/4 out of ten . But rather 4/5 out of ten . Which doesn’t seem like much , but ultimately this will have us there when the whips are cracking , and winning ugly .
We need a halfback who can consistently drop the ball in the box from 50 out with hangtime in the air to allow defence to get down there and apply pressure .
You simply can’t win nrl games if guys can’t put the ball in the box , or do it with no hang time .
Madden is a fine backup . But that’s about it . And AD should be a lock long term . I’d genuinely let him play 6 for the first 10 rounds with the knowledge that win / loose or draw eventually Andruws is taking over. When his body is up for the collision .
The players are as good as these other teams . Most of our team is filled with guys who were far better than thier counterparts parts in younger grades . The issue ? The leadership vacuum from being a club full of mercenaries for 10 years from 2012-2022 .
Because of this , and the first gen guys like Matamua and Tumeth failing to launch , there’s a gap now . So whilst the top 19-21 are top 8 , what we experienced this year was even though we have the talent , and nearly to a man either here or somewhere else I’m confident all these players will have long careers , they simply arnt ready yet . They can do it dor short periods or like Saukuru can attack can’t defend , but they simply haven’t ruggedised their minds or theier body’s to the 27 round grind of nrl . So they drift in and out , their form goes up and down and ultimately the team rides that wave as whole . Especially when injuries hit . Throw in 2 guys out of the 4-5 “leaders” doing long periods of pretty much the opposite , and it means it’s really hard to get all the guys rowing in the same direction.
I read somewhere we used 40 players this year . 2-3 more than the next team . Which was Melbourne.
The team is good enough . Talent wise , the issue is the mental physical exhaustion of 27 rounds and how to manage this . This is what the issue as this year .
We actually have the talent in the club . For the first time in a long time . It’s now about raising each and every man’s floor so that when they do dip , and then inevitably of the nrl season kicks in , the form drops arnt 7/8 out of 10 to 3/4 out of ten . But rather 4/5 out of ten . Which doesn’t seem like much , but ultimately this will have us there when the whips are cracking , and winning ugly .
We need a halfback who can consistently drop the ball in the box from 50 out with hangtime in the air to allow defence to get down there and apply pressure .
You simply can’t win nrl games if guys can’t put the ball in the box , or do it with no hang time .
Madden is a fine backup . But that’s about it . And AD should be a lock long term . I’d genuinely let him play 6 for the first 10 rounds with the knowledge that win / loose or draw eventually Andruws is taking over. When his body is up for the collision .
Always said he’d have killed it in recruitment
- imagine being a 15yr old kid Benji Marshall sitting in your lounge room with your Gen X parents telling you he wants you to come play for him.
He wouldn’t miss!!
Even more points with poly kids and the like - not many people in the country who don’t know who Benji Marshall is.
I think we’re soft between the ears - the same as we’ve always been.
Terrell gets benched (in a round about fashion) takes a small ding in the pride and comes back a different beast for the rest of the year
- and he’s one of our ‘leaders’
Too many happy Joes, just glad to get a run.
Rock Hopper Steve
Well-known member
This is the fear for me, all the knives out for Benji during the tough stretch this season.
If he fails as a coach where do we go from here, he can attract players, where are they going to come from if we start all over again and which quality coach would be dumb enough to come here with our track record.
I'm hoping his coaching comes good he's a club legend, the place would be in a dark hole if he fails.
Jolls
Well-known member
OK, let me be up front. This is a long read and I'm going to take you on a bit of a personal journey with the aim of putting Benji and 2026 into perspective.
What Fort Leonard Wood in 2002 teaches us about Benji’s 2026 Tigers (And why 2027 isn't a lost cause)
Alright keyboard coaches, pull up a chair.
Before we spend any more time stating that Benji can't coach and that every administrator, assistant, and water boy at Concord needs to be fired into the sun after finishing 15th, I want to take you on a personal journey back to 2002.
Picture this: I was posted as an instructor to the US Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood (FLW) in Missouri. At 38 I was a long in the tooth hooker running around playing mid-week unit rugby and Reserve Grade League with the odd depth run in A Grade on weekends.
On arrival, I discovered the "international rugby powerhouse" on base consisted of exactly five people: myself, a retired Kiwi Army representative lock, a retired UK Army representative centre who was long past his use-by date, a thoroughly average retired UK second rower and a solitary US Army representative (average) five-eighth on staff who was absolutely desperate to resurrect rugby at the base.
FLW is the Manoeuvre Support Centre and housed the Engineer School, a Recruit Training Battalion, and the Military Police School at that time. We had thousands of athletic bodies, but absolutely no rugby experience. The American five-eighth asked me to help him to re-build the club. I managed to drag the expats, less the centre out of retirement. I was appointed as Captain/Coach. I utilised the ancient UK centre as the backs coach, and used the other lads as playing assistants. The Septic did the recruiting across the base. We managed to pull together a team and a bit.
Because the Missouri in winter is essentially on the snowline it becomes and icy wasteland of gritted black and muddy snow that changes between slush and ice by the hour. As a result the competition is split into Autumn and Spring, taking a break over Christmas.
Our first game of the season? We ran out onto the paddock and got absolutely trounced by St Louis, 66 - 0. By the end of Autumn, we hadn’t won a game. 8 losses on the trot. Sound familiar to all us Tigers fans?
Was it the coaching? Was it a top-heavy playing roster completely devoid of depth?
The truth is it was neither. Over the winter, when every other team in the comp took time off to stay warm, I managed to do some negotiating and convinced the Commanding General to authorise Rugby training above unit-level PT twice a week. So, at 0430 every Tuesday and Thursday, in the pitch-black and freezing snow, our rag-tag squad of MPs and Engineers trained.
When the Spring season opened, we played St Louis again. We still lost, but we cut the margin down to 20 points. The next round, we beat Missouri University. From there, we went on a run of close, gritty wins interspersed with the odd loss. We scraped into the absolute bottom of the finals on for-and-against. We fought our way through to the Grand Final, where we beat that same St Louis team by a couple of points.
The FLW Marauders went on to represent Missouri at the National Titles in Dallas-Fort Worth that summer. We were knocked out early, playing three games over the weekend, but for a team that started the year losing 66-0 to make Nationals was a minor miracle.
So, what actually changed?
My coaching ability certainly didn’t magically improve over Christmas, and the playing roster didn't change by a single man. Yes, we had some basic skill development over what was essentially an extended off-season, but the real catalyst was purely psychological: belief and attitude.
Once that team tasted their first win, they believed they could do it again. They scraped and clawed through tight games because they wanted it. By the time we won the final, the effort took everything out of us. It was won on pure desire rather than elite skill. By the time we hit Dallas, the drive was gone, and we lost to a team that went on to win the National title. A team that wasn’t of the same calibre as St Louis. We lacked the same belief and hunger on the paddock.
Which brings me back to Concord and the absolute roller coaster of 2026.
Look at what happened to us this year. Round 8, we are sitting second on the NRL ladder playing an arrogant brand of footy. The "Tiger (Viking) Clap" is rife at Leichhardt, the stadiums are sold out, and the footy world is in disbelief.
Then, the mid-season spiral hits. Our lack of depth was brutally exposed after the first round bye and 12 straight weeks of unrelenting football of a style that took its toll. Key injuries hit the core forward pack and outside backs. Then Luai drops the Chiefs contract bombshell, fracturing the team's long-term focus right when we needed it most and AD follows that up with his fiasco which turns into a media circus.
As a coach Benji didn't have hardened first-graders to call up; he had NSW Cup kids who just weren't physically ready. Players who needed surgery had to play busted because the cupboard was bare. When the pressure mounted and the off-field distractions piled up, the attitude shifted. The belief evaporated. Bomber's defensive structures didn't just fail; the boys mentally packed up, leading to those embarrassing blowouts against Penrith and Canberra. Benji isn't a great coach by any stretch of the imagination but this failure was due to attitude and belief in the playing group. They lost it, just as we did when we went to the national titles in the summer of 2003.
If you want a lesson in how much attitude and belief triumph over raw skill in the NRL you only have to look at the 2026 Broncos and Warriors at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Benji Marshall might not be a certified super-coach, but he and his staff proved in those first two months that they can coach high-ceiling, elite football. They didn’t suddenly forget how to coach tactics in May. What held us back was a catastrophic depth crisis and a total collapse in team belief when the off-field circus rolled into town.
The post-season cleanout has already begun with Morris departing, and management looking to install a new Pathways Coaching Director to fix the structures.
The secret sauce for 2027 isn't ripping the whole joint down again. It's exactly what we did in the Missouri snow at 0430 on those Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We need a unifying off-season. We need a couple of astute hard-headed signings to build real roster depth. But above all, Benji’s ultimate challenge is human management: he has to get these players to believe in the system, block out the noise, and bottle that early-season attitude so they can produce week in, week out.
If they can find that belief, there is no reason we can't be playing footy in September 2027. There is a lot to do to get to that point; there are some clear player deficiences to be addressed. The attacking and defensive structures matter but these guys all have the generic skills so that can be taught. Benji and his new coaching staff need to have them believing in themselves before a ball is kicked, if he can get that right (and we jag a couple of key signings) we will go a long way making the 8. Get it wrong and .... well we all know how that story ends.
What Fort Leonard Wood in 2002 teaches us about Benji’s 2026 Tigers (And why 2027 isn't a lost cause)
Alright keyboard coaches, pull up a chair.
Before we spend any more time stating that Benji can't coach and that every administrator, assistant, and water boy at Concord needs to be fired into the sun after finishing 15th, I want to take you on a personal journey back to 2002.
Picture this: I was posted as an instructor to the US Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood (FLW) in Missouri. At 38 I was a long in the tooth hooker running around playing mid-week unit rugby and Reserve Grade League with the odd depth run in A Grade on weekends.
On arrival, I discovered the "international rugby powerhouse" on base consisted of exactly five people: myself, a retired Kiwi Army representative lock, a retired UK Army representative centre who was long past his use-by date, a thoroughly average retired UK second rower and a solitary US Army representative (average) five-eighth on staff who was absolutely desperate to resurrect rugby at the base.
FLW is the Manoeuvre Support Centre and housed the Engineer School, a Recruit Training Battalion, and the Military Police School at that time. We had thousands of athletic bodies, but absolutely no rugby experience. The American five-eighth asked me to help him to re-build the club. I managed to drag the expats, less the centre out of retirement. I was appointed as Captain/Coach. I utilised the ancient UK centre as the backs coach, and used the other lads as playing assistants. The Septic did the recruiting across the base. We managed to pull together a team and a bit.
Because the Missouri in winter is essentially on the snowline it becomes and icy wasteland of gritted black and muddy snow that changes between slush and ice by the hour. As a result the competition is split into Autumn and Spring, taking a break over Christmas.
Our first game of the season? We ran out onto the paddock and got absolutely trounced by St Louis, 66 - 0. By the end of Autumn, we hadn’t won a game. 8 losses on the trot. Sound familiar to all us Tigers fans?
Was it the coaching? Was it a top-heavy playing roster completely devoid of depth?
The truth is it was neither. Over the winter, when every other team in the comp took time off to stay warm, I managed to do some negotiating and convinced the Commanding General to authorise Rugby training above unit-level PT twice a week. So, at 0430 every Tuesday and Thursday, in the pitch-black and freezing snow, our rag-tag squad of MPs and Engineers trained.
When the Spring season opened, we played St Louis again. We still lost, but we cut the margin down to 20 points. The next round, we beat Missouri University. From there, we went on a run of close, gritty wins interspersed with the odd loss. We scraped into the absolute bottom of the finals on for-and-against. We fought our way through to the Grand Final, where we beat that same St Louis team by a couple of points.
The FLW Marauders went on to represent Missouri at the National Titles in Dallas-Fort Worth that summer. We were knocked out early, playing three games over the weekend, but for a team that started the year losing 66-0 to make Nationals was a minor miracle.
So, what actually changed?
My coaching ability certainly didn’t magically improve over Christmas, and the playing roster didn't change by a single man. Yes, we had some basic skill development over what was essentially an extended off-season, but the real catalyst was purely psychological: belief and attitude.
Once that team tasted their first win, they believed they could do it again. They scraped and clawed through tight games because they wanted it. By the time we won the final, the effort took everything out of us. It was won on pure desire rather than elite skill. By the time we hit Dallas, the drive was gone, and we lost to a team that went on to win the National title. A team that wasn’t of the same calibre as St Louis. We lacked the same belief and hunger on the paddock.
Which brings me back to Concord and the absolute roller coaster of 2026.
Look at what happened to us this year. Round 8, we are sitting second on the NRL ladder playing an arrogant brand of footy. The "Tiger (Viking) Clap" is rife at Leichhardt, the stadiums are sold out, and the footy world is in disbelief.
Then, the mid-season spiral hits. Our lack of depth was brutally exposed after the first round bye and 12 straight weeks of unrelenting football of a style that took its toll. Key injuries hit the core forward pack and outside backs. Then Luai drops the Chiefs contract bombshell, fracturing the team's long-term focus right when we needed it most and AD follows that up with his fiasco which turns into a media circus.
As a coach Benji didn't have hardened first-graders to call up; he had NSW Cup kids who just weren't physically ready. Players who needed surgery had to play busted because the cupboard was bare. When the pressure mounted and the off-field distractions piled up, the attitude shifted. The belief evaporated. Bomber's defensive structures didn't just fail; the boys mentally packed up, leading to those embarrassing blowouts against Penrith and Canberra. Benji isn't a great coach by any stretch of the imagination but this failure was due to attitude and belief in the playing group. They lost it, just as we did when we went to the national titles in the summer of 2003.
If you want a lesson in how much attitude and belief triumph over raw skill in the NRL you only have to look at the 2026 Broncos and Warriors at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Benji Marshall might not be a certified super-coach, but he and his staff proved in those first two months that they can coach high-ceiling, elite football. They didn’t suddenly forget how to coach tactics in May. What held us back was a catastrophic depth crisis and a total collapse in team belief when the off-field circus rolled into town.
The post-season cleanout has already begun with Morris departing, and management looking to install a new Pathways Coaching Director to fix the structures.
The secret sauce for 2027 isn't ripping the whole joint down again. It's exactly what we did in the Missouri snow at 0430 on those Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We need a unifying off-season. We need a couple of astute hard-headed signings to build real roster depth. But above all, Benji’s ultimate challenge is human management: he has to get these players to believe in the system, block out the noise, and bottle that early-season attitude so they can produce week in, week out.
If they can find that belief, there is no reason we can't be playing footy in September 2027. There is a lot to do to get to that point; there are some clear player deficiences to be addressed. The attacking and defensive structures matter but these guys all have the generic skills so that can be taught. Benji and his new coaching staff need to have them believing in themselves before a ball is kicked, if he can get that right (and we jag a couple of key signings) we will go a long way making the 8. Get it wrong and .... well we all know how that story ends.
Last edited:
