Ok well this is just terrible.
I’m reasonably young and I have NEVER seen the Wests Tigers play an NRL Finals game as I started following the club in 2012. My granddad follows the bulldogs, the rest of his family follow the dragons, my dad followed North Sydney Bears, my uncle and sister follows Rabbitohs, I believe my aunt follows Sharks and my other cousins follow Raiders. I’ve never lived near any Wests Tigers catchment area, but one day as a kid I decided the Wests Tigers would be my team and what a dreadful choice I made. As an aside I didn’t even know the Wests Tigers were a joint venture until 2018 at least I reckon and I subsequently used that to brag about how many premierships we’d won technically.
I remember being extremely saddened by Benji leaving but was still hopeful in the coming years with the emergence of Brooks, Tedesco, Moses and Woods until they all left (except Brooks but unfortunately he wasn’t that good, however will also be fond of him for sticking it out). The replacement signings of Josh Reynolds, Moses Mbye, James Tamou etc. etc. all washed up has-beens who tried but weren’t really that good. We lost Ivan and got Madge who I thought would make us genuine contenders but it wasn’t to be. Then Sheens and Benji come back and I’m starting to feel some hope (as I only remembered one year of Sheens coaching) except turns out Sheens can’t coach and our roster is literally a reserve grade side (how many of our wooden spoon players are still in FG?).
Then it happened the review or whatever that sacked the board sacked the CEO. Maybe this would ignite the change. I see the news “Shane Richardson interested in Tigers job” and read up about him and start to feel that if we can get this guy we might have a chance. We get Luai who initially I was skeptical of but he played very well in 2024. We then start clearing out the roster, bringing quality in and removed overpaid has beens like Bateman, Klemmer and other stupid contracts. We get players like May, the other May, Skelton, Turuva, Hunt which all fulfilled vital gaps in our roster.
2025 was a solid year. We started strong until Galvin derailed a large portion of the mid-season but we hung in there and had a respectable year with 9 wins and many losses within 6 points. Richo then signs some very solid depth to replace the Ron Massey Cup level depth we previously had (Tumeth, Matamua etc.). Resigned important players such as Pole, To’a and most importantly King Seyfarth and was on the way to getting Bula and Luai locked up. We now had a very strong roster locked in for multiple years and for the first time since probably 2016ish I felt like we actually had a shot at finals and in my mind we were definitely making it either 2026 or 2027.
I also had started to actually attend games again and was looking at becoming a member for the first time in my life after the draw lined up with the times I was able to watch games. I was going to be a jersey and maybe some more merch to show my appreciation to Richo for making us no longer the laughing stock of the NRL.
But now it’s all come crashing down. I now believe we are a decade from playing finals again. I firmly believe we have no chance with HBG running the joint unless they allow what needs to be done to be done. It is honestly so painful to watch this team harm itself on repeat. Over the years everyone has been blamed from the players to coaches to staff to CEOs but it’s clear as day what the primary issue has been all along and that’s HBG. When we finally get a good CEO and an improving roster with a new but promising coach the tables were turning and we were firmly in contention but they just hit the self-destruct button as they couldn’t believe the club could do that well or something.
I don’t think I have it within me to support another team so long as the Wests Tigers are still in the comp (at this point I almost want to NRL to burn the joint), but I can say for certain I will not in any way financially support this club. No membership, no merch, no games. I know there are people at the club with nothing to do with this who suffer as a result but HBG NEED to feel the consequences of their actions.
I would strongly encourage everyone who can be there to go to the March next Saturday. Email HBG, The NRL, The club about your frustrations. Stop financially supporting them in any way. Refund your membership if possible. No longer buy merch and I reckon if we can somehow do a mass boycott of the Round 2 game at Leichhardt we can really show them how much this hurts us. If somehow we can limit the crowd to under 1k and have a majority Cowboys fans the game will take notice. The TV stations and the NRL won’t like the look of it.
In the past I was always disappointed when a promising player would leave but honestly if Bula, Luai and some others were to leave I would not blame them one bit. This club is an absolute basket case.
Shane was the greatest person this club ever had and I am absolutely devastated by this.
