Correct, Benny is all about Benny, just look at Balmain Leagues. I don’t think he has a good reputation at anything other than his football ability
Blah blah blah…what a boring load of bullshit.NRL news: Benji Marshall the real winner from Wests Tigers review needs
Nobody is denying the need for the underperforming Wests Tigers to undergo a review, but rather than target the face of the club change needs to start elsewhere, argues BRENT READ.
I spent nearly an hour on the phone to the Wests Tigers independent reviewers earlier this week. Won’t reveal everything that was said but it wasn’t as bad as you think.
I certainly didn’t sense it was a witch-hunt designed to lop off the heads of chair Lee Hagipantelis and chief executive Justin Pascoe, as some have suggested.
Yes, there are problems at the Tigers. They have been in free fall for a decade. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.
For starters, at least from my end, there were lashings of sympathy for Hagipantelis, who just wants to see the club succeed and has poured millions of his own money into making it happen.
Yes, Lee is in the media a lot but someone has to stand up and explain the club’s direction to the fans. Someone has to take charge and front the fourth estate as the club lurches from one crisis to the next.
If not Lee, who? Now his own board has turned on him after a request for him to stand aside as chair. It got me thinking about the Tigers and the faceless few who make up their boardroom. Maybe that is where change needs to start.
Wests Tigers board chairman Lee Hagipantelis. Picture: Getty Images
They’ve turned over coaches and players. Perhaps it is time to look at the people who preside over them. Toss them out and start again.
Bring in some who are more qualified and attuned to the modern game. Real estate agents and former players don’t really cut it any more.
You need to have a boardroom with a specific set of skills and being a member of Wests Ashfield shouldn’t be the overriding factor.
So if we’re going to make changes at the Tigers, let’s start at the top. Lee, as an independent director and significant backer, shouldn’t necessarily be cast aside but others certainly should.
There needs to be change within the club as well. The sense is that Pascoe is on borrowed time, but even if he stays, the Tigers need to hurry up and appoint a head of football to give Benji Marshall the support he needs.
They are being left behind, a point Marshall no doubt made in his interview with the reviewers. Marshall was among the club officials who fronted the independent review. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.
Benji Marshall is the winner Wests Tigers need. Picture: Getty Images
He apparently wowed them with his take on the club and his plans for the future. He looks set to emerge with more power than ever, and so he should. Marshall is a winner and if anyone can save the Tigers, it is him.
When all is said and done, this will be Benji’s club. Marshall needs to be backed to the hilt and there is a private belief among many that as much as this is about shaking up the club’s leadership, it will also end up confirming Marshall as the man with his hand at the tiller.
The ripple effect will be interesting. Recruitment guru Scott Fulton was brought to the club in the main by the board, and more particularly Hagipantelis and Pascoe. If they go, the obvious question is where does it leave him?
All will be revealed soon enough. The results of the review are expected to be handed to the Holman Barnes Group at the end of the month and could be made public as early as mid-November.
Should make for interesting reading. Big changes are coming and while some have criticised the review, my only sense is that it has arrived too late. Maybe it should have been done years ago as the club wallowed in mediocrity.
The hope is that the review can create some blue sky for a club that has been shrouded in dark clouds for too long. If the Tigers can get it right, they will explode. For all their incompetence in recent years, they are a huge club.
They need to nail it and the review will hopefully set them on the right path. Not sure whether my thoughts will make the final cut, but I was happy to help.
There is something Fulton brings to the club and it was similar to what Sheens offered. Person management.
www.foxsports.com.au
There is something Fulton brings to the club and it was similar to what Sheens offered. Person management.
‘Don’t help ourselves’: Tigers beast’s warning over ugly leaks amid key contract clause
‘Don’t help ourselves’: Tigers beast’s warning over ugly leaks amid contract clause reveal
Your in a side coming 17th. You won't be playing finals next year. Yet you want to stay here.
Surely Stephano would be one of the few Tigers fielding offers.
For him to say what he is saying and do what he is doing, means some culture is working here. Likewise the statements from Twal sound good.
It's going to be a bumpy ride for players over the next 2+ years.
Cheika > O'Neil
Stephano has a exit clause if we don't make the finals.There is something Fulton brings to the club and it was similar to what Sheens offered. Person management.
‘Don’t help ourselves’: Tigers beast’s warning over ugly leaks amid key contract clause
‘Don’t help ourselves’: Tigers beast’s warning over ugly leaks amid contract clause reveal
Your in a side coming 17th. You won't be playing finals next year. Yet you want to stay here.
Surely Stephano would be one of the few Tigers fielding offers.
For him to say what he is saying and do what he is doing, means some culture is working here. Likewise the statements from Twal sound good.
It's going to be a bumpy ride for players over the next 2+ years.
Can you read?
It's not even that.
Words are hollow. Let's see what happens when offers head his way. Money talks loyalty is dead.Can you read?
Samoan and NSW front-rower Stefano Utoikamanu will abandon a top-eight get-out clause and pledge long-term loyalty to Wests Tigers – but has implored his embattled club to stop leaking to the media.
Utoikamanu, preparing for Saturday night’s Test match against Australia in Townsville, revealed a desire to renounce a contract clause stating he was free to leave Concord after next season if Wests Tigers failed to reach the finals.
It is a tremendous pick-me-up for the floundering club, who have commissioned a full review into another season of on-field failure.
While adamant he wanted to re-sign out of loyalty, Utoikamanu took a swipe at his club and at those divulging private club information to the media.
This masthead has been told that Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall is becoming increasingly frustrated at the constant off-field dramas and headlines, fearing it may impact on recruitment and retention.
“Keeping everything in-house and not leaking will definitely help – not putting everything out to the media,” Utoikamanu said.
Wests Tigers forward Stefano Utoikamanu pledges loyalty to the club. Picture: NRL Photos
“We don’t help ourselves that much. Not just players but us as a club.
“It just hard – the whole thing – there’s probably too much coming out about us and it’s obviously not good.
“I feel like our club is in the media more than it would like to be. It’s not the best.
“The media bags us a bit too much – it’s not a good feeling. As players, we haven’t helped because we haven’t been getting the results everyone wants.”
Despite the constant drama at Concord, Utoikamanu – who played a game for NSW this year – wants to re-sign.
Although he has a clause, the giant prop officially comes off contract after 2025.
“No, I’ll be at the Tigers – I’ll be at the Tigers,” Utoikamanu repeated. “I want to stay there, that’s where I want to be, yeah.
“This is the club that gave me the opportunity to play rugby league at the highest level, in the NRL.
“Back at my old club (Parramatta), I didn’t get the same opportunity.
“I just want to give back (repay Wests Tigers loyalty).”
Utoikamanu embedded his desire to stay by praising the appointment of Benji Marshall as head coach.
“It will be good for us next year to have a fresh start. It’s probably what we need,” he said.
“Bringing Benji in, and him having this year under ‘Sheensy’ (Tim Sheens) will help him too, to understand what it’s like to be a head coach. I’m pretty excited to go into next year with Benji as coach.”
Key stakeholders continue being interviewed for the club’s review with findings expected to be handed down in December.
Wests Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis and club CEO Justin Pascoe remain under pressure to retain their positions.
Utoikamanu is preparing for Samoa’s Test against Australia in Townsville this Saturday night.
How dare he say he loves the club when he really hates it!!!
