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Blog with Hoops: Insipid, soulless Tigers must cut Brooks loose and target Reynolds
NRL PREMIERSHIP
James Hooper
April 12, 2021 3:09pm
JAMES HOOPER
Source: FOX SPORTS
The Tigers were embarrassing on Sunday. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The Tigers were embarrassing on Sunday. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Source: Getty Images
The Wests Tigers keep telling us garbage performances aren’t representative of who the club is or what it stands for.
After the insipid and soulless opening 40 minutes at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday afternoon, it’s difficult to comprehend what that actually means.
It sounds like empty corporate drivel. Little more than public relations spin.
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Round 6
Cowboys spoil special Tigers occasionCowboys spoil special Tigers occasion2:24
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The club needs to cut its losses on local junior Luke Brooks and make the recruitment of South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds an immediate priority.
It’s not the little no.7’s fault it hasn’t worked out at the Wests Tigers but it’s got to the stage where both player and club look in need of a change.
Brooks has been the Tigers great playmaking hope for the past seven full seasons but after 153 NRL games without a finals appearance it’s time to move on.
It’s a sensitive issue because he’s a local junior who was a Tigers diehard growing up.
The club sat down with him as recently as last month to assure Brooks they wanted him to be the halfback who steers them into the finals.
Alternatively, trying to re-invent his career in North Queensland under his one-time under 20s coach Todd Payten appears the best option.
If ever there was a day the Wests Tigers needed to hold their hands up and show some backbone, it was on Sunday.
Tigers looked 'shellshocked'Tigers looked 'shellshocked'3:48
A sunny afternoon at Leichhardt where they were farewelling the uncompromising, champion Western Suburbs halfback Tommy Raudonikis.
The club even went to the extent of retiring the no.7 jumper as a mark of respect for the Magpies champion.
What they dished up was sadly what we’ve come to expect from an organisation mired in mediocrity.
Wests Tigers club legend Benji Marshall was talking on Triple M on Sunday where he outlined how Leichhardt Oval on a Sunday afternoon was his favourite venue to play.
Gorden Tallis chimed in and recalled how even when the Brisbane Broncos were an NRL flagship they hated playing at Leichhardt and found it hard to win.
It used to be a graveyard. These days the players are getting booed off at halftime.
Is the club devoid of soul? It looked like it on Sunday.
Question is how highly do the club rate madden. Can play 6 or 7.
Also has AD secured his position