My Thoughts On 2023 So Far...

Jolls said:
I think there are a couple of things holding our team back.

Leadership is one - but not the leadership that the Captain brings. There has been a distinct improvement in our go forward through the inclusion of Klemmer, Bateman and Papali'i. The type of leadership that starts at training - doing the extras, leading by example and not letting shit slide with others. This is lacking in our backs; Bula, Tupou and Toa need examples of what right looks like. A backline leader who doesn't let shit slide, the equivalent of a Klemmer or Bateman demanding performance. Those players should be Brooks and Nofa - but they don't have it in them.

We need to purchase two leaders - a half and a centre. They don't have to be marquee players, but exceptional leaders. With that I think we are over our biggest hurdle.

Courage is the other. I think we are starting to see this in our club. It doesn't come overnight but it starts by making the hard right decisions. Letting Offa go, dropping Nofa and Blore to develop their games, sending Naden back to ressies to work on his mental approach, blooding Bula and even a couple form the board - hiring Fulton and sacking McDonald. There is improvement needed but it looks to be heading in the right direction.

If we can develop those two aspects going forward we will see drastic improvements. We have shown that we have the skills, now it is abut developing consistency and hardness. Doing the right thing each and every time, putting your mate before yourself - every time, putting the team before your mates - every time.

Buy two leaders for our backline and we make the 8. Buy leaders with real strike strike and we could be top 4. Invest in the leadership of our junior NRL players and the board and we could create a dynasty.
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I would have thought the solution can be found in fixing that issue?
 
hank37w said:
Maybe I'm going a bit overboard with this rant, but like many on here, I am just sick and tired of Wests Tigers being losers.
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I think it's a non issue but I think basically most of our issues are non issues. The problem is the bolded part and I hear you. I also don't have any answers but typically simplistic solutions don't work.

The only point I'd make is that the Tigers crappy on field performance is not in my control so all I can do is accept it, try not and get too down and enjoy the positives when they come up. It's not easy though.
 
hank37w said:
Taking one of our home games to New Zealand is supposedly our thank you to the Warriors for the sacrifices they made during COVID, ...
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No it not. We have been taking a game to NZ for most of our history. It is due to the previously stated financial incentives. It was briefly marketed this year as thank you as it sounds better than saying were returning to the practice of giving up a home game in exchange for cash.
 
hank37w said:
Taking one of our home games to New Zealand is supposedly our thank you to the Warriors for the sacrifices they made during COVID, which on the surface seems like a good thing to do, if every club did the same and the Warriors, apart from Magic Round, could have played every game at home.

Maybe they could have even been asked by the NRL if they would have liked to have a bye during Magic Round.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think we are the only club that is doing this and no doubts about it, this is a wonderful gesture on our part giving back to Warriors supporters and giving the Warriors a bit of a leg up.

Looking at the way the Warriors are going with one of our ex coaches on board they probably don't need the leg up, as a matter of fact, we could use about 20 points start to even things up.

As some have already pointed out, there must be some sort of financial incentive involved here, which seems to be the only thing that the management of this club seem to care about, don't worry about what is the best way to get wins on the board, just keep doing things to give other teams a leg up.

Let's face it we are much too nice, while other teams take advantage of every available loophole and bend every rule and jump up and down about dodgy officiating to get the rub of the green in subsequent weeks we meekly and mildly cop it up the arse, stand back while our best players get smashed by grubs, release players to assist rival clubs with out any visible benefit to us, and on and on it seems to go.

Maybe I'm going a bit overboard with this rant, but like many on here, I am just sick and tired of Wests Tigers being losers.
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"Let's face it we are much to nice" goes all the way through our club hank37w.
Madge Maguire knew our players were too nice/soft and tried his hardest to change that, but that resulted in him being sacked 😕
New coaching team, but our players are still too nice.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we need a JWH type player to get our blokes stirred up, to get them firing as he did for the Roosters when he went on in the 2nd half of last night's game.
 
Things were looking really good after a terrible start. We looked like we had finally got a competitive team that was going to rack up a few wins and could even get close to the eight. Then it all goes sour once again. A terrible effort against the coast, coupled with two major injuries.

This year now looks like all the others where we meekly roll over when the going gets tough. At least last year we had some signings in the bank to give us some hope for the following year. This year we have nothing.

Anyway what do you expect, we have a board and CEO working to a different plan to the coach and the football department. What little hope we have needs everyone working together.

Okay there are positives like Bulla, Topou, Bateman and Klemmer, but that will mean nothing when we collect the spoon again
 
In the end when you strip it all back a team’s results come down to quality of the roster. That’s the foundation- from there you perform to your ability, sometimes over and above, sometimes well below.
So when you look at the other clubs, even the ones with similar wins as us, Dragons, Cows, Dogs, Knights etc. they all have better rosters than us across the park, particularly in the backs and with marquee type players.
Realistically we are probably placed just about where we deserve to be.
 
In the end with all due respect someone offers these players contracts. You can only cook with what ingredients you have in front of you Tiger SJ.
 
When did "Rome wasn't built in 1 day" stop being relevant?

Yes, there have been multiple years of failure, but you have to compartmentalise these into coaching lifetimes. Because each new coach is not supposed to be a carry-on of the last, but a new start.

We are in the infancy stage of what Sheens & Benji are trying to do. So far it has dramatically improved Tupou & To'a, and found Bula. We have imported some quality in the forwards to add to this. Da Silva now looks to be on the cusp of getting a taste of 1st grade.

It's a process. Instead of continuing along with the same players as before, there has been a dramatic facelift. And it's continuing each week it seems.

The Bulldogs didn't pitchfork Gould after 1 year. His plan is what is implemented at the Panthers. The same model we are trying to follow.
 
earl said:
I think it's a non issue but I think basically most of our issues are non issues. The problem is the bolded part and I hear you. I also don't have any answers but typically simplistic solutions don't work.

The only point I'd make is that the Tigers crappy on field performance is not in my control so all I can do is accept it, try not and get too down and enjoy the positives when they come up. It's not easy though.
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Positives . . . . . . . . . waiting.
 
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gregjm87 said:
No it not. We have been taking a game to NZ for most of our history. It is due to the previously stated financial incentives. It was briefly marketed this year as thank you as it sounds better than saying were returning to the practice of giving up a home game in exchange for cash.
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My memory is not that good and you will have to help me out here with a bit of historical information regarding us taking our home games to NZ.

We are playing the Warriors twice in NZ this year in the NRL competition.

One of those games is our home game which we will play over there as previously outlined.

In the 2022 season we played a home game at Cambo which I remember because it was actually on my birthday in March.

The second game was in NZ and was in July I think, and was billed as the first game the Warriors played at home since the 2019 season.

We may very well be planning to play some home games in New Zealand in the future but I was not aware that it had been a common practice for us to play one of our home games in New Zealand prior to 2022, I would go so far as to say that historically we have probably played more games against the Warriors in Australia than we have in New Zealand.
 
Take your word for it Ink, but must have been early 2000's, memory not what it used to be.

I think there was talk about us playing some of our home games against the Warriors over the next couple of seasons at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.
 
hank37w said:
Take your word for it Ink, but must have been early 2000's, memory not what it used to be.

I think there was talk about us playing some of our home games against the Warriors over the next couple of seasons at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.
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Played three games there from ‘04-‘06.
 
hank37w said:
My memory is not that good and you will have to help me out here with a bit of historical information regarding us taking our home games to NZ.

We are playing the Warriors twice in NZ this year in the NRL competition.

One of those games is our home game which we will play over there as previously outlined.

In the 2022 season we played a home game at Cambo which I remember because it was actually on my birthday in March.

The second game was in NZ and was in July I think, and was billed as the first game the Warriors played at home since the 2019 season.

We may very well be planning to play some home games in New Zealand in the future but I was not aware that it had been a common practice for us to play one of our home games in New Zealand prior to 2022, I would go so far as to say that historically we have probably played more games against the Warriors in Australia than we have in New Zealand.
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There was a game against Storm in NZ that stands out in memory. Think 2018, we won by a Benji field goal.
I know there have been others in the past but can't recall when.
 
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