OFFICIAL Q&A Club discussion with Shaun Mielekamp

snopez said:
Some further questions on the football department for you @ShaunMielekamp

I understand Pat Richards, in his new role as General Manager is conducting a season review. Will a summary of the review findings be released publicly at all?

In 2027, will Benji Marshall report directly to Pat Richards in his role as General Manager of the football department, the new Coaching Director position or you as CEO?

You've mentioned in a few different interviews and posts here that the club standards dropped off as the year progressed, how did you & Benji Marshall allow that to happen—and why did neither of you realise they were dropping at the time?

You've indicated that investment in pathways is a key focus moving forward. In terms of financial investment across coaches, talent scouts and other off-field staff, where do we currently rank across the 18 clubs and where will we be in 12 months?
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Hey Snopez
Pat Richards is GM of the NRL and his role is to take things off the plate from the head coach who we recoginised was having to many distractions rather than being 100% focussed on coaching the team.
Benji & Pat both report directly to the board and myself which is the standard set up at any NRL club.

I'm not exactly sure of the financials of all the other clubs in regards to pathways, one of our challenges is that we spread our resources across two pathways to cover the inner west and south west regions. We have a big catchment and our guestimate is that we rank somewhere between 10-14th in pathways spend. The aim is to show string growth and improvement with the increased spend on pathways that will give confidence to continue to invest here.
 
ShaunMielekamp said:
Hey Leck

Sorry if you felt I wasn't clear enough in my previous responses, not trying to be political just trying to be appropriate on public commentary. One of those changes is for us to be more confidential with internal matters at the club and getting the balance between that and also being transparent is a challenge in a club with so much media scrutiny.

I share the admiration for the Knights season and we have paid close attention to them in particular to how they went about their Vegas campaign from last year.

The last word any fans want to hear from me is 'rebuild' and that is not what we are doing. The improvements for 2027 will come from being consistent, lifting standards, reducing distractions, reducing injuries and delivering strong leadership. We are backing our players and people at the club to continue to improve, we showed at the back end of last year that we have a team that can beat the eventual premiers so it is about getting it right rather than looking for a new saviour or a big play.
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Hi Shaun,

Thank you for your reply, and whilst I understand that your job is to ensure that you keep the Wests Tigers fans happy with engagement, there's nothing that makes fans happier than wins.

Your comment about our second half of the season doesn't make any sense. If you perceive that losses are an improvement, and hanging your coat on the win against the Roosters is an indication of how the team is progressing, then God help us in 2027.

"we showed at the back end of last year that we have a team that can beat the eventual premiers so it is about getting it right rather than looking for a new saviour or a big play."

Round 14: Lost to Penrith Panthers (0–68)
Round 15: Won against Gold Coast Titans (36–28)
Round 16: Lost to Dolphins (22–36)
Round 17: Lost to Newcastle Knights (6–12)
Round 18: Lost to St. George Illawarra Dragons (10–24)
Round 19: Lost to New Zealand Warriors (6–32)
Round 20: Lost to Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (0–32)
Round 21: Lost to Canberra Raiders (10–56)
Round 22: Lost to Parramatta Eels (13–16)
Round 23: Bye
Round 24: Lost to St. George Illawarra Dragons (22–24)
Round 25: Won against Sydney Roosters (25–24)
Round 26: Lost to North Queensland Cowboys (10–24)
Round 27: Lost to Penrith Panthers (10–38)
 
Cultured_Bogan said:
I have a question:

What is the clubs fascination with surrounding our coach with former teammates in key roles where they seemingly appear to be lacking in qualification as much Benji was when he was appointed? Is this down to lack of interest in coming to the club (can't say I would blame any potential employees from steering clear,) or has Benji been given sole say in whom surrounds him?

I would think that a young coach who has done an 8 month apprenticeship before being handed the keys would need some experienced heads surrounding him to help him develop in the role and provide insights that only years within systems will give you. I know that neither Shaun, nor Shane, was responsible for the appointment of Benji and early release of Sheens, but learning on the fly as a head coach without any stewardship from an experienced mentor, while very much something I am not surprised that the WT has decided to partake in, very much smacks of desperation and/or lack of planning.

I fear that a "boys club" will create conflicts of interest in regard to providing what should be an unbiased assessment of performance by the coaching staff. If the right external candidate becomes available in an assistant coach/coaching director/director of football role, will the club make the tough decision to improve upon the talent/experience we already have.
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Hey Cultured Bogan

I do think that in principle most clubs have employed past players who understand the club and culture. I'm not saying the balance here has always been right but clubs in all sports around the world often employed for players that were successful at the club.

In regards to our recent appointments the process and policy in place for the recruitment of coaches involved a panel that made recommendations for Benji to make his final selection from. The head coach should always be empowered to select his staff but the role of the club is to make sure the best candidates are the only options the coach should choose from.

This process has not always been properly implemented here over the years but I am determined to ensure that the way we hire people continues to improve.
 
Shaun
Youve mentioned standards values and culture today in several posts.

Theres been mention from some of the female.players that they were only informed via social media they werent part of future plans at the club.

Very disappointing if accurate.

I know theres two sides to every story
 
Surfers Paradise WT Fan said:
Hey Shaun,

Just wanted to throw a few points your way as a frustrated but loyal fan. It’s been 16 long years without finals and our last game was over a month ago now. With the World Cup, a massive trip to Vegas, and the upcoming season, the club needs to be preparing and building momentum right now. Here are four immediate, low-cost things that would make a massive difference to the culture and the matchday experience:

1. Fix the dead air on gameday
From the second the gates open until kickoff, the atmosphere at the ground should be pumping! We should be using the big screens and the P.A. to play classic wests tigers games, feature focus of ex-player, and music clips. It doesn't have to be deafeningly loud, but it beats sitting there in silence and it actually honors our history while getting early-arriving fans into the mood. Maybe even work with tigers fan base to introduce something similar to raiders horn/viking clap or souths bell ring.

2. Introduce milestone jersey rewards
Look at what the Roosters do with their gold and silver club logos for career milestones. We should do something similar to reward longevity. When a player hits a milestone like 100+ NRL games for the Tigers, put a specialized gold Magpie on one sleeve and a gold Tiger on the other (or a gold club emblem on the chest). In an era where players change clubs constantly, give them something unique to fight for and show the fans who is actually loyal.

3. Give us some actual updates
Why are we seemingly the only club that hasn't officially announced player departures, squad updates, or who our new assistant coaches are? I get that it’s still early in the off-season, but keeping the fans completely in the dark after the last few years just breeds frustration. Give us some regular updates so we actually have some transparency and hope to cling to while we wait for pre-season.

4. Get rid of the Luai mural
Look, nothing against Jarome personally, but keeping that massive mural up at our home base right now just looks cheap and out-of-date. Honestly, a plain, blank wall would look more professional than what's there now. Better yet, get some local school kids, members, or community artists to paint over it for free. It costs the club next to nothing, fixes the look of our facility, and creates great local PR.
We've been patient for over a decade, but we want to see the club acting like a professional, powerhouse unit starting from today.

5. Finally, dont stop engaging with us fans. We love your work.

Cheers.
Biggest fan from Surfers Paradise


───
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Hey Surfers
Firstly thanks for the great post and I appreciate the thought and effort behind this.
1. I agree that the dead air on match day can be improved, we are focussed on making our C-town games extra special this season.
2. Milestone jerseys are something that we do however we probably need to promote that more and call that out better - but great point
3. Updates are why I am on here so hopefully this helps as well as we want to have a more consistent delivery on our behind the Roar podcasts this season.
The challenge is also about reducing the leaks. For example: a journo gets half a story and they can write it before it happens with no recourse even if they are wrong. The journo might get the story from an agent from that we are in talks with a specific player and they want to use that to help their side of negotiations. The journo can write that we are set to sign them well before we have decided if we will or not. We can't announce anything until we have finished negotiations and then when we do announce the signing it looks like we have kept everyone in the dark and that things have been leaked. Its just an area that we have to keep getting better at.
4. Yes the mural is planned to be fixed

thanks again and really appreciate your post
 
mrcasino said:
Hi Shaun, sharing a podcast with the Warrios CEO.

Around 1 hour, 3 minutes, he talks about how they are empowering their fan base 'Warriors Nation' which is basically run by a third party. I know the club has started to do similiar things but thought you might be interested. Many years ago, there was a group called Wests Tigers fanatics that would be active at most games from memory. No idea if they are still active but there could be potential.

Also not sure if it's feasible but potentially offsetting the cost of away game tickets for members could be a cool idea to ensure we always have strong support. The costs could be embedded into memberships if required and maybe they are raffled out or members could express interest in specific away games.

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Cameron is a great friend of mine and has done an amazing job in NZ. I am massively passionate about fan culture and what they bring to a club. I'm keen to keep driving this personally where I can, i love away days in particular because I feel that is where the biggest connections are formed that can create lifelong friends and fans.
 
liltiger said:
Hey Shaun Another 2 quick questions.
Can you please explain to me why we are considering taking a home game to N.Z next year. If we understand and you yourself understand that the macarthur corridor is our future, why are we taking a home game from campbelltown to N.Z. At what point do we as a club start to mature and 1.start focusing on our footprint in our junior corridor instead of the N.R.Ls footprint in N.Z. 2 when will we mature and start making the tough decisions that mean realising although taking a game to N.Z might be a quick injection of cash which is just akin to a sugar fix, we do so at the expense of time we could be using to invest in the clubs longevity where these stupid sugar fixes are no longer needed. We are the Wests Tigers over the past 25 years we have become the nomads of the league. Can you give us a timeframe when we will have 2 permanent home grounds and when us fans are prioritised in these deals over anything else.
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2029 is the key year. Once the renovations are completed minimum 7 games Campbelltown, Minimum 3 games at Leichhardt and 1 game for Easter Monday and one game that can float each year. The floating game is needed for potential initiatives such as a global rounds but also intended to be available to play at either Leichhardt or Campbelltown pending draw and opposition.
 
westielife said:
Could the wests tigers ask for a big wests tigers logo to be placed alongside the eels and wanders logo on-top of the box office B? of CommBank stadium so it feels more like wests tigers territory?
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I'll be honest we were caught by surprise when these went up. But the fact we have committed to Leichhardt and Campbelltown as our primary home grounds for the long term kind of rules out a permanent installation.
 
jrtiger said:
Hi Shaun, can you confirm how many spots are remaining in the top 30 and the status of the contracts of Christian Taupau-Moors, Archie Duncombe, Charlie Murray and Pheonix Godinet, and whether Heath Mason and Tony Sukkar have been retained?
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hey jrtiger

I can answer some but not all (because still yet to be official).
Christian Taupau-Moors is a Dev deal in 27
Archie Duncombe is on a pathway deal with a T&T in the future
Charlie Murray is in the top 30
Pheonix Godinet is on a dev deal for 2027
Still working on the official announcements for Mason and Sukkar
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Thank you Shaun, greatly appreciate the time you are taking to respond to comments in this thread.

Two quickies ...

1. Will the club announce who our full training squad are over the pre-season including who our Development and Train & Trial players are?

2. When will we hear which players have been selected as part of the training squads in our male pathways? I see the female squads were released a few weeks ago on socials but nothing on the lads yet.
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Yes we will announce the full squads but only once they are completed - aiming for new year to include all T&T + dev players

The pathways announcements won't happen until the final squads are decided in the new year - there is too much movement at this time of year and we want the players purely focussed on training and not impacted by social media talk or pressure.
 
ShaunMielekamp said:
Hey Snopez
Pat Richards is GM of the NRL and his role is to take things off the plate from the head coach who we recoginised was having to many distractions rather than being 100% focussed on coaching the team.
Benji & Pat both report directly to the board and myself which is the standard set up at any NRL club.

I'm not exactly sure of the financials of all the other clubs in regards to pathways, one of our challenges is that we spread our resources across two pathways to cover the inner west and south west regions. We have a big catchment and our guestimate is that we rank somewhere between 10-14th in pathways spend. The aim is to show string growth and improvement with the increased spend on pathways that will give confidence to continue to invest here.
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Hey mate,

Is that 10th to 14th in terms of total spend, spend per player or spend per team?

We have a huge catchment as you said, a split board and hence multiple teams across different comps.

Let's say you meant we are 14th in terms of total spend, the amount we spend per team would be quite low, and hence per player.

Having multiple teams across multiple comps means we need different performance staff everywhere.

Other than "making more money," are there any plans on streamlining this? Do we have some Unity where all coaches are coached by the same coach, same physio, same S&C dept etc or is each team on its own?
 
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