DateOctober 10, 2014 - 10:00PM 17
Michael Carayannis
Rugby League Writer
The burden of being the face of the Wests Tigers woes nearly resulted in Robbie Farah walking away from everything. He was prepared to ditch it all. From the captaincy to quitting the code in Australia, Farah hit rock bottom and needed counselling after Gorden Tallis had spoken out following a private conversation he had with the Tigers' rake who was said to be critical of coach Mick Potter.
"You go through those thoughts," Farah said. "It's tough because you just want to go out and play footy but you can't do that any more. "It wasn't a nice period. There are times where you question yourself and think 'why don't I just play overseas and enjoy my life and get away from all this crap?' but you love the game so much, I guess that's why you put up with all the crap times. You learn from it and you bounce back. The passion is still there and there is still that drive to play good and successful footy for the Tigers and hopefully lead us back to the good times.
"You have those thoughts when things are bad. Whether they are serious or not, I guess when you calm down and regroup and clear your head you realise how silly you were. I'd be lying if I didn't say lots of thoughts didn't go through my head. " _giving up the captaincy. I thought I wasn't in the position to be captain of the club and I thought about getting out of there."\
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What Farah says next will surprise most. He seriously thought about removing himself from the Tigers leadership but was talked out of it by the person he was supposed to be at serious loggerheads with. "The coach," Farah said of Potter." He wanted me to stick it out. There is this perception that me and Mick were blueing. It was never like that. That's the most disappointing thing. I've heard I run the club and I'm making these sorts of decisions. That's nonsense. Me and Mick got on fine. Sure we had a disagreement here and there, as passionate people do. There was never any issue there. He always supported me and I always supported him.\
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"People tell me before that Dragons game, Mick dragged me into a room and words were spoken. He was there to comfort me. I was in a pretty bad way. He had a good chat to me and told me he needed me to go out and play well. I walked out of that room feeling so much better. I really appreciated that talk. I don't know why there is that perception out there but there is. "I would say it brought us closer and made our relationship a bit stronger. You'd have to ask how he felt but that's how I felt. It wasn't a nice time for either of us to go through. I felt sorry for him throughout the whole time. It dragged everyone through the mud. Some of the stuff written was nonsense."\
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The season wasn't a complete write-off for Farah who helped lead NSW to end Queensland's Origin drought while the Tigers' young guns showed enough promise to indicate they'll have an exciting future.But come the end of round 26, Farah was desperate for the season to end."It was disappointing because you never like to admit you're ready for a break but I guess that's the way it was at the end," Farah said.\
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Farah met incoming coach Jason Taylor officially for the first time last Thursday. The pair walked around Concord Oval for about 90 minutes, giving Farah enough hope that the turbulent 2014 is now behind him."We just kept walking around the oval talking about things," Farah said. "He wanted to know where my head was at after everything that's happened this year. He just wanted me to know that he understood the stuff I've been through. He's been through similar stuff and understood how tough it could get. He said he was there to support me.\
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"There's no doubt we are behind in lots of areas in terms of professionalism. One of the biggest things is our facilities. You come down to Concord, and the facilities we've got – I have no doubt – are the worst in the NRL. That's one thing he is keen on changing."\
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Michael Carayannis
Rugby League Writer
The burden of being the face of the Wests Tigers woes nearly resulted in Robbie Farah walking away from everything. He was prepared to ditch it all. From the captaincy to quitting the code in Australia, Farah hit rock bottom and needed counselling after Gorden Tallis had spoken out following a private conversation he had with the Tigers' rake who was said to be critical of coach Mick Potter.
"You go through those thoughts," Farah said. "It's tough because you just want to go out and play footy but you can't do that any more. "It wasn't a nice period. There are times where you question yourself and think 'why don't I just play overseas and enjoy my life and get away from all this crap?' but you love the game so much, I guess that's why you put up with all the crap times. You learn from it and you bounce back. The passion is still there and there is still that drive to play good and successful footy for the Tigers and hopefully lead us back to the good times.
"You have those thoughts when things are bad. Whether they are serious or not, I guess when you calm down and regroup and clear your head you realise how silly you were. I'd be lying if I didn't say lots of thoughts didn't go through my head. " _giving up the captaincy. I thought I wasn't in the position to be captain of the club and I thought about getting out of there."\
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What Farah says next will surprise most. He seriously thought about removing himself from the Tigers leadership but was talked out of it by the person he was supposed to be at serious loggerheads with. "The coach," Farah said of Potter." He wanted me to stick it out. There is this perception that me and Mick were blueing. It was never like that. That's the most disappointing thing. I've heard I run the club and I'm making these sorts of decisions. That's nonsense. Me and Mick got on fine. Sure we had a disagreement here and there, as passionate people do. There was never any issue there. He always supported me and I always supported him.\
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"People tell me before that Dragons game, Mick dragged me into a room and words were spoken. He was there to comfort me. I was in a pretty bad way. He had a good chat to me and told me he needed me to go out and play well. I walked out of that room feeling so much better. I really appreciated that talk. I don't know why there is that perception out there but there is. "I would say it brought us closer and made our relationship a bit stronger. You'd have to ask how he felt but that's how I felt. It wasn't a nice time for either of us to go through. I felt sorry for him throughout the whole time. It dragged everyone through the mud. Some of the stuff written was nonsense."\
\
The season wasn't a complete write-off for Farah who helped lead NSW to end Queensland's Origin drought while the Tigers' young guns showed enough promise to indicate they'll have an exciting future.But come the end of round 26, Farah was desperate for the season to end."It was disappointing because you never like to admit you're ready for a break but I guess that's the way it was at the end," Farah said.\
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Farah met incoming coach Jason Taylor officially for the first time last Thursday. The pair walked around Concord Oval for about 90 minutes, giving Farah enough hope that the turbulent 2014 is now behind him."We just kept walking around the oval talking about things," Farah said. "He wanted to know where my head was at after everything that's happened this year. He just wanted me to know that he understood the stuff I've been through. He's been through similar stuff and understood how tough it could get. He said he was there to support me.\
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"There's no doubt we are behind in lots of areas in terms of professionalism. One of the biggest things is our facilities. You come down to Concord, and the facilities we've got – I have no doubt – are the worst in the NRL. That's one thing he is keen on changing."\
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